It's My Birthday and I'll Do What I Want

... and what I wanted to do was go to San José for an Asian food lunch and, in this case, it was Chinese food at Don Wang Restaurant. I've done a previous post on the dim sum at Don Wang, which was excellent.

This time we ordered off the regular menu and decided on the meal for three persons. Piggish I know, but we wanted to try the sea bass with vegetables and the satay beef sauce, which had two hot peppers beside it on the menu, indicating it should be a spicy dish. Also included were a Beijing salad, shrimp wonton soup, and sweet peppers filled with minced shrimps.

We also ordered two mora (berry) fruit drinks. My favourites were the sea bass and the sweet peppers filled with minced shrimp and a black bean sauce. We had enough left over for para llevar (take away) so we'll enjoy another meal each.

Service was efficient and the food arrived promptly. Don Wang Restaurant is located on Calle 11, between Avenidas 6 and 8. Now that the San José streets have street signs, it makes it much easier to find. On the other hand, all the taxi drivers can get you there.

Here's a handy tip: I carry one of those small, frozen ice packs wrapped in tin foil when going out to places where I think I might be carrying home fresh or frozen food.

The other thing I wanted to do was go to see the new Chinatown area and pick up some much needed Asian food products. We did this after lunch. Also wanted to see the new Chinese gateway into the area. It was a short walk from Don Wang and the area is blocked off to most vehicular traffic.

The Chinatown area is 12 city blocks and runs between 2nd Avenue and 14th Avenue (north to south) and between 7th and 11th Streets (west to east direction). 9th Street is the central boulevard. The area was a commercial center during the last decades of the 20th century. San José's Chinatown officially opened on December 6, 2012, and is the first of it's kind in a Central American city.

We shopped at Super Hansan and I picked up mirin, Tamari soy sauce, black bean garlic sauce, spring roll wrappers, rice paper wrappers, won ton wrappers and some frozen dumplings. I'm still looking for chili paste, and lemon grass and miso pastes. This store also carries woks, dishes, pots, some fresh vegetables, frozen dim sum items, teas, different rices.and lots more.

Taxi to the Coca Cola bus terminal and home to Atenas. A very good birthday!

The Super Hansan Store

Chinatown

The new Gateway to Chinatown

 

La Soledad Church

 

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Dim Sum in San José

A couple of Sundays ago, eight of us took the 10:30 am bus from Atenas to San José to have dim sum.

We had not eaten dim sum since leaving Vancouver, British Columbia, almost two years ago. Vancouver and the Lower Mainland have the best Asian restaurants, and any restaurant for that matter, in North America. Richmond, south of Vancouver and home to Vancouver International Airport, is where the greatest concentration of Asian restaurants can be found. We used to go for dim sum on the weekends, quite often being the only non-Asians seated. We watched what other tables were ordering and tried many different dishes.

There are quite a few Asian restaurants in San José to choose from. I decided to start with Don Wang, situated on Calle 11, between Avenidas 6 and 8. The phone numbers are 2223-5925 and 2233-6484. They are open from 11:00 am to 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 pm to 10:00 pm Monday to Thursday; and to 11:00 pm on Fridays. On Saturday, their hours are 11:00 am to 11:00 pm and 11:00 am to 10:00 pm on Sunday. English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Spanish are spoken. Note: if your browser does not show a link to the menu items on the Don Wang website, click here and then click on the American flag if you want to read it in English.

The restaurant is very nice inside, with a koi pond in the middle. We were seated at one of the two round tables that each seat twelve. Service was prompt and friendly.

We ordered from the dim sum menu. Selections were turnip cake with shrimp sausage, Chinese churro roll, shrimp rolls, sticky rice in lotus leaf, bamboo shrimp, mushroom pork shrimp, and vegetarian dumplings. The menu numbers were 3, 21, 27, 28, 33, 34, 5 and 20 if you want to try any of them. These are on the dim sum menu, not the regular menu. For dessert, we ordered numbers 50 and 51. One of these was sticky rice balls with black sesame seeds.

One of our party did not eat meat and another did not eat pork but we were able to order enough varied items to satisfy everyone. In addition to the dim sum, we also ordered drinks - beer, tea, soda, a fresh fruit drink. Total cost for eight people: $100 - that is just a little over $12 per person and we had so much food we could hardly finish it. I think that is very reasonable.

We want to go back to try some of the Szechuan items - they are spicier. I would highly recommend Don Wang Restaurant. The dim sum compares favourably with what we would receive in Richmond Asian restaurants. One of our friends, also from the Pacific Northwest, liked the sticky rice balls so much he ordered some to take home.

Yum!

Happy Group

 

 

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