Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Chinese Food


When I was a kid in our small town in the 1950’s there was one Chinese restaurant. I think it was take out only -- I never heard of anyone actually eating there. They served Americanized Chinese food: chow mein, chop suey, chicken subgum, egg foo yung, but to us it was tres exotique. The little packets of soy sauce and the fortune cookies were utterly fascinating. We looked at the chopsticks but were afraid to use them. But the bags of food my father brought home never contained anything remotely spicy. The proprietors of that establishment probably assumed that Americans wouldn’t want anything too far out of their comfort zones. The Chinese take-out did a very good business and I’m sure the owners smiled at our xenophobia as they checked their bank accounts and then tucked into plates of spicy eggplant, shitake mushrooms in oyster sauce, and anything in garlic black bean sauce.

When I arrived in California in 1966 I was astonished by the Chinese food that I encountered. Such variety! Such taste! Spicy, salty, sweet, sour – it was an explosion on my taste buds. As the years passed I realized that we corn-fed rubes in the middle of the country had been fooled into thinking that Chinese food was bland and gloppy, when all along California and New York had been enjoying the real thing. Noodles were not just the skinny chow mein but also the chubby chow fun. There was a whole sub-genre of food that got wrapped up in other food, like mu shu pork wrapped in delicate little pancakes. There were amazing and unexpected combinations like honey-walnut shrimp. My first dim sum experience was a revelation.

Now, in 2009, those dishes that first burst into my consciousness have become mainstream. At the same time I have found that my aging taste buds need greater stimulation. I don’t want my food to be searingly hot, but I do want a bit of aggressive seasoning, whatever it is. I enjoy looking for unusual dishes on Chinese menus. Sometimes I really do want the items that are not translated into English, no matter what the waiter says. Bring me the chicken feet and jellyfish!

But when having Chinese food with my 96 year old mother, I do have to stick to the tried and true – nothing weird or spicy. So on our recent visit to Taiwan on Lincoln Avenue in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood, we had the old standbys of cashew chicken, honey walnut shrimp, and mu shu pork. I like Taiwan, and the food is very good, but I looked longingly at the dishes identified as hot by a little red pepper on the menu. And afterwards Mom said she would have preferred broccoli beef to the mu shu, as there were too many green onions in the pork, and she likes the broccoli beef “gravy” on her rice.

Only one problem at Taiwan – instead of Chinese pancakes they gave us flour tortillas with the mu shu. Not an acceptable substitute! Not even the same hemisphere! Chinese pancakes are small and delicate, and tortillas are big and doughy. Tortillas are made to enclose a burrito, not a few spoonfuls of delicate stir-fry and plum sauce.

Taiwan

http://www.taiwanrestaurantsj.com/
1306 Lincoln Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125

phone: (408) 289-8800 or (408) 289-9328 fax: (408) 289-8924