General Tso's Pork?

While out shopping for groceries and other assorted goods

before our latest snowstorm hit the other day,

I stopped in at my favorite Chinese restaurant,

Sunny Palace.

I know from experience that the $7.50* or so that I spend

here be will vastly outweighed on what I will save at the grocery store.

*They got a larger tip this time because they deserved it!

Here is a real money saving tip for you:

Never go to the grocery store hungry.

You will easily spend $20 to $40 or more on food

than you need or want.

And that's a fact.

Now on this fine day I finally got up the nerve to ask

a special request.

One of my all time favorite American-Chinese dishes

is General Tso's Chicken.

However, you will remember that I am allergic to chicken.

Dilemma.

Bummer.

I asked if there was any way that they could prepare

this fine dish with pork instead of chicken.

The kind gentleman replied that he would have to ask,

but he thought that they might be able to use

the pork from the sweet and sour pork and combine it

with the sauce for the General Tso's Chicken for me.

After consulting with the kitchen,

he informed me that it was indeed possible.

I thanked him and looked forward to this dish.

I ordered my usual won ton soup with pork-filled won tons.

Delicious as always.

Much needed on a cold, damp, dreary day like this.

Finally, the hybrid General Tso's/pork dish arrived with

fried rice.



It was good.



It was nice.



It also reminded me just why I so loved

General Tso's Chicken

- for the chicken.



Sigh.



Still, I very much appreciate the effort

and thoughtfulness that the staff of

Sunny Palace went through for me.



And that is just part of why this is my

favorite Chinese restaurant in B-town.


Remember - when you find a favorite

restaurant; frequent it, promote it, help it

- especially in this economy.

The Culinary World Tour is Still in China

I really do have plans to move on in

my World Culinary Tour

(all while remaining in Bloomington, IN),

but it has been temporarily derailed.

You see,

the problem is this:

I have a friend who works full time

and it is rather difficult to schedule time for lunch with her.

And since we want to visit a local Afghan restaurant,

I want to wait until I can go with her.

Another consideration is that my friend is a vegetarian,

so any restaurant we choose must have vegetarian options.

Therefore,

I either have to wait until she is able to go with me

or I have to pick another port of cuisine.

In the meantime,

I have really been Jonesing for some

General Tso's Chicken.

However,

there's just one little problem with that dish.

That's right,

the chicken.

What to do?

Well, I suppose I could order the

General Tso's Shrimp instead.

And what do you know?

I even managed to go to

the Sunny Palace Restaurant

without ordering the Boneless Spare Ribs.

Unfortunately,

this dish is only available on the dinner menu,

meaning I had to pay more for this dish.



The breading was just right:

not too skimpy and not too much.

The sauce was nicely seasoned,

though a bit tame.



However,

the shrimp were just slightly overcooked.

And by slightly,

I mean by 30 seconds or so.

It really doesn't take much to take shrimp from great to eh.



The bottom line?

This was a nice departure from my usual,

but I think I will be sticking to my regular dish from now on.

Off to Asia for Lunch

My daughter and I had to go to town today for school supplies for her and food for all of us. We decided that we would also take this opportunity to go out to lunch together.

Did I mention school supplies? Might I also mention that many of the students for Indiana University have arrived back in town? Describing the stores as impassable just might give you a hint as to the chaos that we had to endure while we shopped. Well, while the townies might not appreciate the annual invasion of college students, I am sure that the retailers are ecstatic.

We survived the mass pile-ups in the aisles, the lines, the parking lots as well as the traffic, and headed out to a nice little restaurant near by. I have gone to the Sunny Palace restaurant once or twice before and have even blogged about it, but for some odd reason, I tend to forget that it is there. Odd that, given that I have always enjoyed the food there and have found the staff to be very helpful, even with their limited knowledge of the English language.

I woke up this morning with a sudden hankering for Korean Barbecue Pork. Now, I found this craving to be rather strange, given that I have never had that particular dish before. Oh well, who am I to argue?

Once we were seated I decided to order the Boneless Pork Ribs with the Pork Fried Rice. I had the choice of three soups: Wonton, Sweet and Sour, or Egg Drop. I decided to go with something different this time and ordered the Wonton Soup after I verified that chicken stock was not used in it.

My daughter misses having chicken at home, so she ordered the General Tso's Chicken with Pork Fried Rice and Wonton Soup.

The Wonton Soup arrives.

Each bowl had three pork-stuffed wontons, some strips of pork and diced scallions.

We both loved this soup and not a drop of soup was left in the bowls.

My daughter's General Tso's Chicken with the Pork Fried Rice. You really must thank her for allowing me to photograph it before she set into the dish.

And now may I introduce my Boneless Pork Ribs and Pork Fried Rice? This was just what I had in mind.

I will definitely have to remember that this place is here. Although, I couldn't help but notice that besides a couple of people who left soon after we arrived, we had the restaurant to ourselves. I do hope that this was just a slow time for them and not a normal occurrence.