ma ma wok. aka: ma ma wok, no run away

i had it on a very good source (who grew up in china and whose parents run a chinese restaurant) that ma ma wok is THE place to go for authentic chinese food in richmond.  i was surprised when we pulled up in front and it was not the hole-in-the-wall that i expected, but was very commercial, like an old applebees or something.  we were greeted by a very friendly hostess and when i looked around i saw authentics: a good sign. i also saw a sushi bar (at an "authentic" chinese food place): not a good sign. the aforementioned source seems a bit defensive about "american chinese," or chinese food targeted to the american palate. which prompts so many sarcastic retorts from me, i do not have the room (or the energy) to type them. anyway, she instructed that ONLY items ordered from the last page (ma ma wok specialties) are the real chinese deal. so, i honed in on that. hubs loves chow fun which was listed under "chinese noodles." which was not on the ma ma wok specialty page, so according to the source, not "real chinese." um...soapbox time...it is a cantonese dish. as in from canton. which is in china. again, many sarcastic comments could be inserted here. here's what wiki says about canton cuisine:

                "Of all the regional varieties of Chinese cuisine, Cantonese is renowned both inside and       outside China.^[1] Its prominence outside China is due to its palatability to Westerners  and to the great numbers of early emigrants from Guangdong. In China, too, it enjoys great prestige among the eight great traditions of Chinese cuisine, and Cantonese chefs are highly sought after throughout the country."

hmmm. so it seems to me that chow fun (or similar) should be the ultimate authentic chinese. it is highly regarded in china and it is popular outside china.

anyway, i ordered a seaweed salad as an appetizer for my daily does of phytoestrogens, which was neither good nor bad. hubs and i shared the spicy conch. which was not spicy but had a nice cilantro freshness (is cilantro a common chinese herb? hmmm...) the conch was boiled, (not fried, so i ate it in good conscience on my diet) and then mixed with some veg and tossed with dressing. whoever made the dressing was heavy handed with the soy sauce.  i also ordered egg drop soup and hubs had hot and sour soup. both were under-flavored. this conclusion might be a result of my american palate (sarcasm). anyway, we dumped a ton of chili paste into both so we could eat them. the red of the chili paste also hid the preturnatural yellow-orange hue of the egg drop soup. hubs described the beef in his chow fun as "tender" and the dish as "nothing special" "pf chang is better." again american palate. EXCEPT: hubs is from vietnam. hmm... i was happily digging through my bean curd firepot, (which by the way, came from the ma ma wok specialty page and which was woefully underseasoned), when i pulled out something oval and orange with a black rim with my chopstick. hubs told me it was an oyster (yuck). further digging revealed shrimp, scallops and calamari. um, i know i didn't order off of the vegetarian section, but i assumed a BEAN CURD firepot would NOT have shellfish (yuck times infinity to a west texan). i called the waitress over and asked her if the BEAN CURD firepot was supposed to have shellfish. she had to go ask the chef and the answer was that it had SHRIMP only. so a quick leap of logic (which the waitress never arrived at even after i held up the oyster for scrutiny) led me to believe that i had been given a SEAFOOD firepot when i had ordered...say it with me...a BEAN CURD firepot. um...i may have realized what is meant by authentic. perhaps in china they don't care if shrimp are in BEAN CURD firepots (i thought i was safe in the assumption that it was veg. don't think i would be the only one. otherwise, why have a beef, a seafood and a bean curd firepot option?) which was not marked as veg (i will concede that point) or as "with shellfish or with shrimp" but here in america, one may sue. which means that, as a restauranteur, one better be damn sure such things are clearly understood by chefs, waitstaff and the diner. so i ate rice with hot mustard. my entree was not comped nor did the waitress offer to comp it. disappointing experience.  also, during the course of our dinner, i was treated to the black crowes, madonna and poison on the speakers. which was very authentic. authentic american.  we will not go back.

for date night on friday, we went to bouchon (love!) and i discovered my new favorite thing: escargot with sriracha. after the first round, we ordered another. the saltiness of the butter highlighted the sourness of the sriracha like nothing i have ever tasted with sriracha (a long list of items).  i also added it to the truffled mac and cheese and all the other veg i ordered. please, don't tell francis what we did, i think he may pass out. another yummy special: arugula salad with pomegranate seeds and candied nuts. we did not add sriracha to that. or to the fruit filled crepe that we had for dessert. but it gave me a great idea that i will try since i now have a crepe pan (thanks mom and dad!)....mushroom and spinach stuffing with a sauce of butter, garlic (or shallot?) and sriracha.

i ran by barrel thief on patterson to pick up some white for a girl's night in on saturday. got some great recs from booth. took a peak at the menu (look for a future blog on this)  and booth told me that they do tastings and classes. what a great idea for a future girl's night!

my new hobby: making soy candles. i have yet to perfect them and am in the process of researching pouring temps and wick sizes so that no wax is left on the wall of the glass and that melting is even. peace out yankee candle!

my goals: working out and cooking more. i have a ton of books downloaded to my nook. the olympics has backlogged me. up next: wolf hall by hilary mantel about what else? henry the 8th and tudor england. i'm gearing up for the final season of the tudors. here's a trailer: