Wow Cow Chong Qing Fine Noodles is a fine food establishment indeed

Yakal has become an interesting road. The street cuts through Chino Roces Avenue and (in my past articles, the side I have featured) Ayala Avenue Extension. That’s where many interesting food joints like a deli supplier, bakery, griller, and two Chinese restaurants that specialize in noodles and the typical Beijing-style cooking, can be found. I recently explored the end of Yakal Street, near the railroad tracks fronting Osmeña Highway. Although this place is perfect for Chef

establishments (Säntis Delicatessen, I’m Angus Steakhouse, and Carpaccio), more restaurants have been set up, particularly those that cater to the huge Chinese population on this street. I was attracted

Berger’s Werner

to a certain restaurant that seemed to be ran professionally, since its signboard and exteriors have been well designed and maintained, having a Mainland Chinese feel of sorts. The name of the place is Wow Cow Chong Qing Fine Noodles, and as its name suggests, it specializes in noodles and soup. For my first time here, my friendly Pinay waitress warned me that I may not like my order since the style of noodles contain a very liberal amount of preserved bamboo shoots. I brushed the warning aside only to find out that I should have heeded her advice and controlled the pungency of the soup.

On my second visit, I requested to separate the preserved bamboo shoots, and we also opted to have the spice level of the soup to medium. One noodle soup used snail broth that was umami rich yet clean tasting. It was topped with roast pork, pickled string beans, fried soya bean sheets, peanuts, kangkong, and chives. The rice noodles were fine, well-textured, and chewy enough to add texture to the flavorful broth. The other bowl was the Beef Lao Yuan Noodle that was a thicker rice noodle with a different style of marinated beef slices. Both were enjoyable, however, I prefer the Gold Beef Noodles that seemed to be braised beef chunks with lots of sliced connective tissue and a more complex broth of wood spices. I put just a half a piece of preserved bamboo shoots and the result was a correct balance of pungency.

The next visit, I had spicy broth with skewered items. Its Sichuan broth was flavorful and quite enjoyable with a side of Rice Vermicelli and the popular Chinese beer called Harbin. Although I did feel that the order was pricey considering how small it was, as it only had a couple of potato skewers, Kombu seaweed, small sausages, chicken hearts, and gizzards.

The menu, made by from the Guanzhi province, was still incomplete, as a sizeable portion of it was not yet being served.

The far side of Yakal seems very interesting and bustling on late evenings. I believe these places need to be discovered. I did see a Taiwanese, and a Japanese restaurant nearby, which I decided to review for my next articles.

Mikole

You can email me at chefgenegonzalez@yahoo.com or message me at Instagram. Subscribe to my YouTube “The Kitchen Scoundrel Food Channel” for some exciting recipes monthly.