The meal started with a sticky cluster of peanuts spiked with chiles that temporarily numbed the tongue. There was a salad that had the crunch of fresh-cut slaw and brought a bona fide caffeinated buzz from bits of fermented tea leaves strewn throughout.
And then there were a pair of homey, aromatic bakery buns topped with something called “pork floss,” a wooly pile that has the earthy, salty savor of jerky when it moistens in the mouth.
It was a meal with beguiling little tricks of texture and specialty spice. But this meal didn’t come from some high-end chef tasting menu or exercise in molecular gastronomy. Instead, I found it at a fascinating little café that’s mining the traditions of an ancient cuisine, several of them in fact. And they were cooked up in a come-as-you-are setting about as casual and approachable as a coffee shop.
This is Bao & Noodle, a restaurant for robust renditions of regional Chinese cooking. It’s in the Marigny, near the NOCCA campus, and while the Marigny is pretty high profile these days, Bao & Noodle still feels like a quiet little corner of the neighborhood. And for adventurous dining on a budget, it doesn’t get much better than this.
