Major industrial-grade Chinese food porn.
Oct. 11th, 2003 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaTonight we went back to the Chinatown Cafe, this time for a banquet. The manager had been encouraging us to have a banquet so we'd get to experience the whole of their Hong Kong menu, and we took advantage of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
helygen's visit and Canadian Thanksgiving to get nine people together for a feast. Besides me, helygen, and curiousangel, there were pagawne and wcg, mittelschmertz, fourgates, minnaleigh, and minnaleigh's girlfriend Trina, who for some strange reason doesn't have an LJ. I will say here at the outset that the company was excellent, because for the rest of the post I intend to concentrate on the food.
We had, in rough order of their appearance on the table:
Tea. It tasted like jasmine tea, but I'm not really an expert.
Chicken and corn soup. Thick with swirls of egg, with a strong fresh corn flavor. The perfect comfort food, much appreciated by the two people at the table who were fighting colds.
Scallops and jumbo shrimp with chives. This was my first ever encounter with chives as a vegetable, but I hope it won't be my last. I had been expecting a sprinkling of tiny snippets of chives, but instead we had long stems of chives with the flower buds left on. They tasted more like green beans than anything else, but sweeter. Truly delightful. (The shrimp and scallops were also good, but the chives were definitely the star of the dish.)
Shredded steak with pears and mango. Oh. My. God. This was a late add to the menu - it's not part of their standard banquet, but we were curious. Oh my God. Stir-fried pieces of steak, mango, and pear all cut to about the same size, with shreds of green pepper and onion. The sauce was light in consistency and orange-colored, and sort of slightly suggested - but did not at all shout - sweet-and-sour. It had deep notes of dried ginger. The perfume and taste of mango infused the whole dish, beautifully.minnaleigh was in raptures over this one, and justly so.
Steamed rice.
Sizzling beef ribs with black pepper sauce. Yes, it was actually sizzling on its metal plate for several minutes after it was set before us. Very thin slices of beef on the rib bone, in a rich brown sauce, with onions and green peppers. The pepper in the sauce did kind of sneak up on you after a few minutes, but it wasn't terribly hot.
Young Chow fried rice. I don't usually like fried rice - it tends to be too greasy and heavy for my taste. This was an incredibly light, subtly flavorful fried rice, studded with little shrimp, bits of pork, and minced vegetables. It was kind of refreshing to have something simple in the midst of all of these intense flavor experiences.
Whole steamed tilapia in ginger scallion sauce. "It's going to be live, fresh," the manager told us when she made up the menu. Given that they have a tank of tilapia in the lobby with a net hanging over it, I suspect that our fish was still swimming around when we sat down at the table. As a rule, I don't care much for whitefish, but this was exquisitely tender and flavorful, and the gingery sauce, brothlike in consistency, complemented the fish without overpowering it. I was impressed to see the waiter neatly de-bone the fish with two spoons.
Crabs with ginger. I thought this was the least successful dish, and it was still pretty good. Whole crabs had been torn into pieces (legs, claws, body) and cooked with a brown sauce and large slices of fresh ginger. (I mistook one of the slices of ginger for a mushroom, because it was much more plausibly mushroom-sized than ginger-sized. Goodness, that was a surprise.) Mostly I wasn't crazy about this dish because it was too difficult to eat. The crab pieces were slippery with sauce, and that made it hard to crack them and get the meat out. Also, they provided plastic nutcrackers which were less than effective tools.
Clams Hong Kong style. This was my second favorite dish, after the steak with mangoes and pears. I don't think I'm going to be able to describe everything that was in it. There were whole clams in the shell, and some sort of fried strips that I think were made of chopped clams, and tiny little chewy dried shrimp thatmittelschmertz and fourgates pointed out looked a bit too much like mealworms, and chopped vegetable matter which included chunks of garlic, and jalapenos, and some other hot substance that was not as easy to avoid as the jalapeno slices, and was also hotter. My one bite of whatever that stuff was - we never identified it - was unpleasant, but other than that I loved the clams, and couldn't stop eating them even after I was full.
Chicken with mustard greens. We probably didn't do justice to this one, because it arrived after we were all full. It was chicken pieces on the bone, served in a mild white sauce, with large whole mustard greens draped over the plate. The mustard greens were very tasty, but the chicken was sort of just chicken.
Dessert soup. This stuff is just strange. Last time they told us they were serving us "peeled green bean dessert soup," and I thought something had to have been lost in translation. This time, there was corn floating in the soup. It was a mildly sweet thick liquid with a tapioca base (there were some whole pearls of tapioca, which I didn't notice last time), and a few kernels of corn. Okay. It's not bad, it's just weird.
Total bill for nine people, not including tip: $103. I almost feel guilty about how inexpensive this place is. Even after tipping generously, we got away for less than $15 each. We had already decided that we were going to have to go back and have more and more banquets, just because of the quality of the food - but I also truly can't believe the value of the place. Mmmmm. I think we're going to start celebrating a lot more holidays.
helygen's visit and Canadian Thanksgiving to get nine people together for a feast. Besides me, helygen, and curiousangel, there were pagawne and wcg, mittelschmertz, fourgates, minnaleigh, and minnaleigh's girlfriend Trina, who for some strange reason doesn't have an LJ. I will say here at the outset that the company was excellent, because for the rest of the post I intend to concentrate on the food.We had, in rough order of their appearance on the table:
Tea. It tasted like jasmine tea, but I'm not really an expert.
Chicken and corn soup. Thick with swirls of egg, with a strong fresh corn flavor. The perfect comfort food, much appreciated by the two people at the table who were fighting colds.
Scallops and jumbo shrimp with chives. This was my first ever encounter with chives as a vegetable, but I hope it won't be my last. I had been expecting a sprinkling of tiny snippets of chives, but instead we had long stems of chives with the flower buds left on. They tasted more like green beans than anything else, but sweeter. Truly delightful. (The shrimp and scallops were also good, but the chives were definitely the star of the dish.)
Shredded steak with pears and mango. Oh. My. God. This was a late add to the menu - it's not part of their standard banquet, but we were curious. Oh my God. Stir-fried pieces of steak, mango, and pear all cut to about the same size, with shreds of green pepper and onion. The sauce was light in consistency and orange-colored, and sort of slightly suggested - but did not at all shout - sweet-and-sour. It had deep notes of dried ginger. The perfume and taste of mango infused the whole dish, beautifully.
minnaleigh was in raptures over this one, and justly so.Steamed rice.
Sizzling beef ribs with black pepper sauce. Yes, it was actually sizzling on its metal plate for several minutes after it was set before us. Very thin slices of beef on the rib bone, in a rich brown sauce, with onions and green peppers. The pepper in the sauce did kind of sneak up on you after a few minutes, but it wasn't terribly hot.
Young Chow fried rice. I don't usually like fried rice - it tends to be too greasy and heavy for my taste. This was an incredibly light, subtly flavorful fried rice, studded with little shrimp, bits of pork, and minced vegetables. It was kind of refreshing to have something simple in the midst of all of these intense flavor experiences.
Whole steamed tilapia in ginger scallion sauce. "It's going to be live, fresh," the manager told us when she made up the menu. Given that they have a tank of tilapia in the lobby with a net hanging over it, I suspect that our fish was still swimming around when we sat down at the table. As a rule, I don't care much for whitefish, but this was exquisitely tender and flavorful, and the gingery sauce, brothlike in consistency, complemented the fish without overpowering it. I was impressed to see the waiter neatly de-bone the fish with two spoons.
Crabs with ginger. I thought this was the least successful dish, and it was still pretty good. Whole crabs had been torn into pieces (legs, claws, body) and cooked with a brown sauce and large slices of fresh ginger. (I mistook one of the slices of ginger for a mushroom, because it was much more plausibly mushroom-sized than ginger-sized. Goodness, that was a surprise.) Mostly I wasn't crazy about this dish because it was too difficult to eat. The crab pieces were slippery with sauce, and that made it hard to crack them and get the meat out. Also, they provided plastic nutcrackers which were less than effective tools.
Clams Hong Kong style. This was my second favorite dish, after the steak with mangoes and pears. I don't think I'm going to be able to describe everything that was in it. There were whole clams in the shell, and some sort of fried strips that I think were made of chopped clams, and tiny little chewy dried shrimp that
mittelschmertz and fourgates pointed out looked a bit too much like mealworms, and chopped vegetable matter which included chunks of garlic, and jalapenos, and some other hot substance that was not as easy to avoid as the jalapeno slices, and was also hotter. My one bite of whatever that stuff was - we never identified it - was unpleasant, but other than that I loved the clams, and couldn't stop eating them even after I was full.Chicken with mustard greens. We probably didn't do justice to this one, because it arrived after we were all full. It was chicken pieces on the bone, served in a mild white sauce, with large whole mustard greens draped over the plate. The mustard greens were very tasty, but the chicken was sort of just chicken.
Dessert soup. This stuff is just strange. Last time they told us they were serving us "peeled green bean dessert soup," and I thought something had to have been lost in translation. This time, there was corn floating in the soup. It was a mildly sweet thick liquid with a tapioca base (there were some whole pearls of tapioca, which I didn't notice last time), and a few kernels of corn. Okay. It's not bad, it's just weird.
Total bill for nine people, not including tip: $103. I almost feel guilty about how inexpensive this place is. Even after tipping generously, we got away for less than $15 each. We had already decided that we were going to have to go back and have more and more banquets, just because of the quality of the food - but I also truly can't believe the value of the place. Mmmmm. I think we're going to start celebrating a lot more holidays.
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Chinatown Cafe Banquet --
Date: 2003-10-11 10:10 pm (UTC)This sounds really fine -- thanks for the report! I've only had dim-sum at CC, so far; looks like it's past time to examine the rest of the offerings.
Have you made it down to Joe's Noodle House yet?
Cheers --
jon
no subject
Date: 2003-10-11 10:12 pm (UTC)-J
Re: Chinatown Cafe Banquet --
Date: 2003-10-12 06:30 am (UTC)I haven't been to Joe's Noodle House, and I love noodles. Where is it?
no subject
Date: 2003-10-12 06:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-12 06:44 am (UTC);-)
John adores Chinese. Perhaps, if we get up there next June for Games Day again, I can provide another pretext?
*grins*
Re: Chinatown Cafe Banquet --
Date: 2003-10-12 09:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-12 06:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-12 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-12 08:40 pm (UTC)Hotels near CC --
Date: 2003-10-12 08:41 pm (UTC)I observe a smilyface at the end of your query. Should I take this to indicate that you are already familiar with Balticon?
Cheers --
jon
Re: Hotels near CC --
Date: 2003-10-13 11:31 am (UTC)is balticon near cc?
Re: Hotels near CC --
Date: 2003-10-13 09:14 pm (UTC)Yep, the Balticon hotel is about 3 and a half blocks from CC, and various of us have used this fact as a convenient excuse to have dim-sum for dinner on occasion. Got to introduce Dr. Lawrence Schoen, the guy who started the Klingon Language Institute, to dim-sum, which was great fun. (He is a very sharp fellow.)
Cheers --
jon
PS:
no subject
Date: 2004-02-16 02:32 pm (UTC)Anyway, great post. Reminds me of my days in New York City.
Definitely try Joe's Noodle House. It si really good Sichuan food. Go for the fried or the sicy stuff. :) Its my fav place for fried squid (salt/pepper squid)...which is only a few bucks as an appetizer. Eat it fast though, while it is tender.
Adding you to my list. :)