PandaHugga

Thanks for the update! Next time you see Chef Zhang, be sure to tell him I have relocated to Beijing in order to be able to guarantee my supply of Sichuan dishes, now that he has left the DC area!

For anyone looking for a Sichuan fix in London, you might want to check out the new Bar Shu on Frith Street. It was opened recently to phenomenal accolades, and features a chef plucked out of the hugely popular South Beauty chain in China and Fuchsia Dunlop (the author of what I consider to be the seminal Sichuanese cookbook in English) as consultant. It comes at a price, however, with meal for four at around GBP 120, but what meal in London comes cheap? You can read about it from Fuchsia herself here: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e8852bd6-e19f-11d...00779e2340.html

I don't remember the Lake Windless Prawns having a breading, but I am also not a big fan of that dish, so perhaps it does.

We ate at Hanks last weekend and enjoyed it very much. We got there at 6:32pm, and were just too late to get the last remaining 4-spot table, so we were told it'd be a 30-minute wait. They took our cellphone number and we retreated to Trio's for some drinks and some chips with guacamole (I wonder how many diners wind up doing the same?). At precisely 31 minutes after we left Hank's my phone rang and we were seated. Dinner consisted of several oysters on the half shell per person, 1 oyster shooter per person, and then we each ordered mains. The oysters were great, though the presentation was a bit boring (no good way to present that many, perhaps). The shooters were a waste, however, since you really cannot taste the oyster in there. Our mains were very good in 3 of 4 cases--two of us had the soft-shell crabs, which I thought were great; one of us had scallops that were also very well prepared and very tasty, while the one dud was a white tuna filet that was way overcooked. Surprised that they had no desserts, but they did bring us a couple of hunks of broken up chocolate to go with coffee. Not a bad place.

I just cannot keep silent on the subject of the golden powder ribs. I have heard and seen people go crazy over these ribs, but having had them twice I cannot see what the fuss is about. They were good ribs and all, but the fried panko-like crust was nothing special at all and hardly did anything for the dish. What was the big attraction?

A friend of mine works with a friend of Zhang's, and she says he's GONE. I plan to use this connection to get a copy of my favorite recipe of his (the Chen Cang beef with buns) and maybe get some more of the story.

I'd love to do a $20 Tuesday at A&J sometime; and yes, they have several outposts in the PRC.

I am actually kind of surprised that Zhang left so suddenly, but it appears to be true. Poor Jerry at China Gourmet must be Jerked like crazy, since all his plans hinged on this guy coming to work for him, and he has now hired a slew of (terrible) staff to complement Yao who now he'll probably have to let go. Add to that the fact that throngs of Washingtonian readers are now descending on the place daily only to find that the food is awful. During Zhang's last few days I ate there three days in a row for various reasons, and at each I was very disappointed by the number of dishes that were not available and then by the poor quality of what we ended up getting. Thank goodness China Star is still on its game (I wouldn't be surprised if they bought the place in Atlanta for Zhang to move to, to bring business back to them from China Gourmet).

OK, it seems that the deal is pretty complicated. First, I don't think he's gone yet, but it seems pretty clear that he is leaving. He bought a place in Atlanta and is supposed to be leaving for there pretty soon, though exactly when is unclear. And the reason for leaving is that the folks at TemptAsian are harassing him over leaving them to go to China Gourmet.

There is a rumor afoot that the peripatetic Chef Zhang is about to depart China Gourmet as early as this coming Monday! According to my source, who would not reveal where she heard this, he has been receiving "threatening phone calls" and has decided to decamp to the relative safety of the State of Georgia (Atlanta, not Tbilisi). As a service to the DR community, we are heading there tonight to try to learn more about this, and of course, a full report will follow. I will note in the meantime, however, that we were there last night for dinner and were shocked by the number of patrons there (a lot, mostly non-Chinese, though mostly ordering from the Zhang menu) and by the number of dishes not available. Also shocking was the fact that all but one of our dishes were not particularly good.

Here's my promised comparison of lunch at China Gourmet with dinner at China Star. Two dishes from lunch were also ordered at dinner (ma po tofu and Sichuan chili chicken); in the case of the tofu, I think CG came out ahead, but that might have been because we had a vegetarian at dinner so we ordered the dish without meat. The chicken was pretty comparable between the two places. Over all, comparing the two meals as a whole, China Gourmet won out by a slight margin, but that could be due to better ordering (the dinner crowd included not only the veg, but also some older people with spice-sensitive palates). In a pinch, either one is perfectly acceptable.

We just had lunch there today (Sunday) with a group of Chinese speakers, including three actual Chinese people who had never before had Zhang's cooking, though have heard of him. They left the ordering to me for some reason, so I tried to pick out the top dishes: chicken broth wontons, Chen Cang beef with buns, Sichuan chili chicken, "boiled" fish, "fei teng" fish, ma po tofu and the golden powder spare ribs. Everything was outstanding, but the real vindication was when the group got ready to leave and everyone started to fight over who got to take what dishes home. And the real test will come tonight when we go with another group for dinner at China Star. Report to follow...

Hello everyone from Beijing. I just got back to my hotel from the bookstore, where I bought a culinary dictionary so that future translations of CG's (and other restaurants') menus will be slightly more professional. In the course of looking at the books on offer, I checked them all for their entry on "Husband and Wife Lung Slices" and learned the following: there was a restaurant in Chengdu, Sichuan, that was run by a husband and wife named Guo. They served a particularly tasty dish made of slices of lung in a hot and numbing sauce. They then started to use other cuts of meat in the dish, but the dish became known as Husband and Wife Lung Slices, regardless of the meat used. Mystery solved.

As a last minute thing before taking off tomorrow for China my partner and I headed for dinner to China Star. We had not been there since Chef Zhang arrived at China Gourmet, and we were shocked at how empty the place was, but fortunately the food has not lost its edge. We had several old standbys--the 'roasted' fish with the bamboo tower, the chicken with chilis, and the dry-braised string beans. The fish was as good as ever, and the chicken was probably the best we have had there. The beans were good, but not great, but this is a dish that seems to vary a lot from one time to the next in all restaurants. So, with China Gourmet packed--and slow--on weekends, China Star remains a very good alternative.

A Chinese friend of ours (who also joined the initial Tuesday DR dinner with us a few weeks ago) told us that she had a similar experience on a Saturday, and that the restaurant was definitely not set up yet to accommodate the large numbers of patrons that Chef Zhang is attracting. When we were there on Friday night, however, there was no such problem.

At dinner at CH last night I passed my business cards to the management for them to forward the new menu to me when it's available. I will, of course, make the menu available to the community as soon as possible. Incidentally, we WAY over ordered, but we determined that the husband-wife lung slices and the hot-and numbing beef are essentially the same dish, with additional variety meat in the former (and no, it's not lung). There were no dud dishes, though the beef with bean noodles was really great.

Here's the menu again, with all but one dish figured out. Tonight I may get a new menu, in which case I'll try to translate it before the Sunday dinner, which I may be able to attend, pending the arrival of a friend from out of town. 1. Smoked Sesame Chicken (yan xun xiang you ji), $6.50 2. Husband-and-Wife Lung Slices (fu qi fei pian), $6.50 3. Hot and Numbing Rabbit Cubes (ma la tu ding), $6.50 4. Red Oil Beef Shank (hong you niu jin), $6.50 5. Salty Duck (xian shui ya), $6.50 6. Hot and Numbing Coriander Beef Tendon (ma la xiang cai niu jian), $6.50 7. Five Flavor Beef Tendon (wu xiang niu jian), $6.50 8. Three Flavor Bean Curd Skin (san xian dou pi), $4.95 9. Dan Dan Noodles (dan dan mian), $3.95 10. Fish Coriander Rolls (yu xiang juan), $4.95 11. Nan Shan Bean Jelly (nan shan liang fen), $4.95 12. Sichuan Pickles (si chuan bao cai), $1.95 13. Crispy Jade Cups (cui ban yu huan geng), $4.95 14. Oil Braised Bracken (you men jue cai), $4.50 15. Quick Boiled Peanuts (tiao shui hua ren), $2.95 16. Pork in Garlic Mud (suan ni bai rou), $5.95 17. Hot and Numbing Dried Beef (ma la niu rou gan), $5.95 18. Daikon Radish with Pepper (you hu lo bo), $4.95 19. Pumpkin Cakes (nan gua bing), $3.95 20. Red Oil Wontons (hong you chao shou), $4.95 21. Chicken Juice Wontons (ji zhi chao shou), $4.95 Entrees (other than those marked with a ##): 1. Boiled Fish with Soft Bean Curd (shui zhu dou hua yu), $13.95 2. Ma Po Fish Cubes (ma po yu ding), $12.95 3. Boiled Fish Slices [spicy!!] (fei teng yu pian), $13.95 4. Boiled Fish Casserole [spicy!!] (shui zhu yu), $12.95 5. Special Flavor Hot and Numbing Fish (te wei ma la yu), $13.95 6. Pine Nut Fish Half (song ren yu ban), $12.95 7. Bean Sprout Crystal Shrimp (dou miao shui jing xia), $13.95 8. Sichuan Flavor Shrimp (chuan wei gong bao xia), $12.95 9. Lion Head in Clear Soup (qing dun shi zi tou), $6.95 10. Red Cooked Lion Head (hong shao shi zi tou), $10.95 11. Immortal Old Duck Pot [soupy] (shen xian lao ya guo), $13.95 12. Shan City Taro Chicken (shan cheng yu er ji), $11.95 13. Golden Powder Braised Ribs (jin fen pei xiang gu), $10.95 14. Chen Cang Beef in Buns (chen cang niu jia mo), $10.95 15. Salty Fish with Crab and Tofu (xian yu xie rou dou fu), $8.95 16. Salty Fish with Iron Plate Tofu (xian yu tie ban dou fu), $8.95 17. Boiled Beef Intestine (shui zhu niu da chang), $10.95 18. Tripe with Chili Peppers (jian jiao da chang), $10.95 19. Pickled Vegetable Tripe (suan cai da chang), $10.95 20. Dried Bamboo Shoot Meat Stew (sun gan shao rou), $8.95 21. Fire Braised Red Chicken (huo shao hong zi ji), $9.95 22. Shan City Twice-Cooked Pork (shan cheng hui guo rou), $8.95 23. Duck Breast with Hot Pickled Mustard Tuber (zha cai ya pu), $11.95 24. Simply Sauteed Seasonal Vegetable (qing chao shi shu), $7.95 25. Loofah with Fish Slices (si gua yu pian), $12.95 26. Braised Fresh Scallop and Loofah (xian bei si gua hui), $13.95 27. Ma Po Tofu (ma po dou fu), $7.95 28. Sichuan Spicy some sort of Beef (chuan la XX niu rou), $11.95 29. Garlic Flavored Pork Shreds (yu xiang rou si), $8.95 30. Pickled Vegetable with Bean threads and Pork (suan cai fen si rou si), $8.95 31. Shan City Stir Fried Pig's Foot (shan cheng xiao chao ti), $9.95 32. Dong Po Pork (this is the preserved pork belly), $12.95 33. Sichuan Boy Style Chicken, $11.95 34. "Ba Ge" Rabbit of some sort (the characters are cut off), $11.95 35. "Ba Ge" Boiled Rabbit (spicy dish), $11.95 36. Preserved Pickle Fish, $11.95 37. Beggar's Braised Fish, $11.95 38. Sharp Pepper Fish, $13.95 39. Casserole of Carp and Eggplant, $12.95 40. Fish Simmered in Soy Sauce and Chili Bean Paste, $12.95 41. Scallion Braised Carp, $12.95 42. Beef Tenderloin with Lemongrass, $11.95 43. "Zhu Ge" style Beef with Lemongrass, $11.95 44. Fragrant Dried Beef Slices, $8.95 45. Shan City Chili Chicken, $8.95 46. Minced Chicken with Chilies, $8.95 47. Pearl Tofu Balls, $9.95 48. ##Red Oil Duck Feet, $6.50 49. ##Scallion Oil Duck Feet, $6.50 50. ##"Shepherd's Purse" Diced taro, $4.95 51. ##Hot and Numbing diced taro, $4.95 52. ##Tuchia Style Roast Bread (3), $3.95 53. ##Five Flavor Sesame Roast Pancake, $4.95 54. ##Scallion "Bubble" Pancake, $4.50 55. ##Hot and Numbing Beef Rolls, $4.95

Uh, I don't know how to do this, but I probably cannot make it either!

During our lunch today, I learned that the restaurant is about to rework the menu, with new numbers and everything (no, this is not part of a plot to keep my translating business running). Waiter Yao has asked for my business card so they can get the new menu to me for translation. No indication yet that I'm in line for a lifetime of free meals, though Jake did come through with a free lunch for me! Thanks Jake!

BTW, I am heading to CG for dinner with my Chinese teacher on Friday, and plan to tell Jerry/Peter that we'll be coming again on Sunday with a big group. He will, I am sure, look after us. I also plan to ask them to make sure to make that translation work of mine pay off... And just because all the various spellings are driving me nuts already, Peter's surname is spelled Zhang (or, in the old system, Chang).

I wonder if the menu that Tom got really was the restaurant's translation, or if it was mine...

Only the June date works for me--in Peru the other two dates.

I wonder whether I can claim copyright priveleges and convince them to provide me with free meals for life in exchange for this service??

On a quick visit to NYC this weekend I decided to have lunch at Mario Batali's Spanish-oriented place, Casa Mono, at 125 E17th Street, near Irving Place. I have been a big fan of MB for a while, having eaten at Lupa and Esca several times, and using his cookbooks pretty regularly. However, I had never been to this place and decided to give it a try. Casa Mono is a pretty small place, with a number of tables and several seat along the bar (from which you get a great view of either the kitchen or the espresso maker, depending on which part you sit at). The menu is very interesting, with a wide variety of unusual meats/preparations/combinations, almost of all of which sounded tempting to me. As I sat at the bar, the waitress who provided me with a complimentary glass of house cava accepted my challenge to let her choose my meal for me, since I really would never have been able to decided on my own. In the end, the three dishes she recommended were all ones that would have been on my top 5 or so choices based solely on the menu descriptions. My first dish was a duck egg, served sunny side up, with some sort of bacon-like product over roasted fingerling potatoes with black truffles shaved over the top. I don't know how the chef did it, but this was by far the best, tastiest egg I have ever had. The dish was redolent with garlic, sea salt and the earthy truffles, but somehow the whole was far more than the sum of its parts. Really extraordinary. Dish number two was quail with langostines. The flavors of this dish were also excellent, with the quail done just perfectly so that it was very juicy, but with the bones in it was hard to eat. Also, there were only two langostines, but then there were 10 mussels that I was not expecting and that were the best I can remember eating. The last dish was wild boar with bitter seville oranges. The flavor the boar was outstanding, and was very well complimented by the oranges. This dish appears to be very popular, too, since I saw the chef prepare several dishes of it during my meal. The prices are fairly moderate for NYC, with the meal costing me just under $50 (though the wine was complimentary, and the waitress for some reason chose not to charge me for my espresso). I would definitely come again.

I'd be bringing another person along.