A penchant for General Tso's chicken

EATERY:

Excellent Dumpling House

LOCATION:

111 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10013

REVIEWS:

A penchant for General Tso's chicken a sweet and spicy deep-fried Hunan Chinese dish that is generally served in Chinese “American” restaurant can be a curse and a blessing. Cravings come without notice and restaurants serve very nonspecific chicken dishes, perhaps do to the fact that this dish is virtually unidentified in the China itself. Though highly popular in the States, and found practically in most Chinese dinning establishments the dish is virtually unknown in the Chinese province of Hunan. “One theory is that the dish was a classic specialty from Hunan province, invented by General Tso's wife and served for him and his officers upon every military victory, although this theory is generally considered to be apocryphal. Many sources claim it was introduced to New York City in the early 1970s as an example of Hunan and Szechuan-style cooking.” wikipedia.com No matter how this dish came about it is an American classic that is a staple in all our dinner routine. Today was my day when the hankering of General Tso hit, and having been disappointed by some of the eateries, I decided to use my handy dandy worldwide web to quench my thirst knowledge and restaurants. Excellent Dumpling House located on 111 Lafayette St, NY, NY, 10013, encircled by vendors, tourist and suits, may seem like a tourist trap but we discover it to be completely the opposite, here is what we discovered. The dumpling here are quite excellent, the chicken dumpling soup ($4.95) is a simple chicken broth with bok choy and handmade dumplings in thin wrappings. The casing is simple and the stuffing is made of chicken, carrots and green onions, making them sweet and savory (great for the cold season). As the soup warmed our bellies I couldn’t wait to get my hands on my Tso, but before that our seafood and pork rice noodles came, couldn’t quite tell what flavor it was but it was good, had a nice “Asian Noodle” taste. I suspected the usual, a little bit of soy sauce, a dash of fish sauce and a hint of MSG. Now for the good stuff, finally our dish arrived, the chicken was perfectly cooked salty and moist inside while the crispy battered outer shell was crusty but not stale/hard. The sauce had the right marriage of sweet, spicy and tart – I could die now. Is what I thought as I took my first bite. The Tso a “specialty” dish meaning they charge couple bucks extra, b/c people like me will order it no matter how costly. About $11 at Excellent Dumpling House is but well worth it, and besides everything else is cheapass all ranging from $3-$15.

RANTS & RAVES:

* 212-219-0212 * Takeout Available | Delivery Available * Delivery Payment: $10 minimum | Cash Only * Delivery Hours: Daily, 11am-9pm * Delivery Area: Battery Pl. to Houston St., FDR Dr. to West Side Hwy.

TAGS:

Chinese Happy Chinatown New York