Chopsticks China Bistro, Denver, Colorado

Chopsticks was another highly recommended place to try in Denver. Located at 2990 W Mississippi Ave (tel: (303) 936-1506), they were able to stand strong despite the fierce competition from the high density of Asian restaurants in the vicinity. What I found rather interesting was that although on their sign, they're touted as being somewhat Shanghainese, the owners are actually Taiwanese and Hakka in origin. To the utter delight of two of my Taiwanese-Hakka colleagues, there were some Taiwanese-Hakka dishes on the menu. Well as long as the food tastes good, I'm there.

The first appetizer were deep fried pig large intestines. Most readers will know that I'm quite fond of these delicious crispy entrails. Needless to say, I was rather thrilled to find them here.

The xiao long paus (soup dumplings) were a big let-down. I know Denver was having a slight drought but that's no excuse for these juiceless, dry paus.

Sour and spicy soup was up next. Never really a diehard fan of this soup, but it did help whet our appetites abit.

The Chongqing chicken was really good. Despite coming with the bone, the spicy Sichuan peppers and dried chilies ensured a decent kick of flavor.

Apparently a "hard-to-find" Hakka dish, the stewed pig intestines in vinegar and ginger was surprisingly quite nice. I don't really have a penchant for sour foods entirely but this had a nice savory balance as well which made it quite tasty indeed.

I don't really recall the name of this dish. It was some mixed-up Hakka stirfry of sorts. I don't remember it being foul though, so I guess it must have been fairly decent.

Whoa, cashew nut chicken. This was definitely a pick from the pseudo Chinese foods list but nevertheless, who is not guilty of enjoying even a General Tso's chicken every now and then.

Some fresh vegetables stirfried with garlic. Fresh and crisp with a nice refreshing flavor.

Lastly we had a Taiwanese fried vermicelli which was a pretty nice way to end the meal. It had sufficient smokiness and flavor but most importantly enough grease to prevent the vermicelli from clumping together. Not bad, Chopsticks definitely was a nice breakaway from all the Western fare we had over the past few days. Funny as this may sound, the only let-down dish was Shanghainese, so it may be wise to just stick to the Taiwanese and Taiwanese-Hakka fare.

D