Shanghai Noodle dish with greens?

[rhgindc]

I just ate at J & J Restaurant (a Shanghai style place) in San Gabriel, CA to try their xiao long bao (soupy dumplings) for the first time. They were delicious by the way.

However, we also ordered some sort of rice noodle dish with greens. The rice noodles were large, flat, and semi-round (think the size of a oblong silver dollar). Here's a picture of them: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/3Uf2Uy...

I'm wondering what is this dish or noodle called? Thanks!

[chef chicklet]

wow, that looks like a dish I'd love. I love noodles,and this looks different. The taste? what is the sauce like, and I take it that there is spinach in the dish?

[alkapal]

i asked upthread (without response) how it compared with pad kee mao (thai "drunken noodles").

[chef chicklet]

Darn, and iI was hoping you'd get an answer... does look pretty appitizing. Kind of looks like there isn't any soy or oyster sauce doesn't it? Kind of light.

[ipsedixit]

As raytamsgv mentioned up above, there is not one definitive iteration of this dish, thus it is hard to generalize and say what this dish tastes like.

To give the best approximation, think of chow mein but with nian gao instead. Sort of savory, slighty salty and sometimes a bit pungent. I like to top mine with some chili sauce, but that's just me.

[chef chicklet]

thanks, I think I understand, and I'd add the chili too, because I love it and add it to most of my dishes.

[buttertart]

Nian gao itself is made from rice flour but the pieces are thicker and shorter than the noodles in pad kee mao (also made from rice flour). The dish is similar (but I like the Thai dish better).

[raytamsgv]

Nian gao is generally much chewier than the noodles used in pad kee mao. You could use your gums to break apart the noodles in pad kee mao. But you really need chew the nian gao. The Thai dish, by nature, has different seasonings than those used in most versions of chao nian gao (basil, for example, is rarely used in chao nian gao). It's not generally made with chili paste, but I've cooked nian gao with chili paste before.

Other than that, it really depends on how you cook it. I've also cooked nian gao with carne asada and chipotle salsa, too. The dish is open to many interpretations, as you may have surmised by now.

[jumpingmonk]

chili paste may not be common to the Chinese version of the dish, but remember that more or less the same noodle is eaten by several other cultures; the Korean version is more or less lathered with chili paste. From waht I understand the same noodles are analagous to the Plutto noodles of the Phillipines; thier version may also have chiles as a matter of course.

[raytamsgv]

This dish, chao nian gao, is prepared differently depending on the restaurant. There is no single, canonical version just as there is no single version of Cantonese chow mein. This is a very common dish in Shanghai restaurants, although I've seen this in restaurants that have other types of regional Chinese cuisines.

Sometimes, it's translated as "stir-fried New Year's cake" or "stir-fried rice cake." The version at Mei Long Village (in the same mall as J&J) is probably different. I know it is definitely different at Mandarin Deli (Temple City) and Din Tai Fung (Arcadia). I like J&J's version the best.

[thew]

slight detour. in woodstock the little bear restaurant makes an amazing soup with these rice cakes - mushroom/pork broth with pork mushrooms and shrimp in the soup.

YUM!

[small h]

It's called "new year's cake" in English. I've very fond of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nian_gao

[jumpingmonk]

sometimes its called "new years" cake in English, sometimes it's called "rice cake". I depends on what resturant your're at. The version with preseved vegetables (cometimes called "snow cabbage" on the menu) often has shredded pork as well and usually some bamboo shoots. Around where I live a lot of resturants also have it treated more or less as more widely offered noodles, that is as a stir fry with vegetables and one or more meats (though a lot of places Ive been too also add black mushrooms, which they usally don't for other noodles) a few places around me also make "shanghai style rice cake" which is usally just the first listed dish, but is sometimes sort of a "hybrid" of the two (full meat and vegetable selection of a "Ten Ingrediants" type version of the second but with the preserved cabbage/vegetalbes of the first"

[small h]

The restaurant where I first encountered this dish has shuffled off the mortal coil, but it was on 3rd Ave. at 17th St. in Manhattan (there's still a Chinese restaurant there, but it's not the same one, and it's way worse). New Year's Cake was a category, like lo mein and mai fun and chow fun, all with the same add-ins (chicken, shrimp, pork, etc.), just as you say. I'll keep an eye out for rice cake, Shanghai style and otherwise. Although rice cake makes me think of those awful styrofoam-y things.

Unrelated side note: that restaurant also made an astonishingly good vegetarian version of Lion's Head, which I would very much like to have again at some point before I die.

[jumpingmonk]

Ah a fellow habitue of the places of Manhattan. I thnat case I can give you a few further tips and save you some street pounding ( I just spent three or four months eating my way through the rice cakes of manhattan.

First a few links
http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/food/rice%20cake/all-areas/all-neighborhoods/chinese/

http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/...

personal fave places

Shaghai Cafe (100 mott

)

Evergreen ( 38th st between madison and 5th) my #2 choice

Our Evergreen (913 2nd Ave between 48th and 49th st) probably the best version I've bumped into in Manhattan recently. Also try winter melon ham soup there if you go, it's quite good.

China Fun both the UES site at 1221 2nd Ave (64th st) and the UWS branch at 246 Columbus Ave (btwn 71st and 72nd) are reliably good

Shanghai Pavillion 1378 3rd Ave (btwn 78 and 79) pretty good Salt baked spare ribs pretty decent too

Pearls, 796 Amsterdam Ave at 99th (NOT the one on 7th near times sqaure) also a good choice thogh the pickled vegetable version here can get a little sour

Yummy House 76 3rd Ave (btwn 11th and 12th( they only do the b-type (no pickled vegetables version) and there's no mixed meat version, but thier pork version is great! ( just dont pay attention to the bright red color, I think they overdo the red stuff on the roast pork)

[small h]

Thanks! I've been to Shanghai Cafe, Evergreen (the Broadway/12th St. one, now closed, I think), China Fun and Shanghai Pavilion, but I've never had the rice cakes at any of those places. I'm a little surprised to learn that there's anything good at Yummy House - it looks like such a blah place (I'll have to pass on the pork, as I don't eat meat).

[jumpingmonk]

Oh poo, In that case You'll have to give me a day or two to go over the lists and make a new set of reccomendations, as I think all of the rice cakes I mentioned have meat in some form or another; that's how it is usually served. off the top of my head I think that there were some places along East Broadway that served veggie rice cakes (on the foochow specialties section) but most of those weren't really tasty (they mostly avoided preseved cabbage as well, and were just plain cake with ordinary shredded cabbage and at one place (Hua Du, I think) cauliflower.

[jumpingmonk]

Ok I went though the lists and here are th eplaces that serve veggie rice cakes (or at least places that have either a veggie or a mushroom, which I hope is good enough) I gave you the hyperlinks in the first message and this list is longish so I'm leaving out the street adresses; theyre all in the first link, except where noted. the reccomadation (I I dont normally eat the veggie version are based on where the meat one was particualry good; i hope the vieggie from the same place is comporable.

Of the orginal list given three of the places Shanghai Cafe, Shanghai Pavillion and Yummy House have veggie versions avaible (Yummy house actually has a tofu version, which I have never seen before)
others

New/Nice green Bo (Chinatown)

China Moon (Midtown)

Excellent Dumping house (Chinatown, across from subway)

Joe's shanghai (both branches)

Our Place (55th st branch ONLY)

Excellent Porkchop House (Chinatown in Bloody Angle)

Wah Mei Pork Chop house -This one may be partiucaurly good as ther meated version were incredible (so good I shoud have included it on the first list) place looks like a hole in the wall, but the food is great (chinatown)

Happy Family (the one on 43rd and 10th ave not the one on Eldrige and berry (which after much searching I'm pretty sure no longer exists)

Jimmy's House/ Grill (on 25th between lex and 3rd) they were pretty good too

Suzie's (Not wondrous but pretty much the only rice cake place in the West village) Frankly though If you were in the west village and wanted Chinese I would turn my toes to Baby Buddah and gorge out on Basil pancakes, which is what I do)
and finally the list (from the second link)
of the east broaway places (remeber I do not reccomend any of these I'm incuding them only for completeness)

Americna East Fuzhou
Foochow Resuraunt
Fuzhou Resturuant
Hua Du
Yung Sun

hope you find something tasty somehwere in this

[small h]

Wow, thanks! I will refer to this whenever and wherever the need for rice cake strikes. And thanks for reminding me of Jimmy's House - I loved that place when I lived nearby.

Baby Buddha is closing soon, I'm sorry to say, so get your fix there while you can.
http://ny.eater.com/archives/2010/01/...

[jumpingmonk]

oh BELGIUM! On can only hope the chefs go somehwere else. In theory Mama Buddha still exists (it merged with the Empire Szechuan branch on Greenwitch) but ever since they moved from hudson street the basil pancakes have lost something serios. God the Chinese places in the west village are falling like dominoes, first Buddha House, then Hunan Pan now Baby Buddha (we got Grand Sichuan Catherine but that hardly compensates) This is the worst Chinese food news I had from this area of NYC since Sammy's Noodle shop and Grill stopped offering leek/chives patties (a kind of fried dimsum involving shrimp and lots of garlic chives) (this was a big issue since, with its loss the number of places that serves the things in NYC outside of Chinatown (and I can always make the trip all the way over there is reduced to one (Cafe Evergreen on 69th and Ist) Our Place on 83rd also sometime shas them, but only on weekends and national holidays)

[gloriousfood]

Glad you mentioned Pearls, b/c it really does have a good version.

[jumpingmonk]

If your at the UWS branch yes, plus I like the fish and cilantro soup (a nice riff on my belowed West Lake) The version avaialble at the branch near Time sqaure however is not partiucualry good.

Icidentally (if you are a meat eather) one of the oddests riffs on rice cakes I found in manhattan is at coluck (on elizabeth street in the tunnel) due to thier attepts a fusion cuisine thety serve rice cakes with pickled cabbage and Italian sausage. kinda intersting tastes sorta like a pizza (thogh I wish they gone with a milder sausage)

[gloriousfood]

I didn't even know there was a Pearls near Times Sq. Is it a branch of Pearls uptown?

And thanks for the tip on the fish and cilantro soup. In fact, I'm inclined to go there today and order the rice cakes and the soup!

[KTinNYC]

Looks like nian gao with zhai choy. Rice cake with pickled preserved vegetable.

[rhgindc]

I looked up nian gao on google and it didn't seem to match. The consistency and taste of the noodle in the dish I'm describing was a bit like an al dente chow fun but cut into oblong disks.

[KTinNYC]

If the first image doesn't look like what is shown in your picture then I am at a complete lost.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nian_gao

[rhgindc]

Oh! That does look it it. When I looked at the Shanghai Cuisine description and picture I realized that I had only seen Nian Gao as a sweet dish, but this indicates it also is made in a savory version. My apologies for jumping the gun.

Thanks for your help!

[PeterL]

Shanghai nian gao has nothing to do with cake, despite the name "gao".

[ipsedixit]

The "gao" in nian gao (年糕) would not refer to cake, more like paste.

[rhgindc]

Here's another picture of Nian Gao I've found....not quite the same dish I had at J & J Restaurant, but the 'noodles' (I guess they call them 'rice cake') look the same!

http://biggestmenu.com/rdr/CA/San-Gab...

[alkapal]

that looks fabulous. how does the flavor compare with pad kee mao?
is there oyster sauce? from this recipe, it seems they might have a similar taste: http://gagainthekitchen.blogspot.com/...
(i'm always on the lookout for chinese analogues to my beloved kee mao).

does anyone know which chinese around NoVa has this dish? XO Taste? HK palace? Full Kee (where I've never been)?

how about other savory rice cake/noodle dishes?