Ping Pong is just two blocks north of the Chinatown/Gallery Place Metro on the Red line, close enough to still be considered a part of Chinatown DC proper. If you’re not entirely sure of this fact, look across the street. Even the Hooters has Chinese script on their sign out front. Have you ever seen Chinese Hooters?

No?

Me neither.

I’m not writing this post to talk about Hooters though, it’s about the latest addition to Chinatown’s actual Chinese food offerings.  I can’t remember the last time that’s happened.  So what makes Ping Pong so great?

Dim Sum.

All.

Day.

Long.

It’s almost my fantasties come true (throw in a pool noodle, a ping pong paddle, lots of bacon grease, and some bunny slippers, and we’re a lot closer).   I love yum cha.  Why?  It’s my gastro-fascination with compartmentalized food, which is clearly a result of my upbringing.  Yum cha was a regular event when I was growing up, so I was frequently exposed to steamed buns, dumplings, all all sorts of delicious Chinese delicacies.  So when Jen and I were walking around town, I made it with no unclear terms that we MUST eat there.

The decor is sleek and modern, outfitted as a modern Chinese teahouse.  Black paneled wood adorns the walls as well as the furniture, and seats are either stools or benches, just like you’d find in China.

Maybe in 3000 BC.

Still, it’s not a discredit to the efforts of the decorator-  everything is tastefully done.  The restaurant has a very open and expansive feeling, and nothing comes off as gaudy or cheap.

The food is admittedly a bit more expensive than what you’d pay at any other local yum cha-ery, and you don’t have quite the same experience.  Little steel cart mavens are not weaving between tables, hawking steel containers of delight. Tour buses do not drop off traveling, hungry, bug-eyed Chinese tourists here.  The bathrooms are not nuclear hazardous waste dump sites.

Definitely not quite the same experience.

The restaurant here wasn’t completely quiet, but perhaps us coming in at the tail-end of lunchtime helped.  We were immediately seated, and I dove into the food menu, as Jen did the same with the drinks.

It’s hard to recall exactly everything we ordered, as yum cha usually involves a large wide swath of destruction reaped on the food as soon as it’s brought to the table.  Jen and I did just that, like two raptors viciously tearing into a fallen T-Rex.  a raptor tearing into a T-Rex, and an ankylosaurus, gently nibbling on some trees.  We found it easiest to each go with a set menu that had a variety of things to try, and then added a few additional dishes a la carte.  All the fixed menus come with two baked vegetable buns, stuffed with mooli and spring onions.

Jen had the Vegetarian Lunch (2 golden vegetable dumplings, 1 vegetable bao (white bun) , 2 spicy vegetable dumplings, 1 vegetarian sticky rice parcel) and I went with something, well, more appropriately named to my fixation on yum cha.  The ‘Dumpling Fix’.

We added several other dishes, like the Char Siu Bao (BBQ Pork Bun) for me, some vegetarian spring rolls for the two of us to share, and even some Valhalla Chocolate Buns for dessert.

I was very happy with the food here.  The dishes are excellent, and some of the modern twists and uses of high quality ingredients are evident with every bite.  Jen enjoyed the food as well, but maybe not to the same levels of fanaticism displayed by me.

I’d highly recommend Ping Pong to anyone who enjoys Chinese food (and who doesn’t enjoy Chinese food? Maybe the Taiwanese)  and the all-day availability is a huge bonus.  Steamed prawn dumplings at 11am?  No problem.  BBQ pork buns for a mid-afternoon snack?  No problem.  Sticky rice parcels at 9pm?  No problem.  A Chinese hooker who claims she has your baby after your last visit to Shanghai three years ago?

Well.  That’s definitely a problem.

So what gives?  Why is this place so different from your typical American yum cha establishments?

It turns out that Ping Pong is actually a chain, imported straight over the pond from London, where they boast 12 locations throughout the city full of limey blokes, wankers, and chavs (just kidding, I actually love the Brits).  And the universal truth of British gastronomy still stands- The only good food you’ll find in London is either going to be Indian, Middle Eastern, or Chinese.

Ping Pong can be seen on a map here.

Recommended for:

• Dumpling whores
• Chinese food lovers
• Vegetarians
• Germaphobes

Not Recommended for:

• Budget diners
• Chopstick klutzes
• Zone Dieters
• Paleo heads

Not being a devout vegetarian myself, I wasn’t quite sure how well this recipe, and even Jen had her reservations as I was making it for dinner the other night.  It primarily consists of onions, beets, brown rice and beans.  So how does that really stand up to being a burger substitute?

Pretty well, actually.  Jen really took a liking to these with every bite she had.  The beans provide a good amount of protein, and well, let’s not talk about carb counts here.  We also subbed the bread out for a large leaf of boston lettuce as a wrap, which helped provide an added crisp texture to the veggie burger.  The real key to making these, though, is a cast-iron skillet.  If you haven’t gotten one yet, I can’t reiterate how you should go buy one. Now.  Put the baby down and go by a Lodge cast iron skillet.  They are ubercheap, and come in handy more than you’d think.  The burgers get a nice bit of crust to them when being seared on one of these, and the creaminess of brie on top of these burgers make it a favorite on Jen’s list of foods that I make for her.

One other note-  the beets give these things a deep red color…very reminiscent of some very bloody meat.  It might turn off some of the more hardcore vegans, but trust me when I say there is not an ounce of meat in this.

 

So here we go:

Best-Ever Beet and Bean Burgers (recipe from the Kitchn)

Inspired by the veggie burgers at Northstar Cafe in Columbus, Ohio
makes about 6 burgers

• 1/2 cup brown rice
• 1 onion, diced small
• 3 large red beets (about 1 pound), diced small
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons parsley, minced
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
• salt and pepper
• slices of brie
• 1 medium sized head of boston lettuce

Directions:

1. Bring four cups of water to a boil. Add a handful of salt and the rice, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook the rice until it’s a little beyond al dente. You want it a little over-cooked, but still firm. This should take about 35-40 minutes. Drain the rice and set it aside.
2. Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, reduce the heat to medium, and cook until the onions are translucent and softened. Stir in the beets. Cover the pot and cook until the beets are completely tender, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and cook until it is fragrant, about 30 seconds. Deglaze the pan using the cider vinegar.
3. Empty the black beans into a large bowl and use a fork to mash them up a bit. Add the cooked rice, the beet and onion mixture, the lemon juice, the olive oil, and all the spices. Stir to combine and then taste for seasonings. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once it tastes the way you like it, add the flour and stir until you see no more dry flour.
4. Heat a cast-iron skillet over the highest heat. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil – the oil should completely coat the bottom of the pan. When you see the oil shimmer and it flows easily, the pan is ready.
5. Using your hands, scoop up about a cup of the burger mixture and shape it into a patty between your palms. Your hands will get very, very beeted.  Set it in the pan, where it should begin to sizzle immediately. (If it doesn’t sizzle, wait a minute or two before cooking the rest of the burgers.) Shape and add as many more patties as will fit in your pan. Once all the patties are in the pan, reduce the heat to medium-high.
6. Cook the patties for 2 minutes, then flip them to the other side. You should see a nice crust on the cooked side. If they break apart a little when you flipped them, just reshape them with the spatula – they’ll hold together once the second side is cooked. Add enough brie to cover the burger if your a vegetarian, go naked with the burger if you’re a vegan. Cook the second side for another 2 minutes.
7. Serve the veggie burgers on a lettuce leaf, and serve as a wrap!
8. Cooked burgers should be eaten that same day. You can also save leftover mix in the fridge for up to a week and cook just one or two burgers as you want them.

It took me a good while to prepare the burgers, but if you’re a vegetarian or vegan, they’re without a single doubt in my mind, worth it.  The taste is fantastic, and the burgers are filling, even to a carnivorous bike riding raptor such as myself.  Do it…and don’t skip out on the brie.  Luckily, we had a small wheel of brie on hand:

 

Enjoy!