Dumplings & Hot Pot Rice at Noodle Village – NYC

We all know I’m a huge fan of wonton noodle soup at Noodle Village. Well, there’s more to love than just wontons.

I’ve never recommended the xiao long bao at Noodle Village, but this weekend, the Crab Meat Soup Dumplings ($7.25; pictured at top) were solid. There wasn’t a tremendous amount of soup, but what there was, was flavorful and not too sweet. (The latter was an issue I had previously.) Moreover, the skin was delicate and thin, yet strong enough to hold in the soup with no unintended poppage.

Even better was the bo zai fan (Chinese clay pot rice). At Noodle Village, it’s listed as Hot Pot Rice ($9.95) on the menu, and literally it comes in a hot pot, or to be more specific, a shallow cast iron pot. The great thing about this, is that the shallow pan gets really hot…

and the rice in contact on the bottom AND the sides forms a delicious, crunchy golden crust. Which means you get more nooroongji action than from a deeper clay pot. (Oh, yeah!) There are an assortment of toppings to choose from (I ordered spare ribs which was tender and not too fatty), but it’s really about the crunchy rice which Noodle Village excels at. Just like the wontons. More than decent soup dumplings don’t hurt either.

Noodle Village
13 Mott Street (b/n Mosco St & Chatham Square; map)
New York, NY 10013-5025
212-233-0788