Shanghi Lil

I can't think of too many things that makes me feel happier than a good meal with my husband. Not so long ago Brian was what we might term 'a picky eater'. According to his mother, he would eat little more than hot dogs, mac and cheese, and Honey Nut Cheerios. While I did not start his epiphany into the wonderful world of food, I fancy myself a catalyst in the way gasoline might be considered a catalyst to a fire. I would have burned his ass up had he not expanded his palate. Now he uses words like 'mouthfeel' and 'layering of flavors', and other sexy phrases. We enjoy eating together and discussing the food and dare I say it-trying new things.

I pass Shanghai Lil on my way to Kohl's for the world famous Kohl's Extravaganza shopping trip with my mom whenever one of us get the 30% off coupon in the mail. For some reason I had the impression that Shanghai Lil is really expensive, and compared to strip mall takeout Chinese places it is, but considering the level of the deliciousness that far exceeds any General Tso's chicken, it is a bargain.

The interior of the restaurant was lovely and was devoid of the faux gilded plaster of paris wall hangings, and other standard Chinese restaurant decorations that I can't decide if are actually part of the Chinese culture or are simply used because we westerners think they are part of the Chinese culture. Our waiter was full of personality, offering a critique of our order (we changed it to reflect his recommendations), and stories about his mom making him a special soup when he came home on college holidays. We surmised that our waiter is the son of the two owners. If you prefer waiters to simply take the orders and bring drink refills, this young man would not please you, but I liked him.

Brian and I ordered from the Dim Sum menu, which is a lot like Spanish tapas-small portions meant to share, and you are meant to order many different items. We ordered pork dumplings, spicy Thai soup, stuffed eggplant, a scallion pancake with sliced steak inside, and sweet rice cooked inside a banana leaf. We also ordered jasmine tea.

Dim sum=yum yum. The only item I didn't like was the pork dumplings. They weren't spiced or flavored much so it was basically a hung of ground pork in a dumpling wrapper and steamed. The stuffed eggplant was sublime, and was also one of our waiter's recommendations. When in doubt, ask your waiter. The eggplant was wrapped around a mixture of pork and veggies, breaded, and then fried. So flavorful. The scallion pancake was also delicious. The soup was an incredible bargain. It was loaded with slices of steak, noodles, a rich beef broth, and noodles, and was very very good. My one complaint was that the tea wasn't as good as the food. I generally like jasmine tea, but it was strangely mild like maybe it was a tad stale, or maybe it is traditional tea and I'm just unaccustomed.

We were unable to finish all of the food and had ordered 5 items, so I'd recommend 2 items per person. We took the food home and it all heated up in the oven really well. Quick tip for you, it's totally worth it to spend the 10 minutes preheating the oven, and the 10 minutes it takes to reheat food if that food has any crispiness at all in it's first cooked state. The microwave makes a soggy mess out of pizza, french fries, fried anything. Protect your investment and use the oven not the microwave. The cost was so reasonable, so maybe I was wrong that it was expensive in comparison to strip mall Chinese. It was about $30.00 for our dim sum feast.

I'm sure Brian's mom is jealous of me for getting to enjoy Brian's expanded food palate. "He ate eggplant??? And liked it?!" But I'm jealous that she got to enjoy grounding him and smacking him around when he was bad, which she never took advantage of, I might add. Talk about wasted opportunities. We all have our burdens to bare, for example I have to discuss things in a calm rational manner with Brian when he irritates me. I'm not allowed to make him go pick out his own switch from the tree and beat him with it. See? Life is hard all around.

I absolutely recommend Shanghai Lil. It is located across from the fashion mall at Keystone and the Crossing. 8505 Keystone Crossing. Try the eggplant, you'll love it.