Photograph by Andrew Thomas Lee
The city of Lanzhou is the noodle capital of China, and Buford Highway strip-mall joint LanZhou Ramen is the noodle capital of metro Atlanta. It’s not in every city that you can find Lanzhou-style, hand-pulled noodles, which are nothing short of an art form. You can (and should) observe their creation by gazing into LanZhou’s kitchen through a picture window that dramatically frames the hypnotic act of rolling, stretching, and spinning the cascading tendrils of springy dough. The resulting noodles—or, if you prefer, the thicker, knife-cut ones—show up in bowls of fragrant beef broth brimming with wilted greens and tender meat, or stir-fried with your choice of three spice options: regular, spicy, or laced with cumin seeds. These noodles are so long that your server will arm you with a pair of scissors. Of course, you might rather just slurp them until the end of time. 5231 Buford Highway, Doraville, 678-691-2175
