At night, you pay the price: Dim sum at Red Egg

Red Egg, which opened only about half a year ago, bills itself as Peruvian-Chinese, but the menu looks more like straight Chinese with a few Peruvian dishes thrown in. The main draw for my brother (who suggested eating there) is the dim sum, which is available both day and night and steamed to order. Above, shrimp dumpling, beef balls, braised chicken feet, and assorted seafood dumplings. We also tried the taro cilantro dumpling, sui mai, and a few others that were all quite good.

The thing about eating the dim sum here at night is that the prices are nearly double the daytime dum sum menu. With the "regular sum" starting at $4 and running to $7 for the "house special sum," even regular items like the shrimp dumplings cost $5.25 each. Compared to regular dim sum prices, this is a huge jump, and I don't feel that the level of increase in quality quite justifies the raise in price.

The other problem with dim sum at night (and especially when it's a place that's part bar/lounge like Red Egg) is that you end up eating dumplings in the dark. And taking dark, blurry photos of the food. Personally, I like being able to see what I'm eating—turn up the lights, yo!

The curry bread bowl looked interesting, but what arrived was a giant loaf sodden with okay-tasting curry. There were some interesting additions to the curry, such as okra and blue crab, but I wouldn't bother with this one again.

Chinese broccoli with "black olive sauce." I couldn't detect any taste of black olive here, but it was a tasty dish regardless.

The "Peking Duck Sliders" were carved and assembled tableside and the remaining "duck rack" (the remaining bones and meat) whisked away, unlike most other Peking duck places that leave this on the table for nibbling. On our request, though, they were nice about bringing the rack out again, cut into manageable pieces and dressed with cilantro on a new plate. The "sliders" themselves were good but nothing special.

Red Egg's dim sum is half off at the bar during their happy hour, which makes it a great deal given the quality of the goods. At full price though, I probably wouldn't choose to go again—not where there are so many other places to get good dim sum for cheaper. I'll just have to settle for dim sum in the day.

Pio Pio: Roasted chicken for giant appetites

Note: I am in Fort Collins now and no longer in New York City, but though the Colorado posts will definitely follow, I'm going to continue with the backlog of New York posts for now….

One afternoon several months ago, RL came online and began raving about the meal she had eaten at Pio Pio, putting the place once again on my radar. It wasn't the first time I had heard of the Peruvian restaurant—BH and I had also attempted to go before (and never made it) and even before that, I had been hearing about the chicken at the various locations of Pio Pio for years. Specifically, the thirty-dollar Matador Combo: a whole roasted chicken accompanied by rice and beans, tostones, salchipapa, and an avocado salad. That's what had inspired RL to her ravings, and I wanted in.

So last month, with GQ in town and RL and I trying to figure out where to take her for dinner, Pio Pio seemed like the perfect choice. At the Murray Hill location (home of the world's surliest waiter) we started with a pitcher of sangria, too syrupy for my tastes and nearly without fruit, but sweet-toothed GQ seemed to enjoy it.

Before we get to the Matador Combo, let's talk jalea. Misled by RL's assurance that ordering both the combo and another item wouldn't be too much for three people, I added on an order for jalea, described on the menu as "typical Peruvian seafood platter topped with an onion and tomato lime sauce." I was completely bowled over when the above plate came out—not only was the entire damn thing deep fried (I had been expecting something more like ceviche), but that was the small size! I cannot even imagine how big the large size would have been.

And then the rest of it came out….


Tostones, avocado salad, salchipapa, rice and beans. It was all a little bit nuts. The fried green plaintains were huge, the fries and fried hot dogs were huge, all of it was huge. Including the chicken:

Yeah. I could barely hide my shock over how badly we had misjudged the portion sizes.

But so? you're thinking. How was it?

In a word, awesome. The jalea, a good mix of fish and seafood though heavy on the shrimp and squid, was really well fried and paired perfectly with the vinegary red onions scattered on top. The chicken was extremely flavorful and juicy as hell, and had a nice crisp skin. And the sides, aside from the tostones (which were dry and hard) made excellent companions.

We couldn't finish everything, of course, and the tragedy is that fried food never keeps very well. So though we ate what we could and took whatever we couldn't finish home, the leftover seafood and fries eventually went into the bin. So here's the lesson: go to Pio Pio, order the Matador Combo and the jalea, but come prepared with a huge appetite—or several other people!