Noodling for bubble tea

Nan Zhou Hand Drawn Noodle House
927 Race St
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Neighborhood: Chinatown

As it's name descriptively states, Nan Zhou is a noodle house.  But, I say it's a little more than that.  Unlike what most people probably expect from a Chinatown restaurant, Nan Zhou is clean, with its decor obviously furnished by Ikea.  It seems to be common practice here to seat guests at tables together with other strangers (i.e., like the communal tables found at Le Pain Quotidien).  This is fine, except when it's just two people, and you're both sitting next to each other at a round table.  Conversation gets a bit more difficult and awkward.

pork and chive dumplings

Anyway, onto the food!  We ordered the steamed pork and chive dumplings, fish ball noodle soup, and brisket noodle soup.  The steamed pork and chive dumplings sound delicious, but we were both less than impressed.  I had the fish noodle soup, which came in a very generous portion - the noodles (which you can get hand drawn or shaved) filled up pretty much 70% of the bowl, with the rest of the space taken up by the fish balls, veggies, and broth.  I'm always a little hesitant to order "fish balls," because, really, what is in "fish balls"?  But, I decided I'd rather leave that a mystery because they were delicious and there was no need to ruin the experience.

Out of five stars, I would give Nan Zhou a 4 - taking one away because it's cash only (I'm a credit card kind of guy) and the dumplings tasted like they came from Trader Joe's (no offense to all you TJ fans out there)!

fish ball noodle

happy stomach

At the recommendation of a friend, we headed over to Tea Talk a block away to grab some bubble tea.  I ordered the red bean pudding bubble tea, which apparently comes hot, so it was perfect given the freezing weather that night.

yum!