food challenge: 2 of 239

Last Thursday, Eric and I went to Meritage for dinner. I've walked by a million times and always comment about how cute it looks, but have never been until now. I'm so glad I finally decided to give it a try because it's now one of my favorite restaurants in the city!

The dish that was on the "list" were the dumplings. They were panned fried and stuffed with pork and shiitake mushrooms served with what tasted like a hoisin sauce. They were delicious, but I do have to say that they're not my favorite dumplings in the city. I personally love the dumplings at David's Mai Lai Wah in Chinatown - they come with this ginger sauce that is incredible.

We also got the scallops as an appetizer which were REALLY yummy. They were pan seared and came with sauteed Maitake mushrooms, bok choy and black truffle. They were perfectly cooked - Eric's favorite dish of our meal. I thought they were great, but my favorite part of the meal was....

...the Korean fried chicken dinner! Doesn't that picture make your mouth water? OMG, I want some right this second!! I've been telling everyone about it and can't stop having dreams about it! It's actually a dinner for two and includes six pieces of chicken, asian style cole slaw, sesame spinach, pickled carrots and daikon and an extra large can of Sapporo. And you get it all for $25 - that's only $12.50 per person! However, I probably wouldn't have been full if we hadn't also gotten the other dishes. But I can eat. A lot. So what makes the chicken so good? First off, its double fried so it's extra crispy. Then there's the sauce that I could probably eat by the spoonful - just kidding (maybe). It's this amazing combination of sweet and spicy - I was literally licking my fingers. This is not the first time I've had Korean fried chicken - I went with a few friends to Momofuku in NYC to try their fried chicken dinner which included Korean fried chicken as well as Old Bay seasoned frried chicken. I have to say that Meritage's chicken is just as good if not better! The downside is that this meal is only available on Thursday nights and its a summertime special and next week is the last week it will be offered:( So if you want to give this a try, make your reservation now! I did - I'm going back next week at 8!!

spinach w/pickled veggies