At long last...

I hesitated then pointed down the sidewalk and said, "There's supposed to be a good noodle shop down there..."
My voice trailed off.
............
We entered the narrow entrance to a noodle shop and looked at the cooks.
The cooks looked back at us.
A man got up from his seat and said- "You come in. Sit." And then walked out.
We eyed the orange cafeteria tables and chose one right in the entrance of the shop.
One of the cooks approached us with a menu in Chinese characters, pointed and seemed to ask if we could read it. Laughing he put it down again and pointed to the man sitting behind us busily eating noodles and brown meat.
"Er mein?" He said, asking if we wanted two orders of what the man behind us had.
We laughed, "Dui, dui- xia xia!" We agreed it looked good, so what was the harm in trying?
We waited a few minutes and the man brought out a couple bowls of soup- a broth with some herbs- green onions and cilantro. I think it was a beef stock. Simply wonderful, though a bit warm to be able to enjoy as quickly as I wanted to. Then he brought us two platters piled high with wide noodles and shaved meat, something pickled, and lots of little green herbs with a sauce all over it.
I mixed it all together.
I took a bite.
Everything went silent.
The once busy street turned into a field with a gentle breeze. The shop turned into a small hut in a remote village. Everyone seemed to disappear in that one bite. Heaven.

The moment ceased as I swallowed the mouthful of noodles and identified the meat as a tender beef, the herbs as more green onions and cilantro, and the noodles, oh those sweet sweet noodles- as the most amazing noodles I've eaten in almost 3 years.

At long last, I've found my "noodle joint", conveniently located a short walk from the school I tutor at twice a week. Guess I will betray my twice weekly "Chinese burrito" stand and will from now on, frequent my new favorite place in the world!

(PS: For those wondering what a "Chinese Burrito" is....
A thin layer of dough fried on a round hot thing, egg cracked and smoothed over the dough, pickled something sprinkled over the egg, green onion sprinkled on, lettuce shreds, and then folded, peanut sauce applied, a little red pepper sauce applied, and then crunchy thing put on before finishing the wrapping job and cut and placed into a little bag to carry it away and eat it. It rather quite good!)