Tonawanda Chinese restaurant, my doorway to Chinese exploration, is good as ever, if you don’t mind eating from plastic

Waiting in the takeout line for my order of General Tso’s chicken, I noticed the woman behind the counter of Peking Quick One handing a different menu to the Chinese youngsters with University at Buffalo sweatshirts.

As she ran my card, I asked to see the other menu.

It’s in Chinese, she said apologetically, showing me the page. 

You don’t have this in English anywhere? I asked.

But I only have one, she said, handing me the page. 

Spicy chile chicken, shredded potatoes with chile, pig’s ear salad, dumplings in six flavors, crispy spicy fish, all never seen in Buffalo before. The chowhound klaxon went off in my head.

How about you let me have this, I asked, and I’ll come back tomorrow with copies?

She nodded and handed it over. Returning with 100 copies the next day, I told her: thank you for trusting me. 

Yan Fen Zhang just laughed. 

In the years that followed, Zhang would teach me about Chinese culture, explaining how and why people ate back home. I’d stop by to pick up an order, and she’d have zhongzhi glutinous rice cakes for me. Then explained their significance to the dragon boat festivals back home.

Zhang’s contribution to the Buffalo menu is indelible, and worth celebrating. She arrived in Buffalo an experienced restaurateur, following her daughter, a student at the UB School of pharmacy. When her daughter had a baby, Zhang sold Peking Quick One. 

When the baby was old enough for daycare, Zhang opened Home Taste, on Delaware Avenue in Kenmore. After her daughter graduated from UB, Zhang sold Home Taste, and returned to China with her family.

The restaurants she started, helmed by more capable folks, feed Buffalonians some of the more remarkable Chinese cuisine available in Western New York. Unlike Home Taste, which has few American Chinese dishes, Peking Quick One plays both sides, hard.

Jinying Ling has run Peking Quick one for most of the last decade. Ling has kept Peking Quick One on track and on time, and I for one am grateful for what I’ve learned about China in Tonawanda.

Here’s 10 Chinese lessons Peking Quick One taught me.

Chinese food is meant to be eaten on mounds of rice. That twice-cooked pork, chicken with broccoli, and General Tso’s chicken should be eaten in a two-to-one ratio of rice to topping. Chinese food is gravy, rice is the potatoes. Case in point, No. 55 ($12.95), salted and pepper chicken.

Bone-in chicken, as in No. 34 ($11.95), spicy chopped chicken legs, tastes better. Yes, you have to eat slowly, to safely set aside bones and splinters. But that means you eat slower, and taste each bite contemplatively, instead of hoovering a quart of sesame chicken in 10 minutes.

Chinese cuisine has salads. No. 1 ($7.95), split cucumber, smashed cucumber marinated in soy, vinegar, garlic, chile and cilantro was my first clue that Chinese folks dug crunchy dressed fresh vegetables too.

In some dishes, chile peppers are not for eating, even if they’re the most abundant thing on the plate. Hot & chile chicken, No. 53 ($12.95) is about selective eating, then treasure hunting for the last edible morsels amid the no-go rubble.

Potatoes can be cooked and crunchy at the same time. Matchsticked, blanched, stir-fried, and dressed with chile and vinegar, No. 17 ($8.95), hot & sour shredded potatoes, tells a whole different spud story.

Celery can be the centerpoint of a dish, with beef as the flavoring. The light garlicky sauce picks up smoky wok hey (“breath of the wok”) like gravy.

Gnarly, connective parts of beef cuts that get trimmed off for supermarket meat counters make excellent broth, and you don’t have to strain them out. Some folks, hungry or intent on increasing their collagen intake, will eat them as well as the meat. Beef brisket stew with noodles, off the specials board, is flavored with star anise and ginger.

Ma-la, the combination of chili heat, and the numbing effects of Sichuan peppercorn, are a hallmark of Sichuan cuisine, and other regional styles. Order No. 42 ($12.95), poached spicy slices of pork, for a bracing lesson.

You can fry slips of fish in a batter that’s still crunchy the next day, as proven by No. 61 ($12.95), crispy fish in jalapeno.

Chinese people dig fermented cabbage as much as Germans. This No. 31 ($9.95), sour cabbages stew with noodles, is clear, chewy sweet potato noodles simmered with coarsely shredded fermented cabbage and sliced pork.

You can eat in Peking Quick One’s spacious dining room. A worker will bring the food to your table, in takeout containers. Ling has not decided to start washing dishes again, post pandemic. Pitchers of water are in the refrigerator for customer self-service. Use the cups next to the tea urn.

Here’s hoping this academy of Chinese culinary culture keeps its curriculum available for years to come. Even if it’s packed with Chinese youngsters in UB gear, there’s no prerequisites. If you want to feed your knowledge of Chinese, drop in for a lesson at Peking Quick One.

Peking Quick One

359 Somerville Ave., Tonawanda, order here, 716-381-8730

Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Wednesday-Monday. Closed Tuesday.

Prices: lunches $6.95, dishes $5.95-$16.95

Parking: lot

Wheelchair accessible: must ask for ramp

Gluten-free: steamed vegetables, potatoes

Vegan: cucumbers, potatoes, crispy cabbage

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