Szechuan Cuisine

[echallstrom]

I absolutely love Great Wall. I was turned on to it (i.e., made aware that it existed) by a friend who has spent several years in China and mentioned in passing that Great Wall was the most authentic Szechuan food in the DC area.

The question I want to ask, and I'm not sure whether to post it here or on the Joe's Noodle House board, is whether JNH is better than Great Wall. I'm not sure if I mean "more authentic" better or just plain old tastes better, but I have yet to find a comparison of the two, and I think I have scanned both JNH and Great Wall threads.

Well, tonight I'm taking my first trip to JNH, and hopefully I will be able to report back.

But I have a feeling some of you have been to both, so I'd like to get your reactions and comparison of the new Joe's (after loosing their chef to Peking Cheers) and the new Great Wall (after losing their bulletproof glass).

[DonRocks]

The question I want to ask, and I'm not sure whether to post it here or on the Joe's Noodle House board, is whether JNH is better than Great Wall.

This database does not support many-to-many relationships.

[i'm nothing if not efficient.]

[RWBooneJr]

To complicate the question, I'd like to hear people's thoughts on the oddly-named Honk Kong Palace in Falls Church. I have never been to Joe's or Great Wall, but HKP's Ma Po Tofu is the single best Chinese dish that I have ever had. I actually had it for lunch today along with their Chengdu Kung Pao Chicken, which was shockinly more complex and flavorful than any Kung Pao Chicken I've ever had.

[JimRice]

I'm a big fan of Hong Kong Palace. I'm also a fan of Joe's, but it's a long drive for me, and at least on the Mapo Tofu "The Palace" is better to me. OTOH, Joe's has a wider variety of yummy things including some Non-Szechuan specific dishes like the salty crispy squid and fish filet with pine nuts. I guess I ought to go to Great Wall tomorrow. I'll see what I can do

[StephenB]

As one who has been to both Joe's and HKP many times, most recently in the last week, I would say in general that Joe's fare is hottier, louder and gutsier and HKP's is more refined and beautifully presented, though still with a zing. Both those places please my palate. Are they authentically Szechuanese? To me, that hardly matters -- it tastes good. I hear that the best food in China is at government banquets. We Washingtonians wouldn't know about that.

Parenthetically, our former colleague, james g, also known as pandahugga, who has moved to Beijing, is running an interesting blog, occasionally on food matters, at www.jamesinbj.com.

Gung hay fat tsoy!

[synaesthesia]

I've only had one experience at HKP, and one Szechuan eating experience at JNH. So that's not that much to go on. However, I did find that JNH had more grassy flavors than HKP and more heat. But my feeling was that it was often in a way that overwhelmed the food, and personally prefer HKP's more light-handed and delicate style.

[Soup]

I have to give props to HKP but my fav still is China Star. Never been dissappointed but I do tend to get similar thing everytime. Stuff I would recommend are Szechuan tofu, fish in with sour mustard green, crystal shrimp, salt and pepper eggplant. One thing that is paculiar is, my wife once asked if they could tone down the heat on the tofu dish. They refused. We still order it, it just burned.

[echallstrom]

Sorry this has taken so long to put up. But last Friday I made it to Joe's Noodle House, so I thought I would report back on my thoughts comparing Joe's and Great Wall.

First off, we started with spicy sweet and sour cabbage (and my girlfriend had the wonton soup). We also had the dumpling in red hot sauce. We ordered three main dishes: bean curd Szechuan style with pork, Szechuan spicy and dry beef, and the salty and crispy shrimp.

This meal is pretty comparable to a typical meal we would order at Great Wall. In particular, my two favorite dishes at great wall are the Ma Po Tofu and the Ma La Wantons.

The short and sweet observations are as follows:

First, Joe's has more character and it is delightful to eat there. The same can't quite be said for Great Wall, although they have made improvements.

Second, Joe's has a much more extensive menu, with a much more extensive selection of "authentic" Szechuan dishes. Great Wall is great, but its authentic Szechuan menu is only about 9 dishes long. The rest of the dishes are simply not comparable. for instance, Joe's Szechuan spicy and dry beef is a completely different dish that Great Wall's Szechuan style beef. Joe's version of this dish is a dry, crispy, and thoroughly hot! dish. Great Wall's version is hot by American standards, but mostly resembles a sweet and sour or orange peel beef that has similar thin beef strips. That would be my primary advice for those of you ordering from Great Wall -- stick to the traditional ma po / ma la portion of the menu.

Third, I think the levels of hotness are comparable. At least on the main "ma po" or numbing and spicy dishes. Both generally blow my mind and I love it. They give me indigestion. There may be a little difference (my sleep was more fitful following my meal at Joe's then it has ever been following Great Wall), but I don't think I could say that Joe's was significantly hotter than Great Wall on the authentic Szechuan dishes.

Finally, Joe's has greater depth of flavor and texture. I think there was much, much more going on in Joe's Szechuan tofu than Great Wall's ma po tofu. There was certainly more flavor in the dumplings / wonton's at Joe's than at Great Wall. As noted above, the Szechuan spicy dry beef was not only hotter and less sugary at Joe's, but was nuanced with lots of different flavors caked onto the dry, almost jerky-like beef strips. The sweet and spicy cabbage was a nice contrast to the spicy and numbing dishes (and I think that the vinegar in the pickled cabbage takes on a much more pleasant and slightly sweet flavor when your mouth has been numbed by Szechuan peppercorns). Finally, the salty (and garlicy) shrimp were simple and fantastic. Shells on and perfectly, lightly breaded / coated with a crispy salty sauce and full of amazing garlic and sea salt flavor.

So there you have it. The bottom line is that I live about 15 blocks from Great Wall, they deliver to my apartment, and I don't have a car. So I'm not going to abandon my favorite day-to-day Szechuan restaurant any time soon. And Great Wall is great. But on those days when we have access to a vehicle or maybe when friends are in town, I think a special trip to Joe's will be in order.

I'm really looking forward to the beef noodle soup Szechuan style at Joe's. And I'm recommitting myself to trying the rest of the traditional menu at Great Wall, including the ma la cold noodle and the eggplant in szechuan garlic sauce. I can, however, vouch for the double cooked pork at Great Wall. Wonderful and fatty, but you can't order it every time.

I'm intrigued by Hong Kong Palace after reading the rest of these posts. Now I have another place to try!

[Bob Wells]

To complicate the question, I'd like to hear people's thoughts on the oddly-named Honk Kong Palace in Falls Church. I have never been to Joe's or Great Wall, but HKP's Ma Po Tofu is the single best Chinese dish that I have ever had. I actually had it for lunch today along with their Chengdu Kung Pao Chicken, which was shockinly more complex and flavorful than any Kung Pao Chicken I've ever had.

Regarding the name, HKP was once a very good Cantonese restaurant. When the Szechuan folks took over, they didn't bother to change the name.

[glee4]

I have to give props to HKP but my fav still is China Star. Never been dissappointed but I do tend to get similar thing everytime. Stuff I would recommend are Szechuan tofu, fish in with sour mustard green, crystal shrimp, salt and pepper eggplant. One thing that is paculiar is, my wife once asked if they could tone down the heat on the tofu dish. They refused. We still order it, it just burned.

Swung by China Star last Saturday and loved it. I know it's a Szechuan restaurant but their chicken lo mein was very tasty. My friend couldn't eat garlic and we asked them to not include it in the fish with bean curd dish. However they forgot and they were very nice about taking it back and making another one for us without the garlic. The spiciness in that dish was a one that gradually got spicy with each bite. I got a small beef stew with turnip soup that was enough to feed two people. I was expecting a beef tripe stew w/ turnips but tt was a basic beef stock with lots of turnips and several cubes of marinated beef. I was a little disappointed but the soup was good. Looking forward to trying other dishes at China Star.