Juicy Dumplings and Salty Rice

My food adventures continue. Last night I went out for dinner with my manager Eric. (Yes our team is made up of Eric and Erika) Dinner was a great experience. The restaurant we went to was located in a HUGE shopping mall. I swear it’d compete with Mall of America. On our way there Eric explained that the Asian style of eating is all about ordering a variety of items and sharing amongst those at the meal. It’s like tappas.

He also said that hosts will always put out more food that you could possibly eat. It signifies how much you mean to the host – a sign of respect. I told him this could be a conflict with the American mindset of the “clean plate club.”

Our meal started out with BBQ pork over thin noodles. It was good but trying to get the noodles off the plate was a struggle. It seamed every time I speared a few with my chopsticks and started to pull all of the other noodles on the plate wanted to come along. I liked the meat but could have passed on the noodles.

After that we tried Sweet and Sour Chicken, Chinese Asparagus, Dim Sum, Parsnip Pastries, Mango soup, and sesame dumplings with peanuts.

I have to explain Dim Sum. It’s basically a dumpling stuffed with a variety of things – meet, seafood, sweet stuff, etc. I’ve tried it in the US and really wasn’t a fan. I blame the fact that I went with a group that likes seafood. So as they were busy eating items with fish in them I struggled to find something I could handle.

Last nights dim sum seemed completely different from my US experience. As my manager explained it was a soup dumpling. Basically they freeze soup into small cubes and form a dumpling around these. Then when they are cooked (in a steamer) the soup melts and basically they turn into a juicy dumpling. Ours had a great soup and some pork meatballs inside of them. They were so YUMMY!

Everything else we tried was good. I especially liked the parsnip pastries and sesame dumplings. They were both served warm. The dumplings were covered in peanuts on the outside and had a gooey filling of black sesame seeds on the inside. I did eat the Chinese Asparagus but must admit that I like the US variety of asparagus better. The difference between the two is that the tops of the asparagus in China look more like spinach leaves.

Today I figured I’d continue my culinary experience. I ordered in “salted egg and chicken fried rice” for lunch. My assumption was that this would be much like what you could get in the states. Wrong! The whole mess of it was salty. I think the meat had been soaked in salt. Plus, I’d occasionally get a smell/taste of fish whenever I’d take a bite. Have I mentioned that I don’t like fish? AT ALL!

After a few bites I put the lid back on the container and turned to the staples in my desk drawer – some fresh fruit and a granola bar followed up with a Diet Coke.