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Tasty China

Category: Atlanta Chinese favorite
Verdict: Worth a drive.

Tasty China, and more particularly its chef, have received a great deal of attention from both the Atlanta foodie world and the local Chinese community.  I've eaten there a couple of times myself.  More recently, Yu, Fumin and I had dinner there together.  That allowed us to try more dishes and me to avail myself of their expertise.

On my solo visits, I was drawn to the "Hot and numbing" dishes, such as hot and numbing beef.  This is clearly not a name bestowed by a restaurant marketing consultant.  These dishes were fascinating and something I hadn't tried before.  The beef had a crunchy crust and was served with whole red chiles.  The complete dish looks like this:
http://www.tastychina.net/wordpress/
I really enjoyed it.

But I wanted to try more.  We tried several things, including a bean curd soup (very good), beef with chile (good), and my absolute favorite, tea smoked duck.  The duck was succulent and the smokiness came through perfectly---an excellent counterpoint to the duck without being overpowering.  Overall, Yu made an interesting point: Mexican hot food has a long burn while Sichuan hot food has a burn that goes away in a few minutes.  Yu and Fumin agreed that the menu tries to please both Chinese and American palates, which is a good thing in my book.  The choices are unusual even for a jaded Chinese food-addicted programmer.

Tasty China on Urbanspoon
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