After closing for a couple months for a complete renovation, Forbidden City reopened with a bang. Typical of its culinary prowess is the appetizer called the "dim sum sampler," a combination of the most popular items served during Dim Sum, the Asian equivalent of tapas: Sau mai, steamed dumplings stuffed with shrimp and pork; shrimp dumplings; shrimp rolls; stuffed eggplant and pot stickers. Try Mandarin pan-fried noodles as an entrée, but please, save room for dessert, a crispy lotus ball — sticky rice pastry dough shaped into a racquetball-size treat, stuffed with benignly-sweet lotus seed, fried and rolled in toasted sesame seeds. As they say in Chinese: So Fein Mun Ching.
Forbidden City Restaurant, 25778 U.S. 19 N., Clearwater, 727-797-8989.
This article appears in Sep 25 – Oct 1, 2003.