1) Depending on region I guess, while Italian pasta noodles have always been popular and ubiquitously available, there had been a surge in fad-ish popularity of domestic versions of Japanese ramen (Americanized versions of Japanese ramen, mostly by non-Japanese owners; similar to sushi fad). This is being displaced somewhat by Korean style ramen. Regardless, the basis for both is actually, I believe, Chinese style noodles (both dry and soup). There are a variety of great Chinese style noodle dishes but they are hard to find despite the ubiquity of Chinese (albeit largely Americanized) restaurants. I very much enjoy real Japanese ramen in Japan, but even still, it's rather limiting. Chinese soup (and combined w/ dry versions) noodles offer great selections and much more diversity. I wonder if / when Chinese noodles will be popular and ubiquitously available here. I know there are a few regions already (ie - Monterey Park / Alhambra) but even the the Bay Area is somewhat sparse (available but not everywhere).

2) Is there a way to julienne vegetables and such lengthwise rather than cross cut? For example, I'd like to julienne carrots lengthwise but my food processor only allows for cutting across the carrot. What I do manually is peel the carrot, then use the peeler to shave the carrot lengthwise, then cut the shavings lengthwise into thinner, long pieces. It's tedious when I have to do a lot of carrots (and usually other veggies too). Not sure if this is possible or not - not sure how commercial kitchens handle this type of work.

I'd like to automate thin, long shavings for veggies like carrots, daikon, cabbage, gobo, potato, beets, etc.

Mandolin, or knife work. A cucumber might be fairly easy with a knife - might be able to do a potato as well.

(The cucumber gets cut like a veneer core, with some rods on the cutting board to help keep the thickness the same. Long slices could then be taken of that.)

Thanks. Yea, I've been using a mandolin or peeler / knife. I'm looking to automate if possible. If not possible, I'll continue to do what I've been doing.

While not automated, there are hand peelers with julienne blades. Still manual, but basically allows you to skip that second step of julienning the long shavings with a knife.





As for Chinese noodle availability, are you talking in restaurants or for home cooking?

If for home use, do you have an Asian grocery store nearby? They'll almost certainly have the type of noodles you're looking for. (We have about a dozen Asian groceries around here, and it's not a big metroplex, so surely somewhere like the Bay Area will have even more.)

If you're talking about restaurants, stuff like that seems to come in waves. Pho was hot about a decade back, with a ton of Pho restaurants popping up. That seems to have died down and been replaced with Ramen nowadays, with tons of ramen joints appearing in the past several years.

For carrots, you can use a mandolin but I hate them because it's too easy to julienne your fingertips.

The old school chef way for carrots:

--Use large fat carrots
--Peel
--Using sharp chef knife, cut in half if long
--Carefully cut off one side so it's flat
--Flip flat side down and do other sides
--You now have a square, long carrot piece
--Slice into slices longways about 1/8th to 1/4 quarter inch
--Stack the slices
--Now cut the stacked slices longways into julienne
--Cut julienned bunches across or in thirds depending on how long you want them

Chinese noodles: looking for restaurants. I only know the chinese names so the translated version is kinda weird but things like beef noodle soup (popular in Taiwan), pork noodle soup, shredded pork and turnip noodle soup, jajang noodles, seafood combo noodle soup and so on. The dish names don't do justice to the dish themselves.

Thanks guys. I'll look into the manual julienne/peeler.

I'd love something like this but I'm gonna guess it's too expensive for casual household use.

Do you have a Chinese cleaver? I'm pretty certain that's what the cooks in your typical Chinese restaurant do all their julienne veg prep with, using the instructions I posted. I think the wide blade makes it easier and you have more leverage than with a western chef's knife.

Thanks. Yea, I have a cleaver. I have been doing this manually to date. But as I've aged, I'm looking for an automated way to do it. Less effort and faster.

Also, I'm hoping to make the julienne much thinner than the video shows. Not paper thin but close. Basically, thinness similar to a peeler but much faster.

My wife has a gizmo called a spiralizer. She uses it to make zucchini “noodles”

quote:

Originally posted by Tn226:
My wife has a gizmo called a spiralizer. She uses it to make zucchini “noodles”

I'll look it up. Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:

quote:

Originally posted by Tn226:
My wife has a gizmo called a spiralizer. She uses it to make zucchini “noodles”

I'll look it up. Thanks.

I use one too to make zucchini noodles. Mine is a very basic manual model. It works well, but it's slow and probably wouldn't hold up to anything more durable than zucchini. A quick google search shows there's a whole lot of options at a bunch of price points, so I'd imagine you can find something that works for you.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
Chinese noodles: looking for restaurants. I only know the chinese names so the translated version is kinda weird but things like beef noodle soup (popular in Taiwan), pork noodle soup, shredded pork and turnip noodle soup, jajang noodles, seafood combo noodle soup and so on. The dish names don't do justice to the dish themselves.

Sooo...you're looking for restaurants that specialize or, feature soup noodles?

Kind of. I'm wondering why Chinese noodles haven't caught on like pho and ramen have. And if they possibly might.

I recently started adding zucchini noodles to my diet. I upgraded to this from hand cutting recently and it was a huge improved in consistency. Comes in 5, 7 or 10 balde option with corresponding prices. Spiral cutter

Thanks. I never knew about these spiral devices. I'm looking into them. That one, Oxo and others. Hamilton offers a power version too.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
Kind of. I'm wondering why Chinese noodles haven't caught on like pho and ramen have. And if they possibly might.

Hard to say, what's needed is a celebrity to promote and celebrate it, give it a kick in the pants media-wise to get it to take off. Non-Asian figures like Bourdain and others have salivated over a bowl of ramen or, a jiggae, but, also promoted those foods. Right now Korean food has big time chefs like David Chang, Esther Choi, Roy Choi, Cory Lee, all of them under age-50, successful and not afraid of the camera. Vietnamese and Thai food are also highly popular but, much of that interest is stimulated because of tourism and the continued interest of people who are returning and wanting more.

There's not a lot of Chinese celebrities that are diving into Chinese food scene or, entertainment figures exploring and celebrating it. Travel into China is a mixed-bag, go beyond the big urban centers and its not an attractive place for foreigners....not in a bad way its just not easy or, approachable. Currently, the only non-Asians trying to shine a light on the big, broad variety of Chinese cuisine is cookbook author Fuchsia Dunlop...and she comes-off as a boring, dowdy, middle-aged gal, she just has little charisma, not to mention her main focus is Sichuan-style cuisine.

We had a veg-o-matic, it worked great, better than a slap chop!