Chinatown

Happy day-after-Christmas, readers! I hope your day was relaxing and you enjoyed time with your families! 

This afternoon was spent at another of mine and my husband's old haunts in Chicago: Chinatown. Chinatown in Chicago differs from the Chinatowns in cities like New York or LA in the fact that it is not as much a tourist destination as it is a community of Chinese residents. The small community is filled with restaurants, bakeries, grocers, and shops. 

We went to Triple Crown for lunch located at 2217 South Wentworth Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60616. This restaurant has incredible food and great views of the street below from their second story dining room. The first time my husband, Nate and I went there was 2 years ago. The hostess and servers were not fluent English speakers so this made ordering a little difficult. Nate said we wanted to order an appetizer and then an entree to share which clearly confused our server who handed us off to two more servers who were equally as confused by our request but the food we received was stellar so we decided to go back a year ago with my brother-in-law, Sam and try the dim sum. 

So today we decided to keep the tradition alive and go with Sam to get dim sum. Today we were seated by the window (which would've been more enjoyable had the sun not been blazing in our eyes but it was beautiful anyway); after we were seated we were given a pot of tea and the dim sum cart rolled around. Now dim sum is great because they're just little bites - think tapas but Chinese. The carts wheel around with several different varieties and you can pick off the cart or order from the menu. 

We got the barbecue pork turnovers, barbecue pork pieces and chicken feet. The turnovers were golden brown and the crust was beautifully flaky, the filling was flavorful and tender. The pork pieces were so tender it was like eating butter, the flavor was amazing but don't expect it to taste like anything you've had before because it won't. I most definitely did not try the chicken feet but Sam described them as being cold, "reptilian" and not very meaty so take that as you will. 

We also ordered fried pork dumplings, chive and shrimp dumplings, pork potstickers, steamed barbecue pork buns, liquid custard buns, and sweet cakes. All the buns were delicious and incredible (try them all, trust me). Nate did not explain to me what he ordered prior to ordering it so I had no idea what I was eating at any given moment, this wouldn't even been good to know because of what happened next. I'm eating something that looks like a pale white bun so I begin to pour a mix of soy sauce and saracha over the top of it thinking "it has to be savory, right?" While I'm seasoning up my food Nate asks what I'm doing, clearly I'm thinking "what do you mean what am I doing?! I'm seasoning my bun!" Well I couldn't have anticipated what he told me next...it was a sweet bun! Someone else should try the liquid custard bun and tell me what it tastes like because I can guarantee you that the soy sauce and saracha changed the intended flavor... 

This restaurant is also very affordable; 3 people with all the food we got was only $30!

Since my dessert was ruined by saracha, we went to the Wan She Da Bakery at 2229 South Wentworth Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60616. Readers have any of you had a sesame ball? No? Well allow me to pique your interest: this ball is fried, rolled in sesame seeds and filled with a delicious red mung bean paste! These pastries are addictive and sweet  oh and did I mention affordable?! The balls are only 70 cents each! Nate decided he wanted to get some other tasty treats for himself so he chose to get a sesame pork cookie (his choice...not mine) and rice cakes. Pictured below are the sesame balls, rice cake and sesame pork cookie. 

I on the other hand decided to get the green tea cake (pictured above)! The cake is moist and airy like a pound cake. The whipped cream frosting is light, fluffy and perfectly sweet without being overly so. 

Readers although Chinatown isn't "touristy" please, please! You truly will "eat like a local", the food will not leave you disappointed and the customer service is friendly and efficient.