Lanzhou Handmade Noodle in Flushing Golden Shopping Mall

Welcome to Lanzhou Handmade Noodle aka Stall 27 in the Golden Shopping Mall (41-28 Main Street, lower level) in Flushing. It seems like everywhere I go -- Manhattan Chinatown and now Flushing Chinatown -- it would be amiss without a Lanzhou handmade noodle shop. It is quite literally everywhere I go. As I posted previously (Lam Zhou Hand Pulled Noodles, Tasty Hand Pulled Noodles), lamian is literally translated as Hand Pulled noodles and originated from Northern China.

The taste of the la mian noodles are quite similar across other la mian shops ,which is good for consistency purposes. The only slight or noticeable difference is whether the lamian chefs make the noodles on the thinner or thicker side -- otherwise, the noodles all taste the same. At this Lanzhou Noodle shop (most are just called lanzhou just to represent where the noodles originated from), the noodles tend to be on the middle to thinner side. Like many of the other lanzhou noodle shops, there are 19 different types of toppings you can have with your hand pulled noodles - beef, oxtail, seafood, beef tendon, eel, fish balls, roast duck, pork chop, etc. Among the most popular of lamian dishes, the beef (nee-ro-mian) and the oxtail hand pulled noodles are the most popular. We ordered the Oxtail Hand pulled soup.

Oxtail Hand Pulled Soup.
It included a good sampling of oxtail, but the soup was bland.

The oxtail was cooked long enough where the meat was easy to take off of the bone (notice, not fall off, its not expected to be that tender). The soup was bland for my liking, and even if I added the salty preserved vegetable or the hot spices, it was not the correct flavoring for this noodle soup. All it needed was some salt, but it was not on the table.

Overall, I didn't like this dish. After tasting this dish, my friends and I had food envy of other dishes that our neighbors were having. True to form, most of the clients were either having the nee-ro-mein or the oxtail soup. Next time, we'll have to try the beef noodle soup, which we hope carries more flavor than the oxtail soup.

Interesting Tidbits about Oxtail:

• Is oxtail what you think it is? Yes, its the tail of a beef animal (or ox - a castrated bull).
  
• Oxtail is not only used in Chinese cuisine, but also in Indonesia, Korea, Italy, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
• In Korea, oxtail bone is used to flavor the dish - Sul Long Tang - which is oxtail bone soup with rice, vermicelli/thin glass noodles -- all of which is flavored with scallions and salt to your taste
  

Lanzhou Handmade Noodle located inside the Golden Shopping Mall
41-28 Main Street, Lower Level