A third dimension
Fortune Chinese Cuisine’s classic Szechuan menu is the picture of health
By Dan O'Heron 06/24/2010
After several trips to the plate, I was reminded that what yin and yang — opposite but complementary forces — are to the principles of the universe in Chinese dualistic philosophy, hsien and hsiang, or aroma and flavor, are to the chefs at Fortune Chinese Cuisine. The twin values are drawn from classic recipes once favored by the ranking Mandarins of China.
But here, there’s a third dimension: salubrity. While the kitchen provides all the positive indulgences to which taste in refined Szechuan-style food is susceptible, it does so in a very healthy manner — a quality not often shared by other Chinese restaurants.
How healthy? While the kitchen builds on the rich, ageless traditions of the classic cuisines of Szechuan, a province tucked away in the southwestern corner of China, it practices under modern USDA dietary guidelines, using only trans-fat-free oil and a specially brewed soy sauce that reduces the level of sodium by 40 percent. While every dish I’ve tried tastes great, I’ve got to wonder if the chefs wear lab coats to go along with their toques.
Recently, when the color and aroma of beef with broccoli reached my eyes and nose, then finally my mouth, it belied the fact that the dish contained only 220 calories and 1.5 grams of saturated fat. At lunch, the savory dish, including soup, egg roll, entree, a pot of tea — and tax — came to only $6.90. Taste, price and health are qualities that are sure to please the fussy palates of the modern-day Mandarins of Greater Pasadena.
More important to me was the rediscovery of native Chinese tastes. At a time when Asian fusion cookery is overloading our bills of fare, I’m taking some solace in knowing at least one Chinese restaurant still serves chow, not ciao mein.
Granted, many Italian-Chinese and Asian-Mexican fusion restaurants provide marriages of food made in heaven, but at others you’re never quite sure what you’re in for. It would certainly be difficult for any kind of unionized food to make a chicken dish taste better than Fortune’s cashew chicken. Here, for $8.95 at dinner, your plate is generously portioned with tender slices of chicken, made audibly crisp with water chestnuts and cashews, made even tastier with bell peppers cooked just enough to not stifle their crunch.
And you’ll love the meaty scallops ($14.95, dinner). Unlike overcooked scallops you might get in a fusion restaurant — chewy and bouncy enough to play jai alai — Fortune’s are very tender. Smeared with black bean sauce and sautéed with bell peppers, mushrooms and onions, they melt in your mouth. But then, they wouldn’t be scallops, would they?
I know not of one fusion restaurant that can put together a shrimp dish as exciting as Fortune’s shrimp with orange peels and water chestnuts in a special chef’s sauce ($10.25 at dinner; 150 calories, 1 gram saturated fat). The kitchen also burnishes its glowing reputation for bold and burning Szechuan-style cuisine in a $12.95 fried shrimp plate with sassy slaps of spicy and sweet hot sauce.
For Chinese shrimp lovers who would rather visit a more temperate zone, there’s a $10.25 dinner with broccoli, sautéed in a delicate light sauce. (All spicy hot items will be cooked mild on request.)
Setting sail for other fine seafood dishes, a must-try is a fish filet sautéed in black bean sauce for $10.95. Another is a $12.95 rock cod. Filleted, the lean, firm and mild meat maintains a large flake after being steamed with cilantro and musty, earthy straw mushrooms. It’s then served with a choice of soy sauce or black bean sauce.
And, in a widely variegated menu, one with 16 chicken dinner dishes, there’s also plenty of meat. Beef dishes include a house special filet mignon steak — a cut of beef seldom used in most Chinese restaurants. For $13.95, stir-fried with chopped onions, green peppers, mushrooms and a pinch of black pepper, the dinner counts only 370 calories and 5 grams of fat.
For great Chinese food, many Angelienos head to San Gabriel or Monterey Park.
Thanks to Fortune, Pasadenans can just stay put.
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For readers to experience a similar dining experience of the author, the restaurant reviews should include the full restaurant name, its address, and telephone number since a number of restaurants have similar names and serve similar cuisines.