An Evening of Soup Dumplings and Tennis!
I’m on my way to sunny Florida for HSN’s 24 Hour Craft Day! Be sure to watch starting tomorrow at midnight ET for a brand new Today’s Special, plus new HSN-exclusive crafting essentials from my collection. If you just can’t wait, check out a sneak peak right now on hsn.com.
If you’re a tennis fan, maybe you watched the exciting U.S. Open on television or perhaps had the opportunity of watching some of it live at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York. I was one of those lucky people. In fact, I had an invitation to sit in the President’s Suite of the United States Tennis Association, having been invited by President Jon Vegosen and his wife, Shari and the Board of Directors. The evening of September 6th was the exciting mens’ quarterfinals with Novak Djokovic playing against Juan Martin Del Potro. But, before arriving at the stadium, we stopped for a very satisfying bite to eat in Flushing.
1 Here I am standing at the entrance to the famous noodle house, Nanxiang Xiaolong Bao at 38-12 Prince Street in Flushing.
2 This restaurant is well-known for their fabulous soup dumplings. Nan Xiang is one of the big names in soup dumplings in Shanghai.
3 The highly skilled dumpling-maker ladies looked up from their work when I said 'hello.'
4 Xiaolong Bao are traditionally filled with seasoned pork, like these, but variations include other meats, seafood, and vegetarian fillings. Working together, one lady forms the silky handmade dough while the other two fill and seal the dumplings.
5 The dumplings are placed in stacking bamboo steamer baskets upon bok choy leaves and then cooked in a steamer, like this one.
6 Joining me for these tasty treats was Sarah Carey - Editor-in-Chief of Everyday Food and Kevin Sharkey - Executive Editorial Director Decorating, Home and Style.
7 When eating soup dumplings, you use a traditional Asian soup spoon. Very carefully, you take a little nip of that sublime dough, exposing the flavorful filling and the delicious steaming soup that surrounds that filling.
8 This is what the finished soup dumplings look like - so fabulous!
9 We also ordered steamed vegetable dumplings, which were sealed so beautifully.
10 And delicious sesame noodles
11 And Asian kelp salad - It was a very satisfying meal.
12 Following dinner, it was time for us to get to Arthur Ashe Stadium to watch Novak Djokovic compete against Juan Martin del Potro.
13 The entrance to the President's Suite is located on the Club Level.
14 The stadium was filling up nicely.
15 I couldn't complain about these seats!
16 Juan Martin Del Potro from Argentina readied himself before the match.
17 Del Potro receiving Djokovic's serve
18 Serbian Novak Djokovic was serving very well.
19 During the 2009 season, Djokovic was experiencing technical difficulties with his serve, but with much practice and effort, his serve is now one of his major weapons.
20 Djokovic won the first set 6-2.
21 Del Potro seized his first Grand Slam title at the 2009 US Open, defeating Nadal in the semifinal and Roger Federer in the final. He and Djokovic are the only men to defeat both players in the same Grand Slam tournament.
22 At 6-feet 6-inches, Del Potro is the tallest ever Grand Slam champion.
23 Like Djokovic, Del Potro kept delivering extremely powerful serves.
24 In the second set, Djokovic ended an exciting tiebreaker with a down-the-line backhand, sending him on the way to a 6-2, 7-6 (3), 6-4 victory.
25 The crowd was thrilled with this match!
26 Sitting near us were Barbara Bush and her twin sister Jenna Bush Hager.
27 Can you guess who this spectator is?
28 He was interviewed by tennis broadcaster, Pam Shriver, who is a former tennis player who won 133 top-level titles during the 1980s and 1990s.
29 If you guessed Alec Baldwin, you are correct! Alec is a huge tennis fan and he was seated next to his wife, yoga instructor Hilaria Thomas.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
Fun, fun, fun!!!
Gloria G!!
Posted by: Gloria | September 12th, 2012 at 12:42 am
Martha, what a wonderful blog! I just love tennis! Great seat you had. Also, I've tried the dumplings before at some place a friend took me in China town when I was last in NYC. They are great! Thanks for sharing this blog.
Posted by: KLBrown | September 12th, 2012 at 5:37 am
Martha, it looked like you startled the dumpling makers! I'm sure it made their day you, Sarah and Kevin chose their noodle house to fuel up before heading to the US Open. The dumplings look divine, especially the vegetable ones. I'm very impressed with your seats at the Open, and how fun to see Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Bush, cute girls! Thanks for sharing your outing Martha, by the way, you looked lovely!
Posted by: Cindy F | September 12th, 2012 at 7:54 am
I missed the tennis match - was watching first rounds of PGA which McElroy went on to win on Sunday. I'm glad you enjoyed it from your ideal view. I'll try to stay awake to watch the first hour of your craft show tonight and I hope you enjoy your stay in Florida. The weather looks good on the radar but there's always a chance of afternoon rain. Trish
Posted by: Trish | September 12th, 2012 at 9:04 am
Hi Martha, What a great day coming up today being able to see you on the Today Show this morning and on HSN with your craft products tonight! I love it and will watch the reruns of your TV Shows on Hallmark, also! Thanks again, also for another delightful blog today about "An Evening of Soup Dumplings and Tennis! Being a sprots fan, I love seeing this, too! My favorite sports are baseball and love watching the NY Yankees and our Seattle Mariners as often as possible! The photos of this blog are once again fantastic and I also love all of your comments! How fun that you were at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, NY and was invited by President Jon Vegosen and his wife Shari and got to sit in such a special area to watch the event! I love seeing you in photo #! and you look so happy! Was fun to also see Sarah and Kevin in photo #6! Those dumplings, noodles, and green beans look so delicious! Fun to see photos # 26 to 29 also-charming! Hope you have a great day and have lots of fun in Florida! Off to see The Daily Wag with "Photos of Sharkey by Kevin Sharkey!" Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | September 12th, 2012 at 9:17 am
Oh my Martha! You were just in my neighborhood. Flushing is now becoming Chinatown 2. I have to say the restaurants in this area is fast outpacing Chinatown 1 in the city. There's a hole in the wall next to the Starbucks that sells really good dumplings. Only to go as there are no seats. When I am this area it's so easy to forget you are NYC, let alone America.
We also have riding trails in queens, one near me is forest park as I mentioned to you before.
The queens county farm is one of the nations if not oldest. They sell their goods in the greenmarket at union square on Fridays. During fall the museum offers a variety of activities from hay rides to their popular maize maze. Come holiday time, 18th century recreated dinner is also popular (costumes not required).
There's a lot to do here.
Xoxo
Tim
There's a lot to do here! Come visit us again
Best wishes,
Tim
Posted by: Tim | September 12th, 2012 at 10:31 am
Looking great M!
Posted by: Holiday Baker Man | September 12th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Looks like a lot of fun, first the dumplings and then the match.
Aparna
Posted by: Aparna | September 12th, 2012 at 8:27 pm
Hi, Martha
It's not green beens, Acturally, it's some kind of seeweed.
Grace
Posted by: Grace Lu | September 12th, 2012 at 9:32 pm
Martha,
The dish that you called 'Asian style beans' was actaully 'Chinese style kelp salad!' Hehehe....
Posted by: Charlene | September 13th, 2012 at 7:00 am
This store, is not the old store, his founding shop has now been removed, it is Shanghai's most famous food
Posted by: vedlys | September 14th, 2012 at 12:38 am
The dumplings look absolutely delicous; but my favorite part of the blog was the great photo of Kevin and Sara, two incredibly talented, fascinating individuals!
Posted by: Mary Kay | September 16th, 2012 at 6:36 pm