I just noticed the receipt lists the item numbers -- nice for Santander's index project.

But what's the $2 "Special Paryt" charge?

JoelF wrote:I just noticed the receipt lists the item numbers -- nice for Santander's index project.

But what's the $2 "Special Paryt" charge?

That was the charge for the extra ground pork that was added to the Pot herb.

=R=

The upcharge was for the ma pao tofu not the potherb.

Went to LSC last night. As a recent member of the forum, I have only been there a few times. We had Tony's 3 Chile Chicken - always top notch - spicy, crunchy, savory - as many of you know. Also perfect were the Chengu Dumplings.

For the first time I ordered the Beef Maw. I am not exactly a huge fan of innards. (I love foie gras, pate, and sweetbreads, but the rest is unchartered territory for me.) The dish is wonderfully spiced, with a hit of szechaun pepper and a nice note of cumin. It was interestingly gelatinous and surprisingly. . . cold. From the handful of discussions on here I've read, I never thought that this dish was served cold. It did seem intentionally cold. I'm not so excited to get this again. Maybe it is an acquired taste. I did like the flavor, but not the mouth feel. Maybe I'm just a food wimp.

We also ordered the Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce (fresh and cooked perfectly crisp and covered in well balanced, savory, dark sauce) and some fried noodles with chicken for the kids (also perfectly cooked and seasoned with soy and a mild hint of pepper and garlic, with bits of onion and sprouts).

Anyway, I thought I'd throw in a beginner's 2 cents. I will always go back to LSC if only for Tony's chicken. . . plus I want to try the beef tendon next.

Mel,

Spicy beef tendon, #109, is almost identical to the sliced beef and maw you tried. Poached, chilled, sliced thinly, and dressed with chili oil, etc... a great appetizer with a cold beer! I think it might be more gelatinous than the beef and maw. By the way, the maw intended to be served cold.

And if you look further down under beef entrees, #'s 542 to 546 are various (hot) tendon main dishes, think gooey, chewy, and sticky, and I mean this in a good way. I've not yet tried any of the tendon entrees at LSC, but I have had one down the street at Spring World. These dishes are probably best eaten with the company of a large group, where you can get a taste af numerous dishes. Myself, I routinely enjoy a small dish of warm braised tendon at a dim-sum meal, but the thought of sitting down to a huge bowl of steaming tendon is overwhelming, even though I enjoy huge bowls of menudo on a pretty regular basis. Go figure.

I just wanted to clarify that for you since you weren't crazy about the maw.

Thanks, Ronnie. Those warm tendon entrees look like what I was hoping for. I tend to like my gelatin goey!

My sister has been here a few times. I've only been here twice, but I like what I've eaten, mostly orange chicken and that insanely hot three chicken chilli. I'll try the mapo tofu next time.

As to the safety of the neighborhood, I would be careful in Chinatown after dark. I once got off at the Red Line Stop there at night by accident and had to run to the Orange Line Stop @ Halsted to make a bus. I mostly ran down Archer out of fear, probably irrational. After all, there is a public housing project nearby. I didn't have any misfortune in the area full of fortune cookies, but I'd prefer to go during the day. Either way, be careful down there, or anywhere for that matter.

Santander wrote: tofu homestyle was home-made delicious chewy tofu with vegetables in a garlic black bean sauce, not dissimilar from the hand-pulled tofu at Double Li.

My vegetarian fiance and our good friend headed out to the Downers Grove location of LSC on Friday night (she lives in Naperville) and ordered Ma Po Tofu, Tofu Homestyle, and an order of Shrimp in Mayonnaise sauce (for friend and me). I have to say that the Downers Grove location is just as good as Chinatown and now I have a new addiction to the mayonnaise shrimp and the tofu homestyle. I love just about anything with fermented black beans and was pleased to find them in the tofu homestyle.

The place was hopping (we took the last open table at 7 pm) and the wait staff was friendly and efficient. I'm happy to see that the quality doesn't seem to vary too much between locations.

Sharona

njtb wrote:As to the safety of the neighborhood, I would be careful in Chinatown after dark.

I have been to Chinatown at every hour of the day and night and have never felt unsafe. It is reasonably well lit and well travelled even at the oddest hours. Like anywhere else, awareness of surroundings and common sense should prevail.

iblock9 wrote:

njtb wrote:As to the safety of the neighborhood, I would be careful in Chinatown after dark.

I have been to Chinatown at every hour of the day and night and have never felt unsafe. It is reasonably well lit and well travelled even at the oddest hours. Like anywhere else, awareness of surroundings and common sense should prevail.

I'll echo iblock9's comments. I'm not a big guy by any means and I've gone down to CT at pretty much all hours of the day and night and have never felt threatened. At the same time, I don't dress flashy (never felt the need when going to eat at LSC, LTH, etc.) and don't have any overtly shiny objects. While there are no absolutes, my feeling is that, with a bit of common sense and awareness, one should be just fine.

Has anyone ever tried the Downers Grove location? Is the chicken Crack as good? I would like to take it as an appetizer to my sisters house in Naperville.

There are a few posts above about LSC-DG. I personally don't think it's quite as strong (particularly on the usually-spicy items like the ma po tofu), but I've been to the Chinatown location a ridiculous number of times more than the suburban one, so take this opinion with a flake of fleur de sel.

My partner & I have been fans of LSC for a couple of years, but only discovered this message board recently. We go a few times a year. I was excited to go once again last night now that I knew what the favorite dishes were. We had the chengdu (sp?) dumplings everybody talks about: Yummy! We weren't brave enough for beef and maw, maybe next time. When we asked the waitress to suggest a noodle dish, she suggested Shanghai noodles which were basically spaghetti-like noodles in a Chinese meat sauce. It was perfectly OK. The Lamb with cumin was to die for, almost literally, since it was a tad too spicy for my digestive system and I'm paying for it this morning. But Tony's Three chili chicken was very, very good.

In fact, my partner got a dish really similar to this here for take-out with pork chunks a few years ago. He has forgotten what it was called and when we've tried to explain it to the waitstaff they have had no idea what we're talking about. We've ordered things that seem similar, but when they come to the table they're nothing like what we had. The dish we had was cooked just like the 3-chili chicken, batter fried and in chunks, served relatively dry, but it was pork. Does anybody know what we had? We're dying to get it again.

Was it served with the slightly sweet sauce on it and mixture of bell and hot peppers, or was it just hot peppers?

If the latter, it might have been something like "dry chili pork".

Otherwise, I dunno. Although I also see "chilli pork" on the menu, so that's a possibility too.

I think it was slightly sweet with chili peppers.

another vote for the chili prawns mmmm

I finally went after reading all the posts for the last few months. We finally went to the one in Downers Grove last night. It was a boardline religous experence, we got the 3 Pepper Chicken (Chicken Crack!), Lamb with Cumin and the Crispy Shrimp in Mayonnaise sauce. I could barely walk after that and 2 of us still had leftovers. I could not recomend it more...it was great.

Though I have joined the LTH Forum only recently, I have been a big fan of Lao Sze Schwan for years. But I had never had Three Chili Chicken until today-chicken crack indeed! What a tasty dish. I had a day off and my wife and I went to Chinatown for lunch. I also tried the ginger squid appetizer for the first time, a super dish too. I love squid in all it's forms (I even have a cookbook that's strictly for squid) and this was light, scored, stir fried squid with a silky vinegar-ginger sauce, a few pea pods and sliced carrot. Wonderful.

In the past year, about once a month, I've been meeting up with a group of friends for Saturday morning breakfast- usually at a greek diner somewhere in town.

About a month ago, seeking a change of routine, I suggested that we skip an eggs and sausage plate in favor of a later "breakfast" at Lao Sze Chuan.

Reluctantly, they agreed, since it was my birthday weekend, I treated them to the incredibly tender Szechuan beef stew, Tony's 3 Chili Chicken, Shrimp with Mayo, and the incredibly savory twice cooked pork, and a great plate of vegetable fried rice.

When it came time for this month's plan, they were all unanimous that Lao Sze Chuan would be a good place to meet again.

I think they're hooked now, too.

Will - let me recommend the Deep Fried Chinese Bread for breakfast (or any meal):



Interior:



Served with Cinnabon frosting, for some reason. I've updated this and other snack-type items here:

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=16931

Cinnabon frosting? I think it's basically just sweetened condensed milk.

It is (tempered with additional sugar, and one time a distinct orange flavor, but this time not). In takeout, it just happens to look exactly like the extra containers of frosting Cinnabon gives out.

What's the deal with Lao Sze Chuan's liquor license? We were there today(another stellar meal, I had the fried shrimp appetizer which was outstanding) but when we tried to order wine which was on the menu they said they couldn't, maybe next month. My local Dominick's had to close their liquor department for a month once after they got busted for selling to minors. Anyone know the story?

trpt2345 wrote:What's the deal with Lao Sze Chuan's liquor license? We were there today(another stellar meal, I had the fried shrimp appetizer which was outstanding) but when we tried to order wine which was on the menu they said they couldn't, maybe next month. My local Dominick's had to close their liquor department for a month once after they got busted for selling to minors. Anyone know the story?

They readily offer the business card of a nearby liquor store who deliver direct to your table.

Hi,

They were selling liquor last week, though I have no idea what may have happened since.

Regards,

I'm not sure, but went there tonight with some friends who have been before (first time for me - finally!) and friend said that their license expired and they are waiting for the re-application approval.

Anyway, great meal. Six of us to share many things...chicken crack (re-ordered), lobster in sour pickle sauce (awesome, although messy to get past the shells), crispy eggplant & pork (re-order), bok choy, these green sprout things which were tasty, cumin lamb (yum), black pepper beef, umm...oh, and S&P squid to finish!

Great stuff, very nice staff, me very full.

Finally made it yesterday for lunch w/ a Buddy- my first foray to Chicago's chinatown in fact. My experience with "true" Szechuan cooking has been from the original grand szechuan restaurants in NYC and Lao did not disappoint.

We enjoyed Lamb w/ Cumin, Chicken Crack, Ma Pa Tofu, and Shrimp w/ Mayo.

Chicken Crack was awesome and perfect, but not all that distinctive, just an amazing, perfect dish. However, my favorite was the Cumin Lamb- reminded me of something from Cambodia by way of Morocco. Simply a spectacular take on Lamb and reaffirms my belief that legit asian food is the best in the world.

Mayo shrimp was a nice foil to the heat of the others (including the szechuan cole slaw) and the Ma Pa Tofu was standardly delicious- but I made the mistake or forgetting to add the pork.

Can't wait to head back and try the dry chili prawn, sour pickle octopus, and see if they have sour string beans w/ minced pork.

Thanks folks for such a great lunch!

Chico

eatchicago wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:Ma Po Tofu...just awesome. Not that I ever would, but I could make a meal out of this dish and some rice.

I would and I do, with regularity. LSC's Ma Po Tofu is one of my all time favorite winter "meals in a bowl".

I went to LSC-DG for the first time for dinner tonight. WOW!!!! I loved it. My companion just wanted some crab rangoon. It was good but similar to everywhere else. I ordered the Ma Po Tofu with the ground pork. It was a party in my mouth. The tofu was smooth and a tad sweet. The spike of the heat kicked in and countered it nicely. I actually groaned out loud, it was so good. That groan was enough for me to be asked for some of the tofu. She was making some noises also. We chowed and I still came home with half of the dish. It will be a staple in the future. Can't wait to try more. Thanks again, LTH.

Anyone find the chicken crack a little over-breaded and short on fowl? The flavor is top notch however. Also tried shrimp in mayonnaise sauce - delicioso - crispy and sweet. Egg roll was solid. Not sure it lived up to the lth hype for us, but will give another whirl, venturing into more of the menu.

Air Flow wrote:Anyone find the chicken crack a little over-breaded and short on fowl? The flavor is top notch however. Also tried shrimp in mayonnaise sauce - delicioso - crispy and sweet. Egg roll was solid. Not sure it lived up to the lth hype for us, but will give another whirl, venturing into more of the menu.

As an LSC aficionado and the originator of this thread...I'm not sure what the hype over the egg roll or mayo shrimp is...I've never had the eggroll there(it wouldn't occur to me to order one at LSC) and mayo shrimp is a Cantonese prep.; not saying they don't offer a good one(I'm not a fan of Cantonese mayo chicken preps so wouldn't order a shrimp dish, either)...but...this is LSC...why order eggrolls and Cantonese?