Hot Dynasty

[Siro]

Found myself inside the Chinatown supermarket today hunting some Chinese New Year's presents, and hot damn there's hot dynasty inside it.

We tried the same as Gameface plus two extra dishes. The twice cooked pork was excellent, but hot damn they need to learn the difference between hot damn, damn hot, and holy gut burning spicy. My wife couldn't have more than a bite (she's a wimp), and I ate about a third of the large plate before giving in. It was ranked 1 pepper hot.

Two Choices in Chili Sauce with beef & frog (because why the hell not?) -- I wouldn't recommend the frog in a soup -- very small bones to pick out of that medium made for too much work, but the meat flavor was pleasant enough. It was deep and rich as promised, but there is such a thing as over spicing and this dish fell directly in that category. It was served piping hot too, which made it way too difficult to sip even after blowing for longer than should be necessary. There was a seed or root sprinkled on top that left my mouth with a weird sensation that I can only compare to cotton mouth. If it was a bite or two it would have been fine but after crunching several seeds in a row the after taste/sensation completely ruined the meal. I'd have to wait for leftovers to give a proper review if it weren't for every bite of the other 3 dishes living up completely to GF's advertisement.

BTW, for those who couldn't tell, that pic from gameface is a bowl the size of a grown man's forearm. It's huge, easily enough to feed 4. I took 3 quarts home and left some on the table.


Sizzling Beef Plate (?) -- basically peppered beef with red and green bell peppers in a sauce. Only had one bite and it was delicious.


Chicken in Dry Pot -- Pretty good, but again too spicy for the dish. It had some battered and fried broccoli that was tasty. I thought it was potato at first. Maybe there was potato too, I dunno.

That's great. In addition to the twice cooked pork, I've so far had:

Beef hot pot: A barrel of deliciously flavored, but extremely spicy, broth with tender thin slices of fatty beef and vegetables. It was fantastic.

Beef Dry pot: really good, but pretty typical. You should go for it if not too adventurous. Very spicy.

Chicken with fried rice. Has nothing to do with the fried rice most are familiar with. It came as a number of solid blocks of rice that resembled rice krispies. You dump them in rich chicken stew to soften them up. Really good. Not spicy.

Friend chicken with peppers: breaded chicken nuggets with a strong lime taste, drowned in an ocean of hot peppers. I'm not kidding, this comes with about 50 finely chopped and fried peppers. I **** fire for a week.

I'm going again tomorrow on my home from work. I can't wait for whatever I'll order next.

 

[Beer]

Was going to go here with a guy from work. I then told him the name and showed him the yelp and he told me him and his wife went awhile ago and there was a dog tied up to the counter. The dog then peed on the floor and no one cleaned it up so they left. He wouldn't go back with me.

 

[Gameface]

Was going to go here with a guy from work. I then told him the name and showed him the yelp and he told me him and his wife went awhile ago and there was a dog tied up to the counter. The dog then peed on the floor and no one cleaned it up so they left. He wouldn't go back with me.

See this is the kind of authenticity I'm talking about!

It's my birthday weekend and we'll be heading back. We're definitely getting a hot pot this time around.

 

[Beer]

See this is the kind of authenticity I'm talking about!

It's my birthday weekend and we'll be heading back. We're definitely getting a hot pot this time around.

Yeah, didnt bother me that much. I worked in a restaurant so I'm realistic about the disgusting stuff that goes on in every single one. If the foods good who cares.

 

[Gameface]

Yeah, didnt bother me that much. I worked in a restaurant so I'm realistic about the disgusting stuff that goes on in every single one. If the foods good who cares.

This place is actually very clean (looking). I can't really imagine a dog being tied up inside, but I guess it's possible. It is inside what is basically a mall type building and I could imagine a dog being tied up in the common area outside the restaurant.

On another note, these guys do get carried away with the spiciness. That's something I really really like about them, but be forewarned. My wife was disappointed that her twice cooked pork was so spicy since it didn't indicate that on the menu. They have two kinds of twice cooked pork, one just called twice cooked pork and another called Hot Dynasty House Special twice cooked pork. The pic of the twice cooked pork didn't look spicy so I'm thinking that if you don't specify they give you the house special which apparently is spicy.

 

[Gameface]

So it was a while ago but I went back. My wife and I had the beef dry pot and the seafood hot pot with white broth. I'll just get to it and say we did not have as good an experience the second time around. The beef dry pot had szechuan peppercorns (something I learned about later watching a cooking show on TV) that franklin talks about. They absolutely numbed my mouth and I did not enjoy the experience. I guess bonus points because actual szechuan peppercorns are very authentic and very few places in the U.S. would go to the trouble to even use them, but it was overwhelming for me and made it so that I could only take a few bites before I had to stop and try to wake my mouth back up with something else. My wife didn't react the way I did, she was more worried about the spiciness. Apparently szechuan peppercorns affect people differently.

The seafood hot pot with white broth was a huge let down. First, it was a mistake getting the seafood. There was whole unpeeled shrimp and snow crab legs. Tons of work. The broth was a zero on the spicy scale and a 1.5 on the flavor scale. To be fair we did order the white broth because we were worried that the other options would be too spicy for my wife. It wasn't bad broth, just very light and low on flavor.

Been meaning to post this but not something I wanted to own up to since I pimped this place so hard.

Oh and the service was pretty spotty again. One guy trying to serve the whole place on a Saturday afternoon.