What’s not to love about noodles?
Ramen is the cheap eat of choice for college kids. Spaghetti and meatballs is the perennial pleaser for picky-eater tykes. A hot bowl of chicken noodle soup is the classic, comforting cure-all.
The conversation can get heated when we argue which restaurant makes the best ramen or pho, but we all can agree that noodles are for everyone. That’s why we’re wrapping our noodle around all things noodle for our Fall Dining Guide.
A noodle is defined loosely as a thin, usually flat, strip of boiled dough, and cultures around the globe offer oodles of noodles. Some noodles are made with rice flour and water. Others use wheat flour, while soba strands take a combination of wheat and buckwheat flours. Still others, such as Chinese Sichuan dan dan and Italian pasta noodles, include eggs. (Not all pasta equates to a noodle, but some qualifies. Why leave out such a tasty region of the noodle universe?) Even vegetables can be treated like noodles, if we want to stretch the definition that far. We do.
Consider, too, all the noodle styles. These ribbons can be wide or skinny, thick or thin, endlessly long or the length of a toothpick. Some are served hot, others cold (jjolmyeon!). They come unadorned, draped in sauce, drowning in broth and wrapped in spring rolls. Slurped with chopsticks, twirled with a fork, scooped up with a spoon …
In this guide, we visit 45 restaurants in the metro area whose dishes take inspiration from a dozen countries. Featuring everything from angel hair to udon, it’s a veritable alphabet soup of noodle adventure. Get ready to open your eyes — and mouth — to the wide world of noodles, all available right here in Atlanta.
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Photos: Take a noodle tour of metro Atlanta
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