Congrats to Grace Garden Chinese- Best in Baltimore!

In Baltimore's City Paper, Grace Garden Chinese was named the Best Chinese Restaurant in Baltimore this year. Thanks to the support of Chowhounders and the Skillet Doux blog, I found out about this local treasure of a restaurant, and now they are getting much deserved acclaim for their great food. Congratulations to Chef Li and his family!

Here are some other dishes I would highly recommend. Up top, the slow braised pork belly with mustard greens (mui choy- the sauce was slightly sweet and goes great with rice. I also tried the tea smoked duck- so much flavor.
Mrs. Li has some fresh Chinese vegetables she grows in her garden. In August, she had chive blossoms (pictured- cooked with salty fish). I recently had bitter melon with beef in a black bean sauce, and they hope to have winter melons next month.

1690 Annapolis Rd
Odenton, MD 21113
(410) 672-3581

Return to Grace Garden Chinese in Odenton, MD

After my first trip to Grace Garden Chinese, I knew I had to go back to try more of their extensive menu. Even Skilletdoux posted about them twice, and it was nice to see his great pictures framed and mounted all around the restaurant.
We started with the Sichuan Beef Treasures or "triple T" which was beef tongue, tripe and tendon served with a mala (spicy) sauce and peanuts. It was fantastic. My mother told me the original name for this dish was Fu Chi Fa Pi, or "husband & wife lung slices", but has been modified to not freak out non-Chinese.
We then got Fish Noodles, which consisted of actual noodles made with ground fish. The flavor was really nice and the noodles were incredibly tender.

We did pre-order one dish which actually is not yet officially on the menu, the Eight Treasure Duck. Our whole table was amazed at the skill involved in this dish. It was a whole duck, completely deboned with the skin intact stuffed with sticky rice chock full of Chinese sausage, lotus, and mushrooms.
It's cooked so well that the duck fat is completely absorbed by the rice- unbelievable. Chef Li noted that no soy sauce was necessary for this dish. The presentation is like a sticky rice cake with and icing of duck meat and skin. Hands down, one of the most amazing and unique dishes had by myself and even my parents.
It should be noted, this dish needs at least a 3 day pre-order, but completely worth the experience.
The rest of our meal was great. We ordered some Chinese Broccoli cooked impeccably well with garlic. No need for dipping sauce here- the vegetable flavor was all that was necessary.

I love Braised Sea Cucumber, so we tried Chef Li's version of this personal favorite. His sauce was really nice and light, and the cucumber was cooked well. Now, they noted that the sea cucumber used was not the highest quality, and if I called a week ahead next time, they would be happy to make the dish using the better item for me. I plan to take them up on that.

Our final dish was the Basil Chicken or "Three Cup Chicken". Again, this dish was delicious. Ol' ironstomach noted that there was not a single disappointing item in our menu.

1690 Annapolis Rd
Odenton, MD 21113
(410) 672-3581

Grace Garden Chinese, Odenton, MD

Recently, boards like Chowhound and Don Rockwell have been buzzing about Grace Garden Chinese restaurant in Odenton, MD near Fort Meade. After reading a blog post on the spot, I made a plan to go with some tough Chinese food critics, my parents.

The place is really inconspicuous near the fort, and the interior was modest, but they did have tables with lazy susans, a good sign for a Chinese joint. The chef and his family welcomed us very graciously, and we proceeded to eat a pretty great meal.
I special ordered the Peacock Chicken, a steamed chicked topped with a spicy sesame sauce (similar to Mala sauce). It was spicy, but not too hot, and it was delicious.

The chef recommended we try the Pocket Tofu, that they made there. It was a light tofu mixed with shrimp mousse so that they were light and fluffy. This might have been my favorite item.
Foodies on the net have been raving about the Sichuan Steamed Pork with Rice Powder, a dish with pork belly cooked with rice powder served on potatoes. The chef specially steamed ours with a lotus leaf. It was really good- really fatty, but really good.

I had wanted to try the 3 cup chicken, but since we got the other chicken dish, we opted for the Basil Fish Filets ("3 cup fish") which also had a really nice flavor.
Since there aren't as many great Chinese places in the Baltimore area, it's nice to have Grace Garden nearby. My parents and I agreed that we would definitely come back.

1690 Annapolis Rd
Odenton, MD 21113
(410) 672-3581