I had just gone to Sampan for a regular meal, but after finding out about their happy hour, I decided to go check that out as well. There are a number of small plates for $2 and drink specials too. What’s to lose with $2 appetizers?
One of the cocktail specials… fruity… tasty… We got some seats at the kitchen bar, so you could watch all the action.
Up top we have the scallop with haricot vert, mustard, and almond. Delicious, and well cooked. Bottom is the chicken and shrimp spring roll. They serve it with mustard, but I really wish they just gave me duck sauce. I’m terrible that way. The roll it self was really good though.
The chicken dumplings with soy, sesame, scallions, and radish. Meh.
The chicken satay. This was bland. It was beyond bland. The peanut sauce was fine, but the chicken tasted like nothing. And the chicken had crunchy bits in it. I did not enjoy that. What was it, knuckle or something? Please skip this.
The korean bbq rib, which I got before, and liked before. I still like it! It’s still great!
The lamb chop! I’m not even into lamb, but this was my favorite dish of the night. For real! It’s got a little panko breadcrumb action going on with ginger and yakitori sauce.
The kobe beef hot dog! So yeah, I paid $2 for a hot dog. But the hot dog was made with kobe beef! But it still tasted just like a regular beef hot dog. It was a good dog though, don’t get me wrong. They serve it with mustard but I wish they would have just given me some ketchup. I know ketchup on a hot dog is for weenies, but that’s what I prefer! They broil these little dogs so the outside of them bursts when you bite into em and the rolls also have a bit of crunch. I would get this again! As far as happy hour deals go, this is a pretty darn good one! Get it while it lasts!

P wanted to get together and have lunch and suggested Tiffin. Since I had just gone there the weekend before, I had to kindly request another choice. So he suggested “that asian place next to whole foods”. That meant Sang Kee. I was in! It was pretty late for lunch so there weren’t very many people there. Outdoor seating was set up too. They asked us inside or out, and I almost laughed in their faces. It was a terribly hot and humid day. Inside, please!  So P got the Roasted Pork and Roasted Duck and Vegetable On White Rice. Yes, they get extremely creative with the names of their dishes here! It’s a giant plate heaped with rice, a bunch of greens, a crapload of roasted pork, and a sh!tton of roasted duck.

I usually always get the noodle bowls here, but it was just too darn hot for any kind of hot steaming bowl. So I opted still for noodles, but not the hot soupy kind. So I got the chow fun with the roasted pork. I love the roasted pork there, so I was happy to chow down on a whole bunch of that. And a wide flat rice noodle is probably my favorite noodle. I’m a big fan of this place, you all know that. I would be happy to eat lunch here all the time! The only annoying thing is that they don’t have a separate lunch menu. So there aren’t any lunch deals. But their prices are fairly reasonable anyhow (at least for dinner), so it’s not that big of an issue.

Ever since Han Dynasty in Old City opened, I’d been wanting to go. I’d gone to the location in Royersford and loved it. And ever since Han had introduced his chef’s tasting menu event on the first monday of each month, I’d also been wanting to go. Random things kept me going to the first few, but I forced myself to make it to the May tasting. And boy oh boy, was it ever an event! Please prepare yourself for immense amounts of food. We had 19 dishes come out. Yes, 19 courses of amazing food. Also prepare yourself for a long dinner. It will take all night, so if you have somewhere to go, forget about it. You’ll be there until after 10PM. I had a great time sitting with complete strangers (hello dining companions!). It’s fun because everyone is there to have a good time and eat good food. I left stuffed beyond belief with a doggie bag. Yes, it was spicy. Yes, I would recommend it to everyone! If I knew the name of the dish, I included it, if not, sorry! We had no idea what we were going to be eating, the dishes just started coming out. Han just brought out whatever he felt like making, and some of what he brought out is not on the normal menu. And that was all part of the fun! So let’s just get started.

Dish 1 – Cold – Spicy Crispy Cucumber – This was a cold dish with sliced cucumbers in a sweet and spicy dressing/sauce. What a way to start. I absolutely loved this.

Dish 2 – Cold – Beef & Tripe in Chili Oil – This was another cold dish of sliced beef and tripe in a spicy and oily sauce. This was so spicy that it made my tongue feel funny. Funny like it was all puffed up, which it wasn’t. And when you drank water after this, it made the water taste sour. But the water was just fine. Don’t be at all concerned that it has tripe in it, it’s very good, and I don’t normally even eat tripe.

Dish 3 – Cold – Pork Belly in Garlic Sauce. This was another cold dish of sliced pork belly in a garlic sauce. It wasn’t particularly spicy, but it was good. Yeah, it’s fatty, but isn’t that the point of pork belly?

Dish 4 – Cold – Spicy Green Bean Noodles in Black Beans Sauce – These are rectangles of green bean sheets with black bean sauce. The green bean sheets are kind of like a tough jello in consistency, but they do not taste like anything. Instead, they take the flavor of whatever they’re in. I’m used to this because we have a similar “noodle” in korean food. In this case, the green bean sheets were doused in a spicy black bean based sauce. There was a bit of bitterness in this, and we’re assuming it’s from the black beans, but we couldn’t be sure. I liked it, despite the minor bitterness.

Dish 5 – Warm – Fried Taiwanese Sausage – This is just slices of taiwanese sausage and garlic. This is actually in the hot appetizer section of the menu, but it wasn’t really hot or anything, more like warm or lukewarm. I absolutely love this sausage. It was sweet and savory. I need to figure out where I can buy this!

Dish 6 – Cold – Spicy Green Bean Noodles – These are the same green bean sheets, but they’ve been sliced thinner into udon noodle sized noodles. They’re tossed with chili oil. Another great noodley dish! Chili oil is a common theme that runs through the Han Dynasty menu. So just get used to it.

Dish 7 – Warm- Dumplings in Chili Oil – These were pork(?) dumplings in a sweet chili oil. I loved these a lot. I wish there had been more to go around! These were not very spicy.

Dishes 8 and 9 – Cold – Cold Sesame Noodles and Cold Noodles w/ Chili Oil – Next up were two noodle dishes. The first was a cold sesame noodle dish which was not spicy. The second was a cold noodle dish with chili oil which was very spicy! They were the same noodles prepared two different ways, and both were great.

Dish 10 – Hot – This was our first real hot (temperature) dish. This was pork belly again, but thickly sliced into hunks, with a somewhat sweet, savory, and of course, spicy sauce. It was another winner in my book. These were less fatty, so more meaty.

Dish 11 – Hot – Continuing on with the hot dishes, this is a spicy pork and wood ear mushroom dish. I liked this dish because wood ear mushrooms are really the only kind of mushrooms I like!

Dish 12 – Hot – Cumin Lamb – This was cumin crusted lamb stir fried with bell peppers, hot peppers, and onions. This was spicy, but in a completely different way than any of the other dishes, and extremely heavy on the cumin! The server said it was a personal favorite. It’s the one dish that didn’t taste very chinese to me, but it was still great.

Dish 13 – Hot – Another not spicy dish! These were some kind of honey and walnut shrimp. It was a nice, sweet, and not-at-all spicy respite from the many other fire dishes. And who doesn’t love deep fried shrimp? The slightly candied walnuts were so good, I cleaned the plate of them!

Dish 14 – Hot – Fish Dry Pot Style – This was lightly battered flounder cooked in a spicy hot pot sauce with black mushrooms, bamboo shoots, snow peas, and bell peppers. Han says most chinese restaurants use flounder because it holds itself together well and will not fall apart. What a nice little fact to know because I love me some flounder.

Dish 15 – Hot – Chicken Dry Pepper Style – Chicken is triple flash fried in a mixture of peppercorns, sesame, and dry peppers. These were sort of like spicy popcorn shrimp! But of course, a hundred times better! Even though it was fried, it wasn’t greasy at all.

Dish 16 – Hot – Chicken Double Cooked Style – Chicken is stir fried with leeks and hot peppers in a black bean sauce with chili oil. A simple dish with such few ingredients, but that’s all it needs.

Dish 17 – Hot – A simple stir fried green beans dish. This was only mildly spicy, but majorly good. I love simple veggies like this, especially because I totally dig green beans.

Dish 18 – Hot – Beef Hot Sauce Style – This was one of my favorite of the night. Beef is stir fried with cabbage and celery in an authentic Sichuan hot sauce with dry peppers and garlic. This one has a sort of gravy type of sauce.

Dish 19 – Hot – Bok Choy w/ Black Mushrooms – This was our last and final dish, a hot and non-spicy veggie one, of black mushrooms and baby bok choy in a gravy. I don’t like mushrooms but I ate up the bok choy, even though I was beyond stuffed by the time this last dish came around.

Really, this whole night was intense. It was just dish after delicious and spicy dish. And as much as my stomach could not take it and as late as it got, I did not want it to end. Everyone was worrying about the aftermath of this evening, but I did not have any issues (sorry, tmi!). I would definitely do it again… after maybe fasting for a week in preparation! No matter how little of each dish you eat, you’re still eating 19 dishes. And man, this stomach was not built for that kind of quantity! If your stomach is ready, then don’t miss this deal! Thank you Han for a great night!