5 Star China Garden: You won't go astray beyond the buffet

"New Year, New Me" always seems like an exercise in futility to me. Don't get me wrong, I am an optimist, a mostly happy person, and I do keep trying to improve myself, but I don't want a completely new me. I want to strive for new experiences, new knowledge, new joy and awe, but that doesn't mean I place a greater value on the new than those experiences, learnings and joys that have come before. I try very hard not to prejudge people, books, movies, even restaurants. Sometimes, a plain exterior will give no hint to the magic lurking inside. And that brings me to 5 Star China Garden, a small Chinese restaurant nestled into a small strip mall next to the Walmart in Perryville, Missouri.

Stark red neon letters glowed "5 Star," surrounded by two Chinese characters that I probably should have asked the meaning of. I had called ahead with my order, and I'd recommend you do the same. You can find the menu for 5 Star online, but if you don't do the internet, I'm betting you could go to the restaurant, place your order and shop for 20 to 30 minutes somewhere while you wait. It would be worth it.

I had ordered the Family Special and chosen General Tso's Chicken, Chicken and Garlic Sauce and Chicken with Mushroom. Evidently, I was on a poultry kick when I ordered. The Family Special comes with pork or chicken fried rice and crab rangoons or egg rolls. A couple of older gentlemen were working right there, plainly visible over an open fire, working the woks, stirring and scooping sauces with vigor. That was my first clue it was going to be good.

After a too-long drive home from Perryville, I could finally unpack everything and see what I had. Three full-to-the-brim foil containers full of bright and beautiful meat and vegetables, and the obligatory cardboard container full of rice. The pork fried rice is definitely worth mentioning. They didn't use ham in the mixture, but instead, that smoky, pink-rinded pork that you find in some restaurants' wonton soups. It lent a strong taste to the rice, all meaty and smoky, and was absolutely delicious on its own.

The General Tso's was fairly mild without any mouth-burn, which I appreciated. The sauce was sweet and thick. The chicken with mushrooms had a variety of vegetables to set off the color, like green beans and carrots, wonder on the eyes. My favorite, however, was the Garlic Chicken. Lots of sauce to thoroughly soak into the rice, tons of garlicky flavor, tender chicken — my goodness, the memory is making me hungry.

A little dab of this and that, 5 Star's Family Special offered fresh food without sacrificing variety.Submitted by Rebecca LaClair

I also appreciated the thick egg roll, fried to perfection, full of cabbage and meat and ready to be dipped in sweet and sour sauce. There is something so comforting about a good egg roll, and I will definitely make sure I order more on my next trip.

There are plenty of restaurants in our area that serve Chinese fare, and many of the most-favored places seem to be buffets. I would encourage you to look beyond the buffet, find the smaller places that serve up recipes like their parents and grandparents may have made, to get a fresh cooked meal steaming hot even after the drive home. You can't eat the sheer variety of food that a buffet would provide, but I feel the quality may be better from a mom and pop shop, and the leftovers are divine. When you compare the prices of 5 Star against a fast-food restaurant, the choice is a no brainer. I'll take the fresh food, full of color and taste, over a drive-through any day.

This is going to be a year of attempted fearlessness from me. If I feel uncertain or scared I may fail, I'm trying it anyway. In this instance, I sampled a place that I knew little about and discovered a wonderful spot to satisfy that occasional craving for the Orient. It's a small victory, but one that I'll take. And before I get uncomfortably close to making a resolution for 2022, let me say that 5 Star China Garden gets five stars from me.

The restaurant is located at 2015 Jefferson St., No. 30, in Perryville.