Mary T.
Yelp
A few weeks ago, I was shopping in the southern part of Rochester. Kohl's and Five Below are my usual places. As I parked to visit the latter, I noticed New China. It intrigued me. Having Chinese food in Rochester is still foreign to me. I didn't order any when I was a resident. It's funny how I now have an interest returning as a visitor.
I looked at the reviews and they were decent on Yelp. I decided to check out their online menu. One thing led to another. I ended up placing an order for pickup on New China's site. You don't pay through it, but you are prompted to create an account and specify your phone number. You order takes roughly 25 minutes to complete, which was more than enough time for me to shop at Five Below before picking up my order.
Their food caters to both Americans who may feel intimidated by Chinese food and, surprisingly, to Chinese folks who want authentic food. My pain point was seeing cream cheese rangoons (wontons) on the menu. First, I can't see my ancestors taking out a rectangle of Philadelphia cream cheese to replace the traditional pork filling in wontons. Second, I find it gross seeing them on a Chinese eatery menu that I will not touch them if they were the last food item available on this planet.
My rant is over.
The menu item that gave me a glimmer of hope for some authentic Chinese cuisine was the shrimp with lobster sauce. I went for it.
I drove over to the eatery after I was done shopping and parked steps away from it. The restaurant is next to a radio station blasting country music. There are stairs and a ramp for those who require accessibility help.
You can dine in. I saw a couple eating when I walked in. Dining spaces looked limited. I was immediately greeted by a woman. There were four women in the kitchen literally cooking up a storm. I said my name and she found my order that was already packed.
I asked if this place accepted credit cards. Yep, every credit card imaginable is accepted here. I paid and all was great. She handed me my food. I thanked her. She wasn't the friendliest. Come to think of it, they were probably more focused on cooking the food than being friendly. They were highly efficient, though.
I drove an hour back to Eagan. My food was still hot when I got back to my hotel room. I was impressed.
I got the following items:
- Steamed dumplings with garlic soy sauce
- Shrimp with lobster sauce on roasted pork fried rice
- House special lo mein with roasted pork fried rice
Each meal came with an egg roll. Everything was packed carefully.
The egg rolls were yummy. They were crispy and packed full of filling. They were perfect.
The steamed dumplings were authentic and delicious. They didn't have any fancy crimping. Each filling was packed full of flavourful pork filling. The garlic soy sauce worked well.
I had roughly half of the two meals for dinner. Perhaps less than half because I ate all the dumplings.
The shrimp with lobster sauce was so comforting. It reminded me of a Hong Kong-style dish where you know there's fried rice, but you can't see it because it's drenched in flavourful lobster sauce. The shrimp were perfectly done. I love barbequed pork in fried rice and it was fabulous. I liked the cubed carrots and pork, peas, onions, and more. I would get this dish again. It was delicious.
The house lo mein was a winner. It had chicken, shrimp, barbequed pork, and veggies. The noodles were true lo mein ones. It was different having the lo mein paired with fried rice, but I didn't mind. It was such a carb-heavy, yummy meal.
I had leftovers for lunch the following day. It was perfect staying in my hotel room working remotely and not having to think about what to get for lunch. The leftovers were equally as yummy a day later.
It was a pleasant surprise taking a chance on New China and discovering that it offers authentic Chinese food. Just avoid the cream cheese appetizers. I'd return for more when I'm back in my old neighbourhood.
(26)
