Hunan Treasure, Americanized Chinese - But With Chinese-Language Menu - Greenway Center on Route 193 in Greenbelt

[nelumbo]

I live and work in Greenbelt, and lets just say that decent dining options in the immediate area are....limited. In the Greenway Center (the one with the Safeway on 193 next to the B-W Parkway) is a small Chinese restaurant that seems to have held tough while other nearby Chinese restaurants have come and gone. They mostly serve what you would expect - the standard Americanized Chinese menu options, not the best quality and not the worst. I pretty much have only eaten there for work-related outings and when we needed a quick takeout option.

However, they have another menu that is not translated into English (see attached file for what may be a phone photo of a scan/fax that is mostly illegible). I had read some reviews which said they had some better dishes on this menu, but when I went in the restaurant, the staff were not keen to tell me what any of the dishes were, and kept trying to steer me back to the regular menu. Finally, one of the summer interns at work got a copy of the secret menu and had his parents translate it before we had a group work lunch there. Below is that translation of the top section of the menu (he said the bottom section were repeats of the Americanized menu)

left column:

capital spare rib
salt-sweet spiced spare rib
dry-dofu with shredded pork
stir fried hot pepper
chinese beef
black pepper beef
green onion stir fry beef
mustard stir fry beef
pickled cabbage stir fry beef
salty dry veg stew pork
8-treasure stew dofu
stew tulip beef tendor
salty fish & chicken stew dofu
salty fish ground pork stew chinese eggplant
xisi (beauty queen) dofu

right column;
celery chicken slice stir fry
salt-sweet spiced shrimp
pepper squid
salt sweet squid
salt sweet three treasure
guangdong fire duck (half)
steamed chicken (half)
green onion chicken
garlic spinach
some kind of green veg
hundred flower eggplant
hundred flower dofu
hundred flower three treasure
butter shrimp ball
salt sweet shrimp ball

We had six dishes at the lunch - snow pea shoots, 8 treasure stew (various seafoods in a hot pot), one of the shredded pork dishes, one of the chicken dishes, a beef dish, and a dish of deep fried flounder in a spicy batter. I'm not sure of which dish was which because said intern negotiated the entire order with the server, and the translated menu is a little hazy.

The fish was nice - the batter was light and delicate, with a flavorful spiciness. My favorite was the shredded pork dish, which was salty and I think had pieces of hot pepper and black beans. The chicken had thin slices of meat in a very mild sauce with a variety of vegetables. I would have liked a little more garlic or other seasoning on the snow pea shoots, but they weren't bad. I can't remember details of the beef or 8-treasure dishes (this lunch was about a month ago, sorry).

Was the food on the order of Grace Garden, Panda Gourmet, or others? No, but it was waaaaay better than the regular menu, and there really aren't many options for non-Americanized Chinese food in the area. I'm sure I will be back again, and plan to copy the translated menu onto my phone so I can actually order some of the dishes. I have posted it here in the hopes that if enough people try to order off of the secret menu, that they will translate it and make it more accessible.

[TheMatt]

Oooh! Good Chinese near my workplace (NASA Goddard)? I might have to go try it...if I can convince them to give me the real menu. Maybe I need to convince goodeats to come up to Greenbelt (during the week for some reason) as when I've gone to Chinese restaurants with her, I get some great food!

[nelumbo]

I wish that K-mart building across from the main gate would get taken over by H-Mart, and include a food court. Thousands of professionals are trapped just across the street with almost no food options....why is that shopping center so terrible?

Anyway, I haven't tried going there without a translator, but the server was pretty excited when we ordered a bunch of stuff exclusively from the authentic menu. Hopefully there won't be any problems ordering with the translated version.

[TheMatt]

Is that working now? It isn't very legible though, and I'm not sure if the prices are current.

I see it now! Thanks!

Not that I can read much on it. I recognize the "hundred flower" ones since those are kanji I learned in Japanese class. If they are like Hundred Flower Chicken I've seen before, I assume they are stuffed with prawn paste.