Taste in translation
CULTURE | Menus easy to digest with help of Chopsticks Dining Club, 'cultural ambassador'
I was just dying to try chicken feet.
I saw them on the menu the last time I had dim sum in Chinatown. Always in search of different and authentic, I couldn't find anything more unusual than chicken feet.
(Rich Hein/Sun-Times)
The next Chopsticks Dining Club dinner is at 6:30 p.m May 15 at the House of Fortune, 2407 S. Wentworth Ave.
Dinners are $25 ($20 for Chicago Chinese Cultural Institute members).
To RSVP, contact Z.J. Tong at (312) 842-1988 or tong@chicagocci.com.
To learn more about the Chicago Chinese Cultural Institute, go to www.chicagocci.com.
But I was with my adventurous-to-a-point 11-year-old and less-than-adventurous parents, and I really didn't know how to eat chicken feet anyway. I stuck to the curried octopus and the lotus-wrapped shrimp.
So when I joined the Chopsticks Dining Club for a dim sum luncheon at Phoenix restaurant in Chinatown recently, I was thrilled to discover that chicken feet were making their way to our table.
Better still, I'd be able to try them with the guidance of a true Chinese expert and in the comfortable presence of others equally clueless about what to bite into first.
And that is precisely the purpose of the Chopsticks Dining Club: It provides a taste of Chinese culture in bite-sized portions.
Z.J. Tong, president of the Chicago Chinese Cultural Institute and organizer of the Chopsticks Dining Club, found food to be a good starting point in his cultural mission.
The most people know of Chinese culture is the food, Tong says. But they often go to the same Chinese restaurant and order the same Chinese food.
Tong's goal: to lessen the intimidation factor for those willing to experiment. Since starting the club last year, he has hosted six monthly dinners at different restaurants in Chinatown and with different themes.
His guests are willing to travel.
Barbara Leskie of Chicago has come to five of Tong's dinners now. She was so enthusiastic about the experience and Tong's instruction that she invited her friend Carol Alexander to make the trip from Schaumburg for April's dim sum meal.
"It's a great opportunity to hear about the food rather than just order blindly," Leskie said. "He's the greatest cultural ambassador."
At the luncheon, Tong explained that dim sum is typically served from 9 a.m. to 2 or 3 p.m. He compared dim sum to tapas in that each diner might order three or four dishes and share with the table.
In China, Tong said, a typical day might start with morning exercise, the newspaper, tea, a few dishes with friends and then work. Dim sum choices might be carried from table to table on bamboo trays strapped over servers' shoulders.
At Phoenix, 2131 S. Archer, bowls of different delicacies were brought to our large, round table on carts and placed on a flat, wooden wheel in the center, which we could turn to share the feast: shrimp dumplings, pork dumplings, steamed spare ribs, baby octopus with curry, rice in lotus leaf, a creamy fish soup, shrimp crepes, turnip cakes and, for dessert, gelatinous coconut cake, tofu much improved with a healthy dose of liquefied sugar and sesame balls.
And yes, chicken feet. Of course I dug in -- or I would have, if I'd had any success holding them with my chopsticks and trying to nibble a taste of what turns out to be cartilage, tendons and a bit of fat in barbecue sauce.
I finally put my fork to work and managed a small bite. And with that, I seemed to have picked off everything edible and satisfied my curiosity. I can say I've been there, done that and might not need to do it again.
The rest of the guests at my table seemed equally adventurous. Some, like Cindy Wojcik, there with her husband, David, and Jennifer Schwalbenberg, who brought her friend Kristen Soderberg, have taken Chinese lessons from Tong.
Fellow diners David Clarke and Terry Hush are world travelers, thanks to Clarke's work in oil valve sales. Hush's sister, Peggy McGuire, joined her for this event with Dana Lundquist, whose work facilitating U.S.-China hospital management exchanges has taken him to many parts of that country.
It's that type of growing involvement in China, in fact, that inspired Tong to found the Chicago Chinese Cultural Institute.
People were curious about Chinese culture, and there was so much business being conducted with China, he said.
"A lot of people are promoting business. I'm promoting culture," Tong said.
It's a two-way exchange. Not only does he host events such as the Red Tie Gala and a Chinese New Year celebration, but Tong also promotes American culture to China, helping arrange trips there for performing groups.
His Chopsticks Dining Club has been drawing about 20 to 30 guests a month. Tong's last vegetarian dinner was sold out. He hopes to limit the size so he can offer a personal experience for each attendee.
I just might have to become one of Tong's groupies. Now that I've done chicken feet, I'd like to try jellyfish or pork belly. I haven't had pea leaves yet, either. Or maybe Tong will come up with something I haven't heard of.
Tong clearly doesn't get cold feet when it comes to presenting guests with the extreme. And yet, he's kind enough to hand a girl struggling with her chicken toes a fork.
Julianne Will is a Chicago free-lance writer.