When the lease at Northampton’s Panda Garden was not renewed last year, chef Richard Lau looked around for another venue. The building on Route 9 in Hadley that had most recently housed the All Fired Up restaurant came available, and Lau found a new home. Leaving much of the inside untouched except for new coats of soft blue, green and red paint, Lau opened BUTTERFLY RESTAURANT (48 Russell St., 585-8989; www.butterflyhadley.com) in July 2007.
Lau got his start in cooking years ago in Hong Kong, where his culinary education came from three teachers, two trained in Sichuan cuisine and one in the Hong Kong style. He honed his skills in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and then, after he immigrated to the United States in 1982, in the New York tristate area. He came to the Pioneer Valley in 1985 to open Panda Garden in partnership with financial backers. Butterfly gave him the opportunity to go out on his own.
Named after a restaurant in which Lau worked when he first came to the States, Butterfly is a big operation. A first glance at the menu leads to the question, which menu? There are four: a Sichuan menu, a Japanese and sushi menu, a gourmet menu and a vegetarian “meat” menu. This last, an expansion of the seitan dishes Lau offered at Panda Garden, uses wheat gluten and flavorings to simulate beef, pork and chicken. The gourmet menu is filled with the Cantonese-style dishes Lau learned in Hong Kong when he first became a restaurant cook.
In addition to its restaurant operation, Butterfly does a lot of catering. Lau’s culinary training in Hong Kong included the art of vegetable carving, and photos of some of his creations adorn the entrance. He has standing orders for the carvings from the Boston International Seafood Show, as well as from local enthusiasts. Who can resist whole elaborately carved melons or daikon animals?
The familiar Sichuan dishes at Butterfly are well made. The hot and sour soup is dark and flavorful, but not especially hot or vinegary. The Kung Pao Chicken, which combines dried red peppers with chicken, celery, peanuts and sometimes green pepper, is the best reading of the dish I’ve had in this area. The sauce is a little richer with some overtones of five-spice powder and the toasted taste of red peppers. “You have to put the peppers into a hot wok,” Lau explains. “If you put them in cold, you don’t get the flavor.”
I may be jaded, but Butterfly’s gourmet menu is where the action is. An appetizer of Spicy Dry Fried Salted Squid arrives on a bed of chopped scallions, red and green peppers, and lettuce. The squid is agreeably chewy, salty and crisp, with enough hot pepper taste for some heat. I have a friend who insists on comparing squid to garden hoses long past any humor the comparison might have once had. If I could stand the jokes one more time, I’d feed him these and let him see that chewy isn’t rubbery.
Dr. Chen’s Herbal Energy Soup is a clear broth stewed with chicken, Chinese yam and a variety of ingredients that come from traditional Chinese medicine. The taste is of a good chicken stock with some medicinal overtones, reminiscent of Sichuan peppercorns. Lau got the recipe from a friend who is an herbalist. Perhaps it was the acupuncture session I’d had before dinner, but I did feel more energetic for the rest of the evening.
The menu has its share of translation issues. What exactly is Crispy Fried Roast Duck? I had the Creaky Chicken, which was sliced white-meat chicken sautéed with ginger slices and a slightly sweet sauce that reminded me of the sauce you sometimes get on a whole Hunan-style fish. The chicken was cooked just right: dense and toothsome without being the least bit dry. An order of Wontons in Sesame Sauce, on the other hand, was a little too watery to have much sesame flavor.
I’ve always maintained that, based on most Chinese restaurants, you’d think China had few vegetables other than bok choy and snow peas. And when you do get some Chinese greens, it is rare to find them flavored with anything more than soy sauce. The Chinese Broccoli at Butterfly comes sautéed with chopped garlic and the natural bite of the green was enhanced, I thought, with a little powdered mustard.
Butterfly’s seafood is trucked in from Boston, except for the whole fish; Lau drives to New York City for that once a week. During the summer, the restaurant uses some local produce, but during the winter Lau has to rely on the Boston and New York markets.
Appetizers range from $1.50 for egg rolls to $6.95, with most $4 to $5. Chinese dishes start at $8.95, and the top price is $15.95, for some items on the gourmet menu. Sushi is the usual $3.50 to $5.50 per roll. There is a full liquor license, including the killer Polynesian drinks like Mai Tais, Zombies and Lover’s Bowls. The restaurant is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner.
Every time I look at one of Butterfly’s menus, I find something else I want to try. I haven’t had the sushi yet. My daughter-in-law is a vegetarian and I can’t wait to get her take on the seitan menu. And, since I am often traveling from one place to another at lunchtime, I appreciate being able to pull in, park and get an interesting lunch without a lot of hassle. No Panda clone, Butterfly is more than just a standard Sichuan restaurant.
Originally published in Daily Hampshire Gazette, Friday, June 6, 2008.
