This company dinner worked out better than expected. The overall score of 3.5 on Tabelog was much-remarked-on before the event, and the shabby atmosphere led to somewhat predictable discussions of how dirty=tasty for ethnic restaurants. But the food was pretty good, really, and abundant, and they brought the beer really fast.
While one guy took charge of the ordering, everyone else got busy with the amber fluids (this includes Oolongcha, in case you’re wondering, but not 紹興酒. Yet.). He went a little nuts on the ordering, and massive plates of reasonably good Chinese began arriving in parallel. This included mainly normal stuff – beef with been sprouts, chicken with chives, eggplant with ground pork, a massive pile of fried egg rolls (that’s what we call 揚げ春巻き in ヌージャージ州), shrimp tails in chili sauce, etc. Much hilarity ensued. Several bottles of 紹興酒 came and went. The highlight is supposed to be the steamed buns (in fact, advance reviews said that the buns were great, the rest of the food ordinary). They seemed good, not great, and anyway I’m traumatized by these guys since my poor technique caused one to explode pork fat and gelatin onto my suit in Hong Kong. I was a little too nervous to enjoy them properly.
Verdict: nice food, ordinary buns, tolerable moldy Chinese liquor.
Chao Ma Ma, where are you now?
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