beXnlog

All Kinds of Fried

Dinner tonight was at Buddha Bodai, the newest vegetarian restaurant in Chinatown. Like many vegetarian restaurants in New York, it's kosher certified and serves brown rice. (No one in my family eats brown rice except my sister; i know it's much better for you but if you grow up with white, it's hard to change!) The original branch is in Flushing, Queens, where i once had the lunch special.

My sister had tofu and vegetables with brown rice, while be, my mom and i shared:

1) Fake roast pork (char siu), complete with crispy honeyed outside. be exclaimed, "It's like i'm eating fat!" The owner recommended the dish as their house specialty; it was by far the best fake roast pork i've had.

2) Vegetarian Snail, aka deep fried battered mushrooms. They finish the mushrooms by sprinkling fine salt onto the crisp coating. I don't think this dish can be replicated in a home kitchen; the temperature of the frying is just too high.

3) General Tso's Fake Chicken. Battered, fried fake chicken chunks stir fried in a sweet hot glaze. Even the typical broccoli surrounding the dish was seasoned and cooked until crisp-done; usually you get plain steamed broccoli at other restaurants.

4) Buddha's Pan Fried Noodles. Thin noodles, pan fried until crisp and covered with vegetables, gluten and mushrooms in a brown sauce. This is a true Cantonese dish, one that we all love - which means we're really picky about it. Hands down, Vegetarian Dim Sum House makes it the best. Buddha Bodai's version was too-soft noodles in a too-thick sauce.

For 4 people, dinner cost less than $60.00 and we carried home a 4 lb. bag of leftovers. Their portions are big! The owner is also really nice & funny. Final plus: they serve 3 kinds of jook (rice porridge), one with fake ham and peanuts - my favorite!

posted by beXn @ 11:56 PM