We had enjoyed our time in Genoa and the Cinque Terre, but now it was time to head back to Milan. Our train from Genoa to Milan Central took about an hour-and-a-half. Since we had a flight the next morning, I booked a hotel fairly close to the train station.
As for dinner; well that was going to be interesting. I had taken into account the Missus's need for Asian food, but I missed the mark by one day. Still, I had made reservations for dinner at the Michelin listed Mu Dim Sum. After our rather disappointing meal at the 2 Michelin Star A Wong in London earlier during this trip, the Missus really wasn't too excited about this meal. Though I did point out that our previous foray into Chinese here in Milan at Hekfan was pretty good. Still, the Missus obviously didn't want to get Her hopes up.
As we walked to our dinner destination, I was quickly reminded that it was Halloween Eve. I never knew that Europe celebrated Halloween….but now I do.
It was a short four blocks to dinner. The restaurant is quite classy looking and rather dark.
We had a corner table. The service was quite relaxed, only one person spoke Mandarin which the Missus found interesting.
The menu is quite large; so while we looked it over, I started with……well, this is Milan…an Aperol Spritz.
The Missus was fascinated by the tea selection and ordered some tea, which She loved.
They even had a fancy hourglass for timing the tea based on type.
We placed our order and soon enough the Asume Bouche arrived. A tasty version of Million Layer Potato and a crisp-crunchy Fried Chicken "Nugget".
And soon our food started arriving. Things started on a high note as the Sweetbreads with Shiitakes and Shellfish Foam was delici-yoso!!!!
The rich buttery sweetbreads balanced with earth-tender shiitakes dancing in a shellfish based emulsion that was sweet-savory-umami-oceany.
Next up was one of my favorite crustaceans, Mantis Shrimp.
You know how I love Mantis Shrimp, right? The Soy-Sake sauce was light, not overly sweet, and didn't interfere with the wonderful sweet and tender shrimp. My favorite item of the meal.
The Mushroom and Truffle Crystal Dumplings were delicious as well.
The filling was so earthy-savory, with the black truffle flavor coming thru clearly. The wrapper was a bit thick, but had a decent "pull" to them.
The wrapper on the Spicy Duck Ragout was quite good, nice stretch, not brittle.
Didn't care much for the overall flavor as the salt and seasonings overshadowed the duck. It was quite salty.
We got one each of the Regular and the Black Char Siu Bao.
The filling was fairly tender, not overly sweet, very classic seasoning. The regular bao was a bit too wet and doughy. The "Black Bao", obviously made with activated charcoal had an almost gritty-crunchy texture, though the flavor was less sweet, but not substantially different from the "regular" one.
The next three dishes came out all at once.
The Missus was told by the one person who spoke Mandarin that the Char Siu was made from pork neck. We did like the toothsome texture and the strong porkiness.
The pork was nicely seasoned with five spice, white pepper, and salt. Instead of being highly glazed it was sauced which dampened the savory-sweetness a bit; but this was pretty good. The Missus enjoyed the fermented cabbage.
The Tripe was a bit harder than I like, but the flavor of ginger came thru quite nicely.
This was nice and savory and frankly better than many versions I've had here in the states.
The Peking Duck was "almost there". The fat had been nicely rendered, but the skin was still a bit rubbery. The flesh was very tender, the flavors spot on, good gamey-earthy notes, five spice, a hint of sweetness. The dan bing weren't up to the task and tore easily. Still, the duck was not bad at all.
We took the dessert with us to go and the Missus had them to finish up Her evening in our room.
We had enjoyed this meal. Who'd have thought, not one, but two decent Chinese dinners in Milan? The service here was a bit spotty, but the Missus enjoyed the tea, we liked most of the dishes, and would gladly dine here again. And of course….the sweetbreads and mantis shrimp!
MU Dimsum
Via Aminto Caretto 3
Milano, Italy
The next morning, we headed out early, up Via Napo Torriani to Milano Centrale. Passing quite a few interesting things along the way. Like the church pictured below.
That's the Santuario di San Camillo de Lellis, a Catholic Church.
And while there was nothing that would quite match the sculpture L.O.V.E. which I made a point to see earlier during our stay, there is the sculpture below right in front of the Central Station.
It is a work by Michelangelo Pistoletto named The Big Apple of Milan.
While we had flown into Milan landing at Milan Linate Airport, we would be flying out of Milan Malpensa Airport. We caught the first available train from the station to MXP which took about 50 minutes or so.
We were flying out on Air France….you can figure where we were headed right? Anyway, since we had first class tickets, we had use of the lounge which was surprisingly empty.
Which meant I could get some lunch before our flight.
Our next stop was my favorite city in Europe, so I was quite happy!
Thanks for stopping by!
And while the rice was on the dry side and the sauce for the chicken was a bit heavy in the oil department, this was pretty good overall. The skin while a bit on the chewy side had nice flavor and as a while the chicken had been nicely poached as the flesh was quite tender and there were hints of winey-gingery-“fowlness”. One positive for having a rather oil heavy sauce was that it clung nicely to the chicken.
These seemed a bit over-stuffed, but heck, that shrimp was so good, I ain't complaining about proportion this time around.
Well, in terms of the chicken and sauce this was a pleasant surprise! The chicken had been nicely sliced, only two pieces with bones were on the plate; one wing and one part of a leg. The chicken was so moist and tender. But the highlight was definitely the sauce. It's usually too watered down; but this one had a good amount of ginger, but was both aromatic and not over-powering. It had a good amount of seasoning, but the star was the ginger. The chili sauce was way too sweet for me.
As for the other parts. Well, just by looking at that boiled egg you can see the greyish tone to the yolks which means it had been boiled too long. So yes, there was a bitter-sulfuric tinge to the dry and crumbly yolk. If you look closely, you'll see a piece of white-grey matter in the yolk. I took that out and didn't eat it.
Well, the flavor was on the milder side. The skin kind of rubbery. It did better brushed with the jus and put into our air fryer. It was, as with many versions of roast duck these days, very meaty, but quite dry. 
And yes, more pineapple cake to carry back with us. 
The dish came with two sauces which we didn't need. I expected the goose to be gamier than duck, but it wasn't. It did have some nice gaminess, was super tender and moist, and nice and rich. The "smoked", which was more like roasted to me had a stronger flavor profile, though the salted version seemed more moist. Both versions were tender and I'd have this again in a minute!
