Traveling the world, tasting different ethnic foods and exploring the culture would be such an awesome experience, but those come around only once in a while. As usual, it was an ordinary week in Jersey and this week we went through a supposed "snow storm" with 0" of snow. Those weather men! Well, until we get to go exploring outside of Jersey soon, a mini-world tour is nice. This week consisted of cuisines from Korea, India, Italian, Chinese food ending with an American tradition. Mmmm Mmmm Good!
So 1st stop? KOREA! for some KIMCHI making. Earlier in the week, I spent the day with Amy and we made Kimchi together. It is a long process, but the end result is very fresh and clean kimchi. She had a big kimchi tub from her mom so we let the kimchi soak in salt water for the larger part of the day, added the spices and at the end of the day, we had homemade kimchi to last us for a while. Thanks Amy!
2nd Stop, INDIA! for some Saag Paneer and Nan~ I tried using some Garam Masala, which is a spice used in Indian cooking and a combination of garam masala and tumeric filled the house with a very fragrant and delicious smell. I prepared some homemade Paneer, an indian cottage cheese , along with some Naan and wallah, dinner!
3rd Stop? ITALY! for some TUSCAN CHICKEN and MINESTRONE SOUP. The Tuscan Chicken was simmered until tender in white wine and had flavors from the fresh rosemary sprigs. It paired with some Itialian Minestrone with of course, white wine, because the recipe used white ."BON APPETTITO!" Watch out for the steam!
Last but not least: CHINA! for the much anticipated SOUP DUMPLINGS! Thanks for inviting us out Tammy. :)
We went out to Flushing , NY with some friends, 10 of us in 2 cars, and finally tried the soup dumplings from Nan Xiang. We started by ordering some shanghai noodles and scallion pancakes, which were dense pancakes with beef and a delicious sweet, soy-based sauce. Then of course we ordered soup dumplings and ordered like we were on a mission. We kept ordering one after the other to a point to where the waitress was trying to convince us to get another dish! But we were sure of what we wanted and ordered 16 between 10 people! There was a choice of pork and crab so we ordered both. About 20 minutes later this is what came out:
We dove into these things and of course, for those who have tried eating soup dumplings, you know there's a method to eating these. The soup inside is incredibly hot so you have to go slow!
2 methods:
1 you can bite the top part off, put a little soy-ginger-vinegar sauce in there, drink the juice and then eat the rest or
2. You can poke a hole in the wanton with your chopstick, slowly pick up your wanton and let the juice drain into your spoon , drink the soup and then eat the rest. Apparently, the way you can tell if you're a soup dumpling veteran is that your plate has less of the juice from the wanton on it and my plate was OK. :)
So as we ate the wantons over time, our plates were getting more and more soup on it and while we were waiting for the next orders to come out, we'd put our spoons down on the plate and when picked up again, there was resistance. ^0^ So when the soup cools, it turns into a gelatinous substance that is sticky so you have to either eat fast or be mindful of your spoon. Don't let your spoon stick to your plate! For some time, we could not figure out why some dumplings had a hole when there wasn't one when they were being placed on our spoon. With some investigation and some round table discussion, the conclusion was because as the soup dried, the dumpling skin stuck to the spoon and when it was lifted, it'd get a small tear and in turn, contribute to puddles on our plate! There was an incident on our side of the table where the dumpling was picked up from the dumpling pan and served to someone. The wanton would barely have a hole and the juice started leaking but was was saved because it landed just in time on the spoon, but on another occasion, the wanton had a hole from sticking to the dumpling pan and the person serving did not know, so it created a whole path of the soup to a plate! Not ideal for cooling soup from soup dumplings. Sticky mess!
But for the most part, the dumplings were delicious with no tears. The outter shell of the wanton had a chewy texture that was amazing and the soup was a little less greasy than the other ones I tried. The crab had a great seafood taste and was light and the pork was a little heartier. They were both so good and I couldn't decide between the two!
So the verdict from the group? Jason's thumb's up says it all.
OH SO GOOD! :)
As for the verdict between Soup Dumpling vs. Husband? Though these soup dumplings on a scale of 1-10 are a 10 and I already want to go back for more, my husband is somewhere on the scale like a 14....or maybe 32?.... no...100+. The day we went to eat soup dumplings was actually our 23rd month anniversary and he came home from work "late" with some pretty pink and magenta Gerber Daisies. Sorry soup dumpling. Husband wins by far! Happy 23 months to the Love of my life. :)
and for an American tradition, the annual Superbowl went down yesterday for the New Orleans Saints vs the Indianapolis Colts. We got together with our friends and we had a combination of mini-corn dogs on-the-spot fried in a mini deep frier , quesadillas and homemade guacamole, spicy wings with Cilantro, oreo cookies, jambalaya, tacos with an amazing Cilantro slaw, hummus with Cilantro and chips and more.Cilantro, cilantro, cilantro! yum! Nothing like good food and football. Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints for a game well played and their first ever Superbowl Win for Naw'lins!
Bon Appetite!
FY
