The Dinner Files

Yep, you read correctly. The last day of our New Mexico – Texas full-tilt chile, art, and UFO spring break road trip (about which I promise to write more in the very near future) fell on Ernest’s birthday. He is now 6. And we all know that the very least one can offer someone on their birthday is to decide what to have for dinner. Despite hints about succulent chicken tacos (“Mama, I eat tacos all of the time” was his response, which, as regular readers know, is true both in his daily home life and was most definitely a fact of meals on this road trip), the Birthday Boy wanted dim sum.

Of course he did. Dim sum is his favorite food. By a large margin, from what I can tell. And then he was such a good sport when we told him that it might not work out that I did what I could to track down dim sum in Albuquerque. There are, based on the limited research I could do as we drove in the rain and hail between art galleries (hey, do we know how to show a 6 year-old a good birthday time or what?) while I also tried to book a room at a hotel near the airport (6:51 am flight!) that had an indoor pool (birthday + rain = the least I could do), two places in Albuquerque to get dim sum: Amerasian Sumosushi and Ming Dynasty. Ming Dynasty had a definite edge in the online reviews, a more focused Chinese menu, and, let’s be honest, a much more appealing name.

You know what? Ming Dynasty is putting out some very serviceable dumplings. Some were a bit heavy, but the barbeque pork buns were light as a feather with an excellent filling-to-bun ratio and the sesame balls were crispy and fresh. The vegetable mu shu my dashing husband and I ordered to supplement our dinner (all the better to leave the lion’s share of dumplings for the Birthday Boy to inhale), was deftly assembled table-side with supremely tender house-made pancakes.

They were as good as any mu shu I’ve ever had. In fact, I can’t recall any better.

And I’d like to add that the service was delightful. Charming and kind and efficient. And very quick with that second order of har gow that they never saw coming… no one, not even dim sum resturant workers, can ever believe how much dim sum my boy can eat.

Last night was Ernie’s birthday party. We decided to have a small party right after school on his actual birthday. After bringing cupcakes we made last night to school for afternoon snack, I packed three crazy boys into my car and we headed to the house for all kinds of insanity. Ernie’s friend from across the street joined us. Shoes were lost in the garden, Playmobile was everywhere, and at one point I needed to insist that they all put their pants back on. “Do we have to wear our underwear too?” one of them asked plaintively. Yes. Yes, you have to wear your underwear too.

Slight correction: between cupcake drop-off and crazy-boy pick-up I raced downtown to pick up dim sum (at Ernie’s request) from our second-favorite dim sum place that has a handy take-out counter. On my way through Friday afternoon traffic I thought briefly “maybe I should head out to our favorite dim sum place, even though it’s farther away it might be faster on a Friday afternoon,” but I was already half-way down Market Street in record time. I even found a parking spot around the corner immediately. I raced in–literally running down the street past all the suits–to find it closed at 4 on Friday. Of course it is, and yet I never thought to check.

Raced back to the Castro and picked up egg rolls, potstickers, and pan-fried noodles at the crappy take-out place around the corner from the school. This entire time, by the way, I’m leaving up-to-the-minute details on Dashing Husband’s voicemail. Got his call to go to the better take-out place around the corner and across the street as I was loading crazy boys into the car with a bag of crappy take-out sitting on the front seat. Oh well. I’d never heard of the better take-out place. It ends up they go regularly when I’m out of town. No one tells me anything.

To sum up: crazy boys ate egg rolls, potstickers, noodles, and farm carrots in the play structure in the garden while Dashing Husband, neighbor, and I had a very weird dinner of same plus random cheeses and olives found in the fridge and leftover asparagus with vinaigrette from last night.

Ernie’s first dinner party: shirtless, starchy, al fresco.