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.
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| The front of the restaurant |
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| The running-check: pre-feast |
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| 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.
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| Octopus... yum |
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| Chicken feet, one of my brother's favorites |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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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!
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| My brother and I outside Joy Tsin Lau |
Looks like fun! But what would you say was the most 'special' dish I guess?
ReplyDeleteGlad to see I'm not too far behind on my reading! All caught up now. :) I was just telling Hil that it's so funny to read your writing, b/c it's so similar to the way you speak. I can hear you saying some of these things. Ha! Sounds like an awesome experience. I love this idea! I think Hil, Missy and I need to have some play off of this.
ReplyDeleteMarissa, it's hard to say what the most special dish was. I guess the octopus was pretty darn special. You don't really see that everyday. Thanks for reading.
ReplyDeleteNatalie, I'm glad you like our idea and that my voice comes through in my writing. I'm thinking about blogging about something related to dancing in the near future. Stay tuned.