Chengdu Dan Dan Noodle Soup at Shanghai Shanghai

Shanghai Shanghai on Goose Gate in Hockley is probably the best known of the authentic Chinese restaurants in the city. It is one of the few spots that has attracted the attentions of the critics . This place is probably best known for its Sichuan food and that is what we usually come here for. They do also serve up Cantonese mainland food but most people I see dining here are after the hot and spicy stuff with Chong Qing Chicken being one of the more favoured dishes of choice .

I have written about this spot before back in 2015 when we ate a load of really great dishes including “Chengdu Hot and Spicy Cold Noodles”, “Ma Po Dofu”, “Deep Fried fish with Braised Tofu'”, “Dan Dan Noodle Soup'” and erm ‘Sweet and Sour Pork’ (lets gloss over that last one :-) Anyway you can read all about that here > Shanghai Shanghai – Excellent and Authentic Sichuan Food in Hockley

On this visit I was back in looking for some spicy noodles and I was ordering the Chengdu Dan Dan Noodle Soup. To be totally honest I had forgotten that I had written about the very same dish back in 2015, that does happen sometimes after almost 500 blog posts just in Nottingham! I think that the truth is probably that someone else in my group ordered that last time and I probably only had a taste. At least this time it was mine, all mine I tell you!

Chengdu Dan Dan Noodle Soup

This dish was quite spicy but not dangerously so, a first glance at the liquid in the bowl could trigger the fire alarm in your mouth sending a warning to the taste buds. This time though it was not too bad though, or perhaps I am adjusting my spice tolerance these days as I am working my way through a lot of bowls of spicy food.

Last time I talked of this as being described ‘as a fiercely spicy and addictive noodle dish that can burn and numb your face off at the same time.’ and yeh that would be scary.

I think this time there was a lot more of the finely chopped up pork mince piled up on top of the soup and the noodles, that was like a really glorious thing in itself as when you dredged up a chopstick full of noodles the bits of mince were clinging onto each strand like that dish ‘ants on tree noodles’

The sauce was swimming in red chilli oil and meat juices and you really could not see what was going on beneath the surface so I had to work hard to slurp up the soup and the meat until I could find may way down to reach the noodles. Tough job I know but I was happy to take on the responsibility:-)

This really is a quite hearty bowl of Chinese noodle soups, that mince makes the sauce quite thick as you work down into the bowl and the noodles that they are using were a bit thicker than some so were adding to the mass of food that I was gamefully stuffing into my face.

I know that I said it wasn’t as spicy as I expected but I think that to be honest I was probably still getting a bit of a sweat up on my brow as chowed my way through. I am not sure if that was from the heat or the sheer effort.

I have been working my way through the city recently hunting down these bowls of chinese noodles and I have to say that of it’s ilk this is a particularly good effort here at Shanghai Shanghai. It is not really possible to compare like for like as each place has different regional variations you cant just say Chinese Noodles. These though are on the list and there is going to be a personal best Nottingham Noodles Post coming pretty soon

I certainly needed that standard bottle of cold TsingTao beer to assist me with the task and to wash away some of the heat from my mouth.