担々麺 / Tantanmen / Shanghai Xiaochi — Shinjuku, Tokyo

The soup stock uses chickens, pork bones and tongues. Medium-thin straight noodles are cut long. Finished with bean sprouts, garlic chives and ground pork. Pickled vegetables and wood ear mushrooms, spicy prawns on the side.

Shanghai Xiaochi is a late-night Chinese restaurant, specializing in Shanghai cuisine but also serving dishes from Sichuan and Hunan. Over 30 types of seasonings and spices are ordered directly from Sichuan and the cooks (all Chinese) have over 600 dishes in their repertoire. The menu features rabbit meat, frogs and insects. The restaurant is famous for serving Shanghai hairy crabs shipped in from China during the season (Oct-Nov). Run by long-time shop manager Reiko-san, who is from Shanghai and got her Japanese name from regular customers. Open until 5am. 80 seats. Since 1993. Less