[Music]
thick strips of dough pulled to arm's
length slapped down on the counter
in continuous rhythm lamb tossed in the
wok
cooked until tender mixed with a fiery
blend of sauce and spice
but it's this signature homemade chili
oil clinging perfectly to these
hand-pulled noodles
that makes the spicy cumin lamb noodles
a legend in new york
head to new york and you'll find several
chinese noodle shops dotted across the
city
with the wide hand-ripped noodles from
the shop celebrated by anthony bourdain
this place is unbelievable this place is
great come from here
now this is the central kitchen where
the popular spicy cumin lamb plate is
made from scratch
spicy cumin lamb is a dish that's pretty
commonly found in
most of mainland china like northern
parts especially but to put
the lamb along with our white noodles
we're the first to do that is that
because you guys liked noodles or you
felt like new york would respond to the
noodles with the lamb
you know we were like all right
something cumin something lamb
let's make this dish so that was this is
my favorite right and then
the noodles is my father's favorite
because he just he's a noodle person
he's not
that much into rice so that's how it
came to be
the noodles start out like this a simple
dough mixture made with flour water and
a little bit of salt
and then how long can that sit before
you're you have to pull
it out
so david recommends letting it sit for
10 minutes but if you ask jason
i say 20 minutes of resting why don't
you take it out
pretty much i'm pretty consistent he
changes his mind
all the time he's like a year ago
a year ago he'll have standards like
these and then
yesterday he would be like i want to
change the weights for this and
but one part of the process never
changes the noodle pole
each portion is pulled to order if
they're pulled early and set aside the
noodles will lack their signature
chewiness
how do you know when you pulled far
enough ideally five feet
all right so but i just go by i'm free
that's about there you go that's about
right yes
for reference after they're stretched
jason strips each noodle down the middle
and throws it into boiling water we find
wine news better
because it just carries the flavor a
little bit better
the noodles is always perfect they widen
up but stay tender
they're nice and tender while the
protein may not be the star
the most popular dish at xi'an famous
foods simply wouldn't be the same
without it
to make the lamb jason and his father
set aside seven
ingredients
from
david turns the walk up to full blast
adding in the lamp first
and flipping it almost continuously
you'll see i'm doing a combination of
that and the idea is just to keep the
meat from sticking to the sides because
that means it's burnt
then david tosses in the rest of the
ingredients and a spoonful of the
restaurant's chili oil
which famously flew off the shelves
after the new york times
recommended it to readers in may with a
proprietary blend of 30 spices
that's where the signature flavor and
heat in this dish really come through
the lamb is sliced thin so that each
piece really absorbs all that cumin and
chili and spice
yeah it smells good right it smells
amazing you don't want to try right now
or
you want to try it right i kind of do
yeah go for it you want to grab a chance
go ahead guys yeah fine
we're casual here
no pressure just in case
that is so flavorful no really though
like i thought it was going to be
so spicy in your face like blow up it's
very approachable yeah it's very
approachable
the flavor profile of shanxi you know
xi'an cuisine
is not to burn your mouth off that's not
the gold it's a fragrant spice xiang la
you know so
you have all the fragrances you have
some spice a lot of it looks
intimidating because it's really red
but that's you know part of the
presentation of the dish but when
we actually eat it you know it's not
it's not that spicy no it's very
fragrant that's like the perfect word to
describe that
before the lamb and noodles combine
jason adds some more veggies
a spoonful of noodle sauce and more
chili oil
is actually a very historical city in
china the silk road actually
starts in shia and it ends up somewhere
in the middle east
so there's a lot of folks going around a
lot of culture from different
parts of asia and beyond coming into the
city so
that's how it has affected our food you
know it's very
cosmopolitan of flavors even though it's
still considered chinese food of course
but you know thousands of years of
history has made it into somewhat of a
unique cuisine
what was once a tiny flushing restaurant
has turned into 10 locations across new
york city
and as the restaurant grew so did its
loyal band of customers
when we found out i was opening
everything like two three times a week
we even going on websites to see like
the ingredients to like
make our own like homemade but i don't i
didn't get to it
then they came out with the cookbook oh
i already got the cookbook
yeah that's believe me i work right
around the corner
and our back door is to the back door
how often do you come four times a week
this is the most vitamin d i've gotten
in like
five months okay
[Music]
all the chili flakes are coating my lips
oh my god
i'm like pleasantly surprised at how
it's not too spicy jason has this like
sign in the restaurant that basically
says
you shouldn't order something not spicy
because their dishes are made and
curated in a way where
the recipe is valued and the spice is
kind of essential
that's the flavor you're ordering this
dish for and then just honestly the
added perks are
tender lamb that's just beautifully
marinated and delicious and
an honestly addicting chewiness to the
noodles
look at the way it's coated you wouldn't
get the flavor and the impact of this
sauce
without the noodle like the noodle is
there
to accompany that sauce and like you you
just it carries that flavor throughout
this whole dish
and it's just like a nice fieriness it's
really really good
it's a reason to come to new york oh
yeah for sure it was worth the stop
try it you will not regret it
as an asian kid you know chinese kid
you're you're not
supposed to go into restaurants but i
don't regret
that at all you know after 10 years of
being in the business i feel like
it was the right decision it's not just
about
financial reward it's about making
impact it's about people recognizing
what we're doing as a way of
you know spreading our culture that
actually is worth
more than anything else he's not here to
witness that
i think we make the same quality of
noodles
i think my father would say he will
always make fire noodles but uh
you know he can say that i believe in my
own abilities