Food Adventures in Columbus

I want to tell you about some of my food adventures since I've moved here to Buckeye Nation. Which is really quite a feat considering how the food scene here is not exactly... a selling point. But food lovers like me can still hunt down good food any where, right? ;) Some food adventures have been good, and others, well... let's just say, one food adventure gone wrong gave me the shivers.

Let's talk about the good food adventures first:

- CHINESE NEW YEAR!!! Thanksgiving is my all-time favorite food feast, but NOTHING ever beats the taste of home. This year, Miss Cee and I went all out to celebrate CNY 2013, the Year of the Snake, starting with our bat adventure, which you can read about HERE. 

Just kidding. [Btw, this couple missionary serving in my church's congregation came up to me last week and said, "We heard about the bird and the bird in your apartment last week. We call it your "Batman and Robin." Bwa ha ha ha ha!] 

What Miss Cee and I did do was host a Hotpot dinner for four other friends on the first night of CNY.  It was fabulous!!! We had thin-sliced pork and mutton/ lamb, Chinese meatballs (my favorite!), artificial crabmeat, 2 kinds of vegetables, noodles, egg dumplings, tofu, mushroom... nom nom nom. 

Eating hotpot always reminds me of the steamboat dinner that I ate growing up every year for my family's Chinese New Eve Reunion Dinner/ 除夕团圆饭. Steamboat is the Cantonese version of it, and everyone uses an individual mini-ladle to scoop food from the broth. It was absolutely delicious, and a great way to welcome the new year, especially after the annual huge cleaning spree (大扫除). 

The next week, we went with 2 other friends to try out dim sum at Sunflower restaurant. We had heard good reviews for it, and what better way to celebrate CNY then to splurge a little on some comfort food?

Sadly, I wasn't impressed. Don't get me wrong- I rather eat bad dim sum than no dim sum at all, but I was disappointed with the quality. I think even Salt Lake has better dim sum than this! Oh well.

Then on Sunday we invited 2 friends from the ward to celebrate the last day of CNY by making our own Chinese dumplings/ 水饺. Follow these steps for a delicious meal.

First, we make them:

 Next, we pose with our handiwork:

 Then, we boil and eat them- YUMMY!!!

 And to top it all off, my friend from Singapore gave me a container of Singapore pineapple tarts!!! Picture on left is the day I received it. Picture on left taken the very next day. Yes, you can tell that I loved it.

Now for the bad adventure. Thankfully, I've only had one food adventure (so far) that made me shudder in horror. Some of the food in Columbus isn't terrific, but nothing like this. A friend from small group and I went to Cup-O-Joe for hot chocolate one night, and I ordered hot chocolate, and this is what I : 

I was devastated because the first time I went there, Cup-O-Joe had the MOST AMAZING cup of hot white chocolate. Yes, you read that right- hot WHITE chocolate. 

This time, I tried their normal hot chocolate and it turned out pink and disgusting. *sigh* I wrote the 2 comments on the cup and left it on the table, and hope that the people working there find it. Sticking to my hot white chocolate next time!