Address: Sony Metreon, 101 4th Street @ Mission, SF
Cuisine: Pan-Asian, noodles, soup, jook
Date Last Visited: May 31, 2007
One day, I felt like crap. My stomach was cramping up and my muscles were tense. I needed something to warm me on the inside. So I thought that soup would be a good idea for lunch. I walked the short two minute walk to the Metreon food court and went directly in line at Long Life Noodle and Jook Joint. Here they specialize in, you guessed it, noodles and jook. I had a menu at home, so I already knew that I was going to get when I got there.
I ordered the Double Happiness soup that had wontons, egg noodles, (hence the double happiness), bok choy, and you get a choice of chicken or BBQ pork, I got the BBQ pork. Me and bok choy are best friends, so I was okay with that. Overall, it’s a simple Chinese soup. I am usually a Pho-eating person, but I needed something somewhat bland to relieve my gastro-issues. However, that did not stop me from going to the condiment/sauce station to fill cup a plastic container of hoi-sin sauce and sriracha. Yes, I started to eat it like Pho, and I caught myself.
It’s just that this soup does not have the taste as Pho. And I know that it’s unfair to compare and Chinese soup and a Vietnamese soup, but I guess you can see my bias. The noodles are like very thin spaghetti, but have a little more give. They seem a little more bouncy in your mouth.
The wontons were nice and big. They were stuffed with pork. There were about 10 of them in the bowl, which made the soup very filling.
The BBQ pork was a good flavor with the subtle soup. It gave an extra savoriness to the broth. I love BBQ pork already, so this was a treat. There were big hunks of it in the soup. Yummy.
The bok choy was fresh. You know that it was not sitting in the broth for a long time. They blanch the greens right before service so ensure that they have a little bit of crispness when you bite into them.
There is nothing SPECIAL-OMG about this soup. You can get a very similar wonton-noodle soup at any Chinese place, but it was great to have when my body was out of whack. It did bring a sense of comfort and I did feel a whole lot better after I ate it. The combination of ingredients was perfect for me, and I am eager to go back and try out their other offerings, like their stir-fried noodle dishes.
