Mein Menu, part 1: Peking Wok
As described in Chapter the Sixth, I enjoy eating Chow Mein. At least it's called Chow Mein here in Berkeley; on the East Coast it's called Lo Mein. It's the dish with the thin round noodles, like spaghetti. But whatever it's called, I enjoy eating it, and whenever I'm eating at a Chinese restaurant for the first time I almost invariably try their Chow Mein (or Lo Mein). So today I was inspired by Stephen Colbert's 434-part series "Better Know a District" about the Congressional Districts of the United States, and I decided that I should start my own series in which I endeavor to eat Chow Mein in as many different Chinese Restaurants throughout the East Bay as possible. And so I'm happy to provide the first part in an indeterminately-large-number-of-parts series that I call... Mein Menu.
As I've already tried Chow Mein at a bunch of restaurants around Berkeley, and I don't really get to new restaurants all that often, I figured I should just put up posts periodically about the restaurants I've been to already, and add posts for new ones as they come. So it seemed only fitting to have the first post be about the restaurant that gave me the idea. Therefore, for part one of the series, I present Peking Wok.
The story of how we ended up eating at Peking Wok is told in Chapter the Sixth. It turned out to be surprisingly good given that we essentially chose the restaurant at random, since it happened to be accross the street. It's a pretty small place and was empty when we got there, making it difficult to guess how good the food would be. Sometimes the composition of the crowd can give you hints, or at the very least allow you to see some of the food they're eating. Anyway, the menu seemed fairly standard. Peking Wok had the usual choices for Chow Mein: chicken, beef, shrimp, etc. I decided to go for the Peking Wok Chow Mein, which was the house special version that had it all for $5.50. I got a very large amount of food for the price, which was good because I was really hungry. The sauce had a slight sweet taste to it that was quite nice, and much better than the greasy fare you get at the average Chinese place. The dish managed to fill me up quite well without me feeling overly stuffed, and the thickness of the noodles was just right. There were a few minor annoyances about Peking Wok in general; they only offered forks rather than chopsticks, and they didn't provide any water, only green tea, which was subpar in my opinion. But the Chow Mein itself was very good.
Overall, it was some of the better Chow Mein I've had since arriving in Berkeley. Makes me want to go to Chinese places in Oakland more often.
As I've already tried Chow Mein at a bunch of restaurants around Berkeley, and I don't really get to new restaurants all that often, I figured I should just put up posts periodically about the restaurants I've been to already, and add posts for new ones as they come. So it seemed only fitting to have the first post be about the restaurant that gave me the idea. Therefore, for part one of the series, I present Peking Wok.
The story of how we ended up eating at Peking Wok is told in Chapter the Sixth. It turned out to be surprisingly good given that we essentially chose the restaurant at random, since it happened to be accross the street. It's a pretty small place and was empty when we got there, making it difficult to guess how good the food would be. Sometimes the composition of the crowd can give you hints, or at the very least allow you to see some of the food they're eating. Anyway, the menu seemed fairly standard. Peking Wok had the usual choices for Chow Mein: chicken, beef, shrimp, etc. I decided to go for the Peking Wok Chow Mein, which was the house special version that had it all for $5.50. I got a very large amount of food for the price, which was good because I was really hungry. The sauce had a slight sweet taste to it that was quite nice, and much better than the greasy fare you get at the average Chinese place. The dish managed to fill me up quite well without me feeling overly stuffed, and the thickness of the noodles was just right. There were a few minor annoyances about Peking Wok in general; they only offered forks rather than chopsticks, and they didn't provide any water, only green tea, which was subpar in my opinion. But the Chow Mein itself was very good.
Overall, it was some of the better Chow Mein I've had since arriving in Berkeley. Makes me want to go to Chinese places in Oakland more often.
posted by Waltorious at 1:29 AM
1 Comments:
Quoth wikipedia, 'Lo mein — This is a New York-style Chinese food oddity. "Lo mein" in New York is closer to "chow mein" in the rest of the country. Strictly the term means "mixed noodles", that is one made with eggs, as opposed to most noodles which are made without egg.'
-Nate
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