A lifelong love affair -- with Chinese food
A stout, white carton with folded sides and an inky red sketch of a towering pagoda.
A baked boomerang with ancient wisdom (and lottery numbers) on a thin strip of paper hidden within the crunchy cookie.
Buddha’s bronze belly - rub it for good luck - and serene smirk greeting you at the door.
Add a pair of chopsticks and choose two entrees from Lists A, B and C, and you’ve very nearly completed a crash course on Chinese food in America. Don’t study the spellings - I’ve seen a dozen variants of “kung pao,” and each creative Anglicization is a wok-worthy treat.
Since world-class Chinese food is as much a New York City staple as bagels, pizza and Coney Island hot dogs, and since Beijing is hosting the Summer Olympics this week, the New York Times is prodding readers to get in the international spirit by chowing down on Chinese.
We can do the same here in Gastonia. After all, I can - and often do - seize the faintest excuse to forgo cooking dinner and pick up some tasty takeout. Chinese food has been my lifelong favorite; in elementary school, when my finicky classmates were nibbling corn dogs and French fries, I was savoring tai chien chicken and slurping lo mein noodles.
As addictions often do, my affinity for Asian cuisine started early in life. My father filmed television commercials for a Florida cable company, and I made my small-screen debut as a baby, appearing in a couple spots for China Jade. My parents dined regularly at the restaurant - a perennial St. Petersburg Times award-winner.
When I was 14, I got my first part-time job, busing tables one night a week at China Jade. The work was strenuous, but the restaurant staff got a formidable fringe benefit: Free food from the buffet.
Today, friends know me as an unpretentious connosieur of Chinese food. In a new town, I’m relentless in my search for the best Asian restaurants. Give me Hunan beef with an eggroll and a side of white rice, or give me death!
What makes good Chinese food? First, I should confess that I’m no highfalutin’ gourmet. To real food critics with professional palates, my tastes are undoubtedly pedestrian. Not only do I fail to appreciate a rare slab of prime-cut steak, I won’t take a bite until it’s been declared well-done, then thoroughly seared, smoked and grilled again for good measure.
With that caveat, I’ll share my standards for pepper steak perfection and dim sum divinity.
1. The sauce makes the dish
Rich, savory sauces are the hallmark of good Chinese food. A sauce that’s too thick will drown the food’s flavor, and a thin gruel of teriyaki, soy or sweet and sour just won’t do. The right sauce isn’t watery or greasy, it’s an expertly blended flavor grenade that leaves you adding rice or noodles to your plate to absorb every drop.
2. The leaner the better
Chicken, beef and pork should be trimmed of all fat, and the gamy pieces of meat usually found on the bone have got to go. Even coated with the perfect sauce and eaten with a bell pepper and broccoli floret, a morsel of waxy chicken fat will spoil this diner’s appetite.
3. Out of the frying pan…
Chicken dishes that are lightly breaded and fried, such as sesame chicken and General Tso’s chicken, can be sensational. However, the meat is easily overcooked. The best dishes have tender, slightly crispy chicken chunks; anything too crunchy is a failed experiment.
4. It’s the spice of life
Most Chinese food should be spicy. The mild-mouthed and tender-tongued among us are slowly gaining ground in their efforts to turn down the heat, but chefs and cooks ought to resist. Dishes should be prepared as intended with flavorful, piquant spices, and it’s the no-spice crowd, not the pepper-loving purists, who should have to special-order their meals.
Since moving here in early June, I’ve sampled five Chinese restaurants in Gastonia and one in Charlotte. I have a couple preliminary favorites, but I’ll keep an open mind and an empty stomach until I try all the egg fried rice, Szechuan beef and Cantonese chicken that Gaston County has to offer.
A diet of takeout may take its toll on the wallet and waistline, but it will definitely add a smile to even the stoniest faces.
I think Buddha would agree.
This is my most recent newspaper column -- in a personal first, for the food section.
A baked boomerang with ancient wisdom (and lottery numbers) on a thin strip of paper hidden within the crunchy cookie.
Buddha’s bronze belly - rub it for good luck - and serene smirk greeting you at the door.
Add a pair of chopsticks and choose two entrees from Lists A, B and C, and you’ve very nearly completed a crash course on Chinese food in America. Don’t study the spellings - I’ve seen a dozen variants of “kung pao,” and each creative Anglicization is a wok-worthy treat.
Since world-class Chinese food is as much a New York City staple as bagels, pizza and Coney Island hot dogs, and since Beijing is hosting the Summer Olympics this week, the New York Times is prodding readers to get in the international spirit by chowing down on Chinese.
We can do the same here in Gastonia. After all, I can - and often do - seize the faintest excuse to forgo cooking dinner and pick up some tasty takeout. Chinese food has been my lifelong favorite; in elementary school, when my finicky classmates were nibbling corn dogs and French fries, I was savoring tai chien chicken and slurping lo mein noodles.
As addictions often do, my affinity for Asian cuisine started early in life. My father filmed television commercials for a Florida cable company, and I made my small-screen debut as a baby, appearing in a couple spots for China Jade. My parents dined regularly at the restaurant - a perennial St. Petersburg Times award-winner.
When I was 14, I got my first part-time job, busing tables one night a week at China Jade. The work was strenuous, but the restaurant staff got a formidable fringe benefit: Free food from the buffet.
Today, friends know me as an unpretentious connosieur of Chinese food. In a new town, I’m relentless in my search for the best Asian restaurants. Give me Hunan beef with an eggroll and a side of white rice, or give me death!
What makes good Chinese food? First, I should confess that I’m no highfalutin’ gourmet. To real food critics with professional palates, my tastes are undoubtedly pedestrian. Not only do I fail to appreciate a rare slab of prime-cut steak, I won’t take a bite until it’s been declared well-done, then thoroughly seared, smoked and grilled again for good measure.
With that caveat, I’ll share my standards for pepper steak perfection and dim sum divinity.
1. The sauce makes the dish
Rich, savory sauces are the hallmark of good Chinese food. A sauce that’s too thick will drown the food’s flavor, and a thin gruel of teriyaki, soy or sweet and sour just won’t do. The right sauce isn’t watery or greasy, it’s an expertly blended flavor grenade that leaves you adding rice or noodles to your plate to absorb every drop.
2. The leaner the better
Chicken, beef and pork should be trimmed of all fat, and the gamy pieces of meat usually found on the bone have got to go. Even coated with the perfect sauce and eaten with a bell pepper and broccoli floret, a morsel of waxy chicken fat will spoil this diner’s appetite.
3. Out of the frying pan…
Chicken dishes that are lightly breaded and fried, such as sesame chicken and General Tso’s chicken, can be sensational. However, the meat is easily overcooked. The best dishes have tender, slightly crispy chicken chunks; anything too crunchy is a failed experiment.
4. It’s the spice of life
Most Chinese food should be spicy. The mild-mouthed and tender-tongued among us are slowly gaining ground in their efforts to turn down the heat, but chefs and cooks ought to resist. Dishes should be prepared as intended with flavorful, piquant spices, and it’s the no-spice crowd, not the pepper-loving purists, who should have to special-order their meals.
Since moving here in early June, I’ve sampled five Chinese restaurants in Gastonia and one in Charlotte. I have a couple preliminary favorites, but I’ll keep an open mind and an empty stomach until I try all the egg fried rice, Szechuan beef and Cantonese chicken that Gaston County has to offer.
A diet of takeout may take its toll on the wallet and waistline, but it will definitely add a smile to even the stoniest faces.
I think Buddha would agree.
This is my most recent newspaper column -- in a personal first, for the food section.