Han Dynasty

Everything that you've head about this place is true. First of all, it's incredible. Authentic Szechuan in the middle of Olde City's douche-fest. And yes, it's face-numbingly hot. Hotter than anything any of us have ever eaten in Brooklyn, or China even. The owner Han is both super friendly and super hilarious. He told us how every other Chinese restaurant in the City is bullshit, because the food has no flavor, and his chefs are straight from Sichuan Province.

There is also a Gringo menu of General Tso's chicken and all that, but Han will tell you not to order it, it's there for the unadventurous. He sent us to Eulogy to pick up beer before our meal (it's BYOB, and Eulogy is happy to recommend beer based on what you ordered at Han) and passed out Chinese cigarettes to us out front after our meal.



Beef & Tripe in Chili Oil
WOW. The hottest I have ever had, cold tongue and tripe - both super tender - swimming in chili oil, and dotted with szechuan peppercorns, numbs your entire mouth, but so god damn delicious.


Spicy Cucumber
Great side, helps cool you down, at least until you get the wave of heat from the chili oil. But so addictive.

Dan - Dan Noodles
Brutal heat. Tossed in a firey paste tableside. LIke everything else here, just on the edge of bearable heat, but so good you keep going.


Rabbit Dry Pot Style
Oh yeah. Terrific. Watch out for the bones, but no big deal. This is the real thing.


Lamb Cumin Style
This was my favorite. Lamb stir fry with Szechuan Peppercorns, whole dried chiles, and tons of cumin. Not as spicy as some of the other dishes, but still mouth numbing.


Chicken Long Hot Pepper style.
Stir Fried chicken, garlic, longhots. Awesome.

Garlic Seafood.
Mixed seafood in garlic-chili oil. Last dish to come out, by this time I was drunk and my whole mouth was numb.'

If you've thought about eating here but haven't made it yet, get on it! One word of advice- the portions are BIG, and also because they are so hot, you aren't going to finish the whole thing. 1 entree for every 2 people, and a side or 2 would be plenty. We took home half of our food, and it was even better the next day.

And if you bring someone who doesn't like adventure or spicy food, make sure you get at least 1 thing from the Gringo menu, or just let them fill up on rice - because the Szechuan dishes are not for the culinarily challenged. By the way, it's also a really nice place, and the service is fantastic.

Han Dynasty
twitter.com/handynasty
108 Chestnut
(also 2 locations in the suburbs)
Philadelphia

Valentine's Day Dim Sum at World Tong

Not eating out on Valentine's Day has been a rule of mine for a very long time but this year was a happy exception. The plan was to make our way to Net Cost Market in search of reasonably priced caviar and stock up for a romantic meal at home but on our way I realized that we were just a few blocks away from a dim sum restaurant that I had been meaning to check out. We decided to make a detour and pop into World Tong.


We were seated immediately at the only empty table in the place. It took just a few seconds for it to register that not only was it Valentine's Day and President's Weekend but also the Chinese New Year and an ideal day for dim sum.


Tea was poured and chopsticks were set and the carts started coming. Metal steamers with dumplings filled with shrimp, pork, chives, and everything in between.


Plates of pork belly with shatteringly crisp skin and a sweet-sticky-sour dipping sauce.


Tempura fried peppers stuffed with shrimp paste that were deceptively spicy and insanely delicious.


Rice noodles wrapped around fried dough sauced with soy and scallion. Little pieces of spareribs with fermented black beans. Even tiny bird shaped pastries filled with sweet bean paste and painted with little red beaks and black eyes.

The meal was a whirlwind and there were at least ten dishes that we didn't get to sample for the sheer fact that there were only two of us and we couldn't possibly eat another plate. Plates of tripe with turnips and chile eggplant are two that I will definitely be going back for.

World Tong
6202 18th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11204

Kong

The idea behind Kong is Chinese street food. I don't know if it really lives up to that ..the offerings were a little bit "safe" compared to what I might expect on the street in Hong Kong, or even Philly's Chinatown. But this is coming from someone who actually wants to eat blackened fermented chicken gizzards and durian shakes, so take it with a grain of salt..

Anyhow any issues I had with the concept were gone as soon as I ate the food. Went with a large group and I think we went through half the menu. Everything looked great..The crab & rice omelette with chinese sausage and splattered with sriracha was gone in 2 minutes. Simple and awesome... the kind of thing I would make at home with leftover rice. Sauteed longbeans were also nice & simple. Softshell crab was kind of lost in a big salad, I dont think I got any crab but I just might have been the last person to get to the bowl. Lamb / pine nut / eggplant dumplings were also delicious.






We also tried the short rib buns, really good, there was a kind of "slider" thing going on with the presentation, and we passed around various noodle and rice bowls, I think I had about 5 different styles of pork belly and chinese bacon- crispy, star anise braised, etc etc.. - that were all terrific. Oh and the pork ribs were great. And the tofu / edamame dumplings, surprisingly good for vegetarian stuff, nice texture, etc. Velvet corn soup - really wanted to try it but it was kind of warm out still... next time.

So even though I wasn't exactly transported to a busy market in China - you can't seem to go wrong with anything on the menu, I believe the noodles are all made on site, the prices are reasonable and the beer is cold, good service... good deal.

KONG
702-704 North 2nd Street
Philadelphia PA

Metro Cafe

Brooklyn's Chinatown along 8th ave in Sunset Park is sort of amazing. It's way bigger than I expected and goes on for at least 20 blocks before turning polish. The streets are packed with people and lined with all sorts of bars and restaurants, take out windows and skewer carts. Produce stands still open and packed with customers at 9:30pm, whole octopus and buckets of crab being sold out of the back of trucks, basement gambling parlors... incredible.

It can be overwhelming to pick where to eat somewhere like this but luckily I had my trusty guides Jake & Caroline to accompany me to their favorite Sichuan restaurant. Started off with some cold beers and a plate of tripe & tongue in chile sauce and sichuan peppercorns. Holy shit, it's delicious. We also had the double cooked pork, dry chicken with green pepper, chinese vegetable, taiwanese fried chicken. Everything spicy but not insane, and all really good.

Metro Café
4924 Eighth Avenue
Brooklyn

ghost town

I don't know if it was because there was flooding a few weeks ago, but chinatown in chicago at 8pm on a wednesday is pretty much vacant. there were maybe 3 other people on the pitch black street and most of the restaurants were empty.

anyway we ended up at 'cantonesia' where we were the only people there. seems strange in the third largest city in the united states.

i kept waiting for gangsters to jump out of the ceiling or a little wizard man out of 'big trouble in little china' to float out of the kitchen in a cloud of green smoke.

the food was decent - seaweed soup, dumplings, lo mein - and we drank a bunch of tsingtao. the lights went off and doors locked as soon as we left the building.

Japanese Chinese Food

My dad's favorite restaurant near my house in Nerima, Tokyo. The seafood dish is super fresh. The scrambled egg white is nice and fluffy.

This cold egg noodle plate is one of my favorite summer specials. Homemade noodle topped with fresh seafood, cucumber, tomato and chicken breast. The soup is sweet, tangy and spicy.

Another cold noodle with spicy chicken salad on top! The nutty flavor is a mixture of roasted peanuts and sesame seeds. It comes with the sweet, tangy spicy soup and you can pour it over if you like.

Grandma In San Francisco

My Grandma lives in San Francisco. She has 13 ( that I know of ) grandchildren. She travels all around the world for weddings, babies being born, and for fun. Yet her greatest joy is sending all these grandchildren packages. Especially me, who she thinks is lost somewhere on the east coast without proper chinese/vietnamese resources. Here are the contents of her latest most amazing package.



Grandma's Package
3 rolls of Ritz crackers
1 can of lowfat Pringles
1 Vietnamese shredded dried beef jerky package
1 bag of spicy shredded cuttlefish
1 ziploc of dried cranberries
1 ziploc of strange dried fruit
1 ziploc of Haw Flakes
1 ziploc of Pork Fu ( the cotton candy of fried dried shredded pork)
1 ziploc of what seems to be Chinese Butterfingers
1 can of "luxury wafers"
1 instant Kim Chee Noodle
2 packages of Top Ramen

All stuffed in a random unmarked shoebox.