Two Kinds Of Hand-Made Noodles In Catonsville; Or "Pair Your Clam Soup With Clam Pancakes"

Hang Ari's clam soup

I have raved before, and I will rave again:  Something terrific is going on at Hanoori Town in Catonsville.

The three restaurants have been revamped in the Hanoori Town section of the H Mart's shopping center.  Hang Ari's hand-cut noodles are the shiny new star.  Imported from Los Angeles.  Unique in the area as far as I know.

But they're not the only hand-made noodles in town.  Chan Mat -- the restaurant in the back -- appears to have chef Chang Yon Huh banging out the noodles for black bean noodles as well.  Those are jajangmyeun, a cornerstone of Korea's Chinese restaurants.  The chef works in an open space where you can see and hear him throughout the dining room.

Hang Ari's clam pancakes

Seriously, these are exceptional, reasonably priced, casual meals.  I treated my parents to lunch of Hang Ari's clam soup and a clam pancake.  One order of each served three of us.  The clam broth alone is worth driving to Catonsville. The bowl can filled with tender clams and again had perfectly-cooked squash and potato.  The noodles are slightly chewy and contrast beautifully with the briny flavor of the clams.

The clam pancake was just as perfect.  Imagine chopped claim with just enough batter to brown and crisp.  The minimal-filler construction of a great crab cake.  That means they don't stay together like a finger-food latke, but they're delicious cut with a fork and dipped in a sauce.

New parenthood definitely makes blogging tough.  We are still learning to be efficient enough to have any free moments.  So I'm writing short posts this weeks on the theme of two items that you could buy at a single stop.  At Hanoori town, you could pair clam soup with clam pancakes or order one dish from each restaurant and pair Chan Mat black bean noodles with Hang Ari's noodle soup.

These are videos below of both the hand cut and "Chinese" noodles being made.

Hang Ari's Noodle Soup And The New Hanoori Town Restaurants Are Worth Your Attention

Hang Ari's noodle soup and dumplings with a side dish of cabbage and radish kimchis

I don't know exactly what is happening at Hanoori Town, so I'm looking to stir up interest to help us all figure it out.

New and revamped restaurants are opening in the Catonsville space.  One is a unique hand-cut noodle restaurant opened by folks who own a similar spot in Los Angeles.  Just next door is a restaurant doing sushi, Korean kimbap and Korea's Chinese food -- including the addition of hand-made noodles at the base of our favorite, black bean noodles.

Bottom line:  This is a spectacular find if you like good food.  You can eat for $10-15 a person.  Casual.  Accessible.  Completely kid-friendly, and you can hope for the entertainment of seeing a guy bang out the Chinese noodles.  This is one of those places like R&R Taqueria -- worth your visiting and hopefully worth a run up the media chain.

Let's back up.  I'll tell you what I know, and I hope people will try these places and fill in the details.

Hanoori Town is a space in the same shopping center as H Mart at Rolling Road and Rte 40.  Downstairs, it is a kitchen goods store along with people selling housewares and clothing.  The kitchen store is worth checking out -- especially for bento boxes to pack your lunch.  Upstairs are three restaurants and a tea and doughnut joint.  They're all Korean.

The restaurants have revamped in recent months.  One closed.  It was replaced by Hang Ari, the hand-cut noodle restaurant coming from LA.  One revamped their restaurant and may have recruited a chef from Jang Won in Catonsville.  My first inkling came from Lisbeth of Lisbeth Eats.  She sent me information about Hang Ari and wrote a nice run-down about the Hanoori Town restaurants.

When we visited last month, the whole place seemed changed in an exciting way:

• Bu Du Mak is closest to the window.  They specialize in a cold noodle soup called naeng myun, Korean blood sausage called soon dae, and traditional Korean soups and stews, according to Lisbeth.  We recommend naeng myun, but we haven't tried this yet.
• Chan Mat is facing you as you walk in.  In the past, I think they had been limited to Korean dishes, but they now do Korean foods along with sushi, Korean rolls called kimbap and Korean-Chinese dishes -- including those black bean noodles.
• Hang Ari sit between them.  This is the LA import, specializing in hand-torn noodles that they make in the kitchen.  Most are served in soups variations.

The scene is completely casual.  You order at one of the three counters, pick a table to eat, then go back for your order.  Most of the dishes are under $15, so it's a terrific place to try Korean food -- especially if you might want to explore a few menus at once.

Hang Ari's dumplings

The food is absolutely worth that exploration.  Hang Ari alone is worth a trip from Howard County or Baltimore.  For lunch, we split pork dumplings and a basic soup with hand-torn noodles.  It's one of the best meals that I have eaten recently.  A rich broth filled with thick sheets of noodle, potato, zucchini, green onions, kabucha squash and seaweed.  Each vegetable is cooked perfectly.  The noodles and potatoes are filling.  The thin pieces of squash are slightly sweet.  The onion gives a little bite.

I'm unabashedly hoping that bloggers or critics will  check out Hang Ari because the other soups -- seafood, clam, spicy and other variations -- look like you could fill a table with delicious flavors.  These kal guk su noodles are an absolute find.  Fork tender, but thicker than most noodles.  Like getting great pasta at Cinghale, except you can feast for under $15.  They're unique as far as I know in this area.

And I think Hanoori Town has more.  Chan Mat sports a special cooking station that looks like a place to make noodles for black bean noodles or jajangmyeun.  I've talked these up before at Tian Chinese Cuisine in Ellicott City, which also makes its own noodles.  They're delicious.  They're earthy.  They're not spicy so they're accessible to anyone who likes pasta.

Chat Mat has posted a clipping of a 2006 Sun article by Karen Nitkin about chef Chang Yon Huh making noodles at another restaurant.  It looks to me like Chang is handmaking the noodles here.  You'll know when you hear the bang, bang, bang of jajangmyeun noodles being stretched.  The traditional pair for jajangmyeun is a sweet-and-sour pork dish.  Fried pork, so done right it tastes like an Asian cousin to clam strips.

Red-bean-filled donut holes

Oh heavens!  I almost forgot the donuts!  Go to Hanoori Town for all that food, but leave room for the donuts.  Just to the right when you enter is a little store that I think was selling bubble teas and donuts.  Fried donut holes filled with sweet red bean paste.  Save room, and split an order as you leave.  Two holes was a perfect sweet.

Again, this Hanoori Town lineup seems worthy of the type of food writing scrum that spread the word about Grace Garden in Odenton.  Noodles are accessible to anyone willing to try new food.  The prices make this friendly to families, students, anyone else around.  This weekend, Lisbeth posted her own description of Hang Ari,  complete with photos and descriptions of dishes.

Now, I hope other people could tell us more.  I'm looking at you restaurant writers -- maybe a little reporting here, some interviews?  Any other food bloggers want to weigh in?  Anyone else want to add comments to this post?  Recommended dishes?  Back story about the change?  I am imagining some Korean-American student at UMBC who has worked through these menus with more expertise than me.  How are Chan Mat's noodles?  What did you think about Hang Ari's soups?

If you want to know more about Hang Ari's LA cousin, check out the One More Bite blog and Yelp reviews.   If you want more Lisbeth, check out her blog -- or check out her restaurant opening this winter in Federal Hill.  Lisbeth and her husband are opening The Local Fry.  She posted about it two weeks ago.

Hang Ari Noodle Company Bringing Hand-Cut Noodles To Catonsville As Early As This Weekend

Hang Ari Noodle Company chef rolling out the noodles

Back with more news about Hang Ari Noodle Company, the new restaurant bringing hand-pulled noodles to Catonsville from Los Angeles and opening as early as this weekend

Lisbeth of the Lisbeth Eats blog had sent me a report that I posted last month.  Now, she is back with the name -- Hang Ari Noodle Company -- and some details about the house-made noodles at the center of the new place.  This will open in Hanoori Town, the cluster of restaurants a few doors down from the H Mart in Catonsville.

(Update:  I've gone back and forth on the capitalization of the restaurant -- Hangari or Hang Ari.  Either option is acceptable coming over from the Korean, but I'm trying to use Hang Ari because that is printed on their business cards.)

Lisbeth reports that the owner/chef has been in the restaurant business for more than 20 years in LA.  The new Hang Ari Noodle follows the concept of his current LA restaurant -- focusing on two types of noodles and serving them in a variety of broths and sauces.  This sounds like a cool addition to the Rte 40 corridor -- noodles that are rolled, cut and boiled only after you order.

As I hear (not from Lisbeth), the soft opening will be Friday.  So watch for a full opening as early as this weekend.

Please don't hold me to consistent Korean spelling.  Transliteration of Korean words can lead to multiple spellings.  Lisbeth and I use different versions at different times.  Just check out what she says:

The owner/chef owned and operated Curry Hyang in Korea Town in LA, a popular Japanese restaurant specializing in curry and Japanese style noodles. After many years there, he sold the business and went on to open a kalgooksoo restaurant, with a business partner, in Korea Town called “Hang Ari Kalgooksoo.” 

This talented chef used the training he acquired in Korea under veteran chefs from historically famous kalgooksoo restaurants to great success. Right now, The Korean Daily (Joong Ang Ilbo) newspaper in LA named Hangari Kalgooksoo as the busiest restaurant in LA with the longest lines. 

Photo from the tasting, I think

The chef is bringing the same concept to the East Coast with his new restaurant, Hang Ari Noodle Company. The restaurant will feature two distinct categories of noodle dishes – kalgooksoo and Mil Myun. 

Kalgooksoo (literally “knife noodle”) is a noodle soup that is made using fresh hand-cut wheat flour noodles. It is served in large bowls of delicious broth and topped with garnishes that enhance the dish. The kalgooksoo menu will feature various flavor options including chicken, clam, seafood, kimchi and beef.

Mil Myun is similar to naeng myun (literally “cold noodle”), but the incredibly thin noodles are made using the same dough used for kalgooksoo  The mil myun menu will feature various options such as Mul Mil Myun (noodles in a chilled broth), Bibim
Mil Myun (noodles in a spicy sauce), Kimchi Mil Myun and Hong Uh (Skate) Mil Myun. 

A unique business strategy that the chef is taking will be offering customers a traditional Korean appetizer of bori bop (brown rice), dwen jang (Bean Paste) and yul moo  kimchi (young radish stem kimchi) free of charge with each order of noodles.  Because the noodles will be rolled out, cut and boiled fresh to order, the appetizer will keep customers happy while they wait for their food. 

Hang Ari  Noodle Company is bringing a new concept to the area that I’m sure will be a hit! Koreans in the area with be delighted to finally have a kalgooksoo and mil myun speciality restaurant open in Maryland. And for non-Koreans, this restaurant will be a great new cuisine to try.  They are set to open very soon, with a tentative date for this weekend. 

I heard they had a secret tasting with the chef’s family over the weekend and everyone loved it.  I personally can’t wait to try their clam kalgooksoo!

For more about the LA restaurant and this cuisine, check out the One More Bite blog and Yelp reviews.

LA Chef Bringing Handmade Noodles To East Coast; First Step: Catonsville's Hanoori Town

An Los Angeles chef is opening his first East Coast location in Catonsville -- and bringing hand-cut noodles, reports Lisbeth of the Lisbeth Eats blog.

Lisbeth and I actually emailed weeks ago, and I overlooked her report about a new restaurant going into the shopping center with H Mart in Catonsville.  Down from the supermarket is a space called Hanoori Town that has three restaurants and a frozen yogurt store upstairs and a housewares store in the basement.

A Korean-Chinese restaurant in Hanoori Town has closed, and a new restaurant specializing in handmade noodles is opening there.  The noodles are kal guk su, a Korean noodle dish served in large bowls of broth.  I don't have full details, but it's exciting enough that folks should know.  I'll update as I learn more.

Here is Lisbeth's full email with a quick description of the restaurants in the Hanoori Town down from H Mart and some news about the new noodle restaurant that is coming:

When you're standing in the parking lot facing Hmart, Hanoori Town is to the right.  There's a Korean food court on top with Korean retail stores (Asian housewares, gifts, beauty products, clothes and bedding) below.  When the place was called Besesto, I think everything was under the same person.  But it was reopened as Hanoori Town under new management about five years ago, and I think each individual shop is sub-leased under one owner. I think the owner wanted to create a space where different ethnicities could come together to shop and eat.  Hanoori means 'Us as one.'

On the top floor there are actually three different restaurants -- two to the left and one facing you as you walk in.  When we went there [in August], I heard that a new restaurant is going into the second space. 

So as you walk in, the first restaurant to the left is Bu Du Mak (closest to the window). They specialise in a cold noodle soup called naeng myun, Korean blood sausage called soon dae, and traditional Korean soups and stews.

The restaurant next to Bu Du Mak was a Korean/Chinese noodle restaurant that specialised in jja jang myun (black bean noodles), jjam ppong (spicy seafood noodle soup) and typical Korean/Chinese dishes like Hanjoonggwan in Ellicott City.  But they are no longer there.  A new kal guk su restaurant is going into that space.  The new chef/owner is famous in LA for his fresh hand pulled noodles and soup, and he's bringing it to the East Coast with his first location in Hanoori Town. I was told that it should be open in roughly late September. 

I love kal guk su  so I'm very much looking forward to checking them out. Kal guk su is well known in the Myung Dong neighborhood of Seoul. 

The restaurant facing you as you walk in is called Chan Mat and they offer all sorts of Korean food, Japanese sushi lunch buffet and I saw new signs for Korean/Chinese cuisine on their wall. I 'm guessing when the Korean/Chinese restaurant in the middle closed, Chan Mat added those items to their menu. 

I like the housewares store and the Korean bedding store in the basement. I got my shabu shabu pot from there and the Korean bedding shop in the back corner has lots of gift items and comfortable blankets, mats and pillows for the house.