"New Chinese" Restaurant in Hamilton NJ

You know those scary-looking Chinese restaurants that seem to be in every town. Well, this one in Hamilton, next door to the House of Meat halal butcher, came recommended, so we checked it out for Sunday dimsum/lunch. The menu was promising, as it had some regional dishes beyond the standard General Tso's white-man fare -- and it had great Engrish.

Our meal: (pictured right) chive boxes, siu mai (these strangely were filled with sticky rice), and (not pictured) cold jellyfish with daikon, mock duck, shrimp dumplings, cold sesame noodles, steamed juicy buns, ma po tofu, yu xiang eggplant, stir-fried rice cake. (Incidentally, the 2 Chinese people in our party argued with the Korean about who exactly invented the sticky rice cake - anyone who knows feel free to weigh in.)



Everything was tasty, but the stand-out dish for me -- the dish I'd go back for -- was wuxi spareribs, which you rarely see on your typical Chinese restaurant menu. Wuxi is a city in Jiangsu province south of Shanghai best known for its earthenware teapots; I think the place has really good clay. Anyway, I don't even know how exactly these spareribs are prepared, but they are the specialty of this city (like Kansas City or St. Louis ribs in the US). Falling off the bone and melting in your mouth, they have the sweet flavor favored by Shanghai cuisine. (And here's a picture from inside The House of Meat for those of you who are curious.)