After yesterday’s fantastic day stopping by some of my fave Durham spots (click), more great eats…
Hubby and his bro talked their mom into trying dim sum for her first time. The last time we got dim sum it was for Chinese New Year’s (click)!
We were very excited to take her there this morning for brunch/lunch.
We selected several different things in hopes she’d find something she liked.
Hot tea for me and hubby’s brother.
My first plate – taro shrimp, tiny piece of calamari, and shrimp roll. All delicious!
I tried the shrimp roll instead of the har gow (shrimp dumplings) I normally get…I think I prefer the dumpling though they are both very tasty.
I had some of this yummy sticky rice (sans sausage/egg).
Plus a steamed BBQ pork bun (they didn’t have the baked version today).
I think I had half this plate of Chinese broccoli. It is one of my faves at dim sum and was really popular at the table, too. We polished it off no problem.
For dessert, we got a couple things.
The famous sesame balls.
Plus some coconut pudding. I tried a bite of this stuff and it was surprisingly really good. Not so much surprising because it looks bad, but I typically don’t love coconut. Guess I do now! I may even get this over the sesame balls since it’s a little on the lighter side.
For today, though, I favored my usual – sesame ball with sweet bean filling! Yummers!
Hubby’s mom seemed to really enjoy the meal, so DIM SUM WIN! Yay! 🙂 Hubby’s sister will be very happy as she’s a big dim sum fan, too.
We hit the road after lunch.
After we got back in town, I gathered some materials for a project with my friend Megan…
A HEALTHY PANTRY MAKEOVER!!!
Ok, so it wasn’t so much a makeover as a stocking up event since she recently moved to a new place and didn’t have much in the way of food, but details, details…
We hit up three of my faves:
- Trader Joes – for staples, frozen foods, produce, cereal, and vino
- Fresh Market – for Barney Butter (it’s the only place in town that sells it! It was a dollar off, too!)
- Earthfare – two words – BULK BINS! Plus some frozen entrees, canned soup, yogurt, and other pantry basics.
We went ahead and got food at Earthfare.
I got a kid’s Earthburger with lettuce, tomato, pickle, and onion, plus local sweet potato fries, with a side salad (spinach, romain, purple cabbage, sprouds, bell pepper, broccoli and balsamic/olive oil dressing) and a Virgil’s Real Cola (good-good stuff!!!).
Thanks to some savvy shopping, we got a TON of stuff AND came way under budget. Score!
Happy eating and cooking Megan!! Enjoy! 🙂
Click here for some of my pantry tips and ideas.
Reader Question: What are your pantry staples?
Split peas, veggie & chicken broth, black beans, COFFEE, quality spices (esp. garlic, cumen, and salt), and an assortment of WW pasta! 😉
Hear ye, Hear ye – Diana is my HERO!!!!! What a fabulous day 🙂 So excited to wake up and cook delicious oats, and then pack a fabulous lunch…with all my fantastic pantry items.
Love you!!!!
oooh I love dim sum (although we call it yum cha here!) My favourite would have to be the rice noodles! hmm or the brocolini with oyster sauce 🙂
Lunch looked yummy!
Hello There! I just read your guest post on Eating Bender and I loved it. Power Toast is a brilliant idea, and so simple and can yield to such creative (and delicious) results. Those sesame balls look amazing. How does one make them? Everything in this post looks amazing. The food, the beer, the Trader Joe’s. I wish I had one nearby. But not having one nearby saves me some money, because I would splurge all the time.
Well, I just wanted to drop by and leave a comment. Have a great day!
I love Dim Sum! my family usually eat it during special occasions, thank goodness because it’s way to salty for my liking. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the steamed BBQ pork buns. mmmmm
have you tried virgil’s root beer? IT’s MY FAVE!
Aww just came back and read this one. Memories!!!