‘Bang, pull, fold, repeat’: Hand-pulled noodles are the star at this downtown eatery

The primary time I had Lanzhou-style lamian I used to be barely out of highschool. A small group of us ventured via Pacific Mall in Markham, Ont., one weekend afternoon. After searching for electronics we headed into the meals courtroom upstairs for lunch. The meals courtroom was ceremony of passage rising up. Everybody I knew would go to Pacific Mall simply to eat, and everybody had their favorite vendor. In comparison with different indoor plazas, Pacific Mall’s meals courtroom is tiny, with slim hallways that lead you thru a community of mom-and-pop retailers. Each vendor had a regional specialty. The meals felt overseas at first, from the means dishes seemed to the means they tasted. Certainly one of my earliest recollections was of a noodle vendor making hand-pulled noodles, referred to as lamian. The important thing to correct Lanzhou noodle soup is hand-made noodles, says Metro Morning meals information Suresh Doss. 0:41 As quickly as I used to be inside a couple of toes of the meals courtroom I might hear him bang giant pipes of dough on a makeshift steel counter close to the money register. Bang, pull, fold, and repeat. After which, with lighting pace, the prepare dinner tossed a curtain of noodles into boiling water, and inside seconds it was sitting in a bowl of darkish brown inventory in entrance of me. I had a predilection for pho in these days, however I quickly fell in love with the lamian. The noodles seemed completely different — they got here in numerous styles and sizes, and so they had a bouncy, chewy texture with the soup clinging to it. It was an addicting expertise. It is all about the noodles Good lamian is difficult to return by in this metropolis and there are a couple of explanation why. In contrast to pho or ramen, the place the broth is the actual star, lamian is all about the noodles. With pho or ramen, you possibly can cheat by buying pre-made noodles. However if you wish to create a correct Lanzhou noodle soup, you had higher learn to make noodles by hand — the means they have been doing it for over a century in Lanzhou. Prospects at GB Hand-Pulled Noodles can select between a couple of various kinds of noodle bowls — pork, vegetable or beef. (Suresh Doss/CBC) I used to be pleasantly stunned after I visited GB Hand-pulled Noodles when it first opened simply over a 12 months in the past close to Bay and Dundas streets in downtown Toronto. It was a chilly spring morning after I stepped into the restaurant and that acquainted banging sound was the very first thing I heard after I entered the room. Behind a glass display screen at the entrance of the restaurant, chef Zhiqiang Li labored the noodle station. He massaged and stretched giant cylinders of dough in a trance-like state earlier than swinging them up in the air and slamming them again down towards the desk. Chef Zhiqiang Li drops recent noodles right into a pot of boiling water at GB Hand-Pulled Noodles. (Suresh Doss/CBC) Inside seconds he was looping smaller strands together with his fingers, pulling them with ease and smacking them down repeatedly. He then casually tossed the curtain of noodles over his shoulder into a big pot of boiling water behind him. The presentation is mesmerizing. You could possibly watch him make noodles for hours as he switches between numerous thickness ranges. ‘Noodle is our life’ Li owns and operates GB Hand-Pulled Noodles together with his spouse Alina Bai, who runs the entrance of the home. At GB their specialty is lamian from Lanzhou, their hometown in the province of Gansu. “In Lanzhou, there are noodle retailers in every single place. There are hundreds of them. You can not stroll one block with out seeing one. Noodle is our life,” Bai stated. To Bai, lamian is a household custom that has been handed down from era to era in her household, going again a century. Li and Bai met in grade college in Lanzhou. Though Li’s first profession was in IT, he defined that it was his want to study and protect the lamian custom that Bai’s household was so happy with. Together with her permission he spent shut to 5 years studying the intrinsic method. At first, there was no intention of opening a restaurant. Li, who is just not a skilled chef, says he simply needed to “protect and prolong” the custom. Chef Zhiqiang Li, left, and his spouse Alina Bai stated opening their very own restaurant is a dream come true. (Suresh Doss/CBC) In 2015, the couple moved to Toronto after a brief keep in Montreal. “We visited Toronto and we preferred it higher so we moved right here,” she stated. “Then we determined, ‘OK, let’s open a noodle store.'” To Bai and Li, GB is their dream come true. An opportunity to protect household custom and share it with hungry prospects. Though the store is only a quick distance away from the Eaton Centre, GB remains to be tucked away from the hustle and bustle. It is on Edward Avenue behind the Atrium shopping center. It is a tiny restaurant with a small menu, however it has shortly discovered a following with college students from Ryerson College, which is close by. Metro Morning meals information Suresh Doss recommends including chilli oil to the Lanzhou noodle soup. (Suresh Doss/CBC) The menu is tightly constructed. You may select between a couple of various kinds of noodle bowls: pork, beef, or vegetable. Every bowl comes with an assortment of greens: bok choy, sliced turnip, julienned carrots and cucumbers. You select your noodle kind — GB has seven varieties: tremendous skinny, skinny, slim thick, thick, flat, medium large and intensely large. You may have them with or with out soup. Go for thicker noodles Throughout my first few visits I had a tough time selecting the noodle kind, so right here are some ideas. Should you want a really tender and delicate noodle — akin to store-bought noodle packets — go for tremendous skinny. However truthfully, it is the least attention-grabbing noodle. As you go thicker, the noodles will present extra bounce and a chewy texture, and so they additionally assist the soup cling on to them. Much like Italian pasta, when you like wealthy, meaty sauces served with lengthy ribbons of pasta like pappardelle, then order “flat” or “extraordinarily large” to get maximize cling.   Metro Morning meals information Suresh Doss recommends getting sides together with your noodle bowl, like this Niu Zhan, or spicy beef shank. (Suresh Doss/CBC) End your order by specifying that you want to the chilli oil on high of the soup — a house-made concoction of chillies and peppercorns, which brings some complexity together with a formidable quantity of warmth. I used to be instructed early on that one does not simply eat noodle soup at GB — the sides additionally demand some consideration. Li has a menu of a dozen chilly sides that complement the soups very effectively. My favourites are the Niu Zhan — spicy beef shank. All the shank is boiled for 5 hours, then sliced very skinny like chilly cuts. Qan Cua is a spiced cucumber dish that is roughly chopped and soaked in chilli oil. (Suresh Doss/CBC) The tender meat is tossed in the identical chilli oil. Additionally, attempt the spicy cucumbers. The dish consists of roughly chopped cucumbers are coated liberally in the identical chilli oil. Hai Jusu is chilly, thinly sliced jellyfish that’s marinated in a candy and bitter sauce. (Suresh Doss/CBC) Lastly, attempt the chilly, thinly sliced jellyfish, which is marinated in a candy and bitter sauce. In my view, switching between lengthy slurps of heat noodle soup and the chilly aspect dishes is the full GB expertise. GB Hand-Pulled Noodles is at 66 Edward Avenue in Toronto. Suresh Doss’s weekly meals phase airs each Thursday on Metro Morning. Look ahead to video of his jaunts throughout the metropolis on CBC Toronto’s Fb web page. Have you learnt a GTA restaurant that Doss ought to go to? Tweet us @metromorning or ship us a message on Fb. And when you attempt any of the locations he options, we wish to see pictures! http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/metro-morning-food-guide-episode-34-1.4684552?cmp=rss