Wishing For Great Chinese

After the first wonderful experience at Wishingtown Bakery Cafe Uptown, I dropped in on the one in Metairie. They had moved from the little strip mall on Severn to another strip mall at Severn on West Esplanade. I walked into the tiny space and stopped in my tracks at an enchanting mural that was a photograph of a Venice-like scene in China. If I could have snapped my fingers and entered that scene I would have done so at once. I talked to the guy behind the counter about it.

He was the owner, Kevin, and I asked him about his wonderful noodles. He confirmed that they did indeed make it all in-house. I told him it reminded me of a place I love in L.A. called Din Tai Fung. Din Tai Fung is a Michelin restaurant that began in Taiwan with a number of locations in the United States with high populations, and high populations with money in particular. Din Tai Fung is not cheap.

It was him then, who stopped in his tracks. “You know Din Tai Fung?”

I affirmed that I did. He smiled and said that it was his model for his own place. We talked more of our mutual admiration of the place, and my eyes were diverted to a slide show of their own food at Wishingtown. It was gorgeous. I got very excited. Could there really be a Din Tai Fung kindabee right in Metairie?

I resolved to return and soon. The opportunity presented itself not long after. I knew right from the start it would be disappointing. The young lady behind the counter was not invested, shall we say?

I asked for Kevin by calling him Kenny, because that’s how I heard it from Kevin’s accent. He was not there. The slide show was not running so I couldn’t ask about the dish I had seen that Kevin promised to make for me. I was definitely on my own. A quick scan of the menu revealed a list of ordinary Chinese dishes. These couldn’t be what I saw in the slide show. I was puzzled, and this young lady was definitely not going to be a help.

We ordered a few plates of dim sum. I was intrigued by a particular dumpling that made me chuckle. It was a cheeseburger dumpling. It was the first time I’d ever seen a “Chinese” restaurant embrace its Americanized food. Fun.

The other plate of dim sum was some fried pot stickers. For full plates we got Mongolian beef, which is not on the menu but they made some, and I was at a loss for another dish. We got some fried rice but I definitely wanted more of these housemade noodles. That left us with Chow Mein, a dish I don’t believe I’ve ever had. Cliché “Chinese.” Bring it on!

The fried dumplings were fried right and came with a sauce that was not soy-based but more mustard-based. It was a nice sauce and the dumplings were good. What I liked most is that they were not overstuffed.

The little cheeseburger bites were total fun. They were not fried, filled with ground meat, topped with bacon and a dollop of melted cheese. I

loved these! They should have been served not with Chinese mustard, but with the American condiment, and maybe some ketchup too!

It all went downhill when the plates of food arrived. Tom always said that the best Chinese food is your Chinese food, and I agree with that. For us that is Trey Yuen over here on the north shore. 

The Mongolian stir fry was a mess. The meat was in sheets, and the look of it was so off-putting it distracted from actually tasting it. This was an even bigger disappointment because the Din Tai Fung conversation had maybe set my expectations too high.

I was still pulling for the noodles I found so delicious when I went to the Uptown location. They were indeed every bit as wonderful here as there, but were again part of an ensemble I found very unappealing. Perhaps this is “authentic’ Chinese food. I have said many times if Chinese food was real, i.e., what is served in China, the restaurants would close before they had to pay a month’s bills. Americans like fake American food. I know because I am one of them. Of course there are exceptions to this but they are not enough in number to keep the lights on.

My problem with the noodle dish Uptown was the look of the meat. It was shaved paper thin, with fat on the edges and served in a pile on top of these wonderful noodles with broth at the bottom. After a few bites of the beef and onion, I pushed them aside and savored the noodles and broth. 

But it is absurd to push aside half a dish. I didn’t even get that far with the Mongolian beef. It was full of vegetables and meat and had a glassy look. It was okay to taste but eating a plate of food is a multi-sensory experience. I don’t want to close my eyes, unless I am momentarily rhapsodizing over something’s excellence. I definitely don’t want to do it in defense.

The Chow Mein was full of noodles (a plus in this case) and also big chunks of peppers, as well as chicken. The vegetables were a little too chunky even for me, but it was the chicken that disturbed me…again. What is it with meat here? The chicken seemed to have been steamed or something before adding it to the stir fry, It had the oddest frail texture. Or maybe it was chicken loaf? I just couldn’t tell, but it was weird. Too weird to eat.

The third dish was fried rice, which was full of rice and meats and seafood and vegetables. The only thing it was missing was flavor. By this time I was heartbroken.

I am not Chinese so I don’t understand the dim sum/Chinese plates connection, nor the cultural significance or the practical difficulty of doing both. There is a lot of dim sum turning up in town. I have said many times that we don’t really have dim sum. You have to eat it on either coast, where there is a large population of Chinese people to support these efforts. Even recently at Yank Sing in San Francisco, it was heavy dim sum, with a few full plates as a special order. They weren’t nearly as good as the dim sum.

That was certainly true at Wishingtown. The dim sum is extensive in choices, and beautifully made. I would go back to get the wonderful cheeseburger dumplings all by themselves. The pasta is made fresh and is not pasty, and the fillings are good. 

When Tom reviewed a place he would often tell people what to get and what to stay away from. It’s weird to do that, but here it must be done. If you want to get a taste of what dim sum can be, go to Wishingtown bakery cafe. Then go somewhere else for the fried rice and Kung Pao Chicken, etc.

There is a pretty good selection of baked goods in the case…the “bakery” part of the title. These are very good. I only had the cheesecake with blueberries on my first visit Uptown, but I enjoyed it. I am told that the rest is quite good.

 So do the appetizers and dessert and cut out the middle. Weird, but it will work.