TIPS FOR ORDERING FROM MASSIVE CHINESE MENUS.
It’s one thing to read a short blurb on a great restaurant and another to be confronted with a bewilderingly long menu, trying to figure out what to order while everyone else at the table does the same. Almost all the restaurants in this guide bulk out their menus with random northern Chinese or Cantonese dishes, a few Sichuan hits and Chinese American standards like kung pao chicken or curry beef.
For the Chronicle’s Many Chinas, Many Tables guide to regional Chinese restaurants, we include a few signposts to help direct you to the good food. Each restaurant capsule lists a few of the regional specialties we liked best there. In addition, Carolyn Phillips, author of “All Under Heaven,” a cookbook about China’s many regional cuisines, has written general descriptions of five of the highest-profile cuisines in North America.
Obviously, the No. 1 suggestion is to dine with someone who grew up eating the food you’re trying to order. We polled restaurant scouts Craig Brozinksy, April Chan, Momo Chang and Jonathan Kauffman for suggestions.
So I go to a restaurant, open the menu and see 100 dishes. What now?
Momo Chang: I look at what other people are ordering. If you’re going with a group of people, hope that someone in the group knows a little bit about the cuisine.
Jonathan Kauffman: Before going to a new restaurant, especially if it’s serving a cuisine I haven’t had before, I do some research to identify five to eight dishes that people who grew up eating the food would want.
Craig Brozinsky: Photographs are becoming standard on menus or walls and often suggest regional specialties. I look for dishes that aren’t typical of other Chinese restaurants, and repeated geographic or ethnic group names that suggest a theme.
April Chan: I agree that restaurants now are more consistently calling out “specialities,” which offer a good summary of the region.
Kauffman: As a general rule, don’t order anything you normally get takeout. (Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule, but why not start from that point?)
How do I get the waiters to tell me about the restaurant’s specialties, speaking in either English or Chinese?
Brozinsky: I typically ask in English, “Where in China is the chef from?” and have a map handy on my phone in case of a communication problem. I then ask them to recommend dishes from that region. This strategy either works immediately or opens up a dialogue. Knowing the Mandarin or Cantonese names for some dishes or ingredients is another way to build rapport and learn about specialties. Chan: There is absolutely no shame in whipping out Google Translate.
Beyond simply looking for regional specialties, what are the strategies you use for finding a restaurant’s best food?
Chang: You can go to the same restaurant and have a totally different experience based on what you decide to order. To be honest, in one of the restaurants I reviewed, I sent the menu ahead of time to my aunt, who is a great home cook and is from Taiwan. I wouldn’t have ordered some of the dishes she listed, but I’m glad I did. They were all stellar.
Chan: I do tend to Yelp-scout the place in advance — with a jaundiced eye, mind you. If possible, I’ll chat up the owners, managers, persons with more obvious skin in the game.
Most of all, I like to ask what’s not on the menu, just in case the chef is open to some creative off-roading. It helps that I come from a big family and usually roll deep with a party of 10, at least. Unfair advantage. Brozinsky: I use Englishlanguage online forums like Hungry Onion and Chowhound to interface with other people passionate about local Chinese food. Kauffman: I learned as a restaurant critic to assume it would take several visits to get a real sense of a restaurant’s strengths. The first meal might be scattershot, but it gives me a sense of what styles of cooking are the strongest and helps build a relationship with the waiters. As a non-Asian diner, I usually order a dish containing offal or a pungent ingredient like dried shrimp — partly because I love those dishes but also to enthuse about it to allay servers’ fears that I won’t enjoy the meal. Talking to the waiters helps them remember me, so on
subsequent visits, I can say, “I loved X last week! What other Sichuan (or Yunnanese or Taiwanese) dishes like it would you recommend?” Chan: Wo choy (set family) menus satisfy the budget-conscious consumer, especially in Cantonese restaurants. They allow the less savvy diner to save face and time by packaging a balanced, respectable meal with the right price (usually ending in 8s) and flair (not too cheap but not over the top, which is important because guests might want to reciprocate in the future).
What happens if I try to order one of these dishes and get told I won’t like it?
Brozinsky: Reassure the server that you have had it before, even if you haven’t — and, if it is too much for your tastes, honor your statement by saying you enjoy it and not sending it back. Chan: I employ a rather aggressive strategy honed from my solo travels around the world: “Please, don’t give me touristy food,” I tell them. “I want to try what eat.” Aside from the obvious language barriers, I think there is a real anxiety over offending Western palates, even in a metropolis as diverse as ours. Chang: Ask them why they think I won’t like it. And try it anyway!