Tag Archives: Dumplings

Food Truck Friday

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New Direction

When I started this blog the focus was, as the title indicates traveling to other countries via my taste buds and sharing the experiences with any who chose to read it.  Well I am just about out of unique country / restaurant combos and the couple I have left are so much better with groups that I’ll have to do some actual planning to make it happen.  At this point I assessed my choices to be; stop doing the blog, only blog if I come across a new restaurant representing a country I hadn’t done, repeat countries with new restaurants or change the focus of the blog.  I don’t want to stop the blog so that left the others and after evaluating them I decided to serve up a combo.  If I find new restaurant /country combos they get added along with a Tell Me More page.  Visiting new restaurants representing old countries will help fill in some weeks and offer a comparison to the already visited restaurants so that will fill in some weeks.  The new part is an additional focus rather than a complete change and as the title didn’t have spoiler tags you probably figured it out.  I’m going to chase down food trucks and check out what they have to offer so I’ll be looking for meals on wheels, roach coaches, street meat, whatever you want to call them and I’ll let you know what I think.

I couldn’t think of a better way to kick it off than Food Truck Friday in downtown Rock Hill.  I only wish I’d started coming out earlier because there’s only one more Friday left and I will be there.  I got to the area just after 6:00 and parking was pretty easy to find within short walking distance.  There was already a nice group of people there and the live music was going.  Yep, dinner and a show.  They cordon off a couple of blocks around Fountain Park and the food trucks park along the streets.

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My first stop was the Beer ID & ticket tent because you can’t walk around trying to make decisions on which mobile kitchen is going to be your source of sustenance without a proper drink.  They beer trucks have some local microbrews and some wee little bottles of wine.  My first try was a Beneford Brewery Irish Honey which was quite tasty and kept me going as I walked up and down in a first pass to see what options I was presented with.

After walking the area I decided to start with a couple of Jamaican Me Crazy Sliders from Street Spice.  I got the pictures of the truck but ate the sliders before I remembered to snap a shot.

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This particular mini burger came with ghost pepper cheese and was on a bed of pineapple slaw and was quite good.  I also got some mac and cheese bites which were the best version of those I’ve ever had.  The outside was a thin crust and inside the cheese was gooey and the noodles were still soft and al dente.  The few other times I’ve tried fried mac and cheese they had been fried so long the noodles were hard and chewy or harder rocklike.

A stop at the beer tent to pick up a truly local Legal Remedy Double IPA and I was walking and enjoying the music and looking for a truck with just a little something to sample and not a full meal.  Hiya did it for me with their fried dumpling special.

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I got 4 kimchi dumplings and 4 fried chicken baby dumplings (I don’t think they were made with baby chickens).  Both were delicious but the kimchi dumplings paired well with the double IPA.  Overall this was a nice experience and I would certainly encourage any of you who can to think about going to October’s Food Truck Friday, I know I’ll be there.

 

Dim Sum – Yum!

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China

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One cool thing this week was I got to use the passport stamp from my own passport for China.

There are many options for Chinese cuisine and it can be a difficult decision which way to go but I knew from the start I wanted to visit a dim sum restaurant.  For those who don’t know dim sum is a Cantonese style of food cooked in small bites or portions often served in small steam baskets.  It is perfect for trying a lot of different dishes.  Bringing friends means you can try even more items without overstuffing, and well, all meals are just better with friends.  So I called in reinforcements from Columbia; the McGehees, Andy, Melanie & Ian plus Ms. Christy Goodman.

They first introduced me to the Dim Sum Chinese Restaurant in Charlotte and it has never failed us.  The place isn’t fancy by any stretch but it is clean and bright.  You can order from a menu if you want but the main attraction for us is the dim sum that comes around on carts of steamers or plates.  They push it up to your table and you pick out what you like or think is interesting.  We wound with several types of dumplings, buns, crepes, feet, custards.  That’s right I said feet.  Tried my first and probably last chicken feet on this trip.  As you can see in the photo (3rd one down) they don’t look bad and honestly they aren’t.

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The chicken feet had a nice coating that was flavorful but the foot itself was mostly skin and gelatinous goo that was sort of chicken flavored and overall very bony.  They weren’t bad but my overall impression was more of a “why bother” with all the other delicious options available.  So while I wouldn’t balk at eating them again, I’m not going to add them to my favorite things to eat column either.

The rice noodle shrimp things were popular at the table and the shiu mai, leek, pork and shrimp dumplings all got gobbled up.  The steamed bbq buns were tasty but I forgot they had paper on the bottom so I got a little extra fiber in one bite.  We had some shrimp balls and shrimp toast, not to mention the crabmeat wrapped in bacon (because what isn’t better wrapped in bacon), some shrimp, leek and egg pancakes and stuffed eggplant.  For desert we had a little egg custard, not too sweet but just sweet enough to qualify as desert.

As I said this restaurant has always delivered a good meal and a good time spent with friends.  If you’ve never had dim sum I encourage you to find a place that serves it, grab some friends and go enjoy.  Just a tip it might be something on a weekend menu for some Chinese restaurants that may serve more “traditional” fare during the week.

Don’t forget to check out Tell Me More for a video featuring double erhu’s and a list of dim sum recipes.