For our IACA session this week, we met Kwan for dinner at Lucky Lou’s. I have never heard of or eaten at this restaurant before, but it was a great experience because I’ve never eaten at an authentic Chinese restaurant. Before dinner, Kwan explained that there is authentic Chinese food and Americanized Chinese food. Lucky Lou’s is not as Americanized as typical takeout Chinese restaurants. This made me less anxious about eating the Americanized version because I am very sensitive to MSGs and some fried food.
To start off, we had cucumber with garlic sauce. I’ve had these combination before, although I can’t remember where, and I really liked it. Then we had some Peking duck, which was a platter with thick dough patties, green onion, cucumber, and duck. The patty dough reminded me of Bao buns, which are one of my favorite Asian foods to eat. The meal also came with a sauce that was rich and tangy. After that, we had several plates come out with all different kinds of food. Some plates included fried fish, shrimp, beef, lamb, and tofu. I like tofu so I ate from every plate that had tofu. I also enjoyed the fish and a duck soup that came with the food. There was also a plate of string beans that was very fresh. Some plates were pretty spicy as well.
After dinner, we ate dessert, which was a sesame seed ball that had rice dough and a red bean paste in the middle. I’ve never had a dessert like that before since it wasn’t loaded with sugar. With this dinner experience, I’ve learned what some Chinese restaurants value in their food.