M.Y. China, xiao long bao and food reviews
The restaurant is big, clean and convenient. It’s in Westfield San Francisco, a big chunk of the fourth floor of the shopping mall is restaurants, and M.Y. China is one of them. Sitting 50 feet from the kitchen and you can smell the intoxicating fumes of dumplings. We order two Chinese classics: xiao long bao (pork & crab juicy dumplings) and niu ro mien (beef hand-pulled egg noodle soup).
The niu ro mien is good. Fourteen dollars. Melting tender beef, chewy noodle (not as chewy as I would like, but I’m not a fan of egg noodle anyway), dark, flavor-packed broth (which gets a bit too salty after a while and sends you drinking water like mad).
The xiao long bao‘s are dry. Twelve dollars for five. There’s not enough broth in them. The dumpling skin is dried up on top, the carrot slice at the bottom, which supposedly helps preventing the dumpling from sticking to the spoon, disrupts the harmony in texture. The pork filling? This is where my friend and I disagree.
The filling has ginger. My friend insists that: 1. xiao long bao should have a lot of ginger (to mask the flavor of the pork); 2. she has eaten a lot of xiao long bao over the years to know that it should have a lot of ginger; 3. she doesn’t notice the ginger in these xiao long bao, in fact, she added extra ginger to the dumplings to make them taste gingery.
I insist that: 1. these xiao long bao are too gingery (the pork and the crab are completely masked); 2. even with the pre-equipped knowledge that xiao long bao are supposed to have a lot of ginger, I don’t like these xiao long bao because they have too much ginger.
Ice cream ($4 each) – toasted rice (left) and chinese walnut (right) – both remind me of grocery rice milk and walnut milk, which are sweeter than I would have liked.
Of course, the natural question comes up: should you review food based on your knowledge of the food (how it should be) or based on your taste of the food (how it is)? Food reviews have both objective facts and subjective preferences, and as a reviewer, I don’t mix those two categories together. If I know with all certainty how it should be, I’ll include that statement in my review, otherwise, all of my reviews are about how it is (with respect to my taste buds). Is that too subjective? Sure. Are my preferences peculiar? Maybe. I don’t drink coffee and alcoholic beverages, and I don’t eat spicy foods. In general, I don’t like anything too strong. If a dish has one overwhelming flavor that masks everything else, I call it “one-dimensional”. I want to taste different flavor profiles in a dish, especially the natural flavors of the ingredients, which is why I’ve grown increasingly fond of raw seafood sushi and increasingly intolerating of cakes. So if you like strong flavors, the things that I like would be almost water to you, and the things that I say are too this or too that would taste just fine. 🙂
But surely, there must be others who share my preferences?
Logistics: M.Y. China is a new restaurant by Martin Yan and the owners of Koi Palace. It opened early this year, and it locates on the 4th floor of Westfield San Francisco Center, 845 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94103 – (415) 580-3001
Hi there, You have done a fantastic job. I will definitely digg it and personally recommend to my friends. I am sure they will be benefited from this web site.
1You have brought up a very great details , thanks for the post.
2After study a few of the blog posts on your website now, and I truly like your way of blogging. I bookmarked it to my bookmark website list and will be checking back soon. Pls check out my web site as well and let me know what you think.
3I went over this web site and I conceive you have a lot of fantastic info, saved to my bookmarks (:.
4I went over this site and I think you have a lot of fantastic info, saved to bookmarks (:.
5Hi, i think that i noticed you visited my website so i got here to “return the prefer”.I am attempting to find things to enhance my web site!I suppose its adequate to make use of a few of your ideas!!
6I’m still learning from you, but I’m making my way to the top as well. I absolutely liked reading all that is written on your website.Keep the aarticles coming. I liked it!
7Hi my friend! I wish to say that this article is awesome, nice written and include almost all significant infos. I’d like to see more posts like this.
8An impressive share, I just given this onto a colleague who was doing a little analysis on this. And he in fact bought me breakfast because I found it for him.. smile. So let me reword that: Thnx for the treat! But yeah Thnkx for spending the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love reading more on this topic. If possible, as you become expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more details? It is highly helpful for me. Big thumb up for this blog post!
9We’re a bunch of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community. Your site offered us with valuable info to work on. You have performed an impressive job and our whole neighborhood will probably be grateful to you.
10Very interesting topic, regards for putting up. “Genius is of no country.” by Charles Churchill.
11Regards for this post, I am a big big fan of this website would like to proceed updated.
12Everything is very open and very clear explanation of issues. was truly information. Your website is very useful. Thanks for sharing.
13I envy your work, regards for all the interesting posts.
14Superb website you have here but I was curious about if you knew of any community forums that cover the same topics talked about in this article? I’d really love to be a part of community where I can get suggestions from other knowledgeable individuals that share the same interest. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Thanks a lot!
15I like this weblog very much, Its a really nice berth to read and obtain info . “Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.” by Colin Powell.
16Spot on with this write-up, I actually think this web site needs far more consideration. I’ll in all probability be once more to learn far more, thanks for that info.
17Would love to always get updated great weblog! .
18Sweet blog! I found it while browsing on Yahoo News. Do you have any suggestions on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there! Thanks
19Thank you for sharing with us, I think this website really stands out :D.
20Some genuinely great info , Glad I discovered this. “True success is overcoming the fear of being unsuccessful.” by Paul Sweeney.
21I got what you intend, thankyou for putting up.Woh I am glad to find this website through google.
22I am not sure the place you’re getting your info, however good topic. I must spend some time studying more or figuring out more. Thank you for magnificent information I used to be in search of this info for my mission.
23I used to be more than happy to seek out this web-site.I wanted to thanks for your time for this excellent learn!! I positively enjoying each little bit of it and I’ve you bookmarked to check out new stuff you weblog post.
24Those are yours alright! . We at least need to get these people stealing images to start blogging! They probably just did a image search and grabbed them. They look good though!
25I like this weblog its a master peace ! Glad I noticed this on google .
26