Shandong Deluxe's Forever Noodles

A Northern Chinese restaurant with a hand-pulled specialty

It takes a long time to make it from one end of a Shandong Deluxe noodle to the other.

The hand-pulled noodles, chewy and twisted, seem to stretch out into infinity as you inhale them. The restaurant's owner-chef, Mr. Wong, last plied his trade at King of Noodles on Irving Street, and he's built his menu around his specialty.

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That doesn't mean that you should skip the simple, agreeable cold salads, such as cucumbers and boiled peanuts ($6) tossed with sesame oil and soy sauce, or the boiled dumplings, which come in such novel varieties as lamb with grated zucchini ($7 for 12).

But to miss the noodles would be to go to Tony's Pizza Napoletana for a side salad.

Wong, originally from Shandong Province, worked in China's northwest for a spell; his Xinjiang noodle ($8), stir-fried with lamb or beef in a mild tomato sauce, is true to its Uighur roots, but not as charismatic as the brashly spiced "combo spicy seafood, chicken, pork noodle" ($7).

The crimson broth teems with mushrooms, meat and kimchi-like pickled cabbage, whose tartness pervades the flavor of the chile-laced soup.

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Is that one noodle in the bowl or 20? You may never find out.

Shandong Deluxe, 1042 Taraval St. (at 21st Ave.); 415-592-8801

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