Happy Year of the Rabbit and Ho Ho Chinese BBQ Review

I never really practiced any special Lunar New Year customs growing up except eating special treats and having a bountiful Chinese dinner.

This year, my daughter has learned a little bit about the Lunar New Year at school and a little bit about the Chinese horoscope. And she wanted to know if we could eat some new year food and treats. 

Thanks to Marley and Spoon providing a few new year dishes for selection this week, I made lion's head meatballs and Hong Kong egg tarts.

I made modifications to the meatballs by adding minced wood ear mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms. I also halved the amount of cornstarch, which made my meatballs too wet and thus became big hill mounds rather than balls. But these were so delicious; it doesn't matter that they're not balls! My mom learned how to make these from Chinese cooking school in Taiwan and has been known to make awesome lion's head, and she approved of these!

Lion's Head Meatballs

I continued my streak of ugly but yummy food with the egg tart recipe. Maybe I can blame Marley and Spoon for forgetting to include the pre-made pie crusts. I went and got some pressed empanada dough instead and churned these puppies out. The ones baked in small muffin tins were forgiving, but not so much the regular-sized ones! The flavor and texture are pretty spot on, but I swear the instructions did not include tips on how to avoid the custard from bubbling in the oven!

Mini Egg Tarts

Strange-looking Egg Tarts

For dinner, we ordered from the closest Chinese BBQ restaurant to Round Rock, Ho Ho Chinese BBQ. This place is straight up "we make good food and don't care about all the other variables that a customer may care about." It's an old school Cantonese restaurant where the exterior and interior aesthetics is pretty tattered, but it doesn't stop the influx of customers trying to get their fill of savory morsels of meats. My online pick up order was supposed to be ready at 5:18 PM, and they didn't have the food ready until 6 PM. Granted it's Lunar New Year and instead of taking the day off, they were trying to service greater than usual traffic. 

With my daughter in tow, I solved our long wait by ordering roast duck and roast pork belly to be chopped up straight from the BBQ line and took it out to my mom and daughter to munch on while I went back to the restaurant to listen for my name. 

I came back to very satisfied passengers

None of the dishes are particularly pretty to look at; maybe they're slightly better looking than the building that it came from, but there's definite skill and authenticity behind the taste. Each dish has its distinct flavor profile and none are overly salted. I feel like these have become rare qualities in Chinese restaurants as of late. As chefs who have trained in specific Chinese cuisines retire, new chefs or owners have tried to cater to the types of Chinese cuisines and dishes that have risen in popularity and they lose authenticity. Cantonese food has been pushed to the side to make way for Sichuan food. And restaurants that don't align to Sichuan food try to do a bit of everything to accommodate what's trending and lose their way. I feel like Ho Ho does a great job in staying true to Cantonese flavors, and I hope they can successfully continue that! 

Happy new year to all!

Bamboo House Review

Here's my first review of an Austin restaurant since my move back! One of my biggest gripes about the Austin food scene in the past and now is the lack of quality authentic Chinese food options.

Living in Round Rock further limits the options, and I lack the motivation to drive to even North Austin to get food from my past picks - Din Ho and First Chinese BBQ. However, when I heard about how a relative new comer, Bamboo House, serves up Peking duck, I made it a mission to go check it out!

Be prepared for long lines if you don't arrive by 11:45 AM. The good news is that they're able to turnover tables quickly so even though we arrived at 12:45 PM our first time and had to wait, it was only at most 15 minutes before being seated.

After ordering at our first visit, we immediately started gawking at the tables around us. The portions are huge and everything looked delicious!

My mom ordered the braised wheat gluten appetizer, which usually comes on a small plate for diners to pick at while drinking tea and waiting for the other courses to arrive, but this was a legit entrée size platter!

The salt and pepper fish fillet was my husband and daughter's favorite dish. Perfectly crispy, buttery, and savory. 

The surprise hit for my daughter was the duck soup that comes with your order of Peking duck (that's when you know this place is serious). I would have liked more ingredients in the soup. There's a little bit of cabbage and some tofu chunks, but pretty sparse. But the leftover soup and leftover rice make a killer rice porridge the next morning! 

The Peking duck arrives at the table beautifully assembled with all the accoutrements. It's pretty good! I wish that the duck skin can have less of the duck fat attached underneath it, but the duck meat tastes fresh and tender. It's really reasonably priced for all that you get. 

Other Peking duck experiences I've blogged about Dadong Kaoya - 1st Visit and Peking Duck in Shenyang: Yuan Wei Zhai.

Our second visit to celebrate Lunar New Year early was just as tasty, but it seemed like the wait for the duck to be ready is longer if you arrive at the restaurant early. The standout dish we ordered the second time is the lobster noodle with cheese. I don't know where the cheese comes in, but I guess the noodles are very creamy. The lobster was deliciously meaty and fresh. It's a lot of messy work though, so we savored the more challenging parts at home.

We'll be back! There are more dishes I want to try! 

Deviled Eggs - with an Asian Twist

My friend, Matt, hosted an Oscar Night Potluck Party last year and I tried to find a fancy deviled egg recipe that would impress the crowd.  I plowed through Pinterest and Foodgawker but found delicious recipes that use the same set of ingredients.  I wanted a dramatically different one fitting for the Oscars.

 

That's when I came up with Deviled Chinese Tea Eggs with Shiitake Mushrooms!  I usually attempt to be humble, but I can't help but brag about this burst of creativity!

 

Ingredients

Boiled Eggs

Dried Shiitake Mushrooms (soaked in a bowl of hot water until plump)

Onion

Scallions

Jalapeno (optional)

Sesame Oil

 

For the Tea Egg Marinade:

Soy Sauce

Shiitake Mushroom Water

Bay Leaf

Dried Red Chiles

Star Anise

Five Spice Powder

Black Tea or Oolong Tea

 

I made hard boiled eggs first, cracked the shell but kept the shell on the eggs, and dunked them in a pot of simmering soy sauce, shiitake mushroom water (the warm water that I used to soak the dried shiitake to plump them back up), and various spices (see ingredients list).

 

Cracked Hard Boiled Eggs Simmering in Tea-Soy Marinade

 

I let the eggs simmer on low uncovered for 30 minutes, turned off the heat, and covered the pot to let it soak for another 2 hours. The longer they stay in the marinade, the more dramatic the cracked pattern on the egg and the more flavorful the egg whites get.

 

While the eggs were marinating, I sautéed some finely diced onions and some of the soaked shiitake mushrooms that I diced (make sure to slice some shiitake mushrooms for presentation) in some tea-soy marinade.  I put the sautéed mushroom and onion mixture aside and sautéed the sliced mushrooms with some marinade separately.



Happy with My Tea Eggs!

Once the eggs have cooled, carefully shell the eggs and reveal the gorgeous cracked pattern!

Isn't this gorgeous?

 

I halved the shelled eggs and scooped out the egg yolks into a bowl.  In the bowl of egg yolks, I spooned in the tea-soy marinade and mixed in the sautéed mushroom and onions.  I drizzled a little bit of sesame oil while mixing and added some scallions into the mixture.  Once the filling mixture was creamy, I spooned the mixture into the tea eggs and topped each off with a slice of sautéed shiitake mushrooms.

Deviled Chinese Tea Eggs with Shiitake Mushrooms and Jalapeno Deviled Eggs

Deviled Chinese Tea Eggs with Shiitake Mushrooms and Jalapeno Deviled Eggs

No-Name Bao Zi (Filled Buns) and Rou Jia Mo (Meat-filled Burgers) Trailer

I'm starting to see great potential in Madison's Chinese food scene!  I can't believe I said that, but one visit to the bao zi trailer on N. Mills and University Ave. on the University of Wisconsin campus made me somewhat "glass half full!"

 

I have no idea why the trailer doesn't market itself better with at least a name so admirers can spread the word.  Afterall, they did go as far as paint nearly all that's on their menu on the trailer...in Chinese...

 

This awesome trailer focuses on Chinese pork steamed buns 包子 (bao zi) and Shaanxi-style "burgers" 肉夹馍 (rou jia mo).  Besides these two items, they also have daily specials that they write in Chinese.  I don't know what advice to give besides go with a friend who can read Chinese or be adventurous and point to one of the specials to try out.  I believe the bottom special remains the same everyday, 豆浆 (dou jiang) soymilk.  

 

包子 "Bao Zi" and 肉夹馍 "Ro Jia Mo"

Daily Specials in Chinese

Unlike Dumpling Haus, the bao zi here tastes homemade rather than frozen.  This trailer serves up authentic baozi.  The quality of the filling is high.  It's juicy and flavorful without being too oily.  My fear with dumplings and baozi when I'm eating out is that they would just fill it with low-quality meat or drown the ingredients in oil.  No worries here!  

Shaanxi-style burger and bao zi

 

The Shaanxi-style burgers are delicious but very different from what is shown in their trailer photo. Instead of sliced roasted pork, the meat is ground or finely shredded and chopped braised pork. It doesn't have the smokiness and crunchiness that I expected from their menu photo. It's also a lot bigger too! Even with these disparities, the burger is juicy, fluffy, and super filling. Perfect for cold, damp days. 

Taiwanese "Xiao Chi" at The Rice Bowl

Pin It

Coco's was my go-to Taiwanese xiaochi (snacks) restaurant during undergrad in Austin.  However, I outgrew  the place by the time I entered grad school.  The Rice Bowl opened its doors this year and it offers quite a broad mix of Taiwanese and Northern Chinese dishes.  I'm not impressed by the listing of generic Chinese dishes, but their menu was saved by the awesome Roast Beef Rolls!  I believe it's the only place in Austin that serves this!  By "roast beef" they mean soy-marinated beef with tendon, which gives the beef a gelatinous marble surface.  Even if you're not into beef tendon, I promise that you won't even notice it when you bite in.

Roast Beef Rolls

Below are other dishes I've tried but weren't particularly great, except for the awesomely tasty Stir-fried Green Beans with Ground Pork!  The most disappointing dish was the beef noodle soup.  The noodles were chewy and kind of luke warm and the broth tasted like just water and soy sauce, no depth whatsoever.  Taiwanese beef noodle soup is supposed to have a very rich, deep beef flavor.  This broth was unfortunately flat.  The green beans and beef rolls, however, make the Rice Bowl worth frequent visits! 

Pig's Ear

Taiwanese Beef Noodles

Green Onion Pancakes

Stir-fried Green Beans with Ground Pork

Hong Kong Food Street in Houston

Pin It

I've complained repeatedly to friends about the lack of good Chinese food in Austin relative to cities with a large Asian population.  Check out Hong Kong Food Street in Houston, which I tried earlier this summer that specializes in Cantonese food.  It has a huge menu with dishes I haven't even heard of!  They offer dishes that range from simple but addictive street snacks to banquet-style cuisine.

Remember the steamed crab over glutinous rice that I raved about in New York?  Well, HK Food Street has a lobster version over seasoned rice.  It's really decadent and oh so good!

Steamed Lobster with an Egg Sauce over Seasoned Rice

I'm addicted to stir-fried green beans (they're like green french fries but not starchy!), so of course I had to have a plate at the table if it's on the menu!  I don't think I've had a bad version at any Chinese restaurant.

Stir-fried Green Beans with Ground Pork

My parents craved clams so we ordered a hot pot of clams doused in rice wine.  This was ok.  I think I prefer sauteed clams in spicy black bean sauce except in the case of Japanese sake clams.

Clam Hot Pot

The best dish of the day was the fried tofu covered with dried scallop gravy.  The fried tofu soaked up the sauce like a sponge so that each bite was an explosion of scallop juice, but the outside retained the dry texture of fried foods.  YUM!

Fried Tofu with Scallop Gravy

Dim Sum at Shanghai Chinese Restaurant

I've always felt like Chinatown at Mopac offers the best quality and variety of dim sum in Austin.  However, many have recommended Shanghai Chinese Restaurant's dim sum.  I tried it out twice in two months and found it to be pretty good!  Chinatown at Mopac is pricier but the portions are bigger, they offer some dishes that are outside of the dim sum repertoire but are tasty nonetheless, and there's notably more attention to details.  Shanghai Chinese Restaurant has a good amount of variety, the dishes aren't drenched in nasty corn starch, and the quality of ingredients is high.

Here are some of the things from the first visit:

Shu Mai, Fried Tofu Stuffed with Shrimp, Char Siu Bao, Mushroom and Pork Wrapped in Bean Curd Skins

Lo Bak Gao (Turnip Cake)

A Cart of Fried and Pan-fried Dishes

Jalapenos Stuffed with Shrimp 

Ma La Gao (Steamed Sponge Cake)

Green Tea Fried Sesame Balls with Black Sesame Paste

Photos from the 2nd visit:

Shu Mai, Curry Squid, Mushroom and Pork Wrapped in Bean Curd Skins, Ha Gao, and Chicken Feet

Char Siu Pastry

Beef Tripe

Steamed Pork Ribs with Black Bean Sauce

Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce)

Shanghainese Soup Dumplings (very bad version) and Fried Tofu Stuffed with Shrimp, 

Ma La Gao

Fried Sesame Balls with Red Bean Paste

Breakfasts in Beijing

Here are a few photos of my breakfasts in Beijing.  I mostly ate breakfast zhou or bao zi at S's apartmet because it was too cold to go out early in hte morning.



Long line outside the Maido chain that sells hot savory pies (bing)

Pork and Green Bell Peppers Bing (the pork was way too fatty)

I couldn't resist having breakfast at Comptoirs de France again, but the traffic was horrible; by the time I arrived, they had already moved on to their lunch menu.  I ordered a smoked salmon sandwich and a nice, big cup of coffee.

Coffee at Comptoirs de France

Smoked Salmon Sandwich for breakfast

The day of my departure, I walked to Field Home, a Chinese fast food chain.  I ordered the #8 special which had a bowl of delicious pidan shourou zhou (hundred-year egg and lean pork rice porridge) garnished with youtiao and green onions and a side of guotie (pan-fried dumplings).  YUM!  It was kinda a crazy about of food for breakfast but I gotta get some culinary satisfaction before enduing a 13 hour flight full of crappy food.

Pidan Shourou Zhou

Guotie and Milk Tea

烤肉季 Kao Rou Ji

Kao Rou Ji

On my last day, I wandered around Xicheng district and visited the Bell and Drum Towers.  I knew that Kao Rou Ji, a famous Xinjiang restaurant, was in the area so I made my way to Houhai for lunch.  This is not a place for dining on your own because the portions of each dish are meant for sharing.  Oh well.  That wasn't going to stop me from trying their famous grilled lamb!

Complimentary Pumpkin Xiaomi Zhou

The lamb with the extra order of condiments and shao bing made damn tasty Xinjiang burgers.  

Grilled Lamb with Scallions

Grilled Lamb with Hot Chili Oil, Pickled Garlic, Cucumbers, and Shao Bing

Interior of Shao Bing

Making my Xinjiang Burger

Mmmm...Ready to dig into my burger!