Golden Unicorn, Chinatown

What kind of host would Eats Meats West be to our guests, who have proven how ready they are for trying new things, without a stop to Golden Unicorn?  We’ve made no secret of our admiration for dim sum at Golden Unicorn, and sure enough there were no complaints today.  This time, though, J and I were trying to cater to two newbies while still getting all of the requisite dishes (shumai, chow siu bai, shrimp noodles, baked custard buns, and lotus leaf rice) out of the way.  As has become our custom, we tried one new dish almost completely at random.  The waitress called this brown fried ball a “shrimp ball,” though at this point we’ve had at least two other completely different dishes carrying the same description.  Not knowing exactly what you are eating is of course part of the fun, let’s be honest.  I wish I knew what the batter was, though, because I couldn’t say for sure.  It was probably rice flour-based, and the texture reminded me of fried taro.  It was pretty delicious.  After we finalized the check, a man in a suit came around the floor with a large platter of roasted duck.  We thought that it would just be another expensive dish that you never end up ordering, but as it turns out he was making these little duck sandwich/wrap things.  I tried to snap a shot of the table next to us ordering them, but I couldn’t quite get close enough.  There was sliced cucumber and a brown sauce.  Obviously, I didn’t taste it, but the appearance reminded me of some sandwiches we’ve tried at Xie Xie Project and Zuzu Ramen.  After we headed home - food coma fully setting in - our guests chanced upon one of those tiny meat/seafood places you would probably scurry past for fear of contracting SARS. We went in, and it was kind of amazing.  Frog legs, duck tongue, whole rabbits.  You name it, they slaughtered it.  Lots of stuff, like these indeterminate leg bones, were just chilling in the open air, like you would find green bell peppers.  And by “chilling” I’m not referring to the temperature, because obviously these weren’t refrigerated.