Evaluation: Taste of Jiangnan brings certainly one of China’s nice regional cuisines to University City

Think of Jiangnan—and in the event you get pleasure from actual Chinese meals it’s best to—as form of the Paris of China. The analogy’s not completely apt, but when we’re speaking about Chinese delicacies, the meals of the Jiangnan area—the complexities of flavors, the fragile rendering of the dishes, the insistence on elements which can be recent and totally at their peak—match the connoisseurship of France’s culinary capital. And it’s actually, actually good.

So a brand new restaurant calling itself Taste of Jiangnan (8406 Olive) is making a reasonably appreciable declare. We walked in a few months after it opened with appreciable expectations. The place was till late the long-time residence of Royal China BBQ, a much-beloved joint the place glistening roast geese hung in a glass case on the entrance.

Cold appetizers (liangcai) are a very well-known a part of Jiangnan meals; they’re much less about style than subtleties of texture. Slivers of rooster breast are poached and stirred right into a sauce with sliced ginger, scallions, and coarse salt, chilled. There are different Chinese eating places on the town that serve this dish Shanghai fashion, with soy sauce added that makes for a heavier style. This is the unique Jiangnan fashion, the dry salt alone doing the work to taste it.

Nanjing salted duck is one other worthwhile chilly starter, one which appears easy. It’s simply duck boiled in water—however solely after marinating in a brine of star anise, cumin, and Szechuan peppercorns. Cooling tightens the pores and skin; the duck’s chopped into bite-size items, with the darkish meat absorbing all of the flavors of the marinade.

If you’ve watched greater than an hour of any cable TV meals present, you’ve doubtless seen annoying hosts visiting China and attempting “stinky tofu.” It’s at all times meant to get a response from the viewers. Picture, although, somebody describing Roquefort as “fetid fermented milk.” Nanjing-style Chou dofu actually does have an aroma; the style, nevertheless, is extra like blood sausage or tripe, heavy, with a mineral tang. What’s served right here is the much less formidably fermented tofu of Taiwan. If you’ve gotten a palate for among the extra odiferous French cheeses, there’s a superb likelihood you’re going to understand this one.

Photography by Hezhong Ma

Photography by Hezhong Ma

Whose urge for food wouldn’t be stimulated by the considered one thing known as “Old Duck Soup?” The menu right here properly simply interprets it as “slow-simmered duck soup.” (“Old” actually simply means a year-old duck.) It’s simmered in a inventory of garlic and ginger with a beneficiant pour of Chinese cooking wine. You most likely know Chinese delicacies places loads of emphasis on balancing between yin and yang essences, combining dishes that may “heat” or “cool” the physique. In the summer season, many meals, particularly soups, are supposed to cool the physique; they’re savory however not heavy or greasy. This one’s well-known for that. The duck is juicy, nevertheless it doesn’t have any of the wealthy, succulent fats related to the chook when it’s roasted. Fermented bamboo shoots are at all times part of the soup; they had been listed on the menu, however what we bought had been recent shoots as a substitute. And whereas it was a superb rendition and we felt very cool after sipping it, the ingredient swap was odd.

Dongpo pork may be top-of-the-line recognized meals from the area. We would have been shocked if it wasn’t on the menu, and it was. How typically do you get a possibility to eat a preparation from the 11^th century? Supposedly invented by a poet and eating connoisseur, Dong Po, it’s to pork stomach what a Cab Sav is to filet mignon. Layers of meat and fats alternate in thick cubes which can be steamed then simmered then braised in a marinade of sunshine and darkish soy sauce and rock sugar till the fats glistens, the meat diminished to a tenderness that makes even the juiciest brisket appear desiccated.

Photography by Mabel Suen

Photography by Mabel Suen

Dong Po rou is definitely one of many world’s best porky preparations. Tempting because it was, we went with one other pork stomach star in Jiangnan’s delicacies, braised with preserved mustard greens. Shanghai cooking could be unthinkable with out these greens; they add a salty-sour, vegetal undercurrent to dishes. Chopped finely and slowly braised along with the pork stomach, this one’s not as ethereally tasty as Dong Po preparations, nevertheless it has a lusty, homey goodness that’s deeply satisfying. Dong Po pork blows your style buds out of the water with its explosive richness. Braised with tangy mustard greens, this pork by comparability is an expensive boat trip that pulls your style buds alongside fortunately.

Photography by Mabel Suen

Photography by Mabel Suen

Yangzhou is a metropolis within the Jiangnan area; its identify on a menu at all times refers to a dish the place elements mix texture and taste. Yangzhou-style fried rice just like the model here’s a very totally different tackle that carton that you simply dig into from the neighborhood Wok This Way. Instead of the caramel-hued quick meals customary, Yangzhou fried rice will get barely a dribble of soy sauce. It’s coarse salt in your palate, and with out the robust soy sauce, you may style each ingredient, shrimp, ham, and completely minimize greens.

Photography by Hezhong Ma

Photography by Hezhong Ma

We went with the Yangzhou-style meatballs. Most Chinese meals gastronomes know shi zi tou—“lion’s head” meatballs from the northern a part of the nation. This is a southern variation. You can style the distinction; Jiangnan’s pork meatballs are braised in rooster broth that provides an entire different layer of taste. Nibbles of water chestnuts within the floor meat are delicate, however you’ll discover and revel in them. Along with a bowl of rice, they’re excellent.

For the centerpiece, we ordered the crispy complete fish in candy and bitter sauce. We’ve by no means been a fan of candy and bitter meats; there’s simply one thing about candy going with savory meals, and it at all times overpowers the bitter component. But Panda Express doesn’t lie, and the success of its Orange Chicken proves there’s a giant marketplace for sugary sauces on meat. Taste of Jiangnan’s supervisor informed us they undergo 40 river bass every week. The one which got here to our desk was breaded and deep-fried, the crust golden and slathered with that deer hunter-orange gravy.

Photography by Mabel Suen

Photography by Mabel Suen

You’re going to seek out the fish completely passable, and the portion measurement is beneficiant. If there may be any flaw right here, it’s one we observed as quickly as meals started arriving on the desk. It comes out quick. That leads one to suspect loads of the exercise within the kitchen is yu zhu, or “semi-pre-pared.” With most dishes, that is anticipated, and it really works simply tremendous right here. Jiangnan delicacies calls for some lengthy preparations; it might require diners with much more persistence than most of us have. With the fish, although, we observed it was not as crispy, the crunch not fairly as engagingly brittle as it might have been when breaded and fried simply after it was ordered. But a less-than-perfect fry was outweighed by the truth that we had been digging in so quickly. You will, too—belief us.

Beautiful light-green Jun-style bowls and quiet, minimalist décor are an instantaneous suggestion that this isn’t your typical Chinese restaurant. The delicacies of the Jiangnan area is subtle and chic. This new place represents it fantastically.

Taste of Jiangnan
📍8406 Olive, University City
📞314-918-5934
⏰Mon-Tue and Thu-Sun: 11 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.; 4:30 p.m. – 9 p.m.