Super Taste

It’s freezing outside. You just got out of jury duty for the next five years, and you only have 5 bucks? No problem, it’s time to celebrate! Walk a couple of blocks over into Chinatown until your ass is completely frozen. It’s better that way because the hot noodle soup that you’re going to eat is going to melt your buns and make you feel happy. Seriously. I don’t know if it was MSG or the blood liquefying again in my veins, but I felt a tingling rush as I drank in the broth at Super Taste Restaurant (26 N. Eldridge St.).
The very knowledgeable Village Voice writer Robert Sietsema wrote about Super Taste ages ago and I’ve been carrying the menu around in my bag for years. It’s really a fun read that’s perfect to peruse while you’re waiting for the # 2—Hand-pull Noodles with Beef in Hot and Spicy soup. I like to pretend that I’m as cool as Harrison Ford in BladeRunner because these noodles shops secretly made me feel very out of place at first. By all appearances, I blend in with the rest of the customers, but since I don’t speak Chinese, I feel confused like I did when I was 14 working at Hunan Chinese Restaurant back in Roanoke. The kitchen was a loud cacophony of yelling, clanging and sizzling. Busboys with long pinky fingernails that I thought were for playing guitar ran in and out of the kitchen fighting with wait staff for tips. Cooks constantly shaking and scraping woks with long cigarette butts hanging out of their mouths. Owners yelling for me to buy cigarettes at the gas station and make them some iced coffee. By the time I’m done reminiscing, I’m used to the noise and activity and the soup comes fast, even though the noodles are actually being pulled as you wait. It’s absolutely mesmerizing to watch the process of one lump of dough being pulled into hundreds of strands.
The fresh noodles make such a difference in the soup, they are tender and seemingly endless. The broth is rich without being like gravy and there’s a nice slick of hot chili oil that combines with the steam and really makes your nose run. There are lots of napkins on the table and there’s a tub of pickled greens if you want more flavor, but the soup is really all you need. The beef is tender with a high fat content, but the bok choy evens it out and adds health.
All along lower Eldridge St. you’ll find noodle shops like SuperTaste. It’s important though to figure out if the noodles are fresh. It really makes a difference. Under the Manhattan Bridge on 28 Forsyth, there’s another place I really enjoyed called Eastern Noodles. It’s family run and the Dad pulls the noodles and his daughters run the rest of the show. The beef bone soup is definitely next on my list. It’s a metal bowl full of soup and noodles complete with bones to suck on. Between the slurping and the sucking, these joints are noisy and not prim, but a definately a good time.