Eating Chinese With Jean-Georges

By Sophie Friedman

Spicy Sichuan food has a friend in Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

Harry Harrison

The chef, whose restaurants include Mercer Kitchen, Spice Market and JoJo, whips out containers of red and green chili puree and passes spoonfuls around the table.

“The thing I use the most, what I can’t live without, is all kinds of chilies. Even at home, I use jalapenos, South American chilies, Asian chilies, finger chilies, pickled chilies — chilies are my MSG,” Mr. Vongerichten says. “When you eat spices, there’s no way back.”

When in Shanghai, where he also has a restaurant (Jean-Georges Shanghai), what does Mr. Vongerichten eat? He shares his top five picks.

Jian Bing: “I like the breakfast here a lot. That crepe they do (jian bing), with a little bit of chili paste and scallions and then something crunchy in there. There’s an amazing street right behind Yu Gardens, the last street in the Old City, that does them big, folded and crispy. Another one of my favorite breakfasts is the crispy donut (you tiao). You get the fresh soymilk, the you tiao, and the xiao long bao. For me that’s the complete breakfast, right there.”

Xiao Long Bao: “I like the crispy ones — soupy inside, but nice and fried. It’s very Shanghainese. Basically you can put anything in xiao long bao. I’ve had xiao long bao with hairy crab — amazing, rich. We did one with foie gras in New York, chicken and foie gras, and when the fat melts from the foie, mmm.”

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Ge Gen Mian: “There’s a Shanghainese noodle specialty that’s almost black. The sauce is very goopy, with a little bit of pork diced in it. There’s no broth. It’s black pepper, black bean, sweet soy, dark soy, in a sweet stew — very garlicky, but simple. The guy was doing it out of his bicycle with a wok on the back. We tried to repeat it in New York.”

Ga Li Mian Tiao: “The most surprising dish I ever had here was six blocks from the restaurant, on a street where they sell a lot of noodles in curry broth (ga li mian tiao). I was saying to myself, 'How did curry come to this town?’ In the ’20s and ’30s all the policemen were from India, and they brought their spices with them, so they do these noodles that they put on their shoulder and then slice up in a very light curry broth.”

Sichuan Chicken (with Tsingtao): “My favorite is Sichuan, because I like spicy. I like hot pot, and I love when they bury the crispy chicken in all those peppers and red chilies. All those restaurants in New York Chinatown, they’re mixing everything up a little bit, so there’s Sichuan cuisine, but it’s only a few dishes. You don’t find that chicken buried in chilies. I like Tsingtao to go along with my food. I would say half a chicken, half a bottle of Tsingtao. It helps.”

– Edited from an interview with Sophie Friedman