Han Dynasty Dinner and Darts With Friends

About a week or so back I met up with a few high school buddies for dinner at Han Dynasty. We had cumin lamb.

And garlic eggplant.

And twice fried scallops. Not pictured, but consumed, included green beans, pea shoots, cold noodles with sesame and spicy cucumbers. All very good.

Then we went to Buffalo Billiards where some non-high school folks joined us for dart times. I could have sworn that more photos were taken of me with people, but this is the only proof I have: E., me and  Mr. Ass. An evening that went quite well and allowed me the chance to see a few dart folks one last time as well as just other people I like. A successful night on the whole.

Birthday Fun Times c/o Buffalo Billiards, Han Dynasty and Yakitori Boy

My birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, which isn't really ideal for a night of celebration given the propensity for the people I know to have jobs that require them to use their brains effectively on weekday mornings. So I sent out a call to birthday arms for the Saturday preceding the actual day of my birth. It was sort of a two-pronged call. To a slightly  more select group I suggested dinner and to a broader, more dart-loving group I suggested darts before that dinner. This was all a bit more last minute than might have been ideal, but I was still really pleased and grateful for the turn out...nothing worse than inviting folks to your own birthday celebrations and finding yourself totally alone. L. and Fat T. came down from Brooklyn a bit before our first scheduled activity. I made a little cheese plate and L. and I drank champagne while Fatty and A. drank beer. We all threw some darts. Then it was on to Buffalo Billiards, where our numbers soon allowed us to take control over all three boards.

Mr. Ass couldn't make dinner, but we did play a game of darts. It was a funny mix between the true blue darters and some of my less dart savvy friends. The majority of darters are legitimately better than me, and usually when I played them I lost. Meanwhile the friends who aren't throwing darts on a daily or weekly basis were quite impressed by my prowess. My dart ability: a sliding scale of awesome based solely on others' own abilities.

After a good amount of time playing the darts, it was time for our rather late dinner reservation at Han Dynasty's new Old City location, just down the block from its old one. I basically ordered for all of us after hearing certain suggestions or desires from the crowd. So our meal ultimately included dumplings in hot chili oil.

Cucumbers in hot chili oil...these suckers are sooo good .

Dan Dan Noodles. Not everyone ordered a sazerac, but I did and I loved it.

This was the cumin lamb.

This was L. reacting to her imminent turn getting the cumin lamb as A. scoops some on his own plate.

I think this is Fatty and LW with the eggplant.

Yep. Succulent, savory eggplant. Love it.

This was either the kung pao chicken or the garlic chicken,

I think this was the twice fried fish maybe?

String bean magic.

Pepper scallops if I recall correctly. SO GOOD.

The dinner was quite lovely and I was so pleased to share my birthday with such fun and funny folks. After that C. and R. went home while Fatty, L., LW, A. and I decided that we would try to do some karaoke at Yakitori Boy, which we did. I sang a Tom Petty song. We also just sang along with all the other people singing. A.'s gf G. joined us and the night went late.

Sake bombs did happen.

I don't really know what's happening in this photo except that LW and I both look quite taken aback, but from different things.

I'm a homebody for much of my daily, weekly or monthly existence, and the older I get the more okay I am about it...that said, every once and a while it's good to have an evening full of folks and fun, and this was certainly such an evening. A hearty thank you goes out to all who partook in my pre-birthday fun times!

Cocktails and Dinner c/o Han Dynasty

A few Fridays ago I rallied a little group of folks in an effort to cross two more things off of my resolution list. First, cocktails at Southwark. I had a Hemingway Daquiri, the ingredients of which, according to the website, were rum, maraschino liquor,lime, grapefruit. I don't really recall the maraschino element, but I enjoyed the overall drink very much. It was nice and tart, not too boozy....but actually quite boozy.
I'd long been hearing great things about Han Dynasty, and knew it was a good place to go in a group. And the great things were all true, and it does make sense to go in a group. LB arrived separately from those of us who had cocktails, and held down the table fort until we met up with her. I became a slight tyrant when it came to ordering. My camera also seemed like it was going to die at any second so I gook photographs quite quickly and with the flash for the most part. These were the spicy, crispy cucumbers. They were spicy, but also cool.
In this photograph you can see the Taiwanese sausage that Mr. Ass suggested we add to my tyrannical menu decisions. A good call.
Dumplings in chili oil.
Wontons in chili oil. I was totally remiss and forgot to order the Dan Dan noodles. Just a reason to go back.
I'm not sure what this was. Maybe the pork belly double cooked style?
This was the tofu long hot pepper style.
This was the LB and Mr. Ass Han Dynasty style.
This was string beans with minced pork.
Eggplant in garlic sauce.
Scallop dry pepper style.
We also ordered chicken, hot sauce style. I tried to order a range of dishes that covered Han's spectrum of spice (8-10 being VERY spicy and on down to 1 being wimpy). I did express that we weren't looking to completely lose our taste buds, so while everything had a little kick to it, nothing was quite as throat scorching as I might have expected. This, to me, is a good thing and I think a result of the server hearing my desire for moderate spice as well as full blast. I think my favorite was the scallops dry pepper style. Nice and crispy, but still succulent. And the pepper gave it some pizazz without overwhelming the actual taste of the scallops themselves. I think the eggplant was also particularly tasty. I prefered the dumplings to the wontons. And I loved the green beans. I felt like one moment, all the food was arriving and then seconds later I was stuffed, but probably 20 to 30 minutes went by. After dinner we went to Reserve for another round or two of drinks. I believe I ordered the Kentucky Lemonade.
And at least at one or two points in the evening, I looked like this.
I got punchy by the end of the evening and slightly embarrassed myself, but up until that point I thought the it was a good night. Great company. Great food. The whole package.

Chinese Broccoli and Tofu, and Eggplant Puffs

I think the day after I arrived home I was pretty much a zombie. Between the rather draining activities of the weekend - it wasn't all swimming and Treme - and the neverending amount of time spent in airports, I couldn't bring myself to grocery shop for proper healthy sustenance for myself. So, instead, I ordered Chinese food from Szechuan Tasty House through grubhub.com. This wasn't my first order with the establishment, as I had enjoyed a variety of their dishes a few months back. What I like about it is that it seems like they're not quite as reliant on the standard thick sauces and over processed meats as many a Chinese restaurant. Or that's what I've decided in any case. I decided I'd order enough that I could have a few lunches out of the deal...so it was like grocery shopping...kind of. So I went with the Chinese broccoli, but asked them to add fried bean curd and a garlice sauce. I also was fascinated by the idea of 'chive eggplant puffs' as well as 'green bean noodles in spicy vinaigrette.' And, for good, gluttony measure, I ordered the vegetable tofu soup. So how did it all shake out? Pretty well on the whole. While I just mentioned that I liked that fact that they're not as into heavy, gelatinous sauces compared to other places, I was let down by the lack of garlic flavoring/sauce on the broccoli, though it was cooked nicely. The eggplant chive puffs were so strange and yet good. It seemed like they were stuffed with some sort of meat more than they were with chives then lightly breaded and fried. The creamy texture of the eggplant giving way to a heartier center. The green bean noodles were interesting, I didn't take a photograph of them because I was lazy. The vinaigrette, however, was really a overwhelming amount of chili oil and red pepper bits and seeds a la one form of sriracha, and yet not overwhelmingly spicy. The soup was good, but not great.
I ate the leftovers for days I tell you. Days.

Fantastic Fantabulism c/o Modo Mio

A few weeks back K. came to town. I was only going to have her in my hands for one night and one day, so I wanted to pack as much eating into that time period as I could. I picked her up from the hotel at which she had stayed for a smartsy conference and took her to New Jersey. Obviously. And I got an iPhone. Then we returned to Philly and I brought her to Village Whiskey. I forgot my camera when we started the day, so there isn't any proof of the burger...except on my iPhone, but they aren't very good photographs. After some down time, it was time to bring K. to the second eating experience of her life: Modo Mio.
This was a pork salad kind of dish. It was good.
Their special pasta for the night was a raviolo with housemade ricotta and farm egg yolk inside, with a truffle pepper oil with parmesan. It. Was. Delicious. Really, really, really delicious. I want another one right now. Right now!
K.'s main dish was the eggplant.
I had the crispy veal with fresh mozzarella and tomato sauce. It was tasty. I love what they do with tomatoes.
And at the end, complimentary sambuca.
Sambuca?
Mmmm. Profiterole.
K. had an apple (or pear?) tart with cheese. It was a little savory I think she said.
We made friends with the couple next to us, who were from out of town. They were just as taken with their meals as we were.

Beef Satay, Scallion Pancakes and More c/o Michael and Ping's

After returning from our Shopsins adventure L. and I took naps. It was very peaceful. Once we were up again all three of us put on our finest '90s duds (that's a lie, I didn't have any '90s duds) for a thing that I'll get to later. But! Before we did that thing, we had dinner at Michael and Ping's. It's a very environmentally aware business. But that wouldn't really matter if the food wasn't good, which it was. I ordered beef satay expecting the typical dried out and thin amalgamation of beef that you get at most not too fancy Chinese restaurants (you order at the counter and they call out your name). These were succulent, still a little bit rare in a good way, chunks of really well marinated beef. I admitted surprise to L. I hadn't expected it to be so good. The scallion pancakes were also above par.

My eggplant and tofu dish was a little less exciting, but I am very particular about how I like my tofu.