Where: Hong Kong Food Street, 9750 Bellaire Blvd, Houston, TX 77036
When: March 28, 2013
This was a Brenden’s choice week and we drove to Chinatown to pick out somewhere new to eat. We scoured the strip malls and Brenden shouts out, “Hong Kong Street Food!!!!” and parks.
He screamed it much like this
He must be dyslexic, because it was Hong Kong Food Street. No matter, we sat inside the rather empty restaurant on a Friday night.
A little history of Nicole and Chinese food: I never ate it growing up! When I went to college there was a restaurant who delivered to my apartment complex and I found something I loved: Walnut Shrimp and White Sauce in a bird’s nest. It was basically sweet shrimp covered in mayonnaise. My friends made fun of me continuously ordering this dish and we called it “Jizzy Shrimp.” I ate it with pride, of course. I have since searched for this dish in many cities and always have a twinge of disappointment when the “white sauce” on my Almond Chicken or whatever doesn’t have that same jizzy tang (what did I just type?).
Anyhow, here we are in one of the best Chinatowns in the country and we’re looking through their endless picture menu and I SEE IT. They called it something else (pecan shrimp?) but those were pictures of walnuts and holy crap I was going to get it. A journey 15 years had come(ha) to a conclusion! Brenden decided on some spicy pepper beef dish since he didn’t want anything to do with mine and we obviously weren’t sharing.
Other things I remember about this date: The service wasn’t great, even given the empty place. The prices were really high for what it was. Brenden and I got into a very tense conversation – he had recently asked me to move in with him and I had reminded him of all the things around the house he promised to change upon my moving in. He hadn’t realized what big of a project it would be. I felt naggy and awful – such a horrible stereotype – but his place needed some drastic updating.
We decided that we definitely need to explore more Cantonese!
