FoodMayhem

At least once a month, I go to Queens to stock up on food. We usually hit BJ’s or Costco, and a Chinese supermarket. On top of saving loads of money, it also means I get to have lunch with my mom. She’s always got ideas for where to take me and Queens is where Chinese food is at these days.

Yesterday, my mom took me to Hua Rong Hua Rong, a Foochow style restaurant, to try all these dishes I’ve never had. We started with two traditional breakfast items: the House Special Ho Fun with clam and Fried Oyster Cake. The ho fun (gua bien) here is not your standard noodle. “Gua” means pot and “bien” means rim and these noodles are made by skimming the top layer off over and over to get sheets of noodles. The soup is a nice clear broth.

The Fried Oyster Cake is a deep fried fritter filled with oysters and veg, with a few peanuts on the outside.

The oysters are perfectly cooked but as a whole, it’s not that flavorful and it’s quite oily.

The Jelly Fish Head is a cold dish with a dressing of soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and scallions. The pieces varied in thickness, the thinner pieces tasted just like the regular jelly fish dishes I was used to, the thicker pieces were like cartilage.

The last dish seemed like a standard plate of oily, sauteed noodles with seafood, but the noodles are made with both fish paste and flour, which makes them chewier. Surprisingly, there isn’t any flavor impact.

The meal was enjoyable, but more because it was all new and interesting, none if it was exceptional. Nothing was bad though either and I’d be happy to try Foochow food again.