Spring World 4/29//10 at 12:00pm

Okay, after a discussion with some fellow LTH'ers at lunch today we decided we needed to try Spring World where some of us (like me) have never been. I always tend to go to Shui Wah or LSC when in Chinatown at lunch time so it's time to expand my horizons. I'll keep this at eight people as I don't think they could handle more and from what I've read, don't bother coming if you want white glove service. However if you want good inexpensive food from their column A - B menu join us.

Spring World
2109 S China Pl
Chicago
312-326-9966

1.) mbh
2.) boudreaulicious
3.) petite_gourmande
4.) pairs4life

Wouldn't miss it. No white gloves necessary. In fact, latex would be fine

You're in, maybe they have Gary's chili oil to tide us over.

mbh - So glad you started this post. I am so in.

...unless a persnickety event interferes.

..unless a persnickety event interferes.

Okay, no persnickety events that day.

Looks like I can attend. I've not seen the A & B menu offerings

Great, you're in.

Just a reminder about lunch tomorrow, noon at Spring World.

Looking forward to it!! I'll probably drive so if anyone needs a ride, let me know.

mbh wrote:Just a reminder about lunch tomorrow, noon at Spring World.

Looking forward to it all week. See you tomorrow.

boudreaulicious wrote:Looking forward to it!! I'll probably drive so if anyone needs a ride, let me know.

Thanks for your generous offer. I may take you up on it, depending on my schedule.

So far, nothing is standing in the way.

I look forward to it.

Nice trip to Spring World today with Petite_Gourmande, Pairs for Life and mbh. Highlights of the meal for me were a few appetizer bar selections (porky/tendony strips (PG--help?), lightly sour bamboo shoots and a bit more assertively pickled tiny green bean pieces with pork), twice cooked pork, ma po tofu, spicy cabbage and baby bok choy. Even the Hot and Sour soup was fine--not overly sour but not bland or sticky slick like some versions. My only complaint was a bit of an odd one--the rice was kinda chunky---tasted like it might have been sitting for a bit...

Capped off the meal with decadent egg custard pastries from Happy Chef (thanks PG). This being my first vist, I think Spring World is a terrific value--this was A LOT of tasty food for $11!! Looking forward to future trips through columns A & B!! Thanks to mbh for organizing

boudreaulicious wrote: Highlights of the meal for me were a few appetizer bar selections (porky/tendony strips (PG--help?), lightly sour bamboo shoots and a bit more assertively pickled tiny green bean pieces with pork)...

My only complaint was a bit of an odd one--the rice was kinda chunky---tasted like it might have been sitting for a bit...

Thanks to mbh for organizing

Yes, thank you, mbh, for taking the initiative and organizing this.

I agree with B, the hightlights were the cold appetizer plates, we had 2 plates:
- Veg plate: crispy and refreshing pickled cucumber, pickled bamboo shoots, and seaweed salad
- Meat plate: Szechuan sliced beef and maw, Szechuan pig ears, and the diced long green beans with ground pork.

We had both dishes of pork belly, twiced cook and the salt cooked, and they were wonderful. The pork belly were sliced perfectly thin for tenderness, but with enough body. The ratio of lean meat to layers of fat was just right. I've had it on occasions at some places where the pork belly was sliced too thick and if too much fat, and even worse, undercooked...not good..not good at all. Almost enough to turn me off bacon, almost.

As B mentioned, the rice tasted like leftover dry and clumpy rice. I can live with that given the pork belly and the cold appetizer and the minimal charge.

Sorry it took me a couple of days to get around to posting this, I'm busy putting my plumbers children through collage.

I must say this place performed above expectations, it has to be one of the best $4.95 lunch specials around. Many thanks to p_g who showed us how to order the appetizer buffet and threw around a little Chinese to help out. I'm a true carnivore so I loved the Szechuan sliced beef and maw, Szechuan pig ears, and the diced long green beans with ground pork. The pigs ears were wonderful and crunchy, I believe I finished off the plate and the long beans were pickled which upped the flavor for me. I skipped the soup because of the poor reviews here and concentrated on the piggy parts. For my A/B choices I went with the salted panfried pork which were pork belly strips cooked just enough so the meat was tender and the fat was melty goodness and I agree with p_g that it was sliced just right. B was the spicy bok choy which was very good, but not much different from a dozen other places. The greens were a good foil for the richness of the pork. The surprise for me was pairs4life's tofu, which she said was one of the best she's ever had, I defer to her expertise and I have to say it was creamy, slightly funky and way better than I expected it to be. All in all an great inexpensive lunch capped off by some delicious egg custard tarts p_g bought us from Happy Chef.

mbh wrote: The surprise for me was pairs4life's tofu, which she said was one of the best she's ever had, I defer to her expertise and I have to say it was creamy, slightly funky and way better than I expected it to be. All in all an great inexpensive lunch capped off by some delicious egg custard tarts p_g bought us from Happy Chef.

So here's the deal, I don't eat animals, but I don't have a love of tofu or broccoli (apparently every other vegetarian in the world adores these 2 items). That said, my husband, an omnivore adores Ma po tofu. Me, ehh, I can just eat vegetables & rice. That Ma po tofu was exquisite.

As in I could definitely eat that once a week. Heck I came home & googled for recipes but didn't come up w/ any that had cumin &/or some sort of anise (that's what I kept tasting).

The food was great, but I will admit, as usual when with LTHers the company was even better.

Oooh, did I mention my love of the pickled bamboo shoots (I need to know how to do that as well). Those I could eat by the buckets & I'm not known as a lover of anything pickled.