Burn Baby Burn

Sometimes I can be a glutton for punishment. On one of the hottest days of summer, I couldn't resist the siren call of a Sichuan restaurant that my cousin, C.P., mention to me the day before, so I drove out to Monterey Park to meet her for there lunch.

One of the joys of Los Angeles, and there are nice things about living here even though I rail about the traffic daily to friends, is that not only can you get good Chinese food, but you can also get very specific, very authentic, good Chinese food: Cantonese, Hunan, Shanghainese etc....

Sichuan cusine is all about heat. It's a given the food will be fiery hot, either rolling with chili peppers, smothered in chili oil, or doused with chili flakes; and many times it has all three of these elements working over the meat, seafood, vegetable, or tofu.



So let the fireworks begin—Boiled Fish Slices in Hot Sauce or #1 on the menu. More precisely, it's fish fillets atop a bed, or mound since it's a huge serving bowl, of Napa Cabbage buried in garlicky hot sauce and topped with more dried, pepper flakes and cilantro. This is a classic Sichuan dish according to C.P. who was told by a classmate who's from China and appears to be in the know. The white fish was light and delicate in texture, but made bold in flavor by the chili oil and garlic. I was swooning from it's heady heat—fantastic.



Dish #2 for C.P. and I and dish #8 on the menu, Fried Chicken Cubes with Hot Pepper. The lightly breaded and fried chicken was a nice change of texture for me during lunch when our other dishes were braised or boiled. The chicken was light and crisp, and I pop these bits in my mouth between helpings of other dishes as a palate cleanser. My only comment is that I wished more of the chicken pieces were in bigger cubes so I could taste more of the meat with the coating—more popcorn size vs. broken kernels at the bottom of the bag.



Our dish #3 isn't on the menu, but you can order it anyway (and many customers do)—Eggplant braised in Chili Sauce. This dish had a wonderful acidity to it that cut through the heat and oil. Not being in the kitchen to see, I'm going to guess the eggplant got a good hit of thick black vinegar in its sauce.. This and the boiled fish were my two favorites on the table.



Our fourth and final dish was the Homely Bean Curd, or #80 on the menu. It was the least spicy of all the dishes even thought it was big bowl of tofu in garlic and chili sauce. It was certainly tasty, but didn't meet the high bar of stimulating heat and flavor set by the fish and eggplant earlier. I doubt I would order it again on another visit.

And I do plan on coming again. There's something wonderfully intoxicating about hot 'n spicy foods. It a stirring mix of pleasure and pain that leaves you begging for more; it's food you can not only taste, but also feel. Like the sensation of a lustful kiss that still linger after mouths have parted, your lips still tingling from the memory of the hotness that pass through them minutes before.

If you can take the heat and want to feel the burn, then try Chung King Restaurant. They make it hot 'til it hurts so good.


Chung King Restaurant
206 South Garfield Ave.
Monterey Park, CA 91754
Phone: (626) 280-7430

Xiao Long Bao, aka "Soup Dumpling"

Okay, this is it—my final burst of eating from Big Apple, April '07.

On my first whole day in New York, I nipped out of the conference I was attending and dashed up the odd fifteen to seventeen blocks to catch a quick lunch at Joe's Shanghai in Midtown, home of the soup dumpling in the City, or at least the most popular place to get them.

Now, I don't want to choose sides between Din Tai Fung, which is the place of choice in Los Angeles for that style of dumplings, and Joe's Shanghai as to who makes a better xiao long bao 'less I become persona non grata even more for how much I still remind loyal to all things East Coast, 'though I'm here in LA and recently sealed a fate that will keep me here for at least a few more years (more on that another time), but I will say I really, really enjoyed Joe's Shanghai. Their soup dumplings were really, really good, and very, very soupy; a little more soupy than Din Tai Fung's—sorry, I just had to drop that bit in—'though that doesn't mean they're better, maybe just bigger. But I haven't been to Din Tai Fung in a few years, so I can't be trusted with my memory; it might be slightly wobbly and easily corruptible, especially when presented with a fresh bamboo steamer with huge, jumbo egg-size dumpling all hot and steamy 'n gushy with meaty broth.

I had both the Crab Meat with Pork Meat Steamed Bun and Pork Steamed Bun, which I shared with J. who once again joined me for lunch. There was only a slight difference between the xiao long bao with just pork and those with a combination of crab and pork; the later had nominally lighter flavor, but primarily meaty vs. crustacean-like, while the former was full-on, no-holds rich, fatty porky-ness. But both were very filling; I could only manage six total before feeling full.

A good, quick lunch that allowed me to be back in time for my afternoon panel—and nobody even noticed I was gone.


Joe's Shanghai
Queens
136-21 37th Avenue
Flushing, New York 11354
Ph: 718-539-3838, 718-539-4429
Uptown
24 W 56 Street
New York, New York 10019
(between 5 and 6 Avenue)
Ph: 212-333-3868
Chinatown
9 Pell Street
New York, New York 10013
Ph: 212-233-8888
www.joeshanghairestaurants.com

Post MoMA Duck

With all do respect to the French and their Duck Confit, which I've enjoyed on many occasions, nobody rocks the duck like the Chinese. Peking (or Beijing) Duck rules and gets my vote for top bird everytime. Being Chinese, I will also cop to a bias when making this pronouncement, but it doesn't diminish my fondness for what is essentially a permissible way of eating profuse amounts of crispy fried animal skin—not necessarily a bad thing.




After mixing with the crushing crowd that descends on the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) on Friday evenings after 4 PM when admission is free, J., C., and I hit the Midtown branch of the Peking Duck House for a late dinner.

I've never really had bad Peking Duck. The Peking Duck House kept that streak going, but what I liked most about the place was their service—not always a given in many Chinese restaurant. Once I finished one rolled, duck stuffed pancake, a waiter seemed to magically appear by the side of our table to make me another. This happened everytime until I'd eaten my fill, 'though I won't tell you how many times he materialized to make those duck wrap 'less you, dear reader, realize what I fear you might already suspect: I'm prone to piggishness.


Peking Duck House
Midtown
236 East 53rd St.
New York, NY 10022
ph: 212-759-8260
Chinatown
28 Mott St.
New York, NY 10013
ph: 212-227-1810
www. pekingduckhousenyc.com

Wanted Dead and Alive

I don't what it is about a certain kind of Chinese restaurant, usually the fancier one, that insists you meet your meal before they cook it. Well, I do know, actually. They want you to see their product is fresh—so fresh it’s alive. And while I have no allusions that when I eat meat, poultry, and seafood those animals were living at some point and then killed for human consumption, I don’t necessarily want to get up close and personal with what I’m going to eat 30 minutes later. I would like to be, in a way, purposefully ignorant, have the wool pull my eyes somewhat, and be deceive a little.

But then the food comes out all hot and steamy, looking gloriously tasty and most tempting, and my baser instincts take over. All to easily, I send my conscience packing as I reach for that juicy morsel without a moment of remorse.



While I was in Vancouver, my generous host took a group of us to San Sui Wah Seafood Restaurant where their specialty is Alaska King Crab prepared in a wonderfully light and lovely garlicky sauce. The crab legs are steamed and bathed in a clear broth infused and imbue with loads of fresh, sweet garlic.

The table encouraged the before and after shots. So not only am I guilty, I also have proof of my disgrace. But, oh, what a delicious shame it was!


Sun Sui Wah Seafood Restaurant
Vancouver: 3888 Main St., B.C. Canada
1-866-872-8822 (toll free)
Richmond: 102, 4940 No. 3 Rd., B.C. Canada
1-866-683-8208 (toll free)
www.sunsuiwah.com

Note: I ate at the Vancouver location twice, both times were excellent. I can also recommend their fried squab and fried mantou (bread) dusted with sugar and dipped in condensed milk.