I drove into work today since I had to go visit a client before lunch. New job downside: No more free parking, which means I bus in most days. New job upside? Does not make me want to stab myself in the face daily, or ever.
Because I was more mobile than usual, I ventured over to 4th & Cypress for lunch to try out the Noodle Box that just opened.
Short Review: Yum.
Long Review: Everyone else thinks it’s pretty good too, and it was a 20 min. wait for my Nasi Goreng. But a generous portion of Nasi Goreng, in a box to go, for $10? Hell yes! In all fairness, the order-taker was upfront about the wait, and most people were willing to sit it out for the fresh, fresh, tasty noodles.
Since I spent my 20 minutes waiting (shopping) instead of eating I brought lunch back to the office with my set of chopsticks.
Then I opened the Noodle Box box and remembered that I ordered a rice dish. And now I (because I’m too lazy to go all the way across the building to the kitchen for a fork/spoon) am trying to eat fried rice with chopsticks.
Asian people, help me out here… HOW? Other than one grain at a time….
This is starting to remind me of eating in Korea, where the food was all good, but I never finished my soup/rice. Not because it wasn’t tasty, but because with broth and rice there is a critical threshold reached where it takes more effort to wrangle the food from vessel to mouth than caloric benefit you will receive from getting that extra bite into your gullet. I was hungry a lot in Korea.
But this is good enough (And I’m hungry enough) that I’m sure I can soldier on.
One other note for spice wimps: Mild+ is my limit. My lips are tingling and my tongue is swolen. There is only one level less spicy, and about 5 shades of heavier spice. Do people with that much gastrointestinal fortitude even have tastebuds left?
broth, you drink straight from the bowl if there’s no spoon.
rice, you lift the bowl/box/plate to your lips and shovel/push the rice into your mouth with the chopsticks.
it’s not very classy according to north american standards, but it works and that’s all that really matters when you’re hungry.
I totally drink out of the bowl when consuming soup sans spoon.
The problem in Korea is that everything comes with a spoon. One gigantic soup spoon and two of the thinnest, slipperiest, most awkward metal chopsticks you have ever used.
And I was informed that drinking from the bowl in Korea (at least in public) is rude.
Riceface though – I can do that š
Agreed with Heather.
With “Jasmine” rice (plain steamed), you can remain delicate-looking and pick up clumps with chopsticks metal or otherwise. Once you throw on a runny sauce or have unsticky fried rice, delicacy goes out the window and if you want the last niblets (Asian girls are scar(r)ed by mothers who say the number of rice grains you leave will be the number of pockmarks on your future husband’s face), you just pick up your bowl and shovel it.
But if you only had a wide-lip take-out container, can totally understand and niblet-by-niblet you go.
Hey neat! Noodle Box was one of my favourite restaurants in Victoria. I can definitely recommend the Chili Plum and Spicy Peanut.
The long-ish wait was part of the experience at the original one in Victoria, too. You could see the cooks flying through the order lineup while you waited. It always amazed me how hot the woks got without burning the food. You could literally feel the heat across the room if you sat at one of the back tables. As if the spicy noodles weren’t enough! Good times =)
It amuses me to see non-Asian folks trying to eat rice off a plate with chopsticks. This could be the newest fad diet — eat EVERYTHING with chopsticks. You’ll be so frustrated after 30 minutes that you’ll just give up eating.
I was having lunch at an Asian place a few days ago and we both ordered fried rice. She struggled mightily with trying to pick up grains of rice with her chopsticks… I copied her just so that she wouldn’t feel bad. But after a few minutes, I just switched to a fork.
Order your rice next time in a bowl and use the shovel method. It’s not pretty but it sure is efficient! š
Phone ahead to avoid the wait! That is what I do in Victoria, and it is sweet. Especially to breeze in there, hop to the front of the line, and pick up your order waiting for you.
Enjoy!
The rice here in Korea is sticky, so it’s easier to eat with chopsticks. Koreans can’t eat North American-style rice with chopsticks, either.