36 replies to this topic

[doit]

It's a small place on Foster, just east of 82nd Ave. Just drove by it today and was wondering if anyone has has either shopped or dined at the 'shop & restaurant.'

[ExtraMSG]

Been wondering the same thing since it opened. I live very close and go by it daily. Probably should do the deed myself.

[Jason Wax]

Is it in one of the little strip malls just past the Wells Fargo on the North Side of the street? If I can find it, I might give it a shot this weekend.

[ExtraMSG]

No, it's just east of there. There's a little Y that it's on the nose of, essentially a block or two east of 82nd on Foster.

[ExtraMSG]

Been meaning to report on this place for a while. It's a very small shop with most of the space used for producing noodles in the back. There are three or four tables inside (plus a room for lottery), but mainly people take-out and mainly they take-out noodles.



The steam table in front holds their noodles: rice noodle sheets, cut rice noodles, rice noodle rolls, and flavored rice noodle rolls.



Prices are cheap. Pretty much everything is about a buck a pound. As you can see from their retail menu, they also make soy milk and tofu.



I got some of the rice noodle sheets, cut rice noodles, and the flavored rice noodle rolls. All of this was under $5. Compare these prices to Pastaworks or even supermarket fresh pasta. Ridiculously cheap by comparison.



Here's a close-up of the cut noodles.



And here's a close-up of the BBQ pork noodles. Even the simple cut noodles were snackable as they were. But I couldn't stop snitching the BBQ pork noodle as I waited for my hot food.



Housemade tofu is medium-firm and definitely better than the packaged stuff. I'd have to taste it side by side against fresh from Ota, Thanh Son, or Bui to see which is best. You can also get it fried. $1/block, btw.



Menu changes regularly. They also have a traditional paper menu, but I don't know if these items have to be ordered ahead or what. The items up on the wall are all available.

I ordered the house special chow fun, which has the wide rice noodle stir-fried with BBQ pork, shrimp, egg, sprouts, onion, and a light soy-based sauce. It's enough food for two at under $9 and I thought it was fairly skillfully stir-fried. The noodles, though, really mattered and made the dish. They're just better, in texture and flavor, than what you can normally get.

As far as I know, this is the only place in Portland supplying fresh rice noodles. They sell out quick. I went a few times and never took pics because too much was sold out. I got there at 11am this day and someone after me came in and bought 5 lbs of the cut noodles and they were nearly all gone. When I got there, most of the flavored rolled noodles were gone. While I was waiting for my food, a call came in from a local Thai restaurant wanting an order. I wish they were doing some small noodles to for things like pad thai, pho, and khanom jiin.

JC Rice Noodle
8405 SE Foster Rd
Portland, OR 97266
503.788.1668

[Laksa]

We tried some fresh rice noodles today. I'm used to getting the rice noodles made in Seattle and usually available at Fubonn and Uwajimaya.

These are in a whole different league. They are made daily and they have a soft, "plushy" quality which the other ones only approximate if you let them warm up to room temperature and if they aren't too old by the time you buy them. Separating the cut noodles is easier too. We bought uncut noodles and cut them about an inch wide and we were able to separate them into individual plies. With the Seattle noodles they often fall apart when you try to separate individual plies.

I'm guessing they do a lot of restaurant business but the person there seemed happy enough to sell a couple of pounds to a walk-in hairy barbarian.

[austinhaas]

My wife and I went in for the first time today. We got three rolls of the BBQ noodle. Total: $2.

We steamed two of the rolls and my wife made a sweet soy sauce-based sauce for them. We added sesame seeds to the first one and ground peanuts to the second. Finally, we unrolled the third one and pan fried it with vegetables and fish sauce--that was the best. We couldn't finish it all, but we are fairly light eaters.

I posted some pics here: http://mlkshk.com/r/1OOC

[ExtraMSG]

Have you thought of taking over the kitchen at any number of Chinese restaurants around town.... Looks damn tasty and simple.

I think their noodles are ridiculously inexpensive. They should sell them at the farmers market and charge 5 times as much. $1 per freakin pound!

[ExtraMSG]

btw, if anyone would be interested in talking to them with me about selling at a farmers market, maybe with simple dishes like above -- and is serious and self-motivated -- PM me.

[polloelastico]

I posted some pics here: http://mlkshk.com/r/1OOC

I'd gladly pay to eat all those tasty-looking items.

[Prone to Hyperbole]

ME TOO!!! Man, so amazing. Those dishes (austinhaas) AND this amazing shop with their fresh goodness at those prices. So there! I, too, usually get the Seattle ones from the Asian markets and am always sad that they're firmed up too much to really work with. Though I like them because I like gummy bear-esque ANYTHING. But these fresh, pliable, workable noodles look so stellar. And I'm a fool for the BBQ pork ones, or simply cilantro. Mmmmmm. Thanks, all, for this post! I'm gonna check it out on my next day off.

[nervousxtian]

Wow, I would have hit this place earlier if I'd known what it was.

[jasie]

Anyone know their Hours of operation and the best time to go etc? It all looks so good!

[friedalighthouse]

I don't know the hours, but when I went after work on a weekday (and I left work early, got there about 4:30 p.m.), there were no cut noodles left, only sheets. But I got three pounds and they cut them the way I wanted. 95 cents a pound. The noodles were delicious. We went back last Saturday about 11 a.m., and they were almost out of noodles again. Very popular place!

[ExtraMSG]

Yeah, not sure the hours either, but getting there early is necessary.

[Egads]

Those noodles look *amazing*. I'm going to hit them up as early as I can tomorrow, hopefully before 10am. $1 per pound is crazy cheap; I might feel guilty buying them.

[nate]

If you find that they're out, you could try up at An Dong on Powell (around 54th-ish). Last time I was in there they had a small selection of JC noodles (flavored, cut, and uncut).

[Laksa]

Got some more noodles. I looked at the menu too and saw they had deep-fried tofu for $3. You get a LOT of tofu and it was (beautifully) fried up while I waited. One less hassle.

[jasie]

Went in this AM for the first time. They didn't have the stuff set out in front yet but they had the "full menu" available even at 8am!

Got deep fried tofu, soymilk, rice noodle sheets, rolls, and the house stir fried noodles! Man... the texture is really good! Beats the refridgerated stuff any time. The stir fried house noodles were really nice and smokey too. HUGE portion. The soymilk is very lightly sweetened, and really good as well. Asked about their hours and its 8am til about 8 pm, 7 days a week. Not sure if they're open holidays? Sometimes they open earlier by 7.30am for people to drop in before work as well. They accept credit/debit but there's a 50 cent surcharge.

Really wish I'd known about this place a lot sooner!

[WAfoodie]

Once again thanks to Extramsg for doing the deed by snapping the pictures for the benefit of all.