Jan 19, 2009 3
Dinner Yums
I figure the best way to inaugurate (hey, I am in DC…ish) a new blog is a post about food. Mmm…foooooood. And yesterday had that in spades. After spending the afternoon with someone I truly care for, we went up to Pacifica Cafe in Gaithersburg for some Chinese.
This all started with a post on DonRockwell.com about someone wanting to try this place’s signature dish: Eight Treasure Duck. As you can imagine, this is a duck stuffed with eight treasures rice. Sounds simple, right? Well, this one you have to order 24 hours in advance. It comes out wrapped in lotus leaves and…mmm…
But, now, the carte d’food. In the order I sort of think things came out. And realize that there were 10 people, so I didn’t order this all myself. 
Oh, and I should state that other than the Eight Treasure Duck, we just asked the owner of the place to recommend food. No American-Chinese or anything, but food he would like. So, here it is, the board of fare, served with rose tea:
- Wontons in spicy peanut sauce. This was good. Really good. The wontons, yeah, yummy, but that sauce… It had just the right amount of spiciness. Not overwhelming, but not bland.
- Eight Treasure Duck. A whole roast duck, deboned, then stuffed with glutinous rice, 2 kinds of Chinese sausage, 3 kinds of nuts, mushrooms, goodness, &c. Really, really good. And big. And DENSE. But good.
- Seaweed Infused Fish. Slices of fresh flounder breaded with a seaweed-infused batter and deep fried. So good. Really. Amazing.
- Salty Egg Shrimp. Shrimp battered with a salty egg sauce and fried golden. Folks, I don’t like shrimp. Really. It’s not bad, but I don’t seek it out. This dish? This dish I would order again and just eat up. It was that good.
- Yellow Bird. Bean curd skin stuffed with mushrooms and assorted vegetables, steamed, with a sauce. Very good. Light, savory, filling. Good.
- Lemongrass Chicken. Another hit. And not what you might imagine. When it came out I–and others–thought it was pork or something. It was that dark, deep, red color you associate with char siu or the like. But, nope, it was chicken with a very good lemongrass flavor. Mmm…
- Spinach with Fried Tofu. Just what you’d think. And good. Again, I know everything sounds superlative…and it was.
- Giant Hot Pot. At this point, we were full…and then came this. Giant is indeed right. Imagine a, oh, gallon-and-a-half size hotpot filled with cabbage, mushrooms, shrimp, chicken, mini lions head meatballs, tofu all in an amazing broth. We were all stuffed and yet this ending dish was consumed just as quickly. A very good ending to the meal.
So, there you go. Eight courses of what might be some of the best Chinese I’ve ever had. What style of Chinese was it? I don’t know. I think it’s “Owner of Pacifica Cafe’s Favorite Dishes” style.
And the kicker? All this food, all this… $18 a person. Yeah, we were all just as surprised by this. Yum.
