Food Trip! - Ding Qua Qua

i had it figured out in my head. 200 furious labor-inducing bike pedaling is equivalent to one dimsum. seventy pedals to a minute, total of forty minutes and that would be 2,800 pedals divided by 200 and i'd have made enough space for 14 dimsum dumplings.

blame it on Kung Fu Panda, but today visions of dimsum fueled my craving for lunch.

dimsum platter: pork siomai, quail egg, mushroom and shrimp

before the Grand Majestic Chinese Buffet, Ding Qua Qua is a favorite joint for my MSG fix. They specialize in dimsum and dumplings but their JY Square place offer buffet lunch (Php 188) with a pretty decent spread.

I started off with Fungus Soup (for some reason Athlete's Foot kept popping in my head) that was surprisingly tasty and resembled bird's nest in texture and flavor. I got a portion of stir fried tofu and vegetables, a bit of pata tim, chinese roast pork and beef brisket.

The chili sauce perked up an otherwise bland tofu whereas the beef brisket tasted like beef kaldereta (tomato sauce, carrots, potato stew) instead of the chinese beef brisket recipe (soy sauce-ginger based stew). That's really not part of my agenda for the second (and third, and fourth...) round. Unfortunately, the dry and tough chinese pork roast failed to make love with my taste buds.

pata tim, spring rolls, leche flan, buchi

After a series of disappointments, It would have been an otherwise disappointing meal except for the Pata Tim (pork leg, pressure cooked until soft and stewed in a sweet spicy soy sauce based sauce) and the dimsum selection.

Dessert should cap the meal and i had buchi (ground sticky rice stuffed with black bean paste, steamed, rolled in sesame seed and deep fried) and a slice of leche flan (sweet custard made of egg and condensed milk). The leche flan lacked the cloying creamy sweetness that i expect. Thankfully, the buchi passed my taste test.

restaurant interiors

i liked the design of the interiors although it was a bit dark. perfect for framing a nice silhouette, too bad that lighting fixtures are not edible. hmmp!

It would be unfair to compare Ding Qua Qua with Majestic but if you consider that Ding Qua Qua charges Php 188 versus Php 350 of Majestic then you'd understand that indeed, we get what we pay for.

if i'm going to feel guilty after a buffet i'd rather have one that at least made me happy. this time around, i feel guilty, stuffed AND totally un-happy. darn.

Ding Qua Qua

Add: 2/F JY Square Building, Cor. Salinas Drive, Lahug Cebu City
Cost: Php 188++/head
Tel: naaah, don't bother.
One Dish Must Have: Pata Tim

pictures taken by ME. the food just look tempting he he he.