Gourmet Kingdom "Chinese New Year" Dinner

When I was writing this post, I realized that we have so many mentions of Gourmet Kingdom on the blog that we need to give it its own special label!

This picture was taken on our recent trip to the restaurant with a chinese friend and her family to celebrate the new year!  It doesnt do justice to the numerous delicious dishes we sampled.

Hot tea (Y8) - always good and comforting.

Special Green Bean Jelly (L17) - very intersting! Great texture on these noodles made with green bean starch. A cold appetizer in a chilly-vinegar sauce with a punch. Very similar to the mouth watering chicken in taste.

Seaweed with sweet and sour sauce (L5) - If you like sweet in your savory, this one is for you. The seaweed reatins its texture and has a nice bite to it.

Osmanthus flavor cultured sticky congee (Y3) - the dessert actually came first and the preparation was quite intersting.  The rice soup was flavored with the osmanthus flower, with bits of egg-white floating around.  A deceptive dish - the look of it makes you expect a savory soup.

Pickled Bird Fish fillet with chilly sauce (H18) - this one was by far our most favorite, may be since it was the most familiar to us Indians! The "pickled" aspect is very very mild as the chilly peppers are the pickled element and not the fish!

Salt and Pepper Pork Rib (Z7) - A tasty piece of pork!  They were dry and came in little pieces, so I appreciated not having to deal with the mess.  Made a wonderful snack the next day.

Tian Jin flavor dumpling (F2) - the same old dumplings - simple and very tasty.

Dan Dan noodle (F20) - Different from the ones they serve in PF Chang's.  The noodles were thicker and by themselves had a lot more flavor.  Its a cold dish in Gourmet Kingdom and had a wonderful chilly oil sauce.

Soup with lily flower (?) - Cant remember the name of this one.  The lily fronds (pestel) were floating in a mild broth.  Will have to check with Feng for the exact name.  Stay tuned.

The key to enjoying your meal in Gourmet Kingdom is to go in a group of at least 4.  The portions are enormous and you will end up with lots of left overs.  The spicy dishes keep well and make for a great lunch the next day.

Gourmet Kingdom (Ba Shu Chuan Cai)
301 E Main Street
Carrboro NC 27510
Phone number: 919-932-7222
http://www.thegourmetkingdom.com/default.html
Google place page

Dumpling Extravaganza

Our friends Antti and Fan invited us and a few other folks from work for dinner - a Dumpling Extravaganza.  They fed us appetizers and then put us to work!

It was definitely a gourmet evening which started with Bone Marrow.  They got the bones from Harris Teeter (our neighbourhood grocery store) and roasted them in the oven.  Unfortunately, I do not have the exact recipe but I do have a picture of the finished product.  Salil was all excited, but I was a bit hesitant about putting bone marrow in my mouth. 

Fan expertly scooped out the marrow and spread it like butter on a piece of toast.  It was topped off with a simple celery salad.  My apprehension vanished with the first bite.  It was like eating the most luxuriously buttered toast I have ever put in my mouth.  There was not much of a texture to the bone marrow itself, but it definitely made for a tasty bite along with the crunchy bread and lemony celery salad!

With an abundance of drinks, chips, mini crab cakes and chatter, we got down to the dumpling making bussiness.  Fan and Antti had made two stuffings.  One was ground pork with chinese cabbage seasoned with grated ginger, soy sauce and a bit of bone marrow soup.  The other one was ground pork and shrimp with shittake mushrooms.  The dumpling wrappers are easily available in asian markets.  Making the dumnpling itself was rather easy - a little bit of water to seal the edges was all that was necessary.  Fan steamed some of the defective pieces which were in the danger of unwrapping when boiled.  She boiled some and pan friend others. 

Three simple yet very delicious dipping sauce were served with the dumplings.  Fan made the first one by frying some flower peppers in vegetable oil adding it to soy sauce and rice wine vinegar.  The next sauce was a store bought chilli pepper sauce with peanuts etc.  The label in the picture is in chinese, but its worth going on a hunt for this one.  The third sauce was a simple refreshing mixture of soy sauce and rice wine vinegar.

The dinner ended with a big box of Godiva biscuits passed around the room!

Vietnamese crepe at Jujube

Vietnamese crepe with sweet and sour pork at Jujube, Chapel Hill.

Here is the link:
http://jujuberestaurant.com/