The Handpulled Noodle: More Than Your Traditional Noodle Bar

Even in a city like New York, it's hard to find good quality fast food. Enter The Handpulled Noodle, the northwestern Chinese soul food restaurant that just opened last month in Hamilton Heights. Every noodle is handpulled (hence the name) and is made to order with your choice of protein, including homemade seitan, so vegans and vegetarians can get in on the action. When you're craving fresh hot noodles with a kick, this is the place to go. By Carly Petrone.

Owner Andrew Ding, 35, grew up in Sydney, Australia, where every kind of Asian cuisine was readily available. However, upon moving to New York four years ago, he noticed that the city lacked the specific type of food that he was used to eating. So what did he do? He opened up shop himself, offering customers Ding Ding (chopped noodle), Ribbon Noodle, and Lagman Noodles mixed in a traditional stir-fry or in a delicious soup.

As co-owner of The Chipped Cup coffee shop, located a few shops down from The Handpulled Noodle, Ding is familiar with the area. But there's a reason he wanted to open up his first restaurant on 149th Street and Broadway: "149th Street is my Ellis Island. It's where I first stepped foot into NYC and I just loved it. It didn't feel crazy. It felt like I had a neighborhood. It was such a tapestry up here."

Stepping into The Handpulled Noodle it's hard not to notice the authentic decor that makes up the small space. From the Chinese newspaper-lined walls to the 1950's cabinet that the hostess stands behind, it's easy to tell that someone with a love for antiques and attention to detail put this place together. As a classically trained musician, Ding admits he's "obsessed with process and detail." It shows. The menu is also very focused, making it easy to order: just pick a noodle, your protein, and which style (stir fry or soup). And don't forget the traditional sides like scallion pancakes and Mama's Dumplings – choose from pork & chive, beef & daikon, lamb & carrot, and egg & chive.

I opted for Andrew's personal favorite - the Ding Ding Noodles. My taste buds exploded upon my first bite thanks to the exotic mix of flavors and tangy spices. The small noodles reminded me of tiny Southern dumplings except they were much less doughy and lighter in texture (probably because they weren't made by a machine). The vegetables added a nice crunch while the few drops of black vinegar I added from the extensive condiment bar definitely enhanced the sauce.

Although Andrew recommends eating the noodles within 10-15 minutes of placing your order, I took half of my meal home and happily devoured it for dinner. Let me tell you – it was just as delicious. Before you jump on the uptown train to try this new spot, here's a little more information about what makes it such a unique addition to not only the neighborhood but New York City in general.

CBSNewYork: So, how's the first month of business going?

Andrew Ding: It's going great. We've kind of kept it low key. We didn't want to go too crazy, this being my first restaurant. I wanted to make sure the kitchen staff had time to settle into everything.

CBSNewYork: How did you find your kitchen staff?

Andrew Ding: Networking mostly. I reached out to culinary institutes and I advertised in the Chinese newspaper – people who can make dumplings and scallion pancakes – it's not exactly a skill you can teach overnight. They're skilled.

CBSNewYork: What made you want to open up a noodle bar?

Andrew Ding: I was looking for food of this specific region because this is the food I grew up with. I grew up in Sydney, Australia and there's an abundance of Asian cuisine there and very high quality Asian cuisine of all types. I was very astounded to find that this specific type was nearly impossible to find in NYC. That was what gave me the idea. There is a need for this representation, in that in most cosmopolitan cities - Vancouver, Toronto, Melbourne, Sydney - it's readily available. I felt like that's a weird hole to have in such an international city so that's how it came about.

CBSNewYork: What type of food are you serving exactly?

Andrew Ding: I call it northwestern Chinese soul food. I'm not reinventing the wheel here. It's really back to basics. It's the food I grew up with back home in the kitchen. It's essentially just rustic, bold flavors. It comes from a region that shares a border with countries like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the gateway to the Silk Road. Because of that there was a huge mixture of spices and flavors that happened in this region because of the Middle Eastern influence. You see a lot of lamb and cumin. So, that's where this food on the menu comes from.

CBSNewYork: What's the spiciest thing on the menu?

Andrew Ding: [Laughing] There's nothing mild about anything here. We make a chicken stew called DaPanJi– literally the translation word for word is big plate chicken. It's a bone-in chicken stew that has potatoes and bell peppers (green and red), a bunch of spices. That's typically quite spicy. But we try to offer condiments here so you can tweak it to your spice level. I feel like that's been a learning curve. In China you'd probably just serve them super spicy. You'd get them like that and then you deal with it. You'd cry your way through the meal (laughing). Not everyone can take that. We kind of scale it back a little bit, allow you to tweak it on your own.

CBSNewYork: How did you go about creating the menu?

Andrew Ding: I wanted to it to be focused, not too all over the place. Simple - the whole build your own setting. There's three different types of shapes of the noodles that you can select from and then you can pair it. That's my own defiance. I don't think I've seen other restaurants do it. It's not typically found in China either. When I eat at home - it basically came from that too. I would tell Mom, "I want Ding Ding noodles today but I don't want it this way, I want it that way." So it's an element of experimentation.

CBSNewYork: Yeah, what exactly are Ding Ding noodles? Is this what makes your restaurant unique?

Andrew Ding: I just recently discovered that we are the first and only shop in NYC to offer Ding Ding noodles. The only other store I've been able to track down was online in SF. Isn't that interesting? They're basically noodles that are pulled out and then you chop it into little tiny pieces. They're fun to eat. You eat them with a spoon. Don't even attempt to use chopsticks. Nothing here is machine made. This is what I mean when I say we go back to basics. Everything is made from scratch. The dough is prepared every morning. We have to turn it into forms, then proof it, and then as soon as an order comes in, it's stretched out per order. Everything from the scallion pancakes to the dumplings - even the skins. We grind our spices because I refuse to eat pre-ground spices. That degrades the aromatic profile.

CBSNewYork: Would you call yourself a foodie?

Andrew Ding: Well, I am very particular about ingredients. I obsess about details – I like process. Like if there is a recipe with a 20-minute or two hour option, I'll pretty much always choose the two hour option. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. Like when you try to do Julia Child's beef bourguignon? I'm going for the 3-day option. [laughs] It's crazy.

CBSNewYork: What made you want to open up a noodle shop in this neighborhood?

Andrew Ding: I chose this area because it's such an awesome community that didn't have the same tapestry of food options. I felt like that was something that was lacking because, you know, you move to Manhattan and there are certain things that you might romanticize about having - like great international foods, great selections of cheap eats - and then I found that I had to travel downtown for it. [laughs]. You know? I'm like, well, why are there four pizza stores and not a whole variation of other cuisine and so that's why I thought this is a perfect place.

CBSNewYork: What are your favorite items on the menu?

Andrew Ding: I generally go with the Ding Ding noodles. Even in soup. We have a bold slow cooked mutton soup. Basically the stock is made overnight. It's tingly and spicy and warms you from the inside out. I also like our stir-fry. We have our custom sauce that is flash fried with a medley of fresh veggies. We can make most of our dishes vegan and vegetarian friendly with seitan. Vegetarians always assume there's nothing for them on the menu but we like you here! We can even do spicy "cumin lamb" out of seitan.

CBSNewYork: I noticed a few more items are coming soon. Can you tell me about them?

Andrew Ding: Cold skinned noodles is one of them - basically a noodle that is served cold and comes with aromatic sesame in a vinaigrette base. You eat it with slivers of julienne cucumbers. It's very fresh. Fresh noodles. You can also add meat to make it a meal instead of just an appetizer. It's vegetarian/vegan but it's a pretty well known dish in northern China.

CBSNewYork: Tell me about the decor?

Andrew Ding: I'm a stickler for everything old. I love old pieces. [Pointing to the wall] Archival newspapers from the 1950's. We sourced them from University Archives that we just printed out and wallpapered onto the wall. Very DIY. Everything was DIY. I boiled down a ton of tea to syrup, I tinted acrylic, and then I stained it. Mahjong tiles hang above. The light fixtures are upside down commercial chicken feeders. The condiment table is an old vintage filing cabinet with old sewing machine legs. I like things that are all well made.

CBSNewYork: Tell me more about your background? What were you doing before you opened up The Handpulled Noodle?

Andrew Ding: My background is in classical music. When you spend your entire life training to be a musician and then one day you think "I don't think I'll be happy doing this forever" and you've trained your entire life for it, you kind of have an identity crisis. I guess that's probably why I'm obsessed with process and detail. When you study music your whole life, you slave away on one passage and one note.

CBSNewYork: What do you want customers to know about The Handpulled Noodle?

Andrew Ding: It's wholesome good eating with quality ingredients. At the end of the day it's no mystery. Good food tastes good because the ingredients are good. You don't have to reinvent the wheel here. There's no point in doing a bunch of crazy things to it when you start with poor quality ingredients. Just start with good ingredients - quality product. You go by that philosophy and turn it into a fast casual setting.

CBSNewYork: What do you see down the line?

Andrew Ding: I mean, the menu is small and compact and focused enough that we could branch out. We'll see.

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Carly Petrone is a freelance writer living in New York City.