Today’s lunch adventure is brought to you by the Eater Atlanta article “11 Essential Chinese restaurants in Atlanta”.  As I am always looking for choices and trying to find someplace new, I looked for those, on their list (which I had already incorporated into mine) around the office.  They had a 10 Second Rice Noodle listed in the plaza with the H Mart in Doraville, but when I put it in Google search, I found there was also one in Duluth.  The name here is Crossing Bridge Rice Noodle, but it appears to be the same type place.  Crossing Bridge is actually owned by the same folks as LanZhou Ramen and this is their interpretation of these dishes.

This particular style of noodles originated in southwestern China –  from the city of Guilin and the Yunnan province. And the name in Chinese (Shi Miao Dao) translates to “ready in ten seconds.”

The menu here was very broad and fairly confusing.  There were many kinds of broth (Classic Original, Tomato, Sour Spicy Golden, Szechuan Numb Pepper, Korean Kimchi, Hot Pot Flavor, Assorted Mushrooms, Sour Pickle Cabbage (with Sole Fish), Chicken Thigh, Beef, Lamb, Curry and Numbed Spicy) with various proteins added into it.  All I knew was I did NOT want either the Kimchi or Mushroom, so after asking a couple of questions, I was directed to the Spicy Golden.  And I chose beef flank to be included.

So the dish arrived, bubbling hot and I was confronted with my next question – “how do I eat this?”  The bowl above was 7-8″ in diameter and I had the small bowl to the left of it, a spoon / ladle and chopsticks.  And no clue.  As I looked around, the restaurant which had been empty had started to fill up, but no one had their food yet.  So I just went for it.  I pulled as many noodles as I could into the ladle, held them in place with the chopsticks and lifted until they were clear of the broth, then plopped them into a bowl.  Then I spooned in the soup, picked up some beef flank, split the fat off with my chopsticks and ate to my heart’s content. 

I did pay attention to the folks around me as I finished my meal, and my method was borderlibe acceptable.  Some of the folks were eating directly out of the large bowl, but a couple of moms were putting everything into bowls for their kids, just like I did for myself…  I’ll give it another whirl, with a different broth and protein soon.