Mouth-watering morsels of dough and meat entered my mouth over the course of brunch yesterday.  Around the table, nothing but lip-smacking goodness.  Of course, I'm talking about taking a couple of co-workers out to dim sum.  My favorite place around the Portland-metro area is Wong's King Seafood.  Don't let the restaurant name fool you if you don't like seafood in general ~ they offer the dim sum standard fare and a couple of items that are unique as well.  

A funny incident that happened yesterday:  everyone around the table was basically full from eating the savory portion of dim sum and were ready for desserts.  I'm not much of a dessert fan, and so the only dimsum-time dessert I know of is the "dan tat", or egg custard.  Despite all of the years of dim sum I've had, I went out on a limb and decided to try something new, even for me.  We noticed an item I've never seen before, a three-layered, jello-like dessert that looked much like what you'd find in three layered jello: a layer of a yellow jello sandwiched in between two layers of a creamy-looking jello.  We decided to try it.

After trying it, we decided it was flavored like piña colada, and my co-worker Andrew wanted to bring one back for his wife, so I flagged a waitress down and attempted to ask what it was in Cantonese.

Translated from Cantonese:

Me: What is the stuff with the white layer, yellow layer, white layer?
Waitress #1: I don't know, let me find it (brings back the dessert I'm looking for)
Me: Thanks!  What's it called?
Waitress #1:  It's like a pudding, but it's not a pudding... I don't know, let me check!
Waitress #1 to #2: Hey, what's that dessert called?
Waitress #2 to #1:  I don't know - it's like a pudding!
Waitress #1 to #2: I know it's like a pudding, but it's not a pudding!
Waitress #2 to #1: Just tell them it's a mango pudding, they won't know the difference!
Waitress #1 to #2: This guy speaks Chinese, of course they'll know the difference!

I admit, I'd be slightly offended if this happened to me in a Western restaurant but being able to understand the language made this conversation very amusing.

Then last night, on a whim, I decided to make chana masala, an Indian dish with garbanzo beans and a ton of spices that I very much enjoy.  You can find recipes all over the Internet, but the recipe I used was this one.  Unfortunately, I didn't have and couldn't find on the drop of a dime, any cumin seeds, but it turned out pretty good!  

Chana MasalaEasier to make than I thought