Recap: The Most Special Meal Part II- Joy Tsin Lau

I just came back from the second MSM with my brother.  He picked me up around 11:30 a.m. and we headed straight for Chinatown.  After a few laps around the block looking for parking, we found settled on the lot on Cherry Street that is right by Cherry Street Vegetarian Restaurant.  As we walked the half-block to Joy Tsin Lau, my anticipation was growing with each step.  It was on.



The front of the restaurant



The running-check: pre-feast

The first of many carts that we attacked

We were seated immediately at a table not too far from the kitchen.  It's a good spot to get the food as it comes out nice and hot.  For those of you who have yet to experience the spectacle that is dim sum, think Fogo de Chao with Chinese food on carts.  There are no green/red hand-held signs like Fogo, instead, servers constantly wheel the carts around and you select from the wide range of choices as they pass by.  Today, I saw a cart that featured a small griddle-thing on it.  Upon our selection of fried wonton with pork, the server threw the food on there and moved away taking other orders.  Two minutes later, she returned with our food piping hot.  It was awesome. 


 We started with traditional wonton soup and jasmine tea, then proceeded to go nuts selecting random things from there.  From what I remember, here are some of the foods we ate: shrimp on crab claw, pork buns, pork balls, shrimp in wonton, octopus (yes, octopus), chicken feat (yes, again), scallop and oysters with cheese.  That's all I can remember and the meal was only a few hours ago, sorry.  To put it simply, we ate a ridiculous amount of food for two people.

Octopus... yum

Chicken feet, one of my brother's favorites



After round one...

We ended up having 15 seperate servings of food!  It was glorious.  If you like Chinese food, you should definitely try dim sum.  It is especially fun in large groups.  Think tapas. 

The servers stamp your check as you dine

Joy Tsin Lau is a great traditional Chinese restaurant.  If you're looking for service where they chit-chat and explain every little intricacy of the menu to you, you won't find it here.  What you will find is great food served to you quickly and proudly.  That was fine with me for this meal.  I highly recommend Joy Tsin Lau to anyone looking for very good Chinese food.  It is a Chinatown legend and will remain to be for years and years to come.







My brother @ the counter
There was a long wait by 12:30

The Most Special Meal Part II was a success.  My brother and I feasted like champions.  Joy Tsin Lau is a place we came to with our parents throughout our childhood.  It was cool to come back as part of our annual meal.  The food is consistantly delicious and the decor is as classic-Chinatown as you can get.  I look forward to MSM Part III in 2012.  Who know where we'll be, but I know we'll have a blast and make another great memory.  If you have someone close to you and you both share a love for food, I encourage you to consider coming up with your own MSM tradition.  It's a really good time!

My brother and I outside Joy Tsin Lau

The Most Special Meal

So, last year, my brother and I were having lunch at Samurai in Bryn Mawr.  We were having some exceptional sushi.  I'm pretty sure we had each ordered some sort of sushi/sashimi platter, which came out to be more than 20 pieces per person.  We don't mess around.  Anyway, as we blissfully devoured our meal, we started looking over the menu left at our table.  What eventually came to our attention was this item on the menu:

The Ultimate Sushi Chefs' Boat (For Two)

This is NOT just any Sushi Boat. This is The Ultimate Sushi Chefs' Boat! Our Sushi Chefs Will Prepared The Most Exquisite and The Most Exotic Sushi and Sashimi Available Today For  Two of You To Enjoy. Served on Our Beautiful Sushi Boat. 135.00
(I love the grammatical errors.)

This simultaneously brought us to the same important question: If our delicious meal cost us each under $25 and had sent us into sushi/sashimi-induced ecstasy, what sort of heavenly dining experience could be had if we were to order "The Ultimate Sushi Chef's Boat (For Two)?!?

With our meal well underway, we knew we could not order "The Ultimate Sushi Chef's Boat (For Two)"; although, we did briefly consider it.  Nevertheless, this intriguing menu choice led us to the an idea... The Most Special Meal.  

Here's our basic line of thinking.  Every restaurant/chef must have a meal which they consider to be the most special on the menu.  It could be special for its ingredients, preparation, portion, rarity, or whatever; but the chef recognizes it as standing apart from the rest of the dining options.  So, we figured it would be a great tradition to visit great restaurants and simply order the "Most Special Meal" (MSM).  It would be a sort of restaurant bucket list / man v food / bizarre foods combination.  

Here are the guidelines we established that day.

1. The meal would take place between my Bday (7/4) and his Bday (8/5).  That gave us about a month every summer to find the right time.

2. We would compile a list of 50+ renowned restaurants, cut them into little slips of paper, and place them in the Most Special Bag (MSB). 

3. In addition to the list of 50+, we threw in some cities too- NY, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, and D.C.  

4. Each year, my brother's daughter/my niece would pull the paper from the MSB for us and we would have to go to that restaurant.  Simple.  If she pulled a city, we would research that city's restaurants and travel there.  If she pulled a restaurant that had since closed for business, she would just pick another.  Every few years we would add some new restaurants to the MSB.  BTW, the bag is pink.  I'll get a pic of it up as soon as I can.  

Here are the guidelines for the actual meal.

1. We will accept the menu from our server and evaluate the choices, just to see what the lay of the land is.

2. When ordering, we would simply ask the server what the two most special meals are.  After hearing his/her suggestion, my brother and I would decide which of us would get what meal.  No debate and no going back.  We would eat whatever that restaurant considered their MSM.  

So how did our first MSM (2010) go?  It was great.  Funny thing is I don't remember what I ordered last year.  I know my brother had a whole fish that was spectacular, but I have to ask him what I ate.  We went to Tequila's in Philly.  Of course, we had to order some Tequila as well.  We went with a suggestion from our fantastic server.  He brought out each of our drinks by balancing the filled glass on his head while walking.  Yep.  It was bad ass!  The Tequila itself was seriously strong.  It kicked my butt so hard, I could only take a few sips.  Our server jokingly teased us and pointed to a early 

20-something year old female server who he claimed downs this stuff with ease.  She laughed at us too.  It was all in good fun.  So the first MSM was memorable and this year's should be as well.

Tequila's waiting area

Tequila's Bar/Dining area

Tequila's dining room

Our meals & mojitos



The glasses of tequila that defeated us


In a week we'll be heading to Chinatown, to a place we've been visiting for years with our parents.  We are going to Joy Tsin Lau.  It is a legendary restaurant in Chinatown.  They don't even have a website.  How's that for established?  They've been there as far back as I can remember and they simply work off of word of mouth.  We are going for some dim sum, which is Chinese a la carte brunch, for those of you who don't know.  Servers zig-zag all over dining room and you decide what you would like to eat.  Think of Fogo de Chao, but with all types of options.  The scene is usually loud and exciting and very entertaining.  I'm looking forward to it.  

 



My niece holding the Most Special Bag

A review of MSM part 2 is forthcoming.  

Fathers' Day

*Prepare for some mushiness in this blog entry.  
A few weeks back, I came up with the idea taking my dad on a canoe trip for Fathers' Day.  I gave him a call and he was totally on board.  I was excited too.  Why?



Was it because he used to take me canoeing as a boy and teach me all about being a good man?  Was it because we'd have lunch on the boat and he'd occasionally slip me a sip of his ice-cold Budweiser as our dog obediently watched?

Was it because he's always been an outdoorsmen who loves to get away from it all and find serenity in nature.  Is it because he believes that all life's answers can be found in nature, if you know where to look?


No.  Not even close.  My dad grew up working his butt off in Saigon and was in the army by the time he was 18.  He is a city-boy.  He got a whole lot of outdoor time during the war.  Nature is interesting to him, but not a place he goes for guidance.  My dad is a great dad, but he is quietly great.  He has made so much from so little and I have never once heard him boast.  To appreciate how cool he is, you need to watch the kind way he treats others and hear the great stories and lessons he thoughtfully shares.

In truth, there are really two reasons why I decided to take my dad canoeing this past Father's Day.  First, my dad is an incredibly generous man who rarely spends money on himself.  Beyond fiddling around on his guitar once in a while, he doesn't have any particular hobbies that take up his time or money.  I once bought him a book about a dad's dedication to his son.  I haven't heard about it or even seen it in his house since that day.

The book I bought him.

He is truly a "put others first" type of man and, therefore, a really difficult person to buy gifts for.  Seriously, he just takes hangs out with my mom, makes sure his grown kids are doing okay, works hard at his job, and takes care of his house, car, etc.  His greatest passion these days is spending time and playing with his little granddaughter.  It will be some time before I can get him one of those, so I was challenged with finding a meaningful gift.  I eventually came up with the idea of creating unique memories for him each Father's Day from now on.  I will find an activity or experience he has never had and would never pursue alone and share it with him each year.  This year?  Canoeing.


The other reason I chose canoeing is because I knew it would give us an opportunity to talk.  Actually, I was more interested in having a chance to listen to my dad talk.  With me, he has always wanted to explain life lessons he has acquired through tough times and challenges.  These talks were not always welcomed when I was a teenager or in my early 20s.  I didn't think I needed them and I wasn't sure my dad knew what he was talking about.  Now that I am older, I realize how much of that stuff I soaked up and how I much of my professional and personal philosophies come from things he said to me back then.

Even more important is how I now realize that it's not all about what I can get from these talks.  I now realize that, like me, my father wants and needs to express himself.  Listening is something I can do for him and it satisfies him more than any gift card or polo shirt I can buy.  So how could I make him happy on Father's Day?  Letting him be my father and giving him the opportunity to talk seemed to be be the best choice for a gift.  Canoeing seemed to provide a good space for this.

So I picked him up early Sunday morning around 9:30 and we headed out to Chester County for your 11 o'clock reservation for 1 canoe.  As I expected, we talked the entire way.  I can't recall every part of the talk, but he did give me some of his thoughts on work, finances, relationships, and family.  Looking back, its nice to know that what is constantly on my mind is also what my dad often thinks about as well.  I guess this is what I appreciate most about my relationship with him at this point.  He is still the impressive man that I have always looked up to, but he has become evermore human to me with time.  And as I learn more about him as a person, I'm regularly pleased to find out how similarly we see the world.  There are definitely numerous issues we still disagree about, but realizing that he still accepts me unconditionally in spite of our differences is the most important lesson I'm learning these days.  Its not about always agreeing.  Allowing those we care about to express themselves, learning about them, respectfully disagreeing, genuinely appreciating, but overall accepting them unconditionally is key.  It's often a challenge, but it's how you show you care.

Oh yeah, canoeing was a great time.  We both had fun.  I'm looking forward to another new experience next year.