Biang Biang (You Shot Me Down)

Wells takes his palate to Flushing this week and files on Biang!, an extension of David Shi and Jason Wang's Xi'an Famous Food stalls.  "Biang! is essentially a cleaner, brighter, more modern sit-down version of Mr. Shi’s food stall inside the Golden Shopping Mall."  The restaurant opened in May this year and serves food similar in both flavor and price to its Xi'an brethren.  The word biang comes from a local dialect spoken in Xi'an, China and refers to the sound noodles make when they're whacked on a table as they're being formed.

"Before they arrive in the dining room, the biang biang noodles, a specialty of the house and its namesake, are punished in ways that might have unnerved the Spanish Inquisition. They are repeatedly swung up and down through the air, slapped on a table, ripped right down the center and then dropped in boiling water."

Biang! is the first restaurant in the Xi'an family with table service.  It's a work in progress.  "The servers’ notions of what it means to clear a table may not coincide with your own."  Wells has hesitations about the decor as well, but nothing on the menu is more than $10 and his handful of recommended dishes suggest the trip to Flushing is worth it.