By Sandi Masori
SAN DIEGO — I love exploring the Asian restaurants in the Convoy area, but one of the things that’s always a challenge is navigating the pork dishes that are so prevalent in Asian food and trying to get substitutions for it. So you can imagine how excited I was when I accidentally wandered into Green China Grill and after being entranced by the live noodle pulling realized that it featured all Halal meat. That means no pork on the menu- I could eat anything! Now for those who keep kosher, obviously this restaurant won’t work for you. But for those who like me keep “kosher style” or draw a hard-line on pig, this is a dream come true.
The restaurant in the corner of a strip mall at Convoy and Mercury has two names: China Green Grill and Lanzhou Noodles. Lanzhou is the province in Northwestern China that the owner James Tian comes from. It’s also a Uyghur area, hence the halal food.
The restaurant layout is simple, looking like many fast causal restaurants. I was happy to see that throughout our time in the restaurant, all other guests both for dining-in and take-out spoke Chinese. That’s something I look for in authentic food. The thing that really sets it apart from other restaurants is the big window looming into the kitchen where you can watch them hand-pull the noodles. It’s hypnotic to watch as the dough is cut into smaller pieces and then the noodle master stretches the dough into a long, thin noodle, which is then loosely doubled over and stretched again so that the single noodle becomes two and then four and then eight and then sixteen and so on and so forth until they have it exactly the thickness that they’re looking for according to what dish is being prepared.
We ordered three dishes that were suggested by the waitress; braised beef noodle soup, sour cabbage beef pancake, and the cumin lamb fried noodles. The flavors aren’t what you might think of if you’re a fan of American Chinese food as they are more traditional and also come from the Northwest region. They use a lot of cumin, so there is a flavor that might remind you a little of some Middle Eastern food, but is also very different.
The beef in the noodle soup was flavorful and tender, falling apart as soon as you bite into it. The noodles themselves are a little thick and bouncy with a solid bite and mouthfeel. It’s noticeably more bouncy than Italian pasta, ramen or udon. The art of noodles in China is something that people are known for and can build reputations on. And Green China Grill’s Tian is a master at it.
The sour cabbage pancake is a kind of roll or what we in California might think of as a cut burrito of sorts. It starts with the Chinese pancake and then beef and vegetables are rolled into it and then it’s cut into pieces. The roll has a nice crunchiness to the outside with a pleasant chewy texture upon taking a bite. It did not need any additional sauces.
The last dish was the cumin lamb fried noodles. This looks like what you might think of when you think of chow mein, but the flavor is very different. The lamb was prepared in thin small slices and was tender and full of flavor. Again the noodles were bouncy and firm with the perfect combination of chewiness and bite.
I was really curious how San Diego was so lucky to get such an interesting restaurant so I briefly chatted with the co-owners James Tian and Chris Wang. They told me that James has been a chef his whole life and wanted to open a restaurant, but they didn’t know what kind of restaurant to open. So around nine years ago they started looking around San Diego and doing their research, and they realized that nobody was making hand-pulled noodles here. And so, eight years ago they opened.
We enjoyed every dish that we tried and definitely will add it to the rotation to go back again. They are open for lunch and dinner every day except Tuesday when they are closed.
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Sandi Masori is a food and theater reviewer for San Diego Jewish World. When she’s not covering food or theater, she helps authors self-publish, hangs out with her kids, and searches for the best sushi in town.