Slurping allowed at Vancouver's Noodlemania

Locals who can't resist giant plates of saucy pasta, steaming bowls of delicious pho, and spicy plates full of noodle stir-fries are in luck: tonight is Vancouver's fourth annual Noodlemania.

The culinary event allows 130 diners to twirl and slurp their way through six participating restaurants. Participants will be able to taste various dishesfrom chow mein to pad thai to spaghetti and also meet some of the chefs behind the creations.

Philip Law, the owner of Basil Garden Pho on East Broadway, is one of the participating chefs and told CBC's The Early Editionthat noodles are the ultimate comfort food.

"We live in a multicultural city and we've all grown up with things like chicken noodle soup. Every culture has some kind of soup. We have pho, Chinese noodle soup, Japanese ramen, Korean tofu soup."

Law will be serving up a vegetarian, beef, and spicy peanut beef version of his Vietnamese pho.

"We do our noodles fresh. A lot of people do dry but fresh always tastes better than dry," he said.

And don't worry, he said, there's no right or wrong way to eat pho and slurping is allowed.

"There is no right way or wrong way For me personally, I like to taste the real flavour of the soup. I put [condiments] in a side dish and I dip the meat in the sauce."

Tickets are available through noodlemania.ca.

With files from The Early Edition

To listen to the interview, click on the link labelled Noodlemania takes place tonight in Vancouver