Mission: Mooncake

[muckefuck]

Lest y'all think we are total wimps, I'd like to point out that not only did we in fact leave the house on the rainiest day in Chicago history, but we travelled all the way to Chinatown and back by public transit and did our food shopping on the way. At one point I asked monshu if it wasn't a little crazy for us to be out at all and he said, "Yes, but we're on a mission."

Earlier on of his fellow commuters (a description which doesn't even begin to encapsulate the nature of the relationship) gave him $60 to buy mixed nut mooncakes from Feida Bakery in South Chinatown. These happen to be our favourites as well, which is why the original plan for Saturday had been Celtic Fest in the late morning (caber toss!) and early afternoon (pipers!) and Chinatown in the late afternoon and evening, culminating in dinner at Lao Bejing.

So only half the plan ended up being carried out. First we secured the mooncakes (and at a 15% discount!). Then we got me some herbal tea from Ten Ren; their ginger tea is great for sore throats, and I thought the Relaxing Tea would make a passable substitute for Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime. Around this time, the drizzle gave way to downpour, so we hid out in some galleries until it was time to head up to Saint's Alp for tea and snacks. (I had the matcha with black sesame, which immediately had me wondering why I hadn't ordered any matcha drinks there before.)

When we sauntered into Lao Beijing, we found that Nuphy, lhn, and prilicla had already secured us a table. Ordering took some time, since the Beijing-style specials were scattered throughout the lengthy menu instead of being segregated as at Lao Shanghai. Here's what we ended up with:

• (206) 老虎菜 Literally, "tiger vegetable", which was a lucky find at the hole-in-the-wall near our hotel, and so good that we went back to order it again. (And cilantro is a chief ingredient, so you know there's got to be something special to it if I'll eat it.) Lao Beijing's version was pretty close except an order of magnitude higher on the Scoville scale, which didn't seem to bother anyone else but me. (monshu also pointed out that the serving was a third as generous as what we got in Beijing, but you gotta expect that.
• (125) 羊肉水餃, (127) 酸菜豬肉水餃 Lamb dumplings and pork and sour cabbage dumplings. Nothing too exotic except that they were made using exactly the same technique as the ones in the dumpling house across the street from our hotel in Beijing. Unlike those, they weren't made to order, but they were still awfully fresh and a big hit.
• (A07) 羊肉串 Billed as "cumin lamb satay", these were the famous "chuar" that we so loved that within a couple days, monshu could recognise the character "串" dangling from roof eaves. Lao Beijing's version was drier and less generous (noticing a theme?) than what we typically got in Beijing, but the chile-cumin spicing was right on target. We could've eaten several times this amount.
• (510) 京醬肉絲 The closest thing to a clunker all night and it didn't get very close. We ordered this because the word "pancakes" was in the English description and we thought this was the same thing as another pork-and-pancake dish that prilicla had seen pictures of online. But the "pancakes" turned out instead to be squares of tofu skin, which was a novel kind of wrap to use, but not one which truly won a place in our hearts.
• (A10) 脆皮茄條 Once again, if there's "eggplant" in the name and I'm fighting for the last piece, you know there's something special about the dish. Despite the word "crispy" in the name, these eggplant strips had actually been doused in a sweet-spicy sauce after frying, so instead of being crunchy like breaded veggies, they were a bit soft on the outside, crisper underneath, and then tender on the inside. Superb.
• (802) 蒜茸菠菜 Stir-fried spinach with garlic. A trusty standby well-executed.

Seems like a lot of dishes, but it turned out to be exactly right for five hungry people. I think we agreed that the chuar, the jiaozi, and possibly the eggplant were must-order dishes for a return trip, when we try to track down the elusive puffy pancakes that patrons apparently have been raving about online.

Comments

[nitouche.livejournal.com]

You have *so* got to come back to Toronto...

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I'd love to, sometime when I'm a little less house-poor.

[prilicla.livejournal.com]

Apparently, we wanted the "northern style pancake" or "sliced pancake." Here's an LTH Forum thread with a picture.

Thanks for the mooncake tip, by the way. Those nut mooncakes were terrific!

[wwidsith.livejournal.com]

What does "Lao" mean in these names exactly?

老

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

"old"

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

I didn't know there were mixed nut mooncakes. That sounds good!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

There may still be some left, but I wouldn't count on it; they tend to sell out first.