- Back for another episode of Worth It.
- And we're not just noodling around here,
but we are covering noodles.
- Noodles.
We've done many types
of noodles in the past.
Pasta, spaghetti, ramen.
Today, we're focusing on
non-Italian noodles in Los Angeles.
- Today on Worth It,
we're going to be trying
three delicious noodle dishes
at three drastically
different price points
to find out which noodle is
the most worth it at its price.
Okay, so we're sticking
specifically to Asian dishes.
The first place we're going
to, where are we going?
- We're going to Lao Xi'er Noodle House
to see Joe and Ellen,
and we're having their
Wife's Special Noodle dish.
- Sweet.
Very, very sweet.
Like, the story is sweet.
- It is actually a sweet story.
(upbeat jazz music)
- How did you come to start
this business together?
- It's his dream.
- I can't find my favorite noodle in LA.
- It was different than
what you were used to?
- Very different.
He wanted to keep the original
style from my hometown.
Shanxi Province, northwest of China.
- [Andrew] I'm curious
how many styles of noodle
there are from your hometown?
- [Ellen] More than a thousand different.
- More than a thousand different styles?
- Yeah.
- That's a lot.
The cat's ear noodle,
Mau Er Duo
also in my hometown we make a lot.
Most of the time we make
it with lamb or beef soup.
Actually, it's very similar
to, like, macaroni noodle.
Knife-cut noodle is a
flat and thick noodle.
That noodle we usually make stir-fry.
- We are focusing on the
Wife's Special Noodle dish.
Could you tell us what is
the story behind that dish?
- Introduce this.
- She's my wife.
(both laugh loudly)
- [Ellen] The noodle is called Haleo-style
is long and a thin noodle.
The machine push it to the pot directly,
so it's very very fresh.
It really only take two or
three minutes to cook it.
The first source, the beef
taste will be a little bit spicy
and the tomato with the egg
we just use tomato fried with egg.
A little bit sour tasting.
The ground pork just soybean
taste with ground pork.
- [Andrew] If I'm
understanding this correctly,
in your hometown it's common to eat
each of these sauces with noodles.
Sometimes people will combine two,
and you had the idea to
put all three together.
- [Ellen] Yeah.
- Why was that?
- [Ellen] The flavor will be more complex
- [Joe] Because I like this flavor.
Together have a vegetable,
and a meat, have a sour, have a salty.
One bowl is great.
(cash register dings)
- You guys also make dumplings here.
Do you have a recommendation
on which one we should try?
- Yeah, lamb dumpling, I like.
New item for me.
- I'm gonna do it with
vinegar and chile oil.
- Dumpling cheers.
- Cheers.
(laughs) Go to the bath together.
Come on.
- [Both] Mm.
I have to have another.
- Share some with...
Oh there it is.
- Want one Annie?
It's a very soft lamb flavor.
- [Steven] Very light.
- Yeah.
Yidi hasn't had one.
- Actually, the most important thing
about this dumpling, the wrapper.
- Which is the same dough as the noodles.
- This is a lot of food.
- This is a fun amount.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
(slurping)
- Delicious noodle, yeah.
- I always love a noodle
that you can just stuff in your face.
- [Adam] You guys are monsters.
- Are we monsters?
- I'm sorry.
- I see Annie going like
this with the headphones.
It's all right, it's a
lot of slurping going on.
- I honestly have never heard
of tomato egg before today.
- This is kind of crazy
because it's like combining
all of these flavors from my childhood.
Just all of those things
are just like, whoa.
You just like (exhales).
- [Annie] Steven, that's Ratatouille.
- That's Ratatouille?
I still haven't seen that movie.
(slurping)
- A thousand types of
noodles, approximately.
- So comforting.
Very, very good noodle dish.
- Before we go to our next noodle place,
we're going to a place called Bistro Na's
that does Beijing specialty desserts.
- Yes.
- And this place is recommended
by our good friend Yidi.
- Do you want to finish that before we,
yeah this is the biggest
Lazy Susan I've ever seen.
- Choo-choo.
- Okay.
I said, "Yidi, where should
we get some deserts?"
And she said, "You have
to go to Bistro Na's."
Why is that?
- They have food from my hometown Beijing.
I eat here a lot to cure my homesick,
and their dessert is
something I grew up eating
so I figured you guys should try it.
- [Andrew] Wow.
- [Steven] Okay.
- Here you go, guys.
So this is how Yidi lives.
I know exactly what I want,
but I want to ask Yidi what we should eat.
- The donkey roll.
- [Andrew] The donkey roll.
- [Yidi] Yes.
- Okay, do you want to
start with the donkey roll?
- That's not the best
one Yidi, you're wrong.
I'm a sesame roll kind of guy.
(soft jazzy music)
- Mm.
- Mm, good.
- Before we enjoy the
rest of these deserts,
let's enjoy a noodle fact.
- Noodle fact for your noodle.
- Oh wow, aren't all facts noodle facts?
- Yeah.
- Because they improve your noodle.
- I did that joke just now.
- The Chinese, generally speaking,
don't dry their pasta, but Italians do.
- I've never made that distinction.
- For our spaghetti episode,
we saw spaghetti extruded
but they allowed it to dry before boiling.
Where as at Lao Xi'er it
extruded straight into the water.
I think it's because it's not optimized
for that al dente flavor
that you get from drying.
- It explains so much of why I like
Chinese noodles more than pasta.
'Cause they're just--
- Squishier.
- Squishier, yes.
- So for our next noodle stop,
we're going to see Bugra
at Dolan's Uyghur Cuisine
where we're going to be trying
their Big Plate Chicken.
Before we have that,
we're gonna eat the
rest of these desserts.
- Okay so cut the camera,
let us go to town.
- I like it.
- Mm.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- What is Uyghur cuisine?
- The Uyghur region is located as
middle point of the Silk Road.
It's influenced by the Persian,
the Indian, Turkish and Chinese.
Many people ask, "You guys have kebab,
"and you guys have some work dish?
"How did you invent this?"
But actually this is original Uyghur food.
Our chef, Alerken, is going
to do all dishes today.
- What are the highlight
dishes of Uyghur cuisine?
- [Bugra] In ancient times,
the Uyghur people do kebab in desert.
So you make a fire, and
you make that tower,
and it's shape is like that fire.
Polo is very traditional
braised rice and meats,
carrots, raisins together.
Manta, it looks like
Chines dumping but bigger.
The dough is very thin.
It's stuffed with beef
and onions and spices
- So talking about the big plate chicken.
So I imagine it's big.
- Yes, it's huge.
- I thought this was a
noodle episode, Andrew.
- This is a noodle dish, right?
- Of course, yeah, it comes with noodle.
This is like very typical
Chinese and Uyghur fusion.
We fry the chicken with the
oil, and peppers and spices:
Cinnamon, Cumin, Star
anise, Sichuan pepper.
So this is spicy.
We put the potato and
we braise half an hour.
We also make the handmade noodle.
Noodle, it should be chewy.
We make the noodle with
water, salt and egg whites.
- Egg whites in the dough?
- Egg whites, yes.
Because it makes it really
chewy, and it's thick noodle.
This is the difference between
Big Plate Chicken noodle
with the other noodle dish.
It should be thick and wide.
- [Steven] I noticed with
the Big Plate Chicken,
all the noodles are covered
by the things on top.
Why are you trying to
build this mountain of meat
on top of the noodles?
- [Bugra] Because the Big
Plate Chicken, it has soup,
so when you eat the noodle,
mix it with the soup.
It's like, amazing taste.
(cash register dings)
- [Andrew] I have never seen
a teacup like this before.
- [Bugra] All are handmade.
- Wow.
- Handmade?
- [Bugra] Yeah.
- Flower tea, this is
very common in my country.
This is also sort of my creation.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
- Don't spill the tea.
- Mm, oh yeah.
- Ooh.
- Rose.
- Is there cinnamon in here?
- [Bugra] Yes.
- Cardamom.
Ready for some big plate chicken Steven?
- Big Plate Chicken, here we go.
- Okay we got one noodle
sticking out over here.
Should we start with chickens?
Since this is Big Plate Chicken?
Wow that smells good.
(clicks tongue)
- Mm, that's a little spicy, yeah.
- The taste that comes with it, linger.
- There we go, a noodle.
- Oh, I want one of
those kinds of noodles.
That one's been sitting below
the weight of the chicken
Got it, I got it here.
- It's delicious looking, right?
(laughs)
- Cheers
- Cheers
Oh, man.
- Whoa.
- The noodle itself is very
dumpling like, in it's softness.
- It's like you're eating
a dumpling in one noodle.
- It really is like a soup at the bottom.
- I know, why don't we have a spoon?
- I think it's because
the noodle is your spoon.
(spoons clank)
- (laughs) Sound of spoons.
- As we say that.
- Thank you so much.
See this peppercorn here?
It's all going in.
Oh that's so good really.
Okay I Need to try it now.
- You gotta do it.
Focus in on the tongue.
- The heat builds a little bit.
The numbing pepper corn
is there a little bit.
- I love that, yeah.
- The addition of cinnamon
is really surprising and delightful.
- But it reminds me of Malaysian cuisine.
A lot of the dishes there
are literally marriages.
There's no better description of this
than a marriage of dishes.
- [Andrew] It's delicious.
- I get it.
I get why they say stop noodling around,
because it takes a long
time to eat a noodle.
Is that it?
Sometimes when you get out of a movie
and you're like, "I
don't know what to say."
- Like when you finish a good
book and you just need to
take a walk and do nothing.
- Or like a one and a half
hour drive across Los Angeles
all the way to Beverly Hills.
- Cause that's where were going next,
but before that happens--
- Noodle fact.
Historians believe that
Chinese noodles originated
more than X years ago in the Han Dynasty.
What is X?
- You don't have to guess
if you know how old the Han Dynasty is.
- I don't know how old the Han Dynasty is.
1,500 years ago.
- Now double that and add 1,000.
4,000 years ago.
- 4,000 years ago!
I wonder what the first shape was.
You find that funny, Annie?
- I never thought of that before.
- Yeah, what was the first noodle shape?
- Oh, noodle shape?
- I thought you were just
talking about shapes.
- Yeah, me too.
- [Adam] China has been making bread
longer than they've been making noodles,
and noodle making stemmed
from the ripping of dough
into boiling water.
- [Both] Whoa.
- Okay, going across town.
♪ Making my way across town ♪
Now headed to Crustacean,
a landmark Vietnamese-American spot.
We're going to be having
An's Famous Garlic Noodles,
and on top of that, Dungeness crab.
The noodles are the creation
of the founder of the
restaurant, Helene An,
and she's kept the recopies secret.
So they are made in a secret kitchen
and we can't go in there.
- We'll be speaking with Chef Tony,
maybe he can spill the
beans on these noodles.
- That's okay, I mean,
Oprah actually filmed here
and she wasn't allowed in there,
so we're pretty much Oprah.
(both laugh)
(upbeat electronic music)
- I understand that your kitchen operates
somewhat in secret.
- Somewhat.
We have a kitchen within a kitchen.
That kitchen's for family members
and people that have
worked in the restaurant
for over 10 years.
- Why?
- My boss, Chef Helene
An, she first started
way back in the 70's in this little deli,
and slowly putting Asian
flairs here and there.
She knew she was on to something,
so she wanted to keep
it within the family.
We have about four items that
come from secret originally.
The garlic noodles have been
around since we've been open.
She saw that everybody
loves spaghetti and Parmesan
so that was her inspiration.
She was just named the
mother of Asian fusion.
This is the signature
dish of the restaurant.
- Asian fusion has been looked
at in a variety of ways.
Where I grew up it was looked down on,
but you're doing Asian fusion,
and it's right here in Beverly Hills.
How are you able to flip the
narrative of Asian fusion food?
- I think it was just something cool
for people to hate on fusion,
but the way I became
very comfortable about it
is when I spoke with Helene.
She didn't really know what fusion was.
She was just like, "I'm just cooking
"the way I want to cook."
Now we're grabbing from
different regions of the world,
as long as you're doing it intelligently,
the end result should be pretty tasty.
- So this is our last stop in our video,
it's the three dollar signs,
but the noodles themselves are not really
the expensive thing here, right?
- Generally if you're getting a crab
you're always getting a garlic noodle,
but they're two separate
items on the menu.
I would say 99.9% of
people that get the crab,
they always get a noodle.
- To enjoy the noodles to their best.
- This is not a question,
you have to get the crab.
(both laugh)
- Gotcha.
(cash register dings)
- Whoa.
This smells like my fire
alarm is about to go off.
(laughs)
- Look at that.
It feels like something you
shouldn't do at a restaurant
this nice but I do just
want to go (throaty laugh).
- Caviar cheers.
- Oh man, that's so awesome.
- Actually, that makes a lot of sense.
- Here we go.
- Here we go.
Ah, there's the hit of garlic.
It takes about two seconds.
- One crab in the shell, and
one crab picked out the shell.
- Nice.
- Wow.
And bibs?
No way.
- Yes!
This is way more simple than I thought.
- [Andrew] Right.
- Cheers.
- Oh yeah, that's really good.
I just want to eat this whole bowl.
- It's so fluffy.
Squishy, fluffy noodle.
- I'm gonna do a little bit of crab.
- Isn't this the life?
Pre-picked crab.
(sensual blues music)
- It's really good, right?
- This is my fantasy as a kid
of what a dish should taste like.
- This is so close to the buttered noodles
you would eat as a kid, right?
Add on the best version
of a buttery thing,
buttery crab meat.
- Pre-picked crab meat, okay,
is like birds who get to eat food
that's already been chewed
up for them by their parents.
- Talking about when a
mama bird chews up food
and then throws it up into
the chickling's mouth.
- The idea of having
food prepared for you.
- It's a mothers love, right?
It's great.
- Now how do you make
it, that's the question.
(somber blues music)
- Long noodles, long life.
- Long day.
- That's what they say.
One thing that was your favorite thing
that was not a noodle today?
- The noodle extruder at
Lao Xi'er Noodle House
that was like a old
fashioned manual train cart.
- At Crustacean, below the
floor there's like a fish tank
and there's a lot of beautiful
Koi fish living down there.
Okay Andrew, which noodle
was the most worth it
at it's given price?
- I'll give a honorable mention to the
Cat's Ear Noodle from Lao Xi'er.
My Worth It winner is gonna go to
Dolan's Uyghur Cuisine, so good.
- Oh my gosh, I can't believe
it, we agree for once.
I love Crustacean, and I
was gonna say Lao Xi'er
because the vast experiences
you get in one bowl.
My Worth It winner goes
to Dolan's Uyghur Cuisine.
- Adam, who is your Worth It winner?
- [Adam] Lao Xi'er.
- Annie, who is your
favorite noodle from today?
- Crustacean
- [Andrew] And Yidi, while
we're in the neighborhood.
- Donkey Roll!
(laughs)
- Well that does it for episode two
in our end of year miniseries.
Come back next week for
a very crispy conclusion.
- It also has soft ends.
- [Adam] Fried Chicken Sandwich.
- Aw, come on Adam.
(gentle music)
