02 July 2012

Noodles Your Way ~ Taiwanese - World Square, City

Noodles Your Way = Noodles Our Way...

[LAST UPDATED FEBRUARY 2013]

Ever chased a certain dish or flavour that you've had in past but not been able to find it again? Shawn has been hunting a favourite style of noodle soup for months without joy. It's a beef noodle soup that we've found in Taiwanese and possibly Shanghai joints, with a thin, dark, sweet beefy broth, with a bass note of star anise or five spice. He's ordered beef noodle soup in so many places of late, usually getting a clear, bland and boring soup that makes him sigh. This has happened in so many places that he's started to wonder if perhaps he was chasing a flavour that didn't actually exist. Like when he was hunting high and low for a particular flavour in Japanese ramen, all over town and back to Japan twice. But that flavour was just a memory that had changed over time, it was a myth.

But dangnabbit Shawn found the beef noodle soup of his dreams at a Taiwanese joint in World Square called Noodles Your Way. It was pretty much exactly as he remembered. Happy.

Now if only we could find a Hainanese chicken rice like that one we had in Singapore's Golden Mile hawker centre ten years ago...



Normally we avoid shopping centres at all costs but there's a couple of humdinger joints underneath World Square. Noodles Your Way is a casual eat'n'go cheapie, great for a quick feed with a mate, and also comfy for solo feeding. It gets busy so sometimes you may want to share a table to get seated quicker. The other thing you need to know is you pay when your order. Your change may take a while to come back but it always does.

The menu standouts for us are the noodle soups, top notch stuff. The bainmarie gear is also excellent, a great way to try a bunch of Taiwanese dishes cheaply. We've hacked at that bainmarie at all hours of the day and it's always been super fresh, there's often a queue so there's lots of turnover.



Stewed beef and tendon in noodle soup - $10.80. A thin, dark, sweet, beefy broth with a star anise bass note. The beef is kind of pressed. The noodles are perfectly cooked. Sensational.



Spicy beef in noodle soup - $10.8. Similar to the soup above but with beef brisket. The 'spicy' comes from some dried roasted chilis which tickle the throat and add another layer of flavour.  Big thumbs up on a wet winter day.



Beef and tomato soup - $10.80. Squished tomato gives the beef noodle soup a fresh, homely touch. Noodles are excellent as always.



Minced pork noodle soup - $10.80. A lighter broth than the beef soups, though it got darker towards the bottom as the ingredients melded. Not a lot of minced pork but included tofu, a soy googie egg and some fish balls. Excellent noodles once again.



Thin noodle soup with pork intestine - $10.80. A thick, clear soup - the texture reminds us of lor mee. The noodles are thin like vermicelli. It's very porky, one for fans of innards.



The cold side dishes are only $3.80 each and definitely worth exploring, see them on display right at the front of the front counter. We go for bamboo shoots (a favourite of ours) and we try the snow cabbage, green soybeans and tofu. Google tells us snow cabbage is Chinese cabbage, it is pickled and delicious.



A $3.80 cold side of tofu skins. The pickled veggies give it a refreshing, tangy zing. Highly recommended.



The bainmarie-of-love is very popular. $9 for two dishes on rice, or $10.90 for three. Here we're pretending to be healthy: fish and veggies with a bit of garlic; and lovely gooey tomato and egg, it's sweet like sweet'n'sour. Yum.



More bainmarie love: a gingery, porky Taiwanese rissole, eggplant and pork'n'potato.



More bainmarie love - scrambled eggs with a lucky prawn or two; green beans and pork; and lovely rich, dark sweet and sour pork ribs on the bone.



Squid and brown sauce hotpot - $14.80. Plain and simple with nice ginger and garlic flavours. Good but not amazing, $10 would have been a better price. We think the soups and the bainmarie dishes are the pick here.

[BACK AGAIN FEBRUARY 2013]



Mr Shawn can't resist the bainmarie-of-love... KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) made less naughty by mixed veggies and a super yummy dish of egg and zucchini.



DIY water.



Noodles Your Way is at Shop 9.18 World Square, that's down the bottom in the shopping centre bit, near Coles. 644 George Street, Sydney.

Noodles Your Way on Urbanspoon

5 comments:

  1. Oh yes! I hate not being able to find a dish again! I keep wondering if an airfare to the middle of China is worth it to get one more helping of the best ribs I've ever eaten. I'm so glad you managed to track your noodle soup down.

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  2. 25 years ago (where Gia Hoi on George Street is today) there used to be this place named "Mekong - Home Cooked Meals". The place was ultra cheap ($3.00 a meal) and the ingredients were fresh from the markets. Dixon Food Court was open back then (with exactly the same decor and furniture), but I always preferred "Mekong". Their signature dish was pork belly (so soft you didn't need teeth to eat it) and lots of bean shoots. They also had a dish with lots of "hard tofu" (not the silky stuff). I've never had this kind of Vietnamese again. If anyone has seen this style I'd highly appreciate it. I really miss it.
    P.S. Panasonic 14mm F2.5 m43 lenses are available on eBay for $165.00. Similar to the Paasonic 20mm F1.7 lens. Best m43 bargain - period.

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  3. Love those beef tendons in the soup! As for chicken rice, Jimmy's is the closest I can get. :p

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  4. Have you guys tried Sydney Dumpling King in Burwood? Their Taiwanese noodle soups might be what you're after (though they arent my favourite thing on the menu) but the salads are a stand out - celery and bean curd stick is like taiwanese crack, and their spicy tofu salad is a winner too. Ditto the cold noodles with sesame sauce (once you zing it up with some chilli). Their dumplings are pretty damn good too. We used to be devout Ashfieldumplingophiles, but this place has converted us...

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  5. I'll be giving that a whirl methinks, those dishes sound right up my alley - thanks!

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Thanks for your comment joy - please keep your musings happy - if you want to complain about a restaurant please do it on a restaurant review site (or your own blog) - we're all about celebrating cultural diversity and the great eats that come along with it :-)

Our ethics: We pay for all our own meals and travel (though sometimes Mum shouts us).