The Chinese Food Challenge—China Jade

Snugly situated in the Marketplace at Collegeville is China Jade, well known for its affordable lunch buffet and extensive menu.

With a darkly edged crust, the heat-pressed shrimp toast appetizer shouts of its seafood origins with warmed pushes of pink tucked within each crunchy bite of four triangle-cut sections.

The subgum pan-fried noodle dish is nestled with savory-sauced chicken and thinned squares of pork and shrimp, along with plentiful amounts of cabbage, a bit of baby corn and broccoli. The lightly hardened noodles flowing in the squiggle of knots is a game of mastery to eat with a single fork—or even two.

Crispy Cantonese duck is prettily presented with a maraschino cherry on top, mingled with carrot wedges, fresh pea pods, crunchy water chestnuts, thick cabbage slices, gatherings of baby corn and a pinch of malleable mushrooms.

A doughy fried banana dish was brought in for dessert. Not too sugary, and probably for the better, these rounded and decently sized glowing nibbles are ultimately filling at meal’s end.

Find at 201 Second Ave. in Collegeville, PA 19426.

Mr. Lee’s Gourmet banked an impressive gao roll, but dishes at Liu Garden, followed by deliciously presented and devoured doughy dessert—never making an imprint on the bill—stirred my appetite’s appreciation more. The golden mango chicken also won out with its special orange sauce and the usual white rice aside it.