| Mao
Jia Cai, or Mao's Family Restaurant, offers authentic
Hunan food, complete with excess grease and salt, a friendly
wait staff, and a whole library of historic Mao photos
to gaze at while customer's dining. There is imposing
white porcelain Mao bust surrounded by incense, plates
of food and packets of cigarette guards the foyer. The
fluorescent lights and dirty red carpet detracted from
the attempt to recreate the Hunan countryside; customers
also regale with Mao folk songs from a portable tape player
in the back. But in here is no menu in English or Chinese
Pinyin.
The
fish soup with tofu is unremarkable, but the rest of
the dishes are all interesting and tasty. The restaurant's
version of Mao's reputed favorite dish, hong shao rou,
or red cooked pork, is delicious. The meat is tender,
surrounded by chestnuts, and the fatty pork pieces not
too numerous. Others like, xiang yu piegu, or pork ribs,
in this case prepared with hong shu, Chinese potatoes,
that are quite tender and a little sweet, a nice contrast
to the rather greasy pork meat. Another pleasing entree
is the spicy chang zhen tu ji, or chicken prepared with
green onions and a red sauce. It is brought to the table
and placed with green onions and a red sauce. It is
brought to the table and places over a chafing dish.
During the meal, the chicken stewed even more and became
more tender and fragrant.
The
most unusual entree is la wei he zhen, a mixture of
spicy smoked pork, fish and chicken served on a bed
of black beans flavored with la jiao. The smoke and
spicy flavors blended nicely together. But even it isn't
as fire-hot as many Sichuan dishes. Mei cai ke rou,
bacon-like fatty slices of meat surrounded by a rich,
brown sauce.
The
best dish overall in customers' opinion is hu pi jian
jiao, a rather mild chili pepper sauted with black beans.
Edited by www.travel-silkroad.com
April 2001
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