Sheng Wang Hand Pull Noodle Night 04-17-2009

Location: 27 Eldridge St.
Time: 7pm
People: 10 Ramen and Friends: Sassy MGru, ALev, PMont, TrishP, BLee, JBH, TAH, JLam "MeSoHungry," RB and myself.. and possibly Nick Cage

Feelings: I have two main sources when I am researching restaurants; JS, my co worker who is a food site expert and BLee, a passionate global food lover with refined taste. Last week both sources told me to try hand pull noodles in Chinatown, particularly at Sheng Wang, I knew that I had to organize an outing without hesitation.

We encountered a slight difficulty when we got to Eldridge street. They were filming Nick Cage's new alpha male dude film in front of our destination. After explaining that we had an important food outing, the miffed film crew let us in, and to our surprise Ramen and Friends had the Fujian noodle confinement to ourselves.

As we walked in and saw a man pulling and twisting wheat noodles in a rhythmical motion as if he is dancing to Sir-Mix-a-Lot, I knew this place was legit. His moves, and his hips did not lie. My vegetable hand pull noodles were extremely fresh, and the texture of noodles was something my tongue had never experienced before. Different width and length of each noodle sat in my mouth, which felt a little rough like whole wheat noodles at first. As I chewed, all sizes of noodles came together and made a smooth texture. This was a delightful experience.

Their appetizers were also satisfying and unexpected. The sweet rice dumplings filled with nuts somehow tasted like Bubblicious bubble gum, but it was tasty and interestingly chewy, but not as chewy as Bubblicious. The flavor reminded me a lot of my Febreeze experience at Maharaja Quality Sweets & Snacks. I am not too certain about sweets with strong flowery redolence, but I am sure someone enjoys eating Bubblicious or Febreeze as a compliment to their noodle dish.

All the non vegetarians raved how great the pork dumplings were, including RB, our famous dumpling hater. "I just feeling like eating dough," he usually despises all forms of dumplings. But he ate three or four of them saying how flavorful they were and that they were the best dumplings he has ever tasted. Being a dumpling devotee, I was overwhelmed with joy with his remarks and decided to take him out for more dumplings in the future.

My only question about Sheng Wang is "How are they making any money here?" Their huge noodle dishes are $3-$5. $3 for appetizers. $1 for bottled water and tea. We each paid $8.50 and left the place overstuffed with noodle and wallet gratification.