Four Rivers

[philadining]

Hit Four Rivers on Shola's recommendation tonight, and it freaking rocked!

Cold Jellyfish

Ma Bao Tofu

Cheng Du Chicken

and the star of the evening....

Glazed Pork Shoulder

The spicy stuff had a nice level of heat, but not brutal. The Pork shoulder was just outrageous, fatty, tender, sweet, just amazing all around. no doubt one of the best pork dishes in the city, and i don't say that lightly.

Oh, right, we got some water spinach too, which was nice and garlicky, but i was too busy jamming pork in my mouth to take a picture.

Four Rivers really doesn't look like much from the street, and the menu posted on the window doesn't look all that thrilling, but man, there's some great food to be had!!!

Another visit soon. HOT POT!!!!!

Four Rivers

936 Race St

Philadelphia, PA 19107-2408

(215) 629-8385

Edited May 11, 2006 by philadining (log)

[Diann]

Braised fatty pork shoulder, yum!

I need to get back to Four Rivers.

P.S. Don't feel bad about eating the succulent, glistening layer of skin and fat covering the pork -- it's why Shanghai women have perfect complexions! (That's what my mom says, anyways.)

[SG-]

My colleague from China, thinks it's one the more authentic restaurants serving mainland food.

[mrbigjas]

rich pawlak's mention of four rivers last year or so was the impetus for a thread which is still around here somewhere, where people who knew would recommend which chinese restaurant specialized in which dishes.

because if you look at four rivers' menu without the requisite knowledge, you'd never know they were anything more than a regular old run-of-the-mill egg foo yung/general tso's chicken place.

Edited May 12, 2006 by mrbigjas (log)

[johnb102]

I have been waiting for a chance to try this place since I first saw those pictures. I made it down for lunch today, and it is a strange place. The "lunch" menu does not have any of the interesting dishes, so you have to ask for the full menu. Also, the "Glazed Pork Shoulder" is not listed that way on the menu - I think they call it the "Sweet Ham" or something like that. Luckily, I had printed the pictures and brought them with me so they could identify the correct dish on the menu. Unluckily, they were out of it. They said that it is usually available, but that they had run out and it takes 6 hours to prepare, so they were not going to have any until dinner time.

Instead I went for the Cheng Du chicken. It looked just like in the picture with tons of red pepper that looked hotter than it was. It had a decent amount of spiciness, but not overwhelming. It was worth the trip, but I still really need to go back for the pork. Next time I will have to remember to call first.

[herp17]

I have been waiting for a chance to try this place since I first saw those pictures.  I made it down for lunch today, and it is a strange place.  The "lunch" menu does not have any of the interesting dishes, so you have to ask for the full menu.  Also, the "Glazed Pork Shoulder" is not listed that way on the menu - I think they call it the "Sweet Ham" or something like that.  Luckily, I had printed the pictures and brought them with me so they could identify the correct dish on the menu.  Unluckily, they were out of it.  They said that it is usually available, but that they had run out and it takes 6 hours to prepare, so they were not going to have any until dinner time.

Instead I went for the Cheng Du chicken.  It looked just like in the picture with tons of red pepper that looked hotter than it was.  It had a decent amount of spiciness, but not overwhelming.  It was worth the trip, but I still really need to go back for the pork.  Next time I will have to remember to call first.

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That's good to know that they only serve the pork shoulder at dinner time.

[johnb102]

Actually I think they do normally have it at lunch time too, but it would be worth calling to confirm first.

[philadining]

As mentioned above, it's just one of those things that they have a finite amount of, and they can't whip up a new batch quickly, so at any time of day, they could run out of it. So, just keep a good thought, and be flexible!

[percyn]

After seeing the pictures on this thread, I have been meaning to visit for a long time. I went for lunch and did not see the pork shoulder on the menu, so I asked the owner(?) if they had any. She seemed a bit reluctant to let me order it at first, saying it had a lot of fat on it, to which I replied "Good !!", then she inquired whether someone had recommended it, to which I said yes. After being informed that it would take 15 minutes, I paitently waited for this...

The top is all skin and fat, but the meat underneath is ....hmm....soo good....

Also ordered some Sichuan sumplings in hot oil (Chao Shou) and Ja Jian Mein to go.

Dumplings were awesome...

But by the time I got the Ja Jian Mein home, it wasn't as appetizing as it probably would have been in the resaturant itself.

Edited August 20, 2006 by percyn (log)

[Andrew Fenton]

I didn't intend to go to Four Rivers on Saturday. We were meeting friends at Shiao Lan Kung, but there was a wait (around 30 minutes) and our friends had movie tickets. So we went next door to Four Rivers, and had a terrific meal.

First up: it kills me that I couldn't remember just what the super-good pork dish was. I told our waitress that, hey, a friend of mine says you have the best pork dish in the city here and, um, what do you think it is? She thought it might be the twice-cooked pork belly, so we ordered that. It was good-- less greasy than Szechuan Tasy House's version-- but I wish I'd had a direct line to this thread. Ah well, next time!

Next up, I learned something. If you're at a Chinese restaurant where you know there's some good, authentic stuff on the menu, but you don't know what to order, start by ordering something like the whole steamed fish. We did, and it was great: light and slightly spicy. But more importantly, when we ordered it, the waitress made a comment along the lines of "oh, you're serious about good food", and at that point, helped steer us toward some good dishes.

Salt-baked shrimp (heads-on) were the best version of that I've had in Philadelphia; small shrimp, both crispy and juicy. Even the missus (who's often distrustful of dishes that involve heads) loved this one.

I'd had a hankering for pea shoots (one of my favorite dishes at SLK), but they were out, so we had water spinach instead, which was also very good.

We also had the crystal wonton, a dish that sounds like a stripper's name, but tasted great. Nothing all that exciting about it: they're just dumplings, but they were tender and flavorful.

All in all, it's nice to hit up a new place and find it to be so good. I'll be back; next time to try the pork...

[percyn]

You may wish to call ahead for the pork shoulder as I am not sure they always have it ready.

[mattohara]

rich pawlak's mention of four rivers last year or so was the impetus for a thread which is still around here somewhere, where people who knew would recommend which chinese restaurant specialized in which dishes.

←

Can we start this thread please or find it? I have been here two years and haven't been to most of these places in chinatown. I'd rather not waste any more time!

[Andrew Fenton]

I think that this is the thread.

[philadining]

or there's the chinatown highlights thread.

[Tim Dolan]

Going up to the top of this thread, cold jellyfish? Really???

[Diann]

Going up to the top of this thread, cold jellyfish? Really???

←

yup, really. I want to say it's a mainland chinese thing, and maybe specifically a shanghai thing -- there's always a menu of cold appetizers that you can order, including shaved-thin slices of five-spice beef, seaweed salad, various tofu things, and jellyfish.

jellyfish doesn't really have a taste on its own (that I can discern, anyways); it tends to taste like its marinade (often sesame oil-based) and it has a crunchy, chewy, slightly slippery texture. it's good! almost like noodles.

[Andrew Fenton]

Yeah, jellyfish is one of those dishes that sounds a little queer, but really tastes great. It's an ideal candidate for trying before you know what it is...

And eat up! Soon jellyfish will be all that's left in the seas!

[KatieLoeb]

Eating jellyfish scares me because I'm highly allergic to their stings. I accidentally ate some in the soup at the Korean DDC dinner at Beawon and lived to tell the tale, but I'm still a little skittish to order a whole plate on purpose.

[Tim Dolan]

Eating jellyfish scares me just cause I'm a wuss.

[katbert]

I'm going to second Diann's jellyfish doesn't really taste like anything and it picks up the flavour of whatever it's seasoned with. It's sort of fun to eat, but I can take it or leave it.

Katie's having a reaction to eating it is a little surprising to me since I figured whatever causes the stinging must be inactivated for public consumption.

[KatieLoeb]

I didn't have a reaction to accidentally eating the jellyfish at Korean dinner, but remain afeared to eat a whole lot on purpose just in case. The part of the jellyfish you eat is the "body". I'm sure the stinging tentacles are removed, but it's a critter so low on the evolutionary scale I'm still kinda skeered to eat any part of it, just in case.

It's the same reason I won't take bee pollen supplements. I'm allergic to bee stings, too.

Anyone know how late Four Rivers serves dinner? My coworkers and I will often head to Chinatown for an after-shift munch and the pork shoulder looks too good to resist.

[mattohara]

And now we can say we had it Katie! Thanks for being our guide on our first night out in Chinatown. Yes, it's as good as everybody's saying. Diann my skin is looking great but my belt is complaining.