I've decided to begin a new series. Instead of a drawing theme like the Game of Thrones drawings, this one will be about food. I'll basically be reviewing some Chinese restaurants in my area.
The Kung Pao Test
What is the Kung Pao Test? Just something I made up. I was taught that Kung Pao can be considered one of the most basic of Chinese stir fry dishes. I learned how to cook stir fry through learning to make Kung Pao and later experimenting with it. Considering what I was taught, my theory is that eating a restaurant's Kung Pao Chicken is a good way to get an understanding of the restaurant overall. This is mainly just for fun, and a reason to go out and eat a bunch of Chinese food in my area.
My father is a great cook, and I grew up eating a great variety of food. I was lucky. He often made stir fry and one of his favorite dishes was Kung Pao chicken, the recipe for which he get from our favorite restaurant. This recipe called for chicken, scallions, bell peppers, sometimes onion, peanuts, dried chilis, and a basic soy sauce base sauce. IT was mostly a dry stir fry, the sauce is very light and just to provide specific flavors, not to sauce it up or change the consistency. This is the Kung Pao I was introduced to. Since then, I've had a good variety of Kung Pao versions. Some have celery, some have carrots, some are very saucy, some have no veggies at all. They seem to actually very rarely have bell peppers, which to me are a normal defining feature.
Can any of this be used to judge/compare/or gain a general opinion about a restaurant? Hopefully I'm about to find out. Will my plan of going around to a bunch of Chinese restaurants and eating Kung Pao yield any results beyond a notch on my belt?
Let's find out. Maybe I'll even draw a picture or two.
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