Tea for Two and Ma Po Tofu - Tripping into San Francisco

The South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood in San Francisco stands a bar with a
name many Columbus residents would recognize in Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker's

Christmas in San Francisco has become a tradition for us on our trips back to the West Coast. Perhaps the most unusual thing about this trip was it was the only day we made our way into "The City by the Bay" (cue background "whoa-whoas" by Steve Perry now.)

Of course, with the day being Christmas, the venues that are open are limited, and those that are are often jam-packed with people wanting to get out of the house for the day. We both agreed very early on that the touristy places were generally ones to avoid, but slowly but surely they have made an appearance on our itineraries with a bit more regularity. On this day, we journeyed to Golden Gate Park for a visit to a place neither of us had ever visited before: the Japanese Tea Garden.

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
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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.

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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