I love all kinds of food, but Chinese food is one of my favorites. I was excited to learn that there was an authentic Chinese restaurant called Red Pearl in Homewood, Alabama. What surprised me even more is that there is a full size Asian market attached to the restaurant. They had everything from candy and sauces to frozen dumplings that can be made at home.
The restaurant was beautiful inside. It had recently been remodeled. There are wonderful ornate wooden walls that separate different sections and an ornately painted focal wall.
I started off with the pork noodle soup. It was a huge bowl that was perfect for sharing with the table. It was a good thing that I brought my sister with me. The broth was flavorful and had a very faint spice in it. The noodles were like what are found in lo mein and it was a generous portion in this soup. They used a minced pork that was very tender and added additional flavor to the soup. The pieces of chopped up cabbage added texture. I could have easily made this my meal if I was alone.
I was told that I had to try their egg rolls, so I made sure to order a few. They were crispy on the outside. The filling on the inside was full of meat and vegetables. The nice part about these egg rolls was they had a lot of meat on the inside rather than just filling of excess cabbage. I was very pleased with how they tasted and would recommend them too.
My favorite aspect about a Chinese meal is the sharing. Several dishes can be ordered for the table and then shared family style. So my sister and I went for two dishes: chicken lo mein and pork fried rice.
The chicken in the lo mein were nice big pieces of breast meat. They were sautéed so the edges were slightly crispy. The sauce was salty but it was not overwhelming. The noodles had a smoky taste – which came from the hot flame that was used to cook it in the wok.
The plate of fried rice was huge. The pork in the fried rice added a ton of flavor. The Jasmine rice they used stuck together really well with the sauce that was used to season everything. This made it easy for me to eat the rice with chopsticks.
Now naturally we could not finish everything because it was a lot of food. However, Chinese leftovers make for a perfect lunch the next day. I enjoyed everything that we ordered but I only scratched the surface of what they have to offer. I can’t wait to go back and try some of the beef or tofu or perhaps one of my favorite dishes – Chow Fun.
If you are hungry for Chinese and don’t want typical take out, then you need to swing by Red Pearl. You will truly enjoy sitting down and sharing a meal. Visit their website at http://www.superorientalmkt.com/
Enjoy!
T
