Down at the bottom of Squirrel Hill is Chinese spot called Chengdu Gourmet. I heard rumors that it could produce some real Chinese food, so I went down with a wife and a friend to see just how true this was. It turned out the place has both a traditional Chinese menu and an American Chinese menu, so we ignored the latter.

We began with an order of Dan Dan Noodles (pictured above), which were pretty stellar. They had a ton of flavor with a fair amount of minced pork to go with them. They didn’t have peanuts, which is something I usually like, but they weren’t missed here.

Next we had the Shredded Beef, which was essentially thin strips of beef with even thinner strips of green peppers. There was a slight kick to this that I enjoyed and the beef was tender and damn flavorful.

Then we had the Diced Chicken with Dried Pepper Chengdu Style. This was definitely the type of dish I had seen in Sichuan, coming topped with loads of dried chilis, but only to give it a nice flavor assuming you don’t actually eat one of the peppers. The chicken was also pretty tender, boneless and not crisped up like you might often see in such a dish (but that just means it’s Chongqing style instead of Chengdu).

Finally, we had the Chicken with Basil, which was recommended after my wife asked for a chicken dish with veggies that wasn’t spicy. It turned out that this dish only had veggies if you count basil leaves as veggies. So basically it was perfect for me. The chicken came in a clay pot and had a great sweet flavor to it that wasn’t overpowering and was a good way to balance out the spicier dishes.

I left my meal as a big fan of Chengdu Gourmet; through the three dishes and dan dan noodles I definitely felt like I had eaten something pretty authentic. It’s been a while since I lived in China, but the traditional Chinese food was undoubtedly good and I see no reason to try out the American style. Just make sure you’re careful what you wish for when it comes to veggies.

Growing up near Detroit and then living in LA, I must admit I have been spoiled by good delis. Thus, when I moved to Pittsburgh I was shocked to learn that apparently the deli scene was pretty terrible. Because of this, it took me nearly two years to get to Smallman Street Deli – the biggest Jewish Deli in town.

They make their own pastrami and corned beef and whatnot, so I ordered their Signature Sandwich with pastrami. It also came with mustard, on specialty rye. Instead of mustard I ordered Russian dressing and also asked for a slice of Swiss cheese on the sandwich. It was served warm and with a stupid pickle that I promptly removed (in defense of Smallman’s, it was listed on the menu and I forgot to order without). As for the pastrami, it was pretty different from the Jewish pastrami I’m used to, which is typically similar to corned beef with an extra spiced rind.

But in this case, different was good. It had some really solid flavor that went well with the bread, cheese and dressing. A thicker cut would have improved the sandwich by adding some nice texture to the meat, but overall I couldn’t argue with the flavor.

In general, it wasn’t the most impressive deli because at the end of the day I want some pastrami that leaves me thinking about it days later, but it’s also not bad in a pinch.

It’s no secret that Squirrel Hill is the heart of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community. Typically such a place would be froth with delis, bagel shops and falafel, but not Squirrel Hill. Sure, some of those places exist, but not like one might expect. Luckily, though, this has left room for a new type of Jewish restaurant, called Nu. Calling itself a “Modern Jewish Bistro,” Nu means “well…?” in Yiddish and came into town at the end of last year from the people who brought the world Pamela’s. Since then, it has set about redefining Jewish food. After all, it’s time for a creative take on tradition.

Fortunately for those who don’t know Jewish food, Nu has definitions posted on the walls for all sorts of items that appear on the menu. And the items should all be familiar to Jews, but with slight twists. For example, we started out with their Latke Tots and Mummy’s Meat Blintzes. The Latke Tots were like traditional Jewish potato pancakes, but somehow prepared like a tater tot and absolutely awesome. However, they could have been even better if served with apple sauce instead of sour cream. Then the blintzes, which are like a Jewish crepe typically filled with ricotta-like cheese and fruit, had the lovely twist of being stuffed with brisket. Again, delicious.

As for my main course, I ordered a little sandwich called T.O.M. This guy was served open-faced with “nice” challah as the base and topped with slow roasted brisket, grilled Kishka (a wide type of sausage usually filled with beef and some sort of grain as filler), and gravy. No word on what “nice” meant, but I assume it was like a “nice Jewish boy.” It was a delicious sandwich, however, when I ordered it I asked for my pickle and cole slaw to go to my wife and the waitress failed to do so. Fortunately, both were far removed from the real food (with the slaw being served in a Chinese take-out box) and I was able to pass the unwelcome food over.

Perhaps the coolest thing on the menu was what my wife got. It was called the Reuben Knishwich, which was a reuben sandwich stuffed inside a traditional knish pastry. A knish is usually just stuffed with potato, but this may have blown the potato away. The only trouble was that sauerkraut was mixed up inside and difficult to avoid. Yet, if I had ordered for myself I like to think that could have been avoided.

I was pleasantly surprised with my experience at Nu. Growing up with food like this and seeing a new take on it was quite nice. And although any instance where you would expect bacon was replaced with crispy chicken skin, Nu is not Kosher and has no trouble mixing dairy with meat. It’s a real mitzvah.

How do you know if an ethnic restaurant is authentic? You look inside and see if people resembling that ethnicity are inside. Or, better yet, you let one of them take you there. At least that’s how it went down for me when a Taiwanese friend of mine invited me to Rose Tea Cafe in Squirrel Hill (supposedly the Oakland location isn’t as good) to get some Taiwanese food. Rose Tea Cafe isn’t just some tea house, it’s a full-on restaurant with almost too many options to choose. So we turned to my friend to figure out what to get.

We started out with an appetizer of Taiwanese Sausage. This sweet sausage was served with totally raw slices of garlic that burned when eaten, but nonetheless seemed to pair well with the sausage. My buddy said this was more of a dish to go with beers, but I enjoyed it as a gateway to a full meal nonetheless.

Next we had Shredded Pork with Dried Bean Curd. I always find it funny when menus do a direct translation of “doufu” to bean curd when we Americans simply call it tofu. Alas, this dish was good, but nothing totally special. Perhaps it was because of the high tofu-to-meat ratio or perhaps because it simply paled in comparison with the other two dishes we ordered.

One of these superior dishes was Short Ribs with Spicy Sauce. These had a black pepper seasoning as an option as well, but spicy sauce just sounded so much better. And these were quite good. The sauce itself was pretty awesome, and the short ribs were served all sliced up with the bones in. They tasted like they were fried, so they were cooked pretty thoroughly, but they were still pretty tender and really just had an amazing flavor.

Finally, my favorite dish was the Taiwanese Chunk Chicken. Like the short ribs, this was a spicy dish, but the flavors in this dish were unbeatable. In addition to the spice, the chicken was tossed with full cloves of garlic that compounded the fact that I would not be getting any kisses that night, but also took the flavor up a notch. The only downside, and I hate to say it, was that there might have been too much garlic. I know, sacrilege. But seriously, I just would have appreciated a higher chicken-to-garlic ratio. That’s all.

Rose Tea Cafe was a pretty great foray into Pittsburgh’s Taiwanese food. According to my buddy, it’s the best he’s had so far and until he tells me otherwise I’ll be heading back to Rose Tea Cafe next time I get the Taiwanese urge.

You know how some restaurants don’t seem to have an identity? You know, like Jack in the Box but in full restaurant form. Well, Sun Penang in Squirrel Hill is one of those restaurants. The only identity it really has is “Asian,” but Asian covers a lot of groups and so does Sun Penang. From Thai to Dim Sum to Malaysian, it is a hard place to choose a meal, but choose I did.

For some reason I was feeling the Thai part of the menu and ordered myself some Curry Chicken with Potato and my wife felt more Chinese and went with Beef and Broccoli. My curry was of the red variety and also came with cilantro, while her dish came with exactly what it said it came with, but she had them add water chestnuts, which I find much more acceptable than broccoli.

The result? Maybe it’s better to stick to one thing and do it well. While the dishes were certainly beautiful, they seriously lacked in flavor. This is not to say that they tasted bad. In fact, there can be nothing negative said about the flavor because it really wasn’t there. Perhaps we were there on an off day, but the name of the game on that day was bland and with so many other options in the area, bland isn’t something worth returning to.