China 46

[Jason Perlow]

I am looking to take a few friends here tomorrow night. There will probably be 4 of us

total. We are definitely going to order the Ruby Pork. What would you guys recommend

for a beef and shrimp dish? For chicken, Kong Po Chicken or Diced Chicken w. Spicy Capsicum Brown Sauce? I will also order the jiozzi and the meatballs if they have them. I can't wait for my first China 46 experience.

-Al

Diced Chicken with Spicy Capsicum Brown Sauce definitely.

For beef I would go with the dried shredded beef with green chiles.

For shrimp i would go with the shanghai style jumbo shrimp or the salt and pepper jumbo shrimp.

[tommy]

For shrimp i would go with the shanghai style jumbo shrimp or the salt and pepper jumbo shrimp.

yes and yes. i'd also consider the shrimp with young chives if it's on the special menu. it's a subtle dish, though.

[Jason Perlow]

For shrimp i would go with the shanghai style jumbo shrimp or the salt and pepper jumbo shrimp.

yes and yes. i'd also consider the shrimp with young chives if it's on the special menu. it's a subtle dish, though.

Yeah, they have one with Yellow Chives and ham, that one is very good.

[jo-mel]

Yellow Chives and Ham?? That sounds interesting! Regular ham or a Virginia type ham?

Jason -- have you had their Steamed Honey Ham? I plan to try it next time I'm there.

[tommy]

i don't recall the ham necessarily in the versions i've had. but if there's ham, it ain't regular and it probably ain't virginia.

[schmooty]

Anyone ever tried Pork Chop Beijing Style? When we go to Phoenix Garden in the city

we always order Pork Chops Peking Style which are pan fried and served with

a sweet sauce. Are the dishes similar? 6 hours and counting! Any other MUST HAVE dishes? I think I just recruited another person.

[schmooty]

Just wanted to write a quick review of last night's meal. The food was everything I was hoping it would be. I went with 3 other people who let me do all of the ordering.

We started out with the Pork Chops Beijing style and jiozzi for an appertizer. The pork chops were exactly what I thought; pan fried in a sweet and sour kind of a sauce. They were excellent and I recommend everyone checking them out. The jiozzi were unlike any dumpling I have ever had. They were so tasty. For main dishes we did the chicken with Spicy Capsicum Brown Sauce wich was spicy, but not overwhelming. They had the

lionhead's meatballs which were light, fluffy, and delicious. Than came the Shanghai Jumbo Shrimp (In Shell). The sauce was excellent and the shrimp were cooked perfectly. Cecil than brought us what he called a rice cake dish than was in a moo-shu type of a sauce. It had a smoky flavor and complimented our other dishes perfectly. I have never had a dish like that before and we all really enjoyed it. Last, but certainly not least was the Ruby Pork w/ the buns. It was so tender and tasty. I think most of my party was pretty full by the time it was served, but we still enjoyed it. We only ate half, so I will be eating the other half for lunch very soon. All in all a great eating experience. And as far as cost, it was $100 for 4 people with tip and tax which everyone thought was quite reasonable.

-Al

[tommy]

i don't know why this thread isn't 100 pages long. i continue to have awesome meal after awesome meal at C46.

last night i had something not yet on the menus, recommended by cecil. a cubed pork dish with hot green peppers and cucumbers. flavorwise this was one of the cleanest dishes i can remember. apparently it's some sort of traditional dish, and for good reason.

all things considered, i would say that C46 is my favorite restaurant. and i don't even like chinese food.

[Jason Perlow]

last night i had something not yet on the menus, recommended by cecil.  a cubed pork dish with hot green peppers and cucumbers.  flavorwise this was one of the cleanest dishes i can remember.  apparently it's some sort of traditional dish, and for good reason.

Yes, thats a really good dish -- we had that last weekend at the brunch.

[tommy]

they have a special called something like sha cha beef. that's probably way off, but you get the idea. it's very intense. served in a piping hot clay pot with a deep, rich sauce. the beef was very very organy. i forget what cut it was, but all around, this is a full-flavored dish. split it with several people (not two like i tried).

[pcbilly]

Tommy:

You are right about the name of the dish.

Normaly, Sha Cha Beef is a dish made of beef and green vegetable(such as spinach) saute in Sha Cha Jiang. ("Jiang" is sauce or paste in Chinese).

Chinese also use Sha Cha Jiang(or Sha Zha Chinag) as a dipping sauce for Mongolian Hot Pot. It is made of soy sauce, chilli, garlic, shallot, dried fish and many other spices

and is similar to Satay sauce.

Use it with beef in a hot clay pot is a new one for me.

Bill

[tommy]

pcbilly, thanks for that background.

after reading your post, i remember cecil telling me that there was "dried fish" in the dish. that was a new one for me. i'm not sure what that is, but it made for an interesting flavor.

Edited May 9, 2004 by tommy (log)

[tommy]

i'm not so smart to know if they're fresh, but C46's pepper and salt soft shell crabs are well worth the price of admission. the restaurant also sent out some sort of preserved bean curd. most excellent. i thought i tasted ginger. great texture. great flavor. nothing like i've had in the past year.

never a bad meal. never a bad dish.

[pcbilly]

Soft shell crabs must be in season.

Over the weekend, I had the same dish in Hunan Cottage down in Fairfield and it was delicious. They listed it as a special for $18.99 and there got to be five crabs in the dish. It is cheaper than cooking at home.

Anyway, I got to go to check out China46 again, it has been for a while.

[Rosie]

I love Hunan Cottage as much as China 46. Heres more on the restaurant...

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...l=Hunan+Cottage

[tommy]

I love Hunan Cottage as much as China 46. Heres more on the restaurant...

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...l=Hunan+Cottage

rosie, there's just no comparison in my mind.

[pcbilly]

QUOTE (Rosie @ May 12 2004, 09:54 PM)

I love Hunan Cottage as much as China 46. Heres more on the restaurant...

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...l=Hunan+Cottage

rosie, there's just no comparison in my mind.

I have to agree with Rosie on this one.

But I probably should move my comments about hunan cottage to its own thread.

[Jason Perlow]

Hunan Cottage (thread)

[pcbilly]

Jason:

Thanks you for the friendly link.

[menton1]

For those of us who love China 46 (I guess that's most of us) they are having a great discount special for the month of May-- If you just present your library card from any library in Bergen County (BCCLS System) they will immediately take 15% right off the check. Something to do with their supporting the 25th anniversary of the Bergen County Library system.

P.S. Don't forget to tip based on the total before the discount...

[pnapoli]

we went here on friday and had the sauteed shredded yellow eel shanghai style and the szechuan capsicum scallops. both were delicious but the eel was especially good. and i can't get those pork buns out of my mind...soo good.

[jo-mel]

DH and I were there last Sunday for their brunch and I didn't follow the advice, given here, by several people. I was hungry as I hadn't eaten breakfast, so I stupidly filled up a plate from the main tables. Not good!

I don't mean the food was not good, but I filled up too fast and when the various selections came by, I had to stuff myself. Couldn't politely decline, don't you know!! The freshly made items were all wonderful!! The buffet table also had some good items.

Cecil and his staff are really wonderful. They love to chat when they have time, and they know their stuff.

Next time, tho --- I will pace myself!

[markk]

NEW PORK SHOULDER IN TOWN:

We went to China 46 last night and of course we had a wonderful meal. I ordered the "Ruby Pork", or at least I tried to, and Cecil told me to have another, new preparation of the pork shoulder instead. It was wonderful, although strangely, it didn't come with buns and we had to rush to order them on the side. He said that I was one of the first people to have this dish. When I asked its name, they all thought and said "new pork" for lack of a name for it. Has anybody else had this new dish yet?

[tommy]

haven't had it yet. was it saucy?

as far as i know, buns don't come with the ruby pork either. it's something that you order on its own.

i too had an excellent meal there last night. pan fried wontons, preserved greens with lima beans, and the most excellent but not on the menu pork with cucumber.

the preserved greens were incredible. cecil told me that it's basically peasant food. the greens would come from the tough, inedible outside of what ever plant, and people would salt and pickle them so they could eat them a few days later. excellent.

Edited June 11, 2004 by tommy (log)

[tommy]

stopped in tonight with a friend to have dinner. noticed two dudes checking out our dishes as they were seated. Smart dudes. heard a cork pop from what was clearly a sparkling wine, and then saw what i thought might be an ice wine being pulled from a bag. first thing that came to my mind?: “egullet freaks.” (in a good way)

two dudes, and they were ordering up a storm. we had some excellent discussion around the bullet-proof glass type booths about the dishes we were eating…and having people talk around bullet-proof glass about what their neighbors are chowing on is strange indeed in these parts (that was another indication that these particular dudes probably heard about egullet).

i listened closely, without being obtrusive or obnoxious, at their order. i heard "Dungeness crab". Now, this dish is huge, so i knew we had some serious eaters in the house. it was then made clear by the server (Qing, I believe…I should ask him again, but he’s the TOPS), that we had ordered the last of the red greens (don't ask me), although they wanted them, as the server pointed at our dish. I felt bad, as we hadn’t finished the whole dish (although they were excellent).

Passionate discussion ensued about the pork that we were eating and the ruby pork and another "new" pork dish that C46 was offering. i said "yeah, we got the new one". i was assured by the one dude that we hadn't, as the “new” dish is in fact a pork shoulder, and we didn’t have a shoulder. this dude asked about my favorite dishes blah blah blah, and i threw out a few, all expert-like and all. this dude and his bud had had most of them, if not all, and claimed that they’d only been going to C46 for a month or two. Color me impressed for sure! this dude said he heard about C46 from a website called “egullet”. "have you heard of egullet?" he asked. and hey, if you're me, you either say "no", or "yes" and duck immediately. My friend didn’t know what to do as the question was asked, and believe me, I didn’t either. “hell, this could be menton1 for all I know” I thought to myself. I timidly said “yeah, who are you? I’m ‘tommy’”. He said “mark”. I said “oh yeah, you were here the other night”. He looked at me like I was some stalkerish freak. But I followed up with “I read your post and posted right after it.” Mark said “I’ll have to find your posts on egullet.” My friend said “well dude, you won’t have to look too hard.”

Bottom line: I got out of there without getting punched. More importantly, I had a preserved pork dish that was out of this world. Now, I’ve had a “preserved pork” dish at Grand Sichuan in NYC (the one on 2nd ave, not the “temple” on 9th), and it was a big flabby fatty mess. C46’s version is the exact opposite. Clean, but deep flavors, pork belly that melts in your mouth, vegetables underneath that I dubbed “bacon vegetables”. This, is, my, new, favorite dish.

I brought along a 2 dollar bottle of “Lost Vineyards” rose, and all was good in the world. I can only hope my neighbors enjoyed their meal as much.

Edited June 15, 2004 by tommy (log)