Cafe China

We can't stop talking about Cafe China, even as we're currently in China. No joke. We found this restaurant in Murray Hill to be almost perfect, from its 1930s decor to its ma po tofu (sans pork!) floating in a chili oil bath to its sweet potato pancakes (third photo). We loved the spicy Chengdu wonton (second photo) stuffed with a nubbin of pork and chives, and the beautifully presented chongqing chicken (top photo), in which the bits of chicken competed with the bits of red chili peppers in an epic crunch contest. And when we're back from our travels, we'll return to this version of Shanghai, and talk about how we came here before we left and what we did while we were gone and where we might be going next.