Ming's

Ming's, at 1038 S. Clinton in Southwedge, has been consistently ranked as some of the best Chinese in town. So the other day, when the weather started to turn cooler and we were both feeling worn down and fluish to make something and too sweaty from working out to eat anywhere nice (like Chen Garden), we decided to try out a new place for some old familiar comfort food.

I ordered the General Tso's, the Boy got Bourbon Chicken. We each got fried rice and we also split a large Egg Drop soup. Once we'd ordered in the teensy restaurant, I decided it was best to air ourselves out outside rather than torture the other diners unfortunate enough to share our post-workout space. After about 15 minutes, our food was ready. And unfortunately, during that 15 minutes we did watch a lot of it being prepared -- which included at least 5 minutes of The Boy's Bourbon Chicken sitting on the very side of the cooking space while Larry, one of the cooks, cleaned out a wok, splashing water and whatever cleaning product ponderously close to the Boy's food. We'll just assume with such an open kitchen, free for all to inspect, that Larry really knows what he's doing and the Boy's plate was hygenically sound. He's still alive at any rate.

My General Tso's was a little goopy, with maybe not enough sauce on some parts (to remind you of the huge amount of breading that's involved) and then of course, tons at the bottom of the container. It was a passing Chinese dish, nothing great, and unfortunately served to remind me of how unnatural some of my favorite Chinese dishes are. Of course it looks nothing like what they serve in China, and it also looks nothing like anything that came out of a farm or the natural world (except the sliced bell pepper which tasted pretty fresh). Lots of breading, fryer oil, white sugar, and red dye.

The Boy ordered Bourbon Chicken largely because he wanted to avoid the things I just mentioned -- he didn't want something fried. The bite I tasted was just like any other mall Chinese/Japanese/Cajun outpost. Nothing remarkable, but not altogether disappointing either. Same for the fried rice, passable at best. No egg that I found, scant veggies, decent amounts of pork. Not much to remember really.

The egg drop soup couldn't hold a candle to Chen's (which always has a distinct soy sauce flavor that I've never seen anywhere else). It was too gelantious -- and being as I'm not a fan of eggs, this is a very disturbing quality. Too much of a semi-solid for me, without any depth of flavor, just a pepperiness. The Boy equated it to some kind of military-hospital-refugee camp substance used to keep people alive and to avoid malnutrition.

I'm not sure about the relationship this Ming's has with New Ming's on Monroe, but for my money, New Ming's is a much much better quality restaurant. It certainly (after the remodel) attempts to be a higher level -- with wine and beer, fancier dishes, brown rice, etc. I'm all for occasionally trips into the down and dirty, especially when it means you get something really tasty, but not in this case.

Pork Dumplings

We are continually in search of weekend munchies now that every weekend has included a road trip and usually some form of tailgate snacking or picnic-ing. The Boy became entranced with this ground pork dumplings recipe on Use Real Butter. Ideal for snacking in the Phish lot this weekend in Saratoga!

Our amended version used 1 pound of ground pork (from the wonderfully friendly butcher at the Monroe Ave Farmers Market), 3 stalks of green onion, 1/4 cup ginger, 1/4 cup crimini mushrooms, and 1/4 cup cabbage, all minced. All this chopping was thankfully done in front of the TV as we watched more Mad Men. It feels less torturous that way. And just mix the veggies and the meat in with some sesame oil and soy sauce.

We cheated and used Amy's wonton wrappers instead of fresh dough. Now there are at least 30 wrappers left to be used some way or another. (My preference is probably to eat them raw -- they're pretty good). We also didn't try to manage the recipe's artful folding style and just folded them diagonally and sealed the ends with water and pinching.

We fried half per the recipe -- in a little bit of oil, then pouring 1/2 cup water over to steam. We baked the other half. I think we both liked the baked version better as they came out less oily. That being said, the Boy helped himself to enough of them last night that I have serious doubts that there will be enough for anybody tomorrow!

Chen Garden

The City Newspaper reviewed my favorite Chinese restaurant in Rochester today: Chen Garden.

My insider tip: When the wait looks long, just eat at the bar. You can get anything off the menu, plus Sam the owner and various other characters usually hang out there.

Another insider tip: A guy I work with is a devout weekly customer and swears Wednesday and Saturday nights are when the food is best.

Mamasan's

Mamasan's is located at 2800 Monroe Avenue, right across from the Pittsford Wegmans. It is a fairly large, mid-scale Thai restaurant. Most noodle or rice dishes are in the $10 to $16 range, with the option of adding tofu, chicken, pork, beef or shrimp. The service is incredibly quick and I've never seen it busy.

Mamasan's was a god-send one night when nothing seemed to suit us and it was already 9:00 pm. We had been meaning to try it out, but I thought the outside looked kinda fancy. The inside has definitely been decorated by a professional (with kind of odd, modernistic, space-station tastes), but it's not high-brow.

This photo is of Mamasan's noodles, which is a favorite for its sweet sauce (I think it's a better Pad Thai than their Pad Thai, which is probably better than any other Pad Thai in Rochester). All the dishes have tons of vegetables and you can even add more for an extra $2. The Thai curry is another favorite.

The spring rolls were too rubbery, and I haven't managed to experiment with some of the other dishes yet. The sodas don't have refills, but they do offer a decent selection of beer (including Thailand's Singha) and wine.

Final Word: with fast service, plenty of options, and fresh-tasting food, it's well worth price.