Quality standards for Chinese food

[Jonathan Day]

Ed, thank you for taking time to answer our questions.

Could you say anything about how you judge the quality of a Chinese meal, either the menu or individual dishes? I realise that this may be difficult because of the variety of Chinese cooking traditions, but are there common features you look for? Are there particular dishes that are good tests of the skill of a restaurant?

I ask this in part because I've just returned from Hong Kong. We had some extraordinary meals, all Cantonese. The fish and vegetables, in particular, were better in texture and flavour than most dishes I get in restaurants here. What would you look for?

[eatingwitheddie]

Could you say anything about how you judge the quality of a Chinese meal, either the menu or individual dishes?

Are there particular dishes that are good tests of the skill of a restaurant?

What would you look for?

TESTING A RESTAURANT - WHAT DO I LOOK FOR?

The first and prime thing that I want from a restaurant is delicious food: I want fresh, clean, beautifully tailored flavors and textures. If I get that I can put up with almost anything. Presentation, and the order in which dishes are served, especially at a banquet, are particularly important. Yinging and yanging the items so that you get a nicely blanced progression of tastes, colors, and smells is what's critical.

When I go to a (new) Chinese restaurant before I order I typically:

1) Walk around the dining room and see what others are eating.

2) Check out the fish tanks (if they have them) - see what they have and how they're taking care of them.

3) Read the menu and ask if there are any ancillary menus - chef's specialties, set dinners, and in particular banquet menus. Very often the banquet menus are a good clue to what the restaurant itself thinks is special - and frequently these items are available a la carte.

4) Check out the local veg and fish markets and see what's fresh and then ask the restaurant if they're serving those items.

5) If these menus are in Chinese only, I am often aggressive about trying to get a waiter who is willing to translate for me.

There are dishes that are good tests of a chef's skill. One of the best is sauteed sliced fish. Fish filet is resillient and hard to pull apart when it's raw. When cooked, however, it falls apart very easily. It is very difficult to toss and sauce fish filet in a wok without it breaking into smaller pieces. This is a classical test. But don't forget, there may be 10 different stir fry chefs in a kitchen, and only one of them has cooked your dish and it probably wasn't the head chef. He might be great (or terrible), but don't forget about the other 9 chefs whose cooking you haven't tried. This helps account for the variability of a particular restaurant. On a Chinese hot saute line it is frequently known which chef cooks which particular dish best. In restaurants where they really care, they may assign a particular chef to cook a particular dish because they know how well he executes it.

Additionally, one might look to see the volume of sauce vs. the volume of the food. Sometimes we want just enough sauce to coat the food and still have it be quite flavorful, whereas with other dishes we might want a large amount of gravy or a completely dry dish.

Our industry is all about the details. Chances are good that if there are a lot of beautifully thought out and maintained details, the restaurant will be a good one. Though obviously the small and perhaps funky places can be terrific. It just takes one really good cook!