The Chinese consider both the color red and the mythical dragon particularly auspicious. I was particularly disappointing at the food coming out of Red Dragon (Davis Dr., Morrisville, NC). The food is not particularly cheap, but certainly tastes that way. There are few choices of proteins (pork, beef, chicken) and a short selection of brown sauces. The food is far from authentic. Each dish seems to be loaded up with uninspired vegetables that likely come from the frozen food section of the Harris Teeter next door.

For instance, a traditional Ma-Po Tofu is made with a chili-garlic-bean sauce base, some ground pork and some scallions. Instead, their ma-po tofu is bland and probably doesn’t have any chili-garlic-bean sauce at all. It’s also missing the ground pork. Their version is simply cubed tofu with a bunch of peas and carrots that you’d find in the frozen veggies section of your grocery store. No spice, no flavor but instead, a bunch of unexpected and unwanted veggies.

I’ve heard and read rave reviews of one of their unique signature dishes, the black pepper scallops. The “black pepper sauce” tasted straight out of a can, and I could hardly find the scallops beneath the broccoli, snow peas, mushrooms, bell peppers and onions. The scallops tasted tough and rubbery.

I also tried the curry chicken. A traditional curry chicken is heavy on the curry. It typically has potatoes, onions and perhaps carrots. Their version? Well, there’s hardly any chicken. They’ve added baby corn, snow peas, water chestnuts and the regular white mushrooms. There’s not enough flavor in the dish. Definitely lacking the “curry” power.

I have yet to determine why all these Chinese restaurants do not serve any fresh Chinese vegetables (like bok choy, choy sum, gai choy, sui choy, gai lan, or napa cabbage). I continually see the broccoli, the carrot and the white button mushroom. Here’s a hint guys–simply adding snow peas, water chestnuts and baby corn doesn’t make it Chinese. Dumping some Lee Kum Kee sauce does not make it Chinese. The only dish that is remotely flavorful is Eggplant with Oyster sauce. What happened to the traditional and creative flavors of the Orient? Have they all turned into extremely bland, boring take on the vegetables found in the grocery stores freezer aisle?