Usually when I go home to MD, I only have enough time to hit up the usual line up of restaurants (pho, dim sum, and sushi) but since I was home for a bit longer, I ended up trying a new Chinese/Taiwanese place down the street from my mom's house.
This place is in this non-descript strip mall next to a furniture store, so you can easily drive past it without ever knowing it was there. The inside is your typical Chinese restaurant - kind of low budget furnishings and loud and chaotic service and diners. The place was packed to the gills on a Sunday night and it was a mix of Asians and non-Asians. At places like this, I always just let my mom order because I can't really read the menu here and you don't come to a play like this to order beef and broccoli. You order the off menu stuff, the specials written on the walls or ask them what's good that night. We ordered clams in black bean sauce, sauteed eggplant and string beans and this huge bowl of food (not pictured) that is apparently unique to this restaurant where they basically throw in the kitchen sink and make it super spicy - it's got veggies, seafood, tofu and noodles all in a bowl that could probably feed 4-5 people. As typical of Chinese places, the food comes out fast and furious here. Everything came out in about 10-15 minutes. The clams in black bean were good - I've had them before in other places and the key is to use plump clams and these were pretty juicy and the black bean sauce was nice and salty. The eggplant and beans were your typical Chinese dish of veggies soaking in a brown sauce - it's totally not a healthy dish despite being vegetarian but sometimes you just need a good brown sauce on your veggies. Lastly, I tried this random giant bowl of food - dear god. I have gotten much better about eating spicy food but this was something that almost took my breath away. It's INCREDIBLY spicy, with full on giant read Chinese chili peppers and then sprinkled with even more mouth numbing chili powder. I had to take bites of white rice in between eating this dish because my mouth was totally on fire and at some point I couldn't tell the difference between what ingredient was what because my mouth was on fire - but I did really love the noodles they used. It's a thick broad clear noodle and it really soaks up all the flavor of everything that is in the bowl. There was something about this dish that was incredibly addictive despite its spiciness. I kept going back for more even though I was in pain. Even though 3 of us where slaving away at this dish for a while, we still had enough for for at least 2 more meals at the end of the night. We ended the night with a traditional Taiwanese dessert of shaved ice with red bean, peanuts and condensed milk poured on top of it. It was a nice way to cool down and this dessert definitely brought back memories of my childhood of eating this stuff instead of typical ice cream.
Overall, I was really glad to try a new place and the food seemed pretty authentic here. It's by no means fancy or high end, but sometimes, you're just not in the mood for that kind of food. It's a good place to go if you don't feel like cooking but want to eat a ton of really flavorful food for a fairly affordable price. It would most likely help if you speak or understand Chinese here as the service is nice but in that loud pushy Chinese way. Total bill: $60 for 3 with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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