Preview of Amber Li's Restaurant

New restaurants often have soft openings before opening to the general public. Surrounded by family and friends, every layer of hospitality can be tested -- the kitchen, the front of house, and the management -- in an environment that simulates real-world dinner service, but with people who might be a little more understanding if the experience isn't quite yet perfect. But, of course, to feed people (often for free) and to pay employees isn't a small inconvenient expense. And even with a soft opening, it can still take a restaurant a month or two to really start humming with efficiency.

I knew going into tonight's dinner that Amber Li's Restaurant had only been open for a few days. This meant that there would likely be a few delays and perhaps the wrong soup being brought to the table, but I've developed a keen eye in spotting actual problems versus opening day jitters. Having learned of them from Lisa Abraham's weekly Food Notes section in the Akron Beacon Journal, I decided that a visit was warranted since she wrote that the menu consisted of, " traditional Chinese fare, sushi, hibachi-grilled and Japanese dishes." It was the traditional Chinese fare that caught my eye.

After work today, I hopped in the car and headed to 4195 Massillon Road, Green, OH 44685. The location of the restaurant was inside the Green Plaza, at the corner of Steese and Massillon Roads. There was ample parking in the common lot. If you wish to contact the restaurant, Amber Li's can be reached at 330-899-8856.

Here was a shot of the front entrance of Amber Li's:


Once inside the main door, I noticed the sushi bar located in the rear left of the restaurant with the remainder of the space broken up into tables and booths. I was surprised to see the restaurant only about one-third full as I figured a mention in Lisa's weekly food column would have packed the customers in. I was seated almost immediately, but noticed within moments of sitting down at my table that it had a severe wobble. I thought that perhaps as I settled in that I may have knocked something loose used to level it, but upon checking the floor, I found nothing. I decided to put up with the annoying wobble.

As I prepped my camera for the upcoming pictures, I began to people watch. It became immediately clear who the owner was, Amber Hazel. A native from China, she was the very stressed person running back and forth from the kitchen to the dining room, her diction being very harsh on one side of the kitchen door and much softer on the other. I sat quietly at my table for about ten minutes before anyone acknowledged me and asked if I would like something to drink. It took another ten minutes before my waitress finally stopped at my table to take my order. Twenty minutes is a bit too long for a restaurant that is only one-third full, so I'll have to chalk that one up to opening week jitters.

Fortunately, when I was sat, the hostess left me with the menu to peruse:


Sadly, the "traditional Chinese fare" for which I was hoping to dine upon tonight ended up being the same Americanized Chinese cuisine served at every other Chinese restaurant in Akron. While I can appreciate Americanized Chinese cuisine from time to time, I find it to be rather boring and often times way too sweet. Never heard of Americanized Chinese cuisine, gentle reader? General Tsao's (aka Tso's) Chicken is a perfect example. This is a dish that doesn't exist in China and has been fine tuned for the American palate over decades since its introduction.

All that said, I have come across a few really excellent General Tsao's Chicken dishes over the years and I figured I would give theirs a try to see if Amber Li's version was at least worth seeking out. I was happy to see the menu indicated that all entrees came with either steamed rice or a California roll. When my server finally stopped to take my order, I asked about this unusual choice as I had never seen it before.

"No, it's just the steamed rice that is available. Amber changed her mind about offering a sushi roll."

That was too bad since I was actually going to order the California roll in place of my steamed rice. C'est la vie.

So, in order to try a little bit from column A and a little bit from column B, here is what I actually ordered:

* Shrimp Eggroll
* Miso Soup
* General Tsao's Chicken, extra spicy
* Steamed Rice

Here was what came out of the kitchen about fifteen minutes later. First up was the General Tsao's Chicken with Steamed Broccoli:


And a plate of what I had originally thought was a California roll, but was actually a Spicy Shrimp roll:


No Shrimp Eggroll and no Miso Soup. As for the appearance of the sushi, I figured that Amber had okayed the substitution of the California roll for the steamed rice since I had asked my server about it. Assuming that the eggroll and the soup would be coming out of the kitchen shortly, I decided to go ahead and dig in to what was already in front of me.

I started with the sushi. As I ate my first piece, several thoughts went through my head. First, the California roll was missing the avocado. All I could taste were cucumber and what I thought was imitation crab. Second, California rolls don't usually have a spicy sauce associated with them. I figured that might just be a personal touch at Amber Li's. Third, and most surprising, the sushi rice was utterly and thoroughly bland. I even dissected one of the six pieces on the plate and tried the rice just by itself. Yup, steamed white rice, nothing added.

Why is this point so important? Su-shi literally translates to "vinegared rice." Sushi rice is made by adding rice wine vinegar, sugar, and salt to the rice after it is cooked. This gives the rice a bit of acidity as well as seasoning from the salt. Soy sauce applied at the table would not have helped in this case. Curiously, while dissecting the sushi piece, I also noticed that the imitation crab looked an awful lot like a piece of shrimp. That's because it was! What I thought had been my accompanying California roll for my General Tsao's was actually my server thinking I had asked for a Spicy Shrimp roll instead of a Shrimp Eggroll. D'oh! The final check confirmed my suspicions.

On to the General Tsao's Chicken. It actually wasn't all that bad. The chicken was fried until crispy; the sauce was a bit oily and sweet and could've used a bit of acid to balance the other flavors. The steamed broccoli was a nice touch, but the carrots and green peppers the menu description promised were nowhere to be found. I had asked for the dish to be extra spicy and the kitchen's response was simply to add more whole chili peppers to the dish. Not being a complete moron, I moved the whole peppers to the side of the dish. Overall, I would say this dish was about a medium spicy and not particularly incendiary.

Having finished my sushi and chicken, I realized that nothing else was going to come out of the kitchen for me. After asking for and receiving the check, I finally understood what happened with the Shrimp Eggroll / Spicy Shrimp roll mistake; however, I had still been charged for the Miso Soup. I pointed the mistake out to my server, who quickly removed it from the bill. I could've contested the Spicy Shrimp roll mistake (as the sushi was $6 and the eggroll that I had ordered was only $2), since I didn't correct the error when I first detected it, I decided to pay for it. The check, with tax, came to just under $18.

While there were some components from tonight's meal that I enjoyed, there was a LOT that needs to be improved upon. Quickly. If Amber Li's is running this inefficiently and with this many mistakes a month from now, customers will tire quickly and decide to spend their dining dollars elsewhere. While my personal preference in Chinese cuisine tends more towards the authentic side, if Americanized Chinese cuisine is your bag, once Amber Li's gets it right, this might be the place for you. Since I can get these flavors much closer to home, other than visiting again in order to re-review it, I personally wouldn't make the drive from Akron.

A Redo At House of Hunan

It happens from time to time. With the best of intentions, I have a meal at a restaurant I plan to review on the blog. I take pictures and mental notes during the meal and when I return home in the evening, I even go so far as to process all of the photos, storyboard them in Picasa and create the "shell" of the blog entry by uploading the photographs in the correct order and finally adding my "Alt" and "Title" tags to each photo. This is usually the first step in a two step process. Normally I will sleep on the meal and at some point during the next day, I will pull up my textless entry and fill in the prose. Occasionally I will do both steps on the same day, but it is pretty rare.

Even if I don't get around to writing the text for a week, aided with my already processed and tagged photographs, I've actually become quite good at recalling my sense memories of the meal. More than a week out, however, details begin to get cloudy in my brain. Sadly, such happened with a visit about six weeks ago to House of Hunan in Fairlawn. I had gone for a nice lunchtime meal and completed the first step in my blogging process when I returned home that night. For whatever reason, I put off writing the review until it was too late. I remembered that the meal was good, but lost quite a bit of the detail that I like my reviews to have.

To remedy this situation, I decided to return to House of Hunan for a second lunch. As an added bonus, I had my new Canon G12 with me (as well as my continually evolving food photography skills) to help me get better pictures than I took last time. House of Hunan was located at 2717 West Market Street, Fairlawn, OH 44333 and can be reached at 330-864-8215. They also have a website in case you want to check on menu or directions before you go. As this location of House of Hunan (there are three total) lived inside a strip mall, ample parking was available in the lot.

Here was a shot of the main entrance:


Once inside the main door, a sushi bar was positioned to the left of the entrance. This was an addition made to the main restaurant roughly ten years ago. In addition to sushi, House of Hunan has also added additional Japanese, Thai, and even traditional Chinese cuisine to their menu. This is great news for someone like myself because now the rest of my family can have the Americanized General Tso's Chicken and I have a plethora of more authentic options from which to pick.

Speaking of options, here were today's two lunch menus:



In addition to the lunch menus, the regular menu was also offered:


I decided only to include the above photograph of the regular menu since a) I was there for lunch, b) there would've been an additional dozen photographs since it is now so large, and c) I ordered an appetizer from the above menu page.

Before ordering any food, I decided to go for a pitcher of green tea:


Unlike my recent experience at China Gourmet, when the tea arrived at the table, it was fully brewed and ready to be drank. As I took a small draught from my tea cup, I was rewarded with a wonderful green tea aroma and delicate flavor.

While I often have a few pieces of nigiri sushi as an appetizer at a place which offers it, today I was feeling like something fried. When I saw that the appetizer menu offered two pork and shrimp spring rolls for $3, I decided to go in that direction.

Here was a photograph of the duo of spring rolls:


And where there were spring rolls, there must also be that duet of condiments, plum sauce and Chinese hot mustard:


While the tops of the spring rolls were crispy and not too greasy, sadly the same thing couldn't be said for the side sitting on the plate. As I picked each up and placed them on my paper napkin in an effort to minimize the grease, I noticed several small pools of grease still sitting on the plate. My server, being keenly astute of what I was doing with my only napkin, dropped off a fresh napkin. Even with the extra draining, it couldn't help alleviate the greasy bottom. Regardless, I took a bite and was rewarded with a shatteringly crisp exterior and a nicely seasoned interior. The shrimp and pork filling was hot and moist and was accented by the use of the sweet plum sauce and spicy mustard. I didn't verify this fact with my server, but the plum sauce tasted very fresh and the thought occurred to me that it might just be homemade.

Roughly five minutes after clearing away my appetizer plates, my lunch entree arrived. Here was a shot of the Shredded Pork and Pickled Vegetable Noodle soup:


At roughly $9, this crock of soup was large enough to split between two people. After my server set this down in front of me, I inhaled deeply and could smell the richness that soy brought to the party. Based on the darkish brown color of the broth, I'm guessing a healthy dose of soy sauce had been added. What I loved about this dish the last time I had it was that it felt very authentic to its Chinese roots. There was pork, yes, but it wasn't a pork dish, per se. The soy, mushrooms, and pork added a wonderful savory flavor, the pickled vegetables added a necessary sourness, and the finely sliced pea pods contributed a wonderful bit of sweetness and crunchy texture. The sliced green onions added a bit of sharpness.

As I dug into the dish with my chopsticks, I plucked the still steaming egg noodles from the bottom of the bowl. While I know it is common practice in China to slurp the noodles as a sign of gratitude toward the chef, I didn't want to bother the diners in the adjoining booths with strange sounds coming from mine nor did I want to end up with my shirt dotted with dark brown drips. The soup was so well balanced and while I wanted to finish it all, I simply couldn't. When my server returned to check on me, I admitted that I was finished and asked for the check.

All said and done, with tax and tip, my lunch today came to $18. This might be a tad expensive for some, but other than the greasy spring roll wrapper, everything else had really been spot on and delicious. The Fairlawn location can be quite busy during lunch, so I would recommend that you go prior to noon or after 1:00 PM. I showed up at 12:30 PM today and had about a five minute wait. I've been going to this particular House of Hunan for quite a long time (more than two decades) and the food has always been above average. Now that they've diversified their cuisine, I have even more reason to return for a great meal. I suggest that you do the same.

All The Chinese Classics At China Gourmet

When I first stumbled back upon Vacarro's Trattoria after a ten year gap, I was amazed at the transformation from what I remembered in the past. On the other hand, when I revisited childhood staple Angelina's Pizza some twenty years later, the pizza didn't quite live up to the memory. Falling somewhere in the middle, China Gourmet in Akron, Ohio has managed to not only survive since I first started going there decades ago with my grandfather, but has since expanded to add a sushi bar and an underground banquet room.

China Garden was located at 1971 West Market Street, Akron, OH 44313 and can be reached at 330-867-8838. Parking was in the lot surrounding the building. If you are traveling eastbound down Market Street, your best bet for navigating the traffic is to make a left at Pershing and then a right into the lot.

Having lived in Akron for so many years, I pass by the restaurant frequently as it is located directly across the street from Ken Stewart's Grille. So what was the reason I hadn't stopped until now? Honestly, my memory of the food being served at the restaurant wasn't particularly memorable. It wasn't a bad memory, per se, just not a stand-out one. The shape of the building indicated that it had been converted from a Wendy's many decades ago. The interior was pleasantly decorated with linen tablecloths and napkins, a slender white vase on each table with a single flower sticking out of the top, and nary a chopstick visible in the entire dining room. Some things don't change.

Here was a shot of the roadside sign outside the restaurant:

As soon as I walked inside, I was greeted with EXACTLY the same interior that I remembered from fifteen years ago. While I can't attest to colors on the wall being a match to my memory, the feeling it invoked was exactly the same. This time, however, I looked around at the other clientèle and was unsurprised to discover that the only people of Asian origin in the entire restaurant were the owner and the staff. This did not bode well for getting authentic Chinese dishes. When I finally started to peruse the menu, my suspicions were confirmed:

Having a wonderfully authentic Chinese restaurant in northeast Ohio like Wonton Gourmet has truly spoiled me. So much so that when I am firmly yanked back into Americanized Chinese food (which I, like so many other Americans, grew up on), I had to regroup to get my bearings. At six pages, the menu had a lot of the classics like General Tso's Chicken and Szechuan Beef, but since I at least wanted to attempt to find something a little more authentic, I had to scour the pages a little harder.

While I was looking at the menu, my server brought me the pot of green tea I had requested:

Sadly, only one tea bag had been used for the entire pot. This meant that the tea was quite weak until the very end of the meal when the tea bag had finally steeped long enough. Until that point, the liquid coming out of the pitcher's spout was nothing more than barely flavored hot water.

To get several tastes from tonight's menu, I decided to go with an appetizer, a bowl of soup, and one of the stir-fried dishes. For my soup, I skipped over the Wonton and Hot and Sour soups and decided to try the Vegetable and Bean Curd Soup:

The menu claimed that "all Chinese people eat this soup." The broth by itself was almost perfectly seasoned and had a slight vegetal taste to it. When I dug into the bottom of the bowl to retrieve the tofu and vegetables, I discovered that the "vegetable" portion of the title referred to fresh spinach and sliced green onions. It occurred to me that the vegetal taste of the broth was coming from the spinach itself. Sadly, when I got a spoon filled with not only broth, but also tofu, the barely underseasoned broth was now not salty enough to compensate for the unsalted tofu. Overall, this was a filling soup, but a little flat and two-dimensional. A drop or two of toasted sesame seed oil would've done wonders to the aroma and flavor.

While potstickers appear on almost every Americanized Chinese restaurant menu, only a few places do them well. Wonton Gourmet has set the bar high for me and I wanted to see how China Gourmet's version compared. Here were the potstickers with a soy and rice wine vinegar dipping sauce:

As you can see, gentle reader, the kitchen clearly spent some time making sure the bottoms were crispy:

These particular potstickers were filled with ground pork and ginger:

I only had two real criticisms on the potstickers. First, the casing was a bit doughy. Second, while I didn't expect the casing to be salted, I did expect the filling to be. It wasn't completely bland, but it was light on seasoning. I did enjoy how the ginger helped to cut through some of the fattiness of the pork, however. The dipping sauce served its purpose by adding some of the missing salt and acidity. These were definitely above average potstickers, but still a few levels below what you can get elsewhere.

After wading through page after page of non-authentic dishes, when I got to the "Pork" section of the menu, I was happy to discover an old friend, Ma Pa Tofu. Classically a spicy dish, when I asked my server about the spice level, she indicated it was already pretty spicy. I asked about my options for extra spicy. She indicated that she would not only turn the ticket in with "extra spicy" written on it, she would also bring out a dish of chili oil so that I could adjust it to my preference. Perfect!

After only a short time, she arrived with my entree:

Additionally, she brought me a medium-sized bowl of rice and the aforementioned dish of chili oil:

After loading up my plate,

I took my first bite. I held off on using the extra chili oil at first because I wanted to see how spicy the dish came out of the kitchen. "Extra spicy" at China Gourmet came out to about "medium" on my palate. This, as it turned out, was a nice level of heat as I could still taste the other components to the dish. While someone unfamiliar with a more traditional Ma Po Tofu might look at the picture of the entree above and say, "Where's the pork?", China Gourmet actually nailed the proportions correctly in that most of the protein on the plate was from the tofu, not the pork. China Gourmet's version also had water chestnuts in the mix, which I haven't had before. Overall, it was a decent rendition of Ma Po Tofu and even though I had eaten a bowl of soup and a plate of potstickers, I managed to get my way through about three-quarters of this plate.

While dessert was offered, I politely declined and asked for the check which, with tax, came to exactly $20. While tonight's meal was decent and would fit the expectations of 90% of Americans looking for "Chinese" food, to me the flavors just didn't pop like they did at more authentic restaurants. When I go out for any kind of cuisine, I want to be excited about the possibility of trying flavors that are foreign to me. The food tonight felt more comforting than exciting. In that sense, tonight's experience completely lined up with my last time dining here, some fifteen plus years ago. If this is the type of Chinese cuisine that you like, gentle reader, I think China Gourmet would make an excellent place for dinner.

For myself, however, I'd rather drive the forty-five minutes to Cleveland's Asiatown and experience some truly delicious and more exciting Chinese flavors.

But Doesn't "Ma La" MEAN Spicy And Numbing?

Due to a personal commitment, I needed to travel to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to meet up with some new acquaintances. We decided that the small, core group of us would meet up for lunch first and then depending on how that went, expand the group to include others for dinner as well. When it somehow came up that I was a food blogger (honestly, I wasn't the one to spill the beans this time), it became clear that picking a spot would fall squarely on my shoulders. Given that both myself and the people I would be meeting were staying on the west side of Pittsburgh near the airport, I decided to focus my search there. I also needed to take into consideration that my hotel room, in the worst case scenario, might not be ready until 3 PM so I needed to make sure I had something to do in case lunch was done early.

Enter IKEA. It's on the west side of Pittsburgh over by the airport and it has been ages since I've been able to swing a trip. I figured I'd find a nice local place to eat that was close to the mega-store and in the event I was done early, "Bazinga!" (as Sheldon Cooper would say), I could kill two birds with one stone. What I didn't realize as I began to localize my search to that part of town was that it was essentially filled to the brim with every national chain restaurant I could name. Of the few local places I stumbled upon, feedback on the web was consistently bad. I've learned by now that the reviews people leave that are either all in capital letters or in the extreme (positive or negative) are usually not all that helpful. It's the well-thought out reviews that seem to have been written by a calm and reasonable human being that I find the most helpful.

And so it was that I stumbled upon Ya Fei, Incorporated. Feedback seemed a little mixed, but overall it was fairly positive. Knowing that most people like both Chinese and Italian food, I took a chance and suggested it to my dining companions. They agreed and we met up for lunch at noon on a Saturday. As it turned out, Ya Fei was literally right across the street from IKEA, so it couldn't have been a more perfect spot. Specifically, the restaurant was located at 1980 Park Manor Boulevard, Pittsburgh, PA 15205 in the Robinson Towne Centre. They can be reached at 412-788-9388. Parking was in the massive lot outside the strip mall.

Here was a shot of the front of the store:


As we arrived a bit early for lunch today, I had a chance to check out the interior of the small lobby inside the front door. To my left was a dry erase board with today's specials:


What caught my eye was the dish listed on the top right hand side of the board, "Ma-La Delight." I struck up a conversation with the woman standing behind the hostess stand who I think might have actually been the owner as she seemed quite knowledgeable. I asked her if the "Ma-La" actually referred to the spicy and numbing sensation created in the mouth when using real Szechaun peppercorns. She said that indeed they were and stated that only a few years ago, because of an FDA regulation, these peppercorns weren't even available in the United States. I asked her if they used the peppercorns in another Szechuan favorite of mine, Ma Pa Dofu (aka Ma Pa Tofu). She stated that they didn't and only saved the Szechaun peppercorns for special dishes like the one on the menu today. She finished the conversation by complimenting me on my knowledge of Chinese food and I graciously thanked her for the compliment.

While the price of this lunch dish seemed a bit high compared to the rest of the menu ($16 versus $7-$9), the chance to try these zesty little pods kind of stuck with me. After our entire group finally arrived, we sat down at our table and were handed the menu to peruse:






Honestly, while I did give the menu a cursory glance, I was still thinking about the special menu item and how good it would be to eat a dish made with authentic Szechuan peppercorns. I considered adding a side dish, perhaps an egg roll or a spring roll. As it turned out, my dining companion decided to order a combination platter that came with an egg roll which she didn't want. When it came to placing our order, the rest of the crowd ordered what I would consider to be more Americanized Chinese fare. The interesting item to note at Ya Fei was that for many of the dishes, you can have either a brown sauce or a white sauce, spicy or not spicy. In fact, our server asked each individual person those questions.

When it came time for me to place my order, I asked for the Ma-La Delight. When she didn't ask me if I wanted it spicy or not, it didn't seem out of place because I had just been talking with the woman at the hostess stand about this very topic. Why would you order such a dish if you didn't already expect it to come out of the kitchen prepared with a minimal amount of heat and spice? I bet, gentle reader, you can already guess where this is heading.

Our lunch order now placed, we settled back in for tea and beverage service:


The tea was hot and delicious and quickly after dropping off our beverages, my egg roll with standard American sauces arrived:


Here you have a fried pork and cabbage egg roll with small pools of sweet and hot mustard sauce. Here was a shot of the interior of the egg roll:


This was a pretty tasty egg roll. It was nicely fried and wasn't too greasy. The vegetables inside the roll were crispy and hot, but were softened just slightly from the pre-cooking of the filling. The sauces were pretty standard and I have to at least be thankful that the "sweet" sauce wasn't of the bright neon red variety. I could taste the actually fruit flavor in the sauce.

After only a few more minutes, the kitchen was able to quickly turn out our lunch dishes and they arrived at the table, two at a time. While everyone else's lunch came with rice on the plate, mine came with rice in its own bowl:


It was at this point that I realized that the $16 dish I had ordered was more of an entrée than a lunch combination. No problem, I thought, if it tastes great and provides a nice Szechuan peppercorn heat, it'll be worth the extra price. Here was a shot of my Ma-La Delight:


Comprised of scallops, shrimp, broccoli, baby corn, mushrooms, and red peppers in a tangy sauce, I searched the plate for any indication of the Szechuan peppercorns. Hmmm ... there didn't seem to be any visible sign of them, but maybe they got ground up before being thrown into the wok. I plated myself up some of the rice and several spoonfuls of the entrée


and dug in. On the positive side, the flavor was quite delicious. The sauce had a nice balance between sweet and sour and the vegetables were cooked nicely, just a bit tender while still maintaining the crispy edge. The scallops were luscious and soft and sweet and complimented the sauce quite nicely. The shrimp, while not quite as sweet as the scallops, were on the verge of being overcooked having a just slightly rubbery quality to them. But even that little quibble wasn't enough for me to say the dish didn't live up to its full potential.

What did, however, was the utter lack of any spice, in the form of numbness or spicy heat. I took bite after bite, assuming that it would build up, but absolutely nothing happened. I would've sent it back to have them re-fire it except that by the time I made the realization, I was already half-way through my lunch and didn't particularly want to hassle with it. After I finished my meal and we paid the check, I approached the woman with whom I had first talked about today's special. I told her that while it was tasty, there was absolutely no fire at all to the dish.

She looked at me with an obviousness in her gaze and said that unless specially requested, the Ma-La Delight is always made mild. At this point, I actually thought to myself, "Then why do you call it Ma-La Delight? Why not call it Sweet and Tangy Delight? Or Seafood Delight?" When I asked her how to order it properly the next time I (or more likely you, gentle reader) come back, she said that I should ask for it, "extra spicy."

What struck me as odd was that when my companions ordered non-Ma-La dishes off the menu, they were each asked how they wished it to be prepared. I, ordering a dish that by it's very name suggested that it should contain lots of spice and heat, was never asked that question. I sighed as I pondered the logic behind this new bit of information. I understand that most Americans wouldn't want it super spicy with mouth numbing properties. But at least give me the chance when I order it to make that decision for myself.

All that being said, each of my other dining companions today said that they really enjoyed their meals. I enjoyed mine, too, but not at the level I know I expected. If the true Szechuan peppercorn experience is what you are after at this local Pittsburgh restaurant, make sure you speak up when you are ordering and never assume that just because it's in the name of the dish, that is what you will actually get.

Szechuan Throwdown, Mapo Dofu Battle

What started off as a casual lunchtime stop at a local Chinese restaurant ended up turning into a somewhat unplanned and lopsided battle. I had been looking for a place to have lunch and based on the comments on this Yahoo Maps site, China House seemed to be the place to go. Given that it was only a ten minute drive from my current location made it all that more appealing. While I certainly wasn't expecting the level of authenticity of a place like Wonton Gourmet, based on the comments, I did expect good Americanized Chinese cuisine.

Located at 4031 South Main Street, Akron, OH 44319, China House can be reached at 330-644-8288. At the time of this writing, no website could be found that was associated with the restaurant. Since the restaurant was in a retail outlet strip, there was plenty of parking available in the lot serving the myriad of storefronts.

Here was a shot of the front of the restaurant:


Once inside, I quickly realized that the restaurant was definitely more of the Americanized Chinese dining experience. I grabbed a menu and began looking through it for something a little more ambitious than General Tso's chicken:


To my surprise, the restaurant was selling Mapo Dofu. For a moment it occurred to me that this restaurant might just have a glimmer of hope. Having had my fair share of Mapo Dofu in the past, I knew it was a flavor I enjoyed when done well. I went ahead and ordered it "ma la," which was the equivalent of asking them to make the sauce both spicy and numbing (in true Szechuan style). The person taking my order nodded at me in seeming acknowledgment of my request, took my money, and indicated that it would be brought out to me when ready.

After a few minutes, my rather substantial lunch arrived:


And a shot of my steamed rice:


After a small snafu with the person bringing out my lunch (I was asking for chopsticks and the older gentleman who brought my lunch out spoken absolutely no English), I dished myself up a plate:


A few observations about my lunch today. Mapo Dofu can be completely vegetarian, but most often it is served with pork. The pork is usually ground and it is in a decent ratio with the tofu. More of a tofu with pork kind of dish. I've had it spicy and not spicy and the amount of chili oil will cause the color of the sauce to vary from brown to reddish. If you like tofu, especially large chunks of tofu, then this version was for you. Sadly, while I dig tofu, it felt completely out of balance with the amount of pork strips that were present. The tofu itself was very Plain Jane and really added nothing to the dish except bulk. Additionally, the "sauce" that the tofu was literally swimming in was neither spicy enough nor very tasty. Honestly it tasted to me like it was simply thickened soy sauce. This had none of the complexities of a good Mapo Dofu. Since I was hungry, I did end up eating about half of this and simply threw the rest away.

The Mapo Dofu Battle arose because a day or so later I found myself at a restaurant in Hudson called Tai Wah. Tai Wah was located at 5835 Darrow Road, Hudson, OH 44256 and can be reached at 330-342-0888. Again, no website could be located at the time of this writing.

I have known where Tai Wah was located for some time. It wasn't until recently, however, that one of my readers brought it to my attention. While she originally recommended the Thai cuisine (specifically the curry), it was when I discovered that Mapo Dofu was on their menu that the concept of a battle between the two restaurants started to formulate in my brain. But, of course, I am getting a little ahead of myself.

Here was a shot of the exterior of the restaurant, nicely tucked away behind the Zeppe's:


Once inside, I could immediately tell that Tai Wah was a more upscale joint than China House had been. While I'm sure they served take-out occasionally, the bulk of their business was clearly in-house dining. The dining area was split about evenly between tables and booths and I requested a table near the back of the room so that I could inconspicuously take photos without bothering other patrons.

While the menu has several different pages, for whatever reason I decided only to take a photograph of the page with the spicy Chinese food items on it:


Tai Wah's version was clearly much more expensive than the one I had eaten at China House and I wondered if it the taste would live up to the price. At nearly $13, I hoped that at the minimum, at least I'd have leftovers that I'd want to take home with me.

I started out with a pot of green tea:


My waiter informed me that my spice level options were mild, medium, and hot. Knowing that Mapo Dofu was a Szechuan dish, I asked him if there were any heat level options above hot. He informed me that he could ask for it extra hot and bring out some chili pepper flakes in oil so that I could adjust it myself. That seemed like a reasonable solution and he went off to place the order.

About fifteen minutes later, he returned with this enormous platter of food:


Studded with lots of chili peppers, I knew that this was going to have a nice spicy kick to it. Along with my platter came my steamed rice and chili oil:


I dished myself up some of the rice and gently layered on the Mapo Dofu on top of the rice, making sure to spoon some of the liquid directly onto the rice. Here was a shot of my dinner plate:


Where China House's version had been swimming in nasty, flavorless brown sauce, Tai Wah's was brimming with the flavors of chili, ginger, and garlic. I also appreciated the restraint that Tai Wah used in the amount of sauce that came out with the dish. It was enough to make the dish interesting and paired excellently with the rice, but not so much that it overwhelmed everything. It was also nice to see a lot more pork than what I had received at China House. That being said, some of the pork was nice and tender and some of it was a tad bit chewy. While there was no numbing sensation from Szechuan peppercorns, there was plenty of burning from the assortment of nearly whole chilies that had been thrown into this dish.

Even as hungry as I was, I was only able to finish about 1/3 of my Mapo Dofu before asking my waiter to box up the remaining rice and tofu. This version was definitely coming home with me for a snack later on and probably lunch the next day. You most certainly got your money's worth at Tai Wah, although I have to question the extremely large portions ... why not just offer a half-portion at half the price?

Having had both restaurants versions of Mapo Dofu, it was obviously clear that Tai Wah won without any problems whatsoever. Not to say that Tai Wah has the best Mapo Dofu that I've ever had, but theirs was decent enough. Do I think it's fair to compare two restaurants that are obviously geared towards different types of customers? Absolutely. I ate both dishes at the respective restaurants and I could easily have gotten both orders to go. Based on my experience today and the suggestion that I give their curry a try, I definitely think a return to Tai Wah is in order. While I know I can't judge China House's entire menu on simply one item, my gut tells me that I'm probably going to have a similar experience with the rest of the food there. While I was initially excited to see a more Americanized Chinese menu with Mapo Dofu on it, if it isn't going to be executed well, then why even bother putting it on there? Trust me, no one who thinks that Chinese food only consists of egg rolls, General Tso's chicken, and crab rangoon would even know what they were missing.

However, if you are on the lookout for a good Mapo Dofu, check out Tai Wah on Rt. 91 just north of Terex Road. Better yet, share a couple of dishes family-style and you'll help to keep the cost of your meal to a reasonable level.