I am Canadian...
....with Dutch roots.
*I love hagel and cheese and droppies and pickled stuff.
*I think that sarcasm is normal.
*I understand why the Dutch think they are better than anyone else.
*I appreciate the value of a clean house.
*I know all the Dutch jokes.
*I recognize a Dutch accent (and then proceed to ask someone where they're from, which turns into an awkward conversation with me pulling out all the dumb words I know from childhood-- some of them bad-- and I digress...)
*I'm good at Dutch Blitz (ok, that's Mennonite, but I'm still better at it than you-- please refer to point #3 above)
And here is where the conflict comes in.
I love Chinatown and Chinese food and Chinese people.
Chinatown is where you walk into a crazy, junk-filled, Buddha-laden, incense-smelling, screen-and-pottery store that sells life- sized replicas of a terra cotta warriors, and Chairman Mao t-shirts. And you feel like you need it all. Plus, you can bargain. It's a shopper's paradise.
So many treasures. For so little money. And they only take cash.
I walked away from the made in China goodness and across the street--to the "New Town."
Here's the deal. When you enter a Chinese restaurant and you can't understand anything anyone is saying to you because you're the only white person in the place, it's probably a good place to eat. Now, this was not my first time there. My Chinese friends took us a few months ago and tried to humiliate me by ordering weird things in a language I cannot understand. I'm on to his tricks. I just point at the pictures now.
And at the "New Town" they have THE. BEST. STEAMED. PORK. BUNS. EVER. I'm serious about this, folks. For $1.30 you can enjoy the most delicious treat. If you are adventurous, try the "Bola- Bola" variety. I won't tell you what it is, you'll just have to point at the picture.
These buns are filled with bbq flavored minced pork wrapped with a soft, sweet dough and steamed in giant oven-like steamers. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Oh, and they have this perfectly cheeky waitress who thinks that dumb Dutch folks know nothing about Chinese food, so she gives you the best smirky "you know nothing, dummy" looks as she deposits the hot tea in plastic cups on your table.
But, this little Dutch girl TOWERED over everyone in the restaurant. You should have seen the looks my 6'4" husband got! Hilarious! I think they thought he was a circus act. But, I couldn't understand what they were talking about, so they could have been saying wonderful things like-- "look at that nice family out with their children" or "did they take a wrong turn" or "back away from the pork buns, kids. "
I think that they knew I was coming today and tempted me with the butter cream pastry horns dusted with icing sugar. Do you see those swirly butter cookies in the photo above? Don't they look Dutch to you? Sense the conflict??
You know what's ridiculous? I only had $8 on me. That meant I could only get 5 pork buns today. If I had bought 6, no tax. DOH! Conflicted Dutch girl doesn't like to spend more money than she has to.
So, we left with 5 beautiful steamed pork buns wrapped in a tidy box. I'm not sure why we even bothered with the packaging. We knew the scarfing would begin at the door to the car. My kids know that steamed pork buns are delicious, and I tried to distract them with a granola bar. No such luck. They're on to me.
We sat in the car with 1 minute left on the meter and enjoyed the sweet, soft, bbq flavour of the pork buns. And I couldn't help but think... what if they stuffed them with droppies?
Conflict averted.
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