New Food to Play With at Wonton Gourmet, Cleveland, OH

When I first started dating my husband Bob in 1991, I told him that the only way I'd consider moving from New Jersey to Cleveland was if Cleveland had a good brewpub and a Chinatown. The fact that I moved to Cleveland four years later is a testament to both Great Lakes Brewing Company and Cleveland Asiatown. I have posted numerous times about Cleveland Asiantown's best Chinese restaurant, Wonton Gourmet, which provides authentic food, mostly Cantonese.

My primary complaint about the state of Asian food in Cleveland has been the lack of authentic Sichuan (or Szechuan) cuisine. Well, based on what I saw and tasted while recently celebrating a good friend's birthday at Wonton, that situation is being remedied.

Thomas, the proprietor and head chef at Wonton, is adding a selection of Sichuan dishes to the menu! I foolishly neglected to photograph the listings on the wall, so I can only show you the one Sichuan dish we enjoyed at the birthday lunch - but since Thomas asked me if he could keep the extra copy of the Asian Bistro menu I had with me (from my last post on Chicago eats), I think we can expect the Wonton Gourmet selection to expand!

And so - we enjoyed another Chinese feast at Wonton Gourmet! First - mostly the usual suspects for appetizers, but a couple of twists:


Cold Jellyfish with Pickled Vegetables and Seasame Seeds

I've never been a huge fan of gooey jellyfish - I've always preferred this delicacy served hot and crispy. But this time - I realized the secret to enjoying this dish - getting some of the pickled vegetables in your mouth together with the jellyfish strands. You know what? It's darn tasty that way! Even Janbo, who was very shy about letting jellyfish past her lips - enjoyed her taste.


Steamed Rice Rolls With Shrimp


Chive Potstickers


Turnip Cake


Steamed Rice Rolls with Green Onion and Cilantro

I much prefer these rolls to their stuffed cousins.

These nibbles were followed by a soup course:


Fish Maw and Seafood Soup with Conpoy (Dried Scallop)

Delicious, as always. The maw adds texture more than flavor, and the conpoy gives a huge hit of the sea!


Oysters with Black Bean Sauce


Golden Tofu Coins with Seafood, Fish and Vegetables

Our server passed our table while delivering a plate similar to this to the table next to us; he said that we had to try this dish today. As always, he was right! I don't know how they get silken tofu to be so firm and crunchy on the outide, while it remains pudding-like on the inside.


Sichuan Spicy Fish

Several folks in our group had already tried this dish on a recent visit, but I hadn't been to Wonton since they started serving the Sichuan dishes.



Exquisitely fresh filet was married with both chiles and Sichuan Peppercorn for a blazing, mouth-numbing experience. I can't wait to try the other Sichuan dishes listed on the wall!


Sauteed Snowpea Leaf with Garlic


Ningko With Shredded Pork

These toothy house-made rice noodle ovals make me swoon with delight every time I eat them!



The contrast of toothy noodle and crisp vegetable is irresistible!


Mai La Ong Choy

This item was also one of the "new" dishes. The Ong Choy was stir fried with a light yet assertive sauce, and lots of ginger - though it looks a lot like the garlic pea leaf dish we'd had earlier - the taste was completely different.

We completed our meal with a birthday cake one of our friends bought at the bakery at the West Side Market. It was a marvelous repast - and I hope a harbinger of spicy fun to come!

Yet More Fun Playing With Food at Wonton Gourmet

A friend emailed me last week that his aunt, who lives in Columbus Ohio, would be visiting him this weekend, and that he'd been itching to get her to Wonton Gourmet (3211 Payne Avenue, 216-875-7000, no website)(each of the last 8 words has a link to a different FPWF WG post). Did we want to join them? Why, yes!

Thomas, the proprietor, and his wife Shirley, were glad to see us. As the four of us settled in, he asked if we wanted to try a cup of strong Hong Kong style tea. We said of course!



Hong Kong indeed - this beverage tasted like a direct connection to Hong Kong's past as a British colony - it was almost like English Breakfast Tea. The addition of condensed milk was the initial give-away, since many Chinese are lactose intolerant and would never reach for milk on their own. The bold taste was different from most Chinese teas I've tasted, and Thomas's recommendation to add sugar was very well taken (and you never add sugar to Chinese tea). A lovely way to begin our dining experience!

We began with our "must have" starters - Chive Potstickers and Turnip Cake.





Dumpling heaven!





Crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside. Yum.

This next dish is one I've wanted to try for a while. The Chinese characters literally translate to Jin yin (gold-silver) dan (egg) xian cai ( Chinese spinach):



Thomas translates this dish as Eggs Two Ways and Chinese Spinach in Soup.



The "two ways" are salty eggs and 1000 year old eggs.



A visually striking dish - this dish packed a flavor wallop.



I found it a little too infused with a sulfurous smell and taste for my palate, however. I am very glad that I got to try it, though.


Salt Crusted Mixed Seafood





Calamari & Scallops & Rice - oh my!


Ong Choi Sauteed With Garlic

A perfectly prepared version of this Cantonese classic.


Hong Kong Style Fried Chicken

Eat your heart out, Colonel Sanders - this is how fried chicken should taste. Crispy skin, plump flesh, and juicy when you bite it.

As wonderful as all of the preceding goodness was - the best thing we ate today was the last thing we were served - Oysters "Hong Kong Style" with Spicy Black Bean Sauce!



The oysters were cooked (Chinese rarely eat anything raw). These were the biggest oyster shells I'd ever seen - all the better to hold more of that fabulous sauce!







The Black Bean sauce combined with the oyster liquor to make a dish greater than the sum of its parts.


Oyster Meat & Sauce Over Rice

Heavenly! And the sauce was so tasty - first I started dipping chicken pieces into the pool of sauce in the oyster shell - then I emptied the oyster shell's contents right onto my last bits of rice. It was magically delicious!

Wonton Gourmet remains my number one Asian restaurant in Cleveland. I am pleased to report that progress continues on the posting of photos with menu items and English descriptions - so it is even easier to explore Hong Kong culinary horizons if you choose. We had so much fun playing with our food today - my friend's aunt says she'll be back to do it again!

Yet More Fun Playing with Chinese Food at Wonton Gourmet

A group of 10 joined us this time (for a total of 12 diners) at Wonton Gourmet & BBQ for lunch last Saturday. (3211 Payne Avenue, Cleveland (no website, (216) 875-7000).) I know I've blogged incessantly about Wonton Gourmet before, but I just can't stop myself. The food is that good.

Concerned that a Wednesday write-up in the Cleveland Plain Dealer might cause a run on the restaurant, we convened at 11:30am. Thomas, the owner, explained that the yellow "specials" banners had all come down, because new ones were in the process of being prepared, with photos and English translations. Wonderful news! The new menu is also improved in that it includes all or most of the formerly "special" dishes.

Two types of tea were offered to our table - the standard Jasime tea and "Flower Tea". Since I'd never had the latter, I opted to try it.



Almost colorless, the tea had a strong flavor. Interesting, but probably an acquired taste.

We started our meal with the Fish Maw & Dried Conpoy soup:



Note the large chunks of fish maw - the fluffy white balls at 3 o'clock and 6 o'clock.



We also finally got to try the Chinese Donut with Rice Noodle:



It was most delicious. Our table consumed three plates worth.



We next enjoyed the turnip cake and Chive Potstickers; these photos are from previous visits:


Turnip Cake


Chive Potstickers

We also tried another "new" appetizer - "Braised Beef Combinations."





Platters of cold delights such as this are common in Chinese cuisine, but most Americans don't realize that there is a whole repertoire of cold dishes. Our platter featured sliced beef (from the shank) which was perfumed with Star Anise and melted in the mouth - even though it looked like it should be tough, it wasn't. The eggs also benefited from a marinade of some sort, and the pickled vegetables in the center were house-made. The only item that was less than a hit (though we finished every bit of it) was the stuffed pig intestine, which are the oval shaped items on top. I tasted it - and to my palate, it was definitely a taste to be acquired.

Our server explained that they offer several different meats for this platter, and promised we would get a different variety if we tried it again.

After a pause to order entrees and digest, the hits started coming!


Y'Shiang Eggplant


Clams with Black Bean Sauce


Salt & Pepper Calamari

The fresh hot chiles on this plate, and the crispy garlic, were especially delicious!


Mixed Seafood & Chinese Vegetables in XO Sauce

Our server, Man Chong, explained that the secret to XO Sauce is the dried conpoy (or scallop). This was fabulous - though most of the seafood was gone by the time I got to this plate.


Steak with Black Pepper Sauce

Yum. My Chinese Cooking Teacher, Jo-Mel, would approve!




Sauteed Ningko with Two Types of Chinese Sausages

These house-made rice cake ovals are simply heavenly - and made even better with house-made lap cheong and bacon!


Roast Duck

Succulent and lip-smacking good.


Sauteed Pea Leaves with Garlic

We were too stuffed from this repast to even consider the orange slices offered to us as dessert!

Wonton Gourmet continues to impress and to feed us fabulous Hong Kong and Cantonese cuisine. We'll be baaack!