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Before this assignment, the Lunar New Year associations I had in my head were few: lion dance, red envelope, and noodles. I mean, as a child, what’s funnier than seeing a bunch of your friends forced to dress up in traditional garb and parade around under a giant tasseled, eye-lid fluttering head? And what’s better than getting money? (We’ll discuss the whole red envelope thing in an upcoming post.) The first two traditions have fallen by the wayside since my childhood, but noodles — noodles are forever. Or at least a really long time.

That’s the whole point, in fact. Noodles represent longevity, and so they’re especially significant this symbol-heavy time of year. And apparently, the noodle/longevity thing is good for birthdays too. I like to eat noodles all year long.

And I have so many kinds to choose from! The E-Fu (or yifu) noodles we had at the wei lu on New Year’s Eve at Sun Ming Gee are a Cantonese specialty. They’re egg noodles made with wheat flour that are deep-fried and dried into bricks, like ramen, and then reconstituted through braising or some other cooking method. I’m not a huge fan of these; while tasty, the texture tends to be squishy.

My mother mentioned mian xian, or misua in Taiwanese. These are thin wheat noodles that are often cooked in a vinegary soup (in Taiwanese cooking, anyway) with oysters, fish balls, or intestines. My mom ate these noodles for New Year’s when she was growing up. And when I was growing up, she would cook misua with the trout we caught when we went fishing (though this was never during New Year). If anyone can tell me where to get good Taiwanese misua in the five boroughs, I’d love to know. (Photo by Jackson)

What I can point you to, however, is dan dan mian, a Sichuan specialty of wheat noodles topped with a ground pork and preserved vegetable sauce with the added sensory one-two punch of chiles (searingly hot) and Sichuan peppercorns (numbing nearly to the point of coldness, if that makes sense). The best dan dan mian I ever had in New York was at J&L Mall (which was really little more than a grungy — yet gloriously authentic — food court) in Flushing, unfortunately now defunct. But fortunately Flushing has not totally forsaken quality dan dan mian; get your long-life-in-a-bowl at:

Xiao La Jiao
133-43 Roosevelt Avenue
Flushing, NY 11354

Spicy & Tasty
3907 Prince St #1H
Flushing, NY 11354