Chef Zhu

**** Chef Zhu is now a location of Chin's

*** A short revisit post can be found here.

So one night when the Missus was busy at work, I asked Candice if she'd like to check out Chef Zhu. She had only been there once since they opened, so she was curious as well.

Yes, the English sign still says "Double Happiness"(the former ABCDE - American Born Chinese Dining Establishment name of the place), but it's easy enough to tell you've arrived at the right place.

There's an interesting mix of customers, forks adorn the tables and are removed when Chinese customers (or at least Chinese by marriage customers) are seated. Remember when Shanghai City had the ABCDE $5.99 lunch buffet? We were lucky enough to get a few tips from Candice's Dad on ordering from the menu.

Candice loves Ma Lan Tou and having had the wonderful vegetable in Suzhou and Hangzhou, I thought it made a nice start to the meal.

This was a decent version of the dish....you really can't get fresh ma lan tou here. I've seen it frozen at T&L and figure it's pretty much the same product everyone uses, but at least they didn't kill whatever flavor was left. In case you're wondering Ma Lan Tou is commonly known as Indian Aster and the vegetable is a staple of "Su Cai" - Jiangsu Cuisine, one of the Eight Great Traditional Cuisines of China.

We also got the Chao Nian Gao.

You have to be careful when ordering this; the standard version is drenched in soy sauce, which kind of detracts from the nice flavor of this dish. Shanghai City had a habit of overcooking the rice cakes and adding too much sesame oil. This was spot on. Loved the chew, the slight bitter from the vegetables......

Candice's Dad recommended the Yin Doo Xin, a very Shanghai style soup made from pork and chicken stock, and flavored with preserved pork (think ham), lovely bean curd knots, and crunchy winter bamboo shoots.

I believe it's called something like "Shanghai Soup Pot" on the menu. This had good flavor and that "aaah" factor that I find comforting, simple, yet hints of smokiness and saltiness from the pork added to the flavor. I took the leftovers home and it tasted even better the next day! I've been back to order this twice for take-out, eating a day after.

The Pork Pump looked pretty impressive....... A quick note, if you've got a bunch of customers ordering "orange chicken" around you and want to make a splash order this......you'll get folks asking you what this is, but in terms of this dish.....

But I've had much better, this was on the tough side and that sauce is too thick, almost like glue which was a rather unpleasant texture for me. It also tasted amazingly under flavored for a dish like this.

I thought the Xiao Long Bao at Shanghai City was passable, so why not, right?

This reminded me of the rather terrible XLB from The Dragon's Den, too thick wrappers, not enough soup. Chef Zhu was a partner in that business with the owner of Dumpling Inn for a while....I think the XLB rubbed off and not in a good way.

Most of the dinner was decent, that soup really hit the spot, and the company, as always was superb! So I decided to return and try some other things on the menu.

Starting with the "Shanghai Duck" ($6.95).

I'm a big fan of Su Cai cold dishes.....I'm not particularly fond of this rendition. That glaze is much too thick....the texture of caramel is great on ice cream, it ain't so great here. It was also slightly unpleasantly bitter. Lots of duck with not much flavor. I took the leftovers home and the Missus had one bite.....

I always thought that Shanghai City made a decent Niu Rou Mian....I mean, it wasn't Dai Ho, but it did hit the spot, so you know I had to try it here.

As a whole, I didn't enjoy this. I preferred the thicker, more doughy Shanghai Noodle that Shanghai City used to use. The noodles were also overcooked. The meat was on the tough side, thought the flavor was okay. At Shanghai City, the broth tended to be on the anise-heavy side, but there was just enough beefiness in it to balance the scales. Here it wasn't so, too much anise, not enough beed flavor, not rich enough either.

And yet, not to be denied, I returned on a very hot day, going Paleo all the way.....hey TFD, aren't you proud?

I started with a favorite of mine, the Jellied Pork - I believe it's something like "Salted Pork" ($6.95) on the menu.

And while I prefer a bit more aspic, on the dish usually called "jellied pork", I loved the fat to meat ratio. The texture was excellent, think of that wonderful piece of cold ham, except nice and meaty. The sodium level was on the high side, which I also enjoyed.

I didn't enjoy the Jellyfish Salad ($6.95) quite as much.

This wasn't terrible by any means, but it basically fulfilled the bare minimum, like a student just trying to get a passing grade. The jellyfish had a nice crunch, was cold, and didn't have that telltale sign of poor preparation; the acetone flavor. It was however, very bland, the (supposed) sauce just watered down, like this was rinsed and not drained well, sauced, and thrown on a plate....it was very bland.

By this time, I'd come here, what, five times (twice for take-out soup), so why not a sixth. And why not go for the gusto and order the Steamed Pork with Preserved Vegetable?

This was a decent dish; the pork a bit more crumbly, than the rather nice waxiness I prefer, but it wasn't too sweet, the sauce didn't kill the flavor of the pork, and yet it was salty enough to for me to eat way more rice than I'm used too (take that TFD!). I actually only ate three slices of the pork and some preserved vegetable; I was pretty much done after that. Still, a decent dish, one I'd have again.

So what to say? For someone who eats on Convoy, perhaps Chef Chin's makes some dishes better....but if I lived in, say, University City, I could make this a rather regular stop....at least for the Yin Doo Xin. Plus, I get a kick out of some of the Server's here. One of them is a hoot......she doesn't understand how someone of Japanese ancestry can be happily married to a mainland Chinese, so I explained it to her. "Everyday is a battle, but the peace treaties make it all worthwhile"!

Please read Kirbie's and Faye's posts on Chef Zhu.

Chef Zhu
1011 Camino Del Mar
Del Mar, CA 92014 

Comments

[Jason]

Great post! I agree, they do a decent job of appealing to both ABC and chinese clientele. And given the lack of similar restaurants in north county, it's nice having a decent option without driving down to Convoy.

[kat]

sounds like a mixed bag but decent

[Kirk]

It does make things convenient if you live in the area Jason.

It was Kat!

[J.S. @ Sun Diego Eats]

Does the acetone come from something used to preserve the jellyfish in or does the jellyfish have a compound that resembles acetone in flavor if overcooked/improperly prepared? Can only imagine that's a most unpleasant taste.

[Faye]

Again, I gotta give you a nod for trying a place more than enough times to test it out. What's the most amount of dishes you've ever ordered at one sitting when you dine alone (and want to test out a place)? I haven't been back to Chef Zhu but would love to try that Yin Doo Xin. That's unfortunate the other dishes weren't as great though.

[Candice]

That was a fun night! Glad that you are always up for ordering an inappropriately large amount of food.

[Kirk]

Hi JS - I'm not sure, but it seems to me that when jellyfish is not prepared correctly, there's that flavor.

Well Faye, I wanted to do right by the place.

It always is Candice.....and I love that you always able to deal with my temporary insanity! ;o)

[Food detective]

Noooo, not the rice! You were doing to well! You guys ordered the whole menu? I gotta give this place a try. I'm always looking for Chinese food up here.

[Kirk]

Ha - I was wondering if you's actually read this post TFD!

[Ed (from Yuma)]

I must have been busy when this first posted, but it brought back good memories of Shanghai City. I had forgotten about Ma Lan Tou, but I really like the dish. Thanks as always.

[Kirk]

Hey Ed - If you like this post just wait until my next one....

[Jim Gottlieb]

You don't want the menu with a star on it. That's the 老外 menu. Make sure you get the real (starless) menu.