Xie Man Lou: Definitely One of the Best Crab Roe Noodles in Chengdu
I had heard that Xie Man Lou was a popular restaurant chain in China. It was originally from Hangzhou but it had opened branches in many of the big Chinese cities. Now there were several outlets throughout the country and their most famous dish was the crab roe noodles. While I was in Chengdu, I decided to visit the restaurant and try the famous dish. And I was just blown away by the taste!
I obviously immediately ordered their signature crab roe noodles. And the food came out quite fast. The sauce for the noodles was made completely of crab roe. And I had heard that they sometimes used as many as twelve crabs to make one bowl of crab roe noodles! That is why the taste and flavor of the roe was so pronounced. I tasted a bit of the sauce just by itself. It was rich and very full of a savory, umami sort of flavor. No wonder it has become so popular! You can guess how eager I was to eat the whole bowl.
The food came out on a large tray. There were two bowls for the crab roe and the noodles and they were served separately. The diners could mix the two together to their liking or they could use the bowl of crab roe as a dipping sauce for the noodles. The Xie Man Lou restaurant also served their crab roe with rice instead of noodles if the customer wanted. The noodles were accompanied by some light condiments, salad and vinegar on the side. The tartness of the vinegar would draw out the flavor of the crab even more.
The restaurant had also given me chopsticks to eat my meal with. They were delivered to the table in a pretty paper wrapping with landscapes and images of cherry blossoms in front. There were also some Chinese characters spelling out the name of the restaurant and welcoming the customers to the place. I thought that was really lovely and decided I would save the paper wrapping as a memento.
The other dish that I had ordered was Chinese cabbage. This was a simple, light dish made up of several leaves of Chinese cabbage. It was topped with some spices and seasonings and the flavor went very well with the richer, heartier noodles. The restaurant had dumplings and xiao long bao as well but I was too full to eat dumplings.
