As Chesty kindly pointed out about the last blog I wrote about a meal with the two of us, “I thought it would be funnier…”

Really? Welcome to Chesty’s last blog, then. Bam.

Oh, and don’t expect anything funny here. As your punishment.

Today I wanted to try some of LA’s finest Chinese food.

Which meant I had to get out of LA.

The San Gabriel Valley (Monterey Park, Alhambra) seems to hold all of Asia outside of Asia. The Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese residents and restaurants located out there are unnumerable.

Road Trip!

20 Minutes later, we were there.

Alhambra. Strip malls as far as the eye can see. Driving down the street is like Groundhog’s Day. Except, you get six more weeks of good Chinese food instead of winter.

“You could have done better with that line…” the ghost of Chesty haunts me.

Yes, Chesty, I said ghost. That’s a warning…

We make our way to 101 Noodle Express (one of four locations) and scribble our name on a clipboard hanging outside the door.

The waitress comes out, shouting names in Chinese. Uh oh.

I had read online that people were experiencing difficulty understanding their names being called out.

I panicked so I shuffled up right next to the clipboard, ready to do lots of pointing and quizzical facial expressions.

“My turn yet, my turn yet?”

I scolded my friends for going off and smoking. “We’ll miss our chance!” It was a Soup Nazi situation and I wasn’t about to blow it.

We were seated rather quickly in a very unnassuming, basic restaurant. Chairs that you would find at a church potluck.

Only Asian diners.

As referenced in the website “Stuff White People Like”, being the only white person at an ethnic restaurant is the jackpot. Not only do you feel you’re experiencing truly authentic cuisine, but you’re hot shit for being the only white guy able to find it.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/20/71-being-the-only-white-person-around/

The one item I saw on EVERYONE’S table was the beef roll, (pictured at top) their specialty.

A beef roll is like a Chinese burrito. Take a savory, fried chinese pancake, wrap it around layers of sliced beef and cilantro. Yum! It’s a lot of food, four people can easily share one.

We ordered a few dumplings, both kinds containing hot broth. This was a bit of an overkill. Plus, if you don’t wait long enough before eating, you’ll need multiple skin grafts for every square inch of your mouth and probably new tooth enamel.

Chesty kept commenting what a juicy meal this was.

My mostest favoritist item were the Dan Dan Noodles. They reminded me of a spicy Asian Beef Stroganoff. I didn’t even need to put any hot sauce on it!

They hand tear their homemade noodles and pour this ground pork gravy over it. SO GOOD!!

REPEAT: SO GOOD!

“Meh, it was just ok. Too salty.” Shut it, Chesty. No one wants the stupid opinion of a ghost.

1408 E Valley Blvd
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 300-8654
www.101noodleexpress.com/