Thursday, November 10, 2011.
Five Happiness. Broadway.
Thirties again this morning, but no frost. The leaves are tumbling down in occasional blizzards. The water oaks are the major contributors. The brilliant leaves of the Chinese tallow trees are beginning to let go. The black tupelos are nearly bare, but they're always the first to give up their leaves. That's depressing, but I buck my mood up by noting that the tupelos were the only trees to show zero damage from Katrina. Every other tree species at the Cool Water Ranch sustained many victims.
I have been notified by my friendly mechanic that the hum I'm hearing in my front end is not an alignment, wheel-balancing, or CV joint problem, but a deteriorating transmission. He says that another issue I complained about--that my back-up lights aren't coming on--is also due to the transmission's falling apart. Now I must decide whether to spend the thousands this will cost to repair or get a new car. I've only had it eight years, for 175,000 miles!
Mary Leigh and I went, on her request, to the Five Happiness for our weekly dinner. I haven't been there on over a year. The menu and premises are among the slickest in town among the Chinese restaurant community. The trick here is finding the dishes that break out of the quotidian. Most people who come here order the basics, and the kitchen slings them out.
Mary Leigh is such a customer. Fried wontons, General Tso's chicken, and pork fried rice. She noted that the General's favorite dish is here rendered without much in the way of red pepper. I told her that we could remedy that quickly by asking for some red pepper sauce and stirring it in. But she has a curious reluctance to ask for any variation on the standard way restaurants their food. So I got the red pepper sauce for my dish, which made it okay for her to also use it in hers.
I started with a pile of very large pot stickers. Less delicate than what I'm used to, these were at least actually pot-stuck, not deep-fried as some places have taken to doing.What I had was subgum bean curd (tofu) in a claypot with vegetables, chicken, pork, and shrimp. I think the dish would have been better with one of those three instead of all, but I let it go just to keep my mind open to that popular combination.
We speculated about what the Five Happinesses are. The waiter didn't know. My theory is that it refers to the four standard flavors (sweet, salty, bitter, and sour) plus the Asian fifth flavor, a savory meat protein taste. (The Japanese famously call this fifth flavor "umami."
Mary Leigh also noticed that both the pork fried rice and the claypot used the same pork that's Chinese-barbecued, glazed, and served as an appetizer. This isn't the only place that does that, but it's not something I especially like. Wish they'd start with raw pork.
I left the restaurant with the usual feeling I have about Five Happiness: it's well above average among Chinese restaurants, but seems to have capabilities far beyond what it usually shows. That is due to the tremendous business the place does. We had to wait fifteen minutes for a table, which is typical. And as many people came and went with take-out orders as ate in.
I think I may have impressed Mary Leigh by routing our way back to Tulane down Broadway all the way from Washington Avenue. She didn't know Broadway went that far. I wish I hadn't thought of it. The street is in terrible shape for most of its distance, most particularly between South Claiborne and St. Charles, where traveling faster than fifteen miles per hour is unbearable.
Five Happiness. Mid-City: 3605 S Carrollton. 504-482-3935.
It's over three years since a day was missed in the Dining Diary. To browse through all of the entries since 2008, go here.
