mlg wrote in message ... >Help. For very authentic northern Chinese fare, try Go Bou Li in El Cerrito on a weekend. They have a Berkeley branch, but it doesn't have the weekend specials that El Cerrito has. As you walk in, there's a selection of very "unusual" cold dishes on a table. You can take what you want to your table. By "unusual", I mean "not commonly found in any Chinese restaurant I've been to in the last 15 years" during which a good friend and I have been on a self-imposed mission to find "the perfect noodle" in the Bay Area. He's a "northern noodle guy" while I favor the southern Hong Kong style. The table contains a number of dishes, including sweet-sour pickled vegetables, tiny sesame-coated deep-fried smelt, thinly sliced baked tofu, julienned pigs' ears, and other savories. They have a large selection of steamed, baked or boiled stuffed wheat buns and dumplings as well as other off-the-beaten-path dishes. At the same time they do a spectacular hot and sour soup. My friend Carl swears by their bean-sauce noodle. They have a regular menu for those who may seek the comfort of well-known dishes. Recently, I've become aware of a restaurant across the street from Go Bou Li (San Pablo Ave.) called something like Peking Restaurant. They also have a large selection of northern Chinese dishes, but I have yet to fathom their depth.
San Francisco Bay Area, CA