RESTAURANT REVIEW Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings JANUARY 2017 MARKETPLACECONTRACOSTA.COM 35 serving pieces from her native city, as well as many beautiful porcelain teacups and other porcelain pieces which are on display and are available for purchase. Tom is a native Californian who had a long career in higher education. He and Wenyan met in Canada, where he was teaching and she was attending school. They eventually married, and continued to work in their respective careers until they decided to open their own business a few years ago. Although they had never before been restaurateurs, Wenyan had always enjoyed a love of cooking, having been inspired from a very young age by her father. He was an artist who learned much about gourmet foods from other regions as he traveled extensively throughout China. He learned to prepare many these foods and passed his love of cooking on to Wenyan. For the first five months following the Grand Opening of Noodles Fresh, Wenyan spent most of her time in the kitchen cooking and creating new recipes. She is fortunate to have many chef friends throughout the Bay Area who help her create and perfect recipes to ensure the authenticity of the dishes offered on their menu. Although she no longer works exclusively in the kitchen, Wenyan still personally prepares some recipes for Noodles Fresh. Both she and her husband work intermittently as servers and regularly engage with their customers, many of whom are regulars. In addition to serving customers, Tom tends to most business matters, including social media, marketing, budgeting and accounting, and overseeing internal systems. We visited Noodles Fresh on a Thursday evening, and upon entry from the rear parking area, were immediately intrigued by the vast porcelain display of teapots, teacups, and other items on the back wall. We passed by an impeccably clean, open stainless steel kitchen where the chefs were hard at work, and continued into the spacious dining room where we met Wenyan. We were seated at one of several roomy booths, where we had time to admire the restaurant’s interior décor and familiarize ourselves with the menu, while listening to pleasant, soothing jazz background music. The two-sided menu lists appetizers, entrees and sides on the front side, and drinks, beverages and desserts on the opposite side. The menu boasts an impressive list of appetizers, including traditional items such as Spring rolls, Pot Stickers, and Edamame beans, and a number of different items that I’d not previously noticed on other Chinese menus; such as Vegetarian goose, Nanjing salted duck, and Double happiness gluten puff. Entrees categories include Noodle Plates, Rice Plates, Noodle Soup Bowls, and Chef’s Specials, many of which are prepared Gluten Free, and others which are identified as “GFA” Hours: Open daily 11 AM – 9 PM, closed Mondays Head Chef Peter Liang
Contra Costa Marketplace - Jan 2017
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