Dim Sum and Doughnuts

July 18th, 2009

Last week our friend Chana came over for dinner and talked and talked about this awesome dim sum in Chinatown. Now Chana knows her obscure food finds. She and her sister Becca always know where to eat the most random stuff, seriously. So when Chana says this is the best dim sum she’s ever had we believe her, and when she tells Matthew about the delicious peking duck that’s not even on the regular menu we solidify plans for later that week.

I don’t know if I really like dim sum. I don’t like food that are too mysterious or surprising. Like wraps, I cannot eat a wrap. What the hell do they put in there?? I like to see what I’m eating. So dumplings are kind of the same. But I trusted Chana and she of course came through.

The place is called Mandarin Court and its smack in the middle of Chinatown. We went on a Friday so it wasn’t too crowded. I would be scared to show up at this place on a Sunday.

I do like the part of dim sum where you are barely sitting down and the ladies with the food are already knocking each other down to get over to you with their delicacies.

We didn’t bother waiting for Chana to take some of the delicious looking items off their hands

The green ones are veggie dumplings, the white ones are scallop, the brown ones with Matthew’s chopsticks are some kind of beef meat thing.

Then Chana came and made us try things…

Left side  - the long white noodley thing is something with veggies and sauce and the thing below it is chicken. The other long noodley thing on the top right is the same and the veg but with shrimp – it was my fave. 

I mostly stuck to veggie and fish and man, everything was really delicious. Matthew gave the beef meatball things pretty high marks as well.

Then came the duck
So the thing about the duck is this, and the reason Chana rocks is that she knows things. She knows that when they bring you the duck it’s just a small plate of sliced meat so she asked the guy to bring the bones as well.
He came out and made little duck sandwiches on that thick pancake pictured below. 

It consisted of duck, sauce, and scallions.

I really dislike duck so I just kept chowing on my veggie dumplings but these two went to TOWN on that carcass. They were passing the platter of nasty back and forth and enjoying themselves beyond belief. It was definitely enough for 3 or maybe 4 if you get some more dim sum. We had tons left over that Chana happily took home to share.

But first!

Before we left Chana ordered 3 steamed pork buns. Because THATS HOW YOU DO. Its a slightly sweet bun with a yummy pork center and it completes the meal. 

Ok so now I love dim sum. 

Surprisingly the pork bun didn’t really do it for me so I made Matthew stop at Doughnut Plant on the way home. While I have had Doughnut Plant doughnuts before I have never been to their store (plant?) and gotten a super fresh one directly from the oven. We were practically driving by so it made total sense to stop. I was pretty full but c’mon. After the baby comes who knows when I will be able to eat a doughnut again!!!

We tried a few. The pink one is blueberry (made with real blueberries, that’s like their thing) The brown is banana pecan.

But the most exciting one of all…Raspberry Jelly

Holy moly, these are so much better fresh from the oven.

Entry Filed under: Out to eat