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12/1/06
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The dining room at Tasty China has quickly become a culinary promised land for a fanatical pack of Internet food junkies, salivating chefs and giddy restaurant critics. The sounds you hear inside are erotic moans of pleasure — one overlapping the next — like an uninhibited orgy at the brink of climax.
What’s all the rave about? That would be Sichuan master chef Peter Chang and his unique style of cooking. Since arriving from the Hunan Province of China in 2000 to serve as chef for the Chinese Embassy, Chang bounced around from one Washington, D.C., restaurant to the next before, as luck would have it, landing right here at Marietta’s Tasty China. In just a few short months, true to form, his electrifying technique has garnered an obsessive, cult-like following. They converge on Tasty China from all corners of the city both near and far to experience hot and numbing beef rolls that shoot a tingly surge through the tongue — similar to that of a 9-volt battery. They flock in droves to slurp spicy wontons from blistering broths and to be blown right out of their fuchsia booths by masterfully constructed dishes (all remarkably priced under $15) that showcase explosive layers of flavor. It’s that very explosiveness that’s worthy of our admiration and also warrants our unadulterated attention. Chang incorporates unusually high doses of cumin and Sichuan peppercorns into his cooking, and displays great range and depth in doing so. Consider yourself warned. This makes plate progression more than slightly challenging and unlike anything I’ve ever experienced on Buford Highway, or anywhere else. If you don’t carefully monitor which dish comes first, you might be sorely disappointed. For example, pleasantly mild and comforting fish coriander rolls (#18) are crunchy, savory little bites, but if consumed immediately after the overly assertive spicy pork in garlic mud (#36), they’re rendered utterly characterless. A popular entrée of fat, pillowy pork meatballs (#106) anchored in a gentle gravy is quite interesting but would be totally overpowered by an appetizer of slippery dan dan noodles swimming in a red hot chili concoction. With that being said, Chang’s command and range is astounding. A traditional dish of crystal shrimp (#95) features exquisitely fluffy pieces of shrimp that beckon to be relished for their subtlety, while a bowl of braised beef is served in a nuclear broth that leaves you frantically scrambling to mitigate its scorching aftermath. And sometimes, all of Chang’s rare deft is captured on one single plate. For example, the beef lung is sliced thin, tossed with the most impossibly tender strips of straggly tripe you’ll ever encounter, and then ignited with an electrifying fiery dark liquid that will reduce your speech capability to a mere prolonged moan. He skillfully impresses with a dish of sharp pepper fish (#98) — a monstrous glass bowl containing boiled fish engulfed in a clear liquid. The top is covered with a variety of chopped hot peppers, but underneath the horde of peppers hides tofu so sexy and silken you’ll want to disrobe right there in the middle of the dining room and roll around in it. |
 Hot and numbing beef rolls Price Range: |
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Chang apparently dabbles in a little fusion, as well. Implausibly greaseless fried fish medallions (#101) arrive all cozy-like inside a handcrafted bamboo tent. Oddly, the fish, topped only with green onions and strewn with Sichuan peppercorns, is intensely rife with curry — as are similar offerings of eggplant fingers and finely diced beef. This could very well be the most flavorsome form of Indian fare I’ve ever placed in my mouth. With 12 visits to Tasty China and nearly 60 dishes under my belt (literally), I’ve narrowly managed my way through only one-third of the astonishing 179 menu offerings. Eating your way through this menu in its entirety would be a harrowing yet admirable act of gluttony. Surprisingly, there is even more to Chang’s repertoire than the absurdly large main menu suggests. Play nice with the friendly Vietnamese server who speaks English and she will happily introduce you to a soul-soothing duck soup loaded with vermicelli noodles and juicy pork meatballs. She’ll lead you to hollow doughy biscuits (#1 on the Chinese table menu) filled with sublime ginger- and scallion-laced pork patties, and even point you in the direction of fried eggplant strips wearing hallucinatory levels of curry. She’ll quickly become your new best friend. In terms of food, Tasty China is unquestionably the most exciting thing to happen to Atlanta this year, though you’d never guess it from its odd, scary strip center location directly next door to a Latin club named Enigma. Other than a quick coat of hot pink on the walls and some Chinese knick-knacks, there really isn’t much to the décor. Even after a dozen or so trips, I still get a kick out of the oversized fuchsia booths crammed into the middle of the room. My only concern is that the madcap Chang doesn’t appear to sit still for very long. So hurry up and get your taste buds blown away at Tasty China early and often. Who knows when he’ll decide to blow town, leaving us to the mercy of fickle airline rates and scrambling for frequent flyer miles? |
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| tom@atlantacuisine.com |
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