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| - Downtown Chinese food is to Uptown Chinese food what Uptown sushi to Downtown sushi -- they are ... noticeably different. If I may use personification, Uptown Chinese is like Alec Baldwin while its Downtown counterpart is more like Stephen Baldwin; they come from the same womb, but one is an acclaimed actor and the other one was once on Big Brother UK. Not to say that one is worse off than the other, but at the very kindest way of putting things, they have different standards for themselves.
Now we come back to Swatow where I ordered a bowl of brisket and wonton rice noodle soup with extra beef balls. I wasn't impressed but this is definitely one of the better Chinese food experiences I've had downtown. So should I be grateful and feel more enjoyable because this is basically what I have to work with since moving down here? Or should I still hold onto my old standards at the risk of sounding like an overly-critical Debby Downer? *sigh* I don't even know anymore.
Let's start with the positives. All the ingredients were fresh. The shrimp filling in the wontons had the naturally sweet shrimp taste without the off putting fishy taste of stale seafood. The beef balls had a crisp texture and were also quite beefy (for a lack of a better description). The brisket was cooked perfectly, they were not stringy and dry at all. There was a good amount of vegetables in the bowl. The broth was light and refreshing; they use a kind of Chiu Chow preserved vegetable to add a naturally savoury taste to it. I learned from a Cantonese friend to add a little dash of vinegar when I order a brisket noodle soup because it cut's the fattiness of the meat and brings out the flavour of the beef itself. Apart from the food, the restaurant looked clean the the patrons there were not sketchy.
Onto to what I didn't like about this place. The wontons had very little filling to what I'm used to and the beef balls were also very small. Even though the filling was good, the wontons were not satisfying because every bite had too much wrapper. The slow cooked chunks of brisket were too sweet for me -- they were almost on the verge of tasting like liquorice candy. The broth-to-noodle ratio was too low for my liking and at the end I was left with a heap of dry and tasteless noodles.
All in all, I was simply underwhelmed. It's especially disappointing when there are many good attributes about this place but they just don't stack up. However, I must point out that the price here is good even by Chinatown standards. Swatow isn't bad but, with all the good food downtown, I would save my Chinese food cravings till when I get the chance to go back up north.
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