praise for Lao Sze Chuan

Lunch today met friends for Lao Sze Chuan in the Chinatown (outdoor)Mall.

For days, for days, I might rhapsodize over the unctuous, fiery perfection of my meals there: no exception, this afternoon.

In deference to Steve, Cat and I stuck to the small(though deep) vegetarian section on a menu of many, many dishes. No offal or blood, today.

of course we share dishes

I ordered my requisite Ma Po Dou Fu(vegetarian for lack of the traditional minced pork). THE BEST TOFU DISH EVER-"authentically" rich, dotted with savory fermented black beans, pleasantly peppery, shining beneath a skein of oil.

Steve did his usual(which I happily chose for him our first visit): Potherb in House Sauce. No one's quite sure what potherb is(um...not that)---best guess is a variety of water spinach. The dish is this vegetable in sesame oil and spiked with dry-fried red peppers.

Speaking of seasame oil we were offered the requisite tasty amuse of cold cabbage dressed in the aforementioned and red pepper flakes.

Cat decided on the salt & pepper greenbean which arrived a tad different than I bet, but still freshly, jumpin' jivingly, green beany.

She showed her partial photo album of her recent honeymoon in Thailand and Cambodia. -gifted me with a little woven basket of dry nam prik!

We had such a good time I hope this becomes a Christmas tradition. The only thing that coulda been better is the presence of our respective significant others(okay, Cat calls hers a husband).

We bid Cat an early adieu(she's a photojournalist for a Tribune paper in the 'burbs and had sports and bell choirs to cover).

Steve and I headed to a Chinatown Market we'd (unbelievably)missed before. I resisted buying yet more fermented bean paste and stinky tofu whilst introducing him to "1000 year"-old duck eggs and boxes of eels writhing as eels do. I goose-stepped him past the meat counter where I envied the vat of chicken feet(nodding this is where I'm coming for my cartiledge next time I make stock).

Heading towards the train we stopped in
http://www.ajiichiban-usa.com/index.html
sampling bits of crimson ginger, buddha's fruit, and cola fried egg gummis. I WAS going to try the various dried seafood products but thought they might clash with my ginseng gum(for medicinal enhancement only)

Christmas gifts for Steve and Cat: a mix cd and a jar of home-canned bread and butter pickles beautified with translucent angel stickers.

ahhh...pretty(if I do say so myself)

Christopher,

I am also firmly in the Lao Sze Chuan camp and have been any number of times over the years. The problem with going to a restaurant often is one tends to get in a rut, order from the same roster of 10-12 proven favorites. The solution, aside from bring printouts from LTHForum, go with friends who are regulars and order dishes from their line-up.

Of course the catch is you have to go with someone who's culinary opinion your respect so I was fortunate EC/Michael, Petite Pois and m'th'su were my dining companions at LSC. Two dishes motivated this post, well, actually one, but the other was quite good as well.

Three Chili Chicken is seemingly crafted for my taste, even though Tony, who told us the story, said it was developed for a UIC professor who had, unbelievably, eaten his way through LSC's 600+ item menu. Seems one day the professor was there with friends and wanted something new/different. Tony, knowing that the Professor liked chicken dark meat, spicy flavors and crisp texture, whipped up Three Chili Chicken.

The Professor's friends liked the dish and would come in and order "that dish we had with the Prof" This was fine if Tony was there, but in short order Three Chili Chicken was on the menu. Chili chicken is a symphony of flavor/texture, crisp bone-in chicken thigh, juicy, succulent, heated with fresh jalapeno, pan toasted dried red chili pods and red pepper.

Three Chili Chicken at LSC (My mediocre picture does not do the dish justice)


The other dish EC/Michael introduced me to was Chili Smelt. I, like many Wisconsinites, am a Smelt-Head, (ha, and you thought we all were cheese-heads) and have enjoyed the delicious little fish a variety of ways. From Greek style with Scordalia to Salt and Pepper Smelt at 'Little Three Happiness to drunken smelt eating contests on the shores of Lake Michigan, and I'm here to tell you LSC's Chili Smelt ranks with the best.

Chili Smelt at LSC


We started our meal with terrific Beef and maw Szechuan style and delicious Bon bon chicken, these, along with LSC's Rabbit Szechuan style rank in my top 20 appetizers. The rest of the meal, uncharacteristicly, was slightly off the mark. Garlic eggplant, while not bad, was just sort of boring, Lamb w/cumin suffered from over marination, yielding a slightly mealy texture. Pan fried noodle w/beef and vegetables would have been tasty but for an overabundance of slick/thick cornstarch sauce.

Don't get me wrong, LSC is a wonderful restaurant, I actually get cravings for Beef and Maw Szechuan style and 'Gribenis', as Seth Z calls it, Chili Chicken. Just that this night LSC was ever so slightly off the mark on a couple of things, which were more than made up for by the Three Chili Chicken and Chili Smelt.

m'th'su brought a French Farm House Ale, which was a lovely match with dinner. I slightly preferred the Farm House Ale over our Pinot Noir.

I hope your wonderful day, combined with an outing at Lao Sze Chuan, becomes a tradition.

Enjoy,
Gary

Lao Sze Chuan
2172 S. Archer
Chicago, IL 60646
312-326-5040.
Chinatown Mall
http://www.laoszechuan.com/

Gwiv wrote:The problem with going to a restaurant often is one tends to get in a rut, order from the same roster of 10-12 proven favorites. The solution, aside from bring printouts from LTHForum, go with friends who are regulars and order dishes from their line-up.

That is a very good way to learn new dishes.

I have also taken the approach of coming with the experienced diner who can order without looking at the menu. Since I am new, I am reading it in detail and find things they never tried. I learn something and they learn something.

It is so easy to find that rut simply because you love those dishes and never have them frequently enough to tire of.

Thanks for introducing a new strategy to the menu rut.

Regards,

One thing to be careful about: often, when ordering three chili chicken, they interpret your request as being for dry chili chicken. Both are excellent dishes, and I never mind when they bring out the latter instead of the former, or vice versa. Howeer, dry chili chicken is MUCH spicier. Three chili chicken, which is essentially salt+pepper boneless chicken, is fairly mild. Dry chili chicken is not.

The lesson is, if you're worried about heat, be very, very sure you've made your choice clear. In my experience it helps, but doesn't guarantee desired results, if you say "tony's special chicken with three chilis" and emphasize the "three". Or just point to it on the menu..

We also once had a situation where we ordered salt+pepper smelts and got dry chili smelts (seen in gary's pic). The smelts were mostly for my mom, and the heat level was a bit too high for her. It was a shame, really.. I guess we need to be more aggressive about telling the staff they got our order wrong

I'm still thinking that one of these days, we should conduct a meal at LSC consisting soley of misspelt items on their menu.

Vital Information wrote:I'm still thinking that one of these days, we should conduct a meal at LSC consisting soley of misspelt items on their menu.

We might have to rent out the upstairs party room for that one.

I also wanted to echo how much I enjoyed the Three-Chili Chicken. One of the things I've discovered is that it's not too difficult to imitate at home with some pretty decent resuts.

Lightly coated, seasoned dark meat (I prefer flour to corn starch) into a rocket-hot pan of oil. Keep it moving, add some onions and chilis of your choice and a few minutes later you've got dinner.

I've made this many times recently with just a couple jalapenos and served it over rice. Le Petit Pois prefers it in a corn tortilla with some crema and avocado for a LSC-home-fusion delight.

Best,
Michael / EC

There's a somewhat similar recipe in Jacques Pepin's "Fast Food My Way": cube chicken breast meat, dredge in flour, saute quickly in a hot pan, add parsley and garlic, saute for another minute, serve.

Just change the parsley and garlic to hot peppers and you're there.

gleam wrote:There's a somewhat similar recipe in Jacques Pepin's "Fast Food My Way": cube chicken breast meat, dredge in flour, saute quickly in a hot pan, add parsley and garlic, saute for another minute, serve.

This is the exact recipe I was thinking of when Tony described the Three-Chili Chicken. They key point in Tony's dish, and not Pepin's, was to go all-dark-meat. This really appealed to me.

I'm a big fan of Pepin's book and I think that was the first recipe I made from it. As you said, it's not a far stretch to adapt it or use it as a base for a lot of different flavors.

The beauty of that book is that most of the really good recipes are so easy to commit to memory. You cook it once and it's immediately added to your repertoire.

Best,
Michael / EC

Ha! Thanks for dredging up my old post(possibly, in hindsight, more about my lunch with friends than the cuisine). Lao Sze Chuan is my favorite Chinatown restaurant, thus far. I've eaten around the menu in tandem with Fuschia Dunlop's wonderful book. Szechuan Cookery(Land of Plenty) has been a boon in the kitchen as well. I love Tony's DRY 3-chili chicken. "Chik-fil-e" plus heat!

Anyone know where I can get a dish like Tony's Dry Chili Chicken near the Loop? Otherwise I think I need to catch the red line down to Chinatown and get six orders for Take Out.
Eric

ericwfrost wrote:Anyone know where I can get a dish like Tony's Dry Chili Chicken near the Loop? Otherwise I think I need to catch the red line down to Chinatown and get six orders for Take Out.
Eric

You're not going to find anything close to it anywhere closer to the loop than Chinatown.

Also, keep in mind that Dry Chili Chicken and Tony's 3-Chili Chicken are two different dishes. Both of them, excellent.

Best,
Michael

ericwfrost wrote:Anyone know where I can get a dish like Tony's Dry Chili Chicken near the Loop? Otherwise I think I need to catch the red line down to Chinatown and get six orders for Take Out.
Eric

As it's a sorta proprietary dish...I doubt it appears anywhere else. When I typed DRY in caps I was denoting a lack of sauce, not the namesake dish. For the record, the dish I order is Tony's 3 Chile Chicken. Before, I somewhat facetiously compared it to chik-fil-e' nuggets(not at all erroneously texture-wise). I like Chik-fil-e'...I don't like their xtian fundie-ism. A li'l proselytising with yr nuggets? Nah.

Over the holidays I ate at KFC for the first time in over a decade. Aside from their surprisingly high meal deal prices(16 bucks for two?), I quite enjoyed my popcorn chicken, which, again, reminded me of Tony's after a fashion.

Since I began this thread describing last year's holiday meal, I'll happily add that we reconvened at the top of December with more people, more food, more deliciousness.

Tony is a most solicitous host.

Oh, yes, I remember Tony's Dry Chili Chicken after hearing the recommendations from this forum.... very good. The green string beans and chili vegetable side order special was also fondly scoffed.. red chilis and all.

LTH,

Had lunch at the Archer Ave Lao Sze Chuan today, always a treat, today even more so as they hit the nail squarely on the head, Tony's Three Chili Chicken wise, today. Crispy, spicy, rich dark meat chicken with just the faintest back note of sweet. Not sugar sweet, a subtle, faint whisper of sweet perfectly complimenting chile heat.

Ma Po Tofu, with $2 worth of ground pork*, enriching my tidy little mound of white rice with it's spicy mouth tingling goodness. Speaking of mouth tingling, Spicy Beef Tendon gave me a full-on Szechuan pepper mouth tingle, no need for Bourbon when you have chiles and Szechuan pepper.

Fried Noodle with Chicken**, loads of bean sprouts, very good in a neutral healthy fashion and Smoked Tea Duck rounded out a very good, and filling, lunch.

Lao Sze Chuan is a Chicago gem.

Enjoy,
Gary

*I love the way you pick your price point on the pork, $1/2/3 ground or sliced

**You have your choice of meats

The other day the subject of people putatively being afraid to diss board favorites here came up. I couldn't help but recall another upstart, a long time ago, having the gall to slam one of the community's sacred cows...

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/111569

After that meal I took to calling Lao Sze Chuan "Lousy Chuan." A year or two later I was finally persuaded to try it again, and okay, it did somewhat better. I was persuaded it wasn't lousy, but I wasn't persuaded that I needed to make any effort to ever go there again. Sooner or later I was bound to get dragged there, that would be enough.

Well, today I was dragged there, third time in four years. Where at another restaurant I might have been tempted by beef tendon in chili oil, here I was too blase to make the effort. I was a little more impressed by the smell of a sauteed chilis garnish, pungent and bright, but the ma po tofu seemed like my fish in scarlet goo from four years ago, minus the fish. It was only the conservative noodles-and-chicken dish-- ordered to have something to take home to my wife, and maybe in case I hated everything else-- that got me through that part of the meal.

But then... then came Three Chili Chicken. Despite the name, not a particularly hot dish unless you make some effort to chomp into the chilis. But the chicken-- crispy, tender, delectably oil-kissed but not greasy, lightly singed with chili heat-- it was not only the best thing I've ever had at Lousy Chuan, it was one of the best things I've had this year.

So maybe I too have bowed to the pressures here and now only parrot the party line ("He loved Big Brother...") Or maybe if you don't like a board fave, you ought to give it another shot, and another, over the next couple of years. Draw what conclusion you like, but Lao Sze Chuan-- they make a couple of pretty good things. Just ask Mike G.

I took a group of Texans to Lao Sze Chuan the other night. They came up here to work Lollapalooza, and they barely had time to see any part of Chicago outside of Grant Park or their hotel. We were celebrating the end of the festival.

Just a few bites into the meal, one of them sheepishly looked at another and said, "Well, I guess we can't go to Kim Phung anymore."

What a treasure LSC is!

I had my first LSC experience a week ago. WOW. mr. sweetsalty and I both enjoyed the complimentary spicy cabbage (which I'm sure has a name, but I don't know what that might be). We then had the house special hot and sour soup. yikes. I should mention, I have this weird food-ordering disorder: I always TIHNK I can handle more spice than I really can. So, I was just barely making it thru the soup when my ma po tofu arrived, with its bright red oil on top. all I could think was, "Oh CRAP, I'm NEVER gonna be able to eat that, I'll embarass myself having to order something else, why do I do this to myself?" But really, the spice was more of a flavorful spice than a fiery, burning spice. I really enjoyed it- I would imagine a die-hard spice fan might wish for a bit more fire, but I thought it was amazing. I actually finished the whole serving, which, as most probably know, was enormous.

mr. sweetstalty also enjoyed his chicken dish, though I don't remember what he ordered (I'm a vegetarian, so I did not sample his food). we can't wait to go back.

sweetsalty,

My wife is a veggie and has some favorites at LSC I thought I'd tip you to in case you haven't tried them:

either from the snacks or warm appetizer section : green beans (small dice of geen beans with marinated tofu, chili oil, and fermented black beans - not too spicy)

snacks section: spicy tander [sic] tofu - this is basically ma po tofu but a veggie version

entree vegetable section: slivered potato, and the spinach with chili - personally I like the "potherb" a little more, this is more like a mustard green.

Oh yeah, she loves the pickled cabbage as well, and it can be ordered on its own if you want to take some out

Mike G wrote:...I took to calling Lao Sze Chuan "Lousy Chuan." A year or two later I was finally persuaded to try it again, and okay, it did somewhat better. I was persuaded it wasn't lousy, but I wasn't persuaded that I needed to make any effort to ever go there again.

For a long time I was underwhelmed by Lao Sze Chuan, having had some disappointing dinners there. Then a friend dragged me there for a really stellar lunch, and I became a believer. These experiences left me with the folowing opinions: 1) In a menu that large, there will be hits as well as misses. 2) For some reason they insist on including old Chinese restaurant standbys (like General Tso's Chicken), which all seem to be too sweet or boring. Stay away from those. 3) No, you will not find American "production values" here. The atmosphere is only several levels up from hole-in-the-wall, and the service is rushed and spotty (mainly becuase the place is so busy) - know that going in. 4) There are real gems in that enormous menu - finding them is half the fun.

Akatonbo wrote:2) For some reason they insist on including old Chinese restaurant standbys (like General Tso's Chicken), which all seem to be too sweet or boring. Stay away from those.

Akatonbo,

Yesterday at Lao Sze Chuan, while doing my usual 'plate envy' scan, I spotted sweet and sour chicken in a 5-inch diameter fried potato basket.

Enjoy,
Gary

Although the chicken and noodles dish, which could hardly be more 1953 Cantonese-American, was really pretty good.

Mike G wrote:Although the chicken and noodles dish, which could hardly be more 1953 Cantonese-American, was really pretty good.

Mike,

LSC's version was light with distinct clean flavors. For a real 1953 Cantonese-American experience they would have to substantially up the soy sauce/corn starch factor.

When I was kid in Milwaukee if a dish wasn't dark from soy sauce it wasn't Chinese. I still remember the first time I was served light colored fried rice*, it was right about then I realized Chinese food has more than one flavor note.

Enjoy,
Gary

*Not in Milwaukee

Yes sir. Won't make that mistake again sir.

He loved Lao Sze Chuan.

The Christmas Eve LTH dinner really opened my eyes to a few dishes I might not have noticed, that are truly stellar. I then force-fed some of the same dishes to some friends on a weekend in the western suburbs.

Tony tried to get us all interested in the hot pot with pork intestine and blood cake, but the ghosts of my kosher-keeping grandmothers kept me from even thinking about it.

On the other hand, the 3-chili chicken, and the Chef's Special dry fried chicken were both excellent: similar-looking but distinctly different and fiery in their own ways. The dry fried is a little sweeter, but still a far, far cry from the typical General Tso's glop.

Lamb in Pure Cumin is something not to be missed. You've probably never had a chinese dish like it in suburbia. Lamb? Cumin? Chinese? Ohhhhh yeah.

thank you, zim! We will definitely be going back, so I will keep those in mind.

LTH,

Had a quite nice, but initially annoying, lunch at LSC today. Initially annoying as our waitress was disinclined to let me order Sliced Beef and Maw Szechuan Style. First she told me I would not like it, then, when I persevered, she simply said no. I had to order/ask three times, maybe four, and finally, when she saw I was getting ticked off, acquiesced. Then, when I ordered Szechuan Spicy Rabbit w/bone, she 'bout passed a stone.

Very damn annoying, way past the point of good natured feeling out the customer.

Sliced Beef and Maw Szechuan Style


Szechuan Spicy Rabbit w/bone


Lunch was swell, and I tried a tasty new dish courtesy of Cathy2's adventurous spirit, Clams w/basil in wine sauce.

Clams w/basil in wine sauce


Ma Po Tofu w/ground pork was top of the game, as always.


As was Tony's Chicken w/3-chile, I'll always be grateful to Michael M (EatChicago) for turning me on to this dish, crisp skin-on chicken thigh meat married with chiles, just a terrific dish.

Tony's Chicken w/3-chile


Three of us shared Chengdu Dumpling


Szechuan Pickle


And, just for the hell of it, the Steve Dahl's pick for Best in the City egg rolls.* Note to Steve Dahl, if you think LSC's egg rolls are the best in Chicago you need to get out more.


Enjoy,
Gary

*I've been meaning to try the Steve Dahl approved egg rolls for ages, guess today was the day.

Ahhhhh... Gary you are killin me! I tried all day to rally some folks at work to head down to LSC today but to no avail. I've been craving some hotpot, prawns in dry chile and szechuan wantons for about 2 weeks now. I'm certainly going before next weekend after seeing these pics!

G Wiv wrote:our waitress was disinclined to let me order Sliced Beef and Maw Szechuan Style. First she told me I would not like it, then, when I persevered, she simply said no. I had to order/ask three times, maybe four, and finally, when she saw I was getting ticked off, acquiesced.

Quite unbelievable; they obviously didn't know they were messing with the wrong dude.

Still, the maw and pickle are especially attractive.

Hammond

G Wiv wrote:our waitress was disinclined to let me order Sliced Beef and Maw Szechuan Style. First she told me I would not like it, then, when I persevered, she simply said no. I had to order/ask three times, maybe four, and finally, when she saw I was getting ticked off, acquiesced.

GWiv, I typically order(ed) foo chi fey pien before being given a menu. (see this post). No problem with waitstaff - although after years of going there I'm still offered a fork, which I refuse (even saying, "Wo buyung shaat-zé" approximately). Hmm, maybe it just amuses them to hear me say that...

The Szechuan Spicy Rabbit (cold appetizer - 110 in the online menu) is another favorite - though I seem to remember it as a dry dish (like the maw), unlike what you've pictured

can threads be merged? I guess they are linked (now)