DanDan restaurant to host Taste of China Dinner Series highlighting regional cuisines

If you’ve been curious to try traditional Chinese food outside the beef and broccoli or orange chicken typically served at Chinese-American restaurants, a new dinner series aims to educate diners about the varied flavors and cooking styles across distinct regions of China, from the tingly spices of Sichuan to the sweet and sour flavors of Fujian.

DanDan, 360 E. Erie St., the Third Ward Chinese-American restaurant helmed by chefs Dan Jacobs and Dan Van Rite, will host a monthly dinner series paying homage to the unique food, customs and traditions of different regions across China.

On select days throughout 2024, the restaurant will offer a special four-course menu ($80 for two people) highlighting the cuisine of a new region each month.

With geography at the core of China's culinary anthropology, DanDan will present regional menus like a traveler's itinerary, starting with Sichuan and ending with Jiangsu, just as one would if they were traveling across the country.

The inspiration behind the dinner series came from chefs Blair Herridge, Greg Greenya and Evan Greenhalgh, who wanted to showcase the distinct characteristics of China’s regional cuisines.

“They wanted to explore deeper into Chinese cuisines beyond what we typically see at Chinese-American restaurants,” Jacobs said. “One of the original inspirations behind DanDan was to learn more about Chinese food, ourselves; and now, this is a way to dig even deeper and show off just how drastically different the regions of China are.”

In addition to serving food from each month’s highlighted region, DanDan’s staff will aim to talk through the region’s traditions, and explain the food and what it means to each region’s culture, using the opportunity as an educational experience for diners.

The dinner series kicks off January 23-25. The four-course menu will highlight the cuisine of the Sichuan region, which Jacobs said is the type of regional cuisine that inspired him most to learn about Chinese cooking. If pressed, he’ll tell you his favorite Sichuan dish is cumin lamb, which will appear on the series’ menu in meatball form, grilled with vegetables over hot coals.

Selections on the four-course Sichuan menu include Tudou Si (stir fried potato strings, dried chili and Chinkiang vinegar), Chengdu-Style Bing (griddled sandwich with wind-cured pork belly and radish), Chuanbei Liangfen (cold noodles with numbing-hot sauce), Shaokao (cumin lamb meatballs and vegetable skewers grilled over hot coals), Paigu Mian (pork spare rib soup with orange peel and Sichuan pickles), Ma La Zha Yu (whole fried sea bass with doubanjiang, crispy shallot and herbs), Gan Bian Dou Jiao (dry-fried green beans with Sichuan peppercorn, ginger and Chinese mustard greens), Youtiao (fried doughnut sticks with house-made soy milk and Sichuan caramel) and Tanghuli (candied assorted fruit).

But diners aren’t limited to the regional menu when dining in. Anyone is welcome to add additional dishes from DanDan’s standard menu on top of the special series menu.

Here is the full lineup for DanDan’s 2024 Taste of China Dinner Series:

• January 23-25: Sichuan

• February 9-10: Lunar New Year

• March 19-21: Hunan

• April 23-25: Canton (Guangdong)

• May 21-23: Fujian

• September 24-26: Zhejiang

• October 22-24: Shandong

• November 19-21: Jiangsu

Limited quantities are available, so reservations are recommended. If you intend to order from the dinner series menu, please make a note in Tock when reserving your table, or call beforehand to give the kitchen proper notice.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: DanDan to host Taste of China Dinner Series