Delicious History

Choosing a place to eat Chinese food in Tampa just got a little more difficult.  The public is about equally divided on the superiority of China Yuan or Yummy House, and the befuddled critics haven’t even tried to choose a favorite.  You all know I don’t shrug off tough decisions, but it would be expensive ande time consuming to sample enough of all three menus to make a definitive judgment. If I could secure corporate sponsorship, it would be within reach.  Probably an anti-cholesterol drug.

I think this calls for a group evaluation.  But this will be no simple clash between two Chinese dragons, but three!  (Insert exaggerated anime gasp here!)

The new Chinese dragon is Chopstix, which i stumbled across quite by accident.  I was attending a show at the Brass Mug on Fletcher Avenue.  My neighbor invited me to see his friend’s metal band play.  I arrived hungry and a little tipsy.  I walked past a storefront where a lousy Chinese fast food place had resided.  I discovered a new restaurant had opened in its place, and although it was late (11 at night), the sight of their empty restaurant made me want to like the place.  They invited me to sit down and sample the food.  Soon, various small dishes of food graced the table: steamed chive dumplings, a seafood and tofu hot pot, shrimp— like from the tank— with garlic sauce, and crispy milk balls— a milk custard battered and fried.  All washed down with jasmine tea.  (Sometimes I order oolong just because i like to say it.)  I was in heaven that night.  After the great food, the concert and flying headbanger hair rather bored me.

Brand new upstart Chopstix has some fire to breathe of its own in the upcoming tournament of Chinese dragons.  Opened in September by three siblings: Michelle, Eva and chef Stan Du.  For a man of just 28, his skills are impressive indeed and boasts of training in China as a young man and honing his restaurant kitchen skills in places such as T.C. Choy’s, a Hyde Park Chinese/Pan-Asian “Bistro” with prices higher than the quality of its food.  Down there, you’re paying for waterfalls, slick decor, and the “bistro” monikker.

After my first night of bliss, I returned a couple weeks later with some friends to sample the menu further.

The watercress soup was delightfully subtle, with sliced pork, soft tofu, and the namesake vegetable, which was cooked just right, not boiled to death.

The honey and black pepper short ribs arrived sizzling and steaming.  They did not disappoint.  The sauce was slightly sweet, and the white mushrooms were lovely in the dish.

The seafood and tofu hot pot was excellent, with shrimp, scallops, fish, squid, and a more firm tofu.  It also arrived steaming in a pan, with some folded Chinese newspapers to protect the plate underneath from the intense heat.  This was not a  giant pot of gravy, but all of the ingredients cooked immediately in the pan with a slightly spicy sauce.  So simple and so good.  This could be the best tofu I’ve yet tried.  Someone on Chowhound mentioned that tofu is normally like eating water, and I must concur.  The heat and sauce of hot pot at Chopstix improve it.

The beef with ginger and scallion stand up well to China Yuan’s, but lacks the large pieces of ginger that I love so much.  Then again, I like the ginger to burn my mouth a bit, and I imagine most people aren’t this fond of it.

Check out the presentation of the vegetable pan fried noodles.  Bok choy flowers out from a shitake mushroom to the right.  The noodles varied between crispy and softened with the subtle sauce.

No camera tricks here: the baby bok choy with mushrooms were that beautiful and glossy.  I loved the meaty texture of the mushrooms and the bok choy was perfectly cooked.

I returned again for a weekday lunch, and was disappointed to find only a menu of typical lunch specials.  I later discovered that I should have been given a regular menu as well.  The food was still good, but the lunch special menu was too limited.  If you have company, skip the cheap lunch specials and pay a couple extra dollars for the family style portions off of the real menu, which is quite extensive.

Call it what you will, a clash of the three Chinese dragons, or a menage a Chinese, but I look forward to comparing Chopstix, China Yuan, and Yummy House side by side.  It will probably feel a little promiscuous, but sometimes that’s okay in service of a good cause.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 8:16 pm and is filed under Tampa area restaurants / dining, University of South Florida area dining. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.