Bee Appetit: Head to Freeport Boulevard for these slippery, slurpy noodles
Embarking on my crawl of Freeport Boulevard, I started last month with a visit to Taste of Original. For my next stop, I popped into yet another nondescript strip mall to hit up another regional Chinese restaurant, Old Gui Lin.
Whereas Taste of Original serves up traditional Cantonese dishes, Old Gui Lin serves the food of its namesake, Guilin, in the Guangxi region of China. The city is famous for its dramatic limestone peaks, and for its noodles. The noodles in this case are rice noodles, and fairly thick ones at that — not vermicelli.
The diminutive restaurant is about as no-nonsense inside as out. The walls are adorned with images of Guilin, accompanied by text explaining the history and technique of the dish, as well as the owners’ love for it. Or so I learned thanks to Google Translate, as I don’t speak or read Cantonese.
A screen above the counter shows the menu (you get a preview on the outside windows so you can pregame your decisions), a series of bowls with a combination of base of rice noodles, wheat noodles or rice, topped with a selection of one or more meats, served dry or soupy. You order, pay, get a buzzer and retrieve the order when it’s ready. There’s no tipping.
When in doubt on an inaugural run I always go with the signature dish, simply named Guilin rice noodles ($14.95), simply coded A1. Moments after ordering, I picked up my bowl of white noodles topped with braised brisket, braised pork and pieces of fried pork rind; a small bowl of broth came alongside.
On its own, the bowl would be bland and texturally one-note, but the best part is the choose-your-own-adventure station of toppings, a colorful array of peanuts, fried soybeans, chili sauce and oil, cilantro, green onions and pickled mustard greens and bamboo shoots. My recommendation is not to hold back.
Tossed together, the dish comes to life, a playful combination of crunch, spice and fermented funk, all on the canvas of those slippery noodles. They’re a joy to slurp.
I look forward to returning and trying some of the non-noodle offerings. We did order a side of seasonal vegetables with oyster sauce ($9.95), in this case Chinese broccoli, but the pumpkin pancake ($7.95) and beef rolled pancake ($9.95) are tempting.
Old Gui Lin
Address: 5131 Freeport Blvd., Hollywood Park
Hours: 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. - 8 p.m. every day
Phone: 916-455-1687
Website: oldguilinca.com
Vegetarian options: Some in the appetizers, but otherwise minimal
Noise level: Moderate
