YIPPEE NOODLES, CAMBRIDGE

Saturday night in Cambridge and having watched a bleakish film (Archipelago if anyone is interested) sustained only by a few handfuls of popcorn we are up for something quick and delicious. We walk out and it is soon evident that while we have been in the cinema dusk has fallen and Regent St has transformed itself into a Bacardi Breezer version of Dante's Inferno.  We edge past a girl slumped senseless outside Emmanuel (whose friends stand around her listlessly chatting and text messaging) and hotfoot it to King Street and Yippee.

Yippee is a noodle bar ... now I've frequented quite a few noodle bars in my time, both here and in the Far East, and Yippee can punch its weight with the best. The standard accoutrements are here: brightly lit interior; trestle tables; lightning service and an open kitchen where you can register the sizzle of food in boiling oil and the clang of woks and pans. Suffice to say we scan the menu and then have our usual - Tempura Prawns, Spicy Squid laced with birds' eye chillies, Prawn Toasts and Beef Ho Fun Noodles.

 It's all brought to the table together and we chow down (no point in any chit chat between us the noise level is so high we have to yell at each other - we can talk about the film later). It's startlingly good and mouth searingly hot - I still have blisters in my mouth. It was so worth it....