After Nan Xiang, I kept mumbling “I want tong yuan I want tong yuan I want tong yuan.”  This loosely translates to “I want sugar balls I want sugar balls I want sugar balls” or more accurately, in my case, I wanted mochi (rice flour dumplings) filled with black sesame paste.  It’s a treat I had occasionally while growing up – some of us were lucky enough to have parents who made them from scratch, but I’m pretty sure my mom just bought the frozen kind.  In any case, DLS was game, and Noah joined us to wander around to look for them.

***Correction: I actually intended to go get dumplings (really, wontons for the nitpicky) from White Bear, but they were closed at the late hour we went.  I remembered I wanted tong yuan and decided to go search for them. 

Our wandering around brought us to Manna Cafe, whose menu was pretty eclectic but definitely listed some approximation of what I thought I was seeking.  Noah saw “cheese & scallop dumplings” and despite my warning that he was insane, he ordered them.  Well, folks, this is what it was: wonton wrappers around some gooey “cheese” and scallops that were super chewy – the “cheese” is the same kind that, if you ever go to a Chinese buffet, and you see pretty scallop shells topped with a small scallop and some sort of “baked cheese” is in the description – that’s what it was.  It winds up tasting like creamy cooked mayo, and there are people who LOVE this stuff.  I’ve never figured out what it is nor how I actually feel about it – full disclosure, I’ve eaten those weird baked scallops many times over the years – but it isn’t cheese like any other cheese I’ve seen anywhere else.  Noah choked these down and laughed at himself. 

I noticed on the menu something called “momo ja ja” which excited me greatly.  I said “oh my god! Momo jaja is a real thing?!  My dad used to say those words to me all the time and I never knew what he was talking about.”  But then I saw the picture and a dim memory clawed its way to the surface: isn’t there coconut in that?  DLS said no, he didn’t think so.  He ordered it, saying he remembered eating it before and liking it.  And when it came, I peered suspiciously at it.  He took a few spoonfuls and said “I don’t think there’s coconut in here” – and I responded by taking his spoon, sniffing its contents and rolling my eyes hard.  “Dude, this smells like [insert really funny but incredibly offensive comment here] – I’m not eating this.”  My coconut allergy sucks, but it also enhances my senses such that I can always tell when there’s coconut in something. 

Noah chose to order a bowl of the almond milk soup with mochi dumplings, though they forgot the dumplings at first.  His was super thick, and a little odd – while tasty, I couldn’t get past the texture.  It was like… cream of wheat or something? but smoother.  Just… weird.  He seemed to like it fine, once he’d received his mochi dumplings in a clear ginger water that he used to cut the thickness of his almond milk a bit. 

Unfortunately, I really just wanted black sesame mochi dumplings in the clear ginger water, but that wasn’t on the menu.  Black sesame soup was, as were plain mochi dumplings, so I ordered these two in combination to sort of approximate what I wanted.  Again, unfortunately, this didn’t really work.  The ratio of black sesame to mochi dumpling was just off – I wanted to nibble on the edge of the mochi dumpling and have black sesame burst forth, gushing into my mouth.  I wanted the childhood memory I was trying to recreate to at least seem familiar, and this wasn’t it.  I couldn’t eat too much of this – the soup base was super thick (thicker than what I’d expect inside a filled mochi dumpling), and just weird.  I wound up pushing aside most of it, saying “DLS? I don’t want any more. You finish it.” 

Yvo says: I recognize Manna Cafe’s menu as a very specific type of restaurant – Hong Kong Cafe, which I totally adore – and might go back for other items on their menu, or even to try to order the tong yuan the way I wanted them – in a clear ginger soup, despite this choice not being on the menu.  But what we’d ordered that night – aside from DLS, who seemed happy enough with his momojaja – fell very flat for me personally, though I will say this is a matter of personal expectations and personal preferences.  I don’t think they messed up making any of our food. 
I didn’t find what I wanted, but you might…

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Post tags: dessert, DLS, dumplings, mochi

Fortunately for us, the restaurant was pretty quiet since most people were smart enough to stay home. Not only was it cold, but it was raining so hard that umbrellas were rendered pretty much useless. I was happy to see that prices remained the same as last year. $26 for all you can eat hot pot and dim sum including all you can drink Budweiser. Not a bad deal at all.

While they prepared the hot pot, we all went up to the sauce station to make our own dipping sauces. You have the opportunity to make quite a unique sauce with such items as chili oil, sesame sauce, garlic and more.

They even have some fresh chopped cilantro and green onion, if that’s your thing.

CT made two different dipping sauces. One spicy and one not.

I made one sauce to start. It had chili oil and sesame in it. The chili oil had a lot of heat to it, so I used it sparingly.

We decided to get half spicy and half plain hot pot. Although we all like spicy foods, we appreciated having the mild version to cool off with otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to eat as much meat!

You simply order whatever meats, seafood and veggies you want off the menu and the waiter will bring back a HUGE plate.

This was our first seafood and veggie plate. There was fish balls, squid, cabbage, mushrooms and I think beef meatballs.

Our first meat plate had a mix of beef, lamb, and pork. They keep the meat frozen in order to easily slice it so thin. Don’t worry it cooks almost immediately in the hot pot. We never learned which meats were which, but they were all tasty and pretty good quality.

We also got an order of soup dumplings knowing full well they wouldn’t be as good as what I had at Shanghai Cafe Deluxe. They had very little broth inside and were quite sad. I should have stuck exclusively to the hot pot.

Sad innards.

Even though we already tore through a mountain of food, we decided to order one more plate. We made sure to emphasize to the waiter that we did not want a full portion. Fortunately, he obliged. There was some more beef, meatballs and tomato.

There were also some strange pork meatballs on the plate too. They had the texture of dumplings almost. Beer Boor described it as “non-descript ground pork battered and fried, more or less. Very little actual flavor.” I ate a couple anyway, haha.

The waiter cleared away a lot of the empties before we could recreate the beer pyramid. Here is our mini version. Not bad for four people.

All in all, I was pretty impressed by Shanghai Tide for hot pot. I was worried that with AYCE and AYCD for such a low price that the quality of the food would be bad, but it wasn’t. Service was pretty good for Flushing and for a table of non-Chinese. I will definitely return when I have my next hot pot craving. It’s also really close to the 7 train stop, so no complaining Manhattanites.

© TT for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 17 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: all you can drink, all you can eat, hot pot

DLS and I have been on quite a soup dumpling kick lately, obviously, and one of the names that comes up any time soup dumplings are mentioned is Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao.  I mean, it has “soup dumpling” (xiao long bao) in the name!  They must be good.  That and every single time I’ve tried to go, the line has been out the door, which means it must be good, right?  One Tuesday night, Hungry, Cheese, TC, Noah, DLS and I headed into Flushing to see what the hype was about (though a few of us had been before). 

An order of crispy pig ears was ordered.  Most of us found these lacking – not really crispy, just chewy bits of cartilage – which, if you’re into that, great.  We weren’t. 

The “spicy” intestines fared much better.  I enjoyed these, though I noted that they weren’t spicy by any means. 

As has become our habit with soup dumplings, DLS and I ordered fried rice cakes as well.  These were pretty good, though the plate was drowning in oil when we finished it.  

Interestingly, where every other places serves their soup dumplings in steamer trays of 8, Nan Xiang does trays of 6.  As such, every single person at our table got our own tray of dumplings.  I ordered the pork & crab ones – that is the type I’ve been ordering everywhere, so for fairness’ sake, I stuck with it – and was both pleased and distraught to see how thin the skin is.  While thin skin encourages one to taste just what’s inside, with less bready outside to interfere with the flavors of porky goodness and soup, it also makes it infinitely harder to pick up without tearing.  I admit I had trouble initially, but got the hang of it and managed to pop no more.  As mentioned, the impossibly thin skin made it easy to focus on what was inside: delicious pork, interspersed with bits of crab roe… yum.  While some people may not like the thinner skin, I enjoyed it very much and thought these were very good – definitely among the best I’d had on this soup dumpling journey…

Yvo says: While the other dishes were hit or miss, the soup dumplings were spot on very good.  We all enjoyed them, though some of us couldn’t eat a single tray without breaking every single dumpling… ahem… won’t name names… hahaha.  If you like soup dumplings, you should definitely try them at least once! 
recommended

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Post tags: DLS, dumplings, rice cakes, Shanghainese, soup dumplings

DLS ordered the Western omelet, which he liked.  (And yes, I teased him for ordering what I thought was the least Mexican dish on the menu.) 

I’ve enjoyed huevos rancheros at many places in the past, so I saw no reason not to get these here.  Well, the rancheros sauce here – the red underneath my eggs – was way spicier than I’ve had in the past, no joke.  It wasn’t unbearable, but I found myself eating as little of the sauce as possible, or mixing it with things to temper the heat.  So really, what I had was a platter of two fried eggs, guacamole, pico de gallo, beans, and rice (I really like those side bits, the way they’re made at 5 Burro is really tasty!)… but for $12~ not bad.  True that just a few doors down, Bonfire Grill offers brunch with two alcoholic beverages for just a few bucks more, but eh.  It all depends what you’re look for in a brunch menu…

Yvo says: If you’re looking for a Mexican slant to your brunch, then 5 Burro does the trick.  For $3 you can add on a margarita, too, so if you’re into that, this is totally your joint.  I’ll still be back for more Mexican food, always, and it’ll go into the brunch rotation, though I don’t think it’ll be the general aim for me when I want brunch in my neighborhood (I really like eggs benedict). 
definitely recommended for lunch/dinner; brunch depends on what you feel like eating

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Post tags: Brunch, DLS

First up: hot edamame, sprinkled with sea salt, fun to squish the beans inside out and into your mouth, a nice light bite to start the meal. 

Next up: gyoza that tasted housemade as the frozen ones tend to be shaped slightly differently.  Though the one on the end was clearly a little burnt, these were crisp and very tasty.  I enjoyed them. 

The inside was a little flat but juicy and flavorful. 

Then our sushi platter arrived! We’d picked out a bunch of rolls off the menu and added some sashimi.  First of course, on the top in the left pic or on the right in the right pic, the Marilyn Mon-roll (basic California roll topped with raw scallop and chef’s sauce, and tobiko) – which they finally renamed, which made me happy (it used to be Marilyn Monroe Roll, which I shortened to Marilyn Monroll because I am HILARIOUS).  Then under that or to the left of that, the Yellowstone Roll, which is lightly fried fish, cucumber and chef’s sauce.  Toro and scallion in the rolls closest, then some sort of root (I want to say burdock, but that’s not what it was on the menu), and a piece of uni and toro each.  Given the choice between $6 or $10 toro, we chose the $10 toro. 

I’ve had the Marilyn Monroll several times now, and always enjoy the way the flavors work together.  This was DLS’s first time, but he seemed to really enjoy it as well.  The Yellowstone Roll, which I hadn’t eaten in the past, was lovely – I really enjoy crunch in my sushi, to contrast the softness of the rice – and I could definitely see ordering that again.  The two smaller rolls didn’t appeal to me much, though the toro and scallion roll was better than I’ve had in the past (I really tend to dislike ordering toro in rolls because it’s usually scraps and not very good at that, but the fattiness – to me, the sign of quality toro – definitely was still evident in each bite).  I just don’t like the seaweed on the outside because it can be tough to bite through, and this was no exception; I found the seaweed a little chewy. 

The uni was very fresh and the perfect bite for me since I love uni.  But the toro?  I mean, was it worth the $10 a piece?

OH HELL YES.  A few things: I love that they HAD the toro, which a lot of places will list on the menu but then tell you they are out if you ask for it.  And not only did they have it, they had TWO DIFFERENT KINDS.  That speaks volumes to me about the business they intend to do and the business they run.  And it was GLORIOUS.  Run through with the best possible kind of fat, it literally melted in my mouth as I fought not to moan too loudly.  My eyes rolled backwards in my head and I almost cried from how delicious it was.  So.freaking.good.  Toro like that is a gift to the world; that tuna did NOT die in vain.  It brought intense pleasure to my mouth and belly, I was so, so happy after eating that.  Joy, pure unbridled joy that not only am I blessed enough to be able to enjoy such lovely things, that I’m able to do so in my own neighborhood.  I know not everyone has that luxury! 

Surprisingly, DLS wanted to order dessert.  Fried green tea ice cream was chosen and it arrived fairly quickly.  He seemed surprised that the ice cream was still cold and hard… I mean it was rock hard.  It tasted OK – this is not one of my favorite desserts, I usually take a bite or two and then give up eating, so I’ve got very little point of comparison, but I thought it was good enough.  A little weird that the exterior wasn’t hot; I sort of expected it to be hot.  Maybe they buy it by the box – commercially made fried ice cream – and just took it out and put it on the plate?  I suppose that wouldn’t surprise me. 

Yvo says: I’d heard that there were service problems in the new expansion, but we encountered no issues – pleasant service and fantastic food as usual.  Honestly, the place was shockingly empty, but this was a Monday night, and I think a lot of people are used to Sushi Yasu being closed on Mondays & Tuesdays.  I’m glad they’re now open every night of the week, though part of me wants them to open during the day for lunch… and I don’t think their sushi bar was open for seating yet (a few days before Thanksgiving).  I will definitely be back, over and over and over again… yum yum yum. 
highly recommended – yes, I would even say you should travel from other boroughs to check it out

A week or so after the above visit, I returned with a friend to eat more sushi.  Since we ordered all the same things I’ve ordered many times, I didn’t take photos, but at the end, we ordered the green tea flan, which our server informed us was made by a pastry chef ‘from one of the top French restaurants’ – I didn’t ask more questions though.  The green tea flan was bitter, balanced with a smooth caramelly sweetness… it was just right, and perfectly sized for sharing a few bites after a sushi dinner that more than filled me up.  Yum!

Also, this visit showed me another reason I love going to Sushi Yasu: we sat at the sushi bar, and everyone who works there is so friendly… and kept coming over to tell me how pretty I am.  How do you not like a place where people tell you you’re really pretty?!  … and has super fresh raw fish.  That’s important too. 

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Post tags: DLS, gyoza, Sushi