Flushing’s Noodlebot and his caretakers are local celebrities.
There are more than a half dozen places in downtown Flushing’s teeming Chinatown to observe the magic of noodle-making. I love to marvel at X’ian Famous Foods hand-ripped biang biang mian, the pulling and stretching of Lanzhou Noodles into thin strands, and the long broad noodles of Su Xiang Yuan. I’ve never seen anything quite like Ultraman Spaceman Knife-Cut Noodles 奥特慢太空人刀削面 though.
This newish stall in the Flushing Mall Food Court takes its name from the 1960s Japanese sci-fi series Ultraman. According to Wikipedia, the pointy headed silver spaceman has more than 20 super powers, including Spacium Ray, Ultra Psychokinesis, and Ultra Slash. Making knife-shaved noodles is not on the list of super powers, but it’s clearly an adaption of Ultra Slash. Let’s watch our hero in action (courtesy of my pal, Colin Goh) shall we?
Tastiest robot-made Japanese pop-culture lamb noodle soup ever!
A bowl of Ultraman lamb noodle soup runs $6. It is not the best bowl of lamb noodle soup I’ve ever had, but with its long strands of spaceman noodles, bits of tofu skin, and tangles of thinly shaved lamb it’s pleasant enough. It is absolutely the best robot-made Japanese pop-culture Chinese lamb noodle soup to be had in all of New York City. If you’re lucky the gents who run the stall will sing the Ultraman theme song.
Flushing Mall Food Court, 133-31 39th Ave., Flushing