Ni hao, Chinese feast!

I had the afternoon to myself on Friday and decided that it was high time to visit the Asian market I'd heard so much about. I was a little nervous as you have to drive through a "not so nice" neighborhood to get there, but it all went fine. As soon as I walked through the door I was in China (or Taiwan). The smell brought it back right away - in a good way - and I was so homesick!! I took my time and wandered around and got a bunch of stuff for us to have a huge Chinese food feast - and was sad that I was headed out for the evening and it would all have to wait for today (Monday).

I was anxiously awaiting dinner alllll day. I checked and rechecked the cooking instructions and looked up a recipe for dipping sauce for the dumplings. All the packages I bought were mostly labeled in Chinese, so I was really hoping that we'd be having some (decently) authentic food on the table.

Dinner was FANTASTIC. It was maybe the best Chinese food we've had since returning from China! Fresh lo mein noodles (takeaway lesson - CUT those suckers - they were seriously at least 3 feet long each!), dumplings (less rice wine vinegar in the sauce), and steamed buns (the real bready ones are never my personal favorite, but for bready steamed buns, these were pretty good). Kailin didn't like the buns, either, but holy mackerel did she wolf down the dumplings and noodles. She had a full helping of noodles and then ate FIVE dumplings! Oh, and she ate them all with chopsticks!! Cheater chopsticks, but chopsticks nonetheless! Colby used some as well - and although he did get some stuff in his mouth with them, he fared a little worse than his sister did.

We had the most amazing dessert dim sum in Hunan and I bought some custard buns that I thought might be something like the wonderful ones we'd eaten in China. These were....well....like a Cadbury egg gone horribly, awfully wrong. There was something gritty in the unnaturally yellow filling, and the filling immediately and entirely coated my teeth. I made a horrific face and let Steve know that he should proceed at his own risk. He was still eating dumplings... but Kailin piped right in and said she wanted to try some. I thought "oh sure, we'll see how far this goes..." She ate THREE. Steve ate half of one and Colby had two bites before he quit. As I put the rest away, Kailin was concerned that I was going to throw out the yummy "zert". I assured her I was only putting it away and that they were ALL HERS. ha ha ha.

After dinner, I remembered the guava juice and jasmine tea I'd purchased. The guava juice was a hit with everyone. I cracked open the jasmine tea and took a huge drink and nearly choked. I wasn't expecting it to be a. carbonated, and b. "jasmine flavored"(as I later learned from the can). It was NOTHING like the jasmine tea I love in China and Taiwan. It was pretty much like flower soda. Heavy on the flower and highly carbonated. The kids loved it. Figures. Ha ha ha.

I think we'll be frequenting the Asian market more often!!