A Family Affair: Meshikou Ramen

For awhile, the ramen-focused eatery was one of the hottest food concepts to waft up within Columbus' culinary bowl.  Places like Jobu/Mashita, Fukuryu and Menya; and food trucks like Tokyo Go Go and Capital Ramen, joined old-time brick-and-mortars like Tensuke Express and other Japanese eateries within the metro to give locals many more choices than ever before. Toss in the speculation of a possible local branch of a Cleveland institution in Jonathon Sawyer's Noodlecat, and the enthusiasm might have been seen as scalding at times.

The talk of the latter has pretty much descended to nothingness, and with an occasional rogue wave (Tensuke's expansion and the relocation of Menya from Powell to Dublin), the ramen scene here has settled into a steady lapping of broth upon the side of the bowl. That seems to have suited the city's current collection of ramen purveyors, including the Northwest neighborhood's Meshikou.

Dumplings Divine: Helen's Asian Kitchen

Dumpling creator and The Commissary class instructor
Helen Jiao has had her own kitchen serving diners in
the Northland area in Columbus since 2012.

I was introduced to the dumplings of Helen Jiao courtesy of class held by The Commissary. During that class, Ms. Jiao prepared dumplings of all types and cooked them in several different ways, and made it seem ridiculously easy. But as we found out that day, the preparation was nowhere near as easy as she made it seem, and the dumplings were just darn good.

The best thing is you don't have to take a class to experience Helen's dumplings - all you have to do is drop by her Northland area restaurant nestled on the northwest side of the Highway 161/Interstate 71 interchange.

The building's former life as a gentleman's club is slowly fading
faway with lots of food-oriented media and a few quirky touches

As mentioned in this previously written alt.eats.columbus article, the building in which Helen's Asian Kitchen sits had women "cooking" prior to this restaurant's arrival, though not at all in the culinary sense. These days, the mirrored walls lining the interior give a visitor the biggest clue of this venue's former life as a strip club, but the overlying feeling one gets is as an operating restaurant, with the requisite special menu and a couple of quirky touches, including Christmas-themed tablecloths on a few tables and a serenade by one of the restaurant's employees on the centrally-located piano during our meal.

Helen's Asian Kitchen menu has its share of Sichuan specialties
with that ma la profile, along with those tasty dumplings

The restaurant's Sichuan menu, with many dishes probably not too familiar to those more used to the Americanized styled Chinese food, is helpfully divided out into categories such as "Spicy", "Non-Spicy" and "Chef Selection". For this visit, we were here for the dumplings and the ma la combination of numbing and spicy that typifies many Sichuan preparations. 

Helen herself took our order and recognized me from the class, and gave something of a smiling approval our dumpling appetizers. They were delicious and plentiful, and typically would be enough to go with a main dish for the spouse and I for a full meal. But we were here to indulge, so we added some dry fried green beans (a simple personal favorite of ours from our orders at similarly-styled Fortune Restaurant) and the Boiled Beef in Hot Chili Oil, something that seemed similar to a Sichuan-styled hot pot. Both dishes were just a touch salty, full of that ma la profile, and quite satisfying.

Columbus may not have many restaurants that fit into that Sichuan Chinese profile, but the three that exist here all do a pretty good job of representing this style of cuisine well. Perhaps Helen's Asian Kitchen's biggest asset is Helen herself, both in terms of her well-made dishes and her personable demeanor.

Helen's Asian Kitchen
1070 E Dublin Granville Rd (Northland - Google Maps)
Columbus, OH 43229
(614) 987-5121
Facebook       Website

Note: Thanks to the fine folks at Columbus Food Adventures, who dropped a line to say that Royal Ginger (owned by the same folks behind Hong Kong House) on Lane Avenue in Upper Arlington also serves Sichuan dishes.

Szechuan Samplings: Hong Kong House

Hong Kong House has brought Szechuan dishes to Northwest Columbus

As I briefly mentioned in a prior post on a trip out to China Village in California, my spouse and I have discovered that Szechuan restaurants were not too common in the Columbus metro area. We both have come to love the ma la combination of Szechuan peppers and hot chilis that are typical of the cuisine, and our go to here has typically been Fortune Restaurant on Olentangy River Road.

Late last year, I heard some word through the grapevine that Hong Kong House, home of the former Hong Kong Buffet (a place neither my spouse or I had visited), had switched to a more conventional dine-in restaurant with a focus on traditional Szechuan dishes. Of course, this knowledge merited a fairly quick visit soon after to their location at the corner of Henderson and Reed Roads to see what they had on the menu (at the time, I couldn't seem to locate a website for the restaurant.)

Upon arrival, I spied a dry-ink board with the restaurant's specials written in Chinese. I also took a look at the diners in house: pretty much every one I spotted then, along with other visitors who arrived while I waited for my order (we decided on take out on this visit), appeared to be of Chinese descent.  Chalk up two notches in the "promising" department. The main menu proved to be the third promising notch: while there was one side devoted to more standard "Americanized" Chinese dishes, the back side had a substantial number of menu items similar to what I have seen at other Szechuan restaurants.

Decisions, decisions: Hong Kong House's menu does not lack for choices

Wanting to have a comparison point, we ordered Hong Kong House's closest dishes to three of our Fortune Restuarant favorites (Dan Dan Noodles and Dry Fried Green Beans and Dry Fried Beef)  to use as benchmarks; all their dishes compared favorably with Fortune with some slight variations (Hong Kong House's green beans, for instance, were not ma la, but provided a nice garlicky-kick instead.)

Left to Right: Dry Fried Green Beans, Dan Dan Noodles and Dry Fried Beef

Another aspect to these restaurants I had mentioned in my previous blog post was how these types of Chinese restaurants were perfect venues for a group outing, especially for diners willing to go beyond the standards. My spouse and I have been good for each other in terms of our food adventurousness, and we were looking forward to sampling more of Hong Kong House's extensive menu, despite realizing this would be something of a longer-term questing.

Here's where two of the most adventurous eaters in Central Ohio enter the picture: Bethia Woolf and Andy Dehus, founders of Columbus Food Adventures as well as just this region's ultimate online resources for this region's ethnic restaurants, taco trucks and mobile cuisine (alteatscolumbus.com, tacotruckscolumbus.com and streeteatscolumbus.com, respectively.) Some of my blog posts on our Columbus Food Adventures tour experiences (all quite excellent) and ethnic restaurant visits had led to a bit of a familiarity with each other through social media exchanges. Perhaps it was only natural that when the topic of Szechwan cuisine and Hong Kong House and our desire to explore the menu further came up, they would posit the idea: "Would you like to meetup for dinner there sometime perhaps?"

Is there any other answer to this question than "Yes, we would love to?" Nope, didn't think so.

Hong Kong House's interior decor is typically Chinese-restaurant appropriate, with artwork, tchotchkes  and other appropriate flourishes that stay somewhat bit masked with the dimly lit interior, Plenty of large round tables are present, giving visual evidence of this restaurant's ability to handle large groups of people. However, there are seats to the side where a couple can have a more intimate experience with each other. A bar is also available in the back for adult beverage orders.

We were joined at dinner at one of the large round tables by several of Bethia and Andy's colleagues, almost all of them familiar with numerous Hong Kong House dishes. With all the menu familiarity from those at the table, plus the nature of the meal where we would all be sharing our dishes family-style, we figured there would be more than enough food ordered, and we were eager to sample the favorites of our gathered guests were.

Top Row: Szechwan Style Cucumber, Wontons in Hot Chili Oil
Middle Row: Spicy Diced Chicken, Sauteed Potato Shreds
Bottom Row: Water Spinach with Minced Garlic; the aftermath

For us, there really wasn't a bad dish in the bunch. Standouts for us included the Cumin Lamb, the Wontons in Hot Chili Oil (both of which seemed to be universally liked) and the Spicy Diced Chicken (which gave me fond memories of China Village's 1000 Chili Pepper Chicken). Things that would probably scare most people, such as the Dry Fried Pork Intestine and Eggplant with Salted Fish in a Hot Pot were quite enjoyable. With the richness of many of the dishes ordered, the simpler preparations such as the Potato Shreds (had a nice gingery kick) and the Water Spinach with Garlic were provided a nice break.

Equally satisfying for us was our company for the night. While my spouse and I played the role of newcomers in relation to the group, we never felt out of sorts. I am, by nature, someone who loves to observe and absorb a conversation, and the variety of topics and experiences that Bethia, Andy and their colleagues threw out during the dinner added another element to savor this night.  We definitely hope that there are future gatherings like this down the road.

Service-wise, I have experienced no issues with Hong Kong House. Our initial takeout order came out relatively quickly, and in regard to the group dinner, dishes were also delivered in relatively rapid-fire succession such that our Lazy Susan was inundated. They were also nice enough to split up the bill evenly among our party, a process that not all restaurants are wont to perform.

With Hong Kong House, we can safely say that we now have two destination places for Szechuan cuisine in the Columbus area, and look forward to comparing the best of this eatery to what Fortune (or, for that matter, any other newcomer) has to offer. Hong Kong House's remake may not have appealed to those who were more in tune to the previous buffet-oriented incarnation; however, for those who are willing to venture forth a little from the norm, Hong Kong House definitely gives you plenty of what we have found to be tasty options.

Hong Kong House
1831 W Henderson Rd (Northwest)
Columbus, OH 43220
(614) 538-9288
Website

Ma La Nostalgia: China Village (Albany, CA)

This somewhat unremarkable exterior holds some of the best
Sichuan cuisine found in the San Francisco Bay Area

This visit to China Village was a return trip several years in the making for me.

China Village, which is located in what has become a dining destination area in Albany's Solano Avenue, has been one of the Bay Area's leading purveyors of Szechuan cuisine since its opening in 2002. My evolving tastes for thing spicy brought this place onto my radar, and my only regret was that I never could get into a group setting that would allow me to enjoy multiple dishes at one setting. Regardless, I very much enjoyed my dishes that I did order, from their 1000 Chili Pepper variations, to their Hot & Spicy Pork Shoulder and Dry-Cooked Beef, among others.

My last trip to China Village was back in the latter half of 2011, prior to my leaving for Ohio late that year and a fire in spring of 2012 which closed the restaurant down for repairs and renovations. The restaurant reopened to much public notice in the summer of 2013. My spouse and I have found Columbus doesn't have too much in the way of Szechuan restaurants (the most prominent being Fortune Chinese Restaurant on Olentangy River Road) so by the time we made this last journey back to California, it was time to pay them a visit.

While the exterior hadn't changed too much since my last visit, my bearings were thrown off by the interior for a few moments. This was definitely not what I had remembered from previous visits: the remodel had put an elegant chord throughout, from the artwork, the earth-toned hues, and dark wood inlays as well as the new addition of a bar with various adult beverage selections. The specials on the dry ink board all looked delicious, but also reminded me of how I wished I had a chance to visit here with a larger group of people in tow. As much as the Ma La Tofu Dungeness Crab sounded completely delectable (especially for my spouse, who is a crab fiend), the $40 price tag for the dish was something we simply couldn't afford on this visit. Perhaps next time...

China Village's menu was as diverse as ever, but the numerous
interior changes really caught my attention on this visit

China Village's menu still proved to be as diverse as ever, and it took a lot of time for us to wend through it. This, plus the fact that it was the end of a long day, led us to some relatively "safe" selections as the Szechuan Thin Sliced Lamb Hot Pot ($15.95) and the Shredded Pork with Jalapeno Chili Pepper ($11.95.)

Before our mains came out, we started off with a tasty Pancake Wrapped Five Spice Beef appetizer ($7.95) as well as a pleasant mini-plate of kimchi to munch on. This waiting time allowed me personally to soak in how much the interior had changed since I had last been there.

Szechuan Sliced Lamb Hot Pot and Shredded Pork with Jalapeno dishes

The hot pot was the highlight of the meal, a melding of tender lamb, vegetables, noodles with a nicely spicy broth. My spouse suspected that they took a look at us and toned down the potential kick a bit, noting that she's had more potent versions at the Red Chili Asian Kitchen near The Ohio State University.

Whether China Village did tone down the kick, or if this was merely a natural evolution of our more robust spice-handling capabilities (as exampled by this previous post) she agreed that this was a great introduction (and, for me, a reconfirmation) to what has remained an East Bay standout for many diners and Szechuan cuisine aficionados.

China Village Szechuan Restaurant
1335 Solano Ave
Albany, California
(510) 525-2285
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