Spring World Re-Post

There appears to be posts from Chowhound that are impervious to search & find. Luckily, as the Ultimo, GWiv has encouraged, I have saved many a post. Below is a re-post of a great meal at Spring World, the Yunnan/Szechuan place in the Chinatown Mall.

And the food:

Appetizer plate four ways - conch in a sneaky hot sauce, also very chewy; the famous chicken in black vinegar dressing, maybe the finest dish in the house; mushrooms wrapped around bean curd sheets, more rolls of bean curd than some other local versions; tendon, sliced razor thin, forgotten dressing, but delicious.

Cold Yunnan noodles, like spaghetti, in a multi-flavor sauce, similar to the chicken, but also very heavy on the cilantro. Could have stopped right here.

Beef and special mushrooms in a dark rich sauce - This was a Trio-esque type dish where the richness of the beef merged into the richness of these special mushrooms. Blindfolded, you would not know which was which. (A 4 color brochure was provided for us later to learn more about the imported mushrooms.)

Yunnan ham with leeks - Wow! While I would have loved to have had the ham, procured we are told via a hell of a lot of red-tape, plain with buns, I was plenty happy with this preparation. Yunnan ham really tastes almost exactly like good country ham. The same dense texture, the same intense ham flavor, and the same linger saltiness that tons of soaking cannot kill. Could have stopped here.

Pan fried dumplings - A fine, if un-distinguished, dish. Larger than typical dumplings

Chengdu dumplings (a/k/a boiled dumplings) - A superior version, somehow the called for chili oil was not as oily as it could have been. What was the added grated substance, ginger?

Kung pao chicken - A nod to a first time Chinatowner in our group, yet another superior version. Just the exact amount sauce clinging to the meat and bright fresh peanuts made this a fine dish to eat.

Pigs feet "Hong Tashen" - Hong Tashen, as RST explained to me, is a city in Yunnan and the name of Spring World in Chinese. We were not sure if the dish was meant to be in the style of the city Hong Tashen or in the style of the restaurant named Hong Tashen. Regardless, I am now convinced that I like pigs feet as much as I like spicy desserts, meaning a hell of a lot more than I thought I did. This was a spicy dish, loaded with dried chili peppers, yet unlike some dishes at like, Lao Sze Chuan, the peppers meant something. OK, fatty, chewy and bony too, but all in a good way. Give in to pigs feet!

Tofu and Chinese okra - No one was quite sure what is really Chinese okra. We think it is the long green vegetable also called ohba perhaps and used in Indian cooking. This was a mild satisfying dish that played extremely well against the more rich and spicy other courses.

Spicy baby chicken with ginger - I have had this dish at Spring World before, and it has always been good, but this was gooder, as Sophia might say.

Tilapia fish is horrible looking sauce, insert gross analogy at will, that tasted perfect.

Scallion cakes - Is this getting redundant, the best version I have had in Chicago. Wisps of grease, flaky, crisp and puffy in spots, I could have eaten a dozen.

[Note, on my chowhound report, I failed to mention the salty shrimp in red paste, 'cause, well I guess I did not like it so much.]

Fresh fruit and Yunnan style moon cakes - This is not on the menu, but what the house offered us for dessert. Yunnan moon cakes are totally different than the Cantonese versions, no nuts or bean paste. Instead, an extremely flaky dough, from lard I am sure, filled with tiny bits of Yunnan ham.