Nice pics!

I believe I've already remarked how much I liked lunch. I guess my only disappointment is that I expected, not by Friday, but when I signed up, for a bigger crowd. Lao B really demands a large crowd to really go full throttle on the multiple "dim sum" and other bread-y things on the menu. Not a place for the carb conscience for sure.

Anyway, as to the boiled beef, I think things are getting slightly askew. What the waiter told us was that nobody ever ate the beef in a soup bowl. I think it was more a question of having it "plain" so to speak instead of leavened with some rice. In fact, just after the question of bowls, we were presented a bowl of rice to use for the beef. Like I say, I think the proscription was on the sauce straight, not the eating the sauce.

I will also add this, from a Chinese restaurants often don't necessarily think things through file: the beef was the first thing on the table. Generally speaking, at least the way I would normally want to eat, I'd want to start with the light greens, then move up to the medium weight bread-y items; peak with the boiled beef and then use the noodles to fill up. But that's just me.

Hope we schedule another lunch here soon.

He only brought a bowl of rice after I asked for one (per your suggestion). Not that it matters.

JeffB wrote:....so the imported chile oil condiment with prickly ash berries, chiles, peanuts and roasted soy beans that I ladle onto everything shouldn't be ingested? Or am I expected to tweezer out the ash/Sichuan peppercorns which, as in the boiled beef, have been steeping in the liquid forever, their pernicious essence permeating the condiment and the dish? Is it something about the physical husk of the berry that gets you? This is how the Chinese are going to overcome us. I knew it.

mtgl wrote:My college friends and I were known to have the broth packaged up to go, for later use in enhancing inferior dining hall meats back in the dorm.

I've never heard that Sichuan peppercorns were unsafe to eat--I think most residents of Chongqing would be surprised to hear that--but as China's a large country, widely varying opinions on food are to be expected.

Ha! I'll do my best to find out the details.

=R=

I have no scientific knowledge on the subject, but I do know that until recently (like the last 3 - 5 years) it was illegal to sell real Sichuan peppercorns in the USA. Could that advice be something left over from the "Days of Paranoia"?

teatpuller wrote:He only brought a bowl of rice after I asked for one (per your suggestion). Not that it matters.

No, I believe that was just a timing/language issue. They were bringing rice; it landed soon. And don't you remember that when my wife, the (other) Cookbook Addict, tried to communicate the "we need rice" thing, she received a can of Sprite.

stevez wrote:I have no scientific knowledge on the subject, but I do know that until recently (like the last 3 - 5 years) it was illegal to sell real Sichuan peppercorns in the USA. Could that advice be something left over from the "Days of Paranoia"?

Per Wikipedia:

From 1968 to 2005, the United States Food and Drug Administration banned the importation of Sichuan peppercorns because they were found to be capable of carrying citrus canker (as the tree is in the same family, Rutaceae, as the genus Citrus). This bacterial disease, which is very difficult to control, could potentially harm the foliage and fruit of citrus crops in the U.S. It was never an issue of harm in human consumption. The import ban was only loosely enforced until 2002. In 2005, the USDA and FDA lifted the ban, provided the peppercorns are heated to around 70 degrees Celsius (160 degrees Fahrenheit) to kill the canker bacteria before import.

The waiter was vehement when he said don't eat it. I've never had the dish before. I was only following orders.

I think the waiter was concerned we were going to treat it like a soup (we did ask for soupbowls to deal with it), and perhaps overreacted a bit. The sauce worked fine for me in moderation and over plenty of rice, although I certainly would be cautious about putting a straw to it and sucking.

We had a Lao Beijing-catered party for 24 this weekend. Put the order in on Friday for the Sunday event, picked in part since Tony and LSC crew are so busy with the Taste, and in the main because LBJ has handmade noodles and dumplings. Special requests were no problem, handoff ridiculously easy with the little unofficial loading zone right in back, experience value very high. We had for the meat-eaters:

- Tony's three chili chicken, pan
- orange beef tenderloin, pan
- pork and chive dumplings (the little homemade boiled ones), double order

and for the vegetarians:

- Korean spicy handmade noodles, prepared veg, pan
- cold spinach with Chinese mustard, half-pan
- vegetable pot stickers, pan

Worked out with them in person when I placed the order, this was exactly the right amount of food: every dumpling eaten, noodles devoured, and just enough beef and chicken (and crunchy dried peppers!) left for us for the next day's lunch. The vegetable pot stickers and the like-biting-into-a-clementine fragrant beef were new highs, and they didn't dumb down the chicken or freshly-prepared dipping sauces one bit. The spread received high praise from both experienced Lao eaters and total newcomers this type of Chinese cooking, and I think earned some new fans.

The last time I had the orange beef tender it was so crunchy it would shatter if dropped. Not crisp, crunchy (and very off putting). The anti-velvet. Did you find that @ all w/yours?

Jazzfood wrote:The last time I had the orange beef tender it was so crunchy it would shatter if dropped. Not crisp, crunchy (and very off putting). The anti-velvet. Did you find that @ all w/yours?

Anti-velvet does not sound good. I can picture what you mean, but this order was succulent.

1st time here on monday,i enjoyed it and will be back

black mushroon salad was outstanding,walnut shrimp was good,tonys pot stickers
crispy duck was not so crispy but tasted very good
took 2 grandmoms and they liked it

Ate here on the holiday on Sunday, and it was a disaster. All the food was exceedingly greasy (even items that aren't stir-fried, like Tony's pot stickers). The service was dreadful, and the restaurant was clearly unprepared for such a busy day. As I posted later that evening in the holiday topic:

nsxtasy wrote:We had a late afternoon dinner at Lao Beijing and it was a disaster. Yes, it was crowded and we had to wait to be seated, but that part was to be expected, no big deal. But we let them seat us upstairs where it was clearly the "B team" serving, two servers who were absolutely clueless and overwhelmed. Never got slaw, never got sauces with dishes that they normally accompany, waited almost half an hour while seated before getting any attention at all, were served our appetizers after the main courses, asked for things like water and never received them, etc. Once we got our food, it was generally good, although much of it was extremely greasy.

Maybe next year we'll do something other than Chinatown...

It appears Tony has succumb to over expansion blues- spread too thin w/o adequate team in place to run things in his absence. When they're on, they rival some of my favorite food in town. When they're not, and I had my first lesser experience @ Lao Hunan on Xmas eve as well, it's just so disappointing as we know the glories we hope for are not forthcoming and we'll never get that meal back. Lower lip protrudes into full on pout. Life's a bitch.

Stuff eaten this weekend at Lao Beijing was as good as I've always found it. As we are wont, we made our meal nearly entirely of the carb-y stuff including handmade korean noodles, dan-dan noodles, northern pancake, veg potstickers, cold spinach with mustard dressing, and chive pancake. You know, I could be clueless of the rest of menu as I would be content never ordering anything but that set.

We ended up upstairs because of a crowded room. I will admit that service was poor from a sense of attention to detail, the things that bothered the poster above, would have bothered again, but on the other hand, the two who handled us were vivacious and warm and liked us. Having to wave them down for some condiments did not deter my enjoyment at all.

My impression of Lao Beijing remains far from awful.

First visit today--definitely going back. Party of four, including a vegan.

Vegetable pot-stickers. Very tasty, nice sauces, non-greasy, lovely presentation.

Stir-fry tofu noodles with black mushrooms. Lots of nice chewy mushrooms and the noodles were interesting.

Sweet and sour fish filet. Yum. A guilty pleasure. We were told the fish was sole. It may have been. Wonderfully fresh.

Stir-fried eggplant, Beijing style. We pretty much were fighting over this and when the busboy tried to clear the plate with two tiny pieces left on it he almost lost a hand.

Some unexciting stir-fried duck dish--not sure what it was except that it wasn't the Steam Duck Beijing Style that our waiter was urging us to order and we would have if only I'd been in charge!

Food was excellent. Presentation was lovely. Service was the best I've had in Chinatown. Someone above mentioned an older waiter who was very good. I'd bet it was the same one we had, who told us his name was Michael. A great old-school waiter, confident in his recommendations, paying close attention to us, and joshing us along. He would have held his own in any steak house in the city.

Note for next time: We saw something delivered to the next table that looked almost like a burrito. It's apparently some sort of omelet, on the menu, item #1188, as "Famous snack, Tianjiang style." Looking forward to trying it, and so much more, on future visits.

Such a bad title for this thread. I went to LB yesterday, and I figured I'd check out this thread again, and I couldn't believe I have not posted in this thread yet. When I search for LB, I find my posts in other threads simply mentioning how much I like this place. I just needed to post in this main thread. I'm really loving this place, and it's getting tough to try anywhere else since Lao Yunnan has fallen out of my favor after the rebranding from Spring World (moment of silence, please.) What I absolutely love about LB is that, imo, you can order the Cantonese stuff and the Szechwan stuff with a decent amount of confidence. Yesterday, we ordered:
Szechwan dumplings - great!
Tony's special potstickers - soggy, filling tasted a little off to me - bad execution (the first timers LOVED them tho)
Dan Dan noodles - great!
sesame chicken - great!
egg drop soup - silly, but EXCELLENT!
hot sour soup - great!
wonton soup - EXCELLENT!
some standard stir fried thin noodle dish - great!
moo shoo chicken - EXCELLENT!

I wish everyone could have heard the two first timers moaning and groaning with pleasure with this stuff. Admittedly, it was one of those times where almost EVERYTHING was spot on, but the spicy stuff was excellent, and the sesame chicken was excellent - super crunchy outside, and tender inside. The glop level on the sauce can vary, but I can order this in confidence each time. The egg drop (not too gloppy at ALL, and they add a heavier dose of sesame oil than most) and wonton soup were the best I've ever had, anywhere. Period. And the moo shu is consistently the best I've had since I was a kid (it was one of the parents' Chinese food order staples.)

More on the wonton soup: It may have been a special version, I didn't order it, but it was a GIANT bowl, and it tasted like miso, (it had a bunch of seaweed in it, even) and it had 6 giant wontons in it -very mildly flavored, and I just absolutely loved it.

Yesterday's batch of szechwan red chile oil love was lacking in tongue numbing peppercorns compared to my other visits, but it still had plenty of oomph from other chilies.

I've definitely run into a few consistency issues here - especially with levels of soy sauce used. Sometimes the dan dan noodles are swimming in soy sauce along with chile oil, but for the most part, I'm in the middle of a year long love affair with Lao Beijing, and what makes it even hotter is that my wife is "into" it.

Chicago restaurateur Tony Hu has sold one of his Chinatown restaurants, Lao Beijing, to a longtime employee, both confirmed today. The restaurant, which opened in 2008 and is known for its encyclopedic menu featuring northern Chinese cuisine, changed hands Jan. 1, when it was bought by Cong Geng, 26.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/ ... ao-beijing

Not sure if the stars were just lined up correctly or what, but we had a fantastic meal at Lao Beijing Last night. After a day of beaching, and subsequently fighting through torrential rains, and Coldplay traffic, we dismissed our plans to try and get to 5 Rabanitos, and settled for the quicker Chinatown stop. Walked around the mall, thought about Cai, then thought about BBQ King, or Ming Hin, but settled on our usual of Lao Beijing - been a while - figured we'd check on their state of affairs. It was surprisingly empty considering the foot traffic and the fact that both parking lots we tried were full. Menu is pretty much the same. We did our standard: Dumplings, Egg Rolls, Dry Chili Tofu, Moo Shu Chicken, Dan Dan Noodles.

Everything was actually better than before. This'll still be my spot for a mix of Szechwan spicy/ and Mandarin tame (or is it Cantonese?) when we need that balance for a group.