Szechwan chicken was invented to remedy the first batch of fortune cookies, the entirety of which expelled only one prediction: "you just ate delicious food." Eat predestined delicacies with today's Groupon: for $15, you get $30 worth of Chinese cuisine and drinks at Formosa Cafe in Woodridge.
The wok-frying chefs at The Formosa Cafe stock eclectic lunch and dinner menus with a variety of authentic Chinese dishes. Starter items include the nanjing chicken lettuce wraps ($6), which enrobe wok-charred chicken and veggies like the powder-blue sport coat that perpetually enrobed Ben Franklin. Entrées include gingery sea shrimp basking in sun-dried black-bean sauce ($15 for dinner; $8 for lunch) and a Hong Kong-style U Goo Gai, packed with hoisin-doused almond cashew chicken and a veggie medley ($12 for dinner; $7 for lunch). Traditional rice-wine-laced vegetable lo mein sates vegetarian cravings ($10 for dinner; $7 for lunch), and ying and yang treats ($6 for two) such as the brown-sugar-and-banana dessert wonton satisfy sweet hankerings.
Diners can sip signature mojitos and martinis ($7–$10) and gaze upon more than 300 autographed photos of celebrities that have visited the restaurant and the adjoining Hollywood Theater. Inside, tables repurposed from antique doors more than 300 years old and red-and-gold walls with authentic Oriental artwork culminate in a traditional Chinese aesthetic.
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