Tell me how busy Chiang’s Gourmet is, and I’ll tell you how hard it’s raining.

I’m a year-round Chiang’s Gourmet fanatic; it’s such a staple of our family gatherings that when we joined friends at one of the big round tables last summer, my then-5-year-old asked whose birthday it was—and was mystified when we said nobody’s.

But come fall weather, those tables are harder to come by. The Chinese restaurant in the root-beer-keg-shaped building on Lake City Way is such a comforting staple that the harder the famous Seattle rain falls on any given day, the longer the line.

The three multipage menus can feel overwhelming. I have about two dozen go-to dishes I rotate through when I order at Chiang’s: the Salt and Pepper Crispy Chicken if there are kids, the Five Star Spicy Hot if not. The sizzling rice soup in winter, the chilled beef tendon appetizer in summer.

There is one dish that I almost always order, no matter who or how many people I am eating with: Home Made Pan Fried Noodles Shanghai Style. Thick, ropy, and dark with sauce, they come intertwined with just enough green vegetable to brighten the plate and thin slices of pork twisted about until they are almost impossible to discern from the noodles.

It’s one of the only dishes I don’t remember how I started ordering. I have no memory of the hostess recommending it, as she did the spicy hot fish fillet on romaine lettuce. Nor of a fellow Chiang’s fan suggesting it, which was how I found my way to the vegetarian sweet and sour ribs. I do remember the first time I stumbled on the enoki and black mushroom wrapped with bean curd sheet in brown sauce, a joyful accident of miscommunication. But in 18 years of regularly eating at Chiang’s, the noodles have simply always been there, offering their comforting consistency.

Especially when it rains.