LEO/LHB: Great Chinese banquet: Cook for me, chef!

[Robin Garr]

LEO's Eats with Louisville HotBytes.com

Are you the kind of adventurous diner who has always wanted to experience an authentic Chinese banquet but have despaired after too many meals of sweet and sour pork, fried rice and the like at chopsticks houses and Asian buffets?

Here's good news: With a little advance planning, a willing spirit and a smile, you can enjoy a Chinese spread right here in Louisville that will take you surprisingly close to what you'd be served in Shanghai or Beijing.

All you have to do is get together a group of like-minded foodies, drop in on your favorite Chinese restaurant and ask the management's assistance in organizing a special banquet.

This approach probably won't work at a fast-food Chinese eatery or buffet. It requires a quality Chinese restaurant with a highly skilled chef. Louisville boasts several of these, my current favorite being Red Pepper Chinese on Brownsboro Road, where Sichuanese Chef Shen Hong Huang boasts restaurant experience in Chicago and in Chinese embassies around the world.

Hostess Yuan Hua was eager to help us arrange a Sichuan banquet for 20 members of the LouisvilleHotBytes online forum, a group that would eventually grow to 31 without a hitch. Yuan Hua had just a few simple questions: How much did we want to spend per person, and did we have any specific food requests? After hearing that a local group of doctors had enjoyed a Red Pepper banquet for $25 per, we decided to go for $30 a head, excluding tax, tip and alcohol. As for food requests, we asked only that the chef be asked to prepare a real West China banquet for adventurous foodies, no holding back for American tastes.

A few days later, we confirmed the number in the party, and Red Pepper did the rest, constructing 16 dishes in a dozen separate courses, including a quartet of appetizers, fried and white rice and fruit for dessert.

Read the complete report in LEO and on LouisvilleHotBytes.

Red Pepper Chinese Cuisine
2901 Brownsboro Road
891-8868

I'm still raving about that evening.........

Thanks again for arranging it......

I am going to echo Bill....many thanks we had a great time. I think my favorite was the ginger lamb.

And I'll echo Bill and John. Thank you so very much, Robin and Mary, for making the arrangements for that most enjoyable evening. I think the ginger lamb and tea-smoked duck tied for my favorites. Although I normally like scallops, I think I liked the fish maw the better of the two seafood "delights" in pickle mix. Years of eating lutfisk at Christmas probably influenced my decission. (Note: For, I'm sure, the first time lutfisk is by far the winner overall. )

A wonderful description of a wonderful night. And thanks for the shout-out.

We had our banquet last night . . . we had six people (my wife and I hosting four friends who were each celebrating a birthday).

In brief, the menu was similar to yours . . . we had a cold spicy noodle dish as an appetizer, and had one fewer main dish, but pretty close.

We've hosted Chinese banquets for years, from Chicago's Chinatown (usually the Phoenix Restaurant) to NYC (don't remember the name) to even Memphis TN! It's a fun way (and comparatively inexpensive way) to entertain at a restaurant, and it's a lot of fun.

While my memory isn't always great, we thought the Red Pepper had as good or better food than any of the others, with the duck, string beans, and shrimp likely being the standout dishes. One thing the Chicago and NYC restaurant did is to pace the dishes for American eating style; Red Pepper was more authentic, but all the dishes coming out at once made for a crowded table, and led to some of the flavors blending together. It also made for a faster experience than we had wanted - what could have been (and in other cities had been) a full evening's entertainment seemed to fly by, and we were out the door within two hours! Most of the other banquets we've had were divided into several (somewhat arbitrary) courses, which was a much more relaxing time. I think if/when we return, we'll ask that this be done.

Also, while the initial decor (and the fruit course and lobster course) were absolutely gorgeous, other places seemed to take more time in presentation, with every dish teasing the eye as well as the palate.

I'm not complaining, just commenting! Our chance or returning for another banquet is around 100%, and - as I said - the food was the best of any of the places. Plus, the staff is wonderful, helpful, and the prices cannot be beaten.

I sure did want to be at this event, but being in Pittsburgh then kind of precluded me from doing so. The good news is, my loving mom took me and my out of town family there last night. I wanted to try something different and ordered the spicy beef tendon. WOW, I was truly amazed at how good this dish was. Everyone took a sample of the dish, even my 10 year old nephew. He's the same one that last May tried an original Hot Brown and proclaimed that he had died and gone to heaven. Uncy Doogy sure is turning him into a little foodie. He told me he was going to tell his science teacher that he ate a cow's tendon. LOL, he is such a lil whippersnapper. My entree was lamb and fish in a hot clay pot. So full of lamb fish, veggies, rice noodle and tons of hot peppers. I could eat barely of 3rd of it. The joy of leftovers. The rest of the group ordered of the non-authentic menu. I guess the tendons were enough for them. I talked to the owner and said next time I am trying some stomach or intestines or some other interesting thing like that. Wow, we are fortunate to have such a great Chinese restaurant in town. Also, I want to note that Ling, our waitress, was very good and so talkative. We all learned a lot about Chinese culture from her. That is an added bonus to all the great ethnic restaurants we have here. It just brings the rest of the world that much closer to the Ville.

We went last night for to-go and the place was PACKED! We ended up having to wait a pretty long time but no complaints-The owner ended up giving us Dragon Wontons on the House. Very sweet and the food is always an A!