11 Mar 2007 1023H

Trib Chinatown restaurant recs, more in eats

Probably best located on the Chinese Chicago Historical Society website, but, Tribune food writer Monica Eng (who, if memory serves me correctly, is a descendant of the family that ran the Chicago restaurant House of Eng, a locally important pre-1965 restaurant) and my friend, ZJ Tong, former associate director of the Chicago Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, who now runs the Chicago Chinese Cultural Institute, and a few other food tourists got together recently to recommend restaurants in Chinatown.

As a local resident, I agree pretty much with everything they said, although, for lack of any Shanghai options, I’ll express my reservations about Moon Palace. In the 80s, I grew up eating at the old Moon Palace, or 456 as we call it in Chinese, when it was on the second floor dining room across from where Penang is now.

There were always three staples for us at Moon Palace: the waugh teep, or potstickers, the goong bo gaai ding, or kung pao chicken with chilis, green onions, and roasted peanuts; and the siu loong bao, which are called by various names such as little steamer buns, juicy buns, steamed soup dumplings, juicy pork dumplings, or xiaolongbao. So all my thoughts of the restaurant are how they have maintained these three standards over the years.

As I recall there was a fire and after the original owners moved, sold their interests, and moved on, the restaurant initially kept most of the recipes but they have changed over the years and are now quite different.

Pot stickers, Moon Palace, Chicago, IL

The pot stickers, served with slivers of ginger and a black rice vinegar sauce for dipping, are still very juicy, almost more so than the steamed soup dumplings, while maintaining the crispy crust underneath.

And it is tempting to compare the siu loong bao here to their counterparts from New York City, like Joe’s Shanghai or New Green Bo, which is unfair, I think, but the quality of the bao in New York City is so very high that everything else is drawn inexorably into their gravity well.

Xiaolongbao, Moon Palace, Chicago, IL

At Moon Palace, the filling is dense, almost meatball-like, and the soup in it is quickly absorbed back into the filling. They’re still enjoyable, although the best variety, in my humble opinion, is the crab and pork version, which are identified by orange crab oil in the dumplings, since they have a superior depth of flavor. Then, too, I have experienced some post-dinner distress on the last two occasions I’ve eaten these dumplings and have not gone back, so. You have been warned.

Kung Pao Chicken, Moon Palace, Chicago, IL

Finally, the kung pao chicken is a shadow of what it used to be. The flavor profile is still there, but what used to be an elegant dish consisting solely of cubes of dark chicken meat, stir fried with chili peppers, tiny sliced discs of green onions, and roasted peanuts in a garlicky, hot bean paste based sauce, with just a hint of sweetness, is no longer. Now, the strong flavors of filler vegetables like green peppers and cubes of bamboo shoots and water chestnuts overwhelm the delicate flavors of the crunchy fried peanuts and mellowness of the chicken. The high water content of the veggies also dilutes the rich, intense sauce. Be sure to ask to omit these veggies and you will be rewarded by a far superior dish.

In another note, last year or two years ago it was Lebanese food, but this year I’m on an Indian food kick. I gave the Chicagoist-recommended Baba Palace a try last night. It is a large green restaurant at the corner of Chicago at Orleans, almost right off the Chicago Brown/Purple Line stop, and frequented mostly by taxicab drivers. Usually it is a super busy intersection, so I’ve scrupulously avoided the place for years, but I had no trouble getting to it from Chinatown by way of Canal, or finding parking just north of Chicago Ave on a Saturday night around 6:30. Service was quick, although the man at the counter seemed to have trouble understanding my order. I gave the seekh kebab ($8) and the keema naan ($4) a try last night. The seekh kebab, which is ground spiced chicken meat formed around a skewer like a sausage and then roasted in an tandoor oven, was superb, just like the one at Khan BBQ at Devon and Western. The keema naan was dense, almost like a paratha, filled with spicy ground beef, evenly distributed around the bread. For a place that’s open around the clock, with service that gets you in and out in minutes, I’d say it’s highly recommended.

This is probably the last real-time food blog I’ll do in the next 12 weeks. I’d like to fill out this section of the blog with other places but that will be drawn mostly from memory. We’re having some kind of weight loss competition at Brulant in Beachwood, so, although I won’t be officially weighing in, I’ll be joining this effort as part of my training. I figure it will be a side effect of training, although, we’re trying to burn fat and build muscle.

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