Sweet Rice Sausage from Lu’s Seafood 66 (38-18 Prince Street, Flushing, 718-321-0904)
Lu’s $7.95 sweet rice sausage is proof that all foods should be stuffed into a casing.
Here, a thin-yet-chewy skin gives shape to a quasi-cylindrical mash of sticky rice, peanuts, garlic.
The flavor is similar to that of Congee Village’s baked rice with chinese sausage, but tastes as if that dish were tucked into a sugary, meaty wrapper — just masterful.
A shout-out must also be given to the shredded beef with chili($10.95), which abounds with julienned peppers and is one of the few truly hot dishes we’ve come across in our adventures. The loofa vegetable with baby shrimp, at $11.95, exemplifies the rare occasion when a cook serves a white wine-based garlic gravy that doesn’t seem like “lobster sauce.”
Apparently, this assortment got the approval of other diners.
A man and his wife, sitting at a nearby table, yelled to a buddy and me: “You guys know how to order!”
“Why?” we asked.
“Most people,” he bemoaned, “get noodle soup.”
(He and his wife, who were from Taiwan, were themselves eating a thick curry chicken stew).
We didn’t really know what was wrong with noodle soup per se, but were happy to have done something well. Besides, who wouldn’t accept a totally confusing compliment?