Authenticity

Desert Jade Restaurant ranks a 2 on my authenticity scale. The menu had a wide range of Asian dishes, but many were Americanized dishes such as Kung Pao Chicken and Hot and Sour Soup. While the Desert Jade Restaurant did have some authentic Chinese food, it was very a small portion of the menu. Their most popular dishes were  Chop Suey and Egg Foo Young, which are Americanized Chinese food.

Here are some of the dishes I tried…

Tangerine Chicken

Photo by: Evie Carpenter

The Tangerine Chicken was a twist from Orange Chicken, a common Americanized Chinese dish. The chicken was sliced into thin pieces, which was then mixed with peppers, chives, and slices of tangerine. It had a slightly different taste—the sauce from the tangerines made the dish sweet and tangy. The sauce was what made the dish—it gave the chicken flavor. However, it was very similar to Orange Chicken, that this dish wasn’t very memorable.

Desert Jade Chow Mein

Photo by: Evie Carpenter

The Desert Jade Chow Mein was one of the house specials. It included chicken, pork, shrimp and broccoli. The Desert Jade Chow Mein used thin Chinese noodles that were made from eggs. Chow Mein is a crispy, stir-fried noodle dish that can be prepared in a variety of ways. This dish was prepared similarly to Chow Mein dishes served at westernized Asian restaurants.  The quick explanation: the noodles are first boiled and then stir-fried in a wok. After that, various ingredients are added, such as meats and vegetables, and then stir-fried together.

Atmosphere

At first, when one walks into the Desert Jade Restaurant, it presents itself as an authentic Asian restaurant. There were antique, Asian styled chairs that were placed in the waiting area, a fish tank filled with Bubble Eye Goldfish, as well as a hostess table filled that had mints and toothpicks.

However, once one walks into the eating area, the restaurant transforms itself into a modern, romantic setting. The lights are dimmed and instead of having traditional Asian table settings, people are seated in booths, tables and chairs that are lined with a velveteen-type material.

Overall Recommendation

The Desert Jade Restaurant receives a 3 out of 5-star rating because it was not a truly authentic Asian restaurant. The atmosphere of a restaurant is an important aspect of authenticity for it sets the mood and tone of the dinner and what the restaurant represents. While it did serve some traditional Chinese dishes, the overall experience at this restaurant has yet to live up to the authenticity of other traditional Asian restaurants.

Desert Jade Restaurant is located near the intersection of East Indian School Road and North 32^nd Street.

What do you think of Desert Jade Restaurant? What dishes did you like? Dislike? Leave a comment below!

Authenticity

The Gourmet House of Hong Kong receives a 3 on my authenticity scale because it contained mostly traditional Chinese dishes. Their menu offers a wide variety of Chinese dishes that most Asian restaurants omit from the menu such as soups and congee, fresh seafood dishes and desserts.

Here are some of the dishes that I tried…

Cabbage and Carrot Soup

Photo by: Evie Carpenter

Cabbage and carrot soup is a traditional soup that is not commonly served at Asian Restaurants. This simple dish is usually cooked at home where cabbage and carrots are chopped and put into a boiling pot of water. By boiling it, flavors from the cabbage and carrots are infused with the hot water. There is no need for special spices to be added because the cabbage and carrots are enough to give the soup a light, salty, yet healthy taste to it.

Moo Goo Gai Pan with Chicken

Photo by: Evie Carpenter

This dish is a traditional Chinese dish where specific vegetables are mixed with a type of meat—usually chicken, beef, or pork. Moo Goo Gai Pan translated roughly into English is: mushroom, “moo goo,” and chicken slices “ gai pan.” This means that slices of chicken are stir-fried with vegetables such as mushrooms, carrots, snow peas and Chinese cabbage. Depending on how each chef prepares this dish, they will choose to either use a light soy sauce to finish off the dish or a chicken broth-based sauce.

Shanghai Noodle with Chicken in Szechwan Sauce

Photo by: Evie Carpenter

Shanghai Noodle with Chicken in Szechwan Sauce provided a different take on the popular, traditional Chinese dish – Shanghai Fried Noodles. Usually cooked with thick cu mian noodles, The Gourmet House of Hong Kong made this dish using thinner noodles and adding a spicy Szechwan sauce instead, adding an extra kick of flavor.

Mangoes with Sweet Sticky Rice

Photo by: Evie Carpenter

I was a bit hesitant to try it when the waitress brought it over. Fruit and rice? That sounds like a bad combination. I was fine on eating both of these foods separately, but the waitress told me to eat them together. Although this dessert may sound weird, it was surprisingly delicious. The rice was layered with a light coconut sauce and the mango wasn’t too sweet or overpowering. This combination of taste ended up complementing each other well.

Atmosphere

The Gourmet House of Hong Kong may look a bit sketchy on the outside—it looks like an old, run-down restaurant that has small windows that are covered with rails and a gravel parking lot.

But the inside is quite spacious. There was a small Asian fountain that was placed near the door on the side of a wall—the sound of running water is pretty common at traditional Chinese restaurants. After walking in, the restaurant contains a couple of small fish tanks full of fish and lobster, readily set tables with soy sauce and XO sauce set at the edge, and had old, traditional Chinese music playing in the background.

Overall Recommendation

I would give this restaurant a four out of five stars. The Gourmet House of Hong Kong served more authentic food than the previous restaurants that I have visited. The cooks not only served traditional dishes, but they also put different spices and sauces to make each dish taste a bit different.

The Gourmet House of Hong Kong is located near North 14^th Street and East McDowell Road.

Have you ever been to the Gourmet House of Hong Kong? What did you think? Was there a dish that you liked? Disliked? Leave your comments below!

Authenticity

The Golden Buddha receives a 2 on my authenticity scale. While it mostly had traditional Chinese dishes, it did include some Americanized dishes on the menu, such as orange chicken, pot stickers and broccoli beef.

Here are some dishes that I tried…

General Tso’s Chicken

Photo by: Evie Carpenter

This dish had a special kick to it. The chicken was cooked to a crisp where it wasn’t too crunchy or too mushy. It was smothered in a unique sweet and sour sauce that contained actual red peppers, giving the dish a spicy kick. In addition, rice was provided with this dish, which gave me the opportunity to scoop some of the sauce off the plate of chicken and mixed it in with my bowl of rice to add a hint of flavor.

House Special Stir-Fry Flat Rice Noodle

Photo by: Evie Carpenter

This dish is a variation of a traditional Chinese dish: beef chow fun. Flat rice noodles are sometimes known as chow fun, which is made from rice and is a common alternative to chow mein noodles. This particular dish is prepared in the same manner of a beef chow fun dish where flat rice noodles, beef, onions and bean sprouts are fried in oil and then stir-fried with soy sauce in a wok. However, this dish had an extra ingredient added—shrimp. By stir-frying the ingredients, the flavors from the soy sauce, onions and the meat juice are immersed in the flat rice noodles, giving them a brownish tint.

Atmosphere

The Golden Buddha emits a combination of different atmospheres. When one first walks in, they will be greeted with a fish tank full of exotic fish, large tanks full of seafood (crabs, lobsters, tilapia, etc.) that will soon be cooked and served, and a wide-screen television showing the latest sports game. Quite the combination, huh?

This restaurant caters towards smaller groups of people so it has square tables set up around the restaurant instead of having a family-style setting. It promotes a calm, quiet atmosphere with the addition of live piano music so customers are sit back and relax while they wait for their food.

Overall Recommendation

I would give the Golden Buddha a four out of five stars. Located in the Chinese Cultural Center, this restaurant provides a tasty variety of Chinese food with generous portions. Its dishes have a more authentic taste to it than most Asian restaurants around Phoenix so if you prefer Americanized Chinese food (like Panda Express or Pei Wei), I would not recommend this restaurant to you.

The Chinese Cultural Center is located on 44^th Street, a couple blocks north of the 44^th Street and Washington Street stop on the light rail.

Know of any other dishes I should try at the Golden Buddha? Leave comments, suggestions or feedback below!

Authenticity

The Prime receives a 2 on my authenticity scale because it contained a mixture of Americanized Chinese food and traditional Chinese dishes. Although there were a couple of Americanized Chinese dishes such as broccoli beef and egg rolls, the Prime also offers heavily Chinese influenced dishes.

Photo by: Evie Carpenter

The Moo Shu Chicken was wrapped in a tortilla, which is strange for a Chinese restaurant because traditional Chinese dishes use lettuce leaves or thin wonton wraps instead. This confused me a bit, but the dish was delicious. The moo shu chicken was mixed with vegetables such as carrots, bean sprouts and mushrooms. Then, it was wrapped tightly in the tortilla, which kept the sauce and flavor in and made your mouth yearn for more after every bite.

Mango Chicken.

Photo  by: Evie Carpenter

This dish was spicy from the chicken, yet sweet from the mango. The mangos were sliced into semi-bite sized pieces, which were then mixed with chicken cooked in a spicy sauce. I’ve never had fruit in an entrée before so this dish sounded like a weird combination. But the fusion of flavors created an explosion of deliciousness in my mouth.

House Special Fried Rice.

Photo by: Evie Carpenter

Fried rice is a commonly known Asian dish throughout the United States (as well as China). While you may think this dish is easy to make, think again. Putting taste aside, my dad taught me that authentic fried rice is when the pieces of rice do not stick together—they should be individual pieces. The Prime’s House Special Fried Rice falls under that category. The rice did not stick together or form any clumps of rice balls at any point in time.

Atmosphere

Walking into The Prime, the atmosphere it exudes is very different from most Asian restaurants. It had both family-style table settings and booth seating. Most Asian restaurants have a few small, rectangular tables for small parties and a few big round tables for large family gatherings.

The Prime had two big round tables in the middle of the restaurant, while booth seating surrounded it. It was on the quiet side where customers talked quietly and kept to themselves. The restaurant had a modern look and had an airy feel to it with lots open space between the tables.

Overall Recommendation

I would give The Prime four out of five stars because truly authentic Asian restaurants seem rare in the city of Phoenix (or rather, in almost any city in the United States if it’s not a part of a Chinatown). Each dish that I tried had its own unique taste due to the different types of herbs, spices and sauces used. It had a wide variety of Americanized Asian dishes as well as traditional Chinese cuisine.

The Prime is located near the corner of West Camelback Road and North Central Avenue in Phoenix.

Know of any good dishes The Prime can serve up? Leave comments, suggestions and feedback below!

Authenticity

On a scale from 1 to 3, the foods I eat will be put to the test of whether they are considered as authentic or not. Since I live in the United States, most of the Asian food I eat is Americanized.

This scale system will show how authentic the food is based on the items on the menu.

1 – Americanized Asian food with little Asian influence

-Some examples include: orange chicken, egg rolls, broccoli beef, etc.

2 – A mixture between Americanized Asian food and Authentic Asian food

-Some examples include: dim sum, bok choy, fried rice, etc.

3 – Authentic Asian food with little American influence

-Some examples include: bird’s nest soup, mapo tofu, congee, etc.

This scale system does not fully describe authenticity. It merely paints a picture as to what foods are usually considered tradition Asian dishes and which ones aren’t. Two other factors that contribute to authenticity are taste and variety.

Taste is an interesting topic. Whether a dish tastes good is based on one’s own opinion. However, Asian dishes do have a distinct taste where one is able to tell between an Americanized Asian dish compared to a traditional Asian dish. Each Asian dish has its own unique taste because of the combination of specific ingredients. An example is the use of different sauces and spices, which is a common ingredient that can make or break a meal. Traditional Asian dishes usually include some sort of special sauce or spice that is unique to the dish—giving it that special taste.

The variety of dishes a restaurant has on its menu can tell someone whether the restaurant serves authentic Asian cuisine. Does the menu list all traditional dishes? A mixture of both? Or is it a completely Americanized menu?

Atmosphere

Traditional Asian restaurants have a unique atmosphere. When a person first walks in, they should be greeted with a strong smell of soy sauce and rice, several giant fish tanks filled with a variety of seafood, and big round tables with a Lazy Susan in the middle. But, all Asian restaurants vary.

Typical Asian restaurants have a wide variety of seafood dishes, which means that they require a decent amount of live seafood. With this, they usually set up big fish tanks full of different types of fish, crab, mussels, etc. so customers can see what they are actually eating.

Also, round tables with a Lazy Susan in the middle are a common table setting in Asian restaurants. This allows for big groups to have a family style setting where every dish can be shared and distributed with everyone.

Overall Recommendation

Based on the observations and experiences I have from eating at each different restaurant, I will give an overall recommendation using the five-star rating system.

I hope this helps other Asian cuisine lovers in the Phoenix area. Please leave any questions, concerns or comments. I love feedback. :)