炸纸雞, 腐竹白菜汤 & 菜心 Dinner

One of our newest additions to our soup repertoire is the 腐竹白菜汤 which was suggested from newspapers that the PRC president’s, 胡錦濤 (Hu Jintao), chef regularly made to maintain the president’s good health. Well, 白菜 (bok choy) is always yummy to eat and versatile as with many foods in our ‘fridge. I do stir-fry and soups with it. There’s what we call “old fire” method of cooking soup, which is to simmer it on lower heat settings for many hours (anywhere between 2-5 hours). But anyways, this soup is made with 白菜,  腐竹 (dried bean curd sticks), red dates, and we added carrots to it for sweeter flavor and because we thought it belonged there. We tried this soup with 炸纸雞 (it’s chicken that is marinated and then drenched with boiling hot oil to make the skin “paper thin” and very crispy which is where its signature name is derived from) that we bought from Asia City restaurant (~$22.95). Chicken was a little overdone and small but otherwise, tasted great. Most of our dinners have an accompanying veggie dish; tonight it was 菜心 (choy sum). Topped it all off with a little XO Cognac (which, by the way is a little too bitter for me) as a drink.

And actually we had dessert first, which was our lovely traditional 生果 生日蛋糕 that we handmade ourselves.

炸纸雞, 腐竹白菜汤 & 菜心 dinner

腐竹白菜汤

炸纸雞

Dessert: 生日蛋糕

 

Asia City Restaurant Dim Sum 點心

Asia City Restaurant (Dim Sum/Chinese Restaurant) 2905 Washtenaw Ave. Ypsilanti, MI 48197  Tel: (734)829-0999

We had heard that the newest Asian cuisine restaurant in Ann Arbor boasts of a dim sum chef hailing from Hong Kong. Being Hong Kong-ese (but mostly because our taste buds were starved of some good honest Canto dim sum),  we had to go check it out – and it did not disappoint!

The dining room was clean and tidy, which is priority – but of course, it’s also what we expected being a newly built restaurant (from scratch actually too). The dim sum was served via carts, like how it is traditionally so for folks who want to get this full effect, this is a good place for that as well. First we ordered 焗叉燒包 (baked char siu pork buns) and 芋角 (deep fried taro dumplings). The 焗叉燒包 were a little dry but when we re-microwaved it at home, it actually tasted pretty good. What’s unique about these buns here is that I tasted a hint of coconut juice used. What I usually for as a key to good dim sum is trying out their 蒸叉燒包 (steamed char siu pork buns). The texture of the bun has to be light, fluffy, and not dry and crumbly, and the filling should be moist and the meat tender. Asia City’s 蒸叉燒包 is up there with this kind of quality. 鮮竹卷 was also especially good. Pricing wise for dim sum here, however, is a little bit expensive. Usually dim sum dishes are categorized into small, medium, large, specials, etc. but all of Asia City’s dim sum start as medium dishes at $2.99 each which can add up pretty easily. Still, I would say that in the Ann Arbor area, this is still definitely worth the price.

Finally we followed up the dim sum with 肉絲炒麵 (pan fried pork chow mein $10.95) which was delicious. It was loaded with chinese mushrooms and the noodles were pan fried rather than at some places where they deep fry the noodles.

Very nice dim sum and lunch place to eat out at. I would recommend.

from left: 焗叉燒包; 芋角

from left: 蒸叉燒包; 豉汁蒸鳳爪; 豉汁蒸排骨

from left: 豉汁蒸排骨; 蠔油鮮竹卷

Asia City restaurant dining

廣東 肉絲炒麵

 

Asia City Restaurant (Dim Sum/Chinese)

Asia City Restaurant (Dim Sum/Chinese Restaurant) 2905 Washtenaw Ave. Ypsilanti, MI 48197  Tel: (734)829-0999

Asia City Restaurant lives up to its sister next door, being located right next to HuaXing in size, quality, and price for the most part. Its elaborate outer and inner decor seems target the American or non-Asian population of Ann Arbor. It is practically a replica of the Forbidden City if you will. But at the very bare minimum, at least it has proper doors like a restaurant should (ahem, if you have been down Carpenter Rd., you will know what I mean but that’s for another review). I feared that its food would also follow that philosophy but I was surprised that it held up well to my Asian standards. I had take out this time so there will actually be a part II with better photos of the dim sum dishes. However, I did enjoy the 乾炒牛河 that I ordered very much. Although oily (which is really kind of unavoidable for something like 乾炒牛河), it was stir-fried very well so that the flavor of the rice noodles were delicious. There was a good portion of beef, which while wasn’t premium flank steak, still tasted good and wasn’t chewy. I was fairly impressed and the price ($10.95 for the entrée) was not too outrageous either. From the local Ann Arbor area, Asia City did not disappoint and has become one of the best, if not the best, Chinese restaurant in the area in terms of taste and quality.

Asia City Restaurant

乾炒牛河

 

Triple Crown Restaurant (Dim Sum/Chinese)

Triple Crown Restaurant (Dim Sum/Chinese Restaurant) 2217 South Wentworth Ave. Chicago, IL 60616 Tel: (312)842-0088

During a 2 day trip to Chicago, we stopped in Triple Crown for both dinner and dim sum.  Located on the 2nd floor just across the street from our hotel, it was very convenient.  We were seated by the window which if you’re looking for a good view of C-town, you’ve got it made – except that it was quite chilly by all the windows and there wasn’t too much heat.  The dinner menu was not very extensive and didn’t have some of the common, traditional dishes like the lamb hotpot.  Some of the staff were not very helpful with recommendations (one of them took our own suggestions as their own and tried to promote it to us again and again).  And the prices were moderately high for dinner.  The vegetable dish we got, 蒜蓉豆苗, was $15.  The other dish, 蠔仔煎 (pan-fried oyster cake) was more reasonable around $12.  However, the dishes were both very well cooked and tasted delicious.  Only downside was that there was a lot more egg than oysters in the 蠔仔煎 but then again, since we only ended up ordering too dishes, it was quite filling so it worked out.  Lastly, the music selection is not varied and incredibly annoying – slightly advise bringing earmuffs if you don’t want to go crazy.

蒜蓉豆苗

蠔仔煎