Tag Archives: Chinese

East Dumpling House

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Well, we can start with a list of things that East Dumpling House DOESN’T have.  It doesn’t have tea at the tables, a large footprint, a tank of fish, a large parking lot, dim sum carts or even table service.  What they do have is dumplings – oh are there dumplings.  Tyler Cowen counted 38, I counted a menu that had a couple of small sections of entrees and kebobs, and then a large array of dumplings.  Beef, pork, lamb, chicken, shrimp, egg, veggie … really it is hard not to lapse into Bubba talking about ways to cook shrimp.

Coming with a large group, we arrived in time for a 10:30 AM opening – can’t be too safe with a place this tiny.  Hearing about the Northeast Chinese style, the expectation was that we would be treated to something a bit more glutinous than the wonton based shumai sort of deal.  Indeed, the dumplings did not disappoint.  Each plate almost seemed to resemble these perfect little purses – indeed, maybe purses might be inaccurate, more like those sorts of sacks that hobos in old cartoons lugged their stuff around.  All of the dumplings can be had steamed or pan fried: we put ourselves in the restaurants hands here.  The lamb were excellent – and how often can you find lamb ANYTHING.  Their house special dumplings (fried) were amazing – pork, chive, shrimp – perfectly pan fried, like the best “peking ravioli” you’ve ever had.  The egg and chive (steamed) were fine though unmemorable while the chicken and shrimp (fried) were solid.

If the dumplings were all there was, this would be a hit.  But there are some good cold dishes too.  Spinach with chili oil was as good a spinach dish as I’ve had recently – and the sichuan style pig ears delivered some good textural contrast.  We ordered noodles as well, with black bean sauce – the homemade noodles had a little more chew than I expected, but not unpleasantly so.  The flavor was subtle with the bean and pork.  The tofu ribbons with green pepper was okay, but I am not a firm bean curd fan generally.  Overall, a lovely no-frills sort of find.

Silver Fountain and DC Dim Sum in General

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Thumbing through some of the mental notes about the eating life in beloved DC, it occurred suddenly that I have criminally neglected Dim Sum.  Of course, Dim Sum is the original brunch – where Chinese restaurant provides many small plates etc etc etc.  Obviously, we don’t live in New York – so the pickings are destined to be a little slim.  That said, recently when we visited Silver Fountain in Silver Spring, we stumbled upon what was pretty clearly my favorite Dim Sum experience.  But I’m not going to put a full review here – it’s Dim Sum, and at Silver Fountain ALL of the major blocking and tackling elements were good (shu mai, pork buns, congee, turnip cake) – but sort of work through the major elements that have shaped my view of the discipline in the area.

  • Obviously, DC proper is worthless for a real get your hands dirty experience.  Ping Pong Dim Sum in Chinatown is good, but also very gringo-focused.  The food is good, but on the pricey side, and meant to provide the motif of dim sum, but when you sit in a douchey DC bar decor, you know that this is a fancypants impostor.
  • A&J in Rockville has the Northern Chinese dim sum.  I’ve been twice – well once to their Virginia location – and liked it both times.  That said, the dim sum items were on a menu, and not on carts hurtling through the restaurant.  That is a bit of a bummer.  In a related story, I am shallow.
  • This starts veering me towards what had been our standby for years – China Garden on Rosslyn, located in the ABC 7 building.  This screamed dim sum to me – the very Chinese crowd, the enormous line after Church, the carts and the indecipherable markings as items are ordered.  It used to be uniformly excellent but in recent years it has slipped.  Things like the sticky rice end up having too much Chinese sausage and end up wallpapering over a less appealing texture.  On this side of the river, it is still the best – but the craving to do it has ceased mostly.
  • Silver Fortune we were lucky to get there for opening as the line exploded after we sat down.  The carts were in full force here too.  But between this place and China Garden, the food was just better, every dumpling, every leaf wrapped sticky rice, every Chinese broccoli, it all works.  The service was – well I would not say “spotty” but it felt weird to wait so long for the shu mai to show up – but once it did, order was restored.
  • Obviously, like any Sunday brunch, this really benefits from being with friends.  It is very much a communal operation as people stop carts and take stuff and you get to sample tons of things.  It is a slow, steady trip towards a serious food coma.
  • And no, I still can’t do Chicken’s Feet.

Sichuan Pavilion (Rockville)

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Granted, the last time I had done this was January 2009.  Sichuan Pavilion, located in God’s country in beautiful downtown Rockville, Maryland, is of course awash in praise from folks like Tyler Cowen who make a point to know these things (well, he certainly does not know economics).  Indeed my own memory was pleasant as well – come to think of it, I need to expound more on Sichuan in general instead of shorter posts (well with the exception of Mala Tang).    Of course all of this prefaces my visit recently to Sichuan Pavilion as part of a lovely evening in clearly the nicest place on earth – and while Sichuan Pavilion is a rock solid thumbs up, Cowen’s relative comparison to Hong Kong Palace is simply incorrect.

For this occasion, we got a chance to enjoy a mega family style sort of feast of all sorts of food.  The nice thing about this is that – well, you’re full, you try a lot of things, and get a solid cross-section of insights about the restaurant.  So, how was EVERYTHING??

  • Cold Noodles in Spicy Sesame Sauce – edible, but not very good.  The sauce resembled a fairly standard Satay type of deal flavorwise.  There was nothing memorable here.
  • Lotus Root Salad – a decent job.  Lotus root, in addition to looking nifty, has a jicama like quality to it.  That said, the salad did not pop.
  • Cucumber Salad – not as good as Mala Tang.  I like cucumber though.
  • ChengDu Dumplings – Sichuan flavored Pork Dumplings.  Are you kidding me?  Of course these were yummy.  The sauce though lacked the complexity and multiple notes of other places.  It was just not as floral, and the Sichuan Peppercorn was muted.
  • Ma Pu Tofu – a block and tackling sort of dish I understand.  The sauce was flavorful, although once again muted in the Sichuan flavors – a cuisine that normally attacks you in a good way.  I guess some will call it subtle, and I am a Cro-Magnon.  However, the subtlety can be there while the flavors are assertive – they aren’t mutually exclusive.
  • Cured Pork Belly and  Chinese Sausage with Garlic Sprouts – lovely.  Arguably the best dish of the night.  Of course it is bacon and sausage – so how can that not be awesome?  It feels like there was a lower bar to achieve here.
  • String Beans with Ya Chai – I have no idea what this Ya Chai is.  I mean I learned, it is preserved vegetable, but it is essentially a seasoning.  That added to string beans made a really tasty vegetable.  It was probably the best dish of the night since they did not have that pig meat head start.
  • Chili Chicken – My tablemate was looking for the amazing fried chicken with stuffed chili peppers of Hong Kong Palace.  Heck, so was I.  But alas, this is a standard chicken dish.  It is spicy – the peppers do give the heat, but not a lot else.  The chicken was also overdone, and sort of became too tough.

Overall, this is a solid B+ performance.  It is an excellent choice for Chinese, but Uncle Liu’s empire need not worry.  God I could use some Hong Kong Palace …

XO Taste

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Considering it is across the highway from Hong Kong Palace, XO Taste is a striking contrast in Chinese food.  The former restaurant has cast its lot with Sichuan cuisine and the associated flavor profile, while XO Taste is more about the kindler, gentler side of Chinese cooking in its subtler, more muted tones.  I am not 100% sure if seasoning is not available in that part of the country or not – but certainly going from Sichuan to Cantonese is a lot like turning down the blinds.

This is not to say that XO Taste is bad.  Indeed the live seafood and meat stations (where you see the pigs and ducks hanging about) looked truly impressive.  We sat down for a meal which started with a roasted pork soup.  This was a noodle soup, with sliced pork in that iconically chinese sparerib way, with the pink exterior.  The pork was well done and the mild broth had a lovely flavor which was downright quaffable.  The noodles in the soup were a bit on the short of al dente side, but it was not a fatal error.

The entree we ordered was a seafood and eggplant casserole which was also well made.  The eggplant was cooked well and permeated throughout.  The seafood was well cooked and – thankfully – the shrimp was not overcooked (an increasing rarity in these times).  The chinese watercress we ordered was also quite good – providing that fresh contrast and crunch to go with the softer tendency of the casserole.  Indeed the authenticity and flavors were there.

However, it might just my tastes and the nature of Cantonese in general.  XO Taste clearly warrants more comparison with the various Full Kee extrusions than with the Sichuan places I know and love.  The meal we had was good, and not a screaming ethnic restaurant bargain.  There is nothing to complain about, aside from the fact that there was nothing to say wow and get all weak kneed over.  XO Taste is good, but with a crackling vibrant personality like Hong Kong Palace living so near, it feels like a stodgy and boring.  There is a lot to admire about XO Taste, but like the Full Kees not a whole lot to inspire my affection.

Mala Tang

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Readers of this space are familiar with my raves over Liu’s other places Hong Kong Palace and Uncle Liu’s Hot Pot.  These restaurants – both clearly very much worth your time – are suburban ethnic food in the sorts of places where you expect to find hole in the wall great ethnic food (strip malls in lower rent areas) targeting transplanted natives.  But how do you take Sichuan cuisine, and the restaurant magic developed in ethnic no-frills environments, and make it crackle in the gringolicious, douchebag laden haven of Orange Line Arlington.  Liu’s attempt to conquer the land of the white folks and gringoficaton of Sichuan cuisine is seen in Mala Tang in Clarendon, pretty clearly the best Chinese restaurant in the Metro-accessible Washington DC area.  In Mala Tang Liu finds a way to upscale the decor, make the menu more “American” looking, and roll back the heat level a tad, while not dishonoring the Sichuan hot pot tradition and still delivering a terrific restaurant experience.  We were particularly lucky to have Liu himself cooking tonight, and one hopes that the restaurant will hold this standard.

Mala Tang conceptually focuses on Sichuan street food – presented here in a small plate format – and of course hot pot, where a spicy (or mild, gringofication hello) boiling broth is at your table which you use to cook meats and vegetables at your table.  In the Sichuan street food, we have some of things we were familiar with.  We ordered Dan-Dan Noodles, noodles with Sichuan sauce and ground pork which were less spicy than I’ve had, but well flavored.  The essential notes of Sichuan peppercorn and oil were there.  We also ordered a small plate of cucumber salad, cucumber in chili oil which was stunningly good.  The complex notes were there, pressed against the cold refreshing cucumber was a revelation.

That said, the star was the hotpot.  I loved Uncle Liu’s, but to my shock, the Sichuan broth here was better.  It had less heat, sure, but the depth of flavor was much more prevalent here.  The broth, in addition to the key Sichuan flavors had hints of sweetness with dates and goji berries, and a little salty kick with preserved egg.  It also had less chili oil than Uncle Liu’s did – which contributed to the lower heat level, but made the broth much more palatable as a post cooking soup.  For things to cook in the hot pot, we ordered pork dumplings, which in this case were little cute dumplings that almost worked like a gnocchi once cooked in the pot – very tasty.  We also used it to cook wine marinated beef (which had all sorts of layers between the marinade and the cooking liquid), snow pea leaves and enoki mushroom.  All of it getting that extra kick of complexity from the lovely broth.

The restaurant as of this writing has only been open three weeks.  The service however was pretty sharp – patient with our orders.  The drinks may have stood faster delivery possibly and the heat sources are not adjustable … however, these are all very minor quibbles.  Considering we are three weeks into the restaurant’s life, it’s actually quite smooth.  Chef Liu could have a real breakthrough story here in bringing Sichuan to the masses.  This is not Hong Kong Palace, but it is not aspiring to be that.  But for the target market and the restaurants “upscale” aims, it is a total success.

Joe’s Noodle

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Joe’s Noodle – probably not enough for a full out post, but after the Inception viewing, had a chance to check out Joe’s Noodle in Rockville. Suffice to say, that if you lived in Northern Virginia – Hong Kong Palace is the king. If you live in Rockville, Sichuan Pavilion rules the roost. But that doesn’t mean that Joe’s Noodle is at all bad. The beef tendon is not HK Palace’s equal, but it is definitely solid. The string beans with ground pork were tasty, and the fish and silk tofu with spicy sauce is certainly estimable. If the other two places are 9 or 10, Joe’s Noodle is a solid 8, and an 8 that stays open later.

Hollywood East Cafe

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China Garden, at least so far through my experience, is the best dim sum I have had in this area.  However, in recent visits, their quality in a couple of areas (sticky rice most notably) seemed to have slipped – enough that it warranted an excursion to see if we could find comparable dim sum.  The search took us to Hollywood East Cafe, which Tyler Cowen lauded as the “best dim sum around“.  That is hefty praise indeed.

As one would want with dim sum, we came with a pretty large group complete with token asians (you never know when it helps to know a secret handshake or two).  We ordered wide and well, and for something like dim sum – it is almost best just dealing in notes:

Dumplings – good all around, the scallop and watercress in particular.  All the steamed goodness very solid.

Chinese Broccoli – a little dry without the oyster sauce, but overall a solid product

Shrimp Noodle – well done

The thing with the fritter surrounded by rice noodle (Ja Leung) – Total crack.  I cannot discuss this rationally.

Chicken Feet – I could not take the plunge.  Those who did were not impressed.

Pork Spareribs – Not too bad, but unremakable

Beef Chowfoon – The noodles were fine, but the beef was a bit tough.  They might have missed the mark a bit.

Taro Fritter – delicious, but way too greasy.  This is the sort of fried food preparation that gives those people who say “fried food is bad” and only eat steamed vegetables and baked chicken some measure of justification.

Turnip Cake – Not bad.  Flavor solid.

Egg Custard Tart – Too eggy.  It tasted more like a deviled egg of some kind than a custard.

Overall, this might not measure up to China Garden.  I’m not sure.  The service was slow at times, but that is often a good thing at Dim Sum.  At 80 minutes, we did not really stretch out and luxuriate like we could have.  Overall, it’s a good place.  Is it great or a can’t miss?  Probably not.

Uncle Liu’s Hot Pot

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Chinese hot pot, shabu shabu, whatever – is a communal form of eating which I’ve only had limited exposure to.  In the center of the table the heating element and the cooking broth reside.  The table orders meats and vegetables and noodles etc and you toss it into the liquid and then fish them out and eat.  It is fun – any sort of DIY eating sort of is – but the treatments I had had previously were actually fairly bland.  The various side dishes were more exciting than the cooked meat and stuff.

It is with these sorts of notions that I approached when I heard of Uncle Liu’s Hot Pot in Falls Church.  This restaurant, as the name seems to indicate, is about hot pot, Sichuan hot pot in particular.  Sichuan, as loyal readers (and I wonder why you would be) would know is one of our favorite cuisines – and so the idea of spicy Sichuan hot pot broth was positively titillating.  Further add that the restaurant was opened by the owners of the resplendent Hong Kong Palace, and expectations were high.  What can positively be reported, is that the high expectations were well founded.  This was an absolute homerun.

Walking into the shopping center location, the telltale smells of Sichuan peppercorn fill the nostrils.  We knew this was a good sign.  As we sat down, we were given the hot pot menu, where the broths themselves were in Chinese.  For $6 you could get the spicy or mild, for $8 a half-and-half (which we ordered), $10 a mushroom and $20 for a special fish broth.  We then ordered four meats (flounder, fried pork, beef, squid) and four vegetables (celery, dry tofu, king mushroom, string bean leaves) along with some vegetable dumplings.  The wait staff was patient and good at explaining to us novices what to do (even with a Chinese patron in our group – which did not hurt language-wise) and what made sense – and the menu of ingredients was quite expansive, including pig’s blood, duck feet and things that scream authenticity.

When the broth arrived, the mild side was a flavorful chicken broth with goji berries, while the spicy side was just a compendium of Sichuan wonderfulness, full of body, chili oil, Sichuan Peppercorns and – I can’t discuss this rationally.  Needless to say the next couple of hours were spent in communal bliss with friends and delicious meat.  The mild side was very good, and better if you want to test the dipping sauces (whose options were vast).  However, the spicy side drives the train – and really no other spice is needed when you use that.  Overall, a lovely feast, and at 85 bucks (with tip) for 6 people, very affordable too.  For a communal dining experience, this is supreme.

P.S. Apparently during the day they offer a lunch buffet with both your “General Tso” type of American Chinese and a good chunk of Hong Kong Palace’s menu.  As such, this is a boon for Fairfax/Falls Church.  But I live too close to the real thing to partake in this.

Chinese Three Ways

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With two Chinese restaurant soujourns in three days, it is hard not to do some sort of comparison.  Authentic Chinese is a cuisine and taste I am growing ever familiar with – and when I say Chinese, I really mean Sichuan.  Sichuan food is known for its use of cilantro, peanut, chili oil, and its specific peppercorns that make the mouth numb.  It is bold, spicy, and with heat – a flavor profile my South Indian tongue is terribly used to.

Michael’s Noodle – This is in Rockville, MD.  I was buoyed by both the glowing recommendations in Yelp as well as the write-up in the essential Tyler Cowen Ethnic Dining Guide.  Given the wild array of cuisines (Manchurian, Taiwanese, Sichuan) on the menu, I was either encouraged or worried.  Really with these things you can go either way – better to do 2 things well than 15 things poorly.  We started with a small plate, the shredded tofu with spicy sauce.  When I think spicy in this instance, I think hot – this isn’t Trinidad after all – but the dish lacked zip.  The firm tofu was fine, but firm tofu is not a dish that gets me going generally, and the relative blandness bothered me.  I am not sure if we communicated to the waitstaff correctly about the heat we wanted, or whether the waitstaff just judged that we were not natives so they had to hold back the zing.  Either way, not a fan.  The Sichuan dumplings we ordered were well prepared as dumplings, but the sauce lacked any markers of Sichuan – heat, peppercorns.  It was almost sweet, which is nice if you are looking at teriyaki.  The entree of shredded pork and spicy noodles also lacked spice, aside from a small undercurrent of heat.  This was not an offensive dish, but just not memorable.  The best dish was the vegetable, the mustard greens with dried scallops.  The dried scallops manifested itself almost tasting like tunafish, and the sauce was tasty.  The greens seemed a little overdone, but the flavor was solid.  Overall, while I cannot say it was bad, it was not what I was looking for, and a wholly unnecessary restaurant when other places are nearby.

Sichuan Pavilion – This would be one of those other places.  The smell of cilantro and yumminess greets you from the start.  The ambience and decor are surprisingly upscale by suburban strip mall ethnic standards.  Usually as I have been touring these sorts of joints, a clear function over form decision is what I come to expect.  But here the tea was in an actual “good china” teapot.  The tea also did not taste like dishwater – actual body.  The menu was also very impressive, with a clever “American” vs “Authentic” reversible format.  The amazing variety of small plates, zany dishes and such was alluring – and the authentic Chinese lunch special made me almost want to move to Rockville (well, except for being in Rockville).  The waitress we had was very friendly and her first recommendation was on the money, the Mini Pork Buns filled with Chicken Broth.  In other words, the elusive SOUP DUMPLING!  With the black vinegar sauce, the dumplings are delicious and the chicken broth squirting out makes them basically impossible to eat gracefully, not that I would want to.  The vegetable was good, Baby Bok Choy with Preserved Egg on top.  That said, the Preserved Egg added nothing.  I am sure it was well done, just not my style.  The entree was flounder and silken tofu in spicy soup.  We had asked the waitress earlier to make it spicy and they did not disappoint.  The dish lacked some of the subtlety of the similar dish elsewhere, more straight heat and savory – but how tasty it was!  The flounder perfectly cooked, the silken tofu and sauce providing wonderful texture.  I could eat it all day.  All in all, this was a total triumph, and would be the restaurant I would whine about going to every day if I lived in Rockville.

Hong Kong Palace – Alas, I live on the other side of the river, but do not weep for me.  Falls Church’s Hong Kong palace holds its own quite nicely, maybe every bit as good as Sichuan Pavilion, with a 20 minute less drive.  My first voyage there was on New Year’s eve 2008, and we sat down sharing a table with two stranger we had just met (so we could cut the wait and sit at a table of four).  We ordered the fish and tofu in spicy broth, and the lady we shared the table with ordered the Beef and Beef Tendon in Szechuan sauce.  The fish and tofu was divine, spicy and full of the Szechuan peppercorn and fragrance.  The heat-numb combo is a huge winner.  The Beef Tendon is a perfect appetizer, thinly cut, tender without being chewy.  Really after that, it has been love.  In the myriad of trips, we have covered much of the menu.  Their Dan Dan Noodles (pork, spicy sauce), Chengu Dumplings, and most of their vegetable sides are delicious (remember this is the authentic menu – if you are the sort to order Moo Goo Gai Pan, what can I tell you>).  But the superstars have been the fish and the stir fried chicken with stuffed chiles.  This involves breaded, fried chicken (always a good start) and features peanuts and peppers – solid heat and flavor.  But the star are the stuffed dried chile peppers, the peppers are stuffed with sesame and spices, and could be a snack on its own.  I would buy it for gameday – seriously.  The waitstaff is friendly and familar, and while the restaurant is smaller and more no-frills than Sichuan Pavilion – it has nothing to apologize for.  I kick and scream when I go too long without it for sure.