Skip to main contentThe latest culinary immigrant to set up another shop in the Pearl district is Sungari. The new location has already eclipsed its downtown avatar, thanks to a corner spot with immense, light-seeking windows in the Streetcar Building.
Baby orchids decorate each table, and elegant flower arrangements appear everywhere. A floor of polished, multicolored marble features a sinuous green inlay that meanders like a gentle river. Sungari Pearl is pretty, with an ambience that is sophisticated, gracious and utterly urbane.
The food is basically Szechuan, though some Cantonese dishes find their way onto the menu. Presentations are occasionally floral, if not Ikebana-like, the colors and textures immensely inviting. In addition, the portions are generous to a fault.
A number of the dishes here are seldom found in this city. Several of them appear on the appetizer list. Bean-curd sheets with seafood ($5.95) comprise flat, floppy layers of an ingredient that's nothing like tofu; they've been steamed and stuffed with shrimp and scallops with a mild yet tangy sauce. Scallion pancakes ($4.95), a former street food, are a cross between flat bread and crêpes that have been lightly fried and showered with green onions, accompanied by an pungent soy dip. And Tang Tang noodles ($5.95) are slurpy-warm and slathered with peanut sauce, rich enough to satisfy jaded appetites. There's also a fine starter of wontons in chili sauce; they are soft, fresh and fluffy as wontons should be, made vivid with a sauce that's neither so incendiary to mask the flavor nor so mild
to accentuate the blandness.
One of the best dishes is crispy prawns with honeyed walnuts ($17.95): large shrimp surrounded by a very lacy tempura-like batter, then bathed in an intense lemon sauce, glistening with glaze and topped with toasted walnuts. The textures alternate between the crunch of the nuts and the sponginess of the prawns. I've had this dish elsewhere, where it was gloppy; Sungari Pearl's version is crisp and clean. I'm also a fan of the salted pepper-skin duck here. The duck meat is succulent, but since it has no accompanying sauce it's got a satisfyingly dry taste, while the crackling skin keeps the rich, aromatic flesh moist enough. It's been marinated, then steamed, then dried, and finally fried; in short, it's gone through more stages than a pampered person at a spa.
We're all used to Lover's Eggplant. Sungari Pearl does a perfectly fine version, but I urge you to sample instead the most interesting of the vegetables: fried eggplant in gon-bon sauce ($8.95). The eggplant is cooked down, then covered with a batter and deep-fried. This is something like Chinese "popcorn," with a smooth, creamy interior of mashed, pulpy eggplant and a crunchy exterior that never seems the least greasy. The sauce is dark and sharp. Even those who aren't great tofu lovers will like the ma po bean curd ($8.95). The chunks of tofu are so soft they are best smashed against your palette to release the ginger, the Szechuan pepper and the hot bean flavors. It's named for the wife of a famous Szechuan restaurateur and literally means "Old pockmarked bean curd"; it goes particularly well on top of a small bowl of rice.
Sungari Pearl devotes itself to strong, clear tastes, whether they are xiang, xien or nong--fragrant, fresh or rich. The contribution to serious Chinese cooking made by the restaurant may go far toward remedying the local deficiency of that great nation's cuisine.
1105 NW Lovejoy St., (971) 222- 7327
11 am-10 pm Sunday-Thursday, 11 am-11 pm Friday-Saturday. Credit cards accepted. Children welcome though seldom seen. $$-$$$ Moderate-Expensive.
Scallion pancakes, bean- curd sheets with seafood, crispy prawns with honeyed walnuts, fried eggplant in
sauce.
baby orchids on each table, lofty ceilings and huge windows.
WWeek 2015