If It's Good Enough For The President, It's Good Enough For Me

Hello LilyOnTheLam.Com Readers:

I love dim sum - the Chinese mini appetizers brunch - to put an American definition on it.  One of my favorite places for dim sum (or yum cha, as it is also called) is East Ocean Restaurant in Sydney, Australia.  However because I live in Florida, USA - it's not like I can just hop on down to Sydney whenever a dim sum craving hits.  Or at least not until I win a very large lottery!

So when I was traveling in San Francisco, I knew I needed to take advantage of the plethora of Asian residents and the proximity of a quality Chinatown for some authentic dim sum.  I researched all of the restaurants that were located in the city center.  (I was without a car and didn't want to Lyft or Uber my way to the far suburbs where some very notable dim sum restaurants are located.)  

I finally decided to try Great Eastern Restaurant.

When President Obama was in town, he had dim sum at Great Eastern.

And if a dim sum restaurant is good enough for President Obama, it is definitely good enough for me!

The restaurant is large with good, fast, efficient service.  The dim sum is ordered via paper menus like you would order sushi.  I like when restaurants have the carts of dim sum and you order off the cart, but as long as the dim sum tastes good I am OK with ordering off the menu.

I am a creature of habit when it comes to dim sum.  I tend to order the same things over and over again.  I choose to think of this as "Classic Lily" versus "Boring Lily."

I like to order hot tea, of course.

Barbecued pork buns - soft and fluffy with a sweet, zesty pork filling.

I ALWAYS order radish cakes - gelatinous slices, studded with radish or turnip or taro bits and tiny shrimp, which are pan-fried.  I also usually order some kind of dumpling or shu mei.  In this case, pork and chive panfried dumplings.

And I prefer soy sauce and red vinegar on my radish cakes.

In tribute to my Grandmother, I love steamed sticky rice wrapped in a leaf.  It usually contains chicken or pork and egg.

On this particular occasion, my eyes were bigger than my stomach.  I ordered pineapple buns - which in 97% of all cases, do NOT contain any pineapple at all.  Sometimes they are custard-filled and sometimes they are plain.  The name "pineapple bun" refers to the crunchy coating on top of the bun which is supposed to resemble the outside of a pineapple.  I know some places actually started serving these buns stuffed with pineapple jelly because they were probably sick of people complaining that the pineapple bun had no pineapple.

In dim sum, most orders contain 2-4 items - so I did not have the option to get just one pineapple bun.  My stomach surrendered and I took these 3 little darlings to go.  I ate them in my hotel room later that night when my stomach was in a happier state!

I very much enjoyed the dim sum at Great Eastern restaurant.  I may not be the President, but the waitstaff treated me very well.  It was affordable, tasty, authentic and delicious in a relaxed, lovely atmosphere.  It was very much a "Chinatown experience."

If you're looking for quality dim sum in Chinatown, San Francisco - check out Great Eastern!

I'd Like The Rat-Shaped Chicken, Please.

House of Ming Restaurant at the Taj Mahal Hotel - New Delhi, India
Date of Dining: December 2011


Happy 2-12-12 day, LilyOnTheLam.Com Readers!


It's not every day that you have a large goldfish bowl on your restaurant table while you're clamoring for more, more, more rat-shaped chicken; but as an American traveling in India I just chocked it up as another day of adventure.


My baby sister ("Squidge") is graduating from University this year.  One of her roommates is from Delhi, India.  For the winter school break, Squidge decided to visit her roommate in India and asked if I would like to come along.  Luckily I still had some vacation days left, so off we went to India!


Squidge and I are half-Chinese and we love good dim sum.  (Check out my blog posts of my dim sum meals in Australia and Florida here.)  We know enough Chinese and Taiwanese to order our dim sum favorites.  When we heard that there was a dim sum restaurant in Delhi, we knew we had to check it out.


We were staying at the fantastic, amazing, stupendously luxurious Leela Palace in the Diplomatic Enclave section of New Delhi.  The Leela had just been built in 2011, so everything was top notch.  After Delhi, Squidge was headed to Goa and Mumbai; while I was headed to Chennai.  When I returned to Delhi after Chennai, I would be staying at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Delhi.  (Not to be confused with the Taj Palace hotel in Delhi.)


I needed to drop off a suitcase at the Taj Mahal hotel before I headed to Chennai (darn those cheap inter-country airlines and their weight restrictions!), so Squidge and I decided to have lunch at the House of Ming at the Taj Mahal Hotel.


If you are a vegetarian in America or in any other country where carnivores rule, get yourself over to India.  I have never seen such a wide variety of vegetarian options in my life.  To me, dim sum is mainly pork and shrimp.  House of Ming had an amazing amount of vegetarian dim sum.  Check out their menu here.  


Side Note:  When Squidge was around 11 years old, I took her to Hawaii for two weeks.  It was there that we encountered the retail store Crazy Shirts' mascot, Sharka.  Many years later, Squidge and I both still have our Sharka key chains from that trip.  Squidge also has several larger stuffed Sharkas.  We decided for our trip to India that we needed to bring a Sharka with us.  I only explain this so you understand why occasionally you may see a stuffed shark toy in my India photographs.  Please don't judge.  ;-)  Also, since Squidge and I both have Sharkas; Squidge's Sharka is named Sharka.  My Sharka is named Cousin Louie - the seedy, low life shark that no one likes to see at family reunions.  I said, don't judge!  So be on the look out for Cousin Louie in the following photographs.  It's like "Where's Waldo?" but a heck of a lot easier.


The House of Ming at the Taj Mahal hotel reminds me of an old school Chinese restaurant.  Which for some reason was oddly soothing.  I thought to myself that this restaurant obviously knows how to do it the right way.


As I try not to be a sloppy drunk when going out with my baby sister, I ordered an "Electric Sugar Cane."  It is pineapple juice muddled with fresh mint and "lengthened with soda."  (Reading off the menu here.)  Squidge had a fresh mango juice.

House of Ming menu, an Electric Sugar Cane drink, fresh mango juice and a friend.

Squidge and I have our usual dim sum favorites, but not everything we usually enjoyed in America was offered on the menu.  We decided to branch out from our usual.


We ordered:


- Glutinous rice with chicken in a lotus leaf (500 Indian Rupees)
- Pak choy and sesame - a vegetarian dumpling option (450 Indian Rupees)
- Char siu bao - roast pork steamed buns (500 Indian Rupees)
- Flaky Shrimp (550 Indian Rupees)
- Sweet Corn Chicken Broth (500 Indian Rupees)


Our server brought out a plate with a trio of sauces: honey ginger (incredibly good), soy and green onion and last but not least, tomato with chiles.

The sweet corn chicken broth was very reminiscent of the soup I normally have at American Chinese restaurants.  It was hot, rich and lush with fresh-tasting corn.  I like to put in a generous amount of white pepper in the soup to seriously raise the heat quotient.  But that's just me and my wacky palate!

Next came the flaky shrimp.  I normally do not like flaky shrimp in American dim sum restaurants.  The shrimp almost always tends to be overcooked, resulting in "rubber in phyllo straw."  Not appetizing.  Squidge ordered these flaky shrimp and I am so glad she did.  The shrimp was tender and wrapped in some sort of chopped filling.  I am going to guess and say chopped water chestnuts in a honey type sauce. The crispy fried straw around the shrimp was hot and crunchy.  These were some excellent flaky shrimp.  If only my local dim sum place could make them as good as these.

Next we had our first vegetarian dumpling option - the Pak choy and sesame.  To be perfectly honest, when we ordered this we thought it would be a plate of stir-fried bok choy-type greens.  But no, it was a plate of 4 steamed vegetable dumplings.  They really had zero flavor and I didn't see or taste any sesame.

It seemed like at House of Ming, one dish would be super tasty and then the next dish would be blah, then the next dish after that would be great and so on and so forth.  The next dish was the char siu bao - steamed pork buns.  These also tasted exactly like the ones at American Chinese restaurants, which was fine by me because I like the ones served in America.

Char siu bao and an inside look at a piece of flaky shrimp

The glutinous rice with chicken in lotus leaf was not a good thing.  I grew up with my maternal Chinese Grandmother making this dish for me.  You take glutinous rice and steam it until it becomes all tender and one massive glob of sticky rice.  The rice that House of Ming used did not have that glutinous factor  - it was hard, undercooked grains that had no sticking power whatsoever.  The chicken filling was nice, but the hard rice really made this dish a waste.  We did not finish it.

The inside of the lotus leaf - not so glutinous sticky rice

A family of four - grandmother, mother, father and young son - sat down at the table next to us.  The server ran off and quickly brought them a large goldfish bowl.  Being a dumb American, my eyes popped out and I said "what are they going to do with the FISH?"  Turns out this is the House of Ming's version of a coloring book and crayons.  The goldfish bowl is supposed to keep the little ones entertained while the adults eat.  Neat concept, but not sure for how long a goldfish can hold a kid's attention.  Although perhaps Indian children are not crazy over-sugared and over-stimulated like American children!  I was just relieved to hear that this was not do-it-yourself sushi!

Since a couple of our dim sum dishes were not as good as we would have hoped; we decided to roll the dice again and order one more dim sum item.  The server brought over the menu and I saw something that made me do a double take.


"Um, excuse me, sir."  I asked the server.  "But what is ... um ... what is rat-shaped chicken exactly?"


"It's chicken shaped like a rat."  He replied.


"Oh."  I said and then turned to my sister.  "Um, chicken shaped like a rat.  What do you think?"  Squidge agreed that we should go for it.


Now if you're interested in trying the rat-shaped chicken at the House of Ming in Delhi, India; order it first.  The rat-shaped chicken are made to order and take 20-25 minutes.  It, like most of the dim sum menu, cost 500 rupees.


When I heard the rat-shaped chicken would take extra time, I wondered if it was like some sort of rat-shaped chicken soufflé?  So confused!  I had no idea what to expect.  After 25 minutes, this plate of four little guys appeared.

Ohhhhhh!  So it is chicken, shaped like a rat!


OK, it's actually quite more.  You take a glutinous rice dough and fill it with mushrooms at the tail end of the "rat." You fill the remainder with chopped chicken.  Then you roll the dough into an oblong "rat" shape.  Score eyes and whiskers on its "face" and then deep fry the dough tube.  Once finished cooking, you add nuts for the "ears" and a bean sprout for the "tail."  You stick him on a plate with three of his friends and there you have rat-shaped chicken!  Or chicken shaped like a rat. Chef Richie Farina at Moto Restaurant should add this to his repertoire.

The Rat-Shaped Chicken is watching YOU.

The bean sprout tail.

Almost too cute to eat.

Sorry, you're not only cute but you are delicious.  
Inside view of the "rat."

The rat-shaped chicken was the best dim sum I ate at House of Ming.  It was simple, tasty and good.  Plus super cute!  I ordered a "Spring Fever" to accompany my rat-shaped chicken.  The menu said it was "subtle flavors of cucumber and rock salt enhanced by cranberry juice."  The cucumber tasted off.  The cranberry juice tasted off.  I should have stuck with Electric Sugar Canes.  No more Spring Fever for me!

The service was very slow at House of Ming, but to be fair the service was pretty slow at most of the restaurants I went to in India.  So perhaps I need to reccaliberate my expectations on what proper customer service in India is.  I asked for one order of the toffee banana for dessert for Squidge and I to share.  After a long time, they brought us out two orders.  I had been in India for about a week at this point and I was already exhausted of trying to sort out bad customer service.  The whole "yes, yes, yes" mentality when usually the answer was "no, no, no" had already used up all the good humor I had.  (And trust me, I don't have a lot of good humor.)  I sighed wearily and told Squidge we'd just eat them both versus trying to send one back.  Squidge, also tired of trying to rectify issues with customer service; agreed to just eat the extra dessert.  Lucky for us, it was incredibly good.  Deep-fried banana, hot and melty inside a toffee-candy shell coated with sesame seeds.

We thought the toffee banana was served with ice cream, but it actually tasted like frozen Cool Whip.  Which we were both fine with because we actually like frozen Cool Whip.  (Don't judge!)

When the toffee banana had finally arrived after a long wait, I asked our server if we could get the check. I figured since the service was so super slow that we'd be done eating dessert by the time the server actually brought the check.  The server told me no, he wouldn't bring the check now.  He would bring it when we were done eating.


Look, I get that you're supposed to sit and enjoy your meal leisurely.  In fact, my Valentine's Day post is a tribute to a place that is all about slow and relaxing.  However the service at House of Ming was Grandfather Tortoise slow and my sister had a plane to catch that day.  I was annoyed by the server's flippant response to us.


We finished our dessert and another server brought out these candy-coated nuts.  They were tasty and evidently something to snack on while we waited and waited and waited for our check.

Finally, the check arrived.  I paid and we were ready to get out of there.  I would be sending Squidge off to Goa, India with a box containing one rat-shaped chicken and a bunch of candied nuts.  The ultimate airport snack!

While I wouldn't say dim sum at House of Ming was the best dim sum I have ever had, if you are in Delhi I would highly recommend you stop in for some rat-shaped chicken and a toffee banana.


And perhaps if you look bored, they may just bring you a goldfish bowl to keep you entertained.


P.S. Tune in to LilyOnTheLam.com on Valentine's Day for my 100th blog post!


Google Affiliate Ad:

Happy 5000! Dim Sum, Stubble Burn and a Happy, Happy Lily!

Happy Sunday Lily On The Lam Readers:

My page view counter hit 5000 today and I felt I should celebrate by giving you all $5000 dollars.  Then I realized I did not win the lottery, so instead I will give you all a "thank you" for reading my blog instead!  You can buy slightly less plasma TVs with my sincere thanks than you can $5000, but TV is over-rated anyway!

This weekend has flown by.  I have a slight case of stubble burn on my chin.  The unfortunate but deliciously earned by-product of kissing "The Bad-ass Bandit" for hours and hours and hours this weekend.  I will gladly suffer stubble burn for kissing such a hot man.  Also, in trying to find a link on how to prevent stubble burn to include in this blog post (LilyOnTheLam.com is all about solutions to life's problems!), I found out that my use of salicylic acid products actually makes my face more sensitive and therefore more prone to stubble burn.  Great, so I brought this on myself?  Too sensitive and too prone to make out for long periods of time!  The list of "failures" just keep adding up-- ha ha ha! 

I had been referring to my plight as "beard rash" until I found it was a euphemism for something else on UrbanDictionary.com.  I have to study up on my euphemisms!  (For more on "The Bad-Ass Bandit, check out my last blog post "Lizard Blocked: How an Albino Gekko is Ruining My Seduction Efforts."

My cat, Oshi (a.k.a. "Oshikuru Kitten Samurai" named after Oshikuru Demon Samurai - if you watch "The Big Bang Theory" and "Two and a Half Men") is laying on the bed spinning his head around as he watches the ceiling fan go around and around and around.  I sometimes suspect Oshi is a stoner with his own personal supply of catnip.  If I could read his mind, I have a feeling he would say "Have you tried this strain of Jamaican Poontang catnip?  Dude, it's outta this world!"  (Side note: To the disappointed Rasta porn-seekers who found this blog post by Googling "Jamaican Poontang," I apologize whole-heartedly.)

Oshi Cat:  The eyes and ears say "I'm cute!"  The extended tongue says "I'm a rebel!"

Oshi is now trying to lay his head on my keyboard as I am typing.  I suspect he's trying to say "I'm on your blog?  Call my agent!"

I feel like the post after 5000 page views should be a really "Knock the ball completely out of the ball park" post.  But I'm a little brain-dead, so instead I am going to blog about one of my favorite things to do on a Sunday ... having dim sum!

If you do not know what dim sum is, it is basically like tapas but Asian.  Little plates of tasty bites, sometimes brought around on carts where you can pick and choose to your heart's content.

When I was in Sydney, Australia, I discovered that they refer to "dim sum" by the Cantonese term: "yum cha."  My favorite "yum cha" restaurant in Sydney is East Ocean Restaurant.  If you're in Sydney, please make sure you go there.  I love their mango and cream pancake rolls, which I have never seen at dim sum in the United States.  They are heavenly!

Pictures from East Ocean Restaurant in Sydney, Australia:

My friend NL (a.k.a. "The First Lady of Lynchburg") came back to Tampa Bay recently for a visit.  Her two demands were (1) to go to Oceanic Supermarket - the Asian grocery store and (2) to go for dim sum.  I love Oceanic Supermarket.  They always have incredibly fresh produce.  Where else in Tampa Bay can you buy fresh dragon fruit?  I like to stock up on all the lovely Asian marinades and sauces that I cannot find in my traditional grocery stores. 

For NL's dim sum craving, I chose China Yuan Seafood Restaurant on Armenia Avenue.  While China Yuan usually does not serve dim sum on carts you can get dim sum there any time day or night versus the traditional brunch/lunch hours only.  I find it's very important to have an outlet where you can indulge your dim sum craving at any time.  My body doesn't know how to only crave dim sum during brunch hours!   

I also recommend T.C. Choy's Asian Bistro and the 2 locations of Yummy House China Bistro, if you're looking for dim sum in the Tampa Bay area.  However, China Yuan is my favorite in Tampa.  As an added bonus, there's a great Asian bakery in the same shopping complex as China Yuan.  Dim sum and then pastries to go?  Win-win!

I recommend the Chinese sausage and green onion rolls from the Asian bakery. 

The Asian bakery

If you are a dim sum newbie, one of the perks of going to China Yuan is that they have a picture menu for all of their dim sum specialities.

Being a creature of habit, I have some basic dim sum items that I always make sure to order:

sticky rice steamed in leaves

turnip cakes (a.k.a. radish pudding)

Grab the condiments and top the turnip cakes with red vinegar and chili sauce.

voila - fully topped and ready to eat!

steamed pork buns

 

"The First Lady of Lynchburg," her friend R and I ordered up a storm of dim sum items and corn-crab soup.  Here are some pictures of our mighty dim sum feast:

And if you want to order off the regular menu, I recommend the beef and vegetables pan-fried noodles.  Baby bok choy is a must!

Being a Chinese restaurant, China Yuan also gives you a fortune cookie at the end of the meal.  Here is my fortune - a true statement if I ever heard one.

Thank you, Lily On The Lam readers for the 5000 page views.  I've enjoyed blogging about my adventures, restaurant and product reviews and the sturm und drang that is my life.  I hope you have enjoyed reading about it.

Feel free to celebrate my 5000th page view by having some great dim sum or by giving/receiving a case of stubble burn to a devious hottie - or go real crazy and do both!

Thanks for reading!