A chef recently told me he got bawled out by somebody who couldn’t believe his Thai restaurant didn’t offer take-out. “She was like, ‘You don’t deliver? You don’t do take-out?’ I told her that we didn’t even have take-out containers. It’s very ethnocentric,” he said.

What many Americans — myself included - are accustomed to when it comes to Asian food, Chinese cuisine especially, comes in cardboard boxes with wire handles. There's always sushi — which is typically made well and ornately arranged —but the finer side of Asian cuisine often gets overshadowed by that which comes with sauce packets and disposable chopsticks.

An upcoming series of meals at Harvest Moon Chinese Cuisine - which itself is an exception to fast Chinese food - will showcase the finer side of Chinese cuisine. It’s called the Man Han Imperial Feast and each meal is three-hours long with a total of 11 wine-paired courses crafted by master noodle chef YongDong "Tony" Wu. Wu is known for his knowledge of ancient hand-pulled noodle-making techniques.

The dinners aren’t cheap — $80 to $100 per person — but I did mention there are 11 wine-paired courses, right? They take place between Tuesday, Sept. 6, and Monday, Sept. 12. Reservations are required; 825-5351.

And if you really want to see some gourmet Chinese cooking, the restaurant is offering a $150-a-plate dinner by author and chef Martin Yan of the show Yan Can Cook on Saturday, Sept. 10. $100 is tax-deductible, and reservations are required; 292-6900.

Also, just in case you have like 10 minutes to waste watching a guy swing dough around, here's a video of Chef Wu doing his noodle magic. It gets pretty amazing around the eight-minute mark.

Chef Tony Wu's pulled noodles, with Chef Martin Yan from C J Phillips on Vimeo.