Dining clubs and groups are fun as much for meeting the people who attend as for the fine cuisines often experienced. It is always enjoyable to be around people whose enthusiasm and appreciation matches your own. Unlike the past where some of the wine and food societies were rather formal and stuffy today's groups match the casual life-style of the present.
Indeed a large number of Vittles readers are people who have been members of such groups and organizations through the years. So it was with some anticipation that Vittles attended another dinner of the Academy of Culinary Professionals. This time Founder Doris Crandall and Major Domo James Woodin arranged a true oriental feast at Chinatown in Irvine, one of the award winning restaurants of Michael Chiang.
Michael Chiang is something of a legend in Orange County for his abilities both as a master chef and as a restaurateur. His cuisine has been an art of creating specialties from almost all the provinces of China. Many of his 'specialties' have been copied by Oriental restaurants all over the U.S. He first gained fame with his Mandarin Gourmet in Costa Mesa, then with August Moon and for the past 13 years with Chinatown located at 4139 Campus Drive in Irvine.
Chiang's specialties at Chinatown are labeled Shanghai Provincial cuisine but the menu is also full of classic Mandarin and Szechwan dishes as well.
Some thirty strong members and guests of the Culinary Professionals pitched into an eight course menu that included appetizers, a cream corn soup with scallops, shrimp and crab meat, and Hong Kong style fillet of salmon steamed with ginger and scallion in a light soy with hot Sesame oil. The wine with this course was a 1998 Lockwood Monterey Chardonnay, light, fruity and a soft palate.
The Appetizers were truly special including rolling lettuce cup, pot stickers, Shanghai shrimp egg roll (the best this writer has ever tasted), teriyaki beef, soy braised Shitake mushrooms and marinated spicy cucumber. This was served with Tsingtao Beer from the Peoples Republic. Tsingtao originally had a German brewmaster and the beer reminds one of a fine German lager.
Next arrived Aromatic Lobster--lobster tail cooked in Chiang's own signature sauce. With the Peking Duck with Crepes two red wines were served--1999 J Lohr Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon and Francis Coppola 1999 Black Label Claret. With the Firecracker lamb sauteed with green onions and chili in a spicy Kom Pao sauce the wine was Mirassou Monterey 1998 Pinot Noir. Also served with the Lamb ( a meat rarely found on Chinese menus) was a classic Yang Chow fried rice. Completing the evening was a house made ginger ice cream
To join the Academy of Culinary Professionals call Doris Crandall at 714 533-7644.
For fine dining at Michael Chiang's Chinatown call 949 856-2211. Chinatown is open for luncheon and dinner, has a full service cocktail lounge, a fine wine list and free off street parking at 4139 Campus Drive in Irvine.
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