Tifco's China Bistro

[percyn]

I almost went there for lunch on Sat myself.

Might stop in today.

[percyn]

Got a few of my standard favorites:

Spicy Sichuan Chicken Salad

Ja Ja Mein (sp? Noodles with spicy pork topping)

The left over chicken is great when topped on scrambled eggs

[philadining]

Took a friend from out of town to Tifco's tonight. He's a little shell-shocked, but I think he's still speaking to me....

Got the dumplings in spicy chicken broth, which were tender and delicious as always, and yet again displayed an uncanny ability to deliver a dose of hot oil to an uncomfortable spot in the back of your throat, no matter how you eat them. I don't care, they taste great!

Shredded Beef in Szechuan Style (#61 on the Chinese manu) was very good, and really hot, with almost as many dried chiles as shreds of beef.

Peking Style Pork (#58) has become a favorite, it's not spicy, more sweet and tangy, which is handy if the heat from everything else is getting overwhelming.

It was all really good, and it made quite an impression on my friend. He called me some nasty names, but kept eating...

[stephenc]

Ja Ja Mein (sp? Noodles with spicy pork topping)

Za Jiang Mien

炸酱面

http://chaxiubao.typepad.com/chaxiubao/200...oved_my_ja.html

[percyn]

Last week I had a not so pleasant experience at Tifcos.

I went in with Za Jiang Mein on my mind but after ordering it, I was notified 15 minutes later that they do not have it today. OK, lets try the Spicy Pomfret (a small flat fish), 5 minutes later...you guessed it...no fish.

By now I was wondering if they kitchen was playing games, but I decided to give it one last shot....Scallion pancakes and Crispy duck please...

Ten minutes later I got a piece of fried dough with a few scallions in the dough. Dooooohhh !!! (I was expecting something that was not fied, but that's how you learn the dishes I guess)

20 minutes later the duck arrived. I was expecting some moo shu type pancakes with this, but there were none. I requested a few and they were kind enough to provide them. The skin was not as crispy as I would have liked, but the size of the dish was also decent for the price.

So after about 2 hrs at Tifcos, I was all oiled out from the fried food. I really hope they have the spicy pomfret and Za Jiang Mein next time

[philadining]

Wow, sorry man, I could have warned you about the scallion pancake, it's surprisingly flavor free, just flaky and oily. I've had some good examples in my life, and sadly this is not one of them...

The time delays are rather odd, I've always gotten stuff almost too fast. Last time I was there we'd barely gotten a dumpling in our mouths when the mains showed up. So if they were out of something, I'm amazed that they didn't figure it out faster...

Duck looks OK.

I guess we need to get a good-sized crew together, and call ahead to make sure they've got rabbit, pomfret, and noodles!

[stephenc]

Ten minutes later I got a piece of fried dough with a few scallions in the dough. Dooooohhh !!! (I was expecting something that was not fied, but that's how you learn the dishes I guess)

The funny thing is that the chinese name of that dish, tsung yo bing, would be translated directly as "scallion oil pancake", which doesn't sound very appetizing.

By the way, that scallion oil pancake doesn't look very good. It needs to be thinner with more scallions.

Edited November 8, 2005 by stephenc (log)

[philadining]

Grabbed some take-out tonight, again got the Cold Chicken app, fabulous as always... and I think I might have to try the Percy Special, serving the leftovers with eggs tomorrow morning!

I also ordered the Spicy Beef Stew (#63 on the Chinese menu) which was almost exactly like the braised beef filet we got at the Szechuan Tasty House downtown: thin slices of very tender beef, only a few vegetables, in a spicy thin red sauce, with a thick layer of ground red chile pepper spread over the top. It was very hot, but not as scary as it looked, if one judiciously "rinsed-off" some of that dry pepper in the sauce. I thought it was delicious.

[Furious Flav-or]

We finally did Tifco Saturday night.

Flavette ordered from the American menu (chicken w/ cashews, uninspiring), and I ordered zha jiang mien, a cold dried beef dish (spicy, with cilantro, reminded me of carne seca, delicious), and number 65, the shredded beef with long hot peppers.

It took a bit of convincing to get the Chinese menu, and I wish we had had the foresight to go armed with the .pdf translation. The waiter was having a rough time explaining things, and more than a little incredulous at my evidently strange palate.

Flavette, of course, grazed on a good bit of what -> I <- ordered. We're going back, and I may have to order the hot rabbits next time in order to get a bite to eat. The zha jiang mien is serious comfort food, as has been noted. The beef dish, 65, was flavorful and hot. It needed nothing but the occasional bit of rice for balance and sanity.

Any chances of another group excursion in the future?

Edited November 14, 2005 by Furious Flav-or (log)

[SaxChik]

Any chances of another group excursion in the future?

←

there's ALWAYS a chance! some of us live really close.

[percyn]

Went there for lunch yesterday.

Unfortunately, they were out of Ja Xa Mein (spagetti with pork), but the owner assured me it would be available after 5pm, so I may swing by again.

I decided to get:

Spicy Beef with Tripe (#7 on Chinese menu)

This was good but the beef and tripe seemed to absorb all the heat from the chilies, so be careful and eat with a fair amount of rice. Plan to eat some of the leftover for breakfast today.

Boiled fish in spicy sauce (#27? on Chinese menu)

Need more rice for this one. This was a decent sized dish for only $14.95, which included quite a few large filet strips of fluffly, white but otherwise neutral flavored fish, which seeemed like a good balance (read sanctuary) for the spicy chili pepper sauce.

While I can handle more spice than most, I must admit that my stomach was pleading for a yogurt smoothie after this meal, but not hard enough to keep me from going back...maybe even today.

[percyn]

So after a few failed attempts at being able to score a Ja Xa Mein, I wanted in on Wed and the owner immediately knew what I wanted and said I will have the kitchen make it for you.

So behold.... Ja Xa Mein

Unfortunately, it is all gone and I will have to try to get some again.

[brescd01]

Let there be no doubt, Tifco is the real thing. The finest Szechuan food I have ever had. I have had as good, but none better.

[philadining]

This is SUCH a great place for a chilly night... we were warmed back up promptly!

Hot and Sour soup was good, but not great, mostly hot, not all that sour.

Cantonese Beef Stew (#62)

Big chunks of very tender beef, with all kinds of fatty, tendony stuff hanging on, scallions, nice rich brown sauce. I'm just barely not adventurous enough to gnaw at all the fatty stuff, but the meat was really tender, and the sauce was mild, but full, with a very nice flavor. I liked it.

Shredded Pork with Long Hot Green Pepper (#53)

This became another favorite I'll likely get again soon: the fresh chiles were not all that hot, but had enough of a kick to make it interesting, and to lend a nice spin to the tangy sauce.

Two good-sized soups and two entrees: $29 and we've got leftovers.

[percyn]

When did you go? I was there 2 night ago (on a chilly night) and also got the hot and sour soup, pork with long peppers (not spicy) and Dan Dan noodles. Ate the leftovers yesterday All gone now

[handmc]

I had lunch there today, took my Pastor it was his birthday.

They had hot rabbits ding! It was hot!!! Peppers, rabbit pieces, garlic slices. The rabbit was on the bone but who cares. Man it was good. Major flavor. What a way to try rabbit for the first time. A new favorite.

We also had Ma Po tofu, always great, cold spicy chicken, twice cooked pork with long peppers, Beef and spaghetti.

Left with lips numb and big smiles.

[philadining]

Dashed into Tifco's last night at 8:15 and managed to just barely get dinner before they closed. The window still has "summer hours" posted saying they are open until 9:30 on weeknights, but they're really open until 9, as in, they're turning the lights off and locking the doors at 9!

It was still a nice dinner, but they would not serve us soup (too late) and as it approached 9, pretty much took away our remaining food and packed it up for us. I can certainly sympathize with the staff wanting to go home, but we really weren't dawdling, maybe they shouldn't have seated us if there wasn't going to be time to eat.

I don't think I've ever been rushed out of a place quite that abruptly. But I understood the situation, live and learn, I just won't go after 8, maybe not after 7:30.

The food was excellent as usual, although we mostly got old faves because were were rushed in ordering too, and just picked things we could remember.

We started with the spicy beef stew noodles (#22) which was a new thing for us

This was very spicy, very tasty, with little chunks of beef on a big bowl of noodles. The beef was a little chewy and boney and gristley, but very flavorful. I'd get this again.

I didn't bother photographing the Peking Style Pork or Guizhou Style Chicken, there are shots upthread. Both were really delicious as usual, although the chicken was a little different: not quite as hot, and the sauce was a little thinner. Didn't matter, it was still very good.

The chef came out into the dining room to look around, I registered my approval, and he just walked away laughing and shaking his head. I'm not quite sure what to make of that!

So, again, great food, but I wouldn't go again after 8pm on a weeknight. I think they're open a little later on friday and saturday. I'll check.

Edited February 8, 2006 by philadining (log)

[handmc]

I went today around 2:30 for lunch. I brought my Pastor. Who I introduced to Szechuan on his birthday a couple of Months ago. Thirty Five years and he had never tried real Szechuan. I'm glad I had tim to save him. Maybe he'll return the favor.

Today we had Guizhou Style Chicken, yummy. Spicy beef stew noodles this had really good flavor. The Spicy cold Chicken today was the best I have ever had. It was loaded with ground chilis and full of flavor. We also had Mapo Tofu which was good as always.

The came out to ogle the Lo Fan (round eyes) in amazment and walk away laughing. I feel like as carnaval geek.

Is it really that amzaing that caucasins like to eat hot and spicy food. I don't get it.

Oh well it won't stop me from going back.

[percyn]

Dashed into Tifco's last night at 8:15 and managed to just barely get dinner before they closed. The window still has "summer hours" posted saying they are open until 9:30 on weeknights, but they're really open until 9, as in, they're turning the lights off and locking the doors at 9!

It was still a nice dinner, but they would not serve us soup (too late) and as it approached 9, pretty much took away our remaining food and packed it up for us. I can certainly sympathize with the staff wanting to go home, but we really weren't dawdling, maybe they shouldn't have seated us if there wasn't going to be time to eat. 

...

←

Chop Chop !!

[KatieLoeb]

I finally has the opportunity to try Tifco's China Bistro last night as I was taking the "scenic route" home from Lancaster and was out thattaway. We tried:

West Lake Beef Soup, which I'd describe as similar to a ground beef Egg Drop soup with cilantro. Very good and warming on a chilly night.

Spicy Wontons - sauce is just broth. While the wontons themselves are OK, I like the Szechuan Tasty House version with the pure chili oil sauce much better.

Minced Beef in Lettuce Cups - this was REALLY good. Probably my favorite dish of the night. Minced beef and lots of crunchy veggies served with a wedge of iceberg to make little wraps with. I'd go back just for this dish.

Salt and Pepper Shrimp - I like S&P shrimp but they're too much work taking off the shells and a lot of the flavor is on the shell. I know some folks eat the shells but I don't like the plastic-ey texture so I don't. A Salt & Pepper Squid would've been great but they don't have it. The fact that Tifco's had no squid on the menu whatsoever was surprising to me.

Cumin Lamb - delicious and it grew on me as my taste buds reconnected after being severed at the first bite. Nothing but heat the first few bites, but the earthy cumin flavor was evident later on.

Guizhou Chicken - good but too hot.

Oriental Chicken Salad - not quite what dining companion was expecting, since he'd had a version in another restaurant he'd hoped this was like, but very good for quenching the flames at the end of our meal.

Both the Lamb dish and the Chicken had so many dried hot peppers in them that they were literally covering the entire bottom of each platter once all the other items in the dish had been eaten. I looked back at some of the photos of these dishes earlier in this thread and there's only a fraction of the peppers evident in those photos compared to what was in our dishes last night. Maybe we got the heavy handed line cook last night, but it sort of spoiled the experience for me since I love hot food, just not so hot I can't taste anything else after the first bite.

My other issue was with the service. While the front desk personnel are quite friendly and like to engage in conversation, the waiter was brusque and quite unhelpful. Not a language barrier issue either, since he was pretty young and his English seemed fine when we could manage to get a few words out of him. We'd brought a bottle of white wine with us (Crios de Susana Balbo Torrontes 2005. Whod've thought that Argentinian wine and Szechuan food could be such an awesome match!) that wasn't quite cold enough. We asked for an ice bucket and were brusquely told "We don't have that", in a tone that was clearly meant to end the conversation. I asked if there was a freezer in back and the waiter said yes. "Can you please put the wine in there for 10 minutes and then bring it back?", I asked nicely. Waiter skulks away with our wine. The wine is brought back five minutes later not noticeably changed in temperature in the least. I ask if we could have a water pitcher with some ice in it. It was brought (grudgingly) and served admirably as an ice bucket. For the entire rest of the meal our waiter would drop our food and literally run away without speaking before we could ask for anything else. I think I pegged our table as high maintenance Caucasians by asking for an ice bucket. I didn't need a "proper" ice bucket, just something to chill our bottle of wine in. A small sauce pan with ice water in it would've been fine as far as I was concerned. We also ordered a soup to share amongst three people (and specifically discussed with the waiter it was "to share", not three orders even if it's small) and only got one spoon and no sharing bowls when the soup was delivered. No luck flagging down any help with that so SouthJerseyEpicurian finally just got up and marched over to the waiters station and got us more spoons and a few tea cups to divide the soup into. The waiter didn't seem fazed to see a customer fetching his own utensils.

I thought Tifco's was good, and I'll even give the kitchen the benefit of the doubt and assume we somehow got the heavy-handed-with-the-chiles chef last night. But I'm not sure I'd make a special trip there after the way we were treated. Szechuan Tasty House is closer to me, and although the menu isn't as adventurous as Tifco's, I've found enough items on there I like to scratch my itch for authentic Szechuan when I get one. I didn't get to try the Ma Po Tofu or the Hot Rabbits Ding at Tifco's, so I might go back for those another time.

[philadining]

Hey Katie, sorry your experience there wasn't uniformly enjoyable, especially since I steered you there!!

I've experienced a range in the quality of service, it's often quite good, with helpful servers, but other times I too have gotten the drop-and-run, or a refusal to even say what the soups are, or no help at all in explaining things, etc. I know sometimes it's a language thing, and some times it's a cultural/experience thing. For instance, they probably don't get a lot of folks bringing wine, let alone someone wanting to chill it... of course, in a perfect world you certainly SHOULD be able to get an ice bucket, but I can imagine some of the waiters I've had being totally perplexed by that request.

A lot of little independent places, regardless of the ethnicity, can suffer from this service roughness, it never surprises me too much, so I'm usually ready to roll with it, as you guys did in just going and getting your own spoons.

As for the spiciness: I've experienced some wide variation there too, I've gotten the lamb with cumin when you really couldn't even see any lamb amongst the pile of dried peppers... The manager once stressed to me that they can tone anything down, just ask. He was shocked that we ordered, and ate, the Guizhou style chicken straight as the chef usually makes it. That said, I think it comes down to a personal preference, sometimes the hottest versions were my faves, and not from a macho masochistic show-offy perspective, I don't like heat for heat's sake, but I found both of those dishes to have fascinating flavors under the burn, and sometimes the most intense versions were both extra-hot and extra-flavorful.

I'm sure everyone's palate reacts differently, but I've found myself sweating and panting and unable to stop eating because it really tasted good. But I can certainly see how someone else would find some of the food there to be just over-the-top too hot, and not be able to get past that. I've heard the comment that some of the very hot stuff just blows-out one's taste buds making it impossible to taste anything, but that's just not how it works for me. I've experienced some lingering after-effects, but I'm still able to taste the food while I'm eating it. But again, I'm sure it's different for everyone, just be aware of what you're getting.

But again, anyone who goes, and would like some spice, but not the full-on assault, just ask when you order, they'll mellow it out for you. And not everything on the Chinese menu is crazy hot, the Peking Style Pork has become a favorite of mine, and has no heat whatsoever, the spaghetti with minced pork has no heat to speak of, there's a hearty and mild beef stew that I liked, etc. And there's also an entire colorful, glossy menu of stuff more geared toward the mainstream that's just fine, there's no shame in ordering off of that! (I've had the minced-whatever in lettuce cups too, and they are indeed quite tasty.)

I'd agree that the spicy dumplings are indeed better at Szechuan Tasty House, and the STH has a few things I don't see at Tifco's, but Tifco's has a WAY broader menu of seriously traditional things, most of which I've found to be quite good.

I like both places a lot, and they're far enough apart that geography is probably going to make the choice for me most of the time. But I think we do need to get a larger group together out here at Tifco and order a wide range of things, like we did at STH, to get a better overview. THEN we get the Hot Rabbits Ding!! Katie, you're coming to that even if we have to drag you!!

[KatieLoeb]

Not at all holding you responsible for our experience there. We are, after all, adults that make our own decisions. Your directions and menu advice was most helpful.

If I'd known they were going to sever the nerve endings in my mouth, perhaps I would've asked them to dial it back a notch. As I stated, I really love spicy food and have a pretty good tolerance for it. But this was just cruel and unusual by anyone's standards. The photos of previous incarnations of the very same dishes gave no indication of the punitive nature or abundance of the dried chile pepper pods on my platters. But whatever. It was good, if cruel, and now I know better.

I'll definitely make the trip for the Hot Rabbits Ding!

[philadining]

I'm happy to say that dinner at Tifco's last night was solidly good all the way around. Service was friendly and helpful, they automatically brought bowls and spoons for soup-sharing, and there was no rushing us out the door...

We tried the first soup on the Chinese menu, which our handy translation menu called tomato soup with egg drop or pork. What we got was both: a very nice, mild, but rich soup, featuring a slightly creamy stock in which were floating pieces of tomato, strings of egg, and large shreds of pork. Very comforting on a cold night, and a HUGE portion for $5.95, it could easily serve four. Not the most exciting soup in the world, but very tasty, hearty and satisfying.

We also ordered the double-cooked pork (#47) which was excellent, as always. Thick slices of pork belly are braised, then fried, with scallions, ginger, garlic and a bit of hot pepper. It's a little spicy but not over-the-top, it's mostly just nice salty, crispy, fatty, porky goodness!

We took a chance on #44 which is untranslated on the in-house menu, but described as "sliced chicken with special sauce" on our menu, courtesy of Eastlake... This was a very elegant dish, but mild in every way. It featured very tender, wide slices of chicken breast, large, flavorful black mushroom caps, and a subtle, velvety, light sauce. Some might find this a little dull, and I'm not sure it's on the top of my list of things to get again, but it was an excellent version of this kind of dish, with a luxurious texture and quiet, but pleasant flavors of mushroom and chicken.

Again, loads of food, filled two of us up and left plenty to take home, $30.

Next time, we try more soups!

[Furious Flav-or]

Not at all holding you responsible for our experience there.  We are, after all, adults that make our own decisions.  Your directions and menu advice was most helpful.

If I'd known they were going to sever the nerve endings in my mouth, perhaps I would've asked them to dial it back a notch.  As I stated, I really love spicy food and have a pretty good tolerance for it.  But this was just cruel and unusual by anyone's standards.  The photos of previous incarnations of the very same dishes gave no indication of the punitive nature or abundance of the dried chile pepper pods on my platters.  But whatever.  It was good, if cruel, and now I know better.

I'll definitely make the trip for the Hot Rabbits Ding!

←

Do be careful. If you think that the Guizhuo (sp.?) Chicken (which Flavette had) was punitive, you might just find the hot rabbits a death sentence. I had it the last time I was there, and I barely made it through the dish. It was so heavily spiced as to be almost inedible, which would have been less of an issue if I weren't already treading through a minefield of bony little rabbit parts.

Part of me almost begins to think that the place is getting amusement from seeing just what stuff we're made of.

EDIT: I knead too laern too tyep

Edited February 28, 2006 by Furious Flav-or (log)

[KatieLoeb]

Part of me almost begins to think that the place is getting amusement from seeing just what stuff we're made of.

Funny you should say that. It occurred to me that our runaway waiter might have told the kitchen to "stick it to that wine bucket bitch on Table 23".