The Valley is full of good Asian noodle soups, so we tried three.
I’m a child of chilly New England, where steaming cups of soup are most often consumed under blankets while the snow flurries outside. But last year, in Thailand, I tried a piping hot bowl of rice soup for breakfast. The weather was sweltering, and I was skeptical of my purchase — but only for the first bite. For months, soup became my regular wake-up meal, as it is for many of my Thai friends.
To get to know a culture, cozy up with a bowl of their soup. The basic meal has been around for over 20,000 years, and we make it in thousands of ways, in virtually every part of the world. In fact, the French word “restaurant” originally referred to a type of restorative soup, and only much later to the establishments that sold it.
Still, we often misunderstand other cultures by confusing their foods. This happened the other day when three of us at the Advocate were chatting about good local places to get noodles. After a few minutes, we realized we were discussing eats from several different countries.
I was craving a bowl of ramen from Iya Sushi and Noodle Kitchen in South Hadley, which specializes in Japanese food. Editor Kristin Palpini was talking up Pho BQ in West Springfield, which serves Vietnamese cuisine. And staff writer Amanda Drane was thinking of visiting Noodles in Northampton, which specializes in Thai food.
If you lined up bowls of Japanese ramen, Vietnamese pho, and Thai noodle soup, you would see some ingredients in common: savory broth, noodles, and various fresh vegetables and spices. But the fun of touring these international foods is learning about some of the differences.
HUNTER TRIED:
Classic Tokyo-style Ramen, $11.95
Iya Sushi and Noodle Kitchen
15 College St., South Hadley
Ramen, which is Japanese, employs wheat noodles (which are also common in China), as do Thai dishes, whereas Vietnamese soups traditionally use rice noodles. Vietnamese dishes, from soup to nuts, bear the mark of colonial French cooking styles, whereas Thai food, full of curries, is also influenced by Indian and Malay cuisine. Even within Japan, ramen recipes vary by region — go north to Hokkaido for cloudy miso ramen topped with butter, or south to Kyushu for bone pork broth.
Amanda and Kristin can report back on their lunch adventures on the next page. As for me, I chose Iya Sushi and Noodle Kitchen’s classic Tokyo -style ramen: noodles in pork broth topped with bamboo shoots, green onions and bean sprouts, seaweed nori, half a boiled egg, and barbecued sliced pork.
The steam rising from the bowl got me breathing deeply, inhaling those deliciously stewed, meaty aromas. The slices of cooked pork are so tender they’re almost creamy, and the egg melts in your mouth. The wheat noodles, which are sturdier and more flavorful than your typical ten-cent pack of supermarket ramen noodles, cling together in chewy kinks on the end of my chopsticks.
The meal was filling, full of rich flavor and silky textures. Halfway through eating, I sat back for a few minutes and gazed dreamily out the big bright windows. We all have our comfort foods, but the more you travel, the more you realize: nothing relaxes like a bowl of soup.
KRISTIN TRIED:
Pho Tai Nam, rice noodle soup with rare beef and brisket; $8.25
Pho BQ Vietnamese Cuisine
764 Riverdale Road (Route 5),
West Springfield
A muted aroma of ginger and scallions wafts up from the huge steaming bowl of Pho Tai Nam. Wide ribbons of thinly-sliced boiled beef sit atop a sunken nest of white rice noodles. The broth is a delicate balance of spice, lemongrass, ash salt, and brisket. The side vegetables complement the noodle soup: crisp bean sprouts to cleanse the palate and a few jalapeño slices to add fire to the dish.
The restaurant is warm and well-lit. “Blank Space” plays through the speaker system while a large-screen TV mumbles about car sales and local news. The requisite baby cries at one table, and at another, a chef in his kitchen blacks knows what he wants to order before he sits down. The waitress serving the dining room is quick and attentive.
I jam my spoon into the noodle nest and rip it apart, sloshing soup around my bowl. The noodles slip from my spoon, so I bring my lips to the brim and slurp, noodles a flyin’ and broth stinging my eyes. I nom through the burn. When I finish, I feel the way you are supposed to feel after eating a bowl of noodles: content.
AMANDA TRIED:
Roasted Pork Noodle Soup With
Wonton, $10.95
Noodles Restaurant
257 Main St., Northampton
Sitting down at Noodles in Northampton, I’m overwhelmed by the menu. It feels like there are a million options, but not a whole lot of description. I try to ask for advice from my server, but he seems to barely speak English. A failure to communicate already made for a disappointing eating experience at Noodles once this week, but it’s a good place so I try again and go with the Roasted Pork Noodle Soup With Wonton. I feel unsure about what’s to come, but I’m hopeful.
The meal arrives in less time than it took to order it. Smells of pork and cilantro fill the air. Small rice noodles and a pork-forward broth comprise the bulk of the steaming bowl. A cluster of wontons — meat-stuffed dumplings — bob up and down toward the top of the dish, and a handful of mung sprouts rest on the noodles. Slices of roasted pork float in a separate cluster across from the wontons, and the dish is finished with a sprinkling of cilantro and chives. Yum! The broth is briney and simple, but spooning up a mouthful of everything — noodles, pork, sprouts, and herbs — yields a salty, nutty, and delightful bite.•
