Lately, I've had a hankering for Oriental food, of which there are not many choices available, unless one considers Panda Express an option. PE varies by location, and the quality of the food depends upon the cook on-shift. I've had okay PE, pretty good PE, and really, really bad PE, so I opted to try an old favorite up the hill. I had not stopped there in at least a year, but the restaurant has been open about 25 years and had a consistency not found in chain restaurants. I invited one of my international students, who is Chinese, especially because he knew the owner.
Neither one of us had the experience we recalled, beginning with the very Hispanic waitress whose English was ... challenging. My guest asked if the owner was on-site so he could say hello, but our waitress told us he was busy cooking. Hmm, that didn't ring a bell with either of us, but I ordered my favorite appetizer, the "cream angels," a wonton square filled with a chunk of creamed cheese and then deep-fried.
Evidently, the Mexican cook for the previous owner purchased the restaurant when the past owner retired about a year ago. The food has really changed, and it's not change I can applaud. The egg drop soup was awful, a basic left-over veggie soup with egg stirred in, delivered to our table in a huge mixing bowl! I was shocked at how much soup we received, rather than the two small bowls we expected, but, perhaps, the cook was merely cleaning out the pot before the evening rush began.
We both ordered common chicken dishes, which arrived looking most uncommon. Neither dish had a taste either of us remembered from past experiences with Oriental food. Instead of the little balls of fried meat we anticipated, we received "slabs" of sliced chicken with sauce sprinkled across the middle. The chicken, obviously pre-cooked and very dry, could not be resuscitated, no matter how much sauce we poured over it. The rice was okay, but what can go wrong with rice, right?
All in all, the best part of the meal were the cream angels and the commercial fortune cookies: anything left to the skill of the cook failed miserably. As we departed, my guest offered to take me to a good Chinese restaurant next week, one actually owned and operated by a Chinese family. He said, "It will taste good; I promise."
I'm going to hold him to that promise because what we shared yesterday was really bad food done badly!!
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2 comments:
My favorite Chinese food place recently underwent "new management" and the cook has apparently left for greener pastures. It's still decent, but noticeably different. Having had very consistent food for the last 20 years, I'm disappointed in the change.
Given that, I've been shopping around at other Chinese food restaurants. So far I've been unimpressed. Chinese food seems to be different things to different people: what others say is "good" isn't necessarily good in my opinion. Even a restaurant run by an Asian family yielded food that I don't need to try again. It didn't seem much better than what I would get in a frozen dinner.
I may still shop around, but my old favorite is still better than what I've seen, even though it's not what it used to be.
*livor
We have PF Chang's at The River, which is excellent food in a friendly environment -- but pricey -- and PF Chang's in the frozen food section.
I long for the good ole days of the local "chinese" take-out, but they seem to have moved to other locales.
This dinner was really bad! I may never order lemon chicken again!!
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