Page 20 - Sonoma County gazette September 2018

By Peter Posert
The aroma will make you salivate.
The smell is a little acrid, salty, and
s s o o m m e e h h o o w w a a l l l l m m o o u u t t h hw w a a t t e e r r i i n n g g u u m m a a m m i i ; ; it’s cooked soy sauce. The table is worn formica, mostly clean from being wiped 1000 times, but it is not
totally clean, either. Red placemats w
Chinese zodiac lay in front of everyo
i it t t h h h t t t h h h e e e
w i
on
ne
e:
: “
“ W
Wh
ho o
should rats like?” “I don’t like horses?” We wait. We laugh a bit. We t el l stor ie s. M M o o s s t t l l y y t t h h o o u u g g h h , , w w e e w w a a i i t t ... ...
Finally the waitress appears with a large plate of golden steaming deliciousness, our mission for the moment is nearing completion. “Ohhs” and “Ahhs,” are uttered and then we discuss the plating. We’ve all done this many times before.
This day, my friends and I are trying to find the best pot sticker in Sonoma County, again. It is “important business” we think. We are all goofy laughs first thing in the morning but when the pot stickers arrive at the table, it is serious and we are ready to eat.
There are 46 independent Chinese restaurants in Sonoma County. We’ve been to all of them.
While we dish out the pot stickers, we pass around the little metal
compartment that holds the vinegar and hot chili-sesame oil. Soy sauce is passed around. We each have our own little private mixture. In most places, the sauce comes pre-mixed from the kitchen and often it isn’t the way I want it.
We are connected by a strange affinity; a love of food, adventure, fun and good times. The 4 of us are on a culinary mission and we can’t wait to plunge our forks into the dumplings now in front of us.
Funny little places, our Sonoma County Chinese restaurants. Each one is so very different. These businesses sit out in the strip malls by the nail salons or karate studios or massage parlors and pharmacies at the edges of our towns and cuisine consciousness. They support a family or two, maybe more, and we just take them for granted.
For us, pot stickers are the defining menu item for quality...
Pot stickers can be made in typically two ways, with our without much cabbage. There are five things that are incontrovertible to us as ingredients though, to make a truly sublime experience:
1. Pork 2. Cabbage 3. Ginger 4. Crispy bottom shell 5. Some other stuff that probably includes garlic, onion and a little pepper.
The first three have to be in perfect balance. Sadly, most are not
in balance. The Shell? It just has to be right, crispy on the bottom and fully cooked and soft on top. It’s the other stuff that makes pot stickers fun. Maybe this one has wood ears? Could this be a hunk of water chestnut? That’s a lot of garlic in here.
Usually, there is just way too much pork in our local restaurant’s pot stickers. When they are heavy on the pork, they are also heavy on the palate (and the tummy) and uninteresting. Often, there isn’t enough cabbage, and even when that is correct, if Chef overcooks the dish, then the pungent over-cooked cabbage ruins the whole thing. Underutilization of ginger is acutely the most common crisis. Without it, one gets the weight from the meat and cabbage, but there isn’t any lightness, any air. Ginger elevates pot stickers - you almost can’t have too much.
So go to your local Chinese restaurant and support them!
Let them thrive! When a community looses its local independent Chinese restaurant, it’s like losing your local wine shop or butcher
or cheese monger or hobby store. The neighborhood is diminished. With so many new choices for our entertainment and cuisine dollars, it can be easy to forget about the local, cheap, greasy spoon Chinese place out in the strip mall by the chain pharmacy.
Don’t lose any more of them. There are only 46 left.
Pot Sticker tasting. Give it a try sometime, just for kicks.
POST your EVENTS online all month @ SonomaCountyGazette.com
20 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 9/18