A Fork on the Road: Mr. Chefs

Wu and Chen, two villages in southern China, were known for mass migration during the California gold rush of the 1850s. A century and a half later, South Floridians with ties to each place have struck gold as partners in Mr. Chef, a new Chinese restaurant in Aventura.

Mr. Chef is Shi Ming Wu, who learned the ropes at his older brothers’ West Palm Beach restaurants before striking out on his own. His business partner, Jinxiang Chen, knew Wu through a family friend in New York. Their elegant space offers fine dining at moderate prices with a small bar in a separate lobby where customers wait for pick-up orders, but it’s worth taking a seat to enjoy fresh-from-the-wok cooking. Milky white, slightly sweet Nigori sake from Japan goes well with spicy dishes like Singapore noodles, sesame chicken and ma po tofu.

Start with springy shrimp dumplings or sui mai, minced pork, shrimp and shiitake mushroom seasoned with ginger and oyster sauce steamed in fluted gyoza wrappers. Lettuce wraps come with a choice of chopped meat or shrimp sautéed with crunchy bits of water chestnut. There’s also jellyfish salad, Hong Kong-style grilled spareribs and mango-shrimp rolls. Specialties include Cantonese chow fun (wide ribbons of rice noodle tossed with a protein and bean sprouts in a savory sauce), Mongolian beef (thin slices in spicy sauce) and Sichaun chicken in chile-peanut sauce. Mu-shu pork is a northern dish with cloud ear mushrooms, ground pork and dried lily buds (called golden needles or mu-shu in Chinese) stir-fried with eggs in a rice wine and soy marinade.

Peking duck is served in two courses. The crispy roasted skin is presented for wrapping in steamed pancakes smeared with sweet bean sauce, and then the meat is stir-fried with vegetables and rice noodles. For dessert try lilac-tinted red bean ice cream. The partnership between Wu and Chen is hao chi (delicious).

This story was originally published November 23, 2010 at 3:11 AM.