Okay so you know that Erin and I have been to Tokyo for Thanksgiving to have 7 bowls of Ramen, and that some of the best Ramen we have had are in New York City and California. Pho is the same way, we have an Excel spreadsheet of Pho places across the country. You might also know we like urban hiking and food crawls. So we have had better versions of some of these noodle soups in many other places. However to have four (five) types of Asian noodle soups that are pretty good in stones throw from each other is remarkable. Food crawl anyone?
In NoVA (Northern Virginia for the un-initiated) where we live there are four restaurants in stones throw from each other that make pretty good noodle soup.
1. Beef Noodle Soup – A&J Restaurant, 4316 Markham St., Annandale, VA 22003
2. Pho – Pho Hot Restaurant, 7442 Little River Turnpike, Annandale, VA 22003 (Now note that we prefer Pho Factory Inc, 6237 Little River Turnpike, Alexandria, VA 22312, and Pho Deluxe, 9675 Fairfax Blvd, Fairfax, VA 22031, also local – okay an update Pho 75 – we may need a separate post on Pho)
3. Ramen – Tanpopo Ramen House, 4316 Markham St, Annandale, VA 22003
4. Udon – Miso Cafe Japanese Restaurant, 7410 Little River Turnpike, Annandale, Virginia 22003
5. Jjampong – Lunch Time, 7630 Virginia 236, Annandale, VA 22003 (we actually haven’t been to this one, but it is Korean Noodle Soup a couple of blocks away)
6. Floating Market Noodle Soup – SakulThai, 408 S Van Dorn St, Alexandria, VA 22304 (this is no where near the place I am talking about, but it is Thai Noodle Soup and we eat here all the time – though we have not tried the noodle soup – sadly SakulThai is now closed)
I’ve also had Cambodian Noodle Soup once in Brooklyn, and Indonesians must have one too, but I have never tried one.