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| - I've been to 3 Chang Jiang Chinese take outs over the last 16 years in Madison. The first was on the far eastside along a road I can't recall the name of and I enjoyed it well enough to be a repeat customer during the first year I lived in that home. Years later after moving to Middleton 6 years ago I began frequenting the location near Woodman's West and I have been extremely pleased with their service and food.
Tonight I discovered and tried the Fitchburg location. Ordering the house Special Fried Rice, Wonton Soup, Teriyaki Beef and an order of General Tso's Chicken.
When I finally arrived home totally stoked to dig in after smelling it in my car for 30 min's on my drive, I was shocked when I opened the bag to retrieve the Teriyaki Beef and instead find what looks like four slices of thick steaming Beef Jerky. Not a container with (white) or perhaps fried rice, and lots of sliced up meat seared in a glaze of teriyaki sauce and maybe some broccoli to round off the meal with some bright green. Every time in my entire life, when I request the simplest of Asian dishes, asking for a simple Teriyaki Beef means the simple rice and meat thing. Seattle was jam packed with takeout places that sold essentially this meal, being varied usually with chicken or even tofu for the faint of heart who are overly concerned for the well being of our furry or feathered friends from the farms.
The second thing I opened to quite a dismaying scowl was the yellow/orange fried rice! Yes, YELLOW ORANGE! Like the crap that gets called Spanish rice at Mexican restaurants such as Laredo's (this just happens to be essentially right next door to this particular Chang Jiang)
Yellow fried rice is not what fried rice is supposed to look like. It's supposed to be prepared with SOY SAUCE! Not Tamarind or yellow number 2 Easter egg dye. Not only was it terrible to look at but it tasted like, well, rice from the crappy new I Love Tacos I will be reviewing probably tomorrow when I get around to it following tonight's disappointing dinner.
Terrible meal number 3 was the General Tso's Chicken. I've had this dish at dozens of places in Madison alone, and each and every one was somehow much better than the Chang Jiang location in Fitchburg! The red sauce tasted like overly sweetened Sweet n sour sauce with Ketchup blended in to tone down the theatrical blood tint of the jellied sauce! It was horribly oversweet and had zero hint of any recognizable spice, though I asked specifically for the cook to please bump up the heat to be about a 4 star heat rating. The rice that was in this dish too was the Easter egg surprise mentioned previously.
Finally, the Wonton Soup. This is ALWAYS a hit and miss item at every Chinese place; it seems that every different chef seems to have a phobia from adding too much salt. But fortunately this is easily amended to suit my tastes. Often however the chicken stock itself is bland which need a tad more assistance to bring out the flavor. But tonight's was simply yellow tinted vegetable broth with wontons that contained even more blandness.
So in short, I could've summed up the entire experience with a simple 1 star rating, but I gave it two because the service was at least very friendly.
If there is any confusion, I will reiterate that this place isn't any good, and I am strongly suspicious that the chef was pulling double duty as the Mexican Can opener next door for Laredo's which I previously ate a quick one-off meal their a year ago and am reminded that it wasn't much good itself, but at least the piss tinted rice was where it belonged!
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