Anyone up for noodles?
In recent times, Belmont residents have been graced with the opening of several new bars and cafés along High Street that brings a little bit of the boutique living of Geelong’s western suburbs to those living in the suburban sprawl of the south.
Whilst this is much appreciated, and don’t get me wrong, I frequent many of these businesses on a weekly basis, sometimes it’s nice to step back from trendy lattes and neon lighting to eat something intended for the everyman.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I again turn to Asian street food, especially after visiting VN Rolls last week. The varied and value-packed cuisine is quickly becoming my go-to.
On this particular day, I strolled through the backstreets, – mask free due to recent changes in restrictions – quite impressed at how the local post-lockdown gardens are coming along, making my way to Red Noodle Canteen, which is found at 110-112 High Street to fill my now permanent hunger for cheap lunches of the Asian variety.
Greeted by steel walls and plain white tiles, little attention has been paid to the aesthetics of the place, and honestly, Red Noodle Canteen is better for it. Ingredients are laid out in a Bain Marie for all to see. The time saved doing little interior decoration is more than made up for with quick service and reasonable pricing.
$12 affords you most of the noodle boxes on the menu, and they also offer a variety of sides that one would expect, dim sims, spring rolls, perfect stocking fillers in my opinion.
I ordered a serve of Singapore noodles and 8 curry puffs, with a drink to boot. Despite me being the only person in there – it was 2 pm on a Tuesday, it gets quite busy on Fridays and Saturdays as you can imagine – I was still very surprised to note that my order was ready by the time it would take you to read this sentence (the sentence is quite long but still).
When I found a chance to sit and eat, I was delighted to find the curry puffs were the right choice. Light and crispy, they had a subtle flavor that built up after eating the serve and was an excellent way to meet the $20 EFTPOS minimum.
The Singapore noodles are without a doubt my go-to when ordering any form of noodle box, and Red Noodle Canteen doesn’t disappoint, the noodles were spicy and well-seasoned. Thin noodles were broken up with strings of carrot, strips of beef, several prawns, as well as part of a scrambled egg, capsicum, and bean shoots.
They pack in quite a bit of food into the small box, I’m convinced Red Noodle Canteen have figured out a way to make a noodle box the TARDIS of the take-away food world. To this effect, there is far too much food for a single meal, as such I will very much enjoy taking a container full of noodles to work tonight.
Red Noodle Canteen is yet another example in the growing case of budget take-out being far from dead, best enjoyed with family or friends, why not grab some noodles for diner this weekend? I know I will be.
Red Noodle Canteen is at 110-112 High Street, Belmont, order online here, food from $5-$15.
