Em and Dad Cooking Time

My favorite part of hanging out with my dad is Emily and Dad cooking bonding time at home. Growing up I used to watch my dad cook at home once a week on his days off and it was always mesmerizing. Having his whole family centered around cooking really made me comfortable with food and has made the idea of getting messy and using my hands a big part of how I live and work. 

From time to time we get into phases of what dad likes to cook for/with me and lately we're in the "Crab Rangoon" phase of our cooking show. Dad like's to point out how economical it is to make and sell these because people love them and they're really cheap to make in large quantities. It's fun to sit and make with him, I learn a lot of things and we have a common activity to make things relaxed and we can just talk about whatever we want without getting frustrated with the language barriers.

In half an hour we made 75 rangoons with just the two of us and it was pretty great.  

Dad shows me all the restaurant quick tricks and cooking together like this is super fun. it's always my favorite part of being home. The downside is now dad thinks I'm in love with crab rangoon and that means they're going to be part of my meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until I had back to school I guess there are worse problems to have! 

Del Lago Casino

At the beginning of this year dad got a new job at Del Lago Casino almost an hour away from home. Of course, since he's the chef in charge of the chinese section of a buffet, we had to visit him when I got home for spring break! 

LOCATION: 1133 NY-414, WATERLOO, NY 13165

Del Lago calls it their "farmer's market buffet" which seems nice and didn't feel out of the ordinary for a buffet. I went with my mom, brother, and cousin and it was a pretty standard meal. Mom loves buffets because you can pick whatever you want so they tend to be a big hit and when dad is in charge of a whole section he knows the hookups in other departments. 

Dad also pulled a dad and made me a whole plate of Pad Thai without me knowing. Not on their regular spread but dad's been cooking for 30+ years so he knows all the tricks of the trade. I wasn't super hungry enough for a big plate of pad thai but dad knows how to take care of me and it's hard to say no to generosity in the form of food. 
 

I think we'd agree that the best part of the buffet was the dessert section though. We made sure to leave room for it because the section looked great and we were pretty hyped. 

This is just the dessert between me and my cousin (mom isn't a huge dessert fan and my brother was pretty content with a slice of dense chocolate cake). Mom was pretty hyped about a bailey's infused chocolate mousse though so there was definitely something for everyone. 

Overall, this casino was cute. It's super new and has some interesting decor that mixes in this italian villa theme they're going for. It's also always fun to see dad at work so that's just a personal plus for me. 

CHI - Qing Xiang Yuan Dumplings

Beiruo is turning out to by my foodie buddy goldmine this semester. I don't know what I'm going to do next year when she's gone and graduated! 

Today was the St. Patrick's Day Celebration here in Chicago and while none of us are really that excited about parades and copious amounts of day drinking, Chicago does do this cool thing where they dye the whole River Green in celebration of the holiday. 

For us first year non-native Chicagoians this event was a must see so we all met up around 10am (aka almost 11am by the time the 5 of us all finally arrived at the meeting point) and walked in the chilly city. With 25lbs of veggie dye the river was beyond saturated after it was dyed at 9am. Honestly this photo doesn't do it justice because it was indescribable how green this river became!

Like I mentioned, none us were that excited to wait for the parade so we prioritized lunch and went on our way. A couple of the girls had to go home to get some errands and work done but I'm not one to miss an opportunity to go out to eat somewhere new so Beiruo, Michaela, and I went on our way and decide to head to Chinatown to get out of the way of the St.Patrick's Day crowds. Of course, my trusty Beiruo knew just where to take us!

LOCATION: 2002 S WENTWORTH AVE, STE 103 CHICAGO, IL 60616

Back when Beiruo and Peiyang and I were in Chinatown for Lunar New Year Beiruo mentioned that there was an amazing dumpling place nearby that we had to go to. Peiyang is currently in NYC for the weekend so she couldn't come with us but we just won't mention that we went and we'll go with her again because this place was amazing. Beiruo says it's her favorite place in the world to get dumplings. I think that's a pretty heavy statement and think back to soup dumplings in Hong Kong but I will give it to her that these dumplings were incredible. 

This place was super clean and bright. It's a very open space with wooden tables and benches with soft cushions and pillows to make things comfy. They even have a window into their kitchen so you can go up and watch the cooks making dumplings by hand. Their menu is presented on an iPad and you can swipe through all their different categories of dumplings. Michaela doesn't eat meat so we paid attention to veggie or seafood choices for her and ordered a potato salad to start, something I've never had before in a chinese restaurant, and then 12 piece orders of pork and cabbage dumplings for me and Beiruo to share, leek, egg, and shrimp dumplings, and Michaela's pick of zucchini and mushroom dumplings which we made into rainbow dumplings (I'll explain soon.)

The potato salad came out first and it was a light crisp 'salad' or cold dish with a slighty spicy kick to it that was really great. I'd order it again. I mean I'd order everything again but that's besides the point. We had the pork dumplings boiled and the other two steamed instead of fried because we all agreed it was the way to go. The pork came out first and it was this wonderful balance of salty and fresh. The skins they use for the dumplings are thin yet still have a great chew to them without being too thick. I'm pretty sure Beiruo burned her mouth on several occasions trying to pop a whole steaming hot dumpling into her mouth all at once only to have the scalding hot liquid inside wipe out her tastebuds. All in the name of 'efficiency'. This is why I love eating out with her, her adorableness never stops. She also gave us a little geography lesson and informed Michaela and I that in Southern China, where she's from, they eat dumplings with a dark vinegar while in the North they prefer soy sauce. Of course Michaela and I are super American and have only ever had dumplings with soy sauce but we were both willing to give it a shot and I ended up liking the salty sour taste of the vinegar while Michaela decide that while the vinegar was better than she expected, she would always be a soy sauce user.  

The leek, egg, and shrimp dumplings came out next in their  bamboo steamer and we all dug in. None of us have ever had egg in dumplings before but this was hands down our favorite of the three. I can't describe this dumpling, it was just a great balance. There was good texture and chew to the outside, a smooth melding of flavors on the inside and each one was just perfect. This is the dumpling I want to eat again and again because it doesn't get too salty or overpowering. Perfection.

Once we had polished off all of that food the final round of dumplings came out. This was the batch we were most excited for because we had ordered them as Rainbow mushroom zucchini dumplings! Basically, they make the skins 'rainbow' colored and we got to pick whatever filling we wanted. We aren't sure how they color the dumplings but we did figure out that the flavor didn't really change from color to color so it's purely aesthetic. We did feel like the skins were a little chewier in this batch likely due to the color but it wasn't terrible and overall it was exciting to see at least this once. This one was a little flat in terms of filling flavor and definitely benefited from dipping in the vinegar.

This is somewhere that I would want to go back to again and again. They have so many filling combinations and none of them seem bad to me. Beiruo says this is probably her fifth visit in the last 6months. I believe it because it's just THAT good. I can't wait until my dad comes back to visit Chicago because he needs to see this place. It's almost too good to be true.   

Photo Cred to the random guys on the street that asked us to take their picture first 

CHI - CupBop + Ramen

Midterms were rough, per usual, and as a treat my Beiruo asked me out to  lunch for today! I'm always down to eat and she follows a chinese foodie blog based in Chicago so she searched the blog and instagram and we landed on CupBop + Ramen. We had a book release/lecture for one of the teachers and Beiruo figured out that this place was close to the release so we met up around 1 to fill up. 

LOCATION: 2439 N CLARK ST. CHICAGO, IL 60614

This place is right above Old Town and next to Lincoln Park which I love so it was a nice place to walk around and explore while I waited for Beiruo to arrive. CupBop + Ramen is of course a combination of Cup Bibimbop and Ramen which I'm all for. I've been dreaming of my New York City ramen adventures and I'm honestly always ready to eat ramen so I was all in. We checked out this place online and the first sign that they have arranged is one that sets up a game. If you can beat the cashier at Rock Paper Scissors, you get a free drink. Already, I'm pumped. This place is also special because they do a cup/ramen combo bowl which we both wanted to try; it's called the BanBan and I ordered my cup bibimbop with beef and the pork only ramen (Tonkotsu) while Beiruo ordered her cup bibimbop with pork and the Pork Miso ramen (level 2 spice). Her blog also mentioned trying the the Sweet and Hot Chicken so she ordered a half portion for us to share. 

This isn't the most impressive, fancy looking restaurant when you walk in but it's freaking awesome. I will say that I did lose at Rock, Paper, Scissors so I didn't get a free drink, but Beiruo won and offered to share her drink with me so it was alright. The concept of a BanBan is already perfect so we spent a hot second gushing over bowls partitioned like this before we dug in. The sweet and hot chicken was surprisingly good to me. The half portion was more than enough for us but it was a little spicy with a great sweet factor to diffuse it before it got too hot. 

I am in love with the BanBan. Its perfect for days you want rice/glass noodles and ramen all together. Beiruo leaned more towards the CupBop half while I, like I mentioned before, I just love ramen. My Egg was cooked perfectly, the broth in the Ramen was great, and it had a great texture and balance to it. The CupBop half was also a really great melding of rice and glass noodles and eas seasoned super well. It wasn't overly salty, the meat was tender and not too chewy, and all the sauces and veggies mixed in was perfect. 

For sure, I would go back. We spent the rest of the day gushing about this place and telling everyone about it because it was completely worth checking out. The price range isn't too high and you get bang for your buck. It's definitely out of my way to get there, but if I'm in the area I would consider stopping in for a bite to eat. I need to redeem myself with Rock Paper Scissors!! 

CHI - SAINT'S ALPS TEAHOUSE & GOURMET

There's no celebration like Lunar New Year! I'm super sad not to be in Rochester to celebrate New Years and see my dad do all his ritual prayers and see mom sweep the bad luck out of the house but I'll be damned if I don't celebrate it somehow here on my own! This includes two parades and way too much eating in between stumbling upon lion dances in the street.

This is my first time on my own living in  a big city that actually has Chinatown and all of these wonderful things in time for New Years so I was ready to take part in the celebration, starting with lunch! I'm lucky to have new friends in the program that are Chinese and know all the good spots to eat in here in Chicago because there's only so much venturing that I want to do on my own. Of all of their choices we ended up at Saint's Alp Teahouse. 

LOCATION: 2157 CHINATOWN PLACE CHICAGO, IL 60616 (b/t Wells St and Princeton Ave)

I'm Cantonese so I'm not super familiar with Taiwanese food and I asked my friends Peiyang and Beiruo what was good and they pointed to several dishes on the menu that they liked or that were a little more traditionally Taiwanese. We ordered flake almond shrimp with mayo (which is super American) but always a fan favorite to all. We each ordered our own rice sets which come with a hot or cold tea with tapioca pearls (I drink mine cold but was the odd one out), a side of broccoli, tofu, and rice with a traditional taiwanese ground meat mix on top, and I ended up ordering the beef skewer meal. Beiruo got the same as me and Peiyang ordered the curry fish meal.

I personally am not a huge fan of tofu but it was only a small side and ended up being a nice palette cleanser between bites of the rice. The Tai meat mix on top of the rice was super good but also quite salty so I enjoyed the tofu and broccoli as breaks. The beef skewer (and bites of Peiyang's curry fish) were both so good and the whole set offered a really good balance overall. This also ended up being a really filling meal for around $10 and I ended up with the leftovers so I can honestly say it was a successful meal!

We finished just in time to see the parade pass by and walked around enough to digest this filling meal for us to stop off and get New Years pastries nearby because we are eating machines for sure. This was a great first New Years on my own; good vibes and full stomachs with new friends