There’s a Chinese dish called laziji, sometimes called dry chili chicken, and my crush on it was set at Miss Shirley’s Chinese Restaurant on Magazine Street in New Orleans.
Bits of fried chicken are mixed with an absolute avalanche of toasted red chilies, along with heroic doses of garlic and ginger. The flavor builds progressively, with spice that’s not searing but tingling and lightly numbing as your palate takes this pulsing journey.
It’s a dish you never want to stop eating, and one you keep thinking about when you must.
It’s on the specials board, and personally I’m rooting for it to make the regular menu at Miss Shirley’s, because I love the flavor but also because of how it represents a remarkable comeback story for this restaurant and the family behind it.
At the center of this story is Shirley Lee, a charismatic whirlwind wrapped in a kitchen apron, who stands about as tall as a bar stool and runs her dining room with the vigor of someone half her age.
Many people know Miss Shirley and her husband Tang from the decades they spent running Royal China restaurant in Metairie. It was a low-key institution over there by Doriginac’s.
They sold that restaurant in 2021 with the idea to retire. But retirement did not take. They missed their old life, and their customers. The Lees were missed too, because ever since Miss Shirley’s opened on Magazine customers have been pouring back in.
The appearance of laziji on the specials board is not a one-off. The Lees have been going deeper into their catalogue of Chinese flavors in this second act, for snow pea dumplings and soup dumplings, clams with black bean sauce, spicy squid and paper shrimp ( much better than that name sounds, trust me on this one).
It’s a brilliant comeback for a beloved restaurant family, one that shines all the brighter knowing how difficult the restaurant business has become through daunting times of endless cost increases and compounding stresses. We’ve seen too many restaurants close.
Today, I’m thrilled to have the pleasures of this spicy Chinese chicken dish readily at hand. Really though, the buzz I get from a meal at Miss Shirley’s goes way beyond the peppers.
