I Want Sum More

Sunday was a DAY.  In fact, it was such a day, that it has taken me this long to blog about it.  We started off a little groggy after spending a long night celebrating Greg's b-day, but I had made plans with Wendy and Raychel and did not want to back out.  Dave, on the other hand, was pretty adament about wanting to stay home and sleep; however, I was excited about the plans, so I begged, pleaded, and bribed him with a sweet treat from Dylan's.  I eventually wore him down and we heded to Chinatown to meet the gals for dim sum at Jing Fong on Elizabeth Street.

We were a little late because we were seduced by the fish markets selling lobster and jumbo prawns for around 2 cents a pound.  I'm pretty sure I now know where I'm going to shop for my next big meal.  I plan to serve a ton of lobster to a group of friends to attain baller status..  Once we arrived, there was a crowd outside, but Wendy and Raychel had already grabbed our ticket (part of the dim sum process) so it was not long before they called our number and we boarded the escalator up to a humongous, crowded banquet hall.

Wendy won some major cool points at this stage of the meal because she just started grabbing the ladies pushing carts of food, busted out the Chinese, and selected our plates.  Dave was super impressed.  Later he and I had the following conversation:

D: Wendy's really cool and chill
T: I know
D: And she speaks Chinese - that's really cool
T: I know
D: I mean, did you see that?  She was speaking Chinese.
T: Yes, I was there

We ate so much, it was absurd:

• Pork shumai (2 orders)
• Shrimp ha gao
• Steamed pork buns
• Sweet pork in a pastry
• Shrimp in rice dough
• Spring rolls
• Eggplant stuffed with shrimp
• Crispy taro/vegetable puff
• Turnip cake (kinda like creamy hash browns)
• Fried shrimp wrapped in bacon
• Sponge cake
• Chicken feet.  Yes, you read right, I ate chicken feet.  We all did...well, not Raych - she had to draw the line somewhere.

I've tried a couple dim sum places, but this was the best yet.  Everything we tried was delicious, and crazy cheap.  Even though we ate so much that we waddled - not walked - out the door, the total came to a mere $13/person, including tax and tip.

Dim Sum Cart

You may think that after all that, we would call it a day, but then you would be putting me in the amateur category, and that would be a mistake.  Wendy and Raychel went on their merry way, and Dave and I continued our food journey in Little Italy.  For someone who loves Italian food as much as David Smiles, I could not believe he had never been in this 'hood.  He was like a kid in a candy store.  (Actually, about an hour later, he really was a kid in a candy store when we hit up Dylan's, as promised.)  He refused to leave Mulberry street before trying what was advertised to be the "best cannoli on the planet" (according to the restaurant's own banner) and a slice of pizza.  Both quite tasty, but the jury is still out on whether they were the best on planet Earth.

After that, we headed uptown to kill time at Dylan's before going to the movie theater next door (yes, we got popcorn).  We saw The Ghost Writer.  Why we didn't try to squeeze in one last Oscar nom before the awards is beyond me, but Dave was dying to see it, so I figured I'd give it a shot.  My review: not bad.  A little slow, but more realistic than a typical intrigue film.

After the movie, it was back to CT for Mr. Smiles, and I headed home to watch the Oscars and cook some steak fajitas.  Both the fajitas and Academy Awards were great, though I would have preffered a little more verbal bashing from exes and best director nominees James Cameron and Katherine Bigelow.  I called all but one of the big winners and am now seriously regretting not putting money on any of my picks.  Next year, I won't be so foolish.

All that running around made me remember what New York City is like during beautiful weather.  Oh how I've missed that.