Snacks, Shacks and Noodle Dives: Hua Yuan Xiaochi

Greetings, eaters. This new column is a foodie celebration of the overlooked and the unnoticed. A shout-out to the zao dian pu you walk past on your way to office / school / The Den that does great jianbing. Or the xiao fangguan’r down the alley where the paint’s peeling off the walls, but turns out a really special bowl of something. Think the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Beijing style, innit.

First up: Hua Yuan Xiao Chi Dian (花园小吃店), 17, Hua Yuan Hutong (just northeast of Andingmen Nei, off Beiluogu Xiang)

To say it could do with a bit of a scrub is like saying the tigers in Beijing zoo could use a bit of love. It’s filthy.

And shouty, too. The Anhui staff boss customers about as they fight for tree-shaded tables outside on the street. Free-standing woks spit little missiles of fried garlic and chilli everywhere. On the tables sit bottles of dark, syrupy vinegar in old Yanjing bottles.

Mostly the place is packed out with dusty workers sporting mismatched suit jackets and trainers, couples, cabbies, and one well-dressed lady who I've spotted more than once, who tells me she works round the corner on Andingmen. A crazy old guy with a few days of beard stubble wanders about scratching his belly and saying things like, “A-ha, zhejiang mian again, huh?”

They'll fry you up kungpao chicken if you so desire, but this place is serious about its dao xiao mian (RMB 5 a big bowl) - long, chewy noodles from Shanxi Province, shaved off a big block of dough straight into a bubbling pot. Two surprisingly young-looking guys slave over the stove. The noodles are topped off with fatty pork, a ladle of meaty broth and a fistful of chopped coriander and julienned cucumber.

Tempers flare when one customer reckons he was due his dao xiao mian before another. The young chef tries to placate him and starts shaving hunks of noodle faster than ever. The da ma boss simply joins in the shouting and makes everything worse. Great fun. But everyone’s happy when the noodles finally arrive.

Photos: Tom O'Malley