Category Archives: Restaurant reviews

Finally Some Yarn Content

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Are you all tired of pictures of food? Well, it is easy to take pictures of food, because I generally eat some every day. Sometimes it is not very exciting food, so I don’t take any pictures of that. Sometimes I just forget. I almost always do something with yarn about every day too, perhaps I need to take more pictures of yarn. Ta-da! Pictures of yarn today.

This yarn is from a party my friend Judy hosted at her house. Myra from Fancy Image Yarn was in town and Judy had an open house for her, and we all got to see her delicious, squishy, colorful yarn. She has a gift for putting great kits together! I purchased two kits for wrist warmers (scroll down to Cutest Girl Leg Warmers or Adult/Girl Wrist Warmer) which are for me, but then I might have to make some for the nieces, because they are so cute. I got the pink/black/white set (looks like Good N Plenty Candies) and the pink/wheat brown set (looks like Neopolitan ice cream) (yes, still with the food obsession, I know.) I am eating Good and Plentys as I type this, now all of you who are food-suggestible like I am are going to go buy some, aren’t you? At least the next time you are at the store.

I also got an “assorted” package of blues/purples in sock yarn, and I am thinking Chevron  Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

And a pattern for a sweater that is very attractive in person.

However, I am not allowing myself to start anything new (except for the wrist warmers I already started) until I get my Mother’s socks fixed. I thought I was all done with them but when I blocked them they turned huge, and the cast on at the top of the leg is too tight. So I am going to have to do some ripping and readjusting. Plus I am working on a couple of gifts for my youngest niece, which involve the sewing machine and embroidery, I am not sure they are going to get there in time for the birthday party, but they will be done this month.

Also: I went to Bagel Deli this weekend when I was on my consignment store shop-hop. I have to go to that place if I am in close proximity, it can’t be helped.

Potato latke. This was fine, nothing spectacular. Nice side dish.

Matzo ball soup. Amazing as always.

Prake or stuffed cabbage – delicious! I forget that this is HUGE, I should not have ordered the latke with it. Mmmmmmm. Excellent.

It really cooled off here Monday night and Tuesday. I need to start hardening off my little seedlings, getting them ready to go outside, but I think that I will not subject them to 34° tonight, poor little things. I would like to get them planted this weekend but may need to wait another weekend, still supposed to be in the 40s at night on Saturday.

Friday Night Freak-Out

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I don’t know if it was the upcoming full moon, or Cinco de Mayo, or Derby Day, but there were two accidents on my way home on Friday (thank goodness I had 2 hrs to commute to my haircut) and then on my way home from the haircut, the power was out for quite a section of town and then there was a big accident at an intersection that did have power. I decided that we weren’t going anywhere on Saturday night if we could help it.

I ate at Mimi’s Cafe, they really used to be one of my favorite places but either I have outgrown them or they have gone downhill. I had the $5 red wine flight, which I enjoyed (they were pretty sweet reds, I don’t really care for dry reds too much),

and the quatre fromaggio quiche with the French onion soup.It is hard to mess up French onion (although it is possible – imagine barely cooked onions in chicken broth with processed cheese melted on top – THAT restaurant has gone out of business) so that was pretty good.

The quiche was, I don’t know – gummy?

Parts of the crust were OK and parts were just meh, and the filling had maybe too much cheese, because it seemed to have collected at the bottom and was causing the gumminess. So, thumbs up on the wine and soup, thumbs down on the quiche.

Report on my quilt last week from class: Good job on the design, but not so much on showing luminosity. I didn’t show enough of the direction the light was coming from, and the background wasn’t helping because it was too mottled and had some light in it itself. I still like it.

Have An Interesting Day

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Before I left the house this a.m., I misplaced my briefcase, misplaced my keys, accidentally set off the car alarm, and Leo barfed on both the couch and in front of the bedroom door. I was on my way to a seminar/training all day, and I had been dreaming about being in a quilt class, being in the WRONG quilt class, and MaryAnne woke me up at 4:00 so she could snuggle with me. Ken said, “Have an interesting day,” and I said, “It already is.”

I stopped at White Soul Brothers Chili to have one of their “potato bombs” for breakfast. It is essentially a potato half, with some of the potato scooped out, and then baked with an egg and cheese on top of it. Getting it smothered in green chili did not make it easy to eat in the car, but it was delicious. I am going to get back there some day for lunch so I can have some of their soup. I had fun talking to the two gentlemen there, one who was preparing my food and one who was cleaning the blinds. The one cleaning the blinds asked if I would be offended if he asked me if he was cleaning them correctly. Heck no, of course not. They were right next to one of the tables and looked like they might have had pop spilled on them or something – and I told him there wasn’t really an easier way, you just have to wipe them all carefully down (metal mini-blinds) and that it was going to be a pain. Apparently I impressed them with my cheerfulness, because when I told them to have a good day, the blind-cleaning one said “I know you will, because you have the right attitude!”

We had Udi’s sandwiches for lunch at my workshop, and I had an excellent one with turkey, granny smith apple slices, and bleu cheese, on cranberry walnut bread, which was amazing.

My seminar was good, but it was exhausting, and I don’t talk about work on this blog so that is all I am going to say about that! :  ) But using a different part of your brain all day than you typically use is very exhausting.

Then I went to GB Fish and Chips because it was close by, and now I remember why I don’t get fish and chips very often, they are so greasy. And it was early for dinner for me, so I wasn’t very hungry, So I didn’t really do justice to the HUGE pile of squid strips and few oysters and chips.

Some of the squid strips were cooked just right and still had some tooth to them, but most of them were overdone and you couldn’t tell the difference between them and the breading. It was certainly a LARGE serving, and this was supposed to be a half order!

Then I went to my quilt class, I will write more about that tomorrow when I have more than half a brain cell. It was certainly exhausting going to another learning experience after having been in one all day!

Banh Mi #2 (Pacific Ocean Marketplace) and Knit Knight

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I stopped at Pacific Ocean Marketplace (POM) on my way from work to knitting, because there are the ONLY place with banh mi sandwiches between work and knitting, and because I have just discovered banh mi and need to try them at every opportunity. There were a few reviews of their banh mi on Yelp so I decided to try one.

In comparison to the Banh Mi at D’Deli in Golden: Bread – both had excellent bread. Size: the one from POM was bigger, even for a small. It was about 8 inches long. Fillings: slight edge to D’Deli just because the filling was juicier. I don’t know what was juicy on the D’Deli one, perhaps there was more aioli, theirs also had a teriyaki taste to it. Value: POM wins  hands down, D’Deli was between $7 and $8 and POM’s was $3.50.

What separates Banh mi from other sandwiches is the excellent bread and the pickled vegetables, and the cilantro (POM wins on the cilantro front) – they just don’t taste like a typical sandwich from anywhere else. I am a big fan.

Plus, POM has green cake available.

Pandan cake is, according to wikipedia: a light, fluffy cake of Malay origins (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia) flavoured with the juice of Pandanus amaryllifolius leaves. The cakes are light green in tone due to the chlorophyll in the leaf juice. It also sometimes contains green food colouring to further enhance its colour. The cakes are sometimes not made with the leaf juice but instead simply flavoured with Pandanus extract, in which case colouring is added if a green colour is desired.

It is quite tasty but would be good with frosting. They also had these long fried sticks of dough labeled “fried stick $1” which I was extremely tempted by, but you have to leave something for next time.

I also bought a large jug of soy sauce (I don’t fool around with those little bottles you can buy at Kroger, I have a recipe that uses up an entire one of those….). And I went through the ramen aisle and chose random packets of ramen, some of THOSE should give me something interesting to write about.

I didn’t exactly have a successful, or maybe I should say productive, evening at knitting. I tried to cast on my wrist warmers (scroll down to Cutest Girl Leg Warmers or Adult/Girl Wrist Warmer) from Fancy Image Yarn, and well, let’s just say I had casting-on issues, and then I had gauge issues (I knit loosely, so I need to go down a couple of sizes in needles), so that project didn’t get off to a great start, but I had fun playing with the yarn. And I just realized I didn’t post yet about the yarn party my friend Judy had at her house featuring Fancy Image yarn, so I will do that tomorrow, if I have my hard drive along with me that has those pictures on it…..(pictures of yarn, not pictures from the party, although that would have been a good idea too…). I think some of my younger nieces may need me to make some of the things on this page for them.

I tried the wrist warmers on two different sizes of needles and didn’t like the look of the fabric I was getting with either set, so I admired everyone’s projects they were making with their yarn from Fancy Image and worked on my “Christi Shawl” which I will show you pictures of later!

All of my knitting friends are very bad influences when it comes to enabling me to get new ideas for projects. Thanks to C.O., C.S, and J.P. (using their initials because I didn’t ask how they felt about me bandying their names about on the internet), now I have many more bookmarks on Ravelry, the website where knitters and crocheters meet and plot to take over the world. I saw the Color Affection shawl on Yarn Harlot earlier, and was tempted to bookmark it, but I am not that big on shawls, and then Cheryl came in wearing hers, and it was lovely, and I will have to make one. The asymmetrical way the sections join is just fascinating. Then J.P. was working on the Wingspan shawl (although I keep referring to it as “Wing It” in my head, hmmm, that might be a good quilt title) and that was also very cool. And C.O. has been knitting on the Yvonne sweater, and I have been admiring it, so I might as well add it to my queue, even though at one point when you are knitting it, it looks like a giant pair of underpants for a sumo wrestler. I have shown restraint by NOT buying yarn for any of these projects yet. Yet. Tomorrow is another day…..

I have over 60 projects on my Ravelry queue, I need to get to knitting faster.

Fried Chicken at Wishbone and the Seed Starting Project

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This was not a good weekend for cooking, because I was trying to finish the koi quilt and that was taking all of my attention. I gave Ken a list of places to choose from for lunch on Saturday, and he went with P.F. Chang. I am not normally a big P.F. Chang fan but my sister-in-law took me there in December when I had a horrible cold, and I had their chicken soup, which was excellent and large. So I was in the mood for that and had that again (sorry, no pictures, I am not in the habit enough, apparently….), in addition to the chicken lettuce wraps which are also excellent. Ken did not think so, however, and just stuck to his beef and broccoli.

Sunday we went out to lunch at Wishbone, which is about as old school as a place can get. The parking lot is full of Buicks, which is a very good sign. They do other things besides fried chicken, but really, why bother? They have been doing fried chicken since 1963.

I go with the 3 legs, Ken goes with the 2 pieces of white.

These pictures do not convey the true yellowness of the gravy. That gravy is neon yellow. They also do a fine piece of Texas toast. Not everyone does Texas toast right. The correct way to eat it here, in my opinion, is to tear it into fingers and dip it into the extra cup of gravy.

After I got done with the latest color quilt, I needed to get some more seeds started or re-potted. These were ones that I had started mostly in moist paper towels in zipper baggies. Let me tell you, that technique really works. For the first time ever, I managed to get some yucca seeds to sprout. We will see how they do now that they are in little peat jiffy pots.

Here is what they look like sprouting in the baggies:

Those are cypress vines.

This just started as a small project but you can see it is out of hand, as is usual for one of my projects.

Currently growing: basil, cilantro (that is slow to sprout) two different kinds of sunflowers, pumpkin, marigolds, forget-me-nots, dill, morning glories (mixed and blue), cypress vine, and, hmmm, probably a few things I forgot. The pumpkins and the sunflowers sprouted so well I am thinking they will be taking over most of the garden, unless I can give them away. Free pumpkin plants!

Gardening and Banh Mi

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I continued my adventures on Monday by going to Golden so I could go to Golden Quilt Company and Golden Fiber Arts, (where I usually take my class) and get some additional fabric and embellishing materials for my Koi Quilt. I got a roll of “nature” themed pastel fabrics (and now I am not sure I will use any of them in this quilt, well, maybe for the water lily) and then some Angelina opalescent fibers (I always think of Angelina Jolie and wonder what she has to do with quilt embellishing….), some Shiva Paintsticks (oil paint in a stick – can Glenderella still make a mess? Why yes, yes she can!), and some hand dyed fabric by my color instructor Heather Thomas. I think the fabric will be used to make the koi, it is yellow and orange.

Another good reason to go to Golden was for lunch. I had been debating my lunch options. Lao Wang (soup dumplings) was closed on Mondays, but I had been looking at some other options in the area. When it occurred to me that I would go to Golden, of course I went to D’Deli for lunch.They are only open until 5:00 p.m. so I don’t get to go there when I have my regular class. They are always busy, but on Monday there were plenty of tables inside because everyone wanted to be outside since it was so nice.

You can choose to make your own sandwich with your choice of meat, etc., but I always go for one of their pre-concocted options, because they really have some wild ones. This time I had the Bahn Mi – Pork Loin, Chili Garlic Aioli, Mixed Greens, Jalapenos, Cucumbers, Carrots, Green Onion, Cilantro. I am now a fan of the Bahn Mi. I have no idea if theirs is authentic Vietnamese or not, but I sense an impending trip to sample various bahn mi around the area.

Lots of interesting and delicious veggies.

You are correct in assuming the Dear Husband would never eat this.

Last time I was here I had the Banano – Salami, Pepperoni, Cream Cheese, Sriracha Hot Sauce, Honey Mustard, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Red Onions, Jalapenos, Banana Peppers, Salt and Pepper. Also excellent. D’Deli has excellent bread, with a toothy crust, mmmm, I want some right now.

I ate, made the above-referenced purchases at the quilt store and the fiber store, and headed home. I knew I had to get that quilt sketched out. I sat down with the colored pencils, crayons, and markers and went to town.

I spent my entire life believing that I couldn’t draw. I got to be pretty good at drawing in Adobe Illustrator, and I thought, why can’t I do that in real life? Turns out, I am actually OK at it. Better than I thought at least. I just needed to spend more time with it and do things slowly  – story of my life!

From an early report card: “Glenderella hurries.” That pretty well sums it up. Everything that I have learned to take my time with has improved. (I scanned in those sketches yesterday.)

It was lovely out that day so after dinner I worked in the yard, clearing the old weeds from last year and dead leaves from one of the front flower beds. The little grass-looking-clump type plants apparently are pretty good at re-seeding themselves, hmmmm. Will need to dig some of those up and relocate in the current “Weed Garden,” future “Rock Garden.” I am busy digging up all of the current plants in the Rock Garden and re-locating them so we can level it and start over. By ‘level’ I mean, kill everything else that has decided to grow in there, such as a bunch of elm trees and grass. And thistles from across the fence.

“Weed Garden” in 2010

See, we have already made a start.

Then we will put down black plastic and mulch and use some of the interesting rocks I have brought from SD to make some beds, and re-install some of the plants that have shown sufficient vigor to grow over there, the sunniest and hottest part of the yard.

In other news, the neighbors with the alien landing pad have now camouflaged it with mulch, so as to be less obvious. There might even be one or two aliens hiding UNDER the mulch. Small ones, you know. You can see they put down some cement stepping stones for the landing vehicle.

Ken would say “Ok, this blog is long enough.” So it will be!

K & S Are Here – Adventures at Govnr’s Park Tavern and Sushi Den

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My friend K. and his fiancée S. (also my friend) arrived on Friday night for a quick visit from Wyoming. They rode down with friends, and we were all going to meet at Sushi Den for dinner. Sushi Den was packed, and our reservation was for 8:30, so when they arrived a little early, we picked up K. and S. and their friends they rode down with went to check into their hotel. We went to find somewhere to have drinks, and ended up at Govnr’s Park Tavern, which was busy and hopping! I had a lovely beverage called a Snozzberry whicn I did have a picture of but I accidentally deleted (still getting used to new phone….big learning curve.)

We didn’t intend to eat but when we saw the table next to us get a plate with two giant soft pretzels, we had to have an order. They are described as “Homemade Pretzels – two giant soft homemade pretzels baked to order, with mustard and cheese sauce.” I am kind of a collector of places to eat soft pretzels, and these were excellent. They were $7.50 and they were EXCELLENT. Just the thing to tide us over until dinner.

Did I take pictures? Of course I took pictures.

I will be going back for these.

We made our way over to Sushi Den, still packed. We were seated about 8:45 for our 8:30 reservation. There were four couples total, we shared two orders of edamame, except for Ken who doesn’t know edamame are good. Each couple ordered an assortment of rolls, except for Ken, who had teriyaki chicken (sorry, picture of that didn’t turn out…..). I ordered the tofu roll (because I always have to try something I have never tried before), the Rocky Mountain Roll (smoked trout) and Anakyu (Sea Eel) roll. Well, plates of rolls kept coming to the table, and I got my plate of Tofu Rolls, and then never got my other rolls. And by that time I had had pretzel, edamame, Ken’s miso soup, and had partaken of rolls that others were sharing, and wasn’t really hungry for them, so when I told the waitress about them, we just cancelled them, she was very nice about it. Here is some of what we did eat:

This is my tofu sushi.

I don’t know all the rolls everyone ordered, but we were all very happy and very full at the end of the evening.

The new phone is a Samsung Galaxy and takes pretty good pictures, it seems, I am still figuring out how to do most other tasks on it, however.

Tomorrow: IKEA, Bagel Deli, Denver Fabrics.

New Pasta at Panera Bread Review Part 2

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I have been remiss in reviewing the third new pasta at Panera Bread, forgive me, there was an unpleasant bout with food poisoning in there (NOT caused by Panera) and my knitting group moved back to Knit Knack, our wonderful home knitting store, and so I hadn’t been to Panera in a while.

I have been getting quite a few search hits on my review of the first two pastas, so I felt duty-bound to the foodies of the internet to review the third. I knew people would be looking for information on the pastas as soon as word spread, and I was certainly frustrated in my quest to find any, so I hope this is helpful.

I tried the third pasta, Tortellini Alfredo, in combination with the broccoli cheddar soup. This was quite a cheese-laden lunch. Upon reflection, I should have chosen the tomato soup as a contrast. Still good, however.

This is what you get for 10.70, including tax, at the Panera Bread in Fort Collins. Pasta/soup combo with baguette (small size) $8.29, regular soda $1.59.

This soup is certainly cheesy. Other than the broccoli, it also has shredded carrots. Most of the broccoli is in small chunks, and it has been cooked rather well, but there is still a little bit of resistance there, not cooked to mush. Great winter or cool weather comfort food, best for dipping the baguette.

As I expected, the tortellini is my least favorite of the three pastas, because it is the least interesting. It did surprise me with its strong cheese taste, however, because I thought the 6-cheese filling in the sacchettini was kind of bland, and this had more of a bite to it. The six cheeses listed in the sacchetti are: ricotta, parmesan, romano, monterey jack, cheddar, and mozzarella. The three in the tortellini are: ricotta, swiss and romano. I am guessing it is the swiss that jumps out. I was pleasantly surprised on the first bite.

The Alfredo sauce is creamy and mild, it does appear to have fresh parsley in it (looks more bright green than dry, I think) but nothing that makes you sit up and say “Wow!”

Again, this is not a fresh-made, hand-crafted, al dente pasta. You need to go to your hometown Italian restaurant for that. But it is a fine alternate to a sandwich or a salad at Panera if you are not in the mood for one of those. My favorite is still the cavatelli, second favorite is the sacchettini, and third is the tortellini. If you are a tortellini or Alfredo lover (or a pesto hater!), your mileage may vary.

Other events of the day

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As we were finishing up our noodles and dumplings at Tao Tao, we got to talking about Art-o-Mat, and Erin had admired my art I got from the one at Washington, DC, so I thought, hey, there is an Art-o-Mat on the way to our next noodle stop, and we added it to our list.

We also stopped at Fancy Tiger, and admired a great many fabrics, petted many yarns, and drooled over the needle felted shark kit, but eventually decided we shouldn’t take on any additional projects at this time. (We got slightly list getting there of course.)

Then we ventured over to Santa Fe (street), not without adventure, I need to remember to put a better map in my car, I generally know the right direction to go but not necessarily the fastest route. So we get to Santa Fe, and driving up the street and looking for a parking place, we sight not only the art gallery with the Art-o-Mat, but a fabric and yarn store I forgot was there, and a store that said “CAKE” so you can bet we were excited.

Of course we went to the cake store, Frills Cake Shop, first. Well, unfortunately they were sold out of cupcakes for the day, and were working on filling orders for cakes/cupcakes. We are definitely going to have to return here sometime, possibly during the First Friday Art Walk they have on Santa Fe. Next we walked down to Access Gallery and there was a note on the door that said “Sorry, closed this Friday and Saturday” so that felt like two strikes against us, no cake and now no Art-o-mat.

However, when we got to Fabric Bliss, they were celebrating their 1st birthday, so not only did we get a cupcake or treat of our choice (I had a delicious blue and white cupcake, Erin had a coffee flavored cheesecake sort of creation) but it was 20% off everything but handmade items. I got some laminated fabric (blue with cherries) for my kitchen table, and Erin got some very cute flower hair pins. (Shoot, forgot to take a picture of either one!)

And then we traveled to our 2nd dumpling tasting, and all was well.

On the way home, I asked Erin how long it had been since she had been to La Patisserie Francaise, and she said it had been a LONG time, so it was necessary to stop there. La Patisserie is a truly wonderful French bakery with Creme-puff like “Swans” and “Nuns” which are just kind of indescribable but also involve choux pastry and chocolate ganache and creme filling. This page has a picture of each of them. Try not to drool on your keyboard. They were out of swans, so we each got a nun and Erin got another pastry that I can’t remember because I was concentrating too hard on what my 2nd choice was going to be, which is something with lemon that I haven’t eaten yet, if you can believe that. That nun was gone as soon as I got home, however. And then I had to have a little nap.

Plus, Erin is awesome and brought me presents:

A cupcake which is both bubble bath AND a bath bomb, can’t wait to use that!

And a bath toy! Which she knit herself! Doesn’t it have awesome fishy little lips! I am going to have to keep it away from the cats.

It has a ping pong ball inside it. I am going to have to think of a good name. He/she can hang out with Bruce the Shark Finger Puppet.

Well, that is so much already that I think I will tell you about the scary Halloween house tomorrow, this seems to be more than enough for one day – no wonder I was so tired!

MaryAnne has filed herself in the media center for you to enjoy later.

Soup Dumpling Tour of 2012

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When Westword (local indie newspaper) does its “Best of” list, of course I go and look at the food suggestions. This year, the award for best Soup Dumplings went to a new place, so of course I had to go check it out. My friend Erin is always up for soup dumplings, and was especially up for two different kinds in one day, so off we went.

Now, if you haven’t been lucky enough to live somewhere with a large enough population that they have specialized enough Asian restaurants to have soup dumplings, I am so sorry. You need to try them sometime….They are not like the dumplings I grew up with – these are like a wonton wrapper wrapped around a meaty filling. Soup dumplings are even more special in that they also have broth in with the meaty filling. These are obviously tricky to make and tricky to cook and deliver to the table so the broth stays in the dumpling and is nice and hot.

Of course we started out with a misadventure, because we went to the wrong place first. Erin had pointed out that one place opened at 10 and the other at 11, and I didn’t pay attention to which was which, and went to the wrong one first. Oh well, we had plenty of time. So we found our way across town to Tao Tao Noodle Bar in Aurora for their soup dumplings of “xiao long bao” as they are called. They do not have their menu on their website, and I forgot to take a picture of it. (more pictures and another review from Westword here)

We had the Dan Dan noodles as an appetizer – they were excellent, with their topping of chopped peanuts and some bok choy, mmmmm. Very spicy.

It was a good thing the Dan Dan noodles were excellent because the soup dumplings were kind of disappointing. They didn’t seem to have much broth in them to start with, and then didn’t have the structural integrity to keep what they did have when you picked them up with chopsticks.

The bottoms of them stuck to that paper liner, some of them held together but some of them left their bottom behind. Even the ground pork filling didn’t fully stick together. They were tasty, but they were not ideal xiao long bao.

We had no problem finishing them, though. I definitely want to go back and sample many of their other menu items, I wish they weren’t so far away.

We got to talking about Art-O-Mat (more on that tomorrow), and stops we were planning on making on the way to the next place (more on that tomorrow) and made our way to our “in-between” stops with minor difficulties in getting lost and cursing the map.

We made our way to Lao Wang Noodle House which was Westword’s Best Soup Dumpling for 2011. According to Erin and me, it is still the best. I had been here before, but by myself. Having another person along allows you to order more and try more different things! :  ) (Denver Post story from 2009)  – they don’t have a website at all!

The place was packed. I think it only probably seats about 24 people, and the tables were all full, and there was a party of 5 in front of us. Pretty soon a big party cleared out, and the party of 5 took their table, and the elderly proprietor found Erin and I two chairs for the empty table near the door. It is just an older gentleman and his wife, running the place on their own, so they do their best to get you seated and set up with utensils, water, etc., but you might have to wait a bit while they bring out another order of soup dumplings to the table next to you. Dumplings seem to be the order of the day there, from the soup dumplings to the pan fried dumplings, which we did not have, but saw several other tables enjoying.

We were hungry again after our adventures en route and decided to start with the wontons in spicy peanut sauce, these were also good. Next time I want to try the beef soup and the szechuan cabbage (AND the soup dumplings of course….)The sauce wasn’t very peanutty, except that it had ground peanuts in it, but no peanut butter. And nicely spicy.

Mmmmm, chili oil.

And then it was time for the soup dumplings. Lao Wang also has more of an assortment of condiments on the table for you to mix up your own dipping sauce. Chili paste, sesame oil, white vinegar, and soy sauce. I, of course, threw in a little of everything.

Smaller, but more of them. Also, they did not stick to this paper. The structural integrity remained just fine on ALL of these.

Mmmmm, now that I have everyone hungry, and I am hungry myself, I will tell you that tomorrow there will be MORE! FOOD! PICTURES! How surprising! I hope you enjoyed the soup dumpling tour of 2012. If we find some more soup dumplings in the Denver area, we will be glad to make the sacrifice and try them for the good of mankind.