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Tasty Bean Curd gives 'gourmet' twist to tradition Friday, October 23, 1998 By Woodene Merriman, Post-Gazette Dining Critic
It's happening everywhere. Chinese restaurants are becoming so Americanized!
Chinese buffets are popping up, like rice on a sizzling platter, all around the city. All-you-can-eat buffets are American, not Chinese.
Here at Bean Curd the cuisine is not advertised as Szechwan or Cantonese, but "Gourmet Chinese."
"Is Gourmet a new province of China?" His Honor whispers as we check out the menu. Very funny, H.H.
Bean Curd's menu has all the popular Chinese-American dishes, like chow mein, plus some that don't exist in China (chop suey and fortune cookies). And the dishes, according to the menu, are prepared "with a light touch - less fat, more flavor."
Restaurant manager Cindy Sun and her chef-husband, Shing Dong, are from Taiwan, via New York City and New Jersey, but they caught on quickly to what Americans like.
Shing Dong even has an American name, Chef Bob Sun.
There are no chopsticks on the tables. Order tea, and it arrives steeping in one of those French-style infusion pots, and is sipped from mugs inscribed with "10 ways to good health." Whatever happened to the ubiquitous round Chinese tea pot, and the little cups with no handles, that you held with both hands to sip?
"I hate to see people get their hands burned," Sun says.
The tea is different, too. It's made fresh from tea leaves. Jasmine, oolong or green tea, take your choice.
His Honor and I, of course, are having wine brought from home. Gewürztraminer goes nicely with Chinese food, he says, and the smiling waiter has opened the bottle and put it in a water pitcher with ice.
As in other Chinese-American restaurants, the menu is long, and includes a lengthy list of "special deluxe recommendations," right down to Peking duck for two. On the "health watch" side, Chef Bob has steamed dishes featuring less oil, low salt and light sauce on the side, and stir-fries with a light white wine sauce, less oil and low salt.
We've been to Bean Curd before, and found that everything we tried had a freshly made taste. That's particularly noticeable in the egg and vegetable rolls, which our waiter said are made at the restaurant. The shredded veggies in both are fresh-tasting, the wrappers thin and crisp.
A number of dishes are marked "hot and spicy," but don't believe it. Or maybe Chef Bob peeked out from the kitchen when my order for "amazing chicken" came in, and decide really "hot and spicy" is not for this WASPy-looking customer. My "amazing chicken" is strips of chicken breast dipped in batter, deep fried, then coated with an orange-colored sauce, as sweet as candy. Only the little dried chili peppers in the sauce are hot, and there aren't many of them.
Sesame shrimp is a similar dish, with crisp-fried jumbo shrimp sautéed in a honey and tomato pink sauce and sprinkled with sesame. Good, but not "hot and spicy" as the menu promises. Ditto for an appetizer of cold noodles with sesame seeds, one of my favorite Chinese-American dishes. Good, yes. Hot and spicy, no.
Best-selling entrees at Bean Curd are the old standby, General Tso's chicken, and two sweet and sour dishes, orange flavored beef strips and salmon steak on a hot platter. Two of Chef Bob's own creations on the menu are Grand Mariner Shrimp and Seafood Dumpling. The shrimp dish really has nothing to do with sailors; the mayonnaise-fried shrimp are prepared with Grand Marnier liqueur. Maybe the menu printer was trying to correct the spelling. The Seafood Dumpling has shrimp, scallop, a crab meat stick and ginger inside a crystal skin dumpling with a white wine sauce.
Chef Bob makes a fine hot and sour soup - a little spicy, a little astringent, rich, thick and delicious. H.H. and I also heartily recommend two of his "special deluxe" dinners - Surf and Turf and Triple Crown.
Surf and Turf is not what you're thinking - this restaurant isn't that Americanized! It's a delicate dish of jumbo shrimp and tender chicken breast, with peas and carrots, in lobster sauce. We'd order it again anytime. Triple Crown has lobster, shrimp, scallop, fish and squid with fresh vegetables, served with a light black bean sauce.
I hate to see chopsticks disappear from our Chinese restaurants. (We could have had them if we asked, I was told later.) I also miss the real Chinese rice that sticks together. (What's served here is like Uncle Ben's.) I miss the traditional tea service, and the "lazy susan" in the center of the table, the way food is served in China.
But the food is fresh and prepared to American tastes, and the dining room is modern. Sun admits to being a fanatic about cleanliness. It's a pleasure to look around the bright, square room, with some Chinese decorations and a mirrored back wall that makes it look so much larger. Everything shines.
Bean Curd
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Hours:Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. -10:30 p.m.; Saturday, noon-10:30 p.m.; Sunday, noon-9:30 p.m.