#54 – LIANG PI COLD SKIN NOODLES at XI’AN FAMOUS FOODS

Once again Time Out New York released their Top 100 Dishes of the year and once again, I’m going to eat my way through every one. And no price point or subway delay will stop me. In no particular order, here’s my take on their Top 100.

Another year, another Time Out list, another trip to the Golden Mall. Every year something from the Golden Mall seems to make it onto Time Out’s 100 list. Last year, it was the cold lan zhou noodles. The year before that, the lamb burger. And now it’s another dish from Xi’an Famous Foods (which truly is famous now that Anthony Bourdain has filmed a show there and they’ve expanded to multiple locations in Manhattan): the Liang Pi Cold Skin Noodles.

Following the heavily cumin-laced lamb burger (which was never a favorite of mine), these noodles are the second most famous dish at this little stand in the back of the Golden Mall. So what is this Golden Mall and why does Time Out give it so much love every year?

In case you missed my previous entries, the Golden Mall is a subterranean food court in the heart of Flushing, Queens. It’s a big cavern of food stalls serving regional Chinese food with a major language barrier. Oftentimes, the menus are not in English and to order you have to point at the pictures on the wall.

Xi’an is definitely the most famous so their menus are bi-lingual and I’m certainly not the first blogger to snap photos of the food. Normally on my Golden Mall visits, I taste as much as I possibly can because I really do only manage to get here about once a year (and the prices are incredibly cheap!) But I had already indulged in one too many dumplings upstairs at Best North Dumpling in the Friendly Shopping Center (another food stall mall), so this time I played it safe and only ordered the Time Out list.

Of course I had experienced these liang pi skin noodles on previous visits but now I was able to sit and focus in on the dish without any other flavors getting in the way. And it’s a wealth of flavors and textures. Skin noodles are not made from any animal product (as the name suggests), but do have a chewy texture reminiscent of tofu. They’re made from wheat flour. If that wasn’t enough, there are cubes of gluten tossed in, which also resemble tofu. To balance all that chewiness, bean sprouts and cucumber add crunch, while cilantro imparts some earthy freshness. The orange sauce is rather spicy, but the cold textures and crunch help cool things down.

It’s quite refreshing and tongue numbing. And it’s insanely addicting. Except for the heavy mess of carbs, this is a pretty light dish that packs lots of flavor and features fun, unusual textures. This is why I get them every time I find myself in Flushing. Which thanks to Time Out’s lists is at least once a year. No complaints here.

Would Xi’an Famous Foods’ Liang Pi Cold Skin Noodles make my Top 100 of the year? They earn an 8 out of 10 for being delicious, cooling, and quite unusual.