“The King and Mee”
I must say that I got distracted looking for the restaurant tonight. It was hidden just past BJ’s Warehouse (bonus Jew Appeal points!). I had to call my brother, Yong Joo (who better to ask for directions than the brother we affectionately call “The Wandering Joo”?), and he told me to look past BJ (sometimes it’s not easy having my Jew always sniffing out bargains!), and the entrance was:
Fortune Wheel Seafood Restaurant
3601 Hempstead Road #28
Levittown, New York 11756
Trust me, it’s easy to miss! Look for the BJ’s, avoid all pedestrians crossing the street into the parking lot, and find a parking space as soon as you pass BJ’s.
You walk in and feel like you’ve walked into a 1960s Chinese restaurant (and I think some of the decor, tables, etc., haven’t been updated since then (and neither has the bathroom!). But, no. We didn’t come for the decor, we came to be entertained. With good food. We were entertained. Mainly by our waiter, who when asked his name said he was “King”. He really was the Master of his Domain (and of the restaurant) We had asked for the Owner (who was sitting discreetly in the back, for her recommendations on what to eat. But the King told us to “ignore it, I tell you what is good and what is not. You will eat what I serve you” (might have misquoted him a bit). little, but not me, a little).
No pork ribs! This was a problem. THAT was the basic element we used to compare all the restaurants against each other. As the King said, this is a REAL Chinese restaurant. No ribs for you! Instead we were served a Duck dish (Editor’s Note: Mee Tsu Yan will be writing a lengthy review on all the dishes we were served tonight. Look for it next weekend)… all chopped up combined with something I don’t know , served on a lettuce leaf. I was impressed. It was very tasty and not greasy!
The restaurant is known for its Dim Sum. So that’s what we had for our second appetizer. Nine pieces. Shrimp and also pork. He didn’t do anything for me. I expected to be blown away with the taste and the surprise. I have none. I have had Dim Sum before where inside the dumpling was a soup. Something like a refreshing chewing gum. But, this was better for your teeth and your tummy.
Our last dish before the starters was soup. Three servings of special wonton soup and one for our Mee, V. Stoogas, who doesn’t eat red meat. The soup, IMHO, was a “no”. The wonton was passable, the “broth” unpleasant. It reminded me of egg drop soup. If that’s your thing, this is your soup. Next time, no soup for this Mee.
Four entrees were served. My favorite was the scallops with a very crisp green bean. Excellent! Two chop sticks up!
Other dishes were chicken (tasty), shrimp fried noodles (shrimp was ok, noodles failed) and a roast pork dish (Mee Yan Tsu will detail exact names etc). The roast pork was my second favorite dish.
Then came the sliced oranges (EXCELLENT and refreshing), and of course the fortune cookies:
“Expect a change for the better in work or status in the future”
“Remove organizational impediments and do real work” (umm, did my boss put that in there?)
“One of the first things you should look for in a problem is its positive side”
“Character is to man what carbon is to steel” (That was my fortune. The brothers had to explain it to me. I clearly should have paid more attention in chemistry class!)
Humbly submitted for your consideration,
–Lonnie Goldman aka Mee Magnum (“Cut! Cut!”)