Soul satisfying Fuzhou peanut noodles.

There are many tasty things at Arcadia Mall on the southern end of Main Street in downtown Flushing. A good majority of them—hearty lamb soup dumplings, delicate seabass dumplings, and crunchy fried spare ribs—can be found at Helen You’s Dumpling Galaxy. If only Cin Cheese Back Ribs were so so tasty. Sadly the bizarre Chinese Korean rib fondue mashup is not so great. Suffice to say the people who I eat with never leave food on the table. A redemption meal was needed and quick. So Daphne suggested we head over to the Fujianese joint next door for some peanut noodles.

Be sure to give your ban mian a good mix.

The name of the place escapes me, something like “100 Tastes” or “100 Flavors” and indeed the menu has more than 100 items. Under the menu’s “Fuzhou Favor” section we found noodle with soy sauce and peanut butter. Ban mian, literally “mix noodle” is a Fujianese classic that I haven’t had since I took Fuschia Dunlop to the Golden Mall a decade ago. And, it’s a classic I need to have more often than every 10 years.

Fork over $2.25 and you’ll soon be presented with a styrofoam plate of blonde wheat noodles in a lake of peanut sauce. Top it off with some chili paste and give the whole lot a good mix. Salty, nutty, and satisfying, it’s so good we backed it up with a second order. This one we added a bit of black vinegar to, which did a lovely job of cutting through the peanut butter. Would you believe there wasn’t a single strand of noodles left on the plate?

“100 Flavors,” Arcadia Mall, 45-32 Main St., Flushing