When complaining about the bad taste of some Chinese restaurants in the west, people usually refereed the reason to be "not authentic”. But I think whether the dish is “authentic” is not the most crucial thing for tasting. It is non-sense to discuss about "authentic" before the restaurants take cooking seriously.
For instance, almost all the Chinese buffets I have tried in USA do not have a serious chief. They only cook the ingredients to be eatable and then mix in some sweet-sour sauce. Sweet-sour Chicken, sweet-sour pork, sweet-sour beef, etc... Every dish tastes sweet-sour, how possiblely can they taste good? The problem is their attitude of cooking, rather than that the receipt has been revised after Chinese food entered into USA.
However, I have found a tasty sweet-sour chicken dish in a tiny restaurant which only has 2-3 tables near the highschool in Oak Ridge. It was managed by a Taiwanese couple since Tim was in the highschool. They only make two dishes: "Sweat and sour chicken” and “Orange chicken”, both are American-Chinese food, which I have not heard at all before I moved to USA. But because they only focus on two dishes, you won’t feel that every dish tastes same like in the big buffet. The reason I like their “sweat and sour chicken” is because the it is very freshly fried. It might not be the most healthy food, but freshly-fry does make a lot of difference on the taste. When I need to buy some take-away food, I rather go to such a small shop rather than those buffet-type restaurant who wants to do everything but could not make anything tasty.
Honestly I do not care about whether a dish is "authentic", as far as it tastes good. First of all, deciding if a dish is “authentic” is a very academic question. From the Oxford dictionary, “authentic” means “of undisputed origin”. Then the question comes: How old can be called origin? Many of the ingredients and spices we used for the Chinese dishes now are not “original” in China. The most popular styles of Chinese food-川菜 (Shichuan Food) and 湘菜 (Hunan Food), both are famous for the spicy hot flavor. However, chili was only imported into China in Ming Dynasty around 15th century, all the way from South America to Europe by Columbus, and then to China through the Silk Road. Besides, tomato, potato, sweet potato, corn, eggplant, cucumbers, spinach, carrot, and garlic (one most important seasoning for current Chinese dishes) were all imported from outside the land of China. Not many of the current Chinese dishes can be called "authentic" back to 1000 years ago.
OK, if we don’t struggle too much with the origin, but considered the “authentic” dish is the one recognized by the majority Chinese, then it is also super ambiguous. China is large, even Chinese people from different regions argued loudly about what flavor is “authentic” for a same dish: shall we put salt or sugar in tomato fried egg? Shall “zhongzi” has meat or red bean paste for stuffing? There is no answer at all.
However, a Chinese restaurant in Vienna claims that they make "authentic" Chinese dishes.
An Austrian friend Ursula recommended us this restaurant named “Shichuan Restaurant”, which her family love and went frequently. One day we went to there with her family together. I was very impressed about the looking of the restaurant, which has a big garden with a pond, several willows, and magnificent Chinese-style architectures.
When we ordered food, I noticed that there are some dishes with extra notes in Chinese words saying (Authentic with extra €1.5-3). I was very curious so I asked one waiter what is the difference between the “normal” and the “authentic”.
Menu: Authentic with extra €1.5-3
I was expecting something like different spices, for instance more spicy for "authentic". However, his answer shocked me, he said: "The “normal” dishes are just casually stir-fried, since the Austrian people would not realize anyway. But for “authentic” dishes we cook more carefully.”
I did not know what to say in a while. I found it too crazy. Even Chinese people argue so hard for which receipt is more "authentic" for a same dish, you just be more careful on cooking then your food become "authentic"? With doubt I ordered an “authentic” dish by paying for the extra, as I wanted to see how wonderful their “authentic" food can be. It turn out it was not that amazing, not better than other Chinese restaurants I have been to in Vienna.
From the waiter's answer, I think the restaurent either fools Chinese customers or fools non-Chinese customers. Looking around the room, most of the people look Western (probably mostly Austrian), certainly not many Chinese. The waiter said “Austrian people do not know Chinese food”, so that is why so many Austrian people come to this restaurant?? Shouldn't you respeat the customers who bring you money? Another possibility is that the “normal” dish and the “authentic” dish actually do not have any difference, they just fool Chinese people to pay for the extra. In either case it is nasty.
Another amusing thing was that he said this in front of me, even if he knew that I came with non-Chinese friends. It seemed he did not realize that he is only a stranger to me, but the people I would go to a restaurant with are either my relatives or friends. So why would he think I will stand in his side, just because we happened to be born in a same country?
Ursula’ father asked me what did the waiter answered for my question, as he knew I was going to ask about the menu. I told them what I heard and felt sorry for them and other Austrians who supported this restaurant but were considered “do not know Chinese food”. I would rather hope it was just the stupidness of the waiter, but then I can not explain why the menu has those extra Chinese words for the “authentic” options. I thought a boss who dare to investigate such a big Chinese garden in Vienna would be more farseeing than that.
Luckily there are many other good Chinese restaurants in Vienna. The density of Chinese restaurants is surpringly high, almost every 3 blocks we can see one. But the population of Chinese people in Vienna could not compare with the population of Chinese in New York or San Francisco or even Oak Ridge. In the University of Vienna, I hardly met any Chinese in both Geology and Physics Departments. So most of the customers in the Chinese restaurants here are local people (mainly Austrian), which might make you think that their Chinese food are more edited towards Austrian way. However, the average quality of them is much better than that of the city Knoxville in USA, especially there are not many cheap Chinese buffets here. Well it is a bit unfair to compare Knoxville with Vienna, as Vienna is a capital.
On my list of Chinese restaurants, the bottom level is for those which do not respect cooking, such as the every-dish-taste-same restaurants, and those with arrogant attitude like the "Shichuan Restaurant" I just mentioned. For them once is enough, no second entrance.
There are some good ones Tim and I went often. The restaurents I put in third level have these features: they cook tasty food, but still sometimes you can find same source from dish to dish, and the dishes usually do not look too pretty. We occasionally went to there because their food are still better than what I can do at home.
Meister xiao, close with our home
No.27
For the second level on my list, there are two restaurents. Their food is so good so we would miss them if we have not went for a while.
One is called "Lemon Leaf Thai Restaurant", which is not Chinese but Thai. But the family who managed this Thai restaurant are Chinese, so I put it into this list. The husband learned cooking Thai food and worked with Tai people for ~19years before they started their own shop. Their Thai food tastes even better than the Thai food cooked by Thai I tried in USA. One secret is that they use very fresh seasoning from Thai by air-transport twice one week. From them I got the idea to use lemon and lime instead of vinegar, bringing me more possibility on cooking.
Lemon Leaf Thai Restaurant
Another one is called "Lamian", but their best homemade noodle is actually "knife-flied noodle". They use "Lamian" as this name is easier to remember. I love their homemade knife-flied noodle, taste as good as my favorite noodlehouse near my PhD institute when I was in Beijing. They also make Sushi. I don't usually think high of Sushi in Chinese restaurents until once I tried a really good Sushi-house in San Fransisco, surprising to me which was managed by Chinese people. This "Lamian" shop also make very good sushi.
Another thing I really love on this restaurant is that they arrange the food like an art, very beautifully. This makes a wonderful appetite!
Lamian, Währingerstaße
The exsitance of good Sushi-house and Thai-restraurents managed by Chinese is very cheerful to me, because it proves that it is entitlely possible for Chinese people to do good jobs on dishes from other countries. It makes sense though, Japanese do not make Sushi when they were born. Indeed for Chinese to learn Thai or Janpanse food, it would take more effort as they are probably not as familiar as the local people. It will require more effort with sincere attitude. Human being can learn, that is the most wonderful thing.
On the top of my list is "Ostwind" restaurant, defenitely the best in Vienna. Even moving it to Beijing it will be one of the top. Every dish tastes wonderful on its own style, no need to worry about the similar flavor from dish to dish, not at all. It is obsolutely enjoying to taste their food. The only pity is it is quite far from our place, and they do not open in Sunday. They even take the entire Feburary off this year, probably went back to China for vacation. I used to joke with Tim that if we can not find a restaurent opening in a Federal holiday, then try the Chinese ones which always work. But for "Ostwind", they are pround enough to be open whenever they like, and people still love to go. Oh BTW, they do not have the stupid different manu requiring extra Euros for "authentic". Good food is good food!
Ostwind
Not “authentic” is not the excuse for not treating cooking seriously. Good food is good food.
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