Tasty Noodles & Dumplings – Albuquerque, New Mexico

The first time I noticed that the dishes served to people of Asian descent weren’t covered in neon bright sauce, I wondered why those strange looking dishes weren’t on the menu.  Or maybe I just didn’t see them.   I asked my server (who was barely conversant in English) and was essentially told I wouldn’t like “authentic” Chinese food.  “What the heck am I eating?” I  asked myself.  That was the beginning of my explorations into the ancient and traditional culinary culture of China.  I delved into just what dishes are considered “authentic” and just what “authentic” means.

Dogmatists and purists insist that dishes that weren’t “invented” in China are spurious, not legitimate.  They use such terms as “Americanized” and “white-washed” to describe those dishes.  They point out that much of the Chinese food served across the fruited plain is stickier, sweeter, and unhealthier than traditional dishes served in China.  They don’t necessarily point out that some of the differences between Chinese food from China and Chinese food served in the states is because of the wide availability of American ingredients such as carrots, snow peas, green peppers, broccoli and mushrooms.

Additionally, Chinese immigrants were partly forced to rely on their external market — the American market who preferred sweeter dishes and eschewed such “strange” dishes as offal, chicken feet, braised duck’s tongue, or braised pig’s trotter.   Having grown up in Northern New Mexico where we raised our own crops and many of our own farm animals, none of those “yucky” foods turned me off.  I was raised eating such foods as morcillas (blood sausage), menudo (cow’s tripe soup), lengua (beef tongue), verdolagas (purslane) and quelites (lamb’s quarters), all dishes urban sophisticates might pass on.

For a very long time, the Chinese dishes perceived by many Americans to be unappealing were available only on “secret Chinese menus”   handed out to Chinese diners and weirdos  like me who enjoy foods of all kinds.  Today thanks to restaurants  such as Chopstix, Budai, Nio Szechuan and ABC Chinese those secret menus are are available to one and all.  None of these stalwart restaurants will ever question whether or not you’ll like items on the secret menu.  In fact, they’ll be grateful if you order dishes less intrepid diners dismiss and won’t ever consider ordering.

Shortly after taking our seats at Tasty Noodles & Dumplings, our server delivered two menus to our table.  The thicker, three-page menu included many of the fruity sweet and sour dishes that seem to define what many Americans consider to be Chinese food:  honey lemon chicken, mango chicken, cola chicken and orange flavored chicken.  Other Chinese dishes invented in the United States (by Chinese cooks, I should add) include General Tso chicken, Kung Pao chicken, broccoli beef, cream cheese wontons and a few salad dishes.  Tasty Noodles & Dumplings does not offer an all-you-can-choke down buffet nor any ten dollar plates that include an egg roll, fried rice, soup and a partridge in a pear tree.  That raised this restaurant in my estimation.

The not-so-secret menu (labeled as “Chef Special”) is especially intriguing.  It features such delicacies as stir-fried kidney, braised yellow croacker, duck blood curd and jalapeño pork belly.  There’s absolutely nothing on the menu I wouldn’t try.   If you’re not so inclined, there are several irresistible options, categorized on the menu as: Shareables, Baos, Dumplings,  Hand-Pulled Noodles,  Rice and Noodles and Entrees.  It’s a menu aficionados of Chinese cuisine will appreciate–even those hung up on terms such as “authentic.”

Half of one wall is dedicated to artwork depicting the art of making noodles.  Several menu items feature “Lan Zhou Hand-Pulled Noodles.” Lanzhou beef noodle soup, for example, is named for the city of Lanzhou, home to more than 1,000 beef noodle restaurants.  Lanzhou’s distinct culinary culture is centered around different types of noodles making the city renowned throughout China for its noodles nonpareil.  In China,  chefs who have mastered the art and skill of pulling noodles are held in high esteem, both as culinary and performance artists.  They repeatedly stretch and fold a cylinder of dough then multiply it into progressively thinner strands.

Our visit to Tasty Noodles & Dumplings was greatly enhanced by Kenny, a savvy and enthusiastic server who also doubles as a buffer between the kitchen team and the restaurant’s guests.  Most of the staff can’t speak fluent English so Kenny takes it upon himself to convey what guests like and what they don’t.  He’s quite the ambassador, too.  He urged us to order at least one item from the bao or dumpling menu, pointing out a smallish Chinese woman deftly manipulating dough to form perfectly pinched dumplings and bao.  Kenny also taught my Kim how to say “thank you” in Chinese.  Unlike when I taught my friends “pick-up lines” in Spanish that got their faces slapped, Kim’s appreciation drew smiles.

In a previous post, I shared Wikipedia’s “list of dumplings” which surprised  some of you that by definition, empanadas and ravioli are both a type of dumpling.  So are gnocchi, pierogi and Pop-tarts.  Even Danny DeVito and Barack Obama somehow made Wikipedia’s list, but  Hot Pockets didn’t.  Two questions are obvious: (1) Who the heck curates this list? (2) Did Michelle Obama’s best-selling tome “Becoming” explain if and why she would call her husband “dumpling?”  There is, however, no question that bao are a type of dumpling.

19 August 2023: Take a bao, Tasty Noodles & Dumplings!  Since their introduction to the land of e pluribus unum, it seems Americans don’t want to just take one bao.  We want several of them. The great thing is that they’re becoming ubiquitous.  You’ll find them in Japanese restaurants specializing in ramen, in Korean restaurants, on Chinese dim sum menus and even in some Vietnamese restaurants.  As with so many of the world’s culinary gems, the origin of bao is disputed.  Several nations claim to have “invented” them.  Most culinary historians seem to agree bao originated in China.  Some believe they were first made in Taiwan.  Whatever their origin, we can agree they’re special.   If you’ve never had bao, the very first one to try should be the Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings), six steamed buns stuffed with pork and broth.   It takes fifteen minutes to prepare these tender gems with a delightful surprise inside.  It takes less than fifteen seconds to declare them absolutely wonderful, especially when soup pours out of the pouch-shaped treasures.  The pork inside may remind you of Italian sausage.  By the way, National Bao Day falls on August 22nd.

19 August 2023: You probably won’t see steak on the menu of many Chinese restaurants so my Kim’s conciliatory choice is pork chops–again not something frequently seen in Chinese restaurants.  When she espied pork chop noodles on the menu, she didn’t hesitate.  The “chops” were more akin to pork ribs than to the pork chops she loves.  Not a problem.  She loves pork ribs, too.  These ribs are marinated in a sauce that imbues them with deep savory umami characteristics.  Pork sticks to these ribs making gnawing on them a sheer pleasure.  The noodles are served in a heart-warming broth.  Tangles of  noodles absorb the flavor of the beef (though not as much as they might have had my Kim not declined any vegetables).

19 August 2023: Tempted as I may have been to order something from the not-so-secret Chinese menu, the lure of curry chicken (chicken cooked with potatoes, carrots, red peppers, green peppers and onions in curry sauce) was just too hard to resist.  Chinese curry tends to be milder than Indian curry and not nearly as sweet as Thai curry.  Thank goodness tendencies are not hard and fast rules.  Tasty Noodles’ curry has a real bite.   The curry is simmered in a fragrant sauce and thickened to a delightful viscosity.  The ratio of chicken to vegetables skews heavily in favor of the vegetables.  Potatoes were conspicuous by their absence.  A side of fried rice (a three-dollar uncharge) was rather nondescript.   This may be the very best Chinese curry I’ve had in years.

30 November 2023:  My revelation that pancakes didn’t have to be slathered with cloying syrup actually transpired in Peñasco, not exactly a hotbed of culinary diversity.  My mom’s daunting challenge of feeding six children was exacerbated by the fact that we weren’t especially adventurous.  We did all like mashed potatoes so our mom must have figured we’d like potato pancakes, too.    Forming potato patties from leftover mashed potatoes then adding onions and frying the pancakes in a combination of oil and butter, she probably prayed this new dish would appease her finicky brood.  Not surprisingly I was the only one who liked these fried orbs, but only after I had “doctored” them with some weirdness or another.

I didn’t have to doctor scallion (green onion) pancakes, a popular appetizer at many Chinese restaurants.  These “pancakes” are essentially made from flatbread that has been folded over several times and grilled or fried in oil and lavished with a generous helping of green onions.  Though I’ve never met a version of scallion pancakes I didn’t like, my siblings (save for Anita) probably wouldn’t like them.  Legend has it that explorer Marco Polo fell in love with scallion pancakes.  When he returned to Italy, he asked chefs to prepare them.  What he was served was the ancestor of a dish we all know and love: pizza.  Whether or not this legend has any veracity, scallion pancakes are worthy of a story or two told over the millennia.

30 November 2023:  From among the six-million dumplings categorized on the infamous list of dumplings, the one most commonly associated with Chinese restaurants is the familiar crescent shaped dumpling.  Tasty Noodles & Dumplings offers five different dumplings, each stuffed with different ingredient combinations.  You can order them fried or boiled.  Because they’re hand-formed and prepared to order, expect a fifteen minute wait.  Our early favorite are the pork and scallion dumplings which come eight to an order.   At some Chinese restaurants you practically have to commission an exploration to find any pork within the dumplings.  Not so at Tasty Noodles where the pork is about the size the sausage you find atop your favorite pizza.  Better still, the pork is kissed with a hint of fennel.

30 November 2023:  When immigration laws in the fruited plain were relaxed, enterprising Taiwanese chefs brought with them Chinese dishes theretofore unknown in the United States. Many of them were radical departures from stereotypical Chinese-American dishes (such as chop suey) popular at the time. Among the captivating new dishes was General Tso’s chicken which was “Americanized” to suit native palates. Over the years it has done more than just suit American palates. It’s become one of the most popular of all “Chinese” dishes and is served in Chinese restaurants throughout the fruited plain though it’s not necessarily prepared exactly the same way from one restaurant to another.

At Tasty Noodles & Dumplings, General Tso’s chicken is based on orange chicken. Fried chicken pieces are breaded and tossed in a tangy orange sauce impregnated with incendiary chile. It’s very similar in style to sesame or orange chicken, but with a kick.  Chile is added to the sauce of rice vinegar, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, water, sugar, and a thickener of corn starch.  For those of us who don’t especially like sweet and sour Chinese dishes, General Tso’s chicken gives us an excuse to enjoy a dish that’s sweet and just a bit sour.  The more piquant the chile flakes, the more we like it.  At least that’s our excuse.

30 November 2023:  Even after 38 years of wedded bliss, my Kim can still surprise me.  Perhaps because we were both experiencing our first outing after a cold-flu-Covid-general malaise that pretty much wiped us out for almost two full weeks, my Kim actually picked up the “not-so-secret Chinese menu.”  Though she normally uses it as a beverage coaster, she actually studied it before deciding to try ginger chicken.  Then when Leo, our server told us there was no ginger chicken to be had, she asked if the Szechuan chicken can be made “without heat.”

For me any Szechuan dish without heat is akin to a New Mexico day without chile.  It just doesn’t make sense.  The Chinese province of Szechuan is renowned for its fiery peppers and generously spiced foods.  When Leo indicated Szechuan chicken could be made without heat, I pictured a blandish dish.  Instead, Szechuan chicken turned out to be rather tasty: bone-in chicken pieces swimming in a delicious broth sprinkled with scallions.  Though quite satisfying and soul-warming, my mind’s-eye pictured it with lots of Szechuan peppercorn and chile.

27 August 2024:  When our friends Tom and Ellyn Hamilton are in town, we know we’re in for a great time and great food.  Almost invariably we meet up at a Chinese restaurant and without exception we order a lot of food.  When my Kim asked our amiable server for recommendations, he recited a litany of “American” favorites: sweet and sour chicken, sesame chicken, Mongolian beef and orange chicken.  Obviously he didn’t know to whom he was speaking.  I don’t know if he heard me jokingly mutter “He must think we’re white people,” but he changed his tone a bit when I inquired about the peppercorn beef (on the not so secret menu).  Perhaps he heard Ellyn encourage me to order the duck’s blood entree (which she seemed enthusiastic to try).

Our server confided that he prefers the peppercorn fish (bak choy, enoki mushrooms, scallions) over the peppercorn beef.  Even the existence of peppercorn fish surprised me.  Normally the delicate, subtle flavor of fish gets completely lost (or at least significantly tamped down) when prepared with assertive spices.  That was certainly the case with this dish (likely tilapia).  To its credit the white fish didn’t crumble into its molecular components and entire pieces could be had with a spoon.  This dish is not for the meek of heart.  Szechuan peppercorns will clear your nasal passages and water your eyes, not that it dissuaded any of our table’s fire-eaters from enjoying it.  If you’re into the science behind the foods, here’s something from Wikipedia that will fog up your nerdy glasses:  “Szechuan pepper has a citrus-like flavor and induces a tingling numbness in the mouth, akin to a 50-hertz vibration, due to the presence of hydroxy-alpha sanshool.”  We may not have understood that, but we certainly felt it.

27 August 2024:  As a twelve time judge at the Roadrunner Food Bank’s annual Souper Bowl, I obviously have a deep and abiding love (as well as a tremendous capacity) for soup.  In Tom Hamilton, I’ve met my equal.  Tom, a phenomenal retired chef who once owned and operated Colorado’s best steakhouse, rarely visits a Chinese restaurant without having the hot and sour soup.  He’s visited China several times so he recognizes the real stuff as well as the pretenders “dumbed down” for American tastes.

Tasty Noodles & Dumplings served us the largest bowl of hot and sour soup I’ve ever seen, a veritable swimming pool-sized bowl the four of us could share (and still not finish).  Though hot and sour soup (along with egg drop soup) is ubiquitous in Chinese restaurants, rarely does it showcase the Szechuan properties that make it “hot.”  Still there’s a delightful consistency to even restaurant-quality hot and sour soup.  First, it’s made with a surprising number of ingredients.  You can probably name mushrooms (wood-ear, shiitake and distant cousin Lilly flower) and green onion, but there’s a lot more going on in even the most basic hot and sour soup.  White vinegar and soy sauce impart the sour components of the soup.   Tom, who delights in replicating (and improving) dishes he likes in restaurants not only can name them all, he can make the best version of the soup you’ve ever had.

27 August 2024:  For years I’ve railed so vociferously against the addition of cumin to New Mexico’s sacrosanct red and green chile that readers assume I must hate cumin.  Let me clarify that my loathing for cumin applies only when it’s used to adulterate (translation: ruin) chile.  Cumin certainly has a place on Indian, Middle Eastern and even some Mexican dishes, but use it on chile and you may as well try deliberately to ruin that chile.  The earthy smokiness cumin imparts on the foods of some cultures comes across as musky (like body odor) on chile.  So there!

One of my favorite dishes (thus far) at Tasty Noodles & Dumplings is the spicy cumin steak (stir-fried beef, red and green peppers, onions, bird peppers and of course, cumin).   Cumin is It is frequently used in Szechuan food, including spicy stir-fries and noodle soups.  Perhaps the key to retaining its delicious properties is moderation.  Cumin certainly didn’t dominate the flavor profile of the spicy cumin steak which we found very balanced and delicious.  This stir-fry hodgepodge was a delight.

27 August 2024:  When “salt and pepper” prefaces a protein such as shrimp, chicken or pork on a Chinese menu, don’t assume this is your mom’s salt and pepper blend.  In China salt and pepper may be a mix of fine sea salt, garlic granules, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, fennel, garlic, star anise and cloves.   It may also include monosodium glutamate (MSG) which has a bad rap though foodies recognize that MSG enhances the umami (salty, savory, meaty) flavor of foods.  Like Cosmo Kramer in a popular Seinfeld episode, I like extra MSG on my Chinese food.

When our server delivered our Salt and Pepper Shrimp (tender and buttery shrimp with a crisp salt and pepper crust), my initial inclination was “this is just like Mrs. Paul’s breaded shrimp.”  I’ve often contended no one over the age of seven should eat breaded shrimp.  Tasty Noodles version has me rethinking that fallacious thinking.  These shrimp–lightly breaded salt and pepper crust sheathing shrimp with a snap of freshness–were absolutely delicious.  If they were readily available and easy to prepare, they’d certainly replace popcorn or chips as my favorite movie-watching snack.

27 August 2024:  Not everyone likes eggplant which admittedly can be rather bitter if not prepared correctly.  Preparation is definitely the key as my Kim and I discovered years ago when we made an eggplant dish so “metallic” we wondered if we had inadvertently chewed on tin foil (the worse form of torture other than watching The View).    Tasty Noodle’s garlic eggplant was excellent.  Slices of eggplant were prepared with garlic, soy and oyster sauce, sugar, and chili flakes.  Minced garlic is readily apparent on the photo above.  It’s a perfect vegan dish that doesn’t skimp of flavor.

Tasty Noodles & Dumplings has such a broad and diverse menu that diners of all persuasions will find something to enjoy, including those of us who prefer secret menus.  Tasty Noodles & Dumplings is located on San Pedro just south of Menaul.

Tasty Noodles & Dumplings
2325 San Pedro Drive, N.E., Suite 1E
Albuquerque, New Mexico
(505) 219-3988
Website |
LATEST VISIT: 27 August 2024
1st VISIT: 19 August 2023
# OF VISITS: 3
RATING: 23
COST: $$ – $$$
BEST BET: Curry Chicken, Pork Chop Noodles, Soup Dumplings, Green Onion Pancake, Pork & Scallion Bao, General Tso’s Chicken, Szechuan Chicken
REVIEW #1352