July 19, 2012
So Lisa and I decided to go out to dinner. Wayne and Lisa decided on
Maple Garden, a Chinese buffet. (Here they pronounce it as boo-fay.)
Maple Garden (which used to be Yen King I was told) is a small but wonderful restaurant. The food is NOTHING like food on a Chinese buffet back home.
These were growing outside the door, I don't know what they are. They looked neat so I took a photo.
Each person has a small cup and there is a pot of jasmine tea to share. The serving staff bring small bows of soup for each person rather than having the soup on the buffet table. Hot and Sour soup tonight. It tastes different, much more vinegar with the spicy coming after you've eaten several bites. It is a sneaky spiciness.
The pictures of the buffet are from left to right as it was set up on a long table.
Left is chinese chicken salad (great with the sauce below). Top right is pickled cabbage (this is very good). Bottom right is cold chicken (good with the sauce below).
Left is a sweet ginger and sesame dressing that goes on the Chinese chicken salad above. The combination is WONDERFUL. It is very thick. The right is olive oil, scallions and ginger. This goes on the cold chicken. I liked this too!
Top is "dry fried boneless chicken". This is slightly sweet, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. No fat or skin. It was really very tasty. Bottom is vegetable chow mein. AWESOME. I got three servings of this before I was done. The chow mein tasted a million times better than at home. It had an almost smoky flavor and the noodle texture was amazing.
Top is "sweet and sour spare ribs". These are absolutely wonderful. I had lots. Sweet and sour isn't the red candy sweet syrup like back home, it is REALLY good. Bottom is vegetable fried rice, which was fine bot not thrilling.
Top is "salt and pepper shrimp". It was ok but not my favorite. Bottom is "chicken lo mein" I believe. Wide rice noodles, onion, water chesnuts, onion and chicken. YUMMY.
The bottom one I can't remember what it was called and not everything had signs. It was chunks of tofu cooked with ground pork. Lisa told me the name about 6 times and I still forget it. The top is an eggplant dish. It tastes good but has a slimy texture. It would be good peeled and pureed and used as a sip or sauce on something else.
Top is "salt and pepper shrimp". However it was NOT shrimp but prawns. Big monster mutant shrimp that look like alien babies. For more on these look farther down in this post. Bottom
is "Kun Pao chicken". This was very good with a water chesnuts,,
peanuts, bean sprouts, chunks of chicken and chili peppers. It actually
wasn't spicy though, they were a very mild chili and it just gave it a
robust flavor but not spicy.
Top is "steamed fish fillet". This is flounder steamed with shreds of fresh ginger. This was INCREDIBLE. You have to eat the fish with a shred of ginger to get the amazing flavor of both combined. The ginger takes away (or masks) the fishy taste and it is just this wonderful flavor combination. The bottom is "Beef with broccoli". The beef was more tender than I am used to, but it was less flavorful. It was ok but not great.
Top is "honey sparerib". This was a thin honey glaze over roasted short ribs. This was really tasty. Bottom is "mixed veetables". Mixed vegetables actually just meant Chinese broccoli (Gai Lan). Again, ok but not great.
The very center of the buffet had "fried chicken wings" (no photo, they look just like every other fried chicken wing in the world), "roast duck" which is actually smoked and unbelievably delicious (I took a photo but accidentally deleted it!), "vegetable spring rolls" (cut in half, you can see one half in this photo) which were yummy, and "deep fried won tons" which were outstanding! I think I had 3 of them :)
Dessert was simple but great. Left side is "almond float". This is a very light palate cleansing dessert. Not heavy and sweet. It has a light texture, almost like jello but even lighter, with a light almond and milky flavor. It is served as cubes with chunks of fresh fruits (pineapple and papaya), with a lightly sweet liquid, kindof like a thin syrup but not overly sweet. This kept it from drying out. On the right is strawberry Jello.
Ok, now comes the terrifying part of the meal. The salt and pepper prawns listed above. I have a thing about eating anything that is staring back at me. Prawns and shrimp look like alien babies to me. The little legs and heads and eyeballs just make me shudder in horror. I have the same problem with crawdads and crawfish. I don't like skin or fat and I CERTAINLY don't want to be eating brains and eyeballs on ANYTHING. So it took me a very long time to work up my courage to try this. Finally, I worked up my nerve and bit off the head. Right as I did and started chewing Wayne said, "Squish". I about lost it right then. Conclusion? Well, I tried it and will never try it again. The flavor isn't bad at all, but just the thought makes me want to be ill. I don't know how I managed to try this but I did. It now goes into the category of "things I can officially say I dislike because I've tried it and know for a fact I don't like it." Prawn/crawfish/crawdad heads, haggis, liver of any type or creature (beef, pork, pate, fried, etc. etc.), and chicken gizzards.
They took a picture to show me being brave... or stupid... still haven't decided which.
The food was really good and I absolutely love several of the dishes. I am so glad we went here tonight so I could try Chinese food that is so very different. Mahalo (Thank you) Lisa, Wayne and Papa George for introducing me to this wonderful food.
Now I must go to sleep. It is 11:30 and I have to be up at 5:30 to be ready to leave at 6. I already showered, packed and just have to wake up and throw on clothes, take meds, brush teeth and hair and toss those toiletries into my backpack. Grab phone and charger and I'm ready! I am not taking my laptop so it will be Sunday when we return before I update the blog for the adventures we have this weekend. It should be great! See everyone in a few days!!!
Malama pono, (Take care)
~Melissa
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