Noodle Trippin (The Beginning)

For sheer love of noodles .... the next few posts in the coming days  will be about places that serves one of my favorite comfort food.

Before  we get to the food part, a side story as to how we ended up noodle  trippin (at least ofr this particular establishment)...... It was many weeks back when my friend Sir M was at my  house to help fix my computer. After fixing the PC, Sir M attached a  portable Hard Disk and copied a short movie file into my computer. He  showed me a locally made independent movie that he and his team help  produce. There was a scene inside a chinese noodle house in which two  filipino actors were playing the role of filipino-chinese.

In  that said scene, the two actors were partaking of noodle soup and had  for their drinks, a bottle each of soy milk. I then asked Sir M why use  soy milk when the best representation of a chinese drink should have  been hot tea. In fact, rarely have I seen local chinese folks eat  noodles with soy milk as their accompanying drink.

After an hour  of friendly discussion of noodles and soy milk, we suddenly developed  this craving for (what else but) noodles and decided there and then that  noodles will be our dinner for that particular evening. Our first stop  was actually this japanese ramen house in araneta avenue named ATSU  ATSU. But for some strange reason, the establishment was closed on a  monday night. My next supposed destination was some hand-pulled  establishment in timog but Sir M suggested we go a little further near  ortigas avenue and try MIEN SAN NOODLE HOUSE.





It  was still early in the evening but the place is starting to fill up  quickly. And lucikly for us, there was still parking space right in  front of the establishment. We were only two and here is what we had:

OKRA



Just  some complimentary slices of okra with some mild sweet  sauce. I like  it as the okra went quite well with the sauce (which  wasn't overly  sweet)

SEAWEEDS



While  waiting for our orders, this lady server  approached us and asked if we  would like to try some of their  appetizers, she pointed out some  seaweeds and i readily agreed. I didn't  exactly enjoy the seaweeds as  the texture are like dried-up linguinni  and the taste was somewhat  bland.

STEAMED PORK CABBAGE DUMPLING



Different  name, but pretty much tasted like kuchay dumplings. Perhaps they are  one and the same. (oh wait, there is a separate listing for kuchay  dumplings in the menu)

SPICY BEEF WITH TENDON



The  broth had a really beefy flavor and it was served piping hot though it  was slightly on the oily side. The beef were nice and tender, the  tendons were a little gummy and the noodles were firm to the bite.  Overall it was a good noodle dish for me. (I personally would have  wanted more "heat" from the spices)

HOT AND SOUR NOODLE



Imagine  your favorite hot and sour soup and then they added some noodles ......  its that straightforward (though I initially thought it was a strange  combination). But strangely, we seemed to enjoy this noodle dish very  much. Considering that an order can feed 3 people, it was just the two  of us that consumed it along with the other foodstuff we ordered.

My small issue was that the noodles were a little soggy.

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MIEN SAN is located at: #36 Granada Street, Brgy. Valencia, New Manila, Quezon City, Philippines

Directions:  From E.Rodriguez ave, take Gilmore Avenue going into the direction of  San Juan. Going past Aurora Boulevard (LRT line serves as your landmark)  just keep going straight until you pass JTs Manukan (to your left,  Petron Gas Station as landmark) and just before the next stoplight, you  should see the signage of Mien San to your left.


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Oh  by the way ........ as we were inside the noodle house, I took a look  around and didn't see anybody order soy milk to go along with their  noodles.