No Mothball Noodles Here
In contrast to the bad Chinese restaurant experience about which Mark wrote a while back, I'd like to describe the meal I had this evening.
A friend of ours from Germany is staying with us, so we decided to get together with a couple of Chinese guys that we all knew when she was living next door to us here in North Carolina...Mao and Chunyu. Mao recommended the restaurant, called "35", but the name on the menu was only "Chinese Restaurant." It was in the back of an office building that I never would have found myself. He said that the cooks were recruits from LA and Chicago and that the food was very authentic. He also said that we didn't need to choose from the menu, only tell the manager what types of food we wanted and he would make something for us. I asked if this was how everyone ordered. He said only Chinese people and their friends are given this privilege.
Sure enough, we told him what we wanted, accepted his recommendations, and were highly pleased with all the dishes....beef & green onions, a tofu dish, a fish dish, a scallop dish, a spicy chicken dish, a Chinese squash dish, and an appetizer. And the fortune cookies with the check. Mine said, "Simplicity and clarity should be your theme in dress."
As we left, the manager said to me: "When you come back here, I already know what you like." Needless to say, we will be back.
yeah that's all fine and dandy, but how were the bathrooms? the mark of quality is having a sack of unfamiliar objects in the urinal. perhaps your husband can report on this?
i once went to a chinese restaurant where the chef picked our entire meal. overall it was a success but with two glaring exceptions. first was what appeared to be a noodle dish which was very al dente and fishy tasting (turned out to be jelly fish). second was a soup that was coursing with a goo that tasted like gravy (beef cartilage).
when folks say "how can you say you don't like jelly fish if you have never tried it" i can confidently reply "i have and i don't."
what if you want something else next time? you're pretty well stuck for life now, aren't you?