Jianbing House in the Guildhall Cambridge Market Square was an excellent find on our recent trip to Cambridge. I had spotted it before we arrived on one of my usual Google map hunts when I was looking for street food in the town.

The name translates as Pancake House or Chinese Crepes as they most commonly are called and that is probably the speciality of the stall. Lots of people were ordering those but that was not what I was here for. I was here for some noodle action

I had been quite excited when I had seen a photo of a chalk board offering Hot Dry Noodles Wuhan style on t’internet (règānmiàn 热干面 ) as this particular dish is my all time favourite noodle dish that I learned to love from my time at the Chinese Academy in Wuhan back in the 1990’s, so I was hoping to find a bowlful today

NOODLE MENU AT JIANG BING HOUSE

I was in luck or perhaps I had just planned well as I found what I wanted up on the small laminated menu hanging above the cooking area. HOT DRY NOODLES it read, was this what I was hunting for? Yes the description confirmed my hopes ” – a top breakfast choice in Wuhan”

I used to have this dish most mornings for breakfast sitting on the steps of the lab with my fellow workers, I knew it then as règānmiàn and I learned to love the dish even though back then it felt strange to have it first thing in the day. In fact the first time I ate a bowl I sent a postcard back home to the UK saying that I had just had a weird bowl of spicy spaghetti for breakfast

Since then I rarely have come across a good authentic bowlful in England. The last decent ones were from PBZ in Sheffield (read more here) so I was delighted to be finding another place today!

HOT DRY NOODLES WITH ROAST DUCK

The menu listed the ingredients of the Hot Dry Noodles as “spaghetti, homemade herb stock, soy sauce, sesame paste, pickled turnip and/or cowpea, chopped garlic chives, coriander and/or chilli sauce” a Medium size bowl was £7 and a Large one £8. I saw no point pontificating over a quid so I went large

Normally I would have just had the bowl of noodles as they were, plain and simple, but the menu had add on options including “Taiwanese sausage, Pulled Chicken, and Roast Duck” each for an extra £2.

After a chat with the chap on the counter about my time in Wuhan and that I wanted to know if they were the same thing he suggested I try them with the Roast Duck as that was his favourite combination. I am an easy sell so I agreed to the upgrade 😎🤣

CLOSE UP ON THE NOODLES

The tagline on the menu advised “Please Stir it before you chew it!” and that is exactly what I did so that I got as much of the nutty sesame sauce mix onto my strands of noodles as possible. You really want to get the full flavour bomb on every mouthful to really enjoy this dish

I did enjoy the roast duck on the top of the noodles but it was not really needed. The flavour of the sauce mixed with the noodles is all that I want when I eat this dish. As soon as I had the first mouthful memories of my mornings in Wuhan came flooding back and I was one happy man.

DINING AREA AT JIANG BING HOUSE

I really liked that they had a small dining area alongside the cooking area where I could perch and eat my noodles. It was just like it used to be back on the streets of Wuhan (well almost)

They didn’t mind when my partner in dine turned up with a bowl of curried goat from another streetfood vendor around the corner. Or maybe they just chose to ignore it as they could see how decrepid I was looking after bimbling for hours around the town

I felt slightly smug when it started raining and I admit that I took my time eating the noodles, eeking out the last few mouthfuls until the skies had cleared and the sun came back out to play 😂😎

BEEF SOUP NOODLES ON THE MENU

On a different day and if they had not had the règānmiàn on offer I would have been all over the Beef and Noodles soup bowl which was some sort of hotpot dish that they were offering. The picture on the menu looked good but I would have liked to see someone else slurping down a bowl to see what it was really like.

The basic ingredients were ‘Braised beef, Chinese leaf, and Noodles in soup‘ with ‘other vegetables – depends on your Wish’. That would have been too much responsibility for my soul. Just serve me the best option that you have and I will be happy.

Other options to add alongside the beef were for egg or pork sausage and both. Obviously I would have splashed out the £15 for everything, in it to win it!

Propped up against the stall was a chalk board painted with a message in Chinese, which while is a great sign of authenticity it also makes me curious as to what is on offer

When it comes to Chinese my language abilities extend to ordering food, counting to 8 (it used to be higher) and asking for toilet paper. I never learnt to read the language which was a shame as I couldn’t read the sign board.

Now in the olden days that would have been that but these days I have a handy app on my phone which ‘sort of translates’ so I used it to read that this chalkboard read “Cambridge Pancake House, Hot Dry Noodles, Beef Noodle Soup.

That was a lot better than the time I got excited using my app to read a sign in a Chinese takeaway window thinking there might be some hidden menu items and found that it read “Delivery driver needed” 😂

Jiang Bing House can be located in The Guildhall Cambridge Market Square, Cambridge CB1 0SS 

They also have a Facebook page and  Instagram profile (not updated that much as far as I can tell)

They were very friendly people and the place was very popular which is always a good sign

If we come back to Cambridge for a visit I will certainly be back for another bowl!