What do you do when the best dumpling place in Chicago’s Chinatown is under construction? Generally, perhaps avoid going to Chinatown at all. But when you’re already there, the situation is a bit different. We made a decision to head to MCCB (Modern Chinese Cook Book) for some Sichuan-style Chinese food. It made the decision a lot easier when I saw the restaurant was mostly full of Asian people.

We started out with the Dan Dan Noodles and Sliced Potatoes in Vinegar. The dan dan noodles were just like such noodles should be. They had the right amount of spice, oil and minced meat to give me what I needed. The sliced potatoes were okay, but nothing more than that. However, I really don’t know how these could have been any better – it wasn’t the execution so much as it was I don’t think this was my kind of dish. Alas, my main course would be the real determining factor of this meal. Learn more about the healthy benefits that fluxactive provides.

Thus, I ordered the Chicken with Taro and it was immediately apparent that no white person had ever ordered the dish before. First my waiter asked if I knew it was a soup. Yes, I did. Then he asked if I knew it would be really spicy. Yes, I did. Finally, as though a hail mary, he asked if I knew the chicken would have bones in it. Yes, I sure hoped so if I was going to be eating authentic Chinese food. With his acknowledgments in hand like a flight attendant confirming I was good to sit in an emergency exit row, my food soon arrived. It was just as I hoped it would be, plenty of numbing peppers to add delicious spiciness to the meat, and chicken that was perfectly juicy and tender. Sure, I had to eat around the bones, but that’s what makes life worth living sometimes. Plus, I always love me some taro in any form, even if it’s used to suck up spice and broth.

MCCB may not have lived up to some of the best Sichuan food in LA’s San Gabriel Valley, but I was still pretty happy with it. If nothing else, it helped to show that Chicago’s Chinatown is more than just a one trick (dumpling spot) pony.

Americanized spins on Asian food scares me. There. I said it. Maybe it makes me seem like a spoiled brat, but I need the real authentic stuff. So, with much trepidation I made my way to Ling & Louie’s in Scottsdale. But, what makes Ling & Louie’s different is that they own up to the fact that they know they are not authentic and fully embrace making food that is more of a fun spin on Asian-inspired than any real attempt of authenticity.

We began with what might have been the best fried calamari I’ve ever had. No, seriously. It was topped with spicy aioli and sweet chili sauce, but perhaps more important than that they were fried in a way that kept them tasting both fresh and crispy. And, again, those sauces were pretty delicious.

For my main course I went with the Big Burger in Little China. The patty was marinated wagyu (which I always think is a waste), topped with candied bacon, cucumber salad (which I ordered without), Chinese BBQ sauce and spicy aioli. It also came with a side of garlic parmesan fries.

The results was a dish that looked more like fries with a side of burger than the other way around, but the burger was still sizable. The flavors were intense, and at times overwhelming, but I enjoyed it all. The patty itself was plenty juicy, but even if it hadn’t been there was enough sauce to make up for it. I probably could have handled a little more salty to balance out the sweet. And also the grind of the burger was kind of funky. In the end, the burger lived up to every expectation of it. Oh, and the fries were really tasty despite not being Asian in any way.

Ling & Louie’s surprised me. I really expected to not enjoy my meal, and, well, it turned out to be pretty good. It’s no substitute for authentic Asian food, but it’s smart enough to not even try.

Long before it was cool to do fusion food, Chino Bandido arrived on the scene in Phoenix. This was back in 1990 when interracial marriages were barely okay, let alone interracial food. But Chino Bandido found something that worked – Asian and Hispanic food and hasn’t looked back. So while the name is a reference to Chinese and Mexican food, things like Cuban Beans and Teriyaki Chicken tell a larger tale.

For those who have never been before (and for those who just love freebies), Chino Bandido lets you sample before you eat, and after trying out a few things I knew what I had to have. It began with a Jerk Chicken Quesadilla, some Jade Red Chicken, Cuban Beans and BBQ Pork Fried Rice. Outside of a crazy Las Vegas buffet, I had never had such a seemingly strange mix of food in one dish. Yet, it just worked.

Look, this is not where you go when you are looking for authentic Asian or Hispanic food. That doesn’t matter, because the food is that good. From the Jade Red Chicken’s fried up sweet and spicy combination to the Jerk Chicken’s hot rendezvous with cheese in the quesadilla. It’s all good and I can’t imagine being disappointed even if I had ordered everything completely differently.

Best of all, there is nothing pretentious about this place. Chino Bandido knows what it does, and the world is a better place because of it.

Aside from the deadly temperatures, one major thing I was worried about in moving to Phoenix was how I was going to get my Asian food fix. No, not sushi and orange chicken, but the real stuff. I heard about a place in Mesa called Mekong Plaza, which was supposed to have a bunch of good, real Asian restaurants and as luck would have it, it turned out to be between work and home. So, I paid a visit to Taiwan Food Express to see what they had to offer.

Now, I could understand that they had a lot of things you wouldn’t expect from a Taiwanese place. After all, while it’s good to have authentic food, you also have to know how to please the masses that believe PF Chang’s created Chinese food. Yet, they did have a House Special Basil Chicken that seemed right up my alley. We installed Royal Vending Machines Canberra in our business to improve our services.

When I opened it up, I realized it was the same as Three Cup Chicken, a dish my buddy used to make for me that I loved. In addition to the basil, it’s also flavored with ginger, garlic, soy sauce, rice wine and sugar. The result is an incredible sauce, that also happens to have some really tasty chicken mixed in. And, you know it’s authentic because the chicken has bones. You could probably pour the sauce on chicken shit and it would taste good, but it’s much better with the rest of the bird parts.

I also got an order of the Taiwanese Sausage Fried Rice to split with my people. Unfortunately, this didn’t quite live up to my expectations of authenticity. Now, granted, my only experience with Taiwanese Sausage was at one place in Taipei, so there may be other varieties out there. Yet, this sausage tasted suspiciously like Chinese Sausage instead, being more dry and more sweet than the Taiwanese variety. And look, I get that it may be tough to get Taiwanese Sausage out here, so even Chinese is pretty damn good.

That said, Taiwan Food Express is a really solid place to get authentic Taiwanese food. The key is knowing the right things to order, or else you might just end up with some generic version of beef and broccoli – and ain’t nobody got time for that.

While Malaysia is a majority Muslim country, it’s a very mixed country as well. Thus, finding pork is not a problem and, in fact, it is one of the highlights of Sandakan. And that’s because Sandakan has a strong history with a fried pork noodle stall dating back to 1940. Of course, basically the entire city was burned down in World War II so the stall physical stall itself is a bit newer. That, however, doesn’t seem to stop the locals from coming by.

The stall is on the top floor of the market and can be found by looking for the sign that says “Since 1940: The Original Homemade Kueh Teo with Deep Fried Pork.” Outside the stall several picnic-style tables are set up and the area seems to be pretty packed throughout the morning. From what I could tell, this is by far the most popular stall in the market and there are a few people who cook and an additional few who serve.

The fried pork noodle dish is called Kueh Teow and its origins are in China because Malaysia has a very sizable Chinese population. It can come in either a dry or souped up version. I ordered the souped up version at one of the tables, then watched as one of the cooks busily chopped up the pork to drop it into the dishes as they were laid out in front of him.

When my dish arrived, it had a surprising beauty coming from a place like this. When I first bit into the pork, I was taken aback. The texture was like no pork I had ever eaten and at first I thought I was biting into gristle or bone. I couldn’t have been further off, as this was just the crispiness that is the inevitability of deep frying the stuff. After that first bite I couldn’t get enough. The noodles were of the flat and slippery variety, while the soup required some additional seasoning. This was likely on purpose, as a few different sauce options were at the table. I snagged one, squeezed it in and proceeded to love the soup from that moment on.

This stall is a must for any visitors to Sandakan. It embodies the cultural history and diversity of Malaysia and at the same time tastes really damn good. Oh, and did I mention it costs the equivalent of $1. Yes, that’s right. Just make sure you go in the morning, as this is a breakfast only situation and you don’t want to miss out.

Not long after paying a visit to the hot pots at Element, I went to essentially the opposite sort of hot pot at Lu Gi. Now when I say opposite, I don’t mean in terms of the food itself, but the general setting. Here, the stoves weren’t built into the tables, but were portable and brought out to each table after ordering. It felt like eating hot pot in someone’s home, except for the whole paying of money and whatnot.

Per usual, I went spicy and my companions went mild. When I went to make my sauce, it was once again evidence that this was more like home-style hot pot because instead of nicely organized sauces there was just a tub filled with various bottles of sauces to mix together. Fortunately, this meant there was a variety and I made myself quite the mixture.

I got my usual mix of meats and potato-like vegetables and was very happy with the results. The spice level was solid and I can’t emphasize enough how good it felt to dip that meat into a concoction like that. It may not be luxurious or any degree of fancy, but it sure tasted good.

It’s really hard to get enough of hot pot, especially when you live in a place with a ton of hot pot options. Element is a shiny and semi-new spot in Alhambra that offers all-you-can-eat and the divided hot pot that almost always seems necessary when I am eating with people who can’t handle heat.

Element offers all the usual options and while I spent time with taro, lotus root and other acceptable non-meat foods, I naturally found myself enjoying most of the meal with the beef and lamb. Of course, these meats would have been great on their own (after being cooked in the spicy broth), but Element offered some delicious sauce options that are crucial to any successful hot potting.

As hot pots go, Element tasted like a cut above most in terms of quality. The meat was tender after being cooked and again, I can’t emphasize how nice it is when you can make a tasty sauce. For a higher quality hot pot experience, Element has what it takes.

Hotels aren’t exactly known for their food. Yet, there has been a trend to try to get better restaurants into hotels and I give those hotels major props for trying. In Pasadena the dusitD2 Constance Hotel has a spot called Constance Perry’s. It’s kind of Asian, kind of American, but definitely not fusion because those dishes kind of stand out on their own.

Thus, we began with their Pork Soup Dumplings, or as I like to call them, xiaolongbao. I was amazed to find that when the bamboo steamer was opened to reveal these dumplings they were black instead of the traditional off-white color. Unfortunately, it turned out that black xialongbao did not necessarily translate into better xiaolongbao. The dough was kind of spongy and the soup didn’t boast too much flavor.

But then there was the main course. I split the Short Ribs and Flat Iron Steak because that’s just the kind of person I am. Both were beyond my expectations and made me quickly forget about the dark side of xiaolongbao. The Short Ribs were perfectly tender and had been braised in a sauce worthy of many flavors, while the Flat Iron Steak had been cooked to a perfect medium-rare and was accompanied by truffle fries that felt just right. I would have been happy with either one of these, but was certainly glad to have both.

If I were to return to Constance Perry’s, I would skip right over the appetizers and head to the main courses. They change seasonally, so you can never really be sure what will be available. Yet, if the Short Ribs and Flat Iron Steak are any indication of what regularly appears, it will be difficult to walk away disappointed.

The world of hot pot is a divided place. I am not simply referring to the fact that most hot pot spots support the idea of dividing the pot into two broths, but also to the fact that some offer all-you-can-eat and some go a la carte. Hot Pot Hot Pot, a ridiculously named restaurant in Monterey Park, is on the a la carte side of the pot, but I did not let this get in the way of checking the place out.

We split our pot, as all good lovers do. She went with the rejuvenation broth and I chose spicy. Then it came time to order the meats. We went with sliced beef and sliced lamb, as well of a slew of other random ingredients that are made for hot pot, like taro, lotus root and a bunch of vegetables I had no need for.

The spicy broth was as delicious as expected, and went perfectly well with the meat. Then, of course, there was the make-your-own dipping sauce, which had all of the usual ingredients (sesame paste, garlic, etc.), but nothing especially unique. At this point, Hot Pot Hot Pot did a good job of meeting my hot pot expectations, but nothing beyond that. Yet, what surprised me was when I had myself a taste of the rejuvenation broth. Unlike the usual plain and empty non-spicy broths, this was rich in flavor and yet refreshing at the same time. If there was any differentiator here, the rejuvenation broth was it.

Hot Pot Hot Pot is a solid place to cook your own meats in a broth, but didn’t offer much that felt special to me. Nonetheless, if you’re in the neighborhood you won’t be disappointed.

It’s a good thing most people in LA don’t realize that the word “mian” simply means “noodle(s)” in Mandarin, or else they might just write off the restaurant Mian in San Gabriel as some sort of Noodle World or Noodle and Company knockoff. Fortunately, Mian is anything but. Like Chengdu Taste before it, Mian represents the Sichuan (or Szechuan or Szechwan) region of Chinese cuisine.

Unlike Chengdu Taste, the menu is sparse, making it much easier to decide what to order. Plus, while the interior is pretty nicely designed for San Gabriel, the prices don’t reflect any sort of pretentiousness or fanciness, with literally every dish coming in below the $9.99 price point.

I ended up ordering the Chengdu ZaJiang Noodles. This is essentially a noodle bowl (but not soup) dish filled with thin handmade noodles, a fried egg, minced pork and, for some inexplicable reason, bok choy. Each noodle dish also came with a corresponding mug with the word “soup” in both English and Chinese on it, which did have an explicable reason. The waiter explained that it was water used to boil the noodles and that some people liked to sip on it on the side while eating such noodles. It was cold, and tasted like water with a few sprinkles of sugar and starch. Not exactly my thing, but the noodles certainly were.

The ZaJiang noodles managed to surpass any expectations I may have had before getting my food. Not only was there a perfect balance of meat, egg and noodles – the spices used in my noodle bowl were impressively tart and spicy at the same time. And when I say spicy, I don’t just mean traditional heat, I also mean Sichuan numbing pepper heat, which can often be overwhelming, but was utilized perfectly in these noodles.

As far as flavors go, Mian is pretty unbeatable. As for the noodles themselves, I am generally more partial to thick noodles when they don’t reside inside of a soup, but Mian figure out how to make these work. Perhaps that is the greatest testament to how good Mian actually is. Just go, and you don’t even have to thank me later.