Noodles for Breakfast at Lao Wang Ji in Flushing

[Photograph: Max Falkowitz]

Lao Wang Ji, a small noodle and dumpling shop in the Golden Shopping Mall, does better Fujianese-style small wontons than any place I know in New York. But I view those paper-thin wontons floating in soup as cold-weather-only food; it's too hot now for chicken broth, no matter how good it may be.

Which is why my thoughts turn to noodles here come summer, an abundant plate of ridiculously cheap sesame noodles ($2) that I think is best eaten as a quick, nourishing breakfast.

Don't expect too much for the price: the sauce is little more than tahini cut with, I suspect, some peanut butter. But the thin, flat noodles are cooked well, tender but not soft, and the sauce clings to every strand once you give the mess a stir. Add plenty of chili paste—both the oil and the coarse flakes—to add some dimension and you have the makings of a very slurpable breakfast.

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