In search of a five-star General: Chinese takeout in Chittenden County that’s Tso good
When it comes to ordering Chinese takeout food – and I know I’m not alone in this – my go-to dish is General Tso’s chicken.
No matter where you are, getting General Tso’s is like ordering a meal at an anywhere-USA fast-food joint: The food follows a predictably tasty template. With General Tso’s chicken you can count on chunks of breaded white meat drenched in a sticky, slightly sweet soy-based sauce with varying degrees of heat provided by dried red chili peppers.
If you order General Tso’s enough times – not that I’m speaking from personal experience or anything – you begin to notice subtle differences. Sometimes the meat seems pretty fresh, other times it’s as processed as a typical chicken nuggie. The sauce can be thin or on the gloppy side. Often, but not always, broccoli is mixed in with the chicken. The heat can be super-mild, or as was the case with a General Tso’s dish I ordered many years ago in Tucson, Arizona, it can melt your face off.
Because of those variations and its omnipresence on Chinese takeout menus, General Tso’s chicken lends itself toward a comparative taste test. That’s just what I embarked on this winter, by sampling General Tso’s chicken from a quintet of Chittenden County takeout spots to see how the dish differs in ways both great and small.
I controlled the experiment as best I could, ordering General Tso’s takeout as a combination dinner, which generally (so to speak) comes with a choice of rice − I opted for pork fried rice − and a side eggroll. I did this on five occasions over a month or so.
Now, onto our mission – the General Tso’s taste-off ....
Dragon House Chinese Restaurant
Location/information: 22 Commerce St., Hinesburg; (802) 482-6888
Presentation: It comes in a recyclable clamshell container with dividers, filled with a dozen moderately sized chunks of chicken. There’s no broccoli and no signs of dried chili peppers.
Quality of meat: It’s somewhere between fresh and processed, but tasty enough. The breading has a crispiness that nicely accentuates the softness of the chicken.
Quality of sauce: It’s light in color and texture, smooth rather than slathered.
Level of spiciness/heat: There’s almost no spicy heat. What it lacks in Scoville heat units, it makes up for in the ability to taste the individual ingredients.
Quality of rice/eggroll: The rice is moist but not clumpy, just right. The eggroll is fairly thin with moderate crispiness.
Fortune-cookie fortune: No fortune cookie – how unfortunate.
Overall mark: This is a 4.1-star General that wins points for simplicity. This general is no shouter.
China Express
Location/information: 295 Shelburne Road, Burlington. (802) 865-2155, www.chinaexpress1.com
Presentation: The food comes in a hearty plastic container filled with deep-brown chicken chunks. There’s a good chicken-to-rice ratio here that leans more heavily in favor of the meat than do some other restaurants’ General Tso’s offerings. Mine has two chunks of broccoli.
Quality of meat: It looks and tastes like real chicken, unlike occasional General Tso’s dishes elsewhere, with a soft exterior and tender meat.
Quality of sauce: It’s thick enough to say so but not dripping in sauce, and with a satisfying, mellow flavor.
Level of spiciness/heat: Negligible. There aren’t any chili peppers in my dish.
Quality of rice/eggroll: The eggroll has a nice crispy/chewy contrast. I really like the subtle smoky quality of the pork fried rice.
Fortune-cookie fortune: They had a container full of 'em on the counter but I forgot to take one as I left. So my fortune probably would have read, “You’re a bit of a dimwit.”
Overall mark: This is a 4.5-star General that I’d go to battle with. Or at least to the mess hall.
Yummy Chinese Restaurant
Location/information: 49 Heineberg Drive, Colchester. (802) 860-2828 or (802) 864-3890, www.yummycolchester.com
Presentation: It’s in a divided clamshell container. The sauce on the chicken has a nice rich brown tone. There’s plenty of rice but no broccoli. I’m not thrilled that the eggroll is sitting on top of the saucy chicken, potentially endangering its crispiness.
Quality of meat: Excellent, almost flaky in texture. The crunchy exterior is a plus.
Quality of sauce: It’s on the sweet side, almost syrupy, dripping but not oozing.
Level of spiciness/heat: Imperceptible. There’s no sign of peppers.
Quality of rice/eggroll: There’s just a hint of smoky flavor in the pork-fried rice. The long, thin eggroll maintained its crispiness despite sitting on top of the chicken, but the interior is a little dry and skimpy on filling.
Fortune-cookie fortune: “Sometimes in life, you just have to play hardball.” Spoken like a true General.
Overall mark: This is a 4.3-star General. This dish lives up to the restaurant’s Yummy name thanks to the above-average quality of the meat.
Men at Wok
Location/information: 299 Williston Road, Williston. (802) 878-2850, www.menatwokwilliston.com
Presentation: The divided clam-shell container reveals dark chunks of chicken. There is a high rice-to-chicken ratio, a bit of a downside. There’s no broccoli or visible peppers.
Quality of meat: These are good chunks of white meat, though they’re small in comparison to the thick breading surrounding the meat.
Quality of sauce: Smooth and mildly tangy, not laid on too thick.
Level of spiciness/heat: Maybe a smidge hotter than some of the others, but not what I’d call spicy.
Quality of rice/eggroll: The rice has a darker hue than most and fine if not remarkable flavor. The eggroll is nicely chock-full of filling.
Fortune-cookie fortune: “You will conquer obstacles to achieve success.” It’s been a rough day, so this is just the pep talk I need right now.
Overall mark: This is a 3.9-star General. You can count on this General to get the job done.
Hop Sing
Location/information: 20 Susie Wilson Road, Essex Junction. (802) 878-1922, www.hopsingvt.com
Presentation: The divided clamshell container houses chicken with a medium brown tone, eight sizable chunks of meat, no broccoli or visible peppers.
Quality of meat: These are big white-meat chunks. There’s no General Tso’s mystery meat at work here – most excellent.
Quality of sauce: The sauce is subtle in taste, not overly tangy or sweet, with just the right amount to provide succulent flavor without dripping.
Level of spiciness/heat: I’m not sure if I’m just getting inured to heat, but none of these five dinners have seemed spicy to me, despite the symbolic peppers next to the listing on the menus. This one might just have a wee hint of spice, but nothing that’ll set your lips on fire.
Quality of rice/eggroll: The rice is perfectly moist and flavorful. The eggroll is huge and stuffed with plenty of eggroll goodness. This is the only one of the five combination platters that didn’t come with an eggroll – it comes with a soda instead. (I opted for root beer.)
Fortune-cookie fortune: “You have an ambitious nature and may make a name for yourself.” Say, maybe they’ll name a Chinese dish for me one day ....
Overall mark: This is a 4.7-star General. I didn’t find a 5-star General − they’ve all been fine − but this is the highest-ranking General I’ve met.
Who is General Tso?
In case you want food for thought with your Chinese food, here’s another tasty nugget: There really was a General Tso.
According to the “Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook” by Fuchsia Dunlop, as excerpted by NPR, “General Tso's chicken is named for Tso Tsung-t'ang ... a formidable 19th-century general who is said to have enjoyed eating it.” Dunlop spoke with chef Peng Chang-kuei, who said he began making the dish in the 1950s before it rose to popularity in the West in the 1970s after he came to New York.
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Comparing Chinese food in Burlington area: Dragon House, China Express
