When East Meets New West Cooking At Chow’s (1/2)

Celebrated by many as the best Chinese restaurant in Santa Fe, Chow’s has excelled by implementing a modern, slightly upscale twist to a long tradition of Chinese restaurants and serving mid-scale diners who want Asian flavors that can still satisfy American palates and appealing to everyone from students to business people. Part of the concept is health based, with the restaurants steering away from MSG and fried fare. But the real reason for the dramatic upturn, insiders say, is that restaurateurs are seizing on what many consider Asian-cuisine's holy grail; recipes that highlight the trend of health, display Eastern flair and variety, while stripping the cuisine of its fear factor. Healthy Chow’s offers a healthy take on Chinese cooking. At first, you might not even realize what’s missing. No super crunchy deep-fried cigar-like egg rolls here. No generic ‘egg drop’ soup that consists mostly of soy sauce and cornstarch. No deep-fried cubes of mystery meat hidden beneath scarlet sweet and sour gravy. No MSG. Instead, your taste buds and your arteries can welcome tofu, fresh fish in many creative stylings and beautiful vegetables. Besides, they go light on the oil and calories and use high-temperature cooking techniques, with extremely brief cook times. Unique It’s said that there are no such dishes as sweet and sour pork, chow mein or egg foo young in China. Those are American inventions that limit Chinese cooking to a few bland sauces full of too much oil and sugar. Chow’s owners Richard and Lucy Zeng introduced “contemporary Chinese food”. "We don't want any of our dishes to taste the same. We want them to taste unique," Zeng says. Zeng says it's his unique dishes, like Firecracker Dumplings, stuffed with turkey and carrots and drizzled with a pesto spinach sauce, that have allowed Chow's to grow and expand. Variety There is a Chinese saying that goes: “Good friends and pleasant conversation make even great food taste better.” But what entrée to order offers a wonderful challenge in Chow’s. If you like fish, the sea bass with vegetables is highly recommended. It was tender and tasty, cooked just enough and served in generous portion. If you are meat-eater, try Orange Peel Beef, the long-standing favorite at Chow’s. You get a large plate of quickly fried beef slices seasoned with those tiny killer chiles and fresh orange peel. The sweet spiciness is irresistible, unless you’re a vegetarian. Speaking of vegetarian, they are recommended to try lettuce wraps, one of the evening’s specials. This dish was light but satisfying. Each crisp lettuce leaf was filled with an assortment of finely chopped, well-seasoned stir-fried vegetables. Eating it was a challenge: the filling tends to slip out and the leaf breaks but the taste and the combination of crispy and soft was worth the effort. (Versions of the filling with meat also are available.) In addition to dozens of choices on the menu, including meal-like soups and noodle plates, Chow’s has a tempting specials menu with perhaps a dozen more choices, each pictured in color. Many dishes can be custom-seasoned from mild to extra spicy. The menu, based on Chinese cuisine, mixes in American, Japanese, Italian, Thai and Mexican influences to create incomparable Asian delicacy. There are 48 items on the menu (48 is a lucky number according to Chinese custom) and 30 different sauces, so each dish has its own unique flavor. And it's Chow's 30 homemade sauces that are incorporated and served with dishes that have made customers literally stand up and ask for more. Every year they change the menu, adding four to eight new dishes Imagination