Favorite Place for Cold Asian Noodles?

[sukisooo]

I am craving cold asian noodles. vitnamese maybe? with fresh basil, cilantro, nouc cham? anyone know of a great spot around boston? I know about wagamama but can't park easily near fanueuil hall or harvard square...even a suburb would do. thanks!

[litchick]

Went to Shangri-La tonight, and unlike some of the other posters here I did not care for the cold bean starch noodles. I did however quite like their cold peanut noodles -- they were quickly devoured by everyone in the party.

[tater_tot]

The only places that I've found tenzaru soba in the greater boston area are: Island Sushi on Main Street in Wakefield and Blue Fin on 114 in Middleton. Both are excellent hot weather meals.... nice broth, great noodles....

[jtf5128]

it's not classic Japanese zaru soba, but the place Ittyo in the porter exchange mall has some cold dishes - they do the best they can with tenzaru soba without handmade noodles, but they also do some sort of medley cold noodle thing that is decent.

you can also try pho thien thien on Kneeland st in Chinatown for vietnamese bun (vermicelli), i don't have any experience w/ the vietnamese places on Beech st. I avoid Le's/pho pasteur like the plague.

if anyone knows of a place here that does hand made soba....pleeeeeeese share?!?!?!

[MC Slim JB]

Had a nice naeng-myun from the Korean side of the menu at Sushi Yasu in Waltham last summer.

[pasuga]

The cold chili noodles at Chili Garden in Medford are to die for.

[qianning]

ditto Sichuan Gormet's Chendu Liang Fen in Billerica

[Trumpetguy]

Vegetarian cold chili noodles (No meat) at Chili Garden in Medford???

I enjoy the cold bean starch('noodle') at Shangri-la in Belmont

[JoJo5]

I'm totally in love with the cold green bean starch and julienned cucumber dish at Shangri-la served with the wonderful peanuty sauce and the spicy wasabi. I'm a bit hooked on it.

JoJo

[kittychow]

I just tried the cold bean starch with cucumber dish at Shangri-la and *really* enjoyed it! Nice rec!

[Trumpetguy]

:)

[limster]

I haven't found any good japanese zaru soba, but several places make niangmyun, a Korean cold noodle that's very spicy and tends to be sold only in the summer. I'd check Buk Kyung II and Color Cafe in Allston.

For Sichuan cold noodles (liang2 mian4), Sichuan Gourmet is a good place to start. I've only been to hte Framingham branch.

[tatamagouche]

Koreana actually makes a good one. Who makes the best cold noodles with peanut sauce? Is that totally an Americanized thing? I don't even know, I've never really cared since anything w/ peanut butter/sauce drives me nuts with lust...New Shanghai's are good but I don't know how to judge them...

[italyinmind]

I do think the peanut butter versions are Americanized, but I'm with you tatamagouche--I can't get enough of them! However, I find them to be hit or miss, so I don't often order them out...usually just make them at home when I get the craving.

[coookie]

there's obviously a wealth of great and authentic recs in this thread, but to respond specifically to the lusting for the americanized version with peanut sauce: silvertone has cold lo mein noodles with spicy peanut and sesame sauce and mixed chopped vegetables. it's actually quite tasty, if a touch on the mild side of the peanut/sesame flavor intensity scale.

[bitsubeats]

bibim naengmyun is naegmyun thats mixed with gochujang, sugar, etc

mul naegmyun is naengmyun with a cold ice flecked broth and isn't spicy unless you add chinese mustard to it.

anyone know if buk kyung or color have hwe naengmyun? thats naengmyun with raw skate wing

[passing thru]

if my memory serves me right, koreana is the only area korean place i've seen that has the raw skate dish. and i haven't been to koreana for a couple of years, so i'm not even positive that they still serve it. i don't believe that either buk kyung or color have it on their menu.

[galleygirl]

I LOVE that raw skate wing dish; I've been making it at home...

The place to the far back of the Porter Exchange , a Korean grill, used to do great noodles with cold broth in the summer, with litle piles of alll kinds of veggies on top that you mixed in, and a dab o wasabi to use at will. Don't know what it was, but I loved it.

[another_adam]

last summer koreana still had hoe naengmyeon (i've had it a few times there, but haven't been by since the weather got warm). Yasu in coolidge corner also has it (i've only had it once there) Both are kinda OK, but suffer from the same problem: over-marinated fish, so its too chewy/fibrous and not that wonderful elastic and crunchy cartilagenous texture it should be. (the now-closed "friends" on boylston had somewhat better fish, but they failed to put slices of pear in it, so the whole dish was kind of flat and lacking something)

And speaking of the fruit in naengmyeon, last weekend since the weather was warm, I grabbed some bibim naengmyeon from Misono in the Super88 food court, and it featured a very surprising ingredient: watermelon!!! it seemed to have been mixed with wasabi, which kind of conflicts with the red pepper sauce. I've never heard of watermelon in bibim naengmyeon (though I understand that there's a "chinese-style" naengmyeon with thinly sliced watermelon and mandarin orange slices, and peanut/mustard sauce)

Does anyone know if Misono always uses watermelon, or were they just out of pear last week? Without the wasabi, it would have been different but OK. Wasabi watermelon as a side might be OK too. The wasabi combination with gochu sauce was just weird, IMHO.

[galleygirl]

Was the bibim naengmyeon a special, or was it on the menu, and I missed it? I wonder if they have it at their new place out in Newton, too.

[another_adam]

It's not on the regular menu, it's just on a little piece of paper hang up with a thumbtack somewhere. (I can't remember whether it's in English or Korean)

It's possibly seasonal, since in modern times, it's usually a summer dish. Interestingly, traditionally, it's a northern korean dish that was eaten year round or maybe even most often in the winter. The watermelon thing may also be seasonal, or maybe it's just a creative way to avoid spending the extra money on pears, which are so exorbitantly expensive in boston....

[tatamagouche]

Personally, as I stated above, I really like Koreana's beef version; haven't had the fish version.

[bitsubeats]

wow watermelon sounds like a fantastic addition. It has a high moisture content like a korean pear and somewhat of the crunch.

Sometimes I will go to reliable and buy the naengmyun packets and eat those. I don't really add a lot of fixings, just julienned cucumber, pear, a hard boiled egg and maybe a dash of hot mustard, vinegar, or a gochujang type sauce.

[another_adam]

yeah, in principle the addition of watermelon seems interesting (though it's far too sweet for my taste-- i'd never eat it without something spicy or salty nearby!) unfortunately, the watermelon @misono was kind of soggy/limp. i meant to ask whether they can make it with pear on request, but i got distracted and forgot.

and yeah, it's true that it's not so hard to make at home, though when the weather is hot, it sure is nice not to have to boil a big pot of water :)