Beef noodle soup
The best thing about having good restaurants nearby is that you can eat great food without having to cook it. The second best thing is that it can inspire you to cook great food for yourself. Here is Exhibit A of that inspirational effect: homemade beef noodle soup.
I was first introduced to this dish at Mr. Chen’s and have since learned a lot about it–probably way too much. It’s a Taiwanese dish, so the oft-used identifier “Szechuan” beef noodle soup is a misnomer that only indicates that it’s spicy. Good to know that we here in The States aren’t the only ones to bandy about the “Szechuan” adjective willy-nilly.
Beef noodle soup is so popular in Taiwan that it has become the national dish! Because of its popularity there are many variants, and my search for a recipe to try on the Internet turned into analysis paralysis. I finally settled on a recipe at thekitchn.com, which is a site that Denise frequents so I trusted that they would do a good job. Plus it was one of the least labor intensive, which is always a plus. Out of respect for thekitchn.com I haven’t reproduced the recipe here, so if you want to follow along feel free to look over the recipe at their site.
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China Express Restaurant at closing time
Score another local find for Denise. A couple months ago she noticed that China Express Restaurant had taken up residence in the old location of the by-then-defunct Euphoria Smoothies and said that some Asian folks were eating in there. I remember her saying that but for some reason it didn’t register in my consciousness that this could be the first solid Chinese place in Clinton, so we didn’t go until recently after being reminded of its existence by a friend from church (thanks, James!). Maybe the name made me dismiss it right off the bat, but whatever the reasoning at the time I was sorely mistaken. Oh, China Express… please forgive me for neglecting you. I prone myself before you both begging for mercy and basking in your magnificence, for you are truly a marvelous restaurant–to my knowledge the first and only authentic Chinese restaurant in Clinton.
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Moon cakes inna bag
I have to admit, despite being of ethnic Chinese background I’m very nominally Chinese. I speak and understand very little Mandarin and am almost entirely illiterate, and I don’t observe most of the customs and holidays. About the only thing I’m very Chinese about is food, and I crave moon cakes at least once a year. Problem is that they’re served on and around the Mid-Autumn Festival, which because of the lunar calendar upon which it is based the date always changes. As a result I’m always craving moon cake when none are available.
Fortuitously, because Denise signed us up to be a host family for a foreign student this year and we are hosting a student from China, this time around the Mid-Autumn Festival came up in conversation a day before it was to happen and as a consequence I was able to pick up some moon cakes before I missed them again. Thanks, Samuel! Yes, he got some too, entirely by serendipitous way of my own selfish craving.
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Van Hung Asian Market
Thanks to a tip from Daniel in the comments of my previous post about Van Hung, I found out that Van Hung simply moved to a better location. Denise needed some light soy sauce and chili bean sauce to cook dinner with, so I went there to check it out. Good selection and prices as always, and it’s great that the owners are always there to greet you and they remember all their regulars. The new store is much nicer than the old one, and it looks a lot less cramped. Good move, I say. Despite the Oriental Supermarket opening up to deserved acclaim, I’ll still be a Van Hung regular for everything Asian except those few items that they don’t carry. They’ve been in the community a long time and provided a tremendous service to the Asian and Asian-food-loving community for quite a few years, so I think they deserve our continued support.
Frozen section
Aisles of good stuff
Van Hung Asian Market
51 Place
637 Highway 51 North, #B & B1
Ridgeland, MS 39157
(601) 856-9638
Closed on Tuesday
Mon, Wed, Thurs, Sat: 10am – 7pm
Fri: 10am – 9pm
Sun: 11am – 7pm
Store is on the opposite side of the street from where Google Maps says it is. It’s on the northwest corner of the intersection of Highway 51 and W. Ridgeland Ave./Sunnycrest Dr.–on your left if you’re going north on Highway 51.
I went by Van Hung Asian Market in Ridgeland to pick up a few supplies, but the store was dark and when I peeked in the window the shelves and merchandise were all gone. Have they moved or have they closed down completely? Hopefully the former but I can’t find any info on what happened, so I fear the latter. With the big Oriental Supermarket opening up business was bound to be tougher for them, but it’s a real shame if they had to close. If anybody knows what’s up with Van Hung, please let me know.
Update 7/22/2011: yes, they’re still in business!
Bakmi Goreng
As significant an event as it was that I was actually cooking, I figured I’d document it. This is the noodle dish I cooked for Penelope’s 1st birthday. There’s no recipe to it so there’s not really a name for it, but if I had to identify it I’d call it bakmi goreng, which is an Indonesian dish that means “fried noodles”. The noodles are actually boiled and then seared in the wok with the rest of the ingredients. The dish has Chinese origins but has a distinct Indonesian twist to it. » Continue Reading…
Mr. Chen's now has a sign
I had been to Mr. Chen’s Authentic Chinese Cooking twice already, but that’s not nearly enough to explore their vast menu, so I’ve been a couple more times since then with family and friends, and alone for lunch once. Ok, so it’s not “take 2″; more like “takes 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on”. And they now have a sign on their awning so you really can’t miss them. » Continue Reading…
Mr. Chen's
Jackson is, from what I’ve seen elsewhere in the Deep South, a typical Southern small town/city when it comes to Chinese food–lots of American Chinese buffets and not a lot of authentic Chinese cuisine. As far as I know, the new Ding How is the only show in town for real Chinese fare–they have a Chinese menu (all items are also listed in English) that they used to only trot out for Chinese customers but I think they now stick in the back of their regular menu, and they also serve dim sum. Or should I say was the only show in town for real Chinese fare? Enter Mr. Chen’s Authentic Chinese Cooking. » Continue Reading…
Ding How
A few weekends ago we revisited Ding How for another round of dim sum. First time around was good if slightly frantic in terms of service, which was understandable considering it was their first weekend of serving dim sum. The manager was so frazzled after that first weekend she considered abandoning the menu system and going to dim sum carts, which I was glad to discover they didn’t end up doing after all. With a large, high-traffic restaurant the cart system works great, but not so much with a cozier layout like Ding How where food might sit on the carts for a long time after cooking. They did, however, trim the menu a bit to make it more manageable, and items are now ordered by relative portion size and price. It’s a lot easier to sift through. » Continue Reading…
Sofia-approved
As planned, we met up with a couple friends of ours, Scott and Rebecca, for the first day of dim sum at the new phoenix-rising-out-of-the-ashes Ding How at their new location on Old Canton near Lake Harbor. Rebecca invited a friend of hers, Stephen (Steven?), which made it 6 of us getting together on this momentous occasion.
I took the liberty of ordering for us since we had 3 dim sum neophytes with us. Note that not all pictures are indicative of actual quantity of each item ordered, as I didn’t hold up the show to take pictures before people could dig in. For (reasonably) accurate counts of each item type, refer to the dim sum menu. Here’s what we had:
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