As part of our Rizal Rediscovery tour, we walked around Binondo for some authentic Chinese food. (Now that I typed it in, it doesn’t make sense.)
Anyway, we went to this small noodle shop called Lan Zhou La Mien (no, I wasn’t able to read the signage… I relied on what our “tour guide” told me).We ordered Beef Lamien (PHP120), Beef Kan Pan Lamien (PHP130), Ba Bao Sha Guo Lamien (PHP140) and pork dumplings (PHP100). Our other friend ordered Seafood Lamien as she’s vegetarian.
While waiting for our food... we watched how the noodles were made. |
First dishes to arrive were the Beef Lamien and the Beef Kan Pan Lamien. Well, the two are pretty much the same only the latter does not have soup. I prefer the Beef Lamien because I can’t help associate noodles with soup. Also, I find the Kan Pan Lamien a bit hard to swallow. A bit thick for me.
Beef Lamien |
Beef Kan Pan Lamien |
The beef however was very tender and flavorful. It was not salty at all and I’d say that it was seasoned well. Also, the noodles played a major part in the dish. You’d know that the noodles were cooked well. Chewy but not hard or of the texture of overly cooked rice.
Ba Bao Sha Guo Lamien |
I wasn’t able to try the Ba Bao Sha Guo Lamien but I was told that some ingredients added were quite bland. I just took one quail egg so I can’t really comment about it.
Pork dumplings... not really photogenic. :( |
The pork dumplings on the other hand were just right. Not really outstanding. I had better pork dumplings. I also prefer dipping it in soy sauce but the only one available there was black vinegar. I’m not very sure if that’s the proper way to eat dumplings as I am not really fond of Chinese food (though I’m Chinese).
We “stared” at the restaurant that served vegetarian dumplings. I’ll try that one next time.