Regional Chinese cooking in Greater Boston

It is. Serves Sichuan fare despite the name. I took some relatives here when they visited from Canada, and they claimed, incredibly, that it was better than anything they had in Toronto. I like the eggs with Toona sinensis leaves, though it isn’t as good as it once was. There’s also a big spicy stew full of beef offal that everyone loved.

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Oddly my best experience was in Cambridge before the fire, though friends say Waltham is better these days.

Wait, what? How did i not know about this?!? :frowning:

Probably because the website didn’t advertise it whatsoever; I found out from one of the Chinese Wechat groups. Just went to check; they have it up now!
http://www.chinagourmetframingham.com/wp-content/uploads/menu/Hunan.pdf

Went there with a friend who grew up in Hunan for dinner to scope it out; I think we got the spicy pig ears, pork with spicy pepper (the best dish to test authenticity according to my friend), and eggplant with salted egg yolks. The spicy pig ear was fine, the cartilage was a little too crunchy but I still enjoyed it. Pork with spicy pepper was mediocre, pepper didn’t have the charred marks that was a signature of this dish, and pork is a bit lean (need more pork belly and less pork loin). The eggplant was however excellent; it was flash fried/steamed whole with stir-fried minced pork and salted egg yolks on top - the topping is super addictive! My friend and I both confessed to still thinking about the dish a week later.

The Hunan (with some Sichuan dishes thrown in) menu is quite expansive; I definitely want to go back to try out more things. My Hunanese friend thinks Sei Bar does it a little better; but this place is less of a drive and better value.

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I looked over the PDF and wasn’t able to tell which was which, except for a few things like the dried radish dish. Am I missing something?

Do you mean Hunan vs. Sichuan dishes? Sorry, I’m no expert on Hunan cuisine either; I’m just working off the Mandarin names of the dishes as well as my limited understanding. For example, the Braised pork in pot is the Chairman Mao style pork, which is named after the most famous person from the province. I guess just trying some dishes you haven’t seen before can’t hurt?

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Exactly. For example, the dish named after Chairman Mao has traveled the country and can be found on many menus in many styles. My experience with Hunan food has come from Hunan Taste in Catonsville, MD, but their menu is almost exclusively Hunan. The Grand Sichuan on St. Mark’s served Hunan food a decade ago, and had an extensive essay one their web site; the essay is now gone but it might be available via the Wayback machine.

From what I’ve heard, the concept of braised pork belly with a dark coloring is definitely a general Chinese dish rather than a regional one. When they add Mao’s name to the name of the dish, they are saying they follow the specific style that he preferred, which (according to lore) created a whole new version that is distinct from all others because of the ingredients and cooking method.

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So, I lived in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, for a year. I went with very little knowledge of the specifics of regional Chinese cooking (though that year in China awakened my hunger for high quality authentic cookery of many kinds).

As a result, my knowledge of Hunan cooking is high on experience and very short on actual knowledge of nomenclature or specifics. However, Chairman Mao’s braised pork was pretty much standard issue in most every banquet that I attended, so I can tell you that the common thread is the fattest part of the pork belly, in melting slices alternating with slices of a starchy vegetable, often taro root in Changsha. The version at China Gourmet looks right to me.

I am rethinking about what goes into the map, though life at work has been chaotic enough for various reasons that I have had to hold off on editing the map. Stay tuned.

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HO only allows me to “like” your posts, but were there an “applaud DrJimBob’s project” button, I’d be an early and frequent presser. Thanks.

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Taipei Cuisine does decent Taiwan dishes too, though individually I think there are better renditions of a few of the dishes at other restaurants. It actually started out more Taiwanese and then has been increasing their Sichuan offerings the last year or two.

I would also add that Koi in Quincy, which is primarily mediocre Japanese, also does what I’ve read as a pretty darn authentic Sichuan hotpot.

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So this is a thread that I’ve loved reading but honestly have no business posting on (my knowledge of regional Chinese cooking is zero - let alone where to find it in Boston)

BUT! I found this article on food republic today and thought - wait I think I’ve had that

And while it is called Beijing Crepe on their menu, a google translate on the Chinese is a match for Jianbing! We loved it (and also love their rice noodle soups!).

IQ Kitchen in Newton MA - it is talked about on other posts (maybe this one too, didn’t scroll up to check) - super small place (5-6 seats at a window counter) but good.

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there used to also be a jianbing stand inside one of the restaurants in Chinatown. Last summer-ish rosulate said they had moved to Hulun Beir on Beacon Hill. Not sure if that is still the case.

Thanks for posting this Thimes! I’m going down to NYC this weekend for Chinese New Year, so I’m going to keep an eye out. Anybody care to comment on a favorite JianBing joint in NYC?

For what it’s worth, it doesn’t appear on the menu at HuLun Beir, but the menu looks intriguing. Does anybody like this place? I might investigate some Sunday after my church gig …

Incidentally we are planning to be there as well (not intentionally for CNY). You can’t do better than the Tianjin stall facing main street in Golden Mall (downtown Flushing); it’s the one with buns and pancakes by the window. Their version was almost as good as the ones I had growing up. Your only choices were to have fried cough or a fried crisp inside, and spicy or not spicy. No add-on; anybody from Tianjin will tell you jianbing with lettuce or sausage or whatever else is heresy and does not deserve to be called jianbing!

There’s a place called The Flying Pig, which seems to be the retail outlet of a group with food trucks. Their specialty is jianbing. They’re at 61 Lexington/25th Street. I’ve never been, but would love to hear your thoughts.

Hmm. Google Maps says that The Flying Pig is permanently closed at 61 Lex, with another place called BaoBao Cafe (which also looks interesting) in that location instead. https://www.instagram.com/theflyingpignyc/ appears to show where the food trucks show up. I don’t know if we’re making it out to Flushing, though I"ll also keep an eye out if we do for the Golden Mall.

We now return to your regularly scheduled Boston area restaurants! (Around the corner from IQ Kitchen in Newton, there’s a place called Dumpling House (南北園). A batch of the menu looks familiar, and suggests it’s a spinoff of the Dumpling Cafe/House/Galaxy/Palace/Cataclysm/Armageddon chain, but does anybody know if they’re directly affiliated or a knockoff?

So, I took advantage of some down time recently with a WiFi network nearby to put in some annotations in the map. They are my recollections of favorite items on the menus for the various places that I recommend (though I’ve only made it to Sichuan and Taiwan places so far). If anybody has other favorite things, I’m all ears. And I have a massive list of places to check out, and little time to make the schlep to Newton or Quincy, but I’ll try some time soon!

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Their instagram page also mentions the Lexington Ave location. But Bao Bao Cafe looks good, too.

this is cool. looking forward to you filling in more spots on the map! thanks for putting that together.