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Showing results for tags 'Szechuan'.
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It took a moment for us to find it, but Chuan Tian Xia was worth the search. This is a very impressive Sichuan restaurant in Rockville, a few minutes walk from the Twinbrook Metro garage, at the corner of Fishers Lane and Twinbrook Parkway. The mixed fry plate (not sure exactly what it is called was a nice starter, a mix of fried tofu chunks, fish, and pork. Salty in the best way. The double cooked pork is an old favorite of ours, pretty commonly seen on Sichuan restaurant menus, and was a nice rendition. The Hunan style bamboo shoots was a delicious dish, mildly prepared but with a deep wok's kiss that amped up the savory flavor. Finally, the Chongqing spicy diced chicken, with a 'normal' level of spice, was very, very spicy, even for someone like me that enjoys spicier dishes. This was truly ma la, and I loved it. Service was very friendly and helpful. We look forward to going back. -
The restaurant turnover continues in Springfield, and other places as well. Hot Peppercorn appears to be worth a try. The menu doesn't look to be overly Americanized, and some interesting dishes like duck blood, beef, and tripe in spicy broth, or pork intestine and fish filet in spicy broth, caught my eye. I will give it a try and report within the coming weeks.
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I wouldn't be surprised if BA is the best restaurant in McLean (I only frequent Palisades), but have you been to the (very small) Fahrenheit for Sichuan? Just had an excellent meal there. -
Thursday March 19, 7:00 pm Panda Gourmet. This is for a curated menu at Panda Gourmet mining the traditional Sichuan foods they seem to do best although a few of the Saanxi snacks might be included. The meal will be spicy but not every dish will be so. 1. Kay and Dean 3. Bart 4. Nelumbo -
Dinner at Sichuan Jin River March 1, 5:30 pm. I will talk to them about dishes that can only be had via pre order. I will set up cold dishes to start. If there is energy for it, I can curate the menu for the entire dinner if there is energy for it. We have room in our car for those coming from Annandale convenient folk. 1. Dean & Kay 4. Eric & Steve 5. Pras
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Friendship BBQ opened on 9/1/2019. It appears to be the Maryland outpost of a Flushing Queens restaurant. You can see the menu at their website. We strolled in on Sunday after our meal at La Tosca. at about 6:30 pm they were already closed for the day. It seemed like they were a bit overwhelmed, but the aromas were quite intoxicating. The menu is a bit confusing to someone who does not read Chinese and I am not sure that all of the translations are exactly correct (e.g., what are the portion sizes for some of the offerings, and is there really such a thing grilled chicken skeleton?). I think the Chinese BBQ may be the next big thing in Chinese cuisine as it makes it was south from Queens NY. I will give the place some time to work out the kinks and will definitely give it a try. If anyone has had a chance to try this place out I am really interested to know what you think. -
LaoMa SPicy 110 Odendhal Ave Ste 108 Gaithersburg, MD 20877 99 Ranch Market was a staple in my life in LA. But, I have not been in in one since moving to the DC area in 1999. I found out about one here in Gaithersburg from the board and I put it on my list of things to check out. So this week, in preparation for our last duck dinner, I decided to go there an see what was on offer. Looking for a place for lunch before, LaoMa spicy popped up sand is located inside 99 Ranch so off I went. This is a food court stand with two refrigerated stations, one for veggies and the other for meat. I ordered a meat lovers and was watching as the cook started to assemble the raw ingredients. They had duck blood and gizzards on the meat side so I asked him if I got those in my bowl and he looked surprised at my interest in the 'odd' stuff. He said yes (Unfortunately ,there was none in the bowl I got) The cashier to led me to take a seat and she would bring it over. What I got was a metal bowl with a pretty huge portion of stir fried meats and veggies swimming on a spicy soup broth. I later realized that I could have added noodles which I probably will do next time. The meats included 4 large meatballs, a bunch of tripe, lots of shreds of pork and more, with the veggies leaning to green onion, nappa cabbage. There was a smattering of glass noodles. All were tasty and not overcooked. It definitely skewed meaty. But the star of the show was the broth. Brilliant red from chilies and chile paste, this was a very hot soup indeed, richly flavored from simmering the ingredients in it after they were quickly stir fried. I picked up the bowl in the end to slurp down every drop and my mouth burned for a good while after. Looking at the online menu, I see that they have a bowl for two where you pick 8 veggies and 6 meats for $25.99 and a few other dishes. Dumplings as well. I was too full to try anything else from the food stands: the BBQ looked good, the dimsum servicable and he cooked dishes not so good. Just wish it wasn't so far away. It is part of a chain based in New York City and associated with a chain in China. 99 Ranch has incredible produce and seafood but it is not as large as Super H in Fairfax City. Well worth the trip especially if you toss in a meal at LaoMa
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I encourage others to visit and see if they agree or not -- there may be a new king of dim sum in MD, and it's...Far East?!? Yes, not a typo. The one that's been around for 45 years and whose website says that it specializes in "Szechuan and Mandarin" cuisine. My family and I moved to Montgomery County 40 years ago and I don't recall having been here more than a few times before. But on the recommendation of their friends, we went with my parents yesterday and (pardon the cliche) it was a revelation. There's a certain richness and freshness in the shumai and the shrimp dumplings that aren't present anymore at Silver Fountain or Hollywood East. The radish cakes actually taste like radish, and the taro dumplings have way more filling than fried outer shell. The items tend to cost $1 more here than at the other dim sum joints, but I suspect that's a function of better ingredients, portion size, and execution. The place was packed at opening, and when we left around 12:30, there were still tons of folks waiting in the lobby. This is our family's new dim sum destination in the foreseeable future. -
Andy Hayler's Review -
Xi'an Gourmet, opened in the ashes of the former Bob's space. Tim Carman wrote about it in the Post today and seems to like it. Has Anyone tried it yet?
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Does anyone have a good recipe for this? I've looked at a few, there are some significant differences. Trying to recreate Chang's or HKP's version at the home front...
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Rolling Cooking is a restaurant that has only been open since 2016 on Rolling Road near Old Keene Mill Road in Springfield. It's in the same plaza as Afghan Kabob and TCS Computer, behind Einstein Bagels. However, this version of Rolling Cooking is only 4 weeks old, according to the hostess, meaning it changed ownership at the end of January 2018. In the past 3 days I've ordered delivery and carry out, and right now, this is the best of Springfield's Americanized Chinese restaurants. What strikes me is how greaseless the fried dishes are -- the shrimp tempura has a heavier crust than I'm used to, but the greaseless crunch on the outside gives way to soft shrimp on the inside, and the salt-and-pepper flounder filet are delightful pillows of deliciousness. And I had this latter dish after delivery and carry out, both, and in both cases, it was delectable. In my delivery order a few days ago came shredded pork with chili peppers and General Tso's chicken. The pork was OK, not spectacular, but tasty. The General Tso's chicken was a nice rendition, with perfectly portioned chicken cubes bathed in a not-overly-sweet sauce that had a nice kick. In my take-out order tonight, I repeated the salt-and-pepper flounder to prove I wasn't imaging its goodness a few days -- I wasn't -- and I added the whole fried rockfish. The rockfish was a bit over-fried, so it had some dryness, and when the dryness co-mingled with the bony fish, it was as pleasant as I would have liked. This appears to be a dish to be eaten in the restaurant as soon as it comes out of the fryer. As I was waiting for my carry-out order, the hostess brought me a plate of warm, salty peanuts, followed by a cup of hot and sour soup, and a nice tumbler of hot tea. These treats were gratis, but inspired me to add a nice tip to the carry-out check. I also noticed a six-top occupied by a Hispanic family, and a beautiful dish of chicken fried rice in the middle of that table. A four-top with an Asian family speaking Chinese to the hostess is always a sign that the indigenous population enjoys the food here too. I'll keep an eye on Rolling Cooking to make sure that it stays consistent, but it ranks at least a nose ahead of Springfield's other Chinese offerings at this point.
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I was out in Fairfax so I finally stopped in Nanjing Bistro (in the same shopping center as Chuy's). It's supposed to be authentic Nanjing cuisine. The menu I received has lots of pictures, so if you didn't get an authentic looking Chinese menu with pictures, you should request it. I had a cold spicy chicken dish (the sauce is surprisingly sweet with a hint of fishiness, probably from some kind of fish sauce), a bean paste fish filet, and some stirred fried veggies. None of them knocked my socks off but the food is pretty good. -
Liu Chaosheng - who dat, you might ask. Well, he's the guy who opened Hong Kong Palace and Uncle Liu's Hot Pot, and he's now opened Asian Origin, in the old Panache space on Pinnacle Drive as noted in this McLean Patch article. When I first received a menu, I noted its Sichuan dishes and instantly decided to compare it to HKP (not knowing at the time they're sister restaurants). The beef, tendon, and tripe dish is $9 at HKP and $12 at AO. Spicy wontons are $6 at HKP and $8 at AO. Dan Dan Noodles are $7 at HKP and $8 at AO. So the prices are higher at AO, presumably reflecting a higher rent as well as fancier décor. Now I have to decide whether to drive a little farther to HKP or stay in McLean.
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Update on the Bethesda Fine Dining Location, which reports a May opening (credit--Bethesda Magazine)
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My parents sold their home of 40 years this past spring, exchanging the hassle of maintaining a 2,000 sf house for the simple life of a 2 br rental at Leisure World. Over the decades, they had not done a good job of curating their possessions, consequently, they were overwhelmed by the decision of what to do with their mountain of stuff. I helped them figure out what to keep (my 8th grade report on the Mayas, with a picture I drew showing how they formed a baby’s head into a point) and what to donate (3 flour sifters). Of course, the final home for the majority of stuff was the MoCo dump on 355. Over the many trips there, I had time to contemplate “Big Wang Cuisine” on the east side of the road, just south of the dump. I speculated a restaurant with a name that, in English, is quite amusing, would be hardcore. The majority of contributors to Yelp confirmed this. Young SB and I went there last week. The restaurant specializes in dry hotpot, which, from what I can tell, is a Szechuan stir-fry. You select what you want from four categories; the categories are priced from $2-$5. We chose beef, pork belly, dried bean curd, bok choy, wide vermicelli, and Tribute vegetable (a hollow-stemmed vegetable that had been dried) and asked for extra spicy. We also got House Special Beef Noodle Soup, a lamb skewer, and a beef skewer. All the dishes were excellent. The hotpot, served with rice, had a lot of chili peppers, Szechwan peppercorns, and oil. The items were cooked well and there was a nice contrast of textures. There was plenty for two. The skewers were juicy; both were spiced with hot pepper and cumin. The lamb was quite fatty and gamy. The soup had a very nice flavor. The restaurant is clean, bright and the service was fine. They give a 5% discount for cash. I’ll go back for the hot pot. Some other diners had ordered the fried pig feet dish and that looked tasty. -
Is it possible that there's anything approaching Jin River out near Reston?
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With my wife and older boy out seeing the Astros take on the Rangers, I turned to take out for dinner tonight, and ordered from the Montrose location of Mala Sichuan Bistro. I went with my standard szechuan restaurant benchmark order of ma po tofu, cucumber with chili oil, and a noodle of some sort (typically dan dan mien, but I went with cold "funky noodles" from Mala). I am pleased to report that Mala is, as the kids say, legit. The ma po was spicy and numbing, but not overwhelmingly so. The funk of the broad bean paste was there, without the overwhelming saltiness I've experienced at other places. I stayed vegetarian tonight, but they do offer it with ground beef. The cucumbers were fresh and crisp, topped with a nice balance of chili oil and crumbled szechuan peppercorns. I think next time I'll try the version in garlic oil to add some variation to the flavors. The cold noodles were similar to Chengdu cold noodles, and a great version of them at that. The noodles were nicely cooked, with a good bit of residual bite, and nicely coated with the sauce as opposed to sitting undressed on a ladle-ful of sauce on the bottom of the bowl. There will be plenty of time to explore the legion of amazing holes in the wall in Chinatown, but for now, I'm glad to have found a more-than-solid joint close by. -
Breaking News! Bethesda Magazine is reporting that Peter Chang will open a new "flagship" restaurant called "Q by Peter Chang" in Bethesda. Don will have to decide if this qualifies for it's own thread.
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Soooooo Little Pepper has been getting lots of press. Like literally the times did a whole article on just this restaurant. People have made pilgrimages to this place en masse it seems. It's in a very strange location compared to it's counterparts in and around the main drag in Flushing central. This is in College Point. I was a bit skeptical as places that get SOOOOO much press tend to enliven my skepticism particularly when it's been throughout a relatively long period of time. Anywho, I went and had a very nice meal. They have that balance between the sweetness, the savory, and the spicy downnnnn. Sometimes I go to Sichuan restos and they like need to prove that they are from Sichuan and they just go all out on the spice. I can handle spice but having been to the Sichuan province and having quite a lot of experience with Chinese food I've found it's besssstttt when you get a certain balance in the flavors. I got a whole spread despite it being just me based on recommendations from several of the articles I had read about the restaurant. The menu is quite large which isn't strange but it is chock full of very nice dishes some beyond the usual dan dan noodles and such (they have those tooooo and I love Dan Dan just using it to make a point!!). I got the Chongqing Chicken, the Spicy Potatos, the Cumin Lamb, and the Beef Tendons. My two faves were the chicken and the potatos. The chicken had a great flavor but be warned it is very peppery and not to be eaten if u don't really like spiceeeee. Usually dishes like this with diced meat and chili can be mixed in quality I've found. Sometimes the meat loses out to the rest of ingredients!!! Spot on here in my opinion!! The potatos however could be said to be revelatory. Imagine french fries made by a Sichuan chef and thats what its like. I don't even LOVE French Fries and I felt this was a knock out. It had the perfect flavor blend of that herby peppery mouth numbing taste along with the gloriousness of a French Fry put together. SOOOOOO I would def make the trek and go here it's well worth it!!! Maybe ya'll disagree as well perhaps it has declined from a height it was once at before the hype etc LMKKKK!!- 3 replies
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I have not yet set foot inside Rolling Cooking (alternate website), but I pass it regularly and I'm hearing good things. From its menu (too long to download and post), it looks a little like a neighborhood Chinese restaurant, but I hear that the dishes are more authentic than Americanized, that Mapo Tofu is on the menu, that the Flaming Lamb is tremendous, and that they deliver. More to follow upon first-hand observation. I'm not sure what to make of the dual websites. One seems to indicate Bayonne is the location, but both point to the Springfield location. What Rolling Cooking replaced was a pretty bad Chinese place, maybe as long as 6 months ago....but I only recently noted the funky sign out front.
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Tried 88 China on Saturday and was disappointed. Spicy capsicum chicken was certainly hot enough, but was more heat than flavor. Shredded chicken with leek was terrible. Crabmeat and asparagus chowder was tasteless. Every time we get one of these "Authentic" places out here in Western Fairfax, I get my hopes up and they are always dashed. Happened with Sichuan Village. Happened with 100 Degree Chinese Cuisine. Happened with Taste @ Hong Kong. All these places have some good dishes, but none comes close to a stellar eatery like HKP. Cheng's Asian Cuisine has some potential. And we haven't had even a decent dim sum spot out here since Fortune Reston closed. -
Riverside Hot Pot opened last week in the old Chop Stix space. Address is 820 Muddy Branch Rd Gaithersburg, MD 20878. Website is: http://riversidehotpot.com/. Evidently it's a chain from China. I think this is the first (?) US location. You pick a stock from about 6 choices, they bring you a individual sized pot with burner. Add ins are all you can eat (think after the grand opening special of $21, it will be $25/pp). There is also a really nice sauce bar. There is a "traditional" Chinese menu as well, but we didn't opt for that. I got the Szechuan broth (which was good but I was hoping for a bit spicier), my wife got the vegetarian "health" pot (it had some various radish type things and goji berries for some additional flavor). If you are a vegetarian, be sure to tell them, because they top the pots of with a house broth which isn't vegetarian (they brought a teapot of the veggie stock for my wife). The list of add-ins is extensive. We got an assortment of veg (spinach, bok choy, napa, other greens, lotus root, mushrooms (shitake and enoki), bamboo shoots, frozen bean curd (has a nice spongy texture), shrimp, scallops, clams, squid, octopus (wife eats fish). I also got a spicy beef and another beef with enoki. Last item was a clear noodle. Everything was really good. The kitchen didn't give us everything each time we asked but the servers were good at finishing up the requests when something was missing. My only negative is that when they re-fill the broth, it would be nice if they did so with the broth that you ordered. My Szechuan ended up pretty watered down. Would definetly go back a second time (perhaps as soon as tomorrow!) Cheers!
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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Yesterday, I joined a tradition that many Americans celebrate - a feast at a Chinese restaurant on Christmas day. I went with my co-worker and his family to this unassuming restaurant in a strip mall deep in Montgomery County. It is quite difficult to get to - if you put in the address into the GPS, it doesn't quite get you there. When you enter the plaza you think you should be entering, you will approach a roundabout. Don't take it all the way into the plaza - head towards the Hilton and then you'll make a left to get to the back part of the plaza where the restaurant is. I sat down with my friend's family and we caught up. Hot tea was delivered to the table. Now, here is the frustrating part. I know this is part and parcel of "authentic" Chinese restaurants, but it really bugs me. They have a Chinese-American menu and an authentic Chinese menu. The part that is really annoying is the Chinese menu is completely written in a Chinese language script. The only thing in English is the headings ("Pork", "Beef", etc.). There is absolutely no way to try to order from this unless you either read Chinese or have the staff translate every single thing on the menu. I was lucky in that my co-worker's mother is Chinese and speaks/reads the language that was on the menu, plus they have been there several times. They ordered a mix from both menus (I think). You look at the menu at table, and then go up and order/pay (like Joe's Noodle House). We started with the pot-stickers (I think, b/c I have no freaking idea what the dish is actually called). Pan fried and deliciously pork filled. We also got what I assume were XLB/soup dumplings. I like these a lot, don't have a great frame of reference for what is good or not, but these were tasty to me. For the mains, we got (and this is based on me asking Barbara and the server what these dishes were called) "shredded pork and beans", "chicken with spicy garlic sauce", "tea smoked duck", "sour fish soup with vegetables". Very, very tasty. I loved all the dishes. The pork dish was slivers of tasty pork with vegetables and beans and a tasty sauce. I haven't had it anywhere before. The chicken was spicier, and the sauce was a little sweet. The duck was fantastic. Crispy fried on outside, tender and fatty duck meat on the in side. It was served with those small white buns and hoisin sauce. The fish soup was good and interesting tasting, but could have been spicier with more hot peppers. I like this place a lot. The food quality is very good (IMO). I liked each dish and it seemed very consistent. My friends mom said she forgot to ask for spicy, so that could have enhanced it, as well. I think asking for it a little spicier and being selective with dishes could make this as good as Joe's Noodle House, but far less crowded and rushed of an experience (I think Joe's is sort of best for take out, but it's 27 miles from my house, so it's not an impromptu option). I'm looking at the Chinese menu now, and hit the "Google translate" button, so now I can see the menu options. I'm just going to print this out next time and take it with me. -
Florence Fabricant of the New York Times reports on the new Han Dynasty at 90 Third Ave. "A First Look at Han Dynasty in the East Village" by Robert Sietsema on ny.eater.com
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