Chinatown in Irvine is celebrating its 20th anniversary, still looking crisp and inviting and ready for today’s more knowledgeable diners.
It had a cosmetic redo not long ago but the bones of the building still are impressive.
There’s a blackboard menu of daily specialties as you enter and that will play into what happens when you sit down. The inexpensive prices are about as eye-catching as the items themselves. And when you look at the menu, it’s hard to believe that a place that looks this sophisticated still serves Chinese food at such bargain prices.
Chinatown will cook any Chinese stir-fry or steamed dish you want, even if it’s not on the menu. No wonder they are busy.
The cheery, light-filled rooms are unique in their architecture with multi-level ceilings given to irregular angles that make the interest factor all-encompassing.
Carrying the eye downward are striated walls of green on pale mustard, suggestive of tight-knit stands of towering bamboo. Smack dab in the center of the space is a bar with an inordinate number of white wine and red wine glasses hanging in the racks overhead,a hint that there’s someone involved here who is serious about wine.
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Chinatown: will cook any stir-fry, steamed dish |
The latter is an absolute inasmuch as owner Michael Chiang has been impressing diners with his wine intelligence and properly matching wines with Chinese food for three decades,a long time before food- and wine-matching became the culinary norm and certainly before anyone even dreamed that wines could match Asian food.
There are modern sconces along the walls. The far end of the main dining room features a whole wall oil painting of an old Chinatown street scene. It could be New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles,take your pick.
There also are a few nostalgic advertising signs of former Chinese restaurants on other walls but, aside from those tidbits and the dragon etched wall of glass looking into the kitchen, that’s as old hat Chinese as you will find in this interior design. Even the seating takes on an updated image. Blond bamboo chairs with woven seats fit the light and happy mood so much better here.
Plenty of smiles greet you from the outset and friendly and helpful service follows. Hardbound menus are presented. There is a trio of pages that wander through many things familiar and the house specialties that master chef Michael has become known for.
The last page of the menu is in Chinese, made up of dishes that are dear to the heart of Chinese families. I can’t read it, but my husband Patrick does. He is a fine translator for pages like this and an even better translator and helpful tour guide on our trips to China, since he speaks three dialects of Chinese and the national language, Mandarin.
The waiter happily will translate some of the dishes for you if curiosity is burning, but there is authenticity in the dishes of the first three pages so you will be well served by those.
Now is when you want to remember a few of the daily dishes listed on that blackboard at the front entrance. They represent another facet of fine tastes that gives even wider breadth to your choices.
On our last visit, I’d been intrigued with the blackboard’s listing of shao lom pao for lunch. Those are the little dumplings in which a juicy meatball is in the center, encased in a flour dough packet that is twisted into a cute top knot. They are steamed and the essences of meat broth and ginger are released as they cook.
The best way to approach eating them is to take one on your slanted porcelain Chinese spoon and put a teaspoon of the sauce provided (a light vinegar with shreds of ginger) over it. You bite a little hole in the side of the dumpling and savor the broth first and then the delicious rest of the dumpling. Excellent.
I also liked the sound of baby eggplant, stir-fried with basil leaves from the blackboard, and pig’s trotter,consider this pork shank osso buco in authentic Shanghai style. It is braised for a very long time in black soy sauce, a few slices of ginger, a few pieces of star anise (gives off a licorice flavor akin to fennel or anise seeds) and crystallized rock sugar.
The result is awesome tasting meat that is falling off the bone and a thickened sauce that is perfect for drizzling over green sauteed vegetable (spinach is good) and atop a bowl of rice.
Among Chinatown’s specialty appetizers are rolling lettuce chicken, barbecue spare ribs, Shanghai shrimp egg rolls and sesame prawns.
The first of these is known elsewhere as lettuce wraps. Here, they are comprised of crispy iceberg lettuce leaves sheltering a mix of chicken, shiitake mushroom and water chestnuts, all minced and cooked with a smattering of oyster sauce. Lots of texture and good taste.
The egg rolls are crunchy batons of shrimp and vegetables that suit me well when dipped in a bit of hot mustard and then in sweet and sour sauce to give a yin-yang sensation in the mouth. The prawns are butterflied and come crisp and sprinkled with sesame seeds.
One great way to taste a lot of the appetizers is via the sampler platter for two, though its generosity makes for a lot of food. Two each of ribs, sesame shrimp, Shanghai style spring rolls and paper-wrapped chicken join four fatly stuffed fried wontons and four slices of barbecue pork. At $10.95, it gives two people a good array of tastes and textures for a sensible price.
Soups also offer up interesting flavors. There’s the crackle and crunch of sizzling rice soup, the creaminess of corn soup with seafood, the spiciness of hot and sour soup and the abundant charms of won ton and the bowl of mussels with ginger and scallion.
Sometimes I crave a good sweet and sour dish and here it’s done to perfection. The finely balanced sauce is just terrific over your choice of shrimp, chicken or pork.
Another dish that is a favorite of ours is the garlic salted pork chops. Shanghai cooking centers on the delicacy of ingredients and their sauces. These pork chops are sliced thinly, in the manner of pork steaks, and cut into smaller pieces, which are easily manageable with chopsticks. They are dry sauteed with minced garlic, a sprinkling of salt and scallions gone crunchy from their dance in the searing heat of the dry wok.
Flounder is a fish that works well either crisped or steamed, the latter preferred by Asians and me, too. It can be steamed with ginger and scallion or black bean sauce, or done with sweet and sour sauce.
Michael created his signature “aromatic” dishes many years ago and they’ve become widely copied. Try these originals that still thrill the taste buds: shrimp, chicken, scallops or lobster.
His aromatic flavor is based on the tastes of a sweet and sour sauce that’s a bit spicy. It is dry braised with the meat or seafood of choice so there is no extra sauce swimming around the plate.
While I love the aromatic shrimp, the tenderness of the scallops has edged its way into my memory bank to try again and again. The aromatic lobster also is wonderful.
For those who have come to crave honey walnut shrimp, Chinatown meets the challenge. A perfectly balanced creamy sauce meets crunchy shrimp in a nice taste and texture sensation.
Mu shu is another fan favorite. These are assembled tableside with the flour pancakes fatly filled with your order of chicken, pork, beef or shrimp and a slather of hoisin sauce.
Fans of orange peel-flavored dishes will find scallops, chicken and beef offered with the citrusy, barely spicy sauce. In the citrus realm, one really should order the zesty citrus scallops that are grilled to a golden brown and have an invigorating lemon-lime sauce on them.
Peking duck brings the requisite crispy, then tender character to the table. It’s always a hit.
Occasionally someone asks me where to get good lo mein. The New York style noodle dish is on the menu, comforting the cravings of former East Coasters. I happen to love the crunch of pan-fried noodles. Mine are ordered with scallops.
Have you come to appreciate the al dente texture of Chinese sauteed fresh string beans? It’s a go here as is the wonderful vegetarian hot pot: spinach with garlic, fresh asparagus with shiitake mushrooms, wokked snow peas and stir-fried eggplant.
There’s so much more to the menu here,just about everything you’ve come to expect and lots more of those signature house dishes I’ve not gotten to in this missive.
Now, about those wines. There are 44 wines on the list, including the great surprise of zinfandels from half a dozen wineries under a heading of Zingers for Zin Lovers. That’s something I’ve never found in another Chinese restaurant. Zins are so in tune with the flavors of Chinese food and it takes someone like Michael to know that.
Chinese people in general are not given to involvement with wines much. Their culture is attuned to hard liquor at the table. Michael, though, was known as a connoisseur of wines at least 25 years ago.
From the time he began his career as a restaurateur, he impressed diners with labels that were from California’s best producers and you’ll find he’s carried on with this idea of matching high-caliber Chinese food with quality wine.
In addition to the fine list of California wines, you’ll also find France represented in four champagnes, giving the indication that this is a good restaurant choice for celebrations.
Prices mostly range from $15 to $65, many in the $25 to $40 range. Labels on the varied wines include J. Lohr, Far Niente, Heitz, Trefethen, Justin, Dominus, Jordan and Silver Oak.
If you’re in a quandary, a good riesling or gew & #252;rztraminer always is safe wine territory for matching with Chinese food. Michael offers gew & #252;rz from Schlumberger’s Alsatian winery and both gew & #252;rz and riesling from Navarro in California’s Anderson Valley.
Chinatown is a most pleasant atmosphere where food and wine are taken quite seriously but still delivered at deliciously low prices. The menu is engaging and the kitchen will cook any other dish you like. I truly appreciate the level of service that backs up the meal.
AT A GLANCE: CHINATOWN
Authentic Shanghai and Beijing style Chinese food
Address: 4139 Campus Drive, Irvine
Phone: (949) 856-2211
Hours: Lunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; dinner from 4 p.m.
Prices: Lunch entrees $7 to $8.50; dinner entrees $7.50 to $16
