European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 18, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Living today China syndrome authentic dish beats american affectations by Sharon Hudgins special to stripes Magazine like most americans who grew up in the hinterlands of the United states during the 1950s and i thought that the food i ate in chinese restaurants was never mind that most of the vegetables were the sauces came out of and the bestselling items on the menu were Chow chop suey and Sweet sour ignorance would have been Bliss except that the food didst taste All that As a graduate with a wider Circle of More sophisticated i Learned that the chinese food i had been exposed to was third or fourth generation cantonese american adapted to Anglo Saxon no wonder it want very subsequent trips to Houston exposed me to More authentic cantonese but i still haunt tasted any dishes from other regions of then my husband and i happened to move to a certain state capital in the deep of All places you  expect it there was an excellent Sze Chuan chinese we didst even know what Sze Chuan food we chose to eat there the first time simply because the restaurant was located near our the minute i walked through the i knew this restaurant want going to be like the no Garish chinese no cheap folding screens hiding a cart full of Greasy commercial sauce no vicious dragons staring at me from behind the Cash this place had tastefully decorated in muted it was the perfect example of understated soft Plush comfortable chairs and wide spaces Between the Only the waiters seemed out of place fresh faced american College i later found out they were All majoring in chinese and worked at the restaurant to learn something about chinese food while paying their Way through the menu was even More surprising dishes whose names i had never Many of them printed in red indicating very hot spicy with asterisks marking the chefs at the Bottom of the menu was a notice that the chef had been invited to Cook for Richard Nixon before the president made his historic trip to we subsequently Learned that the chef had owned a successful chinese restaurant in but had recently moved to the South for family the Friendly waiters were More than Happy to explain each item on the much to our they could even describe Many of the cooking techniques that were and when they discovered that we we rent afraid of hot spicy they advised us which Sze Chuan dishes to order then told the chef not to skimp on the hot unlike the portions at most chinese each of the Sze Chuan dishes that we were served was enough to feed at least two the first the two of us ordered three dishes the Standard amount for a two person chinese meal and found ourselves with so much leftover food that we were we didst want the chef to think we had rejected his delicious food certainly the finest chinese food we had Ever eaten so we discreetly asked the waiter if we could take the remaining food Home with no he were always Happy to provide dragon bags instead of Doggie bags for stripes Magazine july