They have sweet and sour chicken, but I'm telling you, once you bathe the chicken in sauce, the crunch is gone. I even tried ordering the sweet and sour chicken without the sauce, but they thought I was weird.Įven here in NYC, 'chicken fingers' do not exist at Chinese restaurants. There was something called Sweet and Sour Chicken ( Golden Buddha, never forget) but that dish was basically chicken fingers slathered in some red sauce. When I got to Atlanta I quickly learned no one had ever heard of this dish. Regular readers will know of my love for all types of fried chicken, and maybe this was one of the early catalysts. You would dip it in something called "Duck Sauce”, a somewhat gelatinous, orange-hued, sweet, and tangy sauce. There's usually a bit of air between the crispy, thick batter and the chicken. It's a fluffy, battered, fried strip of chicken. Okay, let me first explain to you what I know to be a Chinese Chicken Finger.
The Kansas kid said Pop while I said Soda and the kid from Arkansas said Coke.Īnd my most significant finding of all: no one had ever heard of Chinese Chicken Fingers. Instead of my beloved Stop n' Shop, there were these weird Kroger and Publix stores. They liked college sports for some weird reason. I quickly learned people in Georgia liked Krispy Kreme, not Dunkin' Donuts. In the old days, you just….learned things as they happened. You have to remember, this was long before there were thousands of “ 34 signs you know you’re from Boston” listicles laying out regional cultural nuances. It made me think I really understood cultural differences, but it wasn’t until I left for college at Emory University in Atlanta, that I processed how many cultural differences there are within the U.S. I also spent a number of summers in Calcutta, India. Yeah, there's the accent and the sports teams, but there are also specific things like people are really into Aerosmith and everyone wears gingham shirts.
There were some things I always associated as very "Boston". I grew up in Lexington, MA, a suburb 20 minutes outside of downtown Boston. It's Thanksgiving, so clearly I need to write about food, so clearly I will write about fried chicken. Overall, it was a good experience and i would go back-I just prefer Osaka.Ranjan here. Finally, the prices (for teppanyaki anyway) are a little bit higher than Osaka. Third is for birthdays, Osaka has a cool headress that they put on the birthday person and pound a drum while everyone sings happy birthday. That really makes it more fun and gets the whole table involved cheering each other on. Or squirt saki from a bottle (adults) or lemonade (kids) into your mouth. Another is that it is not as fun as Osaka because the chef did not try to flip shrimp or pieces of veggie in your mouth and have you try to catch it. One is that they charge you $1.00 pp extra for the fried rice (instead of white), which is usually included in the teppanyaki. There was a couple things though that I was disappointed about that makes me prefer Osaka. The food was your normal teppanyaki fare-very. The service was good and all the staff were very friendly. We usually go to Osaka by Superstition Springs mall, but they were booked so we thought we would try Ah-So. Restaurants with Outdoor Seating in Mesa.Late Night American Restaurants in Mesa.Hotels near (AZA) Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport.Hotels near (PHX) Sky Harbor Intl Airport.Hotels near Rose Garden at Mesa Community College.Hotels near Arizona Museum of Natural History.Hotels near Mesa Temple & Visitors' Center.Hotels near Commemorative Air Force Museum.Hotels near Usery Mountain Regional Park.Hotels with Complimentary Breakfast in Mesa.