China Village 1/16/10
We went to China Village last night and had a great meal:
Cucumbers with garlic sauce. Very good. The cucumbers don’t quite have the snap they do during the summer but still quite good.
One of the specials. Half an organic chicken with sesame wild chili sauce or something. Very good. I’m not sure what kind of chicken it was but it was definitely not your typical supermarket chicken. If I had to guess I would say it was an older bird. I’m usually not a fan of white meat but the white meat was very moist and flavorful. The meat had an intense chicken flavor. Interesting spicy sauce.
Ma Po Tofu with crab. The last time we ate here (last month sometime) we ordered the Ma Po Tofu with shrimp which was quite good and the owner (a very warm friendly guy) suggested that next time we should try the Ma Po Tofu with Crab. So we did. As soon as we tasted the crab we forgot about everything else on the table. It was so incredibly delicious that it was impossible to stop eating it. It struck me that this dish was the embodiment of why I like this restaurant so much. Fiery, flavorful, rich. The crab imparted the perfect flavor to the sauce. The tamale underneath the crab shell was also delicious. Went great with the seasame flatbread we ordered.
By Ridge
on Jan 16, 2010 07:26 PM
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I, stupidly, had sort of written off China Village after one just-OK meal there about a year ago, but decided to give it another try after reading your tempting description of the Ma Po Tofu with Whole Crab. We weren't disappointed. What a great dish--not one of the cheaper items on the menu (I believe we paid $25 for it), but a huge portion and totally addictive. Despite there being just the two of us, my wife and I nearly polished off the whole plate, along with other dishes. The spicy sauce, with hints of rich crab roe, is perfect for soaking every last morsel of rice with savory deliciousness--I must have downed about three bowls of rice with my dinner.
We also had the Village Special Lamb w/ Cumin, which I know hounds have a mixed opinion about b/c of its soft texture. I do prefer the version at Old Mandarin Islamic (with its nicely charred bits), but my wife actually liked this one better. In any case, we agreed that the flavors were spot on. Another addictive dish.
Had a plate of pea sprouts w/ garlic, too, just to balance out the meal. Nothing exceptional, but a solid plate of veggies, and it was nice to have something to offset the intense flavors of the other dishes.
I thought the service was above average for a Chinese restaurant, especially considering that it was a busy Saturday night. Place was packed.
So, in short, a new-found respect for China Village, and we'll be back again sooner than later.
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By an amazing coincidence, we went to CV just one day after "Ridge" (the OP), and I had just read his review. We go to CV several times a year and always order our favorites, rarely branching out.
This time, following the review, we ordered the Crab with Tofu ($24.95). It was the best crab dish I've ever had. It was very rich -- lots of oil. Fortunately there were nine of us at table to share it.
We also had the Lamb with Cumin and the pea sprouts (two of our favorites), as described above by "abstractpoet".
Among other dishes, we especially enjoyed the Charred Cabbage, sesame bread, West Style Fish. Another spectacular special (we've had it before): the "Tea Tree Mushroom" which comes to the table over a flame. Very intense mushroom flavor.
Mr. Yao, the genial owner, usually greets us and tastes some of our wine. But he was nowhere in sight. We asked about him -- turns out he was in the kitchen, cooking.
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China Village
1335 Solano Ave, Albany, CA 94706
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The mapo tofu crab is a great dish. Here's the photo I took two years ago.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniew...
Yes, Mr. Yao started his career in the kitchen. I've gotten some good cooking tips from him. Don't hesitate to ask him about Chinese technique, he's happy to talk about it when he has an interested audience.
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Has anyone had "Szechuan spicy boiled fish filet"? My favorite Szechuan dish is sometimes walled water boiled fish or swimming fire fish--it's fish, bean sprouts, dried mushrooms and tofu in an oily, spicy red sauce. Someplaces do kind of a halfass version, with just fish and lettuce or something like that. Anyway, does CV have this?
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China Village calls it Spicy Tofu with Fish Fillet. It's really tasty. Don't recall if it includes the other goodies you crave, but it is oily and wonderful. Much better than the bland version I just had in Missouri called "Sichuan Wonder Fish."
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Ok, I looked at an old menu and Spicy Tofu with Fish Fillet (sic) is in a soup base, though I'm sure there's plenty of hot oil floating on top with the chiles and pepper corns. The classic Sichuan water boiled dish is called Szechwan Spicy Boiled Fish Fillet, and that would be in more of an oily sauce base and much hotter. But I'm not sure that it has any tofu in it.
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You're right. And I just realized I also had water boiled fish at China Village a few months back. Pretty much the same as the water boiled beef. Definitely no tofu. I liked it as much as the beef. But I don't think it's much hotter than the Spicy Tofu and Fish Fillet soup, which has been pretty firey when I've had it. A totally different kettle of fish (sorry about that) from the West Style fish soup, which looks daunting, but isn't very spicy at all.
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Thanks! What I'm looking for is really is more of a soup--I should have said that. It sounds like the spicy tofu/fish is what I want, if water boiled fish is pretty much just fish.
Edit: I just remembered another thread where someone was looking for the same thing, and was also trying to avoid the plainer versions--he/she has a pretty good picture of it in his post:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/543873
I have no doubt that the CV spicy tofu/fish dish is delicious, even if it's not my perfect version.
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I went last week, and I'd recommend skipping the spicy tofu and fish,--it was pretty one-dimensional. Definitely not CV's best dish.
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Water boiled fish is a different dish than the Spicy tofu with fish filet, which do you want? China Village serves both.
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China Village
1335 Solano Ave, Albany, CA 94706
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