Being extremely indecisive, I prefer to let my wife figure out what restaurant we're going to most of the time. She picked Dynasty, my favorite Chinese restaurant in Jersey.
The owner knows me there. It's on a highway and is very popular. I ordered a whole steamed sea bass in black bean sauce. The owner asked me to reconsider a few times. He warned me that it comes with the head, and he wondered if I might like a filet instead, rather than have to wrestle with bones.
Two of the waiters commented on my choice when it was brought. They seemed happy that an Anglo would order a Chinese dish like that.
I was surprised when it came. It wasn't like they used to make it a few years ago. It was smaller. It used to be this big fish and you could eat lots of meat from one half of it, then lift up the skeleton and eat the meat on the other half. There used to be lots of black bean sauce and other interesting things all over it. But it was pretty small, and it wasn't like you could lift up the skeleton and have this big chunk of fish. There wasn't all that much meat on it, and every step of the way I was picking at bones.
I'm thinking maybe the owner was trying to tell me that it wasn't as good as it used to be, but he was afraid to just say that. Anyway it was pretty good. He brought over some rice for it.
Wife ordered dim sum as it was wheeled around in big trays. Shrimp balls, pork buns, bean curd with some kind of meat inside, white coconut jello with an umbrella stuck in it. This is the only Jersey Chinese restaurant I know that reminds me of NYC's Chinatown. They always bring chopsticks, they never offer chow mein or chop suey, there are no Chinese noodles on the table, they don't bring you fortune cookies, and you're kind of lucky to get a waiter's attention. There are lots of really weird things on the carts, like squid tentacles or something. The Anglos are outnumbered 10-1 by Chinese families with lots of kids.
lfbno7 posted on Feb 24, 2008
| views: 297
Comments
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moonriver said on Feb 24, 2008....
my kind of restaurant... and my kind of fish dish... :-)
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PAPERBACKWRITER said on Feb 24, 2008....
[tummy growls]
lol
oh dear, you will this weird of me, but i could (and did) eat pizza and chinese food for breakfast. . .!
i should be eating breakfast now...but would rather still lie in. . .it´s Sunday!
XD
paper ~
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lfbno7 said on Feb 24, 2008....
Moon, something dreadful happened on American Idol. One of the contestants sang Moon River, and sang it pretty well too, and Simon Cowell called him old fashioned. The odd thing about it was that it was Sixties Night, so all the contestants were required to sing songs from that period. The good news, the singer of Moon River got enough audience votes, so he enters the top 20.
Paper, did you ever have fried milk for breakfast? I have been to two Chinese restaurants that offered fried milk, one in NYC's Chinatown, and Dynasty in Jersey. Fried milk is sort of a dumpling, kind of sweet, and both places served it with shrimp or prawns. -
moonriver said on Feb 24, 2008....
lennie, i don't watch american idol, so i'm not sure whether the "moon river" singer is good enough to reach the finals. but i'll sure be rooting for him, and also simon cowell don't know shit. but how in heaven's name did you guess that i liked that song?
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quietone said on Feb 24, 2008....
I love good chinese food. Unfortunately, the 2 we have around here aren't that good anymore. I am always up for trying new things on the menu too. That "fried milk" sounds interesting. I have never heard of that. I don't think I would have cared for that fish much either though. -
lfbno7 said on Feb 24, 2008....
moon, that made me laugh. quiet, come around sometime and I'll take you to Dynasty. -
pickersplock said on Feb 24, 2008....
I'm getting hungry! I love Chinese food! -
quietone said on Feb 24, 2008....
Lbno ~ that would be cool, just don't leave me stranded in NJ!! LOLHey pickers, I wil stop by on my way south to NJ and we can both go to dynasty's! Hows that Lbno? -
lfbno7 said on Feb 24, 2008....
works for me -
pickersplock said on Feb 24, 2008....
Yummo! -
silverwhisper said on Feb 28, 2008....
that's always disappointing, isn't it, when a resturant changes a dish for the worse? it seems to be happening at a few places i've been in the past year or so. i guess that means times are hard and they're cutting costs, which really sucks.
heh...i love seeing a whole fish arrive at the table. it makes me happy. :D
ed -
lfbno7 said on Feb 28, 2008....
I like a whole fish when you can eat the top part, then carefully peel away the skeleton, and then eat the bottom part. And it has some interesting sauce and accompaniments. It feels like a special meal, not just the usual stuff.
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