Mr.Butter and I decided to stroll around downtown. And of course, we arrived to Chinatown as I was famished and I wanted to show Mr.Butter that super good restaurant that serves great red bean soup dessert. And…it had to be close that day…

And then, I remembered that I wanted to try Mai Xiang Yuan! But then, while I know it is on St-Laurent, I couldn’t find it and I guess I was impatient and went to the most convenient restaurant that was brightly and nicely advertised by its menu pictures posted on their windows.

Their dumplings can’t be wrong, so I thought when I sat down. I mean, their restaurant name is based on dumpling!

Excitedly, I flipped through the menu and had a few dishes I wanted to try. But because I was the only hungry one, I restrained myself to 2 dishes only.

Mushroom and seafood pot

I love to order these stuff in Chinese restaurant. This time wasn’t an exception. However, I would tweak the name a bit and name it fungus and a bit of seafood on a wobbly pot. Why? Because, there were a few kinds of mushroom, and some were more fungus type than actual mushroom. And then, there were exactly…3-4 shrimps. And like about 2 pieces of “crab meat” cut into 2. And not more than 3 pieces of squid. Yup, and that costed over than what is worth. Sure, it was good. I loved these types of dish, even when this one is drenched with oil. But, I would have been more pleased if they were a bit more generous with their content.

Lamb and coriander dumplings – boiled

It was a mess. I had to point out that I am not a fan of boiled dumplings… especially when the dumplings become out of shape, other words too soft. These dumplings were incredibly greasy and the lamb odour was excessive. Sure it was good enough just to fill my tummy. But even in my starvation, I wasn’t impressed.

Oh! Dumpling did not OH! me at all… I was left unimpressed and wished I took the efforts to ask for Mr.Butter’s phone to locate Mai Xiang Yuan.

Zuuchini