Day 1: A Bad Way To Start

I love Chinese Food, if I could I would eat it every day. So for the first lunch of my 30 Days of Lunch I chose a Chinese restaurant. Dong Hai (39th St. and 6th Ave.). I have walked by this place a few times, and after reading a positive review online, I thought this would be the perfect kickoff location.

Boy was I wrong. I walked in the door, decor was pleasing, the place looked clean and well decorated, with the usual brusque waitstaff. So far so good, but that's when things went downhill fast. They had the usual 7.95 lunch special with soup and a choice of brown or white rice and an entree. The lunch menu was sparse with only one recognizable choice. Now this isn't some Chinatown locals only kind of place or authentic Sichuan joint, it was straight up American Style Chinese food. It didn't even have General Tso's Chicken.

I ordered Hot and Sour Soup and Kung Pao Chicken. The soup was pretty good, with lots of tofu and black fungus, and it was silky with just the right amount of corn starch, but it was pretty dark, and had too much soy sauce. The worst part was the store bought crispy noodles I like to crunch up in my Hot and Sour soup. frying up wonton skin noodles is so easy, the lack of effort is always disappointing.

about two minutes later (after about one bite of soup) they brought out this day glow orange pile of white meat chicken with two or three peanuts. Everyone knows Kung Pao Chicken should be made with chunks of dark meat, but not here. It was sickly sweet and not even remotely spicy despite all the dried chiles.

It tasted pretty awful, even though the chicken was cooked to just the right texture. Needless to say I will not be returning to this pit of Chinese-esque food.