maxim and Belfast Chinese food

Happy Thursday! And welcome back! In case you were curious where I’ve been the past few days, this past weekend was my boyfriend’s birthday (a surprise Hometoberfest “party”), I finished the desk I’ve spent so much time refurbishing lately (photos at the bottom of this post), and I’ve been recording two separate audiobooks I was hired to narrate. Things are all coming to a head this week with deadlines, so that’s why I’ve been a little under the gun for time! How are you? Are you taking time to check-in with yourself and give yourself the care, love, and attention you need? If not, it’s perfectly okay to set aside time for yourself to do whatever you want/need to do during ‘me time.’ Maybe your thing is yoga, meditation, running, paddle boarding, reading, tending to a pallet garden you built, sewing some pillowcases for your home decor, making a dress to match your homemade mask, paddle boarding, or even playing animal crossing with family and friends, but whatever you want to do during your assigned ‘me time,’ make sure you’re doing it and giving yourself a break.

The last we met, I wrote about the amazing experience I had seeing Shane Lowry win The 148th Open Championship at Royal Portrush. If you didn’t get a chance to read that story, I would encourage you to click here to catch up. It was a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I wish everyone I know could have been there! I also did not advance to the Finals of the Maxim Cover Girl contest, but I recorded the video posted below and posted it to my Instagram and Facebook on Monday, celebrating you and all your help in getting me all the way to the Semi-Finals! Today, however, I wanted to spend some time exploring a restaurant I frequented on more than one occasion, one that might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Northern Ireland.

The reason I say it might be the thing that springs to mind when I mention Belfast, Northern Ireland is because it is actually a Chinese restaurant. The Red Panda is a white tablecloth Chinese restaurant on Great Victoria Street - not all that far from the train and bus station. It was a good choice for me to stop and grab some food on my way home from The Open because of its proximity to the bus station back to Dublin, its affordability and quality, and also because I had eaten there before and knew what to expect.

The first time I went to Red Panda was actually with my best friend from high school and her now fiancé after we did that Game of Thrones filming locations bus tour. We all sat down for dinner, exhausted from the day, giggling over her fiancé editing that one cave photo on his phone so that I could look like I was birthing a shadow baby. Because I had such a fun time with my friends, eating some cuisine outside the norm of what’s usually offered in Ireland and Northern Ireland, it was especially nice to stop in again after The Open with an hour-and-a-half to spare.

The food is good, too! My boyfriend and I were talking really recently about Chinese food because both he and my family really enjoy it; I, however, tend to be a bit more picky. I don’t know whether it’s the MSG or if it’s fried, but I usually get a stomach ache whenever I eat it. When I was in Belfast with friends, though, I don’t recall getting any sort of stomach ache, which was all the more reason I decided to stop again on my own! We didn’t experiment too much with what we ordered, though there are a lot of fun things on the menu! We ended up doing a couple traditional chicken dishes, rice plates, and lo mein, and everything we ordered was delicious. If I’m ever back in Belfast and have a hankering for Chinese food, I know where I’ll stop!

Have you ever been in another country and craved something totally other than the local speciality? Let me know! Subscribe in the e-mail submission box below and reach out, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and reach out to me on the “contact” page. I’m so happy you're here and that I’ve been receiving a lot of really incredible stories, questions, and feedback from a community all over the globe! Other people’s stories that I’ve gotten to read via e-mail, text, tweet, DM, etc. recently bring me such smiles, and I am so grateful for all of it! I hope I get to hear all about whatever stories you’ve been thinking about as we’ve been on this virtual journey together! Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you have any restaurants/eateries/pubs/coffee shops/ice cream joints/theatres/lookout spots you would recommend in other countries or even in your current home town or city, I'm absolutely 100% all ears!! I couldn’t do this without you! So THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart, truly, thank you.

Sincerely,

Johny

P.S. - here are those desk photos as promised!

P. P.S. - If you want to catch up from the beginning on this series of travel adventures, here's a cheat sheet to the posts (in order in which they were published):

1. Won't you join me?

2. grateful for starbucks and sandymount strand

3. Once Upon a December in the National Gallery

4. plant a smooch for that gift of gab

5. may the 4th be with you: Dingle style

6. cinco de mayo: the best Mexican food in Dublin

7. pizza in roma

8. mussolini’s window and the philosophers’ metro stop

9. father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife

10. it's the vatican, not the vatican't

11. spoiler alert: i did not lose my hand

12. more pizza and gelato and Neptune, oh my