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Last week Moody, Adam, and I headed over to the Chinese Cultural Center in Phoenix for lunch. There are several places to choose from, but we settled on Szechwan Palace as Moody had heard they were supposed to be pretty good.

The place was pretty busy when we arrived, but there were still a few open seats, so we were seated right away. The lunch menu was pretty heavily Americanized, but that was ok, because I was actually in the mood for some fried goodness. I settled on the sesame chicken, which I asked for extra spicy since the tag line on their business card read "come taste hot & spicy food!" Moody and Adam each ordered a different Szechwan dish.

All lunch entrees come with soup and your choice of white or fried rice. We all went with the hot and sour soup, and the white rice. I had high hopes for the hot and sour soup, but those hopes were quickly dashed when I tasted the first spoonful. I think I'm just used to really good hot and sour soup, which I seemed to be able to get just about everywhere when I lived on the East coast. In Arizona, I still haven't found a really good one - something that seems to be the case with Chinese food in general here. The broth was very thin, and was neither hot nor sour. It tasted like weak chicken soup with a few veggies and some tofu thrown in.

When our entrees arrived, I could tell mine wasn't going to be good. The sesame chicken was completely drowned in a goopy brown sauce. My first bite confirmed my fears. Instead of dredging the chicken pieces in flour and then wok frying as is the norm for sesame chicken, these pieces were breaded and fried in the manner usually used for sweet and sour chicken. The result was a mushy coating around the chicken pieces which was soaked with grease and brown sauce that wasn't even remotely spicy. The sauce itself was overly sweet and just plain gross. I managed to eat a few pieces, but then I just couldn't stand it anymore. Moody and Adam had similar experiences with their Szechwan chicken and beef.

I don't know why, but I had thought that if anywhere in Arizona would have had decent Chinese food, it might have been at the Chinese Cultural Center. Boy was I wrong. In all fairness, there are still two other restaurants in the cultural center that I plan to give a try. Let's hope they do a better job than Szechwan Palace.