A Noodle Shop That Strives for Authenticity by Breaking With Tradition

By Steven John

In a city that could soon collapse under the weight of all the comfort food it has available — piles of mac-and-cheese, heaping bowls of spaghetti, never-ending buckets of fried chicken — it’s hard to beat the sheer satisfaction of the Drunk Noodles at the Tang, a cozy noodle shop tucked on a block of First Avenue in the East Village. A bowl of rich beef broth is spiked with Momofuku’s fermented, miso-like Hozon paste, pork, scallions, sesame, and a bit of chile oil.

The dish is unlike any other served at the Chinese noodle shops that dot New York City. And, until a few years ago, you probably couldn’t find a similar dish in China, either. The Tang doesn’t serve traditional Chinese food; they serve the kinds of foods that people are actually eating in China today, and more than anything, that means a break with tradition and a turn toward fusion and experimentation.

“We really created the Drunk Noodles — that wasn’t really a thing in China,” said owner Yu Li. “It was inspired by noodle dishes from different regions; by different food styles.”

Li comes from a family of Beijing restaurateurs. When he and a partner opened their East Village restaurant in 2016, they wanted to serve the same kind of food that people were eating in China, which is of course quite different than most of the Chinese food that’s currently available in New York. “People’s appetites [in China] are changing fast these days,” Li explains. “People are going for stronger, new flavors there. They are looking for foods that taste different, not just the same foods they have always eaten.”

When the restaurant first opened, there wasn’t exactly a line out the door. The core clientele was comprised primarily of Chinese students studying abroad in the U.S. The past couple of years, however, have seen a surge of interest in all manner of Chinese food, buoying the Tang’s audience. Now, Li says, “more New Yorkers come in — we’re more like a local spot than a foreign noodle shop.” Now, Li is expanding to the Upper West Side, aiming to open a second location on Amsterdam Avenue this spring….