I think I’m going to start splitting out my weekend updates instead of lumping them together. Might make it better for searching and also easier for anyone who goes to these places to chime in and add their thoughts.
I also tried to take photos of my meal today because the people on the Asia Pacific board here are SO inspiring. That board has been built into a serious resource for Malaysia and Singapore (and more!) due to the efforts of a couple stalwart posters. I would seriously point anyone you know who is traveling to these places to that board, it’s really amazing work.
But my photos came out lousy. So you’ll have to use your imagination.
Anyway, had a quick lunch at Golden Garden in Malden since I needed a couple of things at the 88/Hong Kong Supermarket. Got a cold appetizer, the sauteed Northeast Lapi with cucumber and a hot main dish, the sour cabbage with bacon. The English menu describes the lapi as a rice noodle, but this is clearly wrong–it’s like a wide mung bean noodle. The dish is simple and good–salty, great texture from the noodle, crunchy cucumber, plenty of garlic. Sour cabbage with bacon came out way soupier than I expected–maybe a little one note in flavor, but vingeary and filled with lots of cabbage and chunks of pork and cellophane noodle and some cilantro and scallions. It was maybe a little saltier than I wanted and I think perhaps this might be the wrong season for this–I imagine in the winter, a bowl of this would be just about the perfect thing. But pretty solid.
They seemed to be doing an ok lunch biz with a few tables full, and the two women working were really hustling. It’s worth a look. Not sure if anything will change here if the one in Belmont really closes, but I’ll try and keep working through the menu.
