8 ways to go for gastronomic gold

Chinese takeout adds to the Olympic experience

Regrettably, you can't get a medal for watching television. Virtuous though it may feel to dive into the drama of 647 American athletes competing for global glory, you're still perched on the couch, not the podium.

Let them bring home the gold. You bring home the Chinese takeout.

Eight is to China what the numbers 7 and 21 are to Las Vegas: lucky. In Mandarin, the word for eight sounds very similar to the word for money. In southern dialects, "eight" sounds like "prosperity." Sox fans who go through elaborate rituals, can relate - shunning foods eaten the day of a big loss, or refusing to wash a shirt worn during a winning streak. To do our part for team America in the Summer Olympics, we picked eight restaurants that serve up good Chinese takeout with no heartburn. And to do it, we didn't have to brave Chinatown traffic - an Olympian challenge to be sure.

We set some standards. For instance, no over-fried shrimp drowned in sweet, goopy sauce like some kind of seafood wingding. Olympic coverage on TV is puffed up, cloying, and unctuous enough on its own without such an accompaniment. These eight restaurants, scattered all over the Boston area, have the goods tucked into homemade dumplings, poured over toothsome noodles, and seared in heirloom woks.

Rice Valley in Newtonville has tried to reinvent Chinese takeout almost as thoroughly as China itself has tried to change its image. "It is traditional," insists owner Kent Chen, speaking of his approach to his native cuisine. He wants Chinese food that has flavor, but isn't heavy, he says. "We are taking a big risk to have this style of Chinese cooking. Our goal is to train our customers to like a lighter food."

To that end, minced chicken with lettuce leaf ($10.95) is an entertaining meal. The chicken comes simmered in aromatic stock. Leaves of iceberg lettuce serve as crisp containers that can be dipped in hoisin sauce. Also on the menu are crisp and hot salt and pepper prawns ($14.95), tossed with sauteed peppers and onions. Water chestnut flour is the secret, Chen says. Vegetables come nearly whole: Entire shoots of baby bok choy and fresh black mushroom caps ($10.95) are braised just until tender. You can taste the bok choy's radish-like core.

The restaurateur wonders why more Chinese cooks don't aim for a lighter touch. "American people eat fish from the grill with no sauce and they enjoy it," he says. "Why should we have to prepare it so heavy?"

Not far away, in an unassuming storefront on Main Street in Waltham, Jennifer and Fred Liu are doing nothing innovative. Since 1995, the sibling owners of Beijing Star have been serving the dishes they remember from their hometown, which happens to be Beijing. The long, thick noodles that Fred Liu rolls and cuts in-house ($6.95) are served cold with Sichuan sauce on the side. Topped with julienned cucumbers, the chewy noodles and tart sauce are a welcome summertime dinner. Beijing Star has two menus - one for American Chinese food, and one for traditional dishes. The homemade noodles don't appear on either, but are advertised with photos posted in the restaurant's small vestibule. Also try the crisp chive pies.

Homemade noodles at Gitlo's Dim Sum Bakery in Allston are a far different experience. In a tiny kitchen on Brighton Avenue, cooks roll out the restaurant's rainbow clear noodles ($3.95). Short, round, and made with rice, the noodles fairly snap under the tooth. Tossed with thin slices of vegetables and ham, this confetti-like appetizer would be a good way to kick off any victory celebration.

Meanwhile, in Quincy, it shouldn't be hard for a takeout connoisseur to spot something good going on at East Chinatown. Even on a Monday night, the place is packed. As the tables fill, the tanks by the door start to empty of live fish. This restaurant specializes in seafood, but much of the best stuff isn't on the menu. When ordering to take home, green beans with pork are a menu stalwart to be counted on: long, sweet green beans coated lightly with a sauce flavored in ground pork. Also try the strips of pork with Chinese vegetables.

And there's more delectable meat out there. Dry beef chow foon at Bernard's Restaurant in the Chestnut Hill Mall is cooked without sauce or marinade (that's the dry part). The flavor comes from the cooking vessel - a long-seasoned wok that has been in service at Bernard's for many years, says Leonard Leung, 36, whose father, Bernard, opened the popular restaurant in 1989. "There's no sauce to it or anything. The beef goes in alone," he said. "Having a seasoned wok is very important for tasty food."

North of Boston, Wang's Fast Food in Ball Square, Somerville, is known for homemade Chinese dumplings. An early visitor to the restaurant can catch a glimpse of cooks in the back filling small pockets of dough with shrimp, pork, and scallions, or spinach and tofu. Once cooked, the elastic dough resists the teeth just slightly before the hot filling bursts out juicily.

In Cambridge, Mary Chung is another of the few restaurants around the city that still make dumplings this way. Called Peking ravioli, the little pockets come either steamed or fried and make a delicious appetizer to the spicy eggplant, which is rich enough to stand up as an entree and provide plenty of leftovers.

An example of the rich, spicily sauced cuisine of China's central Sichuan region is ma po tofu. At Sichuan Garden in Brookline, a spoonful or two of the creamy curds of tofu, simmered with chili oil and ground pork, is enough to enliven a big bowl of steamed rice. This fare sticks to the ribs, but in a delightful way.

There are few things sweeter than watching TV and enjoying good Chinese takeout: meats dressed in sauces underpinned by star anise and ginger, whole braised vegetables, hand-cut noodles and dumplings, and piles of steaming rice. Sitting and eating doesn't take years of patience and practice on your part. If you get gold-medal proficient at it, perhaps your day will come. There will finally be a reward for putting up your feet and doing nothing but watching.