Chris Lindstrom is joined for this episode by Yunzhi Yan, the owner of Seasons Noodle (@seasonsnoodle.mercantile.roc). They dive into his recent move to a new location in the Sibley Building, which has significantly improved visibility and customer traffic compared to his previous spot. He shares insights on the challenges he faced in his old location and how the new open kitchen design enables customers to witness the cooking process.

Check out Seasons Noodle at the Mercantile on Main and learn more at seasonsnoodle.com

Mentioned in this episode:

Joe Bean Roasters

Joe Bean Coffee - Coffee that lifts everyone. https://shop.joebeanroasters.com

I'm Chris Lindstrom, and this is the Food About Town podcast.

Rochester.

Well, why Rochester?

Chris Lindstrom was a hoot.

He was just so much fun.

He never stopped talking.

I mean, it was great.

Here's a good idea.

Have a point.

It makes it so much more interesting for the listener, and we don't need any characters around to get the joy tatmosphere.

Is that clear?

Because I'm a pro.

That's what pros do.

I'm a professional.

Look it up in the book.

But now, yeah, I'm thinking I'm back.

And we are back with another episode of the Food About Town podcast.

I'm your host, Chris Lindstrom, and it's a beautiful, beautiful Sunday, and I'm here with a friend and somebody who makes some of my favorite food in Rochester.

Guest, why don't you introduce yourself?

Hi.

This is Yun Julian.

I'm the owner of Citizen Noodle.

Well, Yoonja, thank you so much for coming over on a Sunday.

And I'm kind of excited to talk about, like, where things have gone since the last time we talked, because last time we talked, you were over on Chestnut street, and now you have moved.

So why don't you tell everybody where the new location of Seasons Noodle is and where they can check out the information online, and then we'll dive into all the other stuff.

Yeah, definitely.

So right Now I'm at 240 East Main street, which is the Sibley building.

Yeah, so you're right there in the.

In the Mercantile and Main, in the Sibley building.

And how can people find you online?

Oh, my website Stay the same.

So is that seasonsnoodle.com?

Yes, exactly.

I think I already update the address there.

That's awesome.

Yeah, I mean, it's a.

So when we talked last time, you had been set up for a little bit and trying to figure out how to, you know, get more people over to what was a.

You know, I'll say.

You know, I think we've had the conversation, but it was one of the hardest locations.

One of the hardest locations in Rochester.

I've been to many different places of, you know, different backgrounds, and that.

That location was really hard.

It was.

The signage was difficult.

Location was hard.

Parking was hard.

It's just a difficult location, even if you're making great food, which you are.

So let's talk about from the last time you were working through that whole process of how to make that other location work.

Yes.

So the new location is very different from my old one.

It has an open Kitchen, which means people can actually see I'm working there.

There's more traffic as well.

Yeah.

Because the old location was.

It was hard for people to find you.

Yeah.

And I know you worked really hard to try to make it.

To make people know where you were, but it was very hard.

Yes.

I know you.

You tried lots of different things.

Yeah.

So, like, that had to be kind of frustrating to go through that whole process making really good food and people not knowing where you were.

Yeah.

So it makes me kind of feel that I'm doing, like, an online business because I spend, like, most of.

Not most of my time, but, like, half of my time trying to advertise myself.

I even try to tell my customer where to find me.

Even if they know me, they had a hard time to find my store.

Yeah.

They need directions.

Yeah.

And then your name was getting out more because you were making noodles for other places too.

People knew the name of your noodles, but they didn't know where your store was.

Yeah, exactly.

So I'm really happy because now when I receive a phone call from a new customer, I can just tell them, like, I mean, the CPR business, and they will be.

They'll be like, oh, yeah, I know that place.

I'll say, yeah, I'm right here.

Yeah.

In the mercantile.

So let's.

Let's kind of go back.

So you.

You were been.

You had been at the.

The building on Chestnut street for how long before you moved?

For five years.

Five years.

So, I mean, one A pretty good.

It's a pretty good run at that location.

It's a lot of work, a lot of struggle.

What was.

When you were.

I know you were looking at different places, looking at different opportunities.

What was, you know, when you were looking at different places, what was it about this place that seemed like a good fit for what you were doing?

I would say the first thing is that I didn't want to be too far away from my original place because so my customers, they'll only be.

Feel.

Too.

Too hard to adapt to my new location.

So especially downtown customers, like, they want to stay.

They want to stay downtown.

Yeah, exactly.

So right now I'm only like a 2 minutes walk from my old place.

So that makes this new place very ideal for me.

Yeah.

And also, like, now you're in a whole group with other people that there's, you know, that side thing where people will see you.

Yes.

And I think that was one of the hardest things about the old location is that nobody saw you on accident.

Yeah.

They only came to you on purpose.

Yeah, that's right.

So.

I know you were looking at other locations.

Was there other places that kind of were appealing that just didn't seem to work out.

At the time when I was looking for a new place, I would say no, I, I, yeah, I don't know why, but I didn't find many available places.

Yeah.

So this is, you know, this is a big move.

Right.

Because this was your first thing here in Rochester.

You know, and you can go listen to the story on our prior episode about Yuju coming to Rochester and everything.

So getting the opportunity to be there and that, you know, that area, that mercantile on Maine, is changing too.

Like, a lot of the vendors have changed out in the last two years as I think, you know, downtown is settling down.

It's becoming more consistent.

Was that something that was interesting to be around other restaurants and restaurateurs that are doing good work?

Yes, actually, it's interesting because I used, I used to feel to, to work alone, like, as a restaurant owner.

Like, I mind my own business and that's it.

Like, and now, I mean, I'm a one of a group of restaurants.

I will work together, we'll talk together, we'll, like, try to do events together.

And I can feel that especially everybody.

Have the dream to make downtown become better, like more attract more traffic to downtown.

And that really feels good because that makes me feel that I'm not only mind about my own business, but also.

To participate in the community.

Yeah.

And it.

And I think the people that are around you there, there's some just really, some really good restaurateurs, too, especially with Janine and Tim, who are, you know, owners of Aveeno.

And I think the episode I recorded with Tim will be out before this.

You know, with.

They own Aveeno in Brighton, going into Pittsford.

They own the La Bola, the Frenchman street, and the event space in that same building.

I'm being around them is a great resource to learn how they've been successful for a longer time and built out more things.

Yes, exactly.

Yeah.

I learned a lot, a lot from the people around me.

Like, we had our vendors meeting, like, regularly.

I already got a chance to talk about the ideas about what we're going to do, what's going to help everybody.

And I learned a lot from that.

Yeah, I think that's one of those things that it's hard to describe to somebody if they haven't been involved in a business before and haven't done things like this.

I've never been in the restaurant business, but I grew up in a small family business and it's hard, right?

It's hard all the time.

And having other people around that have done it successfully and built out multiple places and different concepts and understanding what it takes is.

And having somebody that knows the same struggles, that understands it, and having that resource, especially since you've been very solo, has to be kind of a, like a little bit of a weight off your shoulders to have somebody to talk to.

Yeah, of course.

Yes, I agree.

And you know, Tim and Janine are a wealth of knowledge.

And having that event space around the corner is really cool too.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

This is.

So you've been there in that area for how long now?

Oh, in my location.

Yeah, since June.

Yeah, since June.

So three, four months.

Okay.

How's it going so far?

How's it, how's it getting people to get to know where you are now?

Yeah, it's good.

And now I go to hire helper to help me in the kitchen.

So, yeah, a lot of new stuff I got to learn.

Well, that's a big thing, Right, because you've been doing this very solo with help from your wife over here.

But I know that kind of work, doing something solo is very difficult.

And then now you have to learn how to, how to hire somebody, how to get the right person and how to.

How to manage.

Yes.

Which is a very different skill than making food.

Yeah, of course, of course.

And also, especially during the lunchtime, the mercantile, I mean, is very.

Is a fast paced environment.

Yeah.

There'll be people who work in downtown.

They want to grab something quickly and eat and go back to work.

So it's different from.

It's totally different from what I used to do in my old location that people are willing to wait for me.

I usually come during, during dinner.

And now I have to make food delicious, tasty and fast.

Well, that's.

It is an interesting challenge.

Right.

Because like, and it's not to say you're not doing a lot of the same things, but you have to learn new skills.

Yes.

So how have you thought about doing, you know, separating what you do for lunch versus what you're doing a little bit later in the day?

How have you worked through that?

What are the kind of things you're doing now?

I think the first thing I did is to hire somebody who helped me.

Yeah, that's really important.

And so because of that, I can start to separate my original work into two people's work, which is going to greatly reduce the preparation time.

Yeah.

So now you can Somebody can be just running the walk or doing those things while somebody else is working with the customers or doing prep work or other things.

Yes, yes, exactly.

So how does the lunch menu.

Is the lunch menu very similar?

Is it like completely different offerings?

What kind of stuff are you doing now?

Oh, we have the old, the old menu is still there and because now I have helper, I have.

A battery equipped kitchen.

Yeah.

And that now I can start to work on that.

Well, and I know that's, you know, was a big part of like your family's restaurant, which we'll talk about in a little bit.

But you know, having eaten there, you know, those, those style, you know, Northern Chinese style dumplings are very, very comforting.

Very, very hearty.

Just good food, you know, especially in the middle of the day, just like easy, you can eat and just like.

Oh, it's a very satisfying, it's a very satisfying meal.

Yeah.

So, yeah, let's talk about the kitchen for a second because I know at your old location you were kind of constrained, you didn't have a lot of space.

Yes.

How, how is the equipment set up?

Did you get a chance to set up the kitchen in the way you wanted to, you know, make it efficient or did you have to kind of fit within what was already there from, from the sea team and broth that was in the same location.

Yeah.

So luckily for me, because broth, they, they, they make pho.

Yeah.

Which is a kind of rice noodle soup.

Yeah.

Vietnamese soup and a great, you know, one of the world's great soups.

Oh, yes.

So I actually, I can use most of the equipment they left.

Oh, that's great.

Yes.

Yeah.

Because it's like if you had to take all of it out and reorganize, that would be a very different effort than you're mostly using what's there.

Yes.

Yeah.

So to my surprise, I didn't spend that much time to reorganize the kitchen.

It actually fit pretty good for me.

Yeah.

Have you started doing soups and stuff too, or is it.

I did a lot of experiment.

Yeah, I did a lot of experiments because I know that.

This restaurant before me used to be this, I mean, say the sei team, they used to make very good soup, and they're very popular among downtown customers.

So I want to make something that have the same level of quality.

So when you're testing.

When you're testing, have you made soup or do you have that on the menu right now?

We'll be on the menu.

Not all yet.

I'm waiting for.

So what.

What are the.

What are the things you're experimenting with right now?

What.

What kind of.

What kind of soups are you trying to test out?

Or stews?

Oh, yeah.

Well, we'll do a beef soup for sure.

Yeah, they're popular.

A chicken.

Okay.

So is this more like a, you know, like.

I know, and I'm trying to remember regions, and that's where I'm going to fall off.

But is this like.

Like beef.

Beef leg soup?

Like.

Like.

Like shin soup kind of.

You can look up for the Taiwan beef noodle soup.

Yeah, it's a very popular.

Yeah, no, it's.

It's a great.

It's a great soup.

It's very, very clean and satisfying without being too heavy.

Yes.

It's not like a thick beef stew.

It's a.

It's rich because it uses working muscles.

Yes.

Like leg muscles or other things like that that are very well worked and have a lot of flavor, but, you know, if you had them whole, they're very tough.

Oh, yes, yes.

So that is.

It is a.

It is an amazing soup.

If anybody hasn't had those, like, beef noodle soups, they're really amazing.

I think that'll be a great offering, too, once you.

Once you figure out the little details.

Yes, yes.

And also we're going to provide the vegetarian soup as well.

Nice.

Use multiple veggies and make a soup.

Yeah.

I think that's a great offering, too, for a downtown location that needs something quick once you have it done.

Scoop.

Yep.

See you later.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

So, yeah, it's important to find the balance between cook, cook good food and be fast.

Yeah.

Because the customer, they need both.

Yeah.

Because that's.

It is a different.

It's a different challenge, like you said, and has more of, you know, it's only been a few months, but have you found that it's more lunch now than it is later?

Yeah.

So are you still open at dinner time?

I don't know what the hours are in the mercantile.

How does that work?

It's changing.

Yeah, it's changing because, like, most of the restaurants, they're used to open only for lunch.

But we're changing.

We want to.

Everybody want to start doing Business during dinner time.

Yeah.

So it's changing.

Yeah.

Because I know La Bola is open, but I don't think anybody else was really open past like 4 o', clock, 5 o'.

Clock.

Oh, yeah.

Right.

Now, the routine, which is a salad bar and the Raison, which is a pizza shop, they start to open for dinner on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Well, I think that's a good start.

Right.

Starting to get people to know that, hey, you can come in for lunch, you can come in for dinner.

And then hopefully, you know, as the word gets out that more people are willing and interested to come work at that time.

Yes.

Now, you know, the hours, you know, it is.

Since it is kind of a lunch forward place, does that change the amount of changes, the hours you're open as well?

Yes, but I mean, honestly, I want, eventually I want to go back to my old hours because I do have many customers that they want to come from for dinner.

They want to take something to go and share with their family.

So, yeah, yeah, I really want to go back.

I'm working very hard on this.

You said working hard on it, but I mean, it kind of has to be a little bit nice sometimes.

Like, oh, I can be home at a, at a reasonable hour and spend time with my wife.

Yeah, yeah.

Every.

Every so often I feel that too, is like, oh, I did three hours of interviews tonight or I was working late or I had to go to an event.

Like, oh, it's nice to come back and actually spend time, spend time with my wife and be, you know, be a person and not just a, not just a personality or a business person.

Yeah, yeah, that's so true.

So, you know, working through the supes, I mean, I think that's a great idea, you know, balancing the hours.

The.

I think the whole building is really interesting too, because downtown is changing, like you said.

Yes.

And you've seen, you've seen a lot of change.

Yes.

Since you opened downtown because you opened seasons in what, 20, 21.

20.

20.

20 20.

So what you've seen downtown go, you know, down to very little.

Yes.

And then seeing it start to build up.

What, what have you, what have you seen, you know, while you've been observing downtown?

One thing I can say, that there's more apartments, like, and definitely more restaurants are opening.

And I can feel that there are people that care about downtown and they want to bring people back to downtown, make the, make it more attractive.

Yeah.

Because I sometimes I search.

I mean, I surf on Internet, like, looking for, like, old photos, old videos.

It's totally different.

Yeah.

And there's still people that.

They remember their childhood in downtown Rochester.

Like, I used to have my first employee.

She already left, but she told me that she used to visit the CBD every week with her mother because it was a department store.

Yeah.

Is that correct?

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

It was a big one, too.

Very, very big.

Yeah.

So there's a lot of good memory about downtown.

So I think that is what people are trying to work on to make it more attractive, to make it beautiful, to make it a place of other people all around the region want to go and visit and enjoy themselves.

Yeah.

And you're seeing the little changes too, Right.

You know, the development of the building on the corner of Clinton and Main.

You know, that building that has been, you know, empty for so long.

Yes.

And you seeing that get developed, it gives you that.

That angle of positivity to feel like, hey, maybe things are changing.

Yes.

That maybe this is a good time to be investing and being downtown.

Yes.

Yeah.

So that's exactly the feeling I have when I become part of the mercantile.

I mean, like, other business owners around me, they're.

They want to make this place better.

They're not saying that, well, there's better place.

I'm just leaving.

There's a.

We're like, they're like, we're going to make this place better.

Yeah.

And, and I think the big events, you know, they bring in a lot of people at a time.

Yes.

And the hope is that people will remember that there's fun things to do and great food to go get.

You know, we, you know, Lunchador, the podcast network, we just did a whole bunch of preview work with the, with the Fringe Festival that just ended yesterday.

Yeah.

But like, seeing all those people coming in for the events had to be like, just, just a very, very good feeling to see everybody coming in to downtown.

Yeah.

Yes, definitely.

Because that those big events, you know, and right across the street from you, where they're doing, they had the big cranes and the, the acrobatics and, you know, the whole fringe event, you know, not that far away, like a five minute walk from the Sibley building.

Yes.

You know, seeing that these events can happen, you know, I know I struggle to be positive sometimes, and working with fringe has been such a good thing for me to, you know, hear the artistic journeys and those things.

But just that everybody's trying to do something great for Rochester, do something great to make us all feel better about being here.

Yes.

I Think we all.

We all kind of need that sometimes.

And I'm not, like, I'm not absent to the.

To the, you know, negative things.

So this isn't like me trying to be, like, mindlessly positive.

Yeah, but of course.

But seeing something like that has to be like, oh, this was a good decision to.

To be downtown now.

Yes.

Yes, I agree.

So I think we're going to do.

We're going to take a little bit break and we're going to come back, we're going to talk a little bit about.

About your family spot.

And then what's coming up next for unse Season Snoodle.

And we'll be right back.

All right, we're back with the second half of our conversation with Yunzer Yan from Seasons Noodle.

What's the website again, Yuna?

Oh.

Yeah, just a little bit closer.

Perfect.

Yeah.

And so make sure you go there.

You know, follow the hours on Instagram.

Was it Seasons Noodle Roc?

Yes, on Instagram.

Follow there.

So when the hours change and you get a little more dinner availability, you can go get your noodles at night again.

You know, easy parking for the Sibley building as well.

So nice street parking out front.

But if that's all full, the garage is easy to use as well.

It's really not hard.

So use the garage.

You can walk over and go in that way.

You know, lots of availability to get in.

Don't be scared about parking downtown.

It's real easy, you know, easy parking on the vertical street next to it as well.

So definitely go check out, you know, check out Seasons.

Check out the other restaurants in the mercantile.

What has changed?

So different offerings.

It's worth going down and doing the whole thing.

I kind of want to talk about the.

Talk about the kitchen in there as well, because there's also the development kitchen right next to you.

Oh, yeah.

Because that has to be really nice to see all that.

All those people developing their own small businesses in there, too.

Yes.

It's very interesting.

It's fun because, like, they.

They change it.

Change like every week that I got a. I had the chance to talk to different people, different business owner say they doing their, like, lunch special there.

Yeah, that's.

It is definitely an attraction of the building.

Yeah.

And there's, you know, also all that extra space in there, too.

Oh, yeah.

Kind of lets you, you know, if you ever had to, like, you want to do a bigger event, you could.

There is more space where you could use that to do bigger event preparation, too.

Yeah.

Because that's like some.

You Know those opportunities.

I think that's the other thing about being where you are now is it opens up these opportunities to build up the base of the business by doing events and other things that you didn't really have the space to do before.

Yes, yes.

Because talking with, you know, I've talked to a lot of food trucks and a lot of, you know, restaurants, and they say that a big part of being able to be consistent is building that part of the business is building the events and, you know, the catering and the business lunches and all those things to be able to build up that base.

So when.

Oh, it might be not busy this month, but you have those things to keep you going.

Oh, yeah, of course.

And also it's a good chance for a large group of people to know about you.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, yeah, I'm just really excited to see you having the opportunity to be more visible as somebody that, like, I know if I'm telling people about my favorite places in town, because people ask me all the time, what are my favorite restaurants in Rochester?

I always say these are my favorite foods.

Because a restaurant is a different thing.

Right.

Like, it has a whole experience of everything.

Like when I just think about what is the best foods in Rochester.

Like, your.

Your name always comes up because I.

It's.

It's a special thing what you're doing because you're carrying on.

You're carrying on, you know, the, you know, the legacy of the family doing those things.

But also, you know, the foods that.

Foods that you love, the foods that you grew up with.

Yes.

And I kind of wanted to touch on, you know, we'll.

We'll dive back into, you know, seasons in a little bit.

But I did want to talk about.

Because your.

Your parents had a restaurant that was running in Fairport Parenton.

Yes.

For a while and unfortunately that closed because I really liked that place too.

They had to be kind of a tough thing for everybody.

Yes, it was.

But for.

But for my parents, like, they're.

They're feeling that the restaurant work is like, too much.

That's too much for them.

I.

Some relax.

So was it more.

More of that?

That it was just.

They couldn't keep up with it anymore?

I would say both.

Yeah, Yeah.

I was about.

I mean, they can keep it up.

They keep it up.

They can like, work harder, like do more special events to keep.

Keep it running.

But yeah, my mother told me that, like, it's.

She.

She's too tired.

Yeah, it's.

And it was a big space and, you know, getting People to know about something that is very specific.

Yes.

Right.

This isn't.

This isn't what a lot of people know of.

You know, there's.

There's familiar things, but this is.

It was a very specific place.

Yeah.

That was very specifically from, you know, from, you know, from the Beijing style, you know, doing those kind of, you know, dumplings and noodles and all those things.

It's.

It does make me sad to see something like that go.

Because I love the specific.

Yeah.

I find it much more interesting to, you know, to taste those things and taste a vision.

Yes.

Not just the same thing that everybody else is doing.

I. I know that's something you've worked a lot on, too, is making sure you're giving them something that has a.

This is a clear expression of something.

Yes.

Not just.

You can't get this anywhere else.

Yeah, of course.

At least here you can get it other places.

Oh, yeah.

Just not here.

So I did want to talk about.

For a second.

I don't know.

I didn't cover it a lot on the show, but I went to.

In December, I went to Flushing in New York, and I loved.

I loved going there because it was.

It was kind of a special thing where we.

We stayed in a hotel right there, and we could walk down to just amazing things everywhere.

And you see different, you know, different regions, different, you know, different styles of noodles, different style of dumplings.

Or, you know, I had these beautiful, like, silky wontons and chili oil.

They're like, oh, the texture was amazing.

But it was.

I think when I was there, I just felt.

I wanted everything.

I wanted to, you know, just learn so much and be around all these, you know, the communities that are so vibrant to have that.

And that's why, like, when I tell people about places, I always push this because this is.

You're expressing something specific.

And I hope, you know, with.

With success that more people want to do that.

Yeah.

And maybe, you know, other people want to say, hey, we're gonna do, you know, you know, Fuyanese, you know, food more specifically, or do like, you know, a Hunan place, or do something that is very regional and maybe offer those specific things because that's.

It's part of culture.

It's part of understanding a big world of food or a big country of food.

Yes, yes, I agree.

Because it's, you know, it can't be more of the same.

More of the same is boring.

So it's like.

It rather.

Would you rather like to say five restaurants doing five total different authentic food instead of five Restaurants doing the exact menu, Right?

Yeah, it's boring.

I mean, boring.

And here's the thing.

Like, I know there's an important culture of, you know, American Chinese restaurants, Right?

Yeah.

Of course.

It allows many people to get there, to get in and become part of a community and be an important part of a community.

But I think we have so many of those.

And now we can see.

Now we can see a clear expression of something that means something.

Not just being here and doing that, but expressing home.

Expressing, you know, the feelings that you do when you're making your food.

Because you care about making great food.

Yes.

And it's a lot of work to make.

It's a lot of work to make this kind of food.

Really?

Well, yes.

But as I, Like, I always talk to people about this.

Like.

The.

People will know the difference.

Yeah, people will know the difference.

Like, even.

Even if as a restaurant owner, sometimes I'll feel the difference is light, but.

Yeah, by every time, they will find out the difference.

So that really amazed me because I can feel that people do react to my work.

If I'm working hard to make my noodle better, the length, way to keep improving it, people will notice that.

Yeah.

Well, and it's the little things, right?

It's never the big things, because some of the flavors might seem familiar.

But texture.

Texture is one of those things that you can't hide.

You can't hide that.

You can hide flavor right.

To a point.

You can fake flavor.

But some of those.

The textures of a perfectly developed noodle is kind of hard to describe because it has to have this perfect chew.

It has to stretch.

It has to.

All of these things have to come together to make something that exists for a brief time.

Yeah.

And can you.

Can you describe what to you, a perfect noodle is?

Can you describe the texture of it or how do you.

How does it feel when you're making it and when you.

When you finish, What's.

What is it?

What is the end result?

Like.

Like the texture, other things.

Oh.

So for me, like, when I make the noodle.

It'S a little bit hard for me because I'm using English.

Yeah.

The flour, the dough will fight back.

When you work on the dough, that would be the gluten development in the dough, the proteins.

You get that stretch?

Yes.

When you stretch the dough and try to make the noodle, it's gonna.

Little by little, it's gonna get back a little bit.

But if you left the dough there for too long, then the dough will be, like, very much more Softer.

It's not going to fat back anymore.

Yeah, so that, that's relaxing.

So the dough relaxes, it absorbs the other water and it gets a little bit easier.

It's a little softer, which is great for some things.

Yes.

Like breads.

But you actually don't want that for what you're doing.

Yes, because what I want is the important thing is that we after cook the noodle.

You don't want the noodle to stick together, to become too soft, because eventually the noodle is gonna absorb the broth and all the flavor in the noodle.

So it's important to make sure you don't wait for too long.

And the noodle is still like, the dough is still like fighting back.

Yeah.

So stretch.

It has a stretch to it.

Yeah, exactly.

And you cook it, get it out, put into cold water immediately to not only wash the.

The excess.

The starch.

Yep.

But also the cold water will make the noodle even more chewy.

Oh, it shocks it a little bit.

Yes, yes, exactly.

Oh, that's interesting because that's like, you know, in Italian cooking, they would look at you and like, what are you doing?

Washing off your noodles.

We want all that starch because they use the starch to build the sauces.

Yeah, but that's not, that's not the Chinese way.

At least now the.

From the food I used to eat for.

Yeah, for doing.

Yeah, for doing this kind of sauteed noodles.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Because that, like where the sauce, you know, the bigger sauces are built with like noodle starch in like, you know, Roman style food.

Like this isn't.

It's not part of the, the way these are made most of the time.

Yes.

Especially why when I start to introduce noodle soup, like, you want the soup to be very clear, to stay clear.

So you don't want any.

You don't want too much starch to make the soup, to like, kind of make the soup not clear anymore.

Yeah.

Do.

Do you like that, that clear, clean soup style?

Yeah, I love it.

Because there's something special about that where, you know, I love.

Yeah.

I like rich soups with, you know, starch and other things to make them deep.

But sometimes there's a.

Not just clear of like, you can see through it, but as a clear flavor.

Yeah.

Right.

There's a clarity and a.

There's a queen.

You can taste everything.

Yes.

You can't hide.

Yep.

When the soup is like that, everything matters.

Like, every ingredient matters and they all work together to make something better than each thing.

To Each thing individually.

Yes.

Oh, yeah.

Now I'm hungry.

I mean, I, I'm a person that I love everything.

Like I eat almost everything.

I love everything.

I admire all the, the good, all the good taste and the hard work behind all the food.

But for me, like as a restaurant owner, this, I want to make sure that I understand what food am I going to provide.

It's going to be unique, is going to be.

I. I'm going to take care of my food and.

Yeah.

To make it special.

Yeah.

And that, I think that's also, you know, when I think, like you said earlier, I think people notice when somebody cares.

Yeah.

Because those little things, they might not know what it takes to make it, but those little things that the noodles bounce, that it suits the sauce.

Yeah.

That it suits the other ingredients.

All those things, you might not think about it, but, you know, it feels different.

Yes.

So when you've been, when you've been, you know, trying other foods, you know, you've had, you know, maybe a little bit of, you know, as you've been developing and going out, have you tried other things that have made you excited about food recently?

Yes, like.

A lot of things.

Yeah, a lot of things.

I like to try new food.

Like I probably said, like last time.

I like fried fish.

Yeah.

I tried multiple plates.

Yeah.

I like pasta as well.

I like pasta.

So actually after trying pasta, it makes me more want to make a different kind of noodle to eat different kind of noodles.

Because there are a lot of good pasta.

Yeah.

And great places like Fiorella that is doing, you know, amazing work with Roman style pastas.

Oh, yeah.

But they're so different.

Yeah, they're different and great.

Yeah, they're great and great.

Each one is different.

Right.

Your noodles are great and theirs are great, but they are a very different thing.

Yes.

Did you have a chance to try like the New Orleans style food that's next to you from Frenchman Street?

Oh, yes, I try them.

Try their, like multiple times.

I love it.

It's kind of interesting, right, that New Orleans food.

Because New Orleans food is very.

It's multicultural.

Yes.

It's coming from so many different places at the same time.

When we were doing Nominate, we worked with a place called French Quarter that does that kind of food.

And it's so many different cultures because it's French and Spanish and, you know, West African and indigenous and all these things coming together to make this complete thing that could never have existed without all the other things.

Yeah.

It's one of the, it's just A fun food.

Every time you taste it, you learn something else about flavor.

Oh, yeah.

Because each thing is so explosive and big.

Yes.

Actually, it's kind of like northern Chinese food.

Yeah.

Like Beijing.

Beijing food.

Because north Beijing used to be not only the capital of mainland China, but also used to be the capital of the nomadic tribe from north.

So in the past few hundred, or maybe I would say like over a thousand years, it used to be in the region that the mainland China Chinese dynasty and the northern nomadic tribe they fighting for is the region that they keep fighting for.

Well, and also like trade too.

Oh, yeah, trade as well.

I mean, like, so much.

So many different, you know, so many different, you know, cultures and things came through because of being on the, on the water as one of the main trade hubs.

Yes, like so much.

So many different things came in.

And that affects things too.

Yeah.

So if you go to Beijing and if you try the traditional food of Beijing, you will notice that they use a lot of beef and lamb, which is a diet Kuwait from Mongolia and other nomadic trap.

Yeah.

And you often see that too.

As you get more north and you get colder in many different cultures, you'll just see more.

More wheat.

No.

More beef.

More rich, deep foods.

Yes, exactly.

Which is.

It's always kind of interesting when you see that because it's like.

Oh, really?

There's so much similarity.

It just.

It always ends up going that way.

Yeah.

And then when you go south, you just see lighter foods and more fish and more.

Oh, yeah.

And it's, it's just, it's fascinating to see how similar everything is.

Yes.

And then how different it is at the same time.

Yes, exactly.

Oh, I think that's the reason I love dumpling and noodle, because you can find dumpling like food and noodle like food all around the world.

Yeah.

Every country, agriculture have their own dumpling.

Yeah.

I think every right thinking person, every person who knows what good is loves a dumpling.

I mean, like, the Polish have pierogies.

Right.

And like, what is that?

It's a dumpling.

It's the same thing.

And then, you know, all the, you know, everywhere has that and different versions of it.

And it's, it's those things when you see, like.

Oh, everybody found that, you know, putting stuff inside of a good dough and cooking it in some way.

Yes.

Is amazing.

Right.

It's a good idea.

It's a great thing.

Yes.

And that even though we're all, you know, we're all so different and there's so much anger and all These other things that everybody loves.

Everybody loves those same things.

Everybody loves a noodle.

Everybody loves a dumpling.

Because every culture has it.

Everybody has these things because.

And these are things that make you feel good.

Yeah.

I think that's something we have in common as humans, right?

Yeah.

Everybody loves a dumpling.

That's a T shirt if I've ever heard one.

Yoonger.

Everybody loves dumplings.

And then you have in different languages, Everybody loves dumplings.

So I guess what I want to end off with is are you feeling good?

Are you feeling excited?

Yes.

How.

How good is that?

How good is that?

To feel better and to feel excited about where you're going?

Really good.

As good as a dumpling.

Oh, well, I think what we're going to do, I think we're going to close out.

So user, can you again put in the plugs for where people can find Seasons noodle?

Where can they check it out online and then tell them where to find you?

Otherwise?

Oh, yeah.

So go to our website, csisnoodle.com or you can just search TheSnoodle in the browser.

And the location is located in the Sibley Building.

Yeah, Sibley Building Mercantile on Main.

You know, check all the hours out there.

You'll follow the Instagram so you can see when hours change or new dishes come up.

Because if I know anything about you, I know you're always going to keep experimenting.

You're always going to try new things.

So when they're specials, you can see it there too.

So you find different ways to go and, you know, make a trip, you know, go downtown to get some lunch if you have the opportunity.

If you are downtown, you know, check out what's going on there now.

It's different than what it was.

I just want to say thank you for, you know, thanks for coming over.

I'm really glad that you found a place that is better suited and gives you the opportunity to grow what you're doing.

Thank you.

Thank you for.

Thank you for letting me talk with you.

Such a great conversation.

Awesome.

Well, thank you everybody for listening to the Food About Town podcast.

We'll be back next time with more.

Definitely want everybody to check out the other shows on the network if you haven't listened.

Also, we have a show that is behind the Glass which runs their gallery at the American Taiwan Maine every first Friday.

So coming up on first Friday this month, you'll be able to go see some local artists in the gallery.

Definitely recommend coming and checking that out.

My friends Richard and Quadjay and Rob Bell curating that one of my favorite podcasts to do every month.

So check out the behind the Glass podcast.

Go out first Fridays and check that out and we'll see you next time on the Lunchroar Podcast Network and Food About Town.

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Oh no, here comes McKenneth.

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Noodles are real.