Chia Shiang — Photo Essay

NOTE:  If you're printing this post out as a guide to what to order at Chia Shiang, make sure you also get our follow-up post with some additional great dishes we've discovered since we wrote this.  You won't be sorry! 

Pan-fried pork dumplings made from scratch at Chia Shiang

For many years Chia Shiang has been the Chinese restaurant of choice for local vegetarians with their wide range of soy and wheat gluten faux-meat dishes, as well as being one of a couple that serve Malaysian dishes. They have since expanded their restaurant to cover Shanghai and Sichuan dishes, and now seem to be the place to go for the local mainland Chinese community. We discovered this when I asked a co-worker from Beijing where I could find the best Sichuan food in Ann Arbor, unknown to me Joe was reading about Chia Shiang on the Ann Arbor Food email list. (I'm on the list, but I am woefully slow at checking my email.) So in one of those odd moments, we both suggested the place for dinner on the same night. When we got there, a large wedding reception was in full swing, complete with wedding toasts in Mandarin.

I recommend starting at the back of the menu and working forward — many of their most interesting and authentic dishes are in the last half of their extensive menu.  They've got all the standards up front, as well as the meatless and Malaysian items, but we've been enjoying exploring the latter half of the menu.

Get there before noon on Sunday and you may get a chance to try the above fabulous dumplings or "soup" or sticky rice dumplings in the following photos.  (REMEMBER: you can click on any of these images to get a larger and tastier version!)

Xiao Long Bao!  Pork and crab stuffed "Soup" dumplings — a burst of broth in every dumpling, so watch out! We advise letting them cool a bit.  They definitely make these on the premises, because we've gotten to watch...

Shanghai-style vegetable salad with the gluten meat substitute. A bit sweet and a bit spicy. Served cold.

Chicken with chestnuts — Chinese bbq sauce-like flavor with whole roasted chestnuts. (Not water chestnuts, chestnuts as in "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...")  Remember to order this without bones, unless you're culturally Chinese enough to enjoy disarming small pieces of chicken with tiny bones — in your mouth.

Boiled fish in Sichuan sauce. Mmmm... spicy goodness. Chunks of fish with lettuce in a spicy sauce made with chili bean paste and Sichuan peppercorns.  This is large — that's a full-size serving spoon in there.  This dish is an obsession with us. We had it first in China, then at Chung King in San Gabriel, CA. You can find versions of this dish also on TK Wu's and Middle Kingdom's menus, and similar recipes for cooking it at home in Land of Plenty.

More photos in the extended post...

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More dumplings, with sticky rice. Very mild flavored with that wonderful sticky rice texture.

"Super spicy" chicken with no bones. Not as spicy as it looks, but with plenty of Sichuan peppercorns, sliced ginger and garlic, and a hint of five-spice powder. You can tell how dry this dish is by the fact that they serve it in a basket!  One of the ones we keep ordering because it's addictive...

Sichuan-style cold spicy beef.

Peanuts with seaweed — salty goodness.

A cold noodle dish (might be Sichuan-style)

Beef with peanuts and chili peppers (Gong bao beef)  Very nice version of this dish.

Pea pods with pork (Chinese bacon) Really, really good!

Baby shrimp with pickled tea leaves. Delicate flavor.

And one of the chef's favorite dishes...

Lima beans with pickled vegetable. Mild and mushy. Completely different from what we were expecting and totally delicious, especially when mixed with rice. When we were served, the chef came out to tell us just how much he loves this dish.

If you have a large group (at least four or five people) and want to be the envy of the restaurant...

...try this!  A giant meal in a pot with fish, crab (in the shell), shrimp, etc. These kind gentlemen noticed all my picture taking and our group's unmasked curiosity and invited me to take photos before they dug in. Note the size of the single serving bowl and tea pot in comparison to the serving bowl. If you want to find this dish, it's the $43 Sichuan-style soup.  (We have not tried it ourselves yet, but will on an upcoming expedition.)

Chia Shiang
2016 Packard St
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
(734) 741-0778

Comments

[Kate]

Thank you for the photo essay! I've been wanting to go since the buzz got out on the Ann Arbor Food list, but haven't made it over there yet. I'll definitely try some of the dishes you recommended!

[Jen of a2eatwrite]

What a wonderful post. I haven't been to Chia Shiang in quite some time and I'm delighted to be reminded of it. We stuck mostly to the front of the menu, so I will definitely go to the back next time. Does this also mean they have dim sum on Sunday mornings?

[mike]

This is just what I needed- a key to some of the dishes worth trying there! I've only had half a dozen so far, and choices have been a bit limited by the more... prosaic tastes of some of my fellow diners. "But I always order fried rice!" ;-)

[Kitchen Chick]

Jen: they have dim sum, but it's not exactly what you expect. The Shanghai dim sum menu features dishes that are, for the most part, larger. So you'll be ordering fewer items than you would at a Hong Kong style dim sum restaurant. For the homemade dumplings, you do need to get there before noon. They make a limited quantity, and when they sell out that's it for the day.

[TeacherPatti]

You know that I live nearby, right? Give me a holla next time you go!! I love that place!

[ponky]

you are book marked ....thanks for this....

[John Hritz]

Thanks for the recommendation. We live right up the street, but during one of the ownership/chef changes, the food hit rock bottom and we haven't been back for many years.

You're right about the large number of chinese nationals dining there. We ordered one of our old favorites, Gung Bao Soybean Skin Rolls and shopped off the other patrons plates for the other one. Two tables were eating what looked like cucumbers and edamame in a white ginger sauce.

The soybean skin roll dish was better than the original owners did it. Lots of wok-flavor and intense layers.

The mystery dish was also very good. After being schooled on the name twice by the owner, I was not able to grok it. It looked like a tubular melon and had a very mild flavor. If anyone knows this disk and can provide an english translation that would be great.

Looks like they're back with a vengeance.

[RobynT]

oh... the dim sum looks sooo good!! we usually go to great lakes for dim sum but we will definitely need to try this one.

[KrisF]

The Fresh Garlic Stir-Fried String Beans we had there were really good as well.

[Boo]

Oooo, I used to live up the road from Chia Shiang and would get their Kung-pao chicken all the time. Tastiest Chinese Food Ever. Then, as ponky said, management changed and the food started to be less and less awesome so I quit going. It's nice to hear that they are up to their old standards again; I'll have to give it another try. Thanks!

[Carrie]

Hi there -- do you know the Chinese name for the boiled fish in Sichuan sauce dish? I very much want to try this or make it myself.

Also, I have the Dunlop book, but couldn't find this recipe. Can you tell me which specific recipes I should be looking at? Thanks!

[Kitchen Chick]

Carrie:

Look up the Fish with Chiles and Sichuan Pepper (la zi yu) in Land of Plenty, p 278. Also, check out Fish Braised in Chili Bean Sauce (p 259), and Fish Braised with Bean Curd in Spicy Sauce (p 269).

[Andrew]

What's this "Ann Arbor food mailing list" you're talking about?

Nice to see you today btw.

[Joe, Kitchen Chick's husband]

It's [email protected]. You probably know the drill for joining a Yahoo group, so I won't give the instructions.

[Elaine]

We ate at Chia Shiang tonight and loved the String Beans with Garlic and the General Tso Chicken but didn't really like the Crispy Salted Duck--had very little flavor. The portions were huge and we took a lot home and we were about the only non-Chinese there.
Thanks for the recommendation.

[Sol]

This is the second time I've come back to this page to remember the name of beef with chili peppers and peanuts so I could order it for carry out. The dish is sublime, but the name is so pedestrian I forget it very quickly.

[Joe, Kitchen Chick's Husband]

If you like lamb at all, consider ordering the Xinjiang-Style Lamb with Cumin. We just got that this weekend (sadly didn't have the camera, can you believe it?) and it was awesome. Thin dry-fried slices. Actually probably better to eat in than take out.

[Laurie]

Do not get their "soup" dumplings. I went today and they tasted horrible. Nothing like the real thing.

[Joe, Kitchen Chick's husband]

Laurie: not sure what the story is there. We've had them a number of times over the past year and a half and they've been good.

Maybe an off day?

[danielle]

I had the boiled fish in the chili broth and it was really tasty, but super salty (esp the fish itself)..it is supposed to be this salty?
thanks for the awesome pics!

[Joe, Kitchen Chick's husband]

Danielle: no, it isn't. We just had it Thursday night and it wasn't excessively salty, so it sounds like they blew it that time.

[danielle]

Thanks for your quick response. Will try it out again.

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