The Amazing Green Apple

I had the very good fortune to join the friend of a friend and a lively gang of her co-workers for an impromptu lunch at a restaurant whose fame has been growing on foodie websites usch as eGullet and Chowhound. North Brunswick's Green Apple restaurant is situated in a partially hidden shopping center just off Route 130 South, about a quarter mile south of Adams Road, as unlikely a location for authentic Chinese food as one could imagine. But isn't that the true fun of discovery? And isn't that the joy of making new friends?

I walked in as lunch was being served family style, ordered by one of my dozen new lunchmates, a Chinese chemist for the pharmaceutical company at which the group all worked. My eyes quickly caught sight of an abundance of fiery hot dried peppers in several of the dishes. Oh boy. Sechuan style.

There were heaping platters of Chung King Spicy Chicken, tossed with onions, green pepper, brown sauce and those dried chilies; the same dish served with shrimp in place of chicken; julienned beef with long hot green peppers (a favorite dish of mine at other Sechuan restaurants); green beans tossed with garlic and shallots; small bowls of airy pork stuffed wontons in chili oil; two Sechuan-style seafood "hot pots", one called "Boiling Fish," a huge spicy bowl filled with filet of sole, a cascade of vegetables and Sechuan peppercorns, and a darker, incendiary bowl called "Dancing Fish", with sole, a similar mix of vegetables and a truly painful amount of dark red dried chilies. There were bowls of white rice to help soften the spice attack, but these plates were skillfully done, eminently delicious and searingingly hot!

Green Apple also serves sushi, with a large sushi bar and the requisite serious sushi chefs behind it. We were offered a couple of sushi rolls, arranged elaborately on large platters, to counter the vibrant dishes we had all just consumed. One such roll was dubbed a Hawaiian roll, with tempura shrimp, cucumber and avocado. Another was a special Halloween roll, with spicy yellowtail, shrimp and jalapenos. Both were grorgeous presentations, but it's unlikely any of us could really appreciate the subtle artistry within after the assault our taste buds had just taken.

After just this lunch, I'd rank Green Apple among the very best Chinese restaurants in the state; it can take its place proudly alongside Sechuan House in Hamilton, Tiger Noodles in Princeton and China 46 in Paramus. You've gotta get to this place. It will not be long before this new place is a destination restaurant.

GREEN APPLE

Japanese & Chinese Cuisine

432 Renaissance Blvd. East

North Brunswick, NJ 08902

732-398-8893

Pleasure and Pain in Royersford, PA

"Spicy Hot Pot"

OK, I caught your attention. And no, it's not the headline for a City Paper Personals ad, though I'd bet it's been used there before. Last night I was very fortunate to be able to join 14 other foodies for an outrageously deliciously incendiary repast at the new Han Dynasty restaurant (70 Buckwalter Rd, Royersford, PA, 610-792-9600), the second outpost of the very good Exton restaurant. I wrote about the Exton place and its food last year for a Chinese New Year article in a local magazine, and I think the new Royersford place is even better. We sat down to a 24-dish feast that was both notable for its scope and wonderful for its roller-coaster of flavors and textures. The dinner was organized by Jeff Towne, the co-producer and engineer for the nationally syndicated, ambient music radio show, "Echoes" heard locally on WXPN (88.5FM), but he is best known in foodie circles as Philadining, author of the Philadining Blog, and one passionate, dedicated photographer of almost everything he eats in restaurants.

En route to the restaurant, which was a near 60-mile trek for me, I stopped i nto the Royersford, PA branch of the Sly Fox Brewery and picked up three growlers of their superb beers, detailed in my post above. It was a good move. Some of the dishes we sampled needed the beer to moderate their considerable heat.

Fish in Dry Pot

The pictures I'm posting here are courtesy of Jeff and the foodie website egullet.org, and are just a glimpse of what we had; you can read the entire recap, with complete photos, on this thread of egullet.

It was a roller coaster of a dinner; from the very first dish, a fish and pickled vegetable soup, our taste buds were put on alert. Great soup (cuttlefish, I think, was the fish), lip-tingling heat level. Quickly softened by some sips of Sly Fox Pikeland Pils, and the next dish, sweet potato cakes (think sweet potato latkes), thankfully mellow, sweet and greaselessly fried. Wontons in chile oil followed, a superb rendition with decent heat. I was almost too squeamish to try the Sliced beef and tripe, but I did, and it was quite good, served cold (it was actually beef TONGUE, and that limited my sample to a bite, thanks very much), and really spicy.

Smoked Bacon and Leeks

So much of the dinner was an ever moving blur of dishes, napkins wiping my ever-perspiring brow and neck, smart sips of beer and water, scoops of steamed rice (another good heat damper) and gasps of tongues a-tingling. Thankfully I was not alone in my reaction to this onslaught of spice, but I was just as astonished at the relative calm and dry brows of some of my tablemates. I could feel my lips, ferchrissakes, and they were pulsing.

There was rabbit with peanuts, a very nice sweetly spicy dish, mung bean "noodles", and cold shredded chicken in a sesame sauce. Then came the Mother of All Spicy Things, a dish simply listed on our hand-written menu as "Spicy Hot Pot" (pictured at top of this post). Damn. This. Was. Hot. All manner of beef, pork shrimp, squid, crabmeat, tofu, noodles and veggies in a ridiculously hot soupy stew. Route 113 IPA went into my glass and quickly down my throat. The hot pot was one of the spiciest things I have ever eaten, and I've eaten some serious old-school Thai food in my life.

Thankfully, Han followed the hot pot with a delicate sweet and sour fish dish that was very nice and very welcome. Equally tasty was a simple dish of smoked bacon and leeks

Sweet and Sour Fish Filets

Tea-smoked duck in a beer sauce brought back the heat, as did a whole Sechuan sea bass, blanketed in a zingy coating. Sechuan Sea Bass

Shrimp-stuffed eggplant was terrific, dark purple slices curled around chopped shrimp, as was fish in dry pot, stir-fried string beans, chicken with dry hot pepper (like tiny popcorn chicken taken to the tenth power in heat), deep-fried shredded beef (think searingly hot beef jerky), Taiwanese sausage and snowpeas, studded with garlic cloves (you wrap the sausage around a clove and pop it in your mouth, take a slurp of beer, and it's just terrific), delicate baby bok choy and black mushrooms, earthy, juicy shredded lamb with cumin (specially requested by our tablemate, Lauren), and braised bacon with scallions. The Dunkel Lager was opened for these last 4 dishes and it was an excellent companion. Especially with that braised bacon. Yes, braised bacon. Who knew?

Dessert was a mind-bender, at least for me (after 23 rollickingly good dishes, the mind was pretty much bent already): sesame dumplings, three white orbs floating in hot water. Restaurant owner Han instructed us to put each dumpling in our mouth whole, and when we bit into it, it was like a gooey, slippery, marshmellowy Reese's peanut butter cup, I swear. Totally messed with your mouth and taste memory. What a wacky way to go out.

It was a fabulous dinner start to finish, daring and dangerous and hilarious and absolutely delicious. And painful in parts. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat.