I had a chance to go out to dinner with friends who liked to try different foods. We settled on Mi Noodle. I’ve had my eye on this place for a while, but wasn’t comfortable ordering it for a family meal. As I am a mom to picky kids and wife to a hubby with less adventurous tastes.
Calgary’s foodie scene has really evolved with the arrival of lesser known Chinese cuisines. Besides the well known Cantonese and Szechuan, there is Yunnan, various northern styles (I love Lanzhou La mian), and here, Taiwanese. I love the diversity of noodle shops that have popped up in town in the last few years.
We decided to eat family style as we could try the maximum number of dishes.
We started with the green onion pancake. It was delightfully thin and crisp served with a soy dipping sauce. Next up were the wonton in a chili sauce. The chili sauce tasted of chili oil in a thin sauce. It had flavour, with a touch of spicy.
The beef stew was delicious. Notes of five spice transcended the broth that carried deep, rich flavors. The beef stew was suitably tender. The noodles were the perfect bite; chewy and a little firm. It came with some Shanghai bok choy, carrot, daikon and green onion.
The variant on xiao long bao (soup dumpling), made with kimchi was interesting. The flavour was a bit subdued, due to broth, but still quite tasty. I just had to try their century egg and tofu dish. It seemed to be overpowered by the seaweed and bonito flakes, but still really good. I seem to recall the flavour of the century egg being more subtle than I remembered. But mine sit at home for a long time before I get around to using them all. It’s not a dish that I would recommend for not so adventurous eaters.
I was curious about the salted egg yolk custard buns. My mom introduced me to these while I was in Halifax earlier this summer. The filling had a nice salty sweet flavour. It’s a bit of an acquired taste, but I really liked it. Sort of like a spot of sunshine in a bao. Something that Calgary could really use these days.
On a side note, the washroom had an interesting sign. There was a note, both in Chinese and English, that the toilet was not for standing.
Service was good, the food arrived really fast. We could have easily finished in about half an hour if we didn’t go for the second round.
