QUESTION:I know we’re all supposed to have moved on to bitter melon or Mongolian squid pot or fake dog meat or something, but I’ve been feeling a little nostalgic for good old moo shoo pork. Maybe it’s the melancholy of the season or something — isn’t some ingredient in moo shoo supposed to cure all known diseases? — but lately, it’s all I’ve been thinking about.

—Gretchen, Santa Monica

 

ANSWER: Not everybody I know absolutely loves Heavy Noodling, a deli whose cooking is in the style of the northern province Shanxi, an area of China that apparently does not challenge the culinary supremacy of Guangdong or Shanghai. The food at the aptly named restaurant, especially the thick, delicious knife-cut noodles in which it specializes, is as bulky as the food of Eastern Europe. But the moo shoo pork is great here, big, bland heaps of slivered pork and egg and tree-ear fungus and who knows what else, seared quickly and dumped over a bed of those noodles. Have some fried pancakes too, which are crunchy and pizzalike and will have to stand in for the floppy crepes they serve with moo shoo in Westside Chinese restaurants, because Heavy Noodling doesn’t do it that way. 153 E. Garvey Ave., Monterey Park, (626) 307-9583.

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