Dan Dan Noodles from Lukshon

As a kid, my mom would often make lukshon kugel, a sweet, cottage cheese-and-sour-cream noodle casserole that was always a reliable milchig (dairy) meal – since we kept kosher. We would eat it while breaking the fast during Yom Kippur, or just have one at a special occasion dinner, when meat wasn’t on the menu. So I was more than surprised to find serious Chinese food on a menu from a restaurant called Lukshon, while on a recent trip to Los Angeles.

Turns out the owner, Sang Yoon (a Korean-American), was paying homage to a neighbor he had as a kid, who truly inspired him, and taught him about what good food should be. His Jewish “grandmother” influences him to this day, which is why – tucked in among a menu loaded with Sichuan peppercorns and lemongrass – there’s still a matzo ball soup available everyday.

But the source of my interest today is Yoon’s Dan Dan noodle dish. This traditional, fiery bowl of wheat noodles, sesame sauce and chili oil, flecked with black vinegar and tongue-tingling Sichuan peppercorns, is remarkable both for its authenticity as well as its utter refusal to lower its standards. This is a dish that I would fully expect to eat on a side street in Beijing.

Incidentally, after lunch today, I’ll have an extended interview here on the blog with Mr. Yoon, so check back after 1 pm CST.