The ambiance is nothing to write home about.
Oh, but the food...
Dan ordered french toast. It was stuffed with nutella (chocolate paste, for deprived readers), and drenched in melted butter and maple syrup.
If this were an American cafe, it would be of artery-clogging density. But because this was made by a chinese cafe, it was light and perfect.
It seems I have an Asian dessert fetish.
In keeping with this, even though I was already sneaking bites from Dan's gorgeous French toast, I still ogled the strawberry dessert ten inches away.
The "strawberry delight": strawberry jello, strawberry ice cream, with fresh strawberries.
The coup de grâce was a dish named "stewed papaya with snow frog".
"What is snow frog?" asked my non-Chinese companions.
I looked at the chinese translation on the menu. It also said "snow frog", in Mandarin.
We asked the waiter. "What is snow frog?"
"Frog ovary," he said.
We thought he must be joking, since the dish is only $6.95. Surely frog ovary costs more than that!
Then Dan googled on his blackberry, and the waiter was correct. Snow frog is a white, slightly gelatinous substance.
Snow frog!
It tasted like jelly.
Makes me think of an enormous, paper-white frog snatching baby seals from the flow edge... (shudder)
ReplyDeleteOr trudging across an ice field, as one boot breaks through a thin crust of snow into the melt below. Before you can safely haul out, hundreds of tiny white frogs begin tunneling for the blood-heat, down through the careful layers of insulation. Falling backwards, you free the limb only to notice the gleam of exposed bone...
ReplyDeleteAt night, the ice weasels come...
ReplyDeleteOh, *that* place.
ReplyDeleteYes, my only time there I once ordered something like the "Stewed Snow Frog with Coconut Milk", thinking it a poetic allusion to some more prosaic dessert. But while I was eating it (it was a sweet warm soup with little white cloudy bits), staff members would come by and comment on how the fat of the snow frog is very good for your skin.
It took me a while to parse what they were saying ("did she really say 'fat'? Isn't that something an animal would have?"). I was about halfway done when I finally believed that the little cloudy bits was indeed the fat from frogs. I stopped eating soon afterwards (I was kind of sick of the flavor anyhow). But it was worth trying.
mahlen
Great post as always. I have an off topic question though... Were you at the 49'er / Bronco game on Monday? Could swear I saw you on TV!
ReplyDeleteI wonder how hard it is to get the ovaries out.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasma
ReplyDeleteWeird food...
ReplyDeleteJust remember...
Organs though they my have a good taste.
Cause a normal bodies metabolism to react violently causing many cancers.
Be it liver, brain, ovaries. These organs are full of hormones that cause uncontroled growth in normal cells.
You can guarentee the weird food guy on the food channel will not
have many golden years to enjoy.
But we can admire his sense of adventure now :-P
I have this unsettling feeling that I've unwittingly eatten this stuff before...
ReplyDeleteNext time you're in Asia, you gotta check out desserts at Hui Lau Shan... or try Creations Dessert in SF, which brought a franchise to North America. They have harsmar ingredients in some of their desserts too. (I must admit, until today I thought harsmar was toad fat, not ovaries. Oh well.)
ReplyDeleteAlso, nutella is probably better described as a hazelnut paste with some chocolate in it... [/pedantic]
Sorry for being the party pooper. :) Still perhaps a boring awareness program - losing ovaries means you will menopause & you hair, skin will change. You won't get your ususal hormones... So take care of your vital organs! Go you.
ReplyDeleteI lost one. So for ladies, you won't want to lose yours & consider yourself blessed by things you might not even think of before. :)
Still I probably could go whiny now & blame my body. It could be fun, but who wants to grow as the old grumpy grandma. A bit evil. :T Anyway, ovaries are deep inside, so searching for lumpsmight not be it. A long continuous bloating, feeling full - see the doctor quick even if you feel healthy. I did feel great, I even ran around 5 days before my emergency surgery.
BTW, too many people google Nniniane Wang to my blog. & I only write your name once... What's up with that. :D