Tuesday, November 2. China Orchid, Twice As Much Food Is Half As Good. After Mary Ann returned from voting, she noted that today is the first time Mary Leigh will be able to cast her ballot. Indeed, she did. I salute here for taking the franchise seriously. On the other hand, she adds another right-winger to the electorate. Not that it makes a lot of difference in Louisiana.
Mary Leigh proudly told me of her first battle with the voting machine over dinner at the China Orchid. It's Tuesday night, our regular evening for dining together. We are still not close to exhausting all the restaurant possibilities in the University, Carrollton, and Riverbend neighborhoods.
Last time I was in the China Orchid, the restaurateur who goes only by her first name Jung owned it. She also had the Golden Dragon in Metairie then. She moved that restaurant a few months ago to Magazine Street, where it will probably do better. The old place was really looking shabby.
The current owners of China Orchid are cheerful and enthusiastic. But they are traveling an unfortunate road. Competition among Asian restaurants is such that they must choose one of three options: a) to serve a buffet, or 2) to offer very low prices and very big portions. Both of these have been successful in attracting customers, with a) gaining ground over 2).
I had high hopes for dinner, based on previous meals here, regardless of their ancient history. The menu showed cleverness: it begins with many pages of photographs of the food. This is admirable, even though the visual differences among Chinese dishes are limited. And could it be that anyone doesn't know what an egg roll or fried rice look like?
I began with the hot and sour soup, served in a gigantic bowl. The flavor was more than okay. It actually had the sour flavor referred to in the name, instead of just the hot one. The pork was sliced roughly, though, and I needed to bring chopsticks to bear.
Meanwhile, Mary Leigh happily tucked into a big mound of pork fried rice. In it was the same pork I had in my soup. I took a bite. Hmm. More like jambalaya than fried rice, I thought. Not enough heat under the wok. Fried rice ought to have a few crispy grains.
For the purposes of research--and since ML was there to help--I ordered two entrees. One was chicken with hot garlic sauce. I specifically asked them to cook it spicy, which they did. (Mary Leigh is not shy about eating hot peppers.) The oversize portion could have fed two people. It was edible but less than fine. The other entree was moo-shu pork. Again, with the same slightly-too-big pork strings. I couldn't bite through them, so they pulled out of the pancake as I tried to get a modest bite. Not something I'd send back, but far from as good as it could be.
The hoisin sauce (you spread this across the surface of the flour tortillas)--was served in a syrup pitcher. Problem: hoisin sauce is too thick to pour. I had to shake it out, and then only with difficulty.
It's easy to forgive all these little deficiencies when the entrees are at or below $10, and served so generously. But I would pay twice as many dollars for half as much food prepared fifty percent better. Who needs to eat portions like this? Two groups: the gluttonous and the starving. Neither is known for pushing standards higher. But there are far more gluttons and hungry people than gourmets.
Which brings me to the third business strategy for Chinese restaurants who are locked in the battle. It works, too. How about serving food so good that you can't get a table in the place? The Chinese cuisines are too rich to be limited by the mediocre palates of those whose main lookout is to get as much food as possible for the smallest amount of money.
China Orchid. Riverbend: 704 S Carrollton Ave. 504-865-1428.
