Review: Magic Wok

I want to take you away to a magical place of fantasy and make believe. I speak of a place where the greasy spoon in a roadside trailer meets the moderately rude Chinese joint; a place where there are two things on the menu and no one knows what the other one is; a place called Magic Wok. I'd link to their website, but really, don't be silly. This is a place with three tiny tables inside an immobilized 50's-model trailer with an adjoining overflow seating area with decorations that range from "Funky School Bus" toys (whatever the heck that is) to the normal Chinese mountain scenes.

I went to the Magic Wok with some work friends a few weeks ago. The question isn't so much "what do you want?" but "how spicy?" You get the cashew chicken. The menu technically has "dish with rice" on it, and in theory I suppose there might be another dish, but no one orders anything but the chicken. (Well, people order the kim chee, which isn't much like any other kim chee I've had -- it was much fresher -- and I have on good authority isn't much like Korean kim chee either, but it was tasty.)

This isn't your pedestrian cashew chicken. This has cashews that have just been roasted on the stove top, slightly smoky. The chicken has the wonderful flavor of a well-seasoned wok, not the anodyne restaurant cleanliness.

But let's talk spice. You can order the chicken one of three ways: "Chicken"; "spicy chicken"; or "extra spicy chicken." If you order it spicy, they've got a dozen hot pepper plants sitting outside the trailer so you know you're in for some zing. If you order it extra spicy -- and I must stress that I am not joking or exaggerating here -- they pass you a molcajete out the window and a baggie of habaneros, and you make your cashew chicken just as damn spicy as you want it. They pass you a molcajete and a baggie of habaneros. Seriously.

Magic Wok doesn't have the best Chinese food you'll ever have. In fact, it probably won't even be in your top five, but that hardly means you shouldn't eat there. It's got wonderful home cooked flavor, and if nothing else, Magic Wok is an experience. I grinned like a fool for an hour afterwards, and so will you.