In search of reasonably priced Chinese cuisine, many people may settle for fast food chains like Panda Express. However, other venues such as The Hunan Restaurant offer authentic food for a competitive price.
Despite the bland exterior, the inside of the restaurant is bursting with pizzazz. The various colorful aquariums and sounds of clanging pots made the restaurant seem lively and underscored the owner’s efforts for a successful eatery. On one wall of the quaint room hang many medals attributed to the head chef, Zhong Yi Liu, former head chef of the five-star lodging, the Grand Hotel Beijing.
It resembles an average, family-owned Chinese restaurant: walls decorated with colorful Chinese lanterns, paintings and statues. Inscribed on each menu is the restaurant’s motto: “Offering the flavors of the Far East in a modern Chinese restaurant.”
After my party perused the thick menu, the waiter brought out the appetizer: Chinese chicken salad. The salad consisted of a complex peanut butter, black bean and spicy pepper dressing, as well as shredded chicken and lettuce with sesame seeds sprinkled over the top. As I tried the salad, many flavors tantalized my tongue. The texture and flavors were so different from each other that they mixed together in a delicious and new way.
Following the salad, the waiter delivered hot pot-stickers. Their delicious smell wafted my way before they were even laid onto the table. Eager to try them, I dropped my utensils and used my hands to eat the delicious appetizers. The oil from the filling of the pot-stickers dripped onto my plate in my eager devouring. They were very delicious, but also a little too chewy.
However, my hunger was not yet satisfied. My party’s order of sizzling rice soup arrived. Instead of the average distribution of already-made soup, the waiter at Hunan put several bowls on the table containing broth with seafood, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and vegetables, as well as one filled with rice. As he dumped the bowl of rice into the boiling broth, it sputtered and sizzled so loudly that other customers took notice of the noise.
The fresh taste from this exciting preparation did not disappoint me. The texture of the rice and seafood combined with the crunch of the chestnuts surged with flavor in every spoonful. The steaming broth was also very flavorful.
Despite the amount of food already consumed, the main course was still to arrive. My next portion consisted of dry-cooked string beans. As the amazing aroma of garlic surrounded me, I dug into my plate and quickly finished them. The crunching of the beans was very refreshing and the flavors were warm and savory.
When I looked up, yet another dish was in front of me. But instead of a plate, it was a small iron pot with a torch underneath it containing the Szechuan hot pot chicken. The pot was filled with chicken, mushrooms and a few whole hot peppers drenched in a sweet Szechuan sauce. This was my favorite dish because all the flavors meshed so well.
For dessert, I dined on a plate of strawberry prawns covered in a white sugary sauce. These butter-cream prawns were the restaurant’s most popular dish. I quickly found out why, as the prawns were scrumptiously crunchy from the caramelized sugar. The waiter explained that strawberries were used in the dish because they make all the flavors tie together.
Like the meals I ordered, most of the food at Hunan is served family style, where a large serving is supplied and each party member dishes up an amount. However, Hunan also offers
