Noodle J-1 with Astroboi

Earlier this week, I met up with one of my favorite people, my childhood friend, Astroboi...

at the scene of our last outing, Zion Market. We thought we'd grab something at the food court then go food/snack shopping later on...

It was still pretty early, before the lunch rush (pre 11:30 am). While we were sitting and contemplating what to get, one of the workers from Paris Baguette came by with a tray of cut up "sandwiches" filled with the Linda Blair Excorcist special, green peas.  I actually didn't want one but was urged to have one by the overly enthusiastic girl. I didn't have the heart to say "no". At worst, I could always throw it away.

The outside was a soft bread and the inside was more softness. I didn't like the texture or the slightly sweetish taste. Green peas in this baby food like form grosses me out. Astroboi on the other hand, like his little morsel. I ended up eating it but not really liking it.

We both decided on this place, Noodle J-1 (the only thing in English we could make out from the sign)...

I wanted to try the Jjampong ($5.99), a spicy soup with seafood, pork, and vegetables.

Astroboi's dish was the Bokkeumyeon, strir fried noodles with seafood, pork and vegetables ($7.49). We poked our food around trying to look for the seafood. In his dish, he found maybe one or two squid pieces but no other sign of seafood at all. The pork pieces were cut very thin, like julienned thin. Hmmmm.

The sauce for his noodles was also on the sweet side. This looked like anything you could get at any anonymous Asian joint. The vegetables were just bean sprouts and some shredded napa cabbage and carrots, but those were few and far between.

My soup looked explosively hot. If you are used to the taste of kimchi and the spice level of Korean food, then you would like this. I took one look, and even though I knew the word "spicy" was on the menuboard description, thought I could handle it. I was wrong.

I didn't like the flavor of the soup at all, but I did like the round and chewy noodles that were hidden underneath the mound of vegetables. And guess what, there was NO seafood in my soup at all. I read a  review somewhere that the broth was "seafood flavored". It would have helped knowing that ahead of time. The broth was so damn spicy for a wimp like me. I had to lift the noodles with my chopsticks to drain the broth off of it. I ended up picking at my soup and probably ate not even a tenth of it.

Even though I tried my best not to taste the soup, it still did it's "damage" to me later on that day, if you know what I mean and I think you do. Ugh.

Maybe if the broth was beef or chicken flavored, I might have liked this better. It looked good but I was just not used to the flavors. My soup attracted the attention of a neighboring table; a man sitting with his daughter wanted to know the name of it because he wanted to try the same soup. Not sure if he actually ordered it later, but I hope he enjoyed his more than I did mine.

By the way, they give you numbers there after you place your order. You wait for your number to scroll by on a digital scrolling screen (like at Zion pharmacy when you're waiting for your prescription to be filled). It took ten minutes for Astroboi to get his food after my number appeared on the screen and we ordered together.

My previous visit to Zion with Astroboi:
September 2013 - fun at Paris Baguette!

Who else went to Noodle J-1?

Kirbie went here when they first opened...
August 2013, followed by Jinxi in October

Noodle J-1 (@ the Zion Food Court)
7585 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111

No phone number and no website but here are the mixed yelp reviews as well as SD City Beat's review.

I don't think I'll try that noodle dish again, but maybe their other noodle dish with the black bean sauce.