Well, last night, I kind of went off my diet. I blame my lack of will power. But, indirectly, I also blame my wife for getting me hooked on Fung Bros. videos on YouTube. You see, the Brothers Fung travel to various parts of the U.S. and Asia and sample all kinds of cuisine, and make videos while they're doing it. Their videos, in my opinion, are awesome because they are informative and very funny!
Another YouTube channel my wife got me hooked on is Off The Great Wall. These guys have excellent videos related to Asian food. So, I've been watching all of these with my wife and, to be honest, they make me extremely hungry. Especially since I've been trying to follow a very calorie restricted diet for the past few weeks.
Well, last night, I couldn't take it anymore. I was very hungry, and couldn't stop thinking about dim sum. There is this restaurant in Orlando called Ming's Bistro. From the Yelp reviews, they seem to have the most traditional dim sum in the area. So, we decided to go there.
Long story short, the food is awesome. Granted some of the dim sum I picked was a little strange, and some of it was an "acquired taste" kind of thing. But, it was all totally excellent. The waiter brought us a menu and a list of dim sum items. Basically, I checked almost everything on the dim sum list, and then we ordered Beef Chow Fun and Shrimp Chow Fun. Not too long afterwards, our food started arriving.
We had turnip pudding, spicy braised chicken feet, fried meat dumplings, shrimp and eggplant dumplings, sticky rice in banana leaves, roasted pork buns, steamed pork buns, shu mai, spicy beef tripe, chive dumplings, a couple of spring rolls, crispy pork, taro dumplings, egg custards, and the two aforementioned chow fun dishes. This, my friends, was a LOT of food. And I ate a lot of it.
The food, simply put, was delicious. Strange taste combinations (shrimp and eggplant?) and outright bizarre pieces (chicken feet?) made this meal quite an adventure. There was just So. Much. Food. My wife advised me that I might have over done the ordering a tiny bit. Maybe <shrug>.
Obviously, we had leftovers. There was no way that we could've ate all this food in one sitting. But, it wasn't for lack of trying. My craving for dim sum was at an all time peak and I wanted to consume as much as I could. My daughter, the Hater of All Things Vegetable, had a surprising favorite: the chive dumplings. These are, basically, dumplings stuffed with green stuff (chives?) and shrimp. But, seriously, this was the last thing I would think that she would eat and like, but she loved them so much that she claimed the three that were left over as her own. So, they're sitting in the fridge at the moment, waiting to be eaten by her for lunch.
This morning, I'm paying for impromptu feast. My tummy is rumbly, as Pooh would say. And, I feel a little queasy. But, that did not stop me from having the following for breakfast this morning:
- One fried meat dumpling
- One turnip pudding
- One sticky rice cake
- Shrimp Chow Fun noodles (all I had left was the noodles and bok choy)
Also, one good thing did come out of this excursion. I got to practice my Mandarin a little bit. When we walked in, the owner said "Hello! How many?" and I said "Nín hǎo! San" which meant "Hello! Three." One of the other Asian customers said "Wow, this guy knows Chinese" when we sat down at a table beside theirs. I said to him "Wǒ zhīdào yī diǎndiǎn", which means "I know a little." His wife smiled and nodded her head in approval and said "Right, yī diǎndiǎn!" like she was impressed. So, that made me feel good. The waiter asked what we'd like to drink and I said "Shuǐ yībēi", which means "A glass of water".
Anyway, it was an awesome chance to get to use my burgeoning Mandarin skills. But, I'd be lying if I said that was the main reason we went there. Nah, it was for the dim sum. I did it for the dim sum.
Here's a few links to some of the things I talked about in this post:
Also, here's a couple of videos from the Fung Bros. and Off the Great Wall.
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