{"id":731,"date":"2020-02-04T16:25:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T16:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willchews.com\/?p=731"},"modified":"2020-02-04T22:57:47","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T22:57:47","slug":"noodletopia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willchews.com\/index.php\/noodletopia\/","title":{"rendered":"(Chinese) Noodle Topia (Columbus)"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Shandong province is known for its excellent hand-pulled noodles and dumplings due to the dough-working skills of its chefs. Noodle Topia, which opened about two months ago in Columbus and seems to be a sister restaurant of the Noodle Topia in Detroit, offers some wonderful renditions thereof thanks to its chef(s?) from Shandong, who can often be seen demonstrating their skills at rolling, stretching, and slapping the noodle dough in the open-kitchen area.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Noodle Topia | Szechuan Noodles (Overhead)<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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We asked our waiter for his recommendations, and after hemming and hawing on my part, decided to go with his recommendation of the Szechuan Noodles. The noodles were outstanding and somewhat contrary to expectations: they were incredibly springy and stretchy to be sure, but the were also incredibly long–symbolizing longevity–and quite dense. The length and density added substance to the noodles, which made it harder for my friend and me to divide up the bowl, but they were wonderful to eat. The bowl utilized a beef broth, topped with ground porrk, shanghai bok choy, cilantro, soybeans, and of course, Sichuan peppercorns. The broth was slightly sweet and savory, remarkably light-bodied, and while spicy, not overly so. There was enough spice headroom that even non-spice fields could afford to add some spice paste from the jar at each table.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Noodle Topia | Xiaolongbao<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The other item that we ordered with great anticipation was the xiaolongbao<\/i> (XLB, “soup dumplings” in common parlance).\u00a0 While XLBs trace their origins from the Shanghai region much farther south of Shandong, the chefs’ dough skills translated well into dumplings with stretchy skin and tightly folded and pinched closed.\u00a0 (I can’t tell exactly from the picture if they uniformly featured 18 folds as mandated by Din Tai Fung<\/a>, but it certainly was in the double digits)\u00a0 The insides were a little disappointing, as only one of the three XLBs I had had any semblance of soup.\u00a0 When I mentioned this to our server, he good-naturedly reminded me that I had spent several minutes fiddling with my tripod to shoot the XLB.\u00a0 Such a delay likely played a part in the lack of soup.\u00a0 But, he added, their chefs tended towards putting less soup-gelatin in these XLB, and as they were still calibrating their recipes, this could change in the future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/div>
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Fair enough.\u00a0 But what couldn’t be blamed upon my equipment fumbling was the price: $9.59 for a steamer of six, a incredibly inflated price.\u00a0 To compare, LJ Shanghai up in Cleveland only charges $6 for a sixer, and Nanxiang Xiao Long Bao, arguably the best XLB shop in New York, charges only $6.95 for the same.\u00a0 Columbus may be operating from a severe XLB deficit, but such prices seemed out of proportion with the otherwise largely reasonable prices on the rest of the menu.<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Noodle Topia | Griddle Pie (jianbing guozi)<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The final item, the griddle pie\/Tianjin-style jianbing guozi<\/i> (\u714e\u9905\u679c\u5b50) is a popular breakfast street food from the eponymous city and Hebei province, from which the owner of Noodle Topia hails.\u00a0 Like the jianbing commonly seen on the streets of Beijing, it’s a savory crepe fried over an egg.\u00a0 But it differs in its fillings, favoring youtiao<\/i>\u00a0(fried cruellers) or a wafer, bean paste, a dash of vinegar, and topped with black sesame seeds.\u00a0 This was actually a mistaken order on my part due to my lousy Chinese–I had actually wanted a fried chive dumpling–but it was quite decent, though I would’ve preferred a youtiao instead of the wafer, and it could’ve benefited from some more chopped scalions inside to balance out the sourness of the bean paste and vinegar.<\/div>
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I couldn’t get any images of the chef working on the dough as the restaurant was packed within 20 minutes after opening.\u00a0 (I’ll get it next time) There’s a growing Chinese-background population in Columbus, both long-term residents and short-term ones going to school at (the unnecessarily definite articled) Ohio State University.\u00a0 There will be future visits and updates to this review, which may push up its rating further.\u00a0 For now, Noodle Topia is an very out for Chinese noodles that could accommodate the hungry masses by lower its XLB prices to something more reasonable.\u00a0<\/div>
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Rating:\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0Recommedned<\/div>
Dishes of Note:<\/b> Anything that uses dough extensively.\u00a0 Szechuan Noodles were terrific.<\/div>
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Noodle Topia<\/div>
7541 Sawmill Road<\/div>
Dublin, OH 43016<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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