Saturday 13th April
Saturday started off late (once again). Well both Miss Pinky and I were exhausted (more Miss Pinky than me!) from the night before.
For this day we decided to go to the Richardson area in Dallas, which is up north, and it doesn't take you long to get there. I wanted to find 'a' or 'the' China Town in Dallas, and I had found on the Internet that there was a place in Richardson, but there were no clues on how to get there or where it is! I guess not many tourists like me want to find these places. ¬_¬"" So we took the 526 bus once again (it was so handy having a weekly pass), changed for the train and stopped off at West End to change for the red line. We took this next train up to Arapaho Center Station (can't pronounce the name of this station), and I saw DFW China Town! We tried to get a bus there from the transit centre, but unfortunately there are no buses that go there on the weekend. :( So what do people do in Dallas on the weekend? I don’t understand why bus services are not regular on the weekends... I expect they want people to chill out instead of going out and spending...
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| Arapaho Center Station |
So then we took the train back to Spring Valley Station which is the previous stop to see if we could walk from there... Nope it looked too far from Spring Valley, so we quickly hopped onto the train going back to Arapaho Station and then finally walked there... (I'm sure the passengers thought we were mad!). There’s no actual pathway (pavements) to walk on from the station to China Town, so watch out for the dogs in the houses you pass by. I think this is definitely one thing America needs to improve on. It's one reason why there's so much obesity over there. For a tourist like me who does not drive I would expect there to be pavements!!It was a mission and half getting there I tell you. It was also hot that day. But it’s about a 15 minute walk from Arapaho Station. So it wasn't too bad.
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| Finally found DFW China Town |
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| Cool! |
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| DFW China Town 中國城 sign |
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| So many cars! Shops and restaurants are set up in a line |
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| Nice lantern! |
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| Everything's in Chinese!! Signs, posters, menus... |
We spent a good hour or two there and found ourselves looking in the supermarket, the bakery and a cute shop! :D Miss Pinky bought a few things from the supermarket (we were arguing about ingredients at this point... I think Miss Pinky was back to her normal moody self due to a lack of sleep) and I had a very good look at the cute shop!! ^_^ |
| Very large prawns!!!! |
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| Black chicken?! |
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| Statue of Confucius - I made my blessings |
Didn’t do too much shopping, but we did eat in China Town. I spotted Canton Restaurant. I thought they would speak in Cantonese, but I was wrong. The restaurant name is misleading. Majority of the people there in China Town spoke in Mandarin rather than Cantonese. I was a little disappointed although I did hear a few shoppers around who spoke my native language in the supermarket. But thankfully I can understand Mandarin - that's if people speak slowly enough (but my speaking still sucks!). :(
Just to point out - majority of restaurants in Dallas don't put their menus outside for you to view. I think that's quite selfish of them and a bad marketing scheme just to get you inside and seat you as soon as you enter... That's what happened to us several times... And in this restaurant too... |
| Inside Canton Restaurant |
Miss Pinky so wanted to eat roast duck and noodle soup, but unfortunately they only had braised duck rather than roast duck... So she ordered a pork dish that had too many vegetables and rice... Oh well, we’ll find a Chinese restaurant that makes roast duck and noodle soup before we go... Maybe... |
| Pork and Vegetables |
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| Rice ... Miss Pinky already started on her food before I took this pic!! |
I had the combination special which consisted of prawns, squid, pork and loads of vegetables on top of some pan fried noodles. It was good. A very big dish. I think I have been craving for noodles... In this dish the noodles were slightly thicker than the usual ones I have in London and at home. They also gave me a steak knife. Not sure what that was supposed to be there for. ¬,¬" Miss Pinky was laughing at that in a sarcastic way!  |
| Massive Combination Special ^_^"" |
In the end it cost me US $19.98 (approx. £13) including Miss Pinky’s dish and the drinks. So cheap. I had paid because Miss Pinky didn't like her food. She wanted noodle soup, but she didn't get it. Oh well!! But at least we sat next to a couple who seemed like they were having an affair... Or maybe not... Gossip to talk about on the way back... By the way, they didn't take my US $1 tip ¬,¬"" Wow. They didn't want it!!
Happy to go again... But would go to another restaurant to try out...
My geeky rating for Canton Restaurant: 4.5/5
Address for restaurant: 400 N. Greenville Ave. Suite 25 Richardson TX 75081
Address for DFW China Town: 400 N. Greenville Ave., Richardson TX 75081 United States
So it was back to the station. By the way, I think there’s some stinging nettles on the ground. So watch out!! |
| This is the bus number - 360 that takes you to DFW China Town |
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| Arapaho Center Station - Coming back from China Town |
It was a good day out... And look Miss Pinky made dinner... Tom Yum soup with coconut milk... Most of the ingredients were bought in DFW China Town. The mussels were massive too! Wow!! |
| Ingredients used in the Tom Yum Soup |
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| Very large mussels :D |
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| Yummy Tom Yum soup - well done Miss Pinky!! |
It was quite difficult making this as the pots that the Suites provided were too small!!
Does anyone want the recipe for this? I had told Miss Pinky that we were supposed to go back to the bar that we went to the night before... But we didn’t. Didn’t do anything during the evening... Sad people we are - I know...
But during that evening we were both awakened by the night life of Texans staying below us... They love to party!! But I wanted to sleeeeeep. :P
