Foods of Pittsburgh

Yeah, so the Chinese food of PGH is kind of terrible…

Fortunately, next year I will have a kitchen in my dorm!

Anyways, I mostly ordered online from these places, since school is usually too busy for me to get some friends to walk over to a place to eat. Also, getting some friends to do something in general is a problem for me but whatever.

• Bao: Their 卤肉盖饭 is good. It seems to be common amongst other restaurants, but I think they make it the best. Their 西湖牛肉羹 is also good. The portion is obviously for at least two people but I’m fine with it myself. They also sell so called Indian pancakes. Maybe it’s a bad translation or I was just too skeptical, but I like them.
• Nan Xiang: This place is probably the best Chinese place in the area? My family stops here when they visit. Of course their highlight is soup dumplings, but I don’t really care about that. As a matter fact I don’t really like any steamed foods at all. They do everything else well, and are also the only location I could find that makes 豆浆/油条.
• Golden Palace Buffet: For some reason they specialize a lot in 叉烧. I like it!
• Tasty Noodle: I first tried this place at the end of my freshman year. I like that let you switch for rice noodle. Rice noodle is vastly superior to typical noodles. Their 肉夹馍 is good as well. I think they put a bunch of MSG in both? Don’t really care though.
• Hundred Miles Crepe: They sell 煎饼. It’s actually a bit surprising this place exists. Apparently they are a food truck? Not sure since I only order online here. They also have 肉夹馍 though they use pork belly, so theirs are fattier than those of Tasty Noodle (which seems to be pork shoulder).
• Pho Van: On Fantuan this place always has some crazy promotions and it definitely carried me through freshman year winter. Pho is so good. They give much more brisket compared to Tan Lac Vien, the other Pho place I tried ordering from.
• Kyuramen: I don’t get what the deal is with ramen. It’s a salty mess and is literally instant noodle. Why would you go to a restaurant to get such a thing? Then they toss in a few paltry slices of meat and half an egg. Did the chef eat the other half? Supposedly, the point is “the dish an art piece” and “the broth is the focus” which IMO is a load of shit. Especially the broth part. So much salt that most people don’t even drink it. I think without the globalized “Japan good” narrative nobody would touch this dish. I ordered this on impulse a few times and regretted it each time. I would really hope that it’s just Kyuramen that sucks, since having food like this be the pinnacle of your country’s noodle culture is a shame.