Santa Fe pan-Asian restaurant holds individual ingredients to a higher standard

 

BY KEVIN HOPPER

My mother’s name is Patricia, not Judith. So why do I feel like my mom was waiting on my table at Mu Du Noodles the other night?

“Here are some pea shoots,” said a woman named Judith said to me and my two faithful dining companions shortly after ordering appetizers at this regaled Santa Fe eatery, which has long been on my list of “must eat” restos in that city.

Here’s the thing: our appetizer order didn’t include pea shoots. In fact, it wasn’t even on the Mu Du Noodles menu that night — a particularly chilly one that had us driving back to A-Town at a pace of 35 m.p.h. due to  a rather unseasonable snowfall, but reveling all the while that we serendipitously sat down to one of the coziest, warmest and and friendliest dinners of our lives. So, when Judith the waiter (not my mom it turns out) set this small, garlic-riddled plate of greens we didn’t order in front of us, as we soaked up the much needed heat cranking out of a vintage heater located no less than three feet from our table, I couldn’t help but have a “mom” moment.

And to be fair, Judith was right: we all needed our greens that night. With all due respect to my mom’s very filling, “meat-and-potatoes” style of cooking, which never once yielded a single pea shoot, Mu Du’s simple preparation, at once, worked to change my opinion of pea shoots entirely and set the stage for a dining experience I won’t soon forget.

 

Admittedly, the pairing of that particular evening’s frigid temperature with the efficiency of a ‘60s-era living room heater that I have already placed an E-Bay bid on, had a certain magical effect on my psyche that had me reeling well after the next-day leftovers had been zapped. That coziness factor has subsided, but not entirely. It might disappear altogether the next time I stuff a napkin into the neck of my shirt on a hot summer day, but for now, I am relishing my recent dinner at Mu Du Noodles for reasons that go well beyond the temperature outside in comparison to the temperature inside. And putting the pea shoot/Judith/mom thing aside, my reasons for really enjoying my first Mu Du experience boils down to one very simple thing: quality ingredients.

 

Most professional chefs, home cooks and Food Network-addicted foodies understand that, if they cook with quality ingredients, what they cook will also be of very high quality. This is a concept that is demonstratively not lost on the chefs at Mu Du. With a menu that can be safely described as Pan-Asian, the restaurant (a huge favorite with Santa Fe locals) places a decided focus on individual ingredients and what each one, whether it’s a pea shoot or a scallion, enhances the final dish.
For example, the shrimp included in the shrimp fritter appetizer that followed our savory pea shoots, boasted a meatiness not often found in the shrimp dishes of other local restaurants. Reason being, quality. That meatiness contrasted nicely with the doughy batter, but only because of the notable addition of the spicy, creamy sauce that was dabbed over the shrimps. However, the more pronounced doughiness that accompanied the chicken pot stickers to follow, was void of an alternate textural component. Regardless, the whole “individuality” aspect of single ingredients still stuck out.
It’s wholly apparent that the culinary minds at wok behind this quaint and comforting food venture are well trained. One of my companions chose the very standard but very telling Pad Thai. Though the dish wasn’t as groundbreaking as I thought it might be (or built up an expectation to be), it nonetheless achieved all that can be expected of a simply prepared, traditional noodle dish: completeness.

 

Likewise, the Singapore — rice vermicelli noodles and BBQ pork tossed in a yellow house made curry — proved to be a solid noodle dish that not only stood up to tradition, but worked to tantalize each and very section of the palate all at the same time.

 

As for my selection, a wonderfully diverse concoction of pan seared wild sea scallops and shrimp, sautéed in garlic oil with green tea noodles, fresh spinach, shiitake mushrooms and crispy shallots, I couldn’t have been more satisfied on such a chilly night. The softness of the green tea noodles was saved by the crunch of the crispy shallots, while a melange of very different, very kinetic flavors danced across my tongue.
Dessert, while very satisfying and, in the case of the Adzuki bean and mango parfait, intriguing, couldn’t sway my mind from the warm and savory feeling that simultaneously exuded from both the atmosphere and food at Mu Du that particular night.

 

Should you make reservations in the heat of the summer months? Definitely. But please keep dinner at Mu Du in the back of your head when the next winter rolls around. You won’t be sorry.

 

Mu Du Noodles
1494 Cerrillos, Santa Fe, 505.983.1411
HOURS:
Dinner: 5:30p-close, Tue.-Sat.
mudunoodles.com

 

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