Cooking Class visits Everyday Noodles

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Cooking Class visits Squirrel Hill's Everyday Noodles to learn the recipe for pork and cabbage potstickers.

Shortly after Chen opened Everyday Noodles in Squirrel Hill with authentic Chinese dishes, 90 percent of the patrons were Asians, a testament to the restaurant's authenticity.

Now, about 50 percent of the diners at Everyday Noodles are non-Asians, who can savor traditional Asian dishes like dim sum, soup noodles and bubble tea.

“I bring South China (cuisine) and North China mixed together,” Chen says. Northern China has a drier climate, so the drier soil is more conducive to growing barley. Rice, which requires plenty of water, is grown in South China.

To ensure the authenticity of the dishes, Chen brings in well-trained chefs from Taiwan to teach his chefs how to prepare various dishes, which they do behind plate-glass partitions. There, patrons can view the staff stretching noodle dough or steaming dumplings.

“With Chinese cuisine, the preparation time is very long — cooking time is very short,” Chen says. He says Everyday Noodles is “fast-casual” with a hometown flavor.

“Everything is handmade,” Chen says.