I was born and raised in the bronx. Hood Chinese food is a way of life there. And its something i miss dearly. Knowing full well that there is not much finesse in the bronx Chinese food some how made it truly 4 star 80% of the time. After moving off Peekskill hollow road not to long ago i quickly ran into chas garden. From the outside it has all the appealing qualities of classic hood americanized Chinese food. you aren't greeted or looked at when you walk in. Combination of wooden, fold out and high metal chairs. Large shrine to budda with old decrepit fruits and dozens of unlit candles. Stacks on stacks of every soda imaginable. Millions of packets of bright orange duck sauce and black soysauce. Wonderful. We must be on track for a solid spot. Looking at the menu its as if they get the same menus delivered from the bronx. All your classic favs. Ordering chefs specials was never something i got into at low ball Chinese spots. And i always stay away from the shell fish or fresh fish unless its a spring roll. You know your safe because places like this never make fresh eggrolls or spring rolls. Or dumplings, or wontons in the soup or fried wontons. Thats all bought in frozen. FACT. My order at spots like this usually consists of any combination of Fried pork dumplings, scallion pancakes, wonton soup, sweet and sour chx, general toas chx, fried rice, cold peanut noodles, egg roll, spring roll. To what extent do hood Chinese spots season, cook and pre cook there ingredients ? One will never truly know. But the judgement these cooks and owners are using have successfully made the most foul tasting food i have ever had. The color on the inside of the egg roll. Dark grey. Ive never seen that before. Normally there is some orange carrot, some bright green cabbage. White bean sprouts. In this, pure filth. The wonton soup. Liquid and the lowest quality beef filled dough ever. The filling was so chewy. It left an uncomfortable, dry almost ichy feeling in my mouth. Again the color. Just dark grey. No signs of any vegetables or seasoning. The broth. Almost the color of water. No sliced scallions or anything floating in it. No flavor. Boiling hot. The scallion pancakes. Normally pan fried or seared on the flap top seemed as if they were pre seared because they did show signs of caramelization but the level of moisture, the water weight, the soggy ass mess of a scallion pancake was deplorable. The pork dumplings. 100% money back grantee they are selling the beef wontons from the soup as the pork dumplings. No pork flavor. The same chewy, grey, lifeless filled dough thats floating in my boiling hot water. General toas. Easily 70+ half bite size "chicken" pieces. This is honestly the only time in my life where i have had serious doubts if the chicken is really chicken. The pieces were so small and so coated in batter you really cant even see the meat. Its just a layer of dark red spicy sugar reduction with a thick layer of batter and an atom sized piece of chicken. Ratio. 5parts batter 3 parts sauce 1 part chicken. The sweet and sour chicken. This is super confusing. Either they are getting these chicken pieces in frozen and battered or the general toas is really not chicken. These pieces were easily 6 times bigger then the general toas. Still no bigger then a mc donalds chx nug. Fried to a perfect golden brown. The texture was off and i attribute that to them being improperly frozen and thawed. The sauce. A bled of duck sauce, reduced sugar water, and an excessive amount of salt. Cold peanut noodles. Straight up peanut butter thinned out with 1tbs of soy sauce to 1 jar of skippy peanut butter. Toss in mushy over cooked linguine. Add slap chopped scallions. Glop into tin togo container. Toss on some unsalted planters peanuts. Sit back, relax watch a movie if you took it togo or look out the window at the pleasant locals of secor rd going on there merry way to buy heroin. Dont ever eat here. read more
