Peter Chang did indeed mean it when he invited me to visit him in his Virginia dining room. The famed Chinese chef calls Virginia Beach, site of his latest restaurant, home these days. When I emailed to say I’d be in Central Virginia for the weekend, wondering if I might find Chang in Charlottesville or Richmond, I was invited by his business partner to Fredericksburg for dinner personally cooked by the master chef.
In addition to a great meal, I was treated to news of an exciting forecasted 2014 opening on the Washington area culinary landscape. Chang and his business partner Gen Lee are looking at properties to bring a new Peter Chang restaurant to Fairfax later this year. They’re focusing on space at the intersection of Old Lee Highway and Route 50 by a Home Depot location, where Arlington Boulevard turns into Fairfax Boulevard, not far from the Vienna Metro Station.
It would be a welcome homecoming indeed for a culinary talent who first drew critical acclaim in local media outlets by coming and going from nondescript Chinese restaurants in Fairfax County. He hopes to be back in town with his name on the marquee of what would be his fifth Virginia restaurant, looking toward a potential autumn opening.
In the meantime, Fredericksburg is the closest location for trying Chang specialties like dry-fried eggplant and cilantro fish rolls. Just over 40 miles down I-95 from the Capital Beltway’s Springfield mixing bowl, an off ramp leads to a Central Park nothing like the urban green space on Manhattan Island with which it shares a name. It’s a 200 plus shopping center that bills itself as the largest of its kind on the East Coast, its website inviting shoppers to “take a walk in the park.” But it’s no place for a stroll; it’s a suburban mega strip mall, with pretty much every chain store you’ve ever heard of, anchored by a Lowe’s, Walmart, and a Fun Land.
I wouldn’t blame a consumer for picking Cracker Barrel or Panda Express, passing by Peter Chang’s with its neon signage and papered over windows if they don’t know of the place’s pedigree. Plus their liquor license is still being held in limbo by the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, further leading to what was a rather empty dining room for a Friday night.
Inside, green banquets ring a fairly large dining room, large round tables with lazy Susan spinners in the center. The sunset colored walls are decorated by large photos like one of children sorting through red chili peppers in China. The Chang segment on Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern plays on a continuous loop on two televisions hanging up above. It’s not about ambiance here.
I choose several signature starters to begin the meal. I’d been waiting to retry the cilantro fish rolls since I visited Tasty China in Marietta, Ga. — little cigars filled with gentle white fish with the green leaves visible through the fried wrapper. The light sugar coating catches me off guard on a scallion bubble pancake that’s puffy like an Indian puri rather than flat like the scallion pancakes I’m used to. Yet instead of collapsing while punctured, it somewhat holds its spherical shape as you tear pieces off to dip in a curry dipping sauce as you would a Malaysian roti canai. Crispy pork belly, basically Chinese chicharones, is a fatty way to start a meal. Dry-fried eggplant on the other hand is a revelation. Long rectangles of the aubergines, fried in a dusting of cornmeal, are practically grease-less with the mild taste of the soft eggplant contrasting with the exploding Sichuan peppercorns that dot the plate. One of my favorite sensations is the funky lemon-lime soda taste you get when taking a gulp of water after eating the little peppercorns.
A diverse waitstaff — only the host is Chinese American — begins to bring out what Chang has selected for the main part of the meal. Three dishes create a cacophonous symphony from the fiery vessels they’re served in. An array of seafood finishes simmering in a heated stone pot. Sliced fish, scallops, shrimp, and cuttlefish swim in a reddish-yellow curry that’s gurgling inside, topped with a pinch of green onions for color and texture. There’s a bit more burn on the tongue from a chicken and beef with mixed peppers that sizzles on a hot iron plate, fajita style. Shrimp with onion and pepper stay warm in a small wok with a burner lit underneath. The spicy pepper saturates the onions and coat the perfectly cooked rock shrimp.
Glutenous rice buns stuffed with red bean paste finish the meal. Just out of the fryer, the balls have a chewy yet almost custard-like consistency, bright yellow, soft, and stretchy at the same time.
Exchanging thanks after the meal, Chang speaks Chinese translated by the restaurant’s manager, though I can pick out the word “Home Depot.” He heads south on I-95 back toward Virginia Beach where his restaurant sits in the shadow of a Best Buy, and I head north towards Washington. I may have a chance to stop in for a braised fish with soy bean paste lunch special when I return to the area to contest a speed trap ticket I got on the way to dinner. But it shouldn’t be too long before a dinner at one of Chang’s restaurants doesn’t require a trek far down the highway, even if more often than not it will be his name on the menu rather than his hands in the kitchen.
