When I visited Houston recently, I found FuFu to be pretty good and cheap too. That area has definitely grown a lot though it's a bit scarier than the last last time I was there...
I'm not a fan of Chinese buffets, as I don't like the quality of the chicken. Some good restaurants if you are interested are Fu's Garden (3 locations in Houston), Kam's (on Montrose), Hin's Garden (on Richmond), Daniel Wong's (on Bellaire), Yao's restaurant or China Stix (on Holcombe). I'm sure people have their own favorites as well. My favorite dishes: Sesame Chicken General Tso's Chicken Ginger Chicken with Brocolli (sp?) Mongolian Beef Kung Pao Chicken Chicken Lo Mein Garlic Shrimp Steamed Pork Dumplings Orange Beef
It depends on what you look for in your food. Sharkfin by itself doesn't have much taste, but what makes it stand apart is it's texture. When it's boiled in the broth, it becomes somewhat soft like noodles, but maintain a certain element of crispness. To me, it's like eating a more el dente version of an el dente rice pasta. There's nothing in the world like it.
Obviously you've never had a California Condor omelette, snow leopard goulash, or chargrilled right whale.
Next time you are at FuFu. check out their seafood and tofu soup. First time I went was in April with my GF and parents. My GF went back by herself a month later and tried this soup. She turned me and my folks onto it, and now we get it every time we go. It's sort of like egg drop soup with only the egg whites and with small pieces of cut up seafood in it. It's really good.
It's NOT easy to learn to appreciate the delicacy and tastiness of some "exotic" foods one is not familiar with. Many native Chinese probably won't find tender juicy rib-eye steaks all that appealing. Most likely they will be turned off by the sight of "bloodiness" appearance that comes with the prime cut steaks carefully grilled to medium-rare. Some people won't touch prosciutto, an Italian delicacy, mainly because it's raw meat. Heck, back in the old days in New England, lobsters were considered junk food mainly fed to servants and prisoners. On a related topic, lotus leaves are cheap imitation of bamboo leaves for Chinese rice dumplings.
Surely ain't healthy, but hopefully that's turning around on the 1st. I should've clarified...I can stand vegetables, even like some. But I absolutely hate them in my Chinese food.
I'm a big fan of a dish i had in Chicago at Big Bowl but can't find a good version here. it's a red curried beef with coconut milk and bamboo shoots and other stuff. that was the first time i had non-buffet Chinese food and it totally changed my view on Chinese.
