Top-notch Chinese dishes deliver wonderfully spicy flavours

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This article was published 05/02/2015 (3926 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Even among the excellent Chinese restaurants that line Pembina, Golden Loong is a standout, featuring a cuisine from Xian in northwest China that is dramatically different. Prices are slightly higher than on many other Chinese menus (most main courses are $11.95 to $17.95) but the food is wonderful and the portions, at the upper price end, enormous.

The fresh, flavourful noodles are star turns. All are handmade, some hand-ripped; some are served cold, some hot; and it was a toss-up as to which were more fabulous — the cold noodles with cucumbers in chili oil (No. 2), or the hot spicy pork with the wider, hand-ripped noodles (No. 3).

Heat-seekers should be in heaven here. Most of the items are marked by a pepper symbol — one only, although in several cases three would be more accurate. The occasional plate comes glazed by little red pools of chili oil which, in some dishes (and no, it’s not an oxymoron) deliver a nice, slow burn, i.e. heat without pain. In others, though, the heat really bites back, and descriptions of “hot and spicy” should be taken seriously.

Hot and spicy shrimp, for instance, really lives up to its name –16 huge, unshelled, head-on, chili-fired shrimp that are incredibly moist, plump and flavourful, with a zesty sprinkling of tiny black beans and wee crunchy bits that tasted like fried onions.

Sautéed Chicken in Iron Wok is less spicy, a marvellous composition of crunchy chicken chunks with black cloud ear mushrooms, garlicky potatoes and thin squares of fried bread. Also tops, and also relatively mild, are fried cumin-spiked slices of lamb, and the house special pork of braised pork belly with heaps of cilantro and skinny strips of green peppers. In any case, you can name the degree of heat you’d like.

But not everything is fiery. Two non-spicy items are also among the bests — the stewed pork burger of succulent, finely shredded pork tucked into a crisp, English muffin-like roll, and the delicate but superbly flavourful winter melon soup floating chicken meatballs that texturally could easily pass for matzo balls.

The most comfortable seating is in the booths in the diner-like outer room; the seats in a more spacious inner room look elegant but are unpadded and low. There’s Chinese beer, if you’re so inclined, and a bonus in the variety of Chinese teas. Communication isn’t much easier than it was when reviewed two years ago, but the young women servers are unfailingly polite and helpful.

 

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Heat seekers needn’t apply to Mercadito Latino. This is Salvadoran-cum-Guatamalan food, not Mexican, and chili makes only a rare appearance. The tiki bar of several incarnations back is still there, adorned with sombreros and assorted tchochkes, and some shelves in one corner are stacked with Central American products.

Most mains range from $8.50 to $11.95, and almost every dish I tried was savoury and good. The most outstanding, possibly, was the tortilla soup, a meal-in-bowl marvel of rich chicken broth augmented by fresh cooked chicken, avocado slices, melted cheese, sour cream and crisp tortilla chips. The corn-masa pupusas, however, were a close runner-up — soft, puffy pancakes stuffed with cheese, refried beans, pork, or all the above, served with slightly spicy coleslaw (curtido) and a thin, bland tomato sauce.

If you like fries, you’ll love the yuca frita con chicharrones — incredibly crisp cassava fries topped by equally crisply fried chunks of pork, and served with cabbage in a delicate lime juice dressing. Another fine choice is the quesadilla of flour tortillas folded over chicken, peppers and cheese. I also liked the tostada-like enchiladas of flat tortilla shells heaped with avocado, beans or chicken and topped by a cabbage salad with lime juice, salsa and cheese. Only the tacos de pollo of soft tortillas filled with a bland mixture of chicken and peppers were slightly disappointing.

Some of the small dishes would make excellent starters or snacks — the rigua ground-corn pancake, for instance, with refried beans and sour cream ($4.95). Or the two kinds of tamal — de pollo, a velvety soft dough filled with fresh-cooked chicken and steamed in a banana leaf ($3.50), and de elote, like a slightly sweet cornbread cooked in a corn husk ($3.25).

There’s no beer (or anything else alcoholic), but the Peruvian chicha morada (made of purple corn but tastes fruity) is delicious and the Guatamalan coffee is excellent. Service is warm and accommodating.

Cash or debit only. Vegan friendly, with many gluten-free choices.

marion.warhaft@freepress.mb.ca