Neo-Asia's weekend dim sum

We had heard good things about Neo-Asia's dim sum - at least that it was better than Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant's (see previous post) - so we absolutely had to drive out to Cary and give it a try.

**Note: Neo-Asia/ Neo-China has a few different locations in the RTP, and only the Cary location serves dim sum on weekends!

We ordered the typical yum cha stuff, a few of which are pictured below (sorry, I didn't quite get a chance to take a photo of the food before my hungry meal companions poked their chopsticks into the food): siu mai, spare ribs, shrimp dumplings, shrimp with fried tofu, shrimp cheong fun, and the like. All of them were pretty decent, but not that much better than HK's except for the siu mai. However, I did enjoy in particular the chives dumpling, which is not available at HK.

Select steamed dishes

What we thought was really special about the dim sum at Neo-Asia were the cold meat platters: sliced chicken with garlic sauce, sliced pork with garlic sauce, sliced spicy pork (some of which are also pictured). Those were really delicious - especially the spicy pork. The spicy sauce that was used really had a special taste that wasn't too strong, and the meat in all the cold platters was very tender and fresh.

Select cold meat platters; potstickers; green beans

We also ordered some potstickers, the obligatory veggies, and a sticky rice chicken. I didn't try all of the dishes since I'm not particularly fond of sticky rice stuff, but I was told that the sticky rice was pretty good, since it had lots of fillings (chicken and Chinese sausage and ground pork and whatnot).

Finally, for dessert, we tried the tofu pudding and sesame ball. The sesame ball was freshly fried and very yummy. The tofu pudding was both a surprise and a disappointment: the soup that accompanied it was ginger soup, which was perfect for the cold day, but the tofu itself wasn't soft enough to achieve the pudding-like texture. I definitely enjoyed the ginger soup more than the tofu part...

Overall, my favorite part of the meal was definitely the cold meat platters, but they obviously made the meal very expensive. You also do not know how much each item costs, since your card is stamped with a server's number instead of in price categories. My buddies and I enjoyed the meal, but we decided that we'll probably still stay in Durham and go to HK when we crave dim sum...

Restaurant: Neo-Asia (Cary location)
Price Range: $20-$25

My First Contest

I'm entering a contest! The Duke Culinary Society is hosting a Dessert Expo on Monday, November 9th, and I will be one of the participants! I am super excited, and you should definitely come by and check it out :) More details & updates to come!

Firebird's

Firebird's! Finally, a steakhouse :) I hope you guys aren't starting to think that I don't like steak or something.

There are many things on the menu, but as I've been here a couple of times before, I'll just tell you this: if you're here for steak (and you should be), get the prime rib. Herb-crusted, rubbed with black peppers, oven-roasted to medium-rare perfection - pictured below. Top photo is my 10-oz, and bottom is the dinner date's 16-oz. As you notice, the difference is in the thickness of the cuts, so as you might be able to imagine, the thicker 16oz cut is better.

10-oz prime rib, cooked medium rare and served with sauteed mushrooms

16-oz prime rib, cooked medium rare and served with Colorado baked potato

The steak is served au jus and with a light horseradish sauce. I prefer the au jus, but the horseradish also goes pretty well, too. It's not so overwhelming that it covers up the taste of the steak, yet it provides enough flavor. A bit too creamy for me, though, I think.

There is an assortment of sides, although the default is a Colorado baked potato. I chose sauteed mushrooms, which were very delicious, although the flavors were just a bit too much for me towards the end of the meal.

Overall, we love Firebird's - one of my favorite steakhouses all around (and that's sayin' somethin', folks - my home is out in Fort Worth, Texas.)

Firebird's (located in the Streets at Southpoint)

Price Range: $20-$40

Pho 9N9

Finally had a chance to go to Pho 9N9 after I started this blog! I've heard from Vietnamese acquaintances that this is one of the best places to get pho and such, so I'm pretty excited to give it a review.

It was quite a warm day, however, so I actually decided against ordering the pho and went with the grilled pork over vermicelli instead - shown below.

Grilled pork vermicelli, served with fish sauce

Grilled pork on top, vermicelli, and hidden below the vermicelli noodles is a layer of bean sprouts, sliced cucumbers, pickled radishes, etc. Add the fish sauce, and you can imagine that there is plenty of flavor in this simple bowl. However, I will say that Saigon Grill beats Pho 9N9 in the grilled pork department...

Seeing as it's getting colder outside, I will most likely be reviewing 9N9's pho sometime soon.

Pho 9N9
Price Range: $8-10

Goodberry's

I've heard about Goodberry's for a while from a dessert-lover (hehe), so I decided to stop by one day for a treat. They have three flavors each day: vanilla, chocolate, and a flavor of the day (ok, technically four if you count sugar-free vanilla).

Some background about frozen custard - it's a little different from ice cream in that it's made with eggs in addition to cream and sugar. It has less air than ice cream, so the overall texture is thick & creamy, and should be more smooth and soft in comparison with ice cream. It is served at a high temperature (-8 degrees C) than ice cream (-12 degrees C), which also contributes to the softer texture. (For more information on frozen custard, you can read the Wikipedia entry.)

Anyway, Goodberry's does a pretty good job with the soft and smooth consistency - I could definitely taste the difference. Also, they actually blend in the toppings you want into the custard (they call it the 'Carolina Concrete'), so you can get a pretty good mixture. I really enjoyed that.

Pictured below was my mini chocolate-hazelnut custard. It was delicious, and I'm very sad that the weather is getting colder - less frozen treats. It's rather unfortunate that they do not provide indoor seating, because I can't imagine business being good in the winter time...


Goodberry's
Price: $3.50 for a mini with one topping

Recipe: Chocolate-Chip Almond Cookies

I had a cookie craving the other night. But I didn't want to make a batch of chocolate-chip cookies again, so I rummaged around the fridge and found a bag of slivered almonds. Perfect! Chocolate chip and almond cookies.

Because almonds are quite oil-rich already, you don't need as much butter in this recipe as other cookie recipes. Also, I chose not to grind or chop the almonds (mainly because I don't have a food processor...) but the author of BakingBites chops the almonds in her recipe into fine pieces and uses almond extract, which will probably make the almond taste more even throughout the cookie.

The key of using almonds is to toast them – that will bring out their fragrance. It’s easy to toast them using a conventional oven; you can do it while preparing your cookie dough.

Toasting almonds:
Heat oven to 350F. Line a pan with baking sheet or aluminum foil, and spread almonds evenly. Bake for 20 minutes until almonds are browned at the edges. (P.S. Your kitchen will smell delicious.)

Chocolate-Chip Almond Cookies Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
1/2 cup toasted almonds
1 cup chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)

Directions:
Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350F. Line a baking pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil (no need to grease).

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small mixing bowl.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugars until just combined. Stir in the vanilla. Finally, beat in the eggs, one at a time.

With the mixer on low speed, stir in the flour mixture in small additions, using a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure that the flour is incorporated into the dough.

Finally, stir in the almonds and chocolate chips until well combined.

Drop the dough by rounded tablespoons unto the baking sheet, about 2 inches apart from each other. (Rounded dough will ensure that your cookies will come out as almost perfect circles!)

Bake for 10-11 minutes at 350F, until browned at the edges. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Yields 3-4 dozen cookies.

Enjoy!

Watt's Grocery

Watt's Grocery is one of my favorite restaurants in Durham, and I was happy to have the chance to take my father there when he came to visit me. Their menu features all local items, and they have a bar with NC draught beers.

The atmosphere of the restaurant feels quite organic, although it's always packed. I recommend you to make reservations, otherwise you're in for a long wait. My dad and I didn't make the reservations, so we decided to sit at the bar instead.

Our food - appetizers:

Housemade terrine with artichoke pickles and seasonal compote

Terrine, in case you didn't know, is basically a pate, and they serve it to you with toasted crackers. It's a good combination, but I felt like the taste is really overwhelming for one person. If you get this, you might want to share it with someone...

Market Lettuce Salad with radishes, fried shallots, little tomatoes, and dijon vinaigrette

The salad, being local, is always an interesting combination of vegetables that you might not have seen before. My dad was pretty surprised. He didn't add too much of the vinaigrette because it was a little too sour for him, but the greens were pretty fresh.

Entrees:

Grilled Center-Cut Pork Porterhouse over brown butter apple galette with seasonal vegetables and Nut Brown ale reduction

This was AMAZING. The pork was so incredibly tender, and the sauce was just the right balance between sweet and tart. I absolutely loved it. Also, the sauce went quite well with the vegetables on the side - an added bonus. 

NC Fish of the Day: grilled NC trout with mushroom and peas sauce and a side of hush puppies & basil mayo

The trout was pretty tender, but I didn't think the sauce was too special. The hush puppies, however, are definitely amazing. It could be that I just love the basil mayo dip, but I seriously think that they're flavored and fried to perfection...

 

Overall, Watt's is always a great experience. Even though the trout wasn't too impressive, it still didn't make me love this place any less. I think the cheerful and friendly attitude of the servers, the speed of the service, quality of the food, and reasonable prices overall just makes this one of the best places to dine.

Restaurant: Watt's Grocery
Price Range: $25-40 (for entire meal)

Blu Seafood and Bar

Whew, I haven't updated so long that it's almost embarrassing. I suppose I should take this long weekend (currently on fall break for school) to catch up on some reviewing...

So, where to begin... Let's start with Blu Seafood and Bar, which I visited to celebrate a seafood lover's birthday.

First off, this place is super crowded. Thankfully, we made reservations - but our table in the corner was right below a couple of speakers, which was pretty annoying because the music was quite loud, and the waiter also never seemed to stop by our table throughout the night.

The waiter started us off with some sourdough bread, which was pretty soft but a bit cold already. However, my very hungry friends were displeased with the few pieces of bread, and since the waiter didn't stop by often, they couldn't keep asking for more...

Anyway, on to the appetizers. We ordered an array of different items:

Steamed mussels with chile and lime

Yellowfin tuna tatare with avocado and miso

I was kind of surprised at how much tuna they gave us, but the tuna also wasn't quite as fresh as what you'd find at a good sushi bar.

Crabcakes with mango salsa, cilantro oil

The mango salsa was great - wish they had given me more of it! The crab cakes themselves are just so-so, though. There's also quite a bit of cilantro oil...

Parmesan fried oysters with basil dip

And of course, the mandatory oysters on the half-shell

I didn't actually try this myself, but my friends told me that they were delicious. I think they'd be one of the best deals for appetizers.

As for entrees:

Pound of steamed crab legs

The crab legs were pretty good. They were fresh, and also steamed well - not too overdone.

Cornmeal encrusted NC trout with corn succotash, chipotle butter

The trout was very heavy. I think the first few bites were great, but after that the taste just kind of overwhelms you...

Lemongrass marinated diver scallops with shrimp, coconut peanut Sauce, fried udon noodles

Whole fish of the day: blackened sea bass, served with mashed potatoes and green beans

Overall, the food was all right - just slow. The service, though, was pretty terrible - it was incredibly slow, and the waiter was quite inattentive to our table. I'm sure they were busy that night, and we did have a corner table, but that's not really an excuse for not stopping by our table, not refilling our waters, not getting us more bread, etc. Unfortunately, I think the service really ruined the Blu experience for us.

Restaurant: Blu Seafood and Bar
Price Range: $30-50 (appetizers + entree)

Bruegger's Bakery

Sorry, I've been running way behind on the posts. With the start of the school year, I suppose I tend to procrastinate everything...

Anyway, on to Bruegger's! It's a nice little bakery on the corner of 9th St & Perry St, and around lunchtime on Sundays, it is full.

They have your normal assortment of bagels: plain, everything, sesame, poppy, etc. But they also have interesting flavors like cinnamon, rosemary olive oil, and pumpkin! You can tell that their bagels are made fresh, since they're very soft. Also, there are "HOT" signs indicating which ones just came out of the oven.

Primo Pesto Chicken "panini" on a whole wheat bagel

I ordered a primo pesto chicken panini, but on a hot whole wheat bagel instead (they can't press the bagel for you, but I didn't mind). It was delicious! The overall environment of the bakery is just a great place to grab coffee and lunch (or breakfast, if you're an early-riser, unlike me...). I really encourage you to check out this little shop!

Restaurant: Bruegger's
Price Range: $5-$10

Saigon Grill, Part II

Another visit to Saigon Grill, and this time, a Vietnamese friend recommended the egg noodles. I ordered the "special", which is egg noodle soup with a pork broth base, char-siu style sliced pork, shrimp, squid, and imitation crab. They also provided an additional plate of sprouts, jalapenos, cilantro, and lime for you to add if you want, just like pho.

I liked their egg noodles better than their pho - the noodles had the right texture, and the soup had more flavor than their pho soup (I think it was from the celery). I'm not a big fan of squid, but the char-siu style sliced pork was very tasty.

If you're in the mood for noodle soup, then you should definitely try something from the egg noodle section of the menu over the pho.

Purely Decadent non-dairy frozen dessert

I don't know how many of you reading this are lactose intolerant, but if you are, and if you have ice cream cravings, go to Whole Foods and get yourself a pint of Purely Decadent frozen dessert. Seriously. It's amazing.

I didn't even like ice cream very much, but my mom bought me a pint of the turtle trails when I was home a couple of weeks ago, and this stuff is good.

Turtle trails is vanilla based with chocolate-covered pecans and caramel (my favorite). I've also tried the blueberry cheesecake, which has cheesecake crust pieces and dried blueberries. You should try every flavor and tell me which ones are the best. You should try it, even if you're not lactose intolerant.

Purely Decadent non-dairy frozen dessert, Turtle Trails flavored

(If you go on their website, you can print a coupon for $1 off, too!)

Sushi Love's non-sushi

Being Asian, we don't think most of the things on Sushi Love's menu are authentic enough for our taste (Asian fusion doesn't really float our boats). Being cheap college students, we always go for the House Fried Rice, which is $8 for dinner.

We decided to share a Salt & Pepper Calamari appetizer ($6) and a Beef Fried Rice...

Salt & Pepper Calamari

House Fried Rice with Beef

The calamari was served over crispy straws with a "yum yum sauce" that tasted like soy sauce, a bit of vinegar, sugar, and water. But it went well with the calamari, so I have nothing against it. I also love the calamari. It didn't have a strong squid-y taste, and just the right amount of chewiness.

The fried rice is your typical fried rice: an assortment of vegetables (carrots, sprouts, scallions), eggs, beef. Some of my friends have complained that it's not salty enough, but I don't like things with too strong of a flavor, so for me, it's just right. Also, if you're not a big eater (like me), the fried rice is probably enough for you to share with another non-big eater if you order an appetizer.

In the past, I've tried a few different things off of Sushi Love's menu, but in the end, I felt like the fried rice was still the best deal (keep in the mind the "cheap college student" part!). If you want to spend a few extra bucks, the pineapple fried rice is indeed very good (get it with shrimp). Just my two cents - let me know what's your favorite at this restaurant...

Restaurant: Sushi Love
Price Range: $10-15

Five Guys Burgers and Fries

Five Guys is pretty well-known already for its great-tasting burgers, but I thought I'd give it a review anyway.

We went to the one in Southpoint Mall's food court:


The standard toppings on your burger are mayo, lettuce, tomatoes, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, ketchup, mustard, and pickles. You can also request onions, relish, jalapeno peppers, green peppers, A-1 sauce, BBQ sauce, and/or hot sauce at no extra charge, which is pretty sweet.

The regular burger is a double, and the little burger is a single.

I got a hamburger with lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, ketchup, mustard, pickles, green peppers, A-1 sauce, and hot sauce - and it was awesome. They didn't add so much sauce that the buns were soggy, and the patties were very juicy as well.


The fries are also delicious; they're fried in peanut oil, and you can get them cajun style or regular style. (Both are pretty unique; pictured here is the regular style.)


Compared to OnlyBurger, I think Five Guys' burgers win, only because they have so many different toppings and sauces. However, I still prefer OB's thin, crispy fries. It's still hard to pick a favorite burger place, but you should not miss out on Five Guys when you're shopping at Southpoint.

Restaurant: Five Guys Burgers and Fries
Price Range: $5-$10

Recipe: Lemon Bars

Lemon bars are a delicious treat for the summertime (or anytime, I suppose) and almost all occasions. They consist of a buttery shortbread base, topped with a zesty lemon "filling". Here is a wonderful recipe, shared by Ann Prospero on her website, annprospero.net, with a couple of modifications.

Lemon Bars

Ingredients
For the crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup butter

For the filling:
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon lemon zest, finely grated
3/4 cup to 1 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup whole milk (alternatives: half-and-half, light cream)

Powdered sugar for dusting

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line of 13x9x2inch baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving a few inches of overhang (you will need to remove the foil from the baking pan later). Grease the foil.

2. Combine the 2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, cornstarch, and salt. If using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resmbles coarse crumbs. (If mixing by hand, melt the butter and stir the mixture.)

3. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan and bake for 18-20 minutes, until the edges turn golden.

4. In the meantime, prepare the filling: whisk together the eggs, sugar, the 3 tablespoons of flour, lemon zest, lemon juice, and milk. Pour filling over the hot crust.

5. Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes until the center is set (toothpick comes out clean). Remove from the oven and cool completely.

6. Remove from the pan by lifting the foil overhang. Cut into bars. Sift powdered sugar over the bars before serving.

When I made this, my pan wasn't large enough, so I had a bit of the crust and the filling left over. Therefore, I made...

Individual Lemon Tartlets


Exact same recipe as above, just served in ramekins. Also, reduce the baking time as needed since the portions are smaller. (I only baked 3 ramekins and halved the baking time.)

Good luck, and have fun!

Shanghai House Restaurant (No 1 Panda House) Breakfast/ Brunch

(Didn't bring my camera for this one - sorry.)

Heard some good things about the Chinese breakfast/ brunch foods at Shanghai House Restaurant (上海人家) on Guess Rd, so we decided to pay a visit. The sign still says No. 1 Panda House as its name, but officially I think it has changed to Shanghai House Restaurant.

We didn't look at any of the entree dishes because we've heard that they tend to be super oily, so we just stuck to the breakfast/ brunch items (labeled "dim sum", although there's no such thing as dim sum in Shanghai cuisine, as far as I know...)

We started out with both 甜豆漿 (sweet soymilk) and 咸豆漿 (salty soymilk). The sweet soymilk tasted very Asian, although it was quite expensive ($1.80 for a tall glass). The salty soymilk was interesting: it came with 油條 (fried dough) already soaked in, scallions, and chili oil. I was not expecting the chili oil, and thought it was a bit too oily, but otherwise, the taste was pretty good.

蔥油餅 Scallion pancakes （congyou bing)
- These tasted wonderful - very crispy but not overdone. The scallions' fragrance was also plentiful. However, I have no idea how they managed to make these so oily.

小籠湯包 Shanghainese soup dumplings (xiaolong tangbao)
- Personally, I am not a huge fan of these in the first place, plus the one I tried didn't exactly have a lot of soup in it, so I wasn't too impressed with these.

生煎包 Fried pork buns (shengjian bao)
- I thought these were great - the dough was extremely fluffy and fried to perfection!

豆沙酥餅 Red bean paste layered bun (dousha subing)
- This was very good (probably because it wasn't oily at all). The bean paste was hot, and the dough was flaky and crispy.

咸飯糰 Rice roll (xian fantuan)
- This was also one of my favorites (in fact, I ordered another one for myself later on). Inside the rice roll, they added pickled radish, pork sung, and a small slice of fried dough for plenty of flavor.

Overall, I felt that however well-made these dishes were, the greasiness was too much for us to handle. Perhaps it will be all right for some other Chinese foodies out there, but I don't think I'll be visiting again anytime soon.

Restaurant: Shanghai House Restaurant/ No 1 Panda House (Breakfast/ Brunch)
Price: Around $10

Short vacation...

Going home for a week or so, so I won't be scouting out/ reviewing any restaurants in the RTP for a few days. See you back soon!

35 Chinese, Part II

Went back to 35 Chinese with a different group - this time, with people who were more tolerant of spicy foods (yippee!). We still ordered the same appetizers: 夫妻肺片/ sliced roast beef and tendon (fuqi feipian) and 蒜泥白肉 / sliced pork belly in garlic sauce (suan'ni bairou). Otherwise, I think most of the dishes were different, so here we go...

五更腸旺 / chitterlings with tofu hot pot (wugeng changwang)

- The photo really doesn't do this dish justice, because it was one of my favorites of the evening. It had a lot of flavor besides just straight-up spicy, which is always nice. The dish does contain pork intestines and pork blood, which might turn some of you away... although I do have a friend who doesn't eat intestines but makes an exception for this particular dish here - so really, it's worth it.
The only downer to this is that the pork blood is kind of dry, so I wouldn't expect too much from that. Otherwise, thumbs up.

蔥爆牛肉 / beef with scallions (congbao niurou)

- Although this isn't a traditional Szechuan dish, we still ordered it. It was pretty good - the beef was tender, and plenty of flavor.

麻婆豆腐 / Mapo tofu

- This is my favorite dish EVER at this restaurant. Ever. Probably because I haven't had the authentic version of mapo tofu for a long, long time. It was served in a 砂锅 (clay pot) instead of plate - the way that it's supposed to be, and it has plenty of the 麻 ("numbing") element, which means you should probably save room for this dish last. Overall, I was impressed and happy with the authenticity of this mapo tofu.

清炒丝瓜 / cooked loofah

- Yep, loofah. I was really excited about this dish because I love loofah vegetable, but we were appalled to discover that it tasted bitter (might have spoiled). We sent the dish back in exchange for 乾扁四季豆 / string beans Western style (ganbian sijidou), which was pretty much the same as the last time.

Overall, with the exception of the disappointment of the loofah, it was an enjoyable meal. Their service does slow down as the evening goes on (they seem to be short on staff), so you should arrive early and order quickly. Between six of us, we ordered six dishes and it ended up being $15 each. Not particularly more expensive than any of the other Chinese restaurants that I've reviewed so far, I think.

Restaurant: 35 Chinese Restaurant

Price Range: Around $15

Eastern Lights

Eastern Lights... I've been coming here since freshman year (I believe it was my first Chinese restaurant in Durham), and now it's time to give it a proper review.

We ordered mostly from the Chef's Specialties menu, which features more authentic Chinese dishes:

香乾肉絲 (xiang'gan rousi; Pork and bean curd slices)

- This has always been my favorite dish, probably because it's the lightest dish of the five, and the flavoring is done pretty well.

魚香茄子 (yuxiang qiezi; Yu-hsiang eggplant)

- The eggplant itself was good, but it did not have the yu-hsiang flavor at all. It was basically eggplants soaked in yu-hsiang sauce.

麻婆豆腐 (mapo doufu; Mapo spicy tofu)

- Whatever this was, it was not mapo tofu... please do not order this dish here and think that this is real mapo tofu. It was not spicy, the flavoring wasn't right, and the tofu had a strangely sour taste (not because it was going bad, but just not the right kind of tofu).

川辣炒牛肉 (chuanla chao niurou; Szechuan-style beef)

- The beef was very tender, but the sauce was so heavy for this dish that I couldn't enjoy more than a few pieces of it...

爆炒五花肉 (baochao wuhuarou; Stir-fried pork belly slices)

- Another dish that we've always ordered since freshman year. Again, it was delicious, but the flavoring is so strong that you just can't take too much of it.

Overall, Eastern Lights' flavor is just very heavy and oily - you'll leave feeling full and probably collapse in a food coma pretty soon. For Chinese food, there are definitely better choices out there in the RTP - we probably won't be back here anytime soon...

Restaurant: Eastern Lights (燕京)
Price Range: Around $15

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.