Feel Better Takeout From Red Pearl

Sometimes, you just need food.  I have spent the last week with a cold and spent yesterday collapsed on the couch.

Wednesday night, I had RDADoc's delicious brisket, but then I relapsed over night.  We cancelled services with my family yesterday, so I missed out on the lox and whitefish that had been our centerpoint.

I barely ate until 8 pm when Mrs. HowChow arrived home with takeout from Red Pearl in Columbia.  I wasn't hungry when she woke me to ask about dinner.  I wasn't hungry when she ordered.  I wasn't hungry when the came back.

Then I ate soup and two plates of Chinese food as soon as she served.

Hot and sour soup, kung pao chicken, beef szechuan, and crispy walnut shrimp.  She stayed away from the authentic Szechuan menu because she didn't want anything profoundly spicy for her patient, but the food and the heat were exactly what I needed.

Until that point, my day had tasted like fever and hand sanitizer.  The soup broke that up, and the beef and chicken both had good flavors, light heat and none of the cloying sauces that turns me off most Chinese food.  Even Red Pearl's American-style dishes are drier than most Chinese restaurants.  The sauces coat the meat, but they don't soak into the rice.

Pho from An Loi had been our go-to takeout when we need to feel better.  But Red Pearl hit the spot.

Red Pearl started dim sum last month, and I'll post the first report next week.  Stay tuned and cover your mouth when you cough.  Cough in your elbow like Elmo.