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| - i spent the dreary day walking through the notre dame cemetery while listening to gregorian chant music on my ipod. my first attempt at taking the bus towards the guy-concordia metro station was not successful. (my card malfunctioned.) i'd read somewhere--maybe yelp--about the beef coriander dumplings at qing hua. i walked in and they sat me right in the middle of the virtually empty place. i should have asked if i could move anywhere else, but my confidence was shattered since missing the opportunity to dance with a catholic-looking girl at the club the night before.
i couldn't find the beef coriander on a quick glance at the menu, so i asked the waitress. every time i said, "...beef coriander" she replied with "yes, we have beef coriander." eventually i just ok and handed her the menu. i also got a coke. coke goes well with some foods. empanadas, for example, and most chinese food.
i've had the soup dumplings many times at joe's shanghai in new york city, so i know how to eat them. but these weren't shanghainese soup dumplings. they're a creation from another part of china. i forget if i read that in yelp or wikipedia. although very delicious, i had a hard time eating them. it was almost impossible. i'm starting to wonder if you should use chopsticks at all. it was more like fishing rather than eating. they're smaller than shanghainese soup dumplings. so maybe you're just supposed to grab them with your hands.
fishing can be a zen-like experience. it was like this at qing hua. there was a struggle with the dumplings, but once i grabbed onto one it was a most joyous occasion. i would give this place 5 stars based solely on the dumplings. but my time there was awkward. sitting in the middle made me feel like an easy target for ridicule as people walked in.
remember, take a small bite of the dumpling and suck the soup in. remember that, and you will be happy with your dumpling.
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