New Vegetable Friends around a Lazy Susan at Xiao Long Bao House

I made new vegetable friends on the highway last night.

I was expecting to make new dumpling friends at Xiao Long Bao House on 147th in Shoreline, and I did: boiled dumplings, pan-fried bao, steamed buns, and wontons with chili sauce--all filled with variations of pork, cabbage, and shrimp, wrapped by a dumpling maker who worked behind a glass window in view of all 15 or so tables in the restaurant. 

The dumplings were great. They really were. I'm so glad I met them. 

But the cauliflower.

The cauliflower, everyone. 

Let me introduce you to my new favorite friend on Highway 99:

It's called Dry Pot Cauliflower with Pork ($16.99), and and it comes to the table in a miniature wok over a small chafing dish flame. I'm just getting to know it, so the following is what I learned when I got home and eagerly Googled How do you make dry pot cauliflower? because, well, you would have done the same if you had been there.

Chinese cauliflower, with its longer stems and chewier texture, is cooked over high heat with ginger, garlic, peppers, and marinated pork belly until everything is crispy, then sugar and liquids (soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, and water) are added. To finish, it's covered and steamed until the sauce reduces and caramelizes.

The result of Xiao Long Bao House's technique is precise tenderness, with just enough of the somewhat sweet sauce on the bottom of the pot to ensure you don't take it for granted. 

I felt like I had never before met a cauliflower. It's that good. All six friends with me agreed; in fact, the cauliflower kept Lazy-Susan-ing away from me, out of reach. But I couldn't be mad at my friends for this--I needed them to gently redirect my attention away from the cauliflower and on to other things, like the Dry-Fried String Beans ($14.99).

I ordered the beans (which you do online at your table, with help from the extremely kind staff if needed) because I had overheard a conversation at the table next to me when I arrived 15 minutes early. A man was telling his friend, "We have to get the beans again because they are the best beans in the city."

This is why my friends mostly leave the ordering up to me--because I do research, arrive early, and eavesdrop. Ordering for a group is a responsibility I don't take lightly. In this case, my work paid off; I'm pretty sure you could put any order of string beans in the city up against these perfectly charred, garlicky and somewhat sweet ones. 

Now we'll spin to the crisp, cold cucumber with garlic ($6.99). I don't know what else to say about these cucumbers, other than they made me think of the first line of the poem "In Common" by Czeslaw Milosz..."What is good? Garlic."

In this case, lots and lots of garlic. And, after you eat these cucumbers, only talk to the people who know why a poem about so many good things has to start with garlic.

It's time to leave our new vegetable friends and rotate to another plant-based highlight: the Fried Tofu with Spiced Salt ($13.99). I ordered it because it sounded crazy, and it was; it was impossibly crispy on the outside and impossibly soft on the inside.

This tofu would change the most hardened, anti-tofu person's made-up-mind. It didn't even need a sauce or anything--the "spiced salt," and sprinkle of sauteed onions and garlic gave it all the flavor it needed. We agreed that it should be ordered for dine-in only; you'll want to eat this searing hot, straight from the fryer.

We'll take one last fun turn to our new sweet, vinegary Cilantro with Peanuts friend ($6.99). I love that this dish lists cilantro first, peanuts second (with apologies to all of you cilantro "soap" people!). What a vibrant combination, and a great texture contrast to everything else on the table. 

As my old friends and I sat around our circular table with our quickly disappearing new vegetable friends, I thought about the "Join or Die" film screening event I had attended at the Edmonds Waterfront Center a few days before. This 2023 film follows scientist Robert Putnam's research on the decline in American communities, and concludes with a call to action: "join a club." It doesn't matter what kind of club, just join with other people who love doing what you love to do: biking, baking, music, service, chess, improv, or...eating on the six lanes of deliciousness that is Highway 99. 

This film made me realize I have started a club, and I didn't even mean to.

Our EAT99 Club values all of the amazing cooks that line our highway, and shares a desire to learn more about the cultures that weave our communities together with so much depth and richness. Our club loves to make new food friends on the busy road between Everett and Seattle. 

According to the research, doing this together will actually increase our lifespan. What a revelation...by having fun eating together, EAT99 Club members will live longer!

When I reflect on our "meeting" at Xiao Long Bao House, I see it clearly: at first we spent time processing our disillusionment with all that has happened in our country over these past weeks, and our sinking feelings of existential dread. When the food came we shifted our focus to the vegetables, then on to a lively conversation about books and film and travel. We laughed a lot. We parted ways feeling joyful, connected and full, with plans for a future meeting (with a different agenda*).

Just by focusing on joy and gratitude and cauliflower and cilantro with peanuts, we will bring more good things to our lives as this great world spins. 

A joy multiplication formula involving the Lazy Susan model of friendship--what a great way to enter into a season of gratitude.

Homework:

Start your own EAT99 Charter Club and begin by eating at a round table with a Lazy Susan at Xiao Long Bao House.

Extra Credit: Enjoy this Garlicky Poem!

In Common (1991)
by Czeslaw Milosz, translated by Anthony Milosz

What is good? Garlic. A leg of lamb on a spit. 
Wine with a view of boats rocking in a cove.
A starry sky in August. A rest on a mountain peak.

What is good? After a long drive water in a pool and a sauna.
Lovemaking and falling asleep, embraced, your legs touching hers.
Mist in the morning, translucent, announcing a sunny day.
I am submerged in everything that is common to us, the living. 
Experiencing this earth for them, in my flesh.
Walking past the vague outline of skyscrapers? anti-temples?
In valleys of beautiful, though poisoned, rivers.

*Our next EAT99 eating agenda at Xioa Long Bao House: Chong-Qing Style Grilled Fish, Spicy-Fried Shrimp, Stir-Fried Clams, and Fried Fish Fillet with Spicy Salt (if it was that good on the tofu...) 

Xiao Long Bao House
14725 Aurora Ave N, Shoreline, WA 98133
(206) 457-4483

Open every day, 10:30am--10:00pm

xiaolongbaohouse.com