Must Try Dishes at Zoe's

[scratchie]

Inspired by the chowhound boards, some friends and I have formed a group to sample some of the more authentic Chinese restaurants in the area.

Last month we tried Qingdao (A++! I've been back once since then already). Next week we're going to try Zoe's.

What are the dishes we should make a point of trying?

[hckybg]

I am a huge fan of their Chongqing Chicken. I have never had a bad experience--it has a good mix of dry peppers, nicely crispy dark meat chicken, and not too much oil. It is one of my favorite entrees in Boston. I also really like their Ants on a Tree, which they call Bean Starch Noodle with Pork. I have also always been happy with their cumin lamb and ma po tofu. Lastly, some of the cold vegetable sides are good--I prefer the spicy cucumbers over the lotus root.

[chickendhansak]

Another vote for the Chongqing Chicken. A more extreme version is their "dry diced chicken with hot peppers", which has even more hot peppers and (in my unscientific opinion) less chicken.

I also like the hot and sour sliced potato with chili peppers.

[hckybg]

I forgot the two best parts of the Chongqing Chicken, both of which really make the dish: peanuts and, best of all, big pieces of garlic, fried crispy.

[jgg13]

Love the garlic in there

[greenzebra]

I like the mapo tofu at Zoe's, I think it is one of the more consistent dishes there.

[scratchie]

Small group last night. We wound up ordering:

Dan Dan noodles - very good.
Chongqing Chicken - Superb
Lamb with Cumin - good, but I liked it better at Qingdao, where it was a little less oily, and (sacrilege!) cooked a little more.
Hunan Pork with shredded peppers - I forget the exact name. This was off the "new specials" menu. Very good. Not too hot although there were some very hot green peppers mixed in with the bell peppers.

Service was excellent (friendly and helpful).

I'll have to make it a point to try the ma po tofu the next time I go there. I used to get that (or something like it) from this little hole-in-the-wall Chinese place on Highland Ave in Somerville, about 20 years ago.

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Zoe's
289 Beacon St, Somerville, MA 02143

[autopi]

question on the cumin lamb--did they use freshly ground cumin (very pungent) or powdered? last time i had the dish there, it was with the powdered, and i thought it was good but would have been great if they had used the fresh ground cumin.

do try the ma po tofu, it's my favorite version in the vicinity. (don't get it at wangs, though--i tried that once and it was a big gloppy mess.)

[scratchie]

It wasn't super-pungent, so I'd say they used the powdered.

I forgot to mention that we also had won ton soup, which was perfectly serviceable. The won tons were nicely done, "al dente".

[chickendhansak]

Zoe's takeout last night included the Chongqing Chicken which was excellent as always, but maybe just a little bit better than usual.

Also ordered the bean-starch noodle with hot and sour sauce appetizer which effectively is a noodle soup. Very, very tasty and spicy.

[hckybg]

We had the Chongqing chicken last week at the restaurant and also thought it was even better than its usual "excellent." And I, too, was really impressed with the won ton soup. I don't usually expect much and am not sure I had had it there, but found the broth nice and rich and agree the won tons had a really nice texture, a mix of chewy and firm bite.

[enhF94]

"chong-king" or "chong-ching," or please, something else?

[hckybg]

Good question--it's the latter ("ch"). But it always helps to point to it on the menu because the servers tend to record the dishes in Chinese. I once got a new server who gave us what appeared to be Kung Pao chicken instead, maybe because of however he translated what I said (I hadn't shown the menu)?

[Parsnipity]

I really liked the dan dan noodles- also, $4 gets you about 3/4 lb of noodles. The ma po tofu was flavorful but extremely salty. I actually took most of ours home and basically used it as a sauce on top of plain stir fried eggplant in order to be able to eat it. This may be another sign of the oft-mentioned inconsistency.

As delicious as the chicken itself in the chongqing chicken is, I don't find this to be a dish I'd order again. As others have mentioned, between the heat and the chewiness of the piles of dried chilis, you end up leaving 1/2 the dish on the plate. Anyone have a suggestion for a dish where the chicken itself is similar but an average person will eat the whole plate?