I'm totally taking myself on a date this Friday. Here's the Boston Phoenix Cheap Eats review. Hurray! I hope I can slurp hot pork-flavored aspic without burning myself?!
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My solo date was super. The 3D Imax movie Under The Sea was delightful: cuttlefish hunting and mating and changing colors, striped catfish mobbing algae, sea turtles slowly munching on live jellyfish. All set to classical music, and Jim Carrey calmly narrating in Yoga Instructor voice. Good times! Oddly crowded in theater, but amazing weather.
After the movie, I walked around the Common. Reclined on the grass. Wandered into Chinatown. Found my restaurant, sat down. I chickened out of the aspic-filled soup dumplings, and ordered more traditional pork/leek pan-fried dumplings, along with sauteed bokchoy and shitake mushrooms. My dishes came, they were delicious. Very savoury. The pork/leek filling was juicy and hot, the dumpling wrappers were crisp. The bokchoy was tender-crisp, sweet, garlicky, and completely scrumptious. The shitake caps were chewy, garlicky, maybe gingery. I wanted to order more dishes for sampling, but just the two dishes I chose will provide me with an ample dinner of leftovers. Next time, though. I'm going for the aspic and something else crazy, I swear.
A group of female college students - maybe from Emerson - sat at a table near me. They were highly annoying, asking for diet Cokes, all with extra cups of ice on the side, and could they please pay the minimum charge amount split between two debit cards? Then they started talking about someone's infected hair follicle - or was it just a big pimple?
The girls saw my food arrive and proceeded to discuss it - all while I sat about a foot away from them. Then the most aggressive of the girls called out "Hey man, what is that?" and pointed to my platter of dumplings. I explained that they were pork dumplings. Thus followed a discussion about how one of the girls did not eat pork, so perhaps they could have the dumplings filled with chicken or beef.
Because there was obviously a magic dumpling machine in back, filling all the dumpling wrappers to order. Like maybe it wasn't just that red-faced Chinese woman wearing an apron and taking her bottled-water break.
Anyway, the girls entertained me by being so over-the-top annoying. I even felt slightly masterful of the situation. Even though I chickened out of the aspic soup dumplings! The waitress asked me in Chinese if I was finished, and I asked if I could take my food home. She looked surprised to hear that in English, but not in a bad way. I left a good tip. I would like to go back. It was a very small, very clean little restaurant, and it was filled with other people eating their lunch. Lots of Chinese people. The menu was virtually endless, and went from "beef with American Broccoli" to "sliced roasted pork heart" and "stewed duck webs with ginger".
Before I caught the train home, I stopped in at the Chinese grocery and bought a giant bag of baby bokchoy and a generous bunch of Chinese broccoli. Stir-fried greens with garlic, here I come!
I'm totally going back. I found an instructional video - from Video Jug - on how to eat Shangai Soup Dumplings! I'm so going back!
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