Capital Chinese

Dumplings, hot pot, beef roll, noodles and more

For as long as I can remember, people have been complaining about the dearth of good Chinese food in Madison. Every so often a restaurant comes along that makes people sit up and take notice — in the 1990s it was Temple Garden. More recently, the modest Hilldale eatery Hong Kong Wok was a fan favorite, until Hilldale shape-shifted and the restaurant never made the transition.

But the number, quality and variety in Madison’s Chinese restaurants are increasing. Terry Tao, a project manager with University of Wisconsin-Extension, has spoken to the Culinary History Enthusiasts of Wisconsin (CHEW) on Chinese regional cuisines. “There are definitely more choices and more variety,” says Tao. “Over the past decade, there have been more specialized regional foods introduced here, rather than just normal takeout.”

He notes that in China, not all regional cuisines are spicy. Northern and Western provinces tend toward more spicy heat, while the South tends toward milder, steamed dishes and clear broths.

Tao diplomatically refuses to say which Madison restaurants or dishes are his favorites. His advice: “Go to a restaurant and try it out. If you like it, keep coming.”

We at Isthmus have no such reservations. Here are some of our favorite Chinese dishes, most from relative newcomers on the scene. We agree with Tao, however: If you like it, keep coming.

Asian Sweet Bakery, the only Asian bakery in town, is the place for barbecued pork buns or, if you stop in around the Chinese New Year, dense, rich mini moon cakes. A favorite here, however, is the preserved egg congee. Congee, sometimes described as rice porridge, here is more of a soup. It makes a mellow, savory way start to the day, as well as a comforting lunch. The small ($4) is a generous bowl of rice and broth flecked with green onion and brown bits that look like mushrooms but are rich pieces of the preserved egg. It tastes like essence of hard-boiled egg yolk, but silky smooth.

Double 10 Mini Hot Pot on South Park Street is half do-it-yourself — diners cook soup at their tables, which feature built-in burners. Select a base broth ( I like the hot-and-sour Thai, if that doesn’t disqualify this from being Chinese food) — and a protein. Beef and chicken come frozen, sliced razor thin, and rolled into spirals. They cook rapidly as the soup bubbles away. A tray of add-ins from veggies to shrimp balls is delivered to the table; particularly fun are the guitar pick-shaped rice cakes. Grab more ingredients at what westerners would likely call the fixins bar — noodles, sauces, chunks of sweet potato and, most crucially, raw eggs, which can be cracked and stirred into the hot soup. Servings are generous; you’ll leave with another meal’s worth of soup.

Orient House (in the South Park Street restaurant row that also includes Ichiban and Chili King, all of which have many traditional Chinese dishes on their menus) has recently introduced “Northern Style Dim Sum.” An up-and-coming dish to try is called Beef Roll Cake, essentially a scallion pancake rolled up with thin dried beef slices. (Don’t order this takeout; it should be crisp off the griddle.) Opinions differ as to whether this is an L.A. street food invention or a version of the more traditional Chinese bing, a crepe roll-up stuffed with various fillings. This comes with a sweet sauce; try it with the soy ginger sauce that usually comes with dumplings.

Neighboring Ichiban excels at hot pot — here, the kind that comes already assembled and is only kept warm over a table burner. A favorite is the spicy fish with chili pepper sauce. The fish is white-fleshed, tender and flaky. The waiter will instruct first-timers how to stir up the contents from the bottom where there are loads of enoki mushrooms and crunchy bean sprouts. The heat is intense, but manageable. The pan-seared pea vine, a simple dish of fresh, glossy-green goodness, makes a nice companion.

At Hong Kong Station, across from the UW Fieldhouse on Regent Street, a real treasure can be found at lunch. The “rice with meat and vegetables” sounds prosaic, but it’s a confident dish that relies on a choice of five meats — roast duck, char siu (barbecued pork), salty crispy pork (pork belly), soy sauce chicken and cold steamed chicken (this can also be ordered as a two- or three-meat combo). With braised bok choi over rice, you don’t need more. I’m told this is a lunch item for pragmatic reasons: The meats usually sell out before dinner.

Go to Taigu in Middleton for homemade Shanxi-style noodles. They’re thick and slightly chewy, and come with a variety of toppings — from pickled cabbage, jalapeno and beef to a simple tofu and spicy scallion version, where the building heat is the star. There’s also a spicy pork belly dish with jalapeno and tofu that makes the best of its star ingredient, pork belly.

Taiwan Little Eats has steadily been adding items to its menu since opening in late 2017. Specializing in Taiwanese street food, this cozy counter-service spot on State Street excels at the rich, melty pork belly dish called braised Tainan pork, which comes served over rice with pickled radishes and other add-ons; this is a little eat with a big flavor. Tempura fish cakes are coated in a mildly spicy star anise-infused batter and deep-fried for a ridiculously habit-forming snack. You would be remiss if you left without trying the tea.

Near Woodman’s west is a small dining room called ZenZen Taste. It’s hard to notice, as it’s nearly unsigned, but it’s in the front of the Asian grocery J & P Fresh Market on Watts Road. ZenZen calls itself “Chinese Fusion,” but the heart of the menu is Sichuan, dishes made with lots of bright orange-red chili oil and numbing Sichuan peppers. Glutton bullfrog makes the menu, as does the Sichuan favorite shui zhu yu or boiled fish in spicy sauce. Also on hand is a ma po tofu that’s full of ground pork and more numbing heat from the peppercorns.

You may have noticed all these eateries are on the south or west sides. Wah Kee, the only restaurant here that is in any sense on the east side (it is, more properly, downtown) is known for its thin housemade noodles, but don’t overlook the Sichuan pepper shrimp. It’s a simple dish, with large shrimp that are perfectly crispy on the outside. The peppercorns have that slightly anesthetizing effect, and the final touch is fresh scallions. The shrimp are whole (heads on); the chef recommends eating the whole thing. Do! Order it with rice and the yu choi (greens) and oyster sauce. Once they were out of shrimp and made a wonderful tofu version, worth asking for.

But do you want noodles? The dish called wonton and gyoza lo mein goes there with two kinds of stuffed dumplings on a tangle of noodles. Ordering this lo mein style means the broth comes on the side in a separate bowl…. so if you just want noodles, there is nothing standing in your way.