Chinese Dinner Party

A fellow graduate student, originally from China, was kind enough to invite our entire PhD cohort to her home for an authentic Chinese meal. With so many choices, I simply had to try them all.

Chicken breast. The chicken was tender, and cut into such small pieces it allowed the sweetness of the peas and corn to come through nicely.

 Chinese cabbage. Refreshingly bright with a vinegary bite.

Eight treasure rice. Sweet, yet not dessert-like. A nice balance to soothe the spice of other dishes.

Fragrant beef. Tender from a two day marinade, and accompanied by a salty sauce. Didn't need it though: cooked through yet stayed surprisingly moist.

Garlic eggplant. Surprise nuggets of sauted pork add richness to the already creamy texture of the eggplant.

Red oil pork ears. My favorite of the evening due to the shear unusualness of it on my western tongue. Very spicy, with a firm texture from the cartilage.

Roasted chicken legs. What a surprisingly tender and moist meat. This was almost a chicken leg confit - it was packed in salt and spices for a day before roasting.

Snowflake meatballs. A carnivore's treat. No dilemma here. These had two surprises. First, the outside was coated with gluten rice and was thus coyingly sweet. Second, biting into the meat had you guessing for a second - wait - yes, ground peanuts.

 Water boiled beef. Great broth.

 Overall, an unbelievably huge and varying spread.

  

I'd like to thank the chef for all the work in preparing this meal, and for allowing a group to come together and spend time enjoying it.

This is a lesson to us all. We all have friends, neighbors, and co-workers with varying culinary cultures and histories. We do not need to go to the Brauhaus to enjoy good sausage - there is probably a grandmother on your block that will make you really authentic wurst.

Welcome to authentic, fellowship-inducing Chinese food. Meat Mt. Airy.