“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” Not merely the intro line of the original Japanese “Iron Chef,” this fundamental hypothesis goes back to the French gourmet Anthelme Brillat-Savarin’s 1825 gastronomic essay, “Physiology of Taste.”
If Brillat-Savarin had examined my dinner at Peking City Bistro, he might have concluded I am a pregnant Chinese woman, a revelation that would come as a considerable surprise to both my mother and my wife.
Intrigued? Pull up a chair, and I’ll tell you the story.
Pride, they say, goeth before a fall, and I’m dangerously proud of my Chinese culinary skills and knowledge. Whenever I dine at a Chinese restaurant, I do my best to wheedle management into giving me the “authentic” menu. I love it that places like Oriental House and Jasmine make it easy by providing Westerners a bilingual version.
So does Peking City Bistro, a new Chinese restaurant with a Taiwanese accent, which opened last month in the Evergreen Station shopping center in Middletown. Stylish and upscale, it’s the direct descendant of the old Peking City in Springhurst and boasts the same chef, Mr. Chen, a veteran of 40 years’ cooking in Taiwan and the United States.
In its old location, the staff at Peking City, as in many Chinese restaurants, was resistant to allowing Westerners a taste of the authentic stuff. They’re concerned, I suspect, that we won’t like it after all, resulting in an ugly language-barrier confrontation that’s best avoided.
Once, in rude Anglo style, I insisted until they finally succumbed. The authentic menu was printed entirely in Chinese. Oops! Luckily, I’ve memorized about 50 Chinese characters related to food, so I could try to puzzle out the menu. With this bare skill I was able to pick out a spicy lamb dish that I actually liked. Crisis avoided without losing face.
At the new Peking City, there’s no need for such subterfuge. Although the tables are set only with American utensils and the Chinese-American menu, both the authentic menu and a set of chopsticks are happily provided upon request.
Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes:
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/a-tru ... ity-bistro
And in LEO Weekly:
http://leoweekly.com/dining/truly-authe ... ity-bistro
Peking City Bistro
12412 Shelbyville Road
253-6777
http://www.pekingcitybistro.com
Robin Garr’s rating: 87 points