X

daekr

Bloggen omfattas inte av utgivningsbeviset på loppi.se.
Jessica Lagergrens
Skakar liv i i bloggen!
Anna Wii
Till Annas Wii's blogg

daekr

.
.

PDF Document was moved: https://bit.ly/2ulojle

.
.

Authentic Sichuan food. In Little Saigon. Yes, you read that right. When I first saw construction on Ruiji Sichuan Cuisine, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The space it occupies was once held by a typical Chinese takeout spot, which is what you’d expect in this area. But Sichuan food? I’ll believe it when I see it. Wednesday, May 22, 2019 was opening day and I decided I had to see things for myself… after all, one of my grandmothers grew up in Zigong and I’ve always had a soft spot for Sichuan Cuisine. If you ever eaten in San Gabriel Valley, you’ll know that Sichuan regional cuisine has been the reigning king of Chinese food in Southern California the last 10+ years, inaugurating a Sichuan craze that stretches from Hawaii to New York… but Little Saigon??? I came in around 12 pm, with the only people there being the owner, the waitress, the kitchen staff, and a friend of the business… I guess I’m the first customer! After quizzing Mrs. Wang, the boss of this operation, about what’s popular on the menu I settled on 2 classics: twice-cooked pork and knife-cut noodles with cumin beef. They say the measure of any Sichuan restaurant is their twice-cooked pork and any restaurant that claims to sell authentic Northern-style Chinese noodles lives and dies on either hand-pulled or knife-cut noodles. If this restaurant can do both well, they deserve my patronage. I am happy to report that the twice-cooked pork was solid… no extraneous strips of tofu, just thinly sliced pork belly and green onions. The knife-cut noodles, which were recommended by Mrs. Wang, were delicious: fresh-cut, al dente, and paired well with the cumin beef. At $7.99 for the twice-cooked pork with rice lunch special and $9.99 for the knife-cut noodles, it’s a fair price for cuisine that’s so hard to come by in this area. Ruiji’s original location is in the South Bay city of Lomita, another area not known for authentic Sichuan cuisine. If they can convince folks out there to eat some spicy savory Sichuan food, maybe they’ll have the same effect in Garden Grove? I mean, if nothing else it’s in the same plaza as Cafe 168… maybe they can do some cross-promotion? Spicy food after taking in some spicy sights! I kid, I kid… but Little Saigon restaurant patrons, check this place out… there’s nothing else like it for miles around! Like any Chinese restaurant this place has an extensive menu, far too many dishes for a single sampling, so I’m looking forward to coming back for more!

Dear Chengdu – Menu with Prices – 15455 Jeffrey Rd Ste 325, Irvine

This is probably the closest taste to authentic Sichuan cuisine that I’ve had in the States. A lot of “Sichuan restaurants” and consumers in the west seem to think that Sichuan food just means really spicy Chinese food, which is an incredibly and disgustingly low-cultured perspective. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the homestyle flavors and implementation of genuine Sichuan peppercorn in the dishes served here. Funny enough, I’m not usually a fan of spicy food, but I absolutely love the heat and kick that Sichuan peppercorns give. Sadly, it seems that most western folk simply aren’t accustomed to peppercorn, so most Sichuan places (including here) are pretty sparing in the amount of peppercorn they use. I even asked if they could do less chili peppers and more Sichuan peppercorn, but they told me that their ratios are fixed (aka pre-made lol). The restaurant is pretty small and you might face a 20-30 minute wait depending on the day. Interior is clean and the servers are friendly. There are some minor inconsistency issues with the food (sometimes the rice is undercooked or the portions seem off), but my main issue with this restaurant is the pricing. It’s pretty expensive, and a lot of the prices for what you get are definitely cringe-worthy. The food is great and authentic by all means, but at these high prices, I would personally rather spend my money at some other fine dining establishment.

Kwei Fei at Charleston Pour House – Menu with Prices – 1977 Maybank Hwy, Charleston

Unlike the Americanized-greasy fusion type places – just a heads up – Kwei Fei’s dishes are family-style and meant for sharing. Do not fret if your chopsticks happen to touch your eating companions’. It will be okay. You will survive; I promise. For those unfamiliar with Sichuan/Szechuan cuisine, you are missing out! Sichuan cuisine is typically a very spicy type of Chinese food and is also known for being very flavorful. MANY Sichuan dishes incorporate a lot of garlic and chilli peppers, so make sure those two ingredients are palatable before you hit up Kwei Fei. My husband and I shared three dishes: 1) Dan Dan Mian (noodles) Sesame paste and/or peanut butter is sometimes added, and occasionally replaces the spicy sauce, usually in the Taiwanese and American Chinese style of the dish. In this case, there was peanut/peanut butter in the dan dan noodles, making their dan dan mian (noodle) sweeter, less spicy, and less soupy than its Szechuan/Sichuan counterpart. 2) Dry Fried Green Beans This is a staple in many Chinese restaurants, so we were interested to see Kwei Fei’s take on this particular dish. Although on the smaller side, our order arrived looking delightfully aromatic. Accompanied with rice, the green beans are just the right amount of salt and heat. Without rice, It would be a tad too salty if eaten alone. Great flavor, nonetheless! 3) Sichuan Beef The beef was very tender. By the look of the broth, I had anticipated the beef and broth to be three times more spicy and numbing, but it was actually the most mild of the three dishes we ordered. This is not a spicy dish, so the the name of the dish may be misleading. It may not be the prettiest entree to capture on pictures, but the taste and flavour is right on! Overall, it was a pleasant dining experience. Two things prevented this from being a five-star review. First would be the fact that for a reportedly “spicy” and “Sichuan” place, we left not feeling to numb in the spice department. We have been to other Sichuan places that left us wanting to curl up into our former selves and cry more than usual. Second, the service was a bit slow. We were seated almost immediately, but it took over 30 minutes before our first dish came to the table. It must have been a busy night for take-out? Note to selves for next time – add hot oil provided at the table to the dishes to kick up the spice level!

Five Spices House – Menu with Prices – 546 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge

Super solid authentic Chinese food in the heart of Central Square! Service was ok but could be improved and is the main reason I took off one star. The first time I went here I got take out of Sichuan braised beef noodle soup. It tasted delicious! Meat was tender, noodles had good texture, and there was plenty of bok choy as well. The food was ready within 15 minutes of when I ordered. I came here again for dinner with my boyfriend. There was no wait, although the restaurant stayed busy during our time there. Most of our food came out pretty fast, but the waiters were sometimes a little confused about who ordered what. One dish took a little longer, and just as we were about to ask about it, a waiter told us it’s not done but will be out soon. Overall I didn’t mind the inconsistent service too much as we didn’t have to wait too long and it was easy to say that we did or didn’t order a dish, but service could definitely be improved for customers to have more peace of mind. The delicious food really makes up for the service! Water spinach with garlic was very flavorful; the garlic somehow added a subtle sweetness that really made the vegetable enjoyable. I’m not usually a huge fan of water spinach but I devoured the water spinach here. Minced pork with black bean sauce over noodles passed my noodle test. Noodles have good texture and sauce is just right — not too sweet, not too salty, and good ratio of sauce to noodle. Sauce came with plenty of pork and bean curd. I also really enjoyed the Sichuan diced chicken with chili peppers. It’s actually not very spicy so if you like spicy you probably need to ask them to make it more spicy. One thing to note: rice doesn’t come with any dishes and costs $2 a bowl. Most Chinese restaurants my boyfriend and I have been to have complimentary rice so this was unexpected for us. I personally don’t mind since I’m not a huge fan of rice but my boyfriend likes rice and thought the price is a bit steep. Other than that, prices and portion sizes for the dishes were pretty reasonable. I plan to come back to try some other dishes next time I’m craving authentic Chinese food!

Uncle Zhu Spicy Hotpot – Menu with Prices – 3875 Venture Dr, Duluth

Uncle Zhu is a food court stall located inside Jusgo Supermarket that serves authentic, spicy, and delicious Chongqing-style (Sichuan) Chinese hot pot. This is the first restaurant you see if you enter the food court from the entrance outside (not the interior entrance from the supermarket side). It’s got a corner stall in the mini-mall’s large rectangular wraparound hub. I really enjoyed the two hot pots I tried from this place. The restaurant offers over a dozen kinds of hot pot and noodle soups along with other dishes like “hot woks” (Sichuan-style stir-fries, kind of like a brothless hot pot), Sichuan cold noodles, spicy shrimp, dried shrimp cauliflower, and three different kinds of “fried cabbage” (bok choy and other leafy green veggies). Expect to spend about $9-10 each for most hot pots. You can also create your own hot pot. The kitchen’s ingredients are on display in multiple bins behind glass at the counter. Pricing for custom hot pots is $6.95 per bowl, $11.50 per pound. I tried the spicy boiled fish hot pot ($12.95) and the beef malatang hot pot ($8.99). Both were excellent. If you like spicy food, especially spicy Sichuan food, then you’ll like both of these dishes. The spicy boiled fish hot pot is a dish you can get at other Sichuan restaurants around metro Atlanta. I really like Uncle Zhu’s version. It comes with plenty of boneless, meaty fish fillets. I’m pretty sure the fish used is tilapia. The fish is served in a large bowl containing a customary deep red, spicy, oily broth with red chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, bean sprouts, cabbage, cilantro. and green onion. Thanks to the Sichuan peppercorns, this dish brings the “mala” which is Chinese for numbing and spicy. It’s a unique mouth-numbing, tingling sensation that only Sichuan peppercorns can bring and I love it. Out of all the Sichuan spicy boiled fish hot pots I’ve tried in metro Atlanta, I think I might like Uncle Zhu’s version the best. The ingredients were fresh and in the ideal proportions and everything about this dish seemed to hit all the right notes. If you like spicy food, you should give it a try. The beef malatang is a unique hot pot dish. Malatang is a popular street food in North China. “Malatang” literally translates as “numbing spicy hot.” At malatang shops, you pick and choose the ingredients you want to be boiled in a spicy broth which is then seasoned. Uncle Zhu offers the same experience. If you don’t want to pick your own ingredients, there are five kinds of malatang on the menu: the aforementioned beef malatang (which is what I got), seafood malatang, shrimp malatang, beef stomach malatang, and ball malatang (either meatballs or fish balls, I’m not sure). The beef malatang was terrific. It was chock-full of all sorts of yummy ingredients including slices of beef, sweet potato noodles, lotus root, Chinese jelly fungus (cloud ear, I believe), tofu skin (or bean curd skin), bok choy, cabbage, bean sprouts, cilantro, red chili peppers, and Sichuan peppercorns. There was another ingredient in the broth which I think was green seaweed (the long, relatively thicker kind), but I’m not certain. I think I covered most of the ingredients. This dish was quite flavorful and sufficiently spicy, though it didn’t have the same numbing effect as the spicy boiled fish which I would’ve liked. I’m sure I could have asked to have the malatang prepared with even more Sichuan peppercorns and they would have obliged. I question the quality of the beef in the beef malatang because it was a bit too tough and chewy. Perhaps it was overcooked. That’s my only real gripe about the food here and I wouldn’t hesitate to order the beef malatang again. Uncle Zhu’s hot pots are cooked in the back and are served in these nice-looking, large, yellow and red bowls that are decorated with Chinese text and Chinese masks. The restaurant ha

Kung Fu Grill – Menu with Prices – 2180 Pleasant Hill Rd ste A6-A7, Duluth

Note: This restaurant originally opened in March 2016 as Sichuan Garden. Sometime in late summer/early fall 2017, Sichuan Garden became Kung Fu Grill. This review is based on my experience at Sichuan Garden, not Kung Fu Grill. Sichuan Garden was recommended to me by a Chinese friend who knows good Sichuan food and had been to this restaurant several times. I thought our Sunday lunch here was excellent. It was surprisingly delicious and exceeded my expectations. To me, the food was a solid 4 out of 5 stars. Sichuan Garden was one of the several Asian restaurants, bakeries, and cafes located at GW Marketplace, a.k.a. the Sweet Hut Duluth shopping center, on Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth. It’s closer to the Sweet Hut side of the property, next door to Snowflake Tea House. This was a clean, no-frills, authentic Sichuan restaurant. Inside, it actually resembled other Sichuan restaurants around metro Atlanta like Masterpiece, which is also in Duluth, and Tasty China in Marietta. Of these restaurants, Sichuan Garden had the freshest and “nicest” digs. The casual open-floor layout was simple and traditional of a Chinese restaurant. It was practical for group dining. They had a spiffy touchscreen sound system and a really big round table in a semi-private enclosure for large parties. I guesstimate the dining room could seat about 70-80 customers. One thing that set Sichuan Garden apart from other Sichuan restaurants in the Atlanta area was they served all-you-can-eat hot pot at your table. These included the split hot pots with two flavors of broth. They had a sauce bar too. Unfortunately, the hot pot option wasn’t shown on the English menu and was simply written as “hot pot buffet” on the specials board where everything else was written in Chinese. If you didn’t speak/read Chinese and were interested in getting hot pot here, you’d have to inquire with your server. The restaurant had a relatively streamlined menu with both a mix of authentic Sichuan (and other Chinese) cuisine and Americanized Chinese food (what they call their “classic dishes”). There were no separate lunch and dinner menus as far as I could tell. You could expect to spend roughly $5-12 each for appetizers, soups, noodles, and rice dishes and $15-25 each for entrees not including the market-priced lobster and Dungeness crab. Here’s what we went with: * Cumin lamb – $13.95 * Red braised Japanese tofu stone pot – $13.95 * Eggplant with garlic sauce – $10.95 * Garlic spinach – $11.95 * Fillet in hot spicy soup with needle mushroom – $15.95 In general, everything was tasty and oily, which is common for Sichuan food. Also, I noticed the food wasn’t as intense and spicy as the food at Masterpiece, Tasty China, Jia, etc. However, it’s still plenty flavorful. You just won’t get the saltiness and pronounced “ma” (numbing) and “la” (spicy) sensations as you would at the other Sichuan restaurants. I didn’t see any Sichuan peppercorns in our dishes though if they were to show up in any, it would’ve been the cumin lamb and fish soup. The cumin lamb was my favorite dish. It was excellent, extra savory, and addictive in flavor. Aside from cumin, I’m not sure what the morsels of lamb meat were coated in, but it was good. I thought there might have been MSG in the dish, but we couldn’t taste it. It was just packed with flavor. There were both chili peppers and bell peppers in this dish, but it was hardly spicy (coming from someone who loves spicy food). The lamb was soft and tender with no gamey taste whatsoever. I highly recommend this dish. The red braised Japanese tofu stone pot was terrific. This is a relatively lighter dish (when it comes to Sichuan fare) and another one I recommend. It’s fairly unique. The tofu was cut into thick disc-shaped pieces which had a bit of crispness and firmness on the outside and were silky smooth and soft on the inside. The red sauce was rich in flavor.

Gourmet Sichuan Chinese Restaurant (��?�) Menu with Prices 3303 156th Ave SE, Bellevue

Bae and I were craving some hot pot, but didn’t want AYCE nor did we want to spend beaucoup bucks at a fancy hot pot restaurant, so we found Gourmet Sichuan. Gourmet Sichuan took over the old Shibuya restaurant in Eastgate. In fact, Gourmet Sichuan was a tad challenging to find when we were following Google Maps because it kept telling us to go where Shibuya wa/is. We didn’t realize Shibuya had closed nor did we realize it literally is in place of Shibuya since the signage is still Shibuya. Until you get close to the actual restaurant, you see a banner placed on top of one of the Shibuya signs that it’s Gourmet Sichuan. Stepping inside, it’s still Shibuya. It’s all Japanese-themed, with the wood paneling, Japanese artwork, cherry blossom prints, the sushi counter, everything. Some serious renovation needs to be done here because it screams that of a Japanese restaurant. Gourmet Sichuan has a large menu with many Chinese dishes, including hot pot. What I specifically like here is that you can build your own hot pot for less than 15 bucks, with your choosing of two proteins and four toppings. My boyfriend and I both ordered our own hot pots, and when doing so, our server mentioned that we should share since it’s a large portion. He has no idea how much we eat. But yes, the portion was large and we both ended up taking leftovers. We were overzealous, so yes, share the hot pot if you agree on the broth. (Bae can’t do spice.) For my hot pot I chose the spicy broth, with beef and lamb, and ordered enoki mushrooms, cabbage, tofu skin and noodles as my four toppings. Food didn’t take long to get, which was nice, especially since everything is already cooked in the hot pot, like at Boiling Point. For most of the time I had to turn down my pot to low, since the portion was large, and I take a long time to eat hot pot. The only minor issue I would say is the bowl on the cookpot. The server did warn us that it wasn’t stable, so to be careful. But still, it’s scary when your bowl moves with hot ass broth boiling. Be careful! And I truly hope they’ve made adjustments before a lawsuit occurs. Despite that, the hot pot was awesome! Spicy broth was tasty and did have a spice to it, but wasn’t overbearing. I would recommend for any spicy fans. Lamb and beef were both very tender and good. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but I did like the beef better. Noodles were bomb. The hot pot doesn’t come with a side of rice, so you’ll have to order it a la carte. However, I think the noodles are better with the hot pot anyway. Slurp your way through the bowl, and they give you hella noods! I would definitely come back to Gourmet Sichuan for hot pot and perhaps to try the other Chinese dishes. I just hope they fix the bowls for the hot pot, so it doesn’t wobble around when you’re trying to eat.

Taste of Tian Jin – Menu with Prices – 3875 Venture Dr A5, Duluth

Taste of Tianjin is located inside the Jusgo Supermarket food court. This food court stall serves all sorts of Chinese cuisine with a presumed specialty in the Tianjin cuisine of northeast China. Tianjin is a major port city and some of its well-known dishes incorporate seafood, lamb, and mutton. I tried a few non-Tianjin dishes from this restaurant, so this review probably doesn’t reflect the best this place has to offer. Taste of Tianjin has one of the larger menus among the stalls at the food court. Along with Tianjin cuisine, the restaurant also serves a variety of other regional Chinese cuisines including Cantonese, Shanghai (Jiangnan), Sichuan, and even Americanized Chinese cuisine. Chef recommendations include braised whole fish in chili oil ($10.95), Tianjin-style braised pork ($10.95), braised ribbonfish ($10.95), egg with tomato ($6.95), and spicy fried intestine ($8.95). There are a lot of options. Like other Asian food court stalls (particularly Chinese ones), Taste of Tianjin has pictures of several of its dishes, many of which are included in a picture book next to the register. I tried an order of the xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), mapo tofu ($7.50), and chicken with plum sauce ($7.50). Eight medium to large sized dumplings were served in a wooden steam basket along with a side of vinegar dipping sauce in a disposable foam bowl. The dumplings were OK at best. They weren’t very soupy (they had very little soup in them), but were packed with pork. These were more like pork dumplings than anything. The skin was thick. While not terrible, I questioned the freshness of these dumplings. The sauce was alright. The man behind the counter said he made it himself. The mapo tofu (Sichuan dish) was good, but it could’ve used a bit more flavor and spice. Along with soft tofu cubes and a small pool of spicy, red, oily sauce, this dish came with savory ground pork, chopped green onion, red chili peppers, and yummingly numbing Sichuan peppercorns. The ingredients in this dish were good quality. We dined in and the tofu was served on a glass plate/bowl. The chicken with plum sauce was tasty, but rather pedestrian (no surprise there). The chicken was chopped and cooked with chopped carrots, zucchini, and green bell pepper. It had decent flavor. This is a simple dish that should satisfy the simplest of palates. Bowls of steamed white rice were included with the meal. Service was good and our orders came out in a reasonable amount of time. Like other vendors at the Jusgo food court, Taste of Tianjin uses a pager system to let you know when your order is ready for pickup. Complimentary tea, water, plastic silverware, wooden chopsticks, and condiments are available at the counter. If dining in, you should return plates, bowls, and trays when you’re finished. The credit card minimum is $10. I’d like to come back and try what I hope are better dishes.

Yifan Catering and Cooking school – Menu with Prices – 10820 Abbotts Bridge Rd #370, Duluth

This is a hidden gem for any foodie interested in authentic Chinese food. The restaurant itself is primarily a catering service for private parties and dinners, but among the local Chinese word-of-mouth, Yifan may be the best spot in the whole ATL to get authentic Chinese cuisine from all parts of China. The key ingredient to their success: chefs here aren’t professionally trained restaurant chefs. They’re an assortment of your family aunts or uncles. This is Chinese home cooking at its finest. Here’s how they work: They’re only open for lunch Tuesday through Saturday. Yes, they close on Monday’s and Sunday’s and they’re not open for dinner at all any day. They have two options for food: buffet days, and combo days. The price is the same Tuesday through Friday (about $10), and on Saturday, (about $20). The buffet days are an AYCE and the combo days are a fixed plate of a variety of homemade dishes. Either the AYCE or the combo meals will blow you away on price, value, and authentic Chinese cooking. Here’s a sample of what they served last week from Tuesday through Friday. Note there’s no English menu (just Chinese), so if you don’t read the language you’ll just have to try it to find out. Monday Closed Tuesday Hundred Leaves Braised Beef Eggplant Beef Strips Stir Fry Cold Rice Noodles Wonton Soup Little Dough Bites Eight Treasure Porridge Wednesday Braised Beef and Tendon Ground Beef String Beans Chicken Strip Tossed Noodles Onion Leek Pie Coconut Tapioca Soup Thursday Fermented Chicken Mapo Tofu Vegetarian Stir Fry Little Doughnuts Special Italian Seafood Linguini Tulip Beef Bone Soup Friday Yuxiang Beef Chicken Strips with Celery and Beans Mushroom Veggie Dish Hot and Spicy Rice Noodles Little Dough Bites Purple Sticky Rice Porridge Saturday Surprise day – an assortment of all of the above plus others, including dessert All of the days offer free white rice, water, juice, hot tea, and on random days, a special dessert from their pastry chef. The one downside from this spot is that they’re only open for lunch Tuesday through Saturday. So unless you work in the area or can stop by on Saturday for lunch, well, then you’ll never get the chance to try these guys out. Bottom Line The menu constantly changes so next week there will be something new. I cast my vote for Yifan as the most authentic Chinese restaurant in all of ATL. The cuisine here is a mix of all regions of China–Northern, Shanghainese, Sichuan, Hunan, and even Southern.

Urumchi Ozgu Uyghur Restaurant – Menu with Prices – 1-1133 Dundas St E, Mississauga

note: currently categorized as “asian fusion” which i would say is not applicable at all, but these are the current limitations of yelp. probably closest to mongolian cuisine or something uyghur cuisine in the heart of one of mississauga’s most exciting areas to dine. the interior is pretty small but is elegantly decorated with paintings and tiny replicas of instruments. our waiter was friendly and patient with us, especially with all the questions we had about the menu items. uyghurs are a cultural group of people who inhabit central asia, particularly in the disputed xinjiang province of china. as follows, their food has similarities to cuisines of their surroundings – you will notice a lot of lamb on the menu, typical of central asia, but also a lot of noodles, spices and chilies found in west chinese cuisine. my party got three dishes to share: polo, chicken leghman, and the lamb skewers. polo, as i know it so far, is a traditional central asian rice dish served with sliced carrots, and sometimes raisins. here at this restaurant they don’t serve it with raisins, but it’s kind of nice without it as it’s more of a simple dish. the rice has a fun al dente texture. on top of the rice is a simply-cooked (boiled or steamed?) leg of lamb with little seasoning, and very tame game flavour. the leghman is an insanely delicious hand-pulled noodle dish cooked with spicy green peppers, green onions, and potatoes in a spicy cumin and chili sauce. the noodles were wide and thick, and thus incredibly fun to eat, but the spice definitely crept up quickly. the lamb skewers are cooked over a flame and seasoned with a really spicy cumin seasoning. very tender, tasty, and spicy, but the game flavour still manages to come through (which i love). prices definitely look expensive, but the portions and the wide array of flavours are absolutely worth the price. if you are a fan of either central asian cuisines or sichuan cuisine, i can’t recommend this place enough

Xiao Xing Yun – Menu with Prices – 240 Legacy Dr, Plano

Get the Biang Biang Noodles! (I would type it in Chinese but that’s not possible…) \\ biang biang noodles – fresh chewy hand-pulled noodles that can be probably even a foot long – a wee spicy kick accompanies the other savory umami tastes – hearty chunks of soy sauce-infused sweet pork belly are just the right size to be not too greasy for one bite – don’t wear white because it can be splashy… – definitely can be shared with a friend You can add a è???? (Rougamo) to make a $12 combo. Mo is a little like an English muffin, a little like pita bread… which makes this a little like a really really juicy and flavorful hamburger. I also tried a little of the Pork and Hot and Sour noodle soup. Those noodles are also chewy and appear to be handmade. This is the first place I’ve seen in the metroplex that specializes in Xi’an cuisine, and it’s fantastic that they do it so well. Do indulge, but maybe not too often. At less than $10 a bowl, it’s a great deal for lunch! Bring cash just in case you don’t hit the $10 limit for credit card.

Little India (Bombay Street Food) Menu with Prices 2236 Highland Ave, Birmingham

On the recommendation of the Owner/Chef, we tried the Chili Chicken with Fried Rice. The dish came out steaming hot in a reusable to-go container. The chicken was battered and fried before being covered in “gravy”, a mildly sweet and spicy sauce. The gravy dishes are by default served with generous helpings of gravy, although they can also be ordered “dry” or “without gravy”. This dish was delicious and far superior to any Chinese takeout near the area, especially for a menial $7. We also ordered the Chicken Hakka Noodles, a dish similar to Chow Mein, although more complex. Hakka noodles are a type of boiled noodles that are tossed and mixed with vegetables, chicken and sauces. Both Hakka Noodles and chow mein are made using noodles and similar kinds of vegetables are added to it. However, there is a slight difference between the two. While Hakka noodles have their roots in Hakka Han or Han Chinese, chow mein comes from Taishan. Hakka noodles have dominant Bengali flavours but chow mein has flavours that can be closely associated with Chinese flavours. Whatever the differences in chow mein and Hakka noodles, they were certainly tasty!  This dish was served tossed with chicken and green onions and a savory sauce with a latent heat. Another win, and again, for only $7.  Perhaps inaptly titled, “Little India,” offers more Chinese-Indian fusion than they do Indian food. New names for the establishment are being tossed around. Most of the menu items sounded like Chinese dishes, however, many dishes of modern Indian Chinese cuisine bear little resemblance to traditional Chinese cuisine. Staple base options for an Indian Chinese meal include chicken, shrimp or vegetable variants of “Hakka” or “Schezwan” noodles popularly referred to as chow mein; and regular or”Schezwan” fried rice. Though the names sound similar to familiar dishes, this food stands alone.

Wei Dao Asian Cuisine – Menu with Prices – 5024 W Esplanade Ave, Metairie

I love this restaurant, I almost don’t want to write a review because I want to keep this little secret restaurant all to myself! Chinese food is abysmal in New Orleans, but thank goodness there’s Wei Dao to save the day! This restaurant serves true authentic Chinese food…you just gotta ask for the authentic Chinese menu. I know it looks a little questionable because they also serve ramen and sushi, but their sushi rolls aren’t half bad! But if I’m going to Wei Dao, it’s 100% for the Chinese food. It’s much better than Little Chinatown or any other chinese restaurants in LA. First off, the service is fantastic. The waitresses are so friendly and are more than willing to help and recommend dishes. I’m not Chinese, so I instead read the English version of the authentic Chinese menu. There are so many options, and everything I’ve had has been so delicious. Not too salty, not too sweet – most dishes are perfectly balanced. I would recommend any of their fish fillet dishes. I personally like the spicy fish fillet and the black bean fish fillet dishes. The fish is succulent, not overcooked, and seasoned lightly as to not overpower the delicacy of the white fish. In addition, the mapo tofu is very good. I usually never order this dish, but my friend loves it and I have come to as well. The tofu is soft but doesn’t break apart into mushy pieces, there are chunks of pork in the sauce, and the flavoring is sweet/sour with a bit of spiciness from the peppercorns. Also a must order. Any of the vegetable dishes seasoned with salty fish are also good choices. Honestly, it’s really hard to go wrong with the authentic Chinese menu! My friend and I love Wei Dao, and we are always looking for an excuse to come back and try new dishes.