Go 4 Food. Chinese New Year Superbowl Eating!

One cold and snowy day, right after all the blizzards had hit Chicago and piles of snow lined the sides of the street, I went to Chinatown with relatives during the Superbowl to eat delicious Chinese food at Go 4 Food...while watching the Superbowl from the TVs that they had in the restaurant. Don't let the name fool you--while sounding extremely fake and takeout Chinese in its tone, I would highly recommend going there to eat good food...it's not your typical Chinese food.

The owner came and talked to us and explained the restaurant briefly, by saying that it was not strictly China-Chinese food--and that some of the food drew inspiration from other parts of Asia where there are Chinese people as well (he himself was from Cambodia). Also, their chef used to work at the Hong Kong Shangri-la.

In any case, we ordered their set menu for Chinese New Year--

Lobster with Ginger and Scallions: I love shellfish, and it's one of the things that I miss while I'm here in Chicago (Seattle and Manila both have greater access to seafood). Lobster was pretty fresh and cooked nicely, so I can't really ask for more than that, as ginger and scallions are a very standard accompaniment to shellfish. Was still good as leftovers a week later--imagine me messily eating lobster with my hands in my dorm room on my half-birthday/Valentines' while watching Outsourced on Hulu. :)

Orange Beef: I know, the name sounds completely fake and inauthentic, but it was not bad! The beef had a sweet-salty flavor (mostly sweet) that was reminiscent of Filipino tocino (cured sweet meat normally eaten for breakfast with rice). My guess is that this is one of those Chinese dishes that is not necessarily popular in China, but is popular among Chinese people in other countries in Asia.

Pea Shoots with Crabmeat and Egg: These were good. Normally in restaurants like these, I just have their normal pea shoots stir-fried in garlic and salt, but the addition of the crabmeat and egg sauce was a nice addition that was mild and complemented the flavor of pea shoots.

Oysters (behind the vegetables): AHHHH. THESE WERE SO DELICIOUS. I'm so regretful that I don't have a picture showcasing them. So their oysters were not part of the set menu and were $3 apiece, but I think they were totally worth it. They were huge, and had a light soy and oil sauce with some green onions thinly sliced on top of them. What I did was take the oyster and drink up the sauce while eating the oyster. The wonderful thing about these oysters was that they were fresh and were not overcooked at all, which is the worst thing to do with an oyster (as it gets very dry and disgusting). So delicious, that I would go back to Go 4 Food and just order 5 oysters for myself to eat. What does this say about me? That I like oysters. Yesss, I do.
Three Kinds of Mushrooms Braised with Lettuce: Not bad, but was just average for me. The name of the dish is pretty self-explanatory, I think. Sauce was probably either abalone sauce or oyster sauce.
Cantonese Chicken: Just your normal Cantonese chicken, which is normally fried and served with salt. Was better than the average Cantonese fried chicken though, because it was juicy and not as greasy, while the skin was crisp. Normally I would dip this in the salt and put some lemon to it, but since it was not dry and flavorful already, I just ate it on its own.

Steamed Fish (behind): Was also good. One of my favorite aspects of Chinese cuisine is the steamed whole fish with ginger, green onions, light soy and oil, because it cooks the fish very precisely such that it's not dry at all, and is instead slightly chewy and juicy at the same time--I don't think I'm doing a good job at describing its texture, but imagine seared fish and eating the part in between the outermost layer and the raw middle layer. It makes the fish taste really fresh.

Salted Egg Tofu: Easily one of the best things I ate during the dinner, and is conceptually one of the most simple things to make too. Looking at this picture makes me want to eat, even though I'm not actually hungry. The tofu that they used was extremely soft and silky Japanese tofu, which is custardy in texture and slightly eggy in flavor. Tofu was fried with a salted egg batter that was slightly crisp on the outside. Eating the freshly-fried tofu was phenomenal--you would eat it and the delicate tofu would melt in your mouth, which contrasted with the crisp graininess of its salted-egg crust. I would characterize it like eating (what I would imagine) fried butter, but of course, less county-fair-ish (and healthier!).
So happy and red (good food+being next to the heater), which is probably a lucky thing for the coming year. Happy Rabbit Year!