By 6:30, my ice cream was very far away and I was starting to feel a little faint, so I headed off in search of dinner, hoping to find a little cafe that serves burgers and beers. Siri found one about 15 minutes away (walking), so that was perfect and off I went. I found it strange that so many things were closed that early and I finally clued in that it was Sunday night! Yikes! Every restaurant I had passed saved for the fast food joints were closed, as was the caf\u00e9 and the grocery store. My options were Burger King, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Arby’s, and Subways. And then I saw a little light in an otherwise dark strip mall. I went to investigate and found a small Chinese restaurant called Hunan City.<\/p>\n
Chinese is the last place I go to for sustenance, but I was famished and, having conquered Angel’s Landing, ready for more adventure! \ud83d\ude09 So I went in and was greeted warmly. There were a few other patrons, all speaking Mandarin, which I took as a good sign (I’ve studied Mandarin and can recognize it compared to Cantonese). The menu was small and not very descriptive. I’m sure that people who eat a lot at Chinese places would recognize all the dishes, but the names meant little to me.<\/p>\n
I found a ‘dinner special’ section starting at $9.99 and decided to go with that. It included soup of the day, noodles, rice, an egg roll and a main dish. I glanced at all the main dish options and settled on cashew chicken. I know I like those two ingredients, but had no idea how they would be cooked, if there would be sauce or veggies, etc. and the server didn’t seem to speak much English so there was no point asking. I eat raw fish, surely I could handle whatever Hunan City put in front of me!<\/p>\n
My soup choices were egg drop or hot and sour, which wasn’t a choice at all for me (no eggs, remember?). The soup looked quite off putting, crunchy somethings I initially thought were noodles with mushrooms and tofu in a viscous broth that was indeed hot (both in terms of spiciness and temperature) and sour. It was rather like that Iranian soup I had in Montreal<\/a>, strangely comforting and perfect after a long cold walk from the hotel. I didn’t finish it because I suspected that there would be a lot of dinner, but I didn’t not like it.<\/p>\n When dinner arrived, I was optimistic. The plate of food was huge, but there were brightly coloured vegetables and I could tell that the chicken was all white meat with no gristle. I started with the ‘ham fried rice’, which was okay and hugely improved with soy sauce. Next, I sampled the noodles and, oh my! I think they might have had some sesame oil on them. They were just yummy<\/em>. As for the cashew chicken, WOW! Yes, I just said wow and capitalized it. The dish was cooked in a savoury garlic sauce and had tons of tender crisp veggies and it didn’t skimp on the cashews. I really enjoyed it! There was also a spring roll rather than an egg roll, which I found disappointing since I prefer the dough on the latter. But there was nothing wrong with the spring roll. It was crispy and had lots of nice veggies in it.<\/p>\n I was too hungry to divide all the food into two meals, but there was definitely too much for just one meal. I ended up leaving most of the rice and eating everything else. It was the perfect mix of protein and carbs after a very active day.<\/p>\n I am really glad that circumstances brought me to Hunan City tonight. I don’t see myself seeking out Chinese food on a regular basis, but now I know there’s much more to it than what you get at the all you can eat buffets.<\/p>\n\n\t\t