Lauren L.
Yelp
All afternoon I was searching the Chinese malls and food courts for Szechuan Spicy Noodle Soup. The one place I thought of was closed at Parker Place Mall and somehow we ended up at Yao Han which was our first place to try but decided not to go there first.
Wow! Things have changed there in the food court. Three new Food Court Eateries opened up recently and they all look good!
I noticed that the older Cantonese style food court eateries are slowly closing down and being replaced with more regional mainland Chinese food kiosks.
Like this one.
Ajea Noodles. Their logo at first looked like Flea Noodles. I was kinda getting itchy just wanting to try it out of curiosity.
We come up to the counter happy that we found what we think we were looking for. After the lady behind the counter realized that we didn't speak Mandarin, she spoke to us in English.
Just like that! Now we can talk food!
I ordered up a bowl of Spicy EXTRA SPICY noodle soup with succulent braised pork riblets.
There wasn't really much bone, more like cartilage or soft-bone that you could chew.
I decided to order just that so I could see what the standard flavour was like. Of course EXTRA SPICY was delivered.
The food prep reminded me of those Food Ranger (Trevor James) videos I'd see on Youtube where he films small Szechuan places preparing these spicy bowls of tongue numbing chili soups. Just the thought of that and being able to experience it here in Canada?
Yup, Richmond has changed a lot over the years and Szechuan food is popular. Especially the Chongqing style hotpots and TanTan noodles.
Anyways, My bowl of soup came with hand made tender noodles (bit soft for my liking, but then I find these are always like this. No such thing as al dente in Chinese noodles.
People seem to enjoy them soft. Hmmmmmm.
So if you're diabetic, maybe stay away from these types of dishes unless your blood sugar is low and you need that glycemic boost?
The bowl came with plenty of noodles, yes and some veggies and of course the meat. You could see the chili's but there wasn't much of the Szechuan peppercorns which I was hoping for. Those peppercorns make your mouth numb when you eat them. Isn't that awesome? Kinda reminds me of visiting the dentist..........
Yeah..... I don't know what's going on in my noggin.
Must be the spice cause, it was hot enough that it made me sweat! Just like my dear old Dad.
If you like spicy food, try this place out.
If you don't like spicy food, then still try this place out.
We also tried their noodles without the spicy soup and had added some other items like Fried Egg and Pickled Cowpea and Veggies for a few bucks more.
Their specialty is their Szechuan Clay Potted Rice which is cooked under a direct fire to make the rice nice and crispy. For just under $10 you get a full meal and you can have it spicy. It takes about 15 minutes to make so you have to call in and order it ahead of time.
I can't wait to try that out.
So of course, I'll be back to try them out again. Maybe sooner than I think.
In the meantime, here is my video of my first visit here. The visual will hopefully give you a better idea of what we ate.
Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/wFb7Bt6kogs