"I love shrimp with gralic sauce. Get some of that."
"Sour taste cabbage? Or triple delight? What do you suppose that is?" she asked, and smiled. I responded, mind soaking in the gutter, and we giggled like kids hearing their first dirty joke.
"Oh, wait. What about this?"
She pointed and I followed her finger down, running across the slick surface of the laminated menu to the cuminum cyminum flavored beef. It took me a second, reading over the four words (eight words if you counted the cuminum cyminum flavored lamb just below) and cocking my head like a dog hearing a strange sound, a word other than its name. My lips moved, trying to wrap around the strange, almost Latin clusters of consonants and vowels, going finally phoenetic.
Cumin...cinnamon...beef...? Cumin-cinnamon beef.
"Oh, yeah. We gotta order that."
Misspellings don't make for an authentic Chinese restaurant. Great dishes do. And China Jade has enough of those to rank as one of the best Chinese restaurants in town.
Don't believe me? Don't think that some little strip-mall joint in east Aurora has what it takes to go the distance? Read this week's review, then go to China Jade and order some "pork food" or "meat bans" of your own.
China Jade was so good that I had to revisit another favorite Chinese place, Chopsticks China Bistro, just to see which was better. I'm having trouble deciding; I'll have to eat at both again. And again.
In the meantime, just in case you're not interested in Chinese pig's trotters, there's news in this week's Cafe section about other restaurants. PrimeBar, for example, which opened last Friday and already has a new chef, Carl Klein. I also have an update on Hospoda, the Czech restaurant/bar I reviewed three weeks ago, which is expanding its menu and adding a patio.
Grab a paper tomorrow or come back here to read all about it.
