SADLY, GOLDEN MALL IS NOW CLOSED.
Ah, the Golden Mall! It’s a food adventure in itself. For those more timid eaters or the ones with a fear of the 7 train, let me tell you about it.
The Golden Mall is in Flushing, Queens (the other Chinatown) and it’s more a basement crammed with food vendors and used DVD kiosks than a traditional mall. If you’re looking for that, you have to head a few blocks away to the Flushing Mall (which has its own respected food court). The Golden Mall finally began to have some non-Chinese patrons when Anthony Bourdain visited it on his show. And since then, a handful of the vendors printed English menus, hung up celebrity photos on the wall, and even expanded. Xi’an Famous Foods now has two other locations (both in Manhattan).
I use any excuse to come to this food dungeon and explore. We didn’t have too much time on this one evening and so we played it a little safe by sticking to the list item and also trying the usual Lamb Burger from Xi’an.
Lanzhou Homemade Noodles (which also has a Manhattan location) is directly across from Xi’an and gives the biggest show of all the vendors. The noodles are handpulled and you can watch the guy stretch them out, bang them on the counter, and twirl them around. It’s almost like the Chinese version of pizza throwing.
They offer hot and cold noodles in many different combinations (all handpulled, mind you). TONY suggested simply the Cold Noodles, which were just that. They were much further down the menu so I almost missed them below the Oxtail, Fish Ball, and Pig Tube Bone options. These featured no scary protein pieces (no protein at all, in fact) and were enlivened by a bit of szechuan chili oil, cucumbers, and fresh cilantro.
My big complaint is that there wasn’t as much heat as I was expecting. It was a nice change of pace from the rest of the dishes I’ve tried on my adventures in the Golden Mall. These were just slightly spicy, very herbaceous from the greens, and the tender noodles were both refreshing and filling.
I’m a sucker (and slurper) for cold noodles so I voraciously slurped these suckers up. And although I was a bit disappointed there wasn’t more heat, I bet if I had made a full day of taking food risks at the Golden Mall, these noodles would be a welcome cool down from all the pig intestine and fiery dan dan noodles.
Would Golden Mall’s Lan Zhou Cold Noodles make my Top 100 of the year? They lacked that wow factor in flavor, but a 7 out of 10 because I enjoyed the clean and cool experience.
