Friday, August 26, 2016

Oriental Cuisine - Maryville, Tennessee


Oriental Cuisine

622 Condry Lane

Maryville, TN 37803

865-984-0810 

 



First Visit – A Take-Out Order
I would have never known the Oriental Cuisine Restaurant was there except for one thing. Several times a week my wife and I would go to the local gym. When leaving, while waiting for traffic, we would be looking across the street down a very small alley like street that has a name. In fact its name denotes its diminutive stature, Condry Lane. A lane; it is so much less that a boulevard, an avenue or even a street. It serves as the back entrance to a muffler shop and a bank parking lot as well as access for some industrial metal buildings on the left. Way down at the end of the street where it appears to dead end is one small sign; Oriental Cuisine shares sign space with a rug and tile company. From our vantage point we cannot see that building because it is set back to allow for customer parking in front. I was intrigued by this almost hidden restaurant and I thought that it must have something going for it as it would not garner any drive-by traffic.
Many months went by before I finally decided to see what it was all about. I did some internet research and found their website which is basically their menu. They offer a mix of Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese foods. I was on my own for lunch one day and stopped by for a takeout meal of sweet and sour chicken ($9.00 Breaded white chicken chunks deep fried to a golden brown and served with diced tomato, green pepper and pineapple in our sweet and sour sauce. Served with fried or steamed rice). At $9.00 dollars it seemed a bit on the expensive side but this was an exploratory visit to see what they offered and on that day I did have a “hankering” for some Chinese food. I also asked for a spring roll to compliment the meal ($1.75 A delicious mixture of jicama, carrots, onions, rice thread and pork wrapped in a crunchy spring roll wrapper) .

I was offered a seat at the nearest table and while I was waiting for my order I read over my take-home menu copy. I had ordered from the inside, the a la carte portion. On the back was the lunch menu of lower-priced combinations meals. Part of the combination is a bowl of soup. That would have made for an inconvenient take-home but I planned one day, if my pending order was good, return to try something their luncheon menu.
My order soon arrived. It was a large brown paper bag, neatly folded and stapled. I was quite surprised when I picked it up. Thinking back to my thoughts about the rather high cost I now, at least, considered it a very good deal on a price per pound basis. There was a lot of food inside that bag. I could hardly wait to get it home and check out the contents. The fact that it smelled so good made me even more eager.

Opening the bag, I found a large (26-ounce?) traditional Chinese take-out container of breaded fried chicken that was overflowing. I suspect that was a fluke and I got the benefit of the chef’s “Oops, I cooked a bit too much.” It was a large-sized container and if the chicken all fit inside it would still be a large portion. There was a portion of sweet and sour sauce and a portion of fruit and vegetables.
(I just have to add this in as a parenthetical comment: Over the years I have noticed that sweet and sour chicken or pork have become cheapened and degraded under the banner of “New York style” and the pineapple, sweet peppers and other vegetables that helped to define the dish in Chinatown settings have been eliminated and all you get is breaded chicken and sauce usually served separate. That rendition of sweet and sour chicken is travesty and defames the sweet and savory combination that is also beautiful to the eye. A pox on New York style.)

There was a 16-ounce container of fried rice, the spring roll, some packages of soy sauce, some plastic utensils and a fortune cookie. Looking over my stash of Chinese food I realized that if I had bought another spring roll I would have satisfying and filling meals for two; on a per serving basis, $4.50 per person plus the spring roll. The economics of my Oriental Cuisine purchase were looking much better. Now how does it taste?
Taking myself at my word, I divided the food into two portions and cut the spring roll in half. I would have half now and the remainder at a later time. I plated the food for a photo before eating; nothing fancy, just so it wasn’t a picture looking down into the bottom of a box. It was only half of my order but the food literally filled the plate. The sweet and sour chicken was delicious. The breading was fried crispy and the chicken inside was moist and juicy. It occurred to me while I was eating it that the extra  effort in separate packaging made for a crisp chicken in the sauce whereas if it had been all packaged together the chicken in all likelihood would have been soggy and unpalatable. The sweet and sour sauce was very good with a bit of tang from perhaps vinegar and sweetness but not just from sugar. I enjoyed the snap and flavor of the slightly crispy pepper and loved the fruity sweetness of the pineapple. An excellent sweet and sour dish I will definitely try again.

You can order fried rice as an entrée and it will be more elaborate that the pedestrian fried rice that usually serves as the carbohydrate filler in combination plates. This rice was no exception to that rule of thumb. There are bits and pieces here and there but for the most part it is rice, fried and seasoned with soy sauce. Certainly more flavorful than steamed rice but it was not too salty or overly seasoned with soy sauce.  It was good as filler rice goes but at the same time it was not exceptional.
The spring roll was crispy fried and the filling was tasty. A bit of hot Chinese mustard would have been beneficial but not necessary. Although I prefer the thicker, less crispy egg roll skins, I did enjoy the spring roll. It seems that egg or spring rolls are always an appetizer on Chinese food menus. I like them well enough that they should be a main course item. I will certainly add these spring rolls to my next order.

As a side note, take-out orders don’t always go home to be eaten. They may go to the office or on a climate day, to a picnic table in the park. The inclusion of the plastic cutlery was a nice thought.
Second Visit A Month Or So Later  – Eat In Luncheon Special

It was a very hot and sultry day, one usually better spent indoors. I had errands to run and as luck would have it, I was on my own for meals that day. I decided to treat myself to lunch out. It wouldn’t be a drive-thru burger this time. It would be the long awaited sit down meal at the Oriental Cuisine Restaurant for lunch. On the previous visit I had ordered an entrée from the main or dinner menu.  While waiting, I noticed that they also serve from a lunch menu with lower prices from 11:00Am to 3:30PM. It is a long list of choices and the entrée is served with soup (your choice of hot and sour, wonton or egg drop), a spring roll and rice (your choice of steamed or fried). My expectation was that It would be smaller portions and perhaps less elaborate in presentation. The lunch menu includes sweet and sour chicken and it would have been a good comparison but I also wanted to try a broader range of their offering so I chose the Sesame Chicken at $6.00 instead.  For my soup I ordered the wonton. For beverage I went with Coca Cola. My server, Sabrina, was very attentive, very personable. She checked on me at intervals and kept my soda glass full. I need to thank her for making my dining experience pleasurable.
My drink was delivered with a bowl of fried wontons, I sat back to await my meal. As I mentioned, it was a miserably hot day outside and the cool interior of the restaurant was a relief. The shades were drawn and the lighting subdued but you could still see images of the out-of-doors through the slats in the shade. I looked around. It was as I described before. It was oriental in motif, black lacquer chairs, a mural but not much else to give it that Asian look, certainly not gaudy. A quick count found about 50 seats. There were two tradesmen at the table next to me and a solo elderly gentleman across the aisle. There was a party of about 6 or 8 in the alcove. About 8 people came in to pick up their take-out orders; all must have called in and each order was ready on their arrival. Towards the end of my meal several people arrive and must have been regulars from the greetings. Apparently Sabrina, the server, saw one of them parking his car and had his preferred beverage ready for him when he entered the store. My observations answered the fundamental question I had harbored. How does this almost hidden restaurant manage to survive? It requires returning customers and word of mouth advertising. It certainly has returning customers and I will be providing some word of mouth. It is not an ornate place nor does it have an elegant ambiance but it is comfortable and it does have the feeling  like in the old Cheers theme song, “…where everybody knows your name.”

The wonton soup arrived quickly. There were two wontons in a clear broth.  It is served hot. A couple of the small ice pellet from my soda cooled it enough to sip. It is a mild broth with hints of many flavors, chicken and vegetables but not highly seasoned; nice flavor but mild, very subtle. The wontons are large and the wrappers are thick that made for a slightly doughy texture. A seasoned pork mixture in the middle was tasty. It was a flavorful way to await the entrée.
My entrée soon arrived. Oh, my God! The expected meager portions were huge. I must admit that I ate the whole thing with relish but I would have been much better of eating half and taking the rest home for later (something I saw others in the restaurant do). Two people could have shared the meal and felt satisfied.

The rice was the standard carbohydrate filler, seasoned with just the right amount of soy sauce. It was a soup-bowl full of rice, upended on the plate to make the rounded pile of rice. A line of three large florets of steamed broccoli divided he plate. The remainder of the plate was filled with chunks of breaded and fried chicken, coated with sauce and liberally sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. Great aroma and a very nice presentation; it looked very appetizing.
The chicken, mostly dark meat I believe, was cook just about right, the meat cooked through, the breading still slightly crispy under the sauce. Good chicken flavor in the meat and their version of the sesame sauce is very tasty although perhaps a bit thin compared to others. In this case that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The sauce that pools under the chicken provides a nice condiment for the otherwise slightly bland fried rice. It was a very enjoyable meal, one where I did really eat too much.

In conclusion: Will I go back to Oriental Cuisine? Most assuredly! The food is good, the portions are large, the staff members are friendly and the restaurant just seems to be a comfortable palace to be. They have a lot more dishes that I would like to try but I will remember in the future to divide my plate; eat that part there and take the other part home for later.

They are open 6 day a week, closed on Mondays
Hours are Sunday – Thursday 10:00AM to 9:30PM
Friday 11:00AM to 10:00PM
 









No comments:

Post a Comment