My coworkers think this post should be called “The Salad Girl Exposed”.
Disclaimer: all photos in this post are from Yelp.
Today’s lunch (Saturday) was at Joe’s Shanghai in Chinatown. Bobby and I met up with my 2 coworkers, their significant others, and a few other friends (11 of us total) for a huge meal. Joe’s is pretty famous; it has a great reputation and I was really psyched to try it. It did not disappoint. Joe’s is a pretty standard Chinese restaurant (not Dim Sum) and it’s very cheap (but rather expensive for Chinatown).
We let G do the ordering for the table and he did a great job. We started off with Joe’s soup dumplings. There are 8 in one order ($6.65 for crab/pork; $4.65 for pork) and I’m pretty sure that G got 12 orders of them (6×8 of crab/pork; 6×8 of pork). There were only 4 dumplings left by the end of the meal and Bobby and I got to take them home.
These were amazing. Apparently soup dumplings are something of an art form in China, and Joe is a celebrity. The dumpling contains a savory broth and meat in the middle. You bite a small piece of the wonton-ish dumpling part off, slurp out the soup broth, and then eat the dumpling. They are served atop steamed napa cabbage, which I happily ate as well.
We also got a soup – I think it was the Hong Kong Style Hot & Sour Soup ($6.35). It came with shrimp, some meat (chicken or pork?), mushrooms, tofu, egg, and maybe more. The broth was your standard hot and sour broth.
This was really delicious as well. Lots of variety in the flavors and ingredients, very fresh and hot – it was perfect for a miserable weather day like today. (For those of you not in this area – today it was raining/snowing all day and absolutely freezing. I am so glad to be inside my overheated apartment right now.)
Those were just the appetizers. We also got 2 orders of shrimp fried rice ($8.95)… (it was okay; I’m not really a rice person).
A bunch of scallion pancakes ($2.35 each) (freaking amazing – I could not get enough)…
A tofu dish called Bean Curd Home Style ($8.95), which was pretty good for being tofu. I liked the veggies best. I couldn’t find a picture.
Another (unpictured) dish was the String Beans Szechuan Style (With Pork) ($8.95). These were sauteed string beans with little pieces of pork – kind of like chorizo. They were pretty good, but very salty.
We also got Clams In Black Bean Sauce ($13.35), which were really good as well. I love clams!
And for dessert we got a fried red bean pancake that I can’t find on the menu. It looked pretty much like this… (picture source).
I had like 5 pieces of it. I think red bean is my most favorite dessert thing ever.
After lunch we walked over to a boba tea shop called Ten Ren but on the way we stopped to get Chinese dried fruits and candies. More on that later. Bobby got a Hot Taro Milk ($3.00) drink with jelly in it and shared it with me. Today was a perfect day for a hot drink. It is so cold outside.
The milk was purple!
I’m sitting on my couch now eating some grapes from Chinatown ($1.80 per pound for sketchy grapes totally beats Whole Foods’ $3.99 per pound organic grapes).
Question of the day is… what’s your favorite Chinese food dish?
Easy! Pineapple fried rice! 🙂 But I love a lot of asian foods… dumplings, wonton soup, and spring rolls (all veggie of course!).
girl, you had be at “fried pancake”.. definitely visiting this place on my next trip to NYC!
OH I miss those soup dumplings! that’s a very famous type of bun in Shanghai 😀
this place seems really reasonable priced, and the food looks very good too! Glad you enjoy your Chinese food “explosion” , hehe.
My favorite Chinese dish is ….well, I just love all of them!!!!
I LOVE soup dumplings! They’re little pockets of happiness. Slurp and chew, slurp and chew :] I have too many favorite Chinese dishes! Mmm… like scallion pancakes, hezi, my dad’s cold noodles, and lots of home cooking. :] Oh, and not Chinese, but Taiwanese shaved ice. Heaaaven 😀
Oh dear God I am so jealous right now!! I really really want to try those soup dumplings. I’ve wanted to so badly since watching Anthony Bourdain have them.
My favorite chinese food is lo mein. Yum! And crab rangoons.
LOL @ sketchy grapes!
i like hot and sour soup and egg drop soup. ok seriously pretty much i like salt. 😉
I couldn’t pick a favorite Chinese food to save my life! Even just hearing about your meal, I can’t pick from what you ordered. I do love taro, though. I think we should go out for a Chinese meal together–I can eat your rice! 🙂
Those dumplings look amazing! I love potstickers – I need to make some more for lunches this week!
Oh my, wow!
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Happy Sunday,
Katie
oh how i miss chinatown chinese food – can’t wait to to gobble it up when i’m back in nyc at the end of the year…speaking of which, did you ever get my email about a blogger meetup?
Those dumplings look mad good!
Purple milk looks awesome!
I went to China town when I was in London and it was so cool. Just the concept of a part of a city being completely Asian is baffling! I loved all the little shops and restaurants. I even scored me some cheap goji berries.
I don’t think I have a favourite Chinese food, just love the stuff they sell in their little shops (like exotic fruit :D)
Wow, purple milk? Seriously!! Love it. I have never really been a big fan of Chinese food, so I do not have any favorites.
I think I would go broke so fast having to try all the great ny restaurants! I love going to this Ukrainian place in the lower East Side. I can’t remember the name but I love the food, I’m going to ask my parents then I”ll let you know.
I love any red bean and taro desserts! taro is a little bit sweet potatoey to me 🙂
I’m on yelp too so you should add me! I’m under Gaby D. and am holding up a big cake in my picture.
the red beans pasta cake is delicious! I think they use sticky rice … love those! I always have them when we eat out in Shanghai! 🙂
favorite chinese dish? mmmmm……. I dunno, shame on me 🙁