Mapo Restaurant - Naperville, IL

By Lu

Chili Rubbed Chicken

I try not to write something very local to my vicinity (all the time) as I know our audience is spread all around the world; yet, I have to make an exception once in awhile. After all, things around me are the things I get to experience and report on. Especially now that my sister is taking her time trotting all over the US, you are sort of stuck with me and my materials. Hey, it's not that bad, right?

No doubt that there are hundreds, even thousands of restaurants in Chicagoland area. Some are renowned and famous all over the country, if not the world. Why did I choose to write about this small restaurant in a corner strip mall in Naperville, Illinois? Well, because I had some of the most unique and spiciest foods I've ever tasted there. This restaurant definitely deserves a spot on my top shelf.

TV shows like "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern," or "Man vs. Food." portray the new breeds of eaters: the adventurous kind, the competitive kind, and the gorging kind. Well, you can do all those kinds of eating at Mapo. Their foods are definitely adventurous and they don't really serve just the mainstream American Chinese menu. You need to ask the server for their special menu or specialties. If not, you will miss out. If you ever see a TV show when they try to compete eating wings with the hottest sauce possible - well, you will discover a new kind of spicy at Mapo. Lastly, when you eat there, it is almost guaranteed that you will gorge yourself!

The first time I went to Mapo was with my friend, Helen. Helen and Michael (her husband) introduced me to the "Chili Rubbed Chicken," there. This dish is small nuggets of chicken that have been deep fried so crispy and rubbed with dried red peppers, and then pan fried again with more dried chilies. If you ever tried those dried red chili peppers from Szechuan, you know they're HOT HOT HOT!

I fell in love with that dish almost immediately. Some of my friends thought I don't like spicy food. That is not true. I don't like adding hot sauce to my food to spice it up. But, if the dish is already spicy, I love it! I'm definitely not the competitive kind of eater; however, I did try to see how far I could go there at Mapo.

This restaurant definitely serves the spiciest yummiest Chinese food in Chicagoland. There's another place that is known for serving spicy food in Chicago, Lao Sze Chuan. However, I must say I do like Mapo better. That "Chili Rubbed Chicken" always invites me back there each time! They're so succulent, so crispy, so spicy, and you can't have enough of it! If you close your eyes and chew on a piece of crispy chicken, it actually tastes like a crispy spicy bacon! What's not to like?!

Last night, I dined there with my friends C.K, Sabrina, and Kinzie. C.K and his wife, Sabrina go there all the time and know the owner quite well. We got the royal treatment almost immediately. Hey, I could get used to this! They talked in Chinese and though I couldn't understand what was said, I knew it would yield something delicious on the table. I wasn't too far off from that estimation.

We relaxed and drank some tea while we were waiting for the food to come. The ambiance was nice, and the table was covered with white paper. I didn't miss the sticky tables at most Chinese restaurants I must say. Plus, the companies I had were fabulous. I knew I was off to a great Friday night.

Mouth Watering Chicken

The first dish came, and it was a cold appetizer called "Mouth Watering Chicken." Damn straight it was mouth watering! You could smell the spices and the spicy oil almost immediately. I could also called this dish "Mouth Numbing Chicken," as it was so hot! Szechuan peppers have that unique sensation of numbing your mouth instead of lighting it on fire like a Habanero would. Yep, I was off to a good start in the pepper lane.

Then, the array of dishes hit the table one by one: My pick was of course "Chili Rubbed Chicken." It's a must-have for me. C.K, Sab, and Kinz were probably laughing at me for being so amateur about Mapo. It was okay though! I had a hunch that I was about to get schooled and I was happy about it. Next came C.K's favorite: "Sampan Pork." This dish consisted of deep fried short ribs of pork, spiced up with some melange of ground-up spices that were deep fried to create crunchy and crispy crumbs of tasty goodness. Imagine those crispy batter pieces that you can get from KFC? Imagine it ten times better! Sampan in Malay means a small boat. I still didn't get the correlation to why the pork was called small boat pork. C.K also told me that one of their cooks is Indonesian and thus why some of the names are in Malay or Bahasa Indonesia. But, I was too busy eating and gnawing on those ribs to worry about the name!

Sampan Pork

I thought we had all of our dishes. Nope. Next - Sabrina's favorite, broiled white fish, but it almost looked like the fish was poached in the spicy red colored oil. When you looked at the dish and the oil, it just looked like it was going to nuke your mouth on fire. Then, you would imagine the pain later on. I was a little afraid in the beginning. I took the fish and strain the oil as much as possible. C.K then spooned the oil and put in my plate.."You have to eat it with the oil, lah! Try a little." he said in not so many words. He was kind and put some oil on the side of my plate. Sab told me that the oil has a medicinal quality of some sort. She is about 7 months pregnant and since she got pregnant the only Chinese food she likes are the spicy kinds. She loved the fish, and I agreed with her. The fish was so sweet, tender, juicy, and spicy. It was damn good.

Broiled White Fish in Spicy Oil

Kang Kung sauteed with Garlic

Thank goodness C.K also ordered a veggie dish. This one wasn't spicy but it complemented the other dishes very well and helped cool your palette. C.K ordered the "Kang Kung" or water spinach sauteed with garlic. Water spinach is a well known green legume in South East Asia. They look  like spinach, but their leaves are triangular and longer than spinach. Their stems are hollow and crunchy and they are usually grown in the swamp - thus the name, water spinach. Kang Kung can also make you really drowsy if you eat a lot of it. It is a yummy vegetable for sure.

The only bad thing for me eating super spicy food was that I had to eat it with rice to cut some of the heat. However, you then kept on adding rice and you ended up overeating. I was gorging last night because that heat made you wanting more, and then you kept on adding rice. Before you knew it, your pants were about to bust open. Yikes.

Even though I was too busy gorging myself and I forgot to take pictures of my friends; I had a chance to be nosy and looked at what other people were eating. This couple on the next table was eating a noodle soup that looked so good. C.K told me it was the "Spicy Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup." The beef cubes were slow cooked in a broth spiced with dried red peppers, star anise, and other Chinese herbs, served with homemade white noodle, and garnished with cilantro. My mom used to make this when I was young and I really love that soup. I definitely have to come back and try Mapo's version of this soup. C.K said it was one of their most famous dishes in the menu.

Kinz is a great professional photographer and too bad he didn't bring his camera. I made him take some pictures for me using my humble camera. So, if you think the picture is nice - it is probably his doing. If it is bad, it's definitely mine!

I had such a great time there. Not only the dishes were delicious, the friends and conversation were top shelf!

If you like spicy food and not afraid to try something that will get your temperature to rise, try Mapo! Bring friends so you can order several different dishes to get the best experience. Spice things up a little - pun definitely intended!


MAPO 
1563 Naperville Wheaton Rd
Naperville, IL 60563
(630) 420-1388