Backtracking a little bit to that previous weekend we were in Arizona. Since I never got to add more girth to my healthy looking muffin top by stuffing face at Pizzeria Bianco, we played it safe and ate Chinese food in an air conditioned restaurant near our hotel. I had a hankering for authentic Chinese food, but that’s extremely hard to look for if you’re a tourist. Searching through the phone book at our hotel room (I know, sooo 1980s), we looked at the names of each place…with words like Golden, Panda, China, Palace, Jade, Jasmine, Dragon, Phoenix, Lucky, Wok…. which one sounded authentic?
I always thought names with the word Wok sounded like fast food joints, so we stayed away from those. Panda sounded commercialized…like Panda Express. The rest of the words we could work with. So we hoped for the best when we went to Jade Palace.
We walked in. Nope…..tables, chairs and floor were too clean. Too fancy. Too many modern decorations that didn’t include dragons on the walls or pictures of the homeland. They were also playing country music in the background…that just confused me. The menu looked like a slightly nicer version of P.F. Chang’s. Since I like P.F. Chang’s (hey, I never said I didn’t like American Chinese food), and we were already seated, so we went for it.
We ordered the chicken lettuce wraps for an appetizer. They only came out with two lettuce cups, and the server filled them for us with a mixture of chicken, water chestnuts, and scallions, and a side of hoisin sauce. Very very yummy, with just enough wok hay. Though a bit on the greasy side.
Hunan Beef – beef stir fried with peppers, chili and black bean sauce. Very flavorful, though a little salty for me. Almost overpowering. It was better when it came straight out of the kitchen sizzling hot, more so than as leftovers in our hotel room.
Sweet Pungent Shrimp – one of the dishes in the Specialties section. It was sweet and pungent with a hint of chili, like the waitress said it would be. After eating a few of them, even combined with the white rice, it was as though I were eating candy coated shrimp. Again, good straight out of the kitchen, but not as it cooled down and the sauce became more like a syrup.
Baby Bok Choy sautéed with garlic – You can’t go wrong with this in any restaurant. It provided a good contrast from the overwhelming spices and seasoning from the other dishes. I think I drank 2 gallons of water after this meal from the overdose of sodium. Or it could’ve been from the heat.
9160 East Shea Boulevard
Scottsdale, AZ – (480) 391-0607
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