C23. Tai Chan Chicken

Of course, getting carryout every week is harder than it should be. I just forget for a few days and before I know it, it's been almost two weeks and I've fallen behind. Well, I decided to make it a Chinese Thursday night. I was having trouble picking tonight. So far, for whatever reason, it' been easy to just open up the menu and just pick. Tonight I thought too much and looked at the menu for a solid 10 minutes. then I saw Tai Chan Chicken. It had a pepper next to it, and I had already decided I wanted something spicier. I have never heard of it so I decided, it's time to find out. This is one of the items that really embodies this journey.

ingredients:

- broccoli

- bamboo shoots

- snow peas

- button mushrooms

- carrot

- mini corn

- water chestnut

- breaded chicken

- red chilis

description:

This is the first time I've seen this dish. It contains a fair amount of standard ingredients but puts them together in a different way. The sauce is a sweet, tangy sauce, reminiscent of a sweet and sour sauce. There is a slight bite to it due to the red chilis. The chicken is a breaded, deep fried chicken, basically the same that you would find in a General Tso's Chicken.

opinion/review:

When I was driving this home I was getting a little nervous. For some reason it just smelled weird, I think it was the broccoli mixing with the scent of the sweet, tangy sauce. Regardless, when I opened the bag upon arriving at home I was greeted to a visually appealing container of food. I really had no idea what to expect for this one but it turns out that it contains a lot of my favorite things in it. I've always been a fan of button mushrooms (probably because of their similarity in shape to the super mario bros. mushroom). Bamboo shoots, well, you know how I feel about those. And I love baby corn, if nothing else, for the sheer novelty of it that never seems to wear off. All in all, I have to admit that it's kind of a strange mix, almost like they just were bored one night and decided to throw a bunch of things together, it turned out to not be too bad, so they gave it a name and stuck it on the menu. Regardless, I am not complaining, the chicken is crispy and tastes great soaked in this sauce. It is packed with vegetables (which is always nice) and it has mushrooms, and I always like mushrooms.

So I consider this to be a more successful addition to this blog seeing as this was a brand new dish I had never heard of. I'll have to keep an eye out and see if this exists on other menus. If any of you have had this before please feel free to leave a comment.