The Thin Wheat Line: Slurping Impossibly Skinny Noodles at Mike's
This week introduces a new Monday series, in which yours truly sets off in search of Seattle's best noodles.
Noodle: Sui kau and squid ball noodle soup
Source: Mike's Noodle House, 418 Maynard Ave, S., 389-7099. INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT.
Price: $7 for a big bowl with extra greens (bowls start around $4.50).
Sometimes, all a man wants is a bowl of chicken noodle soup. No meat, no bacon-flavored pork stock, no vegetables. That man is not me.
Only if you bring me to Mike's Noodle House can you can whittle me down to chicken stock and noodles, but there have to be some squid balls and sui kau (pronounced sway kow) in the bowl, too.
There are more restaurants in the ID that specialize in
You can get a bowl of just stock with just noodles and a few yellow chives for garnish, but then you're missing the reason most of the people around you are slurping. The cooks will slide some beef brisket into your bowl, but I haven't gotten there yet, because I'm devoted to the sui kau. They're like mutant wontons, bloated, bursting with
shrimp and mushrooms, and trailing silky wrappers in the soup as they float
around the bowl. And the spongy, bland squid balls are another textural pleasure — they taste like the insides of a chicken nugget, but come from a time when processed meat products were luxuries, not the bottom of the barrel, gastronomically speaking. (Half of the time,
you'll find the balls are hollow, with gushy, sweet orange shrimp roe at the center.) The squid balls are the reason you keep a silver-dollar-sized plate of chile paste by your side. It tastes too good to not contain some dried shrimp.
Comment
