At the rear of a Route 40 strip mall—in the back kitchen of a tiny shop sandwiched between a Thai eatery and a taekwondo studio—right now, someone is likely making noodles.
No, not Italian pasta rolled out by a nonna on Instagram, but Biangbiang noodles—wide noodles in the style of Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi, China.
These noodles are made by pulling dough out into belt-like strands that are then whacked against a counter, making the sound for which they’re named. They are tender, toothsome, marvelous things that are sturdy enough to hold up in hot soups and under thick sauces—and they are worth a drive from wherever you are.
Chin Xi’an Style Restaurant is a small place, open for about 18 months, that shares its storefront and dining room with Ben Gong’s Tea, a chain of bubble tea shops. This set-up can make Chin Xi’an easy to miss among the many businesses in the shopping area, but persevere, as the noodles are fantastic.
They come in many iterations, in soups and in bowls loaded with various chile-zapped proteins. Arguably, they pair best with lamb, which is abundant in Shaanxi and historically tied to the nomadic tribes of northwest China, which influenced the local cuisine. (Shaanxi is probably best-known for its terracotta army sculptures depicting the army of Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor. There’s a hilarious poster on the wall of one of the warriors sporting a chef’s toque.)
Chin Xi’an’s lamb soup combines handmade noodles, discs of roast lamb, pale sliced daikon, a green thatch of cilantro and chives, and a remarkable, rich yet subtle broth. The soup comes with a small dish of chile sauce that is actually best resisted, so as not to overwhelm the broth.
For something with considerably more heat, there is the spicy cumin lamb served on a jumble of those excellent noodles. This is a spectacular dish, like a mash-up of toothpick lamb, a Sichuan specialty, and a wondrous bowl of noodles. The bits of lamb are tender, not at all gamey, and loaded with cumin and chiles. They form a sauce that adheres to the ragged edges of the noodles and the abundant strands of scallions that both cool and green the dish.
Though it’s understandable to order noodle dishes on repeat here, save room (somehow) for a murger. Murgers are Chinese street food sandwiches made from disks of flatbread and spiced meats—some say they’re the world’s oldest known sandwiches. Chin Xi’an’s murgers come in pork, chicken, and beef, but the best one is, unsurprisingly, made from lamb. These are very portable, by definition, so if you’ve overdone it with the noodles—as happens—rest assured you can get a murger to-go.
Restaurants specializing in food from Shaanxi are considerably harder to find than those cooking, say, Sichuan or Cantonese food—this is the only one I’ve come across in the area—and this is too bad, as the dishes are fantastic.
Chin Xi’an, whose owner is from Xi’an, thus fills a much-needed culinary gap. At least much-needed for me, as I didn’t realize how much I missed this stuff until I found it again. Now if someone would just open a brown-sugar mochi shop…