Actually, I'M getting fat! :) Anyway, I met some friends out in Flushing last weekend, and I thought I'd jot down a few thoughts, along with photos, and a mini-review at the end.
We decided to go to a different restaurant this time (last summer, we went to Fu Run) - East Lake Seafood Restaurant. It's an offshoot, apparently, of the popular Imperial Garden, with the world-famous crab with glutinous rice. I didn't try the crab when we went to Imperial Garden last year, so I was eager to try it today. I generally let my friends do the ordering, since they've been to China so often, and since they know the restaurants' menus better than I.
Oh, I forgot, there was some amusement when I got there: I arrived about a half hour before my friends (they were trapped in Flushing parking hell). While I waited, all of the servers stood around, watching me, and whispering. I'm guessing they were assuming I was at the wrong restaurant and were taking bets as to how long I'd stay. Plus, it was funny to see them whispering behind their hands while staring at me. As if I'd be able to understand their gossiping, since they were speaking in Chinese. :) Anyway, I was glad when my friends finally arrived and everyone saw that I was indeed in the right place and hadn't been fibbing about the other people on their way. PLUS, the gal who seated me and brought me some tea made me giggle by taking away the 'lunch specials' menu and telling me "portions too small." Did I look THAT hungry???
I took a photo of the front of the menu, because it reminded me of the play Chinglish. Was that wrong??
Oh, I forgot, there was some amusement when I got there: I arrived about a half hour before my friends (they were trapped in Flushing parking hell). While I waited, all of the servers stood around, watching me, and whispering. I'm guessing they were assuming I was at the wrong restaurant and were taking bets as to how long I'd stay. Plus, it was funny to see them whispering behind their hands while staring at me. As if I'd be able to understand their gossiping, since they were speaking in Chinese. :) Anyway, I was glad when my friends finally arrived and everyone saw that I was indeed in the right place and hadn't been fibbing about the other people on their way. PLUS, the gal who seated me and brought me some tea made me giggle by taking away the 'lunch specials' menu and telling me "portions too small." Did I look THAT hungry???
I took a photo of the front of the menu, because it reminded me of the play Chinglish. Was that wrong??
My friends ordered two 'specials of the day' (but apparently not the lunch specials, since those portions are too small for me): the scrambled eggs with oysters, which was more like a frittata with oysters in it, and the pan-fried pumpkin, which was actually more deep-fried, like cheese sticks, only with pumpkin in them. Both dishes were delicious. And the portion-size was large enough for four people, even including me (clearly, I'm going to milk the 'small portion' thing throughout this post).
Naturally, my friends made fun of me because I said I wasn't eating red meat at the moment. I told them to go ahead and order whatever meat dishes they wanted, I just wouldn't eat it! So they went ahead and got lamb chops (which looked amazing!), but didn't order the duck. I guess it's a good thing they didn't order duck, because I may not have been able to resist it. And I'm guessing that much fatty deliciousness wouldn't do my blood pressure any favors.
The crab with glutinous rice was DELICIOUS! I can see why it's their specialty. There is a ton of crab in there (plus, it's fun to use the nutcracker things to get the crab out of the legs), the sticky rice is fantastic and, once you get to the bottom, there is more fatty deliciousness in the roe that sort of deposits itself there once it falls out of the crab. Just yum yummy.
(FYI, I'm having photo-posting difficulty at the moment, due to formatting issues brought on by new computer without any of my saved formatting features, so please put up with the crappy formatting. Argh.)
This was a lot of food for four people, so we ended up taking a lot of it home. Oh, we also got an order of sauteed snap pea shoots with garlic, but I'm giving up on the photo attaching for the moment. They were also tres tasty. I enjoyed myself tremendously, and hope I ate enough to justify the 'no small portions for her' label I received when I arrived. Oh, and the restaurant is BYOB, so I had a tiny bit of the tempranillo that my pals brought along. It was delish as well.
After lunch, I had thought about doing some shopping in Flushing, but the gent that drove my friends to the restaurant offered to give me a lift home. I wasn't about to turn down a free ride, so I just bought a few groceries in the grocery store near their parking garage. Hopefully, I'll do some cooking this week and will report later. I bought some soba noodles, some baby bok choy, an enormous yam, some black bean sauce and an interesting-looking green curry/coconut sauce. I'm considering doing the yam with the coconut sauce and some soba noodles tonight. We'll see how that goes.
Mini-reivew: I caught the first preview of Roundabout's new production of Athol Fugard's The Road to Mecca last Friday night. I don't want to review a first preview, so I'll only say a couple of things: first, the play is gorgeous. The language is so evocative and its message is beautiful. Second, Rosemary Harris and Jim Dale are treasures. I did wish the cast played up to the balcony a little more, but that will probably get worked out during the rehearsal process as well. I would definitely like to go back after it opens - maybe one of my Tony-voter friends will invite me. Fingers crossed.
The crab with glutinous rice was DELICIOUS! I can see why it's their specialty. There is a ton of crab in there (plus, it's fun to use the nutcracker things to get the crab out of the legs), the sticky rice is fantastic and, once you get to the bottom, there is more fatty deliciousness in the roe that sort of deposits itself there once it falls out of the crab. Just yum yummy.
(FYI, I'm having photo-posting difficulty at the moment, due to formatting issues brought on by new computer without any of my saved formatting features, so please put up with the crappy formatting. Argh.)
After lunch, I had thought about doing some shopping in Flushing, but the gent that drove my friends to the restaurant offered to give me a lift home. I wasn't about to turn down a free ride, so I just bought a few groceries in the grocery store near their parking garage. Hopefully, I'll do some cooking this week and will report later. I bought some soba noodles, some baby bok choy, an enormous yam, some black bean sauce and an interesting-looking green curry/coconut sauce. I'm considering doing the yam with the coconut sauce and some soba noodles tonight. We'll see how that goes.
Mini-reivew: I caught the first preview of Roundabout's new production of Athol Fugard's The Road to Mecca last Friday night. I don't want to review a first preview, so I'll only say a couple of things: first, the play is gorgeous. The language is so evocative and its message is beautiful. Second, Rosemary Harris and Jim Dale are treasures. I did wish the cast played up to the balcony a little more, but that will probably get worked out during the rehearsal process as well. I would definitely like to go back after it opens - maybe one of my Tony-voter friends will invite me. Fingers crossed.
OK, back to trying to get this new computer to do the things my old one used to (like sync my iPhone)...
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