35 Chinese, Part II

Went back to 35 Chinese with a different group - this time, with people who were more tolerant of spicy foods (yippee!). We still ordered the same appetizers: 夫妻肺片/ sliced roast beef and tendon (fuqi feipian) and 蒜泥白肉 / sliced pork belly in garlic sauce (suan'ni bairou). Otherwise, I think most of the dishes were different, so here we go...

五更腸旺 / chitterlings with tofu hot pot (wugeng changwang)

- The photo really doesn't do this dish justice, because it was one of my favorites of the evening. It had a lot of flavor besides just straight-up spicy, which is always nice. The dish does contain pork intestines and pork blood, which might turn some of you away... although I do have a friend who doesn't eat intestines but makes an exception for this particular dish here - so really, it's worth it.
The only downer to this is that the pork blood is kind of dry, so I wouldn't expect too much from that. Otherwise, thumbs up.

蔥爆牛肉 / beef with scallions (congbao niurou)

- Although this isn't a traditional Szechuan dish, we still ordered it. It was pretty good - the beef was tender, and plenty of flavor.

麻婆豆腐 / Mapo tofu

- This is my favorite dish EVER at this restaurant. Ever. Probably because I haven't had the authentic version of mapo tofu for a long, long time. It was served in a 砂锅 (clay pot) instead of plate - the way that it's supposed to be, and it has plenty of the 麻 ("numbing") element, which means you should probably save room for this dish last. Overall, I was impressed and happy with the authenticity of this mapo tofu.

清炒丝瓜 / cooked loofah

- Yep, loofah. I was really excited about this dish because I love loofah vegetable, but we were appalled to discover that it tasted bitter (might have spoiled). We sent the dish back in exchange for 乾扁四季豆 / string beans Western style (ganbian sijidou), which was pretty much the same as the last time.

Overall, with the exception of the disappointment of the loofah, it was an enjoyable meal. Their service does slow down as the evening goes on (they seem to be short on staff), so you should arrive early and order quickly. Between six of us, we ordered six dishes and it ended up being $15 each. Not particularly more expensive than any of the other Chinese restaurants that I've reviewed so far, I think.

Restaurant: 35 Chinese Restaurant

Price Range: Around $15

35 Chinese Restaurant

After yum cha at HK Chinese Restaurant, we still weren’t quite satisfied with our fill of Chinese food, so we decided to make a trip to Cary for 35 Chinese Restaurant’s Szechuan cuisine.

(Note: there are two 35 Chinese Restaurants in the area, one in Cary and one in Chapel Hill. What I’ve heard is that the Cary location is by far the better one, although I haven’t been to the one in Chapel Hill.)

There were four of us, so we ordered two dishes from the “Appetizer” (冷盤, or cold dish) menu and three from the “Entrée” menu. (I don’t remember the exact English translation of these dishes, but they should be something similar to what I have…)

Cold Dishes:

夫妻肺片 (Fuqi Feipian; Sliced Roast Beef and Tendon)

蒜泥白肉 (Suan’ni Bairou; Sliced Belly Pork in Garlic Sauce)

Top: Fuqi Feipian; Bottom: Suan'ni Bairou

Entrees:

回鍋肉 (Huiguo Rou; Twice-Cooked Pork)

香菇豆腐煲 (Xiang’gu Doufu Bao; Mushroom and Tofu Pot)

乾扁四季豆 (Ganbian Sijidou; String Beans Western Style)

Top: Huiguo Rou; Middle: Xiang’gu Doufu Bao; Bottom: Ganbian Sijidou

We asked for everything to be less spicy (少辣), although I, being a genuine Hunanese (湖南人; a province in China well-known for their hot cuisine), can tolerate pretty spicy stuff. The good thing about asking for less spicy is that less chili sauce is used, meaning everything is less oily.

The Fuqi Feipian’s taste is very authentic, but it’s also the most oily and spicy dish out of the five (which is probably why it’s authentic). If you like Fuqi Feipian though, you’d probably enjoy it. Just don't say I didn't warn you about the oil...

The Suan’ni Bairou was definitely my favorite dish of the meal. The texture was just right (well, pork belly is almost always great), and the sauce was done really well. It was a great mixture of sweet & salty, as well as garlic taste.

The Huiguo Rou’s meat pieces were cut into very thin slices – the thinner the better for pork belly – and flavored with black beans and leeks (大蒜苗), making it a dish with what my friend called “many layers of flavor.” Another great dish!

The Xiang’gu Doufu Bao wasn’t too impressive. The kind of tofu they used was not the regular bean curd, but tofu puffs (油豆腐).

Finally, the Ganbian Sijidou was pretty decent. It was made with pickled mustard and seasoned with salt, instead of with the usual ground pork and rice wine, but the taste was still pretty good. However, in my experience, to get the freshest vegetables, it’s still probably wiser to ask your waiter or waitress which vegetables are available and ask the kitchen to prepare it a certain style for you.

Overall, 35 Chinese is probably one of the most authentic Chinese restaurants I’ve had around here, and splitting 5 dishes between 4 people resulted in $14 per person, which wasn’t too bad at all.

Restaurant: 35 Chinese Restaurant

Price Range: $12-20 per person

- Worth the trip, especially when you’re craving real Szechuan food.