THE SUNDAY STAR-LEDGER

Page 46 Section One                 APRIL 17, 2005

DINNING OUT - FINE DINING

Challenge yourself with authentic Chinese

China Chalet
184 Columbia Turnpike, Florham Park. Hours: 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 11:30 am.1Q:30 p.m. Fridays, noon-11:30 p.m. Saturdays, noon-9:30 p.m. Sundays. BYOW,. Major credit cards. Neat Casual dress. No smoking. Wheelchair accessible. Reservations recommended: (973) 966-2828.

***TWO AND HALF STAR***   BY CODY KENDALL   FOR THE STAR-LEDGER
 

    China Chalet’s manager was charming but forthright when he strolled over to our booth to give us the rundown on the place.
 

    “This isn’t a Chinese-American restaurant,” he told us proudly, explaining the cuisine served was authentic Chinese, prepared by a chef  from mainland China.
 

    If you are desperate to fill up on egg drop soup ($2), mooshu chicken ($8.95) or Peking duck ($29.95), they are available. But if that’s your preference, why not just g to the many garden variety neighborhood Chinese spots that don't veer thrillingly into the unexpected? Go ahead, take a chance at China Chalet, where the items that shine are the exciting specials of chef Wei Lu, who hails from Cheng Du.
 

    They include pungent camphor and tea-smoked duck ($14.95), “home style” sliced conch with minced pork in a chill Sichuan sauce and tender baby pork ribs in a sweet red wine sauce ($15.95).
 

    For starters, the daring could try the ox tongue and tripe with roasted chili peanut vinaigrette ($5.95) or the jelly fish with sesame vinaigrette ($5.95). But some items just aren’t suitable for western tastes, at least in the opinion of the manager, who warned us away from the sliced beef tender with roasted chill ($5.95). Tender in this context was actually a misprint, he explained. The dish involved beef tendons, which he felt wouldn’t be to our liking. He suggested we
the poached tender (not a misprint) beef with five spices ($5.95,) It probably was a better choice than the tendons, but be advised that the thin slices of a humble cut, while easy to chew and heady with spices, aren’t anything like the rich sections of tenderloin that the name may conjure.
 

    Another surprising dish was the shredded beef with Sichuan chili sauce ($15.95), a tangle of threadlike pieces, whose raspy texture was quite an experience when combined with the zesty sauce.
 

    Pay attention to the red pepper symbols that mark many of the dishes. When they say spicy at China Chalet, they mean it. We thought,. that herbed bamboo shoots ($5.95) would be a mellow counterpoint against the “spicy sauce” in which they were served, but the bite outweighed the bland in this one, as it did with the salted vegetables ($4.95). The combo of salt and spice lingered on the tongue long after the vegetables had been swallowed. The thin- sliced conch was fun, but again, the blazing sauce was a bit much for us on top of all the other dishes with that kind of fire.
 

    Our palates got a welcome break from the heat with the lettuce wrap appetizer ($5.95). A mixture of stir-fried pine nuts, corn and green beans was tossed tableside, then presented to us so we could roll them in pliable lettuce leaves. This was a mellow treat that quenched the conflagration from the dishes we tried previously.
 

    In the same vein, the spinach with ginger ($5.95) had a welcome citrusy taste that made a nice counterpoint to our next round of flames. Maybe we were getting used to the spice, but the eggplant with garlic sauce ($7.95), though marked with the infamous red pepper symbol, seemed relatively mild to us.
 

    Another easy-on-the-mouth dish was the crispy whole fish with sweet vinegar ($18.95). The sea bass, served boneless, was a crunchy delight enlivened just enough by the vinegar. It’s a dish we've had at many Chinese restaurants, but it was particularly well-prepared here.

    Something we haven’t tried previously is the gingko chicken ($12.95), slender pieces of chicken cut in a ‘blossom” shape, like the petals of a chrysanthemum, in a silky light garlic sauce. But the real treat here is the scattering of gingko nuts, which look like beans but have a far smoother interior. They’re a Sun addition to the chicken.

    China Chalet has a menu in Chinese, which we saw posted on the wall, that doubtless holds other delights. We glimpsed one on the way out, a “hot pot” for $15 per person, the Asian equivalent of a fondue. Instead of sitting around a container of bubbling cheese, the group sharing this was dipping bits of meat and fish into hot, well- flavored stock, which cooked their food as they chatted and generally had a wonderful time.
 

    If you’re looking for something different in the way of Chinese  food, China Chalet is your ticket to the unfamiliar. If I were to go again, I would take more time to ponder the menu and order only one item marked with a red pepper to every two or three of the other choices. We also should have relied more on the articulate manager. The language barrier with our server meant we had trouble communicating when she came to our table. As a result, we lacked some information about the dishes that would have been useful, had we waited for the manager to come by again or called him over.
 

    China Chalet’s owner, Ying Xu, who came here from Beijing and worked in management at New York restaurants, is always thinking of ways to embellish her establishment. Plans call for music to be added courtesy of her partner, Ke Pei, who is a musician. The restaurant also is getting a license to serve New Jersey wine, though you will still be able to bring bottles of whatever you favor to go with your exciting dining adventure.

Cody Kendall can be reached via e-mail at  Codynine@netscape.net.