Bailout Dining: Spicy and Tasty
Our trip to Queens this week was a success for tastiness, though probably a draw on cost effectiveness. We left quite a few dishes on the table.
But that’s the risk in experimental ordering. Which paid off for the most part. We came for the Ma-la numbing sauce. We stayed for the Tea Smoked Duck and dumplings.
We also got a lesson on who the serious eaters in the group were (ie: those willing to get on the 7 train to hunt down deliciousness), and found out that a trip to the last stop on the 7 train is not as scary as it might seem. (It only took 20 minutes. Who knew? (Oh. All those people who commute every day.)) Onward.
Total cost: $23 per person.
The Leftovers:
3 Stray Ma-La noodles.
1 Nearly full plat of beef tendons.
1/2 a large bowl of hot and sour soup.
1/2 a bowl of tofu. (It never stood a chance against the rest of the tastiness on offer.)
A few stray pieces of bacony tea smoked pork with leeks. (Shown)
A few bamboo shoots.
Result: A Draw.
We may a few missteps in the ordering process - the result being some mediocre hot and sour soup and bland, stringy beef tendons, but aside from those and the overflowing plate of pig’s blood that Joe failed to finish, everything left on the table was a casualty of six overly full stomachs.
Highlights were the dumplings, marinated cucumbers, some pork with bamboo dish I can’t remember the name of, and the tea smoked duck with leeks that was a sort of amazing Sichuan bacon experience.
The Takeway.
Though you may want to take a cab to Flushing, you should get over it. The train is so cheap. And faster. And you can take videos of your friends saying famous movie and television quotes in foreign languages on the way back.
If Joe Weisenthal makes such a sorry attempt to finish another plate of pig’s blood on our next outing, his coagulated hemoglobin ordering powers may be rescinded.
No Rachel. You may not have a dish of cooked onions or leeks without any meat. It will not be delicious.
Jesse Quinn wins. A sample. Q: “What do you do for a living?” A: “Nothing.”
Also, he had the foresight to order some Ma-la noodles and dumplings to go. I was jealous the next day at lunchtime. You should have been too.
