after dinner sneeze

t says:  I’ve fallen behind on posting … so let’s bring us up to speed on two nearby Asian fooderies, lightning round style …

Szechuan Hunan:  Jo Jo’s Place (i.e. “Jo Jo Pwace”) was our favorite Chinese delivery.  The fried chicken in General Tso’s was crisp.  The shrimp was perfect (i.e. not overcooked – amazing!).  They delivered at lightning speed (i.e. 20 mins)!  But then … they started sucking … big time.  Overcooked broccoli.  Fishy-smelling shrimp.  Cardboard-esque chicken.  Even the white rice was bad!  Well – enter Szechuan Hunan!  Props: Solid no-frills Chinese takeout.  Gone are the sins of Jo Jo.  g’s faith in Shrimp with Broccoli in a White Sauce is restored (it’s not on the menu – just ask for it)!  Slops: They don’t deliver as quickly as Jo Jo – but 40 mins isn’t actually that bad, right?

Wa Joe:  On Chestnut was Korean restaurant called Miran.  On one hand, g, dz, smn, and I were not that sad to see it go, as the previous manager was a tiny bit … curmudgeony.  But the food was a notch above mediocre (i.e. “solid”) and reasonably priced!  The four of us each enjoyed our dishes [despite the obvious reverse discrimination] so much so that we wanted to go back … except this time, it wasn’t called Miran anymore.  It was called “Wa Joe”.  It was opening week.  It was game time …  Props:  Everything was nice and clean and sparkling new.

Brand new table-top grill (underneath the gleeming cover).

And, in classic Asian restaurant style, there’s a blatant typo … on the cover … can you spot it?

Something is misspelled.

The kimchi was pretty good – the right balance of spice and sour.  The haemul paejun was decent, as was the dukbooki.  Slops:  The service was horrendously inept (e.g., refusal to refill water in a timely manner … even when asked; they dropped our takeout container onto the floor … and still gave it to us to use).  There were only 3 banchan – ONLY THREE!!  ha would have a fit had she been there.  And, the dealbraker: the dolsot bimbimbap was quite bland – no matter how much of the special sauce I used. … which is surprising … because a bland dolsot is like a knife to my Korean heart.  Maybe it was opening weekend jitters?  I don’t know.  Lunch Time Eats liked Wa Joe quite a bit – maybe they just happened to order the right dishes?  Regardless, I’ll have to disagree with them and say that I would gladly go to Rotisseur any day over Wa Joe!

Only 3!!!!!