Having experienced a number of extremely poor takeout Chinese meals in recent months, I decided to ask a few chefs to reveal their favorite Chinese restaurants. Alas, their replies were disturbingly similar — and depressing.
Typical was this missive: "I'm afraid I won't be able to help you right now for some Chinese takeout places," wrote chef Gui Alinat, who operates a personal chef service in the Bay area. "I could, however, tell you where NOT to go, as I have been more than disappointed the few times I attempted to eat takeout Chinese."
It seems that, while the Bay area has a hefty number of Chinese eateries, very few prepare anything close to the crunchy, dazzlingly exotic fare available in other cities. (In London there's a fabulous Chinese restaurant on every other corner.)
Even though the scenario was bleak, I enlisted the Planet editorial staff to spend a lunch hour taste-testing Chinese takeout from two eateries. The restaurant names were hidden to ensure an unbiased result. The overall assessment: They considered one place respectable, and the other, they said, "wasn't bad."
My Asian friends recommended a third, relatively new restaurant, which I found quite delightful. We are glad to share our findings and hope if our readers know of terrific Chinese restaurants they will drop us a line — for the search, you see, is never-ending.
Marbo of Fourth Street Chinese Restaurant
The food from this St. Pete spot drew compliments because it was fresh and zingy. A couple of staffers, we won't mention any names, even ate Marbo's moo shu pork off the floor, where a clump of it had accidentally fallen before the official testing began. I guess that tells you more about the testers than the food. (Editor's note: Sara was late; we were hungry.)
Anyway, the moo shu pork ($7.25, large), a stir-fried mix of tender meat and shredded crispy vegetables bathed with a kicky sauce, was a popular dish that disappeared quickly. Its only leftovers were the "pancakes" that came with it: The dish is supposed to be accompanied by paper thin, homemade pancakes in which the customer rolls the meat, but in a dismaying shortcut, Marbo's kitchen substituted commercially made tortillas for more authentic "Peking doilies."
Still, some of the restaurant's other offerings scored serious points, such as the sauteed string beans with bean curd ($6.25 per quart), lovely, crunchy beans lolling in a spicy sauce; and chicken with snow peas ($4.50, small), tender, white breast meat mixed with the deepest green snow peas, and served with a mild sauce. Also scoring well was an appetizer of barbecued ribs ($4.95), four hearty ones (with very little fat) that were smoked to a sizzling rouge color but mercifully came without the requisite gooey sweet sauce.
Egg rolls ($1 each) and vegetarian egg foo young ($4.95) were deemed too greasy. Also left lonely and standing in their containers were hot and sour soup ($1.75) and roast pork wonton soup ($1.50), victims of poor broth. The testers scarfed down the spring rolls ($1.25 each), vegetables encased in edible coverings and deftly fried.
Overall, we found the restaurant's efforts to be respectable and would be inclined to order takeout there again.
Ho Ho Windows
This restaurant, a denizen of Tampa's Hyde Park neighborhood for many years, at one time had an excellent reputation, but for some reason the quality of its fare suffered when it changed locations a couple of years ago. Still, we thought we would give it a try.
Among the best dishes were mandarin peel beef ($8.95), sliced meat with snow peas, accented with the zest of oranges. A quarter of a real orange was set carefully atop the beef, its delectable scent wafting into our noses when we opened the carton. It was too greasy for my taste, but others went for it in a big way and it was quickly devoured.
My favorite dish was mo pu tofu ($7.95), tofu combined with ground pork and a gently spiced sauce. The dish featured hefty squares of tofu, and its sauce was just hot enough to be interesting; still, its virtues were lost on some of the testers, who generally considered tofu too gross to consume.
Overall, though, the Planeteers managed to dine pretty well, demolishing the walnut chicken ($8.95), chicken, snow peas, walnuts, baby corn and carrots in a frisky sauce; and kung pao shrimp ($8.50), a Szechwan creation of shrimp stir-fried with onions, peppers, carrots and peanuts.
Less successful were egg rolls ($1.25 each), too greasy and lacking flavor; and two soups, chicken rice and noodle ($1.50, pint), and egg drop ($1.30, pint), both suffering from thin broth and substandard ingredients.
Overall, the testers seemed pretty underwhelmed with Ho Ho's efforts. I asked them to describe its fare. "Not bad" was the consensus — not exactly a ringing endorsement.
T.C. Choy's Asian Bistro
Located up the street from Ho Ho Windows, along Howard Avenue's restaurant row, T.C. Choy's has been open less than a year. It has quite a pedigree, since it's owned by Sharon and Chan Choy, who have operated the Oceanic Oriental Supermarket for many years in Tampa.
Unlike the simple decor we found in the other two restaurants, T.C. Choy's is a sophisticated, elegant venue, complete with its own aquarium from which you can pick the live seafood you're going to eat. Its offerings are probably as authentically Chinese as you're going to find anywhere in the Bay area. (T.C. Choy's does offer other dishes of Oriental extraction, like Japanese and Thai.)
The waiter can help you choose the best dish, which changes in accordance with that day's chef and what the restaurant has been able to buy on the spot from its suppliers. On the night we dined there, one of the specials was a whole, steamed red snapper ($18.50). One minute, the poor fish was gaily cruising the aquarium, and the next, it sat in a hot cloud of vapor, sizzling on a big oval plate. The waiter removed most of the bones before we dived in with chopsticks, picking at the moist, tender meat — a truly excellent dish.
Another of T.C. Choy's unusual treats was a lovely, lychee pudding ($3.50), its texture a glissande on the tongue, its unusual flavor as ethereal as a rainbow. The lychee, alternately spelled litchi, is a cherished fruit grown in China for more than 2,000 years, according to The Food Lover's Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst. Its flesh is creamy white and juicy smooth, with a restrained sweetness so different from the overpowering nature of heavy, Western-style desserts.
T.C. Choy's also does a delectable sushi menu at lunch, and a fine dim sum each Saturday and Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dim sum is Cantonese for "heart's delight" and entails a variety of small, one-bite dishes simlar to finger-food appetizers. Itis an unusually imaginative and well-run Chinese restaurant that we are fortunate to have.
Contact Sara Kennedy at sara.kennedy@weeklyplanet.com or call 813-248-8888, ext. 116.
This article appears in Jun 5-11, 2002.