(no subject)

"The coppersmith's salamander rarely chose to speak from his nest in the center of the forgefire, but still the coppersmith counted himself lucky: the blacksmith's salamander never spoke at all."

(Oh, hey, look! A short story! Be very quiet or we'll scare it away....)

Dining: Jade Garden

Dim sum is one of the reasons I'm very grateful that I don't have many dietary restrictions and I'm not especially picky. Most of the pleasure of it comes from the fact that the food is wonderful, but I also am delighted to pick out a dumpling or roll on a whim and not know what it is until I bite in.

We went to get dim sum for lunch, at a place in the International District (Jade Garden, for locals). I'm not sure what half of what I ate was, but it was mostly of the genre 'food wrapped in stuff.' We chose, at semi-random based on what looked good from the outside, crunchy eggrolls, chopped seasoned pork and peanuts wrapped in dumpling dough so thin it was nearly transparent and steamed, thick fluffy pork buns, shrimp in a crispy sesame shell, thin flat packets of dough (with the consistency of very soft noodles) and a filling I couldn't identify (but that was pretty darn tasty) swimming in a lovely thin sauce, and broccoli lightly drizzled with a salty-savory sauce. And jasmine tea. We wanted little fruit tartlets for dessert, but were too full to move already.

Yum. I'm already looking forward to going back.