[Photo credit: Lingbo Li]

I have fond memories of Henanese people.

I befriended a family of Henan migrants of China's Islamic Hui ethnic minority who ran a restaurant down the street from my Shanghai sublet. They served excellent lamb hotpot, Shanghainese crayfish in the summer, and lamb "chuan'r" year-round—euphorically seasoned kebabs sold for 2 RMB each.

Mister Ma, the congenial, diminutive boss, told me one night about his lao jia's (hometown's) hand-pulled noodles. (The Henanese-owned shop next door sold them, but Mr. Ma's clan mysteriously never befriended their neighbors.)

I finally got to try them back in the States in Flushing's Golden Palace Shopping Mall.

Henan is a centrally located, highly populated Chinese province with mountains in the west and the Yellow River flowing through the northern reaches. The dishes here frequently show their Northern inflection with ingredients and grain-based dishes like noodles and dumplings.

The area is known for excellent soups, using rice noodles, and plenty of lamb, all of which you'll find in a bowl of hand-pulled noodles at this Flushing hole-in-the-wall.

The noodles are just the right amount of chewy and salty, swimming in some seriously delicious lamb broth. Dig deeper, and you'll find they share the spotlight with clear rice noodles and bean curd noodles. With the tender meat and the crisp wood ear mushroom, it's a deeply satisfying and flavorful of noodles that rewards you with a variety of textures.By the time I got to the bottom of the bowl, the hand-pulled noodles had softened and absorbed their broth, becoming even more flavorful. My favorite find on this floor by far, and one I'll keep returning to.

Address and Directions

Menu vocab

Noodles: The Chinese term for these Henan hand-pulled noodles is "hui mian," which roughly translated into "braised noodles." I've found some sources online that call these Henan specialties "braised broad noodles." For simplicity's sake, I just translated them as "noodles."

The menu is Chinese only, so translations are my best approximations.

Translated Menu

Print out this menu and bring it to order so you can point to what you want. If you don't have Chinese characters installed on your computer, download our translated Nutritious Lamb Noodles menu.

Main dishes ($4-5)

Side dishes ($3-5)

Back to the food map

• Golden Shopping Mall First Floor Map

Or explore other first floor Golden Shopping Mall spots

• Golden Vietnam Bakery
• Jack Yan's / Shandong Dumpling
• Old Wang Ji + translated menu for mobile phones
• Wang-Zheng's Halal Snacks + translated menu for mobile phones
• Nutritious Lamb Noodles + translated menu for mobile phones