Fortune Palace Chinese Restaurant

I’d heard that Fortune Palace in Raleigh has a pretty authentic Chinese food, so we went out for lunch over the weekend.

We skipped to the last few pages of the menu - the Chinese menu (rather than the Americanized Chinese food) - and ordered 1 appetizer and 6 entrees to share among seven people.

Appetizer:

海蜇皮 (haizhe pi; Salted Jellyfish)

- It was all right; the key to this dish is that it should be served cold, and unfortunately ours came out at room temp. It had plenty of flavor, though.

Entrees:

梅菜扣肉 (meicai kourou; Pork Belly Slices with Preserved Vegetables)

- Although the color of the meat looks lighter than typical 梅菜扣肉, I assure you that the taste is wonderfully authentic. (As I’ve said before, though, pork belly itself is just a miracle.) The sad part is that although it looks like a large heap in the photo, the meat is only the outermost layer – inside is all preserved vegetables. This place is quite stingy with their pork belly…

豆酥豆腐 (dousu doufu; Tofu with Soy Crisps)

- Another memorable dish. The crispiness of the soy crisps complemented the soft tofu very well, and the flavoring was done just right. Also, the whole concept of using 豆酥 just seems extremely creative to me.

港式燒鴨 (gangshi kaoya; Cantonese-style Roast Duck)

- My favorite dish of the entire meal. I love roast duck, and I am picky about it because I’ve tried it at so many places. The skin was thin and slightly crispy, and the meat was tender and juicy. Just perfect. My recommendation: eat it without the sauce.

鐵板牛柳 (tieban niuliu; Sizzling Beef)

- This dish came with the steam and sizzles, like any typical sizzling platter – but that was about it. It actually had somewhat of a Thai taste. The beef was pretty tender, but overall it wasn’t that memorable.

蝦醬四季豆 (xiajiang sijidou; Green Beans with Shrimp Paste)

- This was pretty interesting. I couldn’t figure out how they got their green beans to become all wrinkled – whether they fried it for a long time or boiled it first. But either way, I think the green beans lost some of their chewiness. The shrimp taste is definitely there – tastes almost like it was made with dried shrimp.

空心菜 (kongxincai; Water Spinach)

- A typical vegetable dish, stir-fried with garlic – good, light complement to the entire meal.

Overall, our group enjoyed the meal very much, although their portions were quite small - especially compared to 35 Chinese Restaurant's portions. Seven people were not full, even after ordering so many dishes. Compare the photo of their string beans with the string beans from 35. Two pictures say two thousand words. However, they do have an advantage over 35 in that they are not as oily in their dishes.

I did like their food, though, and I do hope to go back and try some more dishes, if not only to have the roast duck again. Worth a go.

Restaurant: Fortune Palace Chinese Restaurant (天福樓)
Price Range: Around $15

Veggie burger adventure?!

Went to OnlyBurger's truck today to discover that they were out of hamburger patties! Well, since I'd already walked all the way over (and since I still love their fries), I decided to try their veggie burger. I've never had a veggie burger before, so I don't have much basis for comparison, but I can tell you that their veggie burger is equally delicious as their regular burger. The patty was juicy and tender, and it was a refreshing break from, well, meat (never thought I'd say that in my life).

So next time, if they run out of hamburgers, don't just walk away from the truck - order yourself a veggie burger. Or don't wait till they run out of burgers to do it - just order one anyway. Seriously. Just do it.

Saigon Grill

I've heard from a friend that Saigon Grill in north Durham is a pretty authentic Vietnamese restaurant, so we gave it a try today for lunch.

The menu featured pretty tempting things like frog legs and rabbit, both of which I wanted to try, but since I wanted to compare its food to other Vietnamese restaurants in the area, I decided to go with the "bun" - vermicelli noodles with grilled pork, shrimp, and egg rolls, which is what I usually order.

The grilled pork was the best part of the entire bowl - the flavor was done just right (not too salty, not too bland), it was very juicy and not dry at all. The grilled shrimp was also pretty good. The egg rolls weren't the best - I thought the dough was a bit overfried, and there wasn't enough filling, and the vermicelli noodles lacked chewiness. However, their "special fish sauce" was one of the best I've had: it didn't have the strong "fishy" smell that most other restaurants' fish sauce has, and they added some hot sauce, which is always given a plus in my book.

Overall, I enjoyed my meal - it was good, and it was cheap. Compared to Pho 9N9, another popular Vietnamese restaurant, I would say that Saigon Grill has better grilled pork and fish sauce, whereas Pho 9N9's noodles are better. So it depends on what you like to eat, I suppose. If you like pho, Pho 9N9 would probably be a better choice, whereas if you're more interested in the rice plates or vermicelli, like me, I'd choose Saigon Grill. The fish sauce and grilled pork have won me over.

Restaurant: Saigon Grill

Price Range: Around $10

- Don't miss this if you like Vietnamese. Make sure to try their grilled pork or shrimp, though, and preferably with rice than noodles.

Sushi Love's sushi

I had a sushi craving, so we went out to the popular Sushi Love, across the street from Duke Hospital. Their sushi is "buy 1 get 1 free," so it's a pretty good deal if you get two orders of about the same price.

Sid and I decided to share four rolls: Caterpillar Roll, TNT Roll, Maguro Tartar, and one of their daily specials, the Momo Roll.

From back to front: TNT Roll, Catepillar Roll, Momo Roll (right side), Maguro Tartar

[So a word about the BOGO free sushi around here: Mt. Fuji's sushi used to be half-price on Thursday nights only, and it was the freshest around here. However, now that it's BOGO free everyday, the freshness has decreased significantly, and their rolls are pretty small. Kanki, the Japanese steakhouse, also has BOGO free sushi now, but I feel like their rolls are just too Americanized. There is one more place, Shiki Sushi, which is near NC-54 and I-40 (close to Southpoint), which has very creative rolls and pretty big portions. So depending on where you are, Shiki Sushi or Sushi Love are probably your best bets for BOGO free sushi.]

Our rolls arrived pretty quickly. The Caterpillar (eel roll topped with avocado) and Maguro Tartar (spicy scallops and seared tuna) are rolls almost always get because I love eel and tuna, so I never really have anything bad to say about it.

The TNT Roll has salmon, scallops, and eel, and the outside is wrapped with a layer of seaweed. I thought it was not bad, but that there was almost too many things in one roll. Salmon, scallops, and eel all taste very different, and when you had them all wrapped together, the uniqueness of each taste was sort of lost.

The Momo Roll was, however, the surprise of the day. It was a scallops and spicy mayo roll topped with salmon. I'm not usually a big fan of salmon, but this was the fattiest salmon I've ever had in my life. They also gave us pretty generous cuts of this fatty salmon, which was nice

All in all, a pretty good experience. As I've said before, if you want BOGO free sushi, Sushi Love is a decent choice.

Restaurant: Sushi Love

Buy 1 Get 1 Free sushi

Price: $15-20

Recipe: Jam Kolaches

Kolaches are a type of Polish cookies. The dough itself isn't sweetened, so all the sugar comes from the jam and the powdered sugar dustings on top. The cream cheese will give the kolaches a scone-like taste, whereas the butter will make them feel just a bit like a biscuit (or so claims my friend. I think the scone taste is more prevalent). All in all, I do believe this was a worthwhile first dessert recipe to add to this blog...

Jam Kolaches

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

3oz (1 small package) cream cheese, softened

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup of various jams

1/4 cup of sifted powdered sugar (or confectioner's sugar)

Directions

1. Place a rack in the middle of the oven and pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Beat the butter and cream cheese in a bowl on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the flour in small amounts to the mixture, beating on low speed after each addition to ensure that the flour is well incorporated.

3. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface. Using a pin, roll the dough into a circle of approximately 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into 2-inch square or circle pieces. Spoon about 1/4 tsp of jam into the center of each piece. Fold opposite edges together, slightly overlapping the edges, and pinch the edges to make them stick together.

4. Place the kolaches 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375F (190C) for about 15 minutes, until the bottom is slightly browned. The top will be be slightly golden.

5. Cool the cookies on a wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Tyler's Taproom

Another night of all-American grill & bar food - we decided to venture to Tyler's Taproom, which was listed under Indy's Best of the Triangle 2009 as, essentially, the best bar. Wednesdays are their pint night in Durham, which means that if you buy their featured drink, you keep the glass.

Tonight's featured draft was the Big Boss Bad Penny (a local brewery in Raleigh), which Sid ordered. It arrived in the drink's logo glass, which was pretty cool.

This place's drinks menu is seriously about 10 pages long, and mostly beer - domestic, Belgian, Canadian, British... so if you're looking for drafts that you've never heard of, this is the place for you.

The 1o-page long beer menu... it was incredible. (Sorry, the pictures today aren't in great resolution because I only had my phone camera.)

Anyhow, onto the food. We ordered one of Tyler's specials, the Pulled Pork Sandwich, and an Ultimate Pork Sandwich. The pulled pork was a bit on the dry side, although the flavor was rich but not overwhelmingly sour. (The kaiser roll didn't help with the dryness of the meat; in the end, eating the meat without the bun actually made it much better.)

Pulled pork sandwich with garlic fries. Background: House-made chips and and the Big Boss Bad Penny draft its logo glass.

The Ultimate Pork Sandwich, on the other hand, was very tender, and fried pickles were a great complement to the juicy, crispy meat. Also, the kaiser roll was toasted, so it didn't seem as dry as the pulled pork sandwich. As you can probably tell, this one was the winner of the meal.

Their sides were house-made chips and garlic fries - we tried one of each. Both were delicious, but if you must make a choice, I would go for the fries. The garlic adds a pretty unique taste.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable meal - good food, fun atmosphere. It's definitely a great restaurant if you're catching dinner before a Durham Bulls game. (If you do go on a game night, though, be sure you get there early because they can get pretty full.)

Restaurant: Tyler's Taproom

Price Range: $10-20

- A great restaurant for a fun dinner out or late-night drinks. Worth checking it out!

OnlyBurger

I've had OnlyBurger once during the school year, but I didn't remember much about it and wanted to try it again. So when my friend told me that over the summer, they stop right down the street from where I work, I was super excited and hoped that they would make a stop there soon.

Basically, OnlyBurger is a burger truck, and it makes stops around the RTP area during lunch and dinner times. You follow them on their website or Twitter to find out where they will be. Its menu is simple: single, double, single combo, and double combo - which include fries or chips and a drink. You can add lettuce, tomato, onions, ketchup, mustard, mayo, cheese, and pickles to your burger.

OnlyBurger's truck

I got a single combo with chips (because I thought they had homemade kettle chips), but I was mistaken - I got a bag of Sunchips instead. My friend was smarter and ordered fries, which were very crispy and delicious. It also turned out to be a huge bag, so I got to munch on quite a few of them =9

Huge bag of crispy fries.

The burger itself is wonderful. It's very juicy, and the burger bun is also toasted with butter and grilled along with the patty, which means it has extra flavor. I added ketchup to my burger, but honestly, even without any condiments, the burger is juicy enough. It's really one of the best burgers I've had, and probably the only burger I'll want for a while.

My burger with lettuce, tomato, onions, ketchup, and pickles.

Truck: OnlyBurger

Price Range: $5-$10 (check their prices on the website)

- Definitely follow them on Twitter or check their site to find out if they're ever near you. And if they are, go and get yourself a burger and fries!

Local Yogurt

Local Yogurt. I've read about this place on multiple blogs and heard about it from several friends, so I knew that I had to check it out.

They offer four flavors at a time: original and chocolate are always available, and during my first visit, the two "rotating" flavors were butter pecan and mango. I tried butter pecan with granola and snickers. The texture of the froyo was so smooth that I almost didn't believe it was frozen yogurt! I was pretty surprised, but I also enjoyed it a lot. Butter pecan was a very good flavor, especially with the granola, but I thought snickers made the entire mixture too sweet. I also tried some of my friend's mango, which also tasted good, but unfortunately it had a bit of the artificial fruit syrup flavor.

Left: Butter pecan with granola and snickers. Right: mango with strawberry and kiwi (ordered by my friend)

On my next visit, I tried the original yogurt flavor - and it was incredible! I was expecting it to taste like plain ol' yogurt, but its taste was very refined, and reminded me of Chinese plain yogurt (酸奶/優酪乳). It also wasn't as creamy as butter pecan, which I liked - after all, this is frozen yogurt. Combined with granola, it tasted just like a yogurt parfait. Next time, I'll have to add some fresh fruit with this combination (or try the chips topping...). This has definitely become the #1 dessert place in my book!

(Follow their Twitter page for updates on their flavor and local topping offerings!)

Store: Local Yogurt

$2.50 for petite (3oz) / $2.75 for small (5oz) / $3.75 for medium (8oz) / $4.50 for large (12oz)

$0.75 for first topping / $0.25 for add'l toppings

- Definitely give this a try if you like frozen desserts, or just desserts in general. You won't regret it.

35 Chinese Restaurant

After yum cha at HK Chinese Restaurant, we still weren’t quite satisfied with our fill of Chinese food, so we decided to make a trip to Cary for 35 Chinese Restaurant’s Szechuan cuisine.

(Note: there are two 35 Chinese Restaurants in the area, one in Cary and one in Chapel Hill. What I’ve heard is that the Cary location is by far the better one, although I haven’t been to the one in Chapel Hill.)

There were four of us, so we ordered two dishes from the “Appetizer” (冷盤, or cold dish) menu and three from the “Entrée” menu. (I don’t remember the exact English translation of these dishes, but they should be something similar to what I have…)

Cold Dishes:

夫妻肺片 (Fuqi Feipian; Sliced Roast Beef and Tendon)

蒜泥白肉 (Suan’ni Bairou; Sliced Belly Pork in Garlic Sauce)

Top: Fuqi Feipian; Bottom: Suan'ni Bairou

Entrees:

回鍋肉 (Huiguo Rou; Twice-Cooked Pork)

香菇豆腐煲 (Xiang’gu Doufu Bao; Mushroom and Tofu Pot)

乾扁四季豆 (Ganbian Sijidou; String Beans Western Style)

Top: Huiguo Rou; Middle: Xiang’gu Doufu Bao; Bottom: Ganbian Sijidou

We asked for everything to be less spicy (少辣), although I, being a genuine Hunanese (湖南人; a province in China well-known for their hot cuisine), can tolerate pretty spicy stuff. The good thing about asking for less spicy is that less chili sauce is used, meaning everything is less oily.

The Fuqi Feipian’s taste is very authentic, but it’s also the most oily and spicy dish out of the five (which is probably why it’s authentic). If you like Fuqi Feipian though, you’d probably enjoy it. Just don't say I didn't warn you about the oil...

The Suan’ni Bairou was definitely my favorite dish of the meal. The texture was just right (well, pork belly is almost always great), and the sauce was done really well. It was a great mixture of sweet & salty, as well as garlic taste.

The Huiguo Rou’s meat pieces were cut into very thin slices – the thinner the better for pork belly – and flavored with black beans and leeks (大蒜苗), making it a dish with what my friend called “many layers of flavor.” Another great dish!

The Xiang’gu Doufu Bao wasn’t too impressive. The kind of tofu they used was not the regular bean curd, but tofu puffs (油豆腐).

Finally, the Ganbian Sijidou was pretty decent. It was made with pickled mustard and seasoned with salt, instead of with the usual ground pork and rice wine, but the taste was still pretty good. However, in my experience, to get the freshest vegetables, it’s still probably wiser to ask your waiter or waitress which vegetables are available and ask the kitchen to prepare it a certain style for you.

Overall, 35 Chinese is probably one of the most authentic Chinese restaurants I’ve had around here, and splitting 5 dishes between 4 people resulted in $14 per person, which wasn’t too bad at all.

Restaurant: 35 Chinese Restaurant

Price Range: $12-20 per person

- Worth the trip, especially when you’re craving real Szechuan food.

Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant's weekend dim sum

I’ve had a lot of good yum cha (more commonly known as dim sum) since I have a handful of relatives in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and NorCal. I didn’t expect too much from Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant’s yum cha, but I was a bit surprised.

We ordered the usual stuff: siu mai (燒賣), har gau (蝦餃; shrimp dumpling), cheong fun (腸粉; rice noodle roll). The siu mai was delicious – mostly ground pork with just a bit of shrimp paste. The har gau was pretty decent, and the cheong fun’s noodle skin wasn’t firm enough.

Left photo, top plate: shrimp dumplings. Left photo, bottom plate: siu mai. Right photo: rice noodle rolls.

We also tried a plate of the char siu (叉燒; Cantonese barbecued pork), which was very nicely done. Good amount of sauce, and pretty tender meat. Another good dish was their sliced ham (火腿), which was served with red vinegar and diced garlic - these two were probably my favorite.

Top: Cantonese barbecue pork. Bottom: sliced ham with red vinegar.

Finally, we also ordered their lo bak go (蘿蔔糕; turnip cake). It wasn't anything spectacular, but good enough to satisfy a craving. Of course, we had a plate of vegetables, which changes from visit to visit based on freshness and availability.

Turnip cakes.

We finished the day with some dessert - matuan (麻糰). Overall, a pretty decent meal. There were some other dishes that were ordered, but I didn't try enough to give a good enough review. Maybe someone else out there can give them a try and leave some feedback?

Restaurant: Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant

Price Range: $15-20 per person

- Worth it - yum cha is a good choice for Chinese food because it's not oily, and you can sample many different options. Give it a try, and you're bound to discover at least one or two dishes you'll like.

Uli Mana Coconut Truffles

I was at Whole Foods the other day and passed by the chocolate aisle, so I couldn’t resist looking for chocolate truffles. I found these Uli Mana Coconut Truffles and decided to try some, mostly because there was a store clerk who told me quite convincingly that they were made by a local crafter and that they would be delicious. I’m up for anything local and hand-crafted, so I bought a jar.

Now, I should have looked at the ingredients before I bought them, because I do know the recipe for making truffles, and three of the main ingredients are chocolate (duh), heavy cream, and butter. Heat the cream, stir in the chocolate and some butter, then stir the mixture in a double-boiler until the chocolate completely melts. Wait for it to cool, then use a spoon to scoop out your – voila! – chocolate truffles. There are variations of this recipe if you want your truffles to be sweeter, nuttier, etc, but that’s the basic idea.

Well, if I had taken a closer look at the ingredients list of Uli Mana truffles, I would have noticed that nowhere does it list heavy cream as an ingredient. Which would explain why when I first bit into the chocolate, there was no feeling of rich, creamy goodness. It was actually rather bland – even the chocolate that was used wasn’t very high quality. The bitter chocolate was not rich at all, and the soft texture of the truffle probably came entirely from the butter. The heavy taste of the chocolate also covered the flavor of the coconut flakes. This truffle may contain some fancy stuff like agave powder or sea salt, but without plain ol’ heavy cream, it ain’t a truffle. I was sorely disappointed with them and will continue on my search for better chocolate truffles in Durham…


Ingredients List: Organic Cacao Powder, Organic Cacao Butter, Organic Agave, Organic Coconut, Organic Vanilla Bean, Celtic Sea Salt

Store: Whole Foods
Uli Mana Coconut Truffles
$13.99 for 5.5oz (156g)
- Not worth it. If you're really craving truffles, even Lindt truffles would probably be a better option.

Carolina Ale House's Jumbo Chicken Wings

I’d had a craving for wings for a few days, so last night at 11:30, we went to Carolina Ale House, whose wings were voted the winner according to Indy Week’s Best of the Triangle (also, every Wednesday, Carolina Ale House has a special of $2.50 for all drafts, which is what caught Sidney’s attention).

We arrived at what I imagined to be a pretty typical bar scene, with (drunk) karaoke on the patio and people shooting pool and generally walking around indoors. The restaurant is quite spacey, so it didn’t feel crowded. We seated ourselves at a corner table to avoid the loud music, but the waiters still found us pretty quickly. We ordered the wings, which they offered in several flavors: teriyaki, honey BBQ, buffalo, honey buffalo, and spicy habanero. The honey buffalo sounded tempting, but I decided to go with the original buffalo.

The big surprise was how large each wing was! On the menu, they were called “Jumbo Chicken Wings,” but I had thought that was just a name. Now I know why they’re “jumbo”!


Upon first bite, I knew why they were voted #1 wings in the Triangle. It was a wonderful blend of crispiness from the fried batter and the tenderness of the meat, and there was just the right amount of buffalo sauce – not too little so that you’re not satisfied, but not too much so as to overwhelm the taste and soak up the “crunch.” (For the same reason, I also don’t dip wings in any dressing. It’ll also save you calories – although I suppose if you’re eating wings, you’re probably not thinking about calories in the first place.)

The wings were completely satisfying – I happily finished my whole tray quickly and licked my fingers at the end. It was an awesome experience, and I’ll definitely be back for more – perhaps to try the honey buffalo next time.

Restaurant: Carolina Ale House (Durham location)
Jumbo Chicken Wings
$7.79 for 10 pieces / $15.29 for 20 pieces / $34.99 for 50 pieces
- Definitely a worthwile appetizer for your meal or a great late-night snack!