Bimodal eating in NYC

Heartland roasts

2011-03-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

An interesting quote from The Food of Italy by Waverly Root, a book I picked up from our apartment building shared library:

The heartland of a country — that is, the area where its essence has persisted in the strongest and most living fashion — seems usually to be marked by two characteristics among others. Its people speak the national language in its purest form, and, a particularly rather more difficult to account for, cook the most robust form of food, meat (especially beef), in the simplest manner, without fuss or frills. The purest French is spoken in Touraine, noted for its roasts. The purest Spanish is spoken in Castille, also noted for its roasts. The purest Italian is spoken in Tuscany, noted for its grilled beef.

Bo Ssäm at Momofuku

2011-02-26T22:20:00.000-08:00

I went to eat at Momofuku today, with my friend Ben and 7 other of his friends. We ordered the Bo Ssäm, which is a large pork butt. Evidently a pork butt is actually shoulder. I have no idea what term you would use if you wanted refer to the actual butt-meat of the pork.

From Momofuku with Ben

At any rate, it came with a large mound of lettuce, along with a few sauces: the classic Korean fermented bean red sauce, a scallion and ginger oil-based sauce, kimchi, a spicy carrot sauce, and sea salt. A large bowl of rice also came. Along with all that came a platter of oysters. In fact, all that I just mentioned was doubled. Two bowls of lettuce, two sets of sauces, two rice, two plates of oysters. Finally, one giant pork shoulder came out, a long with enough tongs for everyone. The meat was very tender, and just could be gently pulled off. The idea was to take some shreds of meat, put it in a lettuce wrap along with sauce, an oyster, and rice. The pork and oyster was a really interested combination that worked surprisingly well. "It's double treif!" one of my eating companions joyously exclaimed.

From Momofuku with Ben

The shoulder could probably feed 6 people without any other appetizers. We had probably a few too many appetizers, and were left with about half a pound of meat left.

From Momofuku with Ben

The whole thing cost $200. Is it worth it? Financially, I'd say the price is pretty reasonable for what you get. The opportunity cost is high, though. Even though there's a variety of sauces, and the meat actually varies in fatiness and texture as you go through it, the fact remains that if you get it, you can't get much else. Which means you are missing at least some of the other awesome items on the menu. So you are essentially trading off variety for a unique eating experience. It's not just unique, it seems like an ancient communal eating experience: a group of friends gathered eating from the same cooked animal. It was pretty special. Probably worth doing once, but not more than once.

Old Fashioned

2011-01-23T19:56:00.000-08:00

I've been making these lately. This is my first after buying an ice cube tray for giant-sized ice cubes.

Although people say that the giant ice cubes chill more without melting, my guess is that this can't be true, and that chilling is directly proportional to melting. Luckiliy my daughter has a science fair coming up, so perhaps we can test it.

Ayada

2011-01-15T11:31:00.001-08:00

After the last post, I decided to try out Ayada. I read a post raving about the panang duck curry. When I arrived, I was surprised to find that the duck curry was $15, while a normal curry is $8. That's a pretty big difference. Was it going to be worth it?

I decided to try it out, and when it came out, the price difference became a little more understandable. It was basically all about the meat, with the panang sauce more of an generous sauce than the normal meat-in-curry combo you see elsewhere.

The duck was indeed pretty well cooked, and had delightfully crisp parts. The panang sauce was very good, about as good as Sripraphai.

This is too expensive to make a habit out of, but it was nice to try. It would be better as part of a larger spread of dishes, due to the meat-centric nature of the dish.

Downhill

2011-01-15T09:48:00.000-08:00

Amusing: Many on Chowhound say that Sripraphai is going downhill. Those that do, say to go to Ayada instead. Of course, the reports are already in that Ayada is going downhill.

The key thing to realize here is that Chowhounders are a bit crazy. They often mistake inconsistency with long-term trends. It's still a good source of information, but take what they say with a grain of salt.

The salt, of course, has also gone downhill. It used to be saltier.

Seasoning cast iron

2011-01-09T19:50:00.000-08:00

Cast iron cookware is cheap and durable. I recently came across a great article by Sheryl Canter about seasoning cast iron, which takes a pretty thorough science-based approach and comes up with a unique way to season cast iron. I decided to use it on my most poorly seasoned pan, a large 13+ inch pan that I mostly use for making pasta dishes.

I neglected to take a "before" picture, but here is an "after" one:

The seasoning is dark, smooth, and appears durable. This technique looks pretty solid; I'd recommend it. I intend to use this pan for a while and see how it holds up.

Trip to a cocoa estate

2011-01-01T07:01:00.000-08:00

While in Tobago recently, we went to visit a cocoa estate, specifically Tobago Cocoa Estate. They offers tours, which I highly recommend.

We were met by the owner Duane Dove, who explained to us about his estate.

The first thing I learned is that this is not a cocoa plantation but a cocoa estate. The difference is that a plantation is just all the same kind of crop. An estate grows many different things. This cocoa estate was only about 7 years old, is completely organic, and everything is done by hand, including clearing land and harvesting. The beans are not sold to buyers, but are shipped to France to make single-estate chocolate, which is sold in France, London, Tokyo and various Scandinavian countries.

There are three main varieties of cocoa: Criollo, thought to be the finest type of beans, grown mainly in Madagascar and Venezuela, the Forestero, which is the bulk of all cocoa grown, less fine, more bitter, but strong, and Trinitario, which is somewhere between the two in quality. All the cocoa in this estate was Trinitario.

Each tree only had a handful of pods, and each ripened according to the specific variety of plant it was. Some were red when ripened, others were yellow.

The pods were often protected with green nets to camouflage the pods from the most troublesome pest: the parrots. Yes, those cute parrots we all love, love to snack on the ripened cocoa pods. Besides the camouflage, the estate also brings in a falconer to try and attract hawks and other predators of the parrots to the area.

Each cocoa tree will start bearing fruit a few years after planting, and will continue bearing at maximum rate for about twenty-five years. For each tree there is a banana tree planted to shade it for the first few years of the cocoa tree's life. The estate has only had two harvests so far, but seems to be ramping up production quickly.

Later in the tour, they chopped open a cocoa pod, which opened to reveal a column of beans covered in a white flesh. You can just take one of the flesh-covered pods and suck on it. To me, the flesh tasted like citrus and banana. If you opened up the bean itself, it looks purple at this stage.

The beans are fermented for several days, and then dried. We went to where the coffee beans were drying in the sun. This has to be carefully guarded. If any rain got in, the whole batch would have to be thrown out.

A few other miscellaneous facts I learned:

Cheap chocolates are mostly vanilla and sugar flavor. There is very little cocoa mass. Most of the loss of mass comes from the fact that they separate out all the cocoa butter and replace it with palm oil. The cocoa butter is then sold to the cosmetics industry.
I asked about Trinidadian cocoa tea. The cocoa balls you get in Trinidad are very hard, and must be grated to get cocoa powder which you mix with boiling water, sugar, and a bit of milk to make a cocoa tea. Compared to hot chocolate, it is pretty weak stuff, but the flavor is nice. But why is it so weak? I asked about this, and was told that the other chocolate has more sugar, milk and extra ingredients added to it to make it rich and creamy. The Trinidadian cocoa balls you get are pretty much just cocoa mass and spices. Also, the beans that make up these cocoa balls are C-grade cocoa beans, which due to their non-standard size or other attributes can't be used in normal exported cocoa.
In the estate, they have a number of interesting plants. There are several coffee trees, which produce coffee for the consumption of the workers. There are a variety of local fruit trees, like sugar care, gru-gru, Trinidad cherries. They also had some Immortelle trees, which helps absorb excess water in the rainy season, and releases it in the dry season.
Most small cocoa farmers in Trinidad (and probably elsewhere as well) sell to a cocoa purchases, where the beans are mixed. The farmer is paid by weight, so they have an incentive to over-water the beans to bulk them up. This results in mildewed beans.
There is no store in New York just yet. After this next harvest, we should be able to purchase the bars, which retail at around $15.

Broiler-only pizza

2010-08-17T18:15:00.001-07:00

I've been working on my pizza technique for at least two years now. I started out the normal way: baking on a stone in the bottom of my oven. My oven doesn't have a cleaning cycle, so I can't crank up the heat. But, I do have a broiler at the bottom of my gas oven, so I started using that. I baked the pizza and then transfered it to the broiler to char the top. It worked fairly well, and my pizza's baked in about 7 minutes or so. That was a nice enough pie, but the crust just wasn't quite right. I wanted it soft and chewy. I could never get the crust soft enough, regardless of the hydration of my dough, or how much cake flour I used.

My road to enlightenment started when I read about the "Nearlypolitan" technique of baking the pizza under the broiler completely. The initial poster there took his pizza stone and heated it up for two hours in the oven, then transfered it to the broiler, turned on the broiler, and baked. I couldn't do that because I have tiles instead of a stone, and the tiles would be too hard to transfer. But I thought that the tiles would get hot enough under the broiler, so I tried it.

The results are pictured above. It cooked in about 4 minutes, and had a puffier and softer crust then I've been able to achieve before. In other words, success! I still have a way to go for the perfect pizza, but now at last I think I have the basics down, and the rest is just twiddling.

I based my recipe off of Varasano's recipe. To follow it, do everything he suggests up to the baking part. If you have an oven with a clean cycle, he has some frankly scary suggestions about how to use it. But, if you have a as oven without a clean cycle, one in which the broiler is located under the oven, then do the following:

First, make sure nothing is in the oven.

Second, put tiles or your stone under the broiler. Anything too thick may not leave you enough room to put your pizza there, so make sure you still have clearance for a pizza.

Turn on your broiler for about half an hour.

At this point, you can test your oven. Just take some of your dough, make a tiny little pizza skin, and put it on the stone. It should puff up into a ball in a minute or two, and after one or two additional minutes, the top and bottom should be brown or even be a bit burnt.

If that works, you are ready to bake. Shape your pizza into a circle about the final size.

Cut parchment paper into a square the size of your pizza peel, and put it on your pizza peel. Then, transfer the pizza skin to the peel. I find parchment paper far easier than flour or cornstarch. It does emit a somewhat unpleasant smell when baking, though.

Finish your pizza: put the sauce down, then your mozzarella, then a bit of sea salt, a splash of oil, and finally the basil.

Cut away the corners of your parchment paper, where the pizza is not, just so there is less paper to potentially burn.

Open the broiler door and carefully slide in your pizza. Do not attempt to do this unless you have some skill at it; even with parchment paper you are liable to make a huge mess if you make one wrong move. If you do make a mistake, shut off the broiler immediately and wait for the oven to cool down before cleaning up. Then order pizza from your favorite delivery place and feel ashamed.

After you slide in your pizza, wait a minute and a half. Rotate the pizza with a spatula and kitchen tongs (or whatever other tools you feel might help). Put it back in for a minute, then keep checking on it. Take it out when it develops black spots on top. You can check the bottom too: it should also be charred in spots.

Remove the parchment paper. Wait a minute for the cheese to congeal a bit, then slice & serve. The crust should taste wonderfully soft, but with a nice chewiness.

This, finally, is real pizza.

Golden Palace and M & T Restaurant

2009-09-27T16:46:00.000-07:00

Today, I went out with some friends to go eat at a couple interesting Flushing restaurants, Golden Palace and M & T Restaurant. They were right around the corner from each other.

At Golden Palace we had Tiger Vegetables, which looked like the garnish to some other dish. But no, it was it's own dish. Cilantro, green peppers, and some hot peppers. Very crunchy and light. We also had an egg with some pickled vegetables, corn cakes (which was like a dry bun made from cornmeal), and loofah dumpling. Probably the best were the Tiger Vegetables and the Corn Cakes. The Loofah Dumpling's taste was a bit one-dimensional, and they were surprisingly heavy given the fact that they were only filled with a mild vegetable.

We went over to M & T, which I think was a bit better. They had a bunch of Qingdao dishes. The dishes we had were very interesting: a cold jelly noodle dishes that was simply beautiful (and quite garlicky), a deep-fried ginseng that would have been a good bar snack but that didn't have enough ginseng taste, and a stir-fry of "fiddleheads", potatoes, mushrooms and celery. I was expecting fiddlehead ferns, which would be odd, since they are very seasonal and I've never encountered them in any restaurant. But, they were some other thing, I have no idea what. The menu here was large and very interesting. I think this one I'd sooner come back to than Golden Palace, but they were both pretty good.

Check out the photos below:

Flushing with Ben and Charles

Artichoke Basille

2009-02-17T18:46:00.000-08:00

I dropped by Artichoke Basille's today, for the first time. Since it opened half a year ago, it's been compared repeatedly with DiFara's. I tried a Margherita slice, and a Sicilian slice. This corresponds with what I order at DiFara's, where I usually try and get an ordinary slice and a square slice. I avoided the eponymous Artichoke slice, which seemed really thick and although I like artichokes, it seemed topped with something more like artichoke dip. Yuck.

At any rate, the margherita slice is pretty well done, in both senses. It had a nice thin crust, and had a rich taste as a result of the generous parmesan sprinkled on the pie. The crust was a bit too blackened. The Sicilian was pretty much the same. Rich and a bit overly blackened. On both, the sauce was tangy and complemented the richness of the cheese very nicely. All in all, everything was great, and I'll definitely be back here again when I'm in the neighborhood. This is the best slice I've had in Manhattan.

2009-02-14T19:31:00.000-08:00

My friend Ben and I ate at the XiAn stall today, at the basement of the Golden Mall in Flushing. We had the LianPi, cold noodles with chunks of soaked bread in it. Very odd, but that's xi'an food for you. The noodles were slick, slightly spicy, a bit sour, and in general very flavorful. We also had the cumin & lamb sandwich, which was small but dense. Like all good street food, it's very simple. Lamb, cumin, stirfried, sandwhiched between two dense pieces of bread. Both these things were great. The menu had many other options, included a few variations on what we ate, such as noodles with the lamb & cumin, just plain stir-fried lamb & cumin, and another meat sandwich.

The stall itself was tiny and cramped, and was too crowded. We had to eat half the meal standing up before we got seats.

After this, we ate some "sumo dumplings" at a little window on the street, and a curious yellow sticky rice with thick pork and dates.

I love Flushing. Sometimes I wish I lived there, so I can have food like this as a snack regularly. But perhaps I'd just endlessly gorge on this stuff, and make myself sick.

Today I stopped by the large, modern looking public library there too, for the first time. It was three levels, and was almost as good as the mid-Manhattan library. Better looking, but not quite as much material.

Spicy & Tasty

2008-12-31T09:11:00.000-08:00

I've been to Spicy & Tasty now a number of times. Most Sichuan-cuisine fans would rank it one of the best in New York, perhaps only behind Little Pepper.

When going there, I would advise to get several cold dishes (cold as in room temperature). When you enter, you see a whole cold station for concocting these wonderful treats. This is some of the spiciest and most flavorful stuff on the menu. Pictured here is one of the cold dishes, ma la tendon. Ma la is what a lot of these dishes are: spicy and numbing. The sichuan peppercorn, not found outside the cuisine, is responsible for the numbing part.

I went again a week ago, and this visit we tried Stinky Tofu, but it was only mediocre. But we also tried the hot pot, which was pretty nice. They brought frozen squid balls, beef slices, bean-thread noodles, vegetables and a few other things. It was divided into a non-spicy section and spicy section. I preferred the spicy section, but the items boiled in either were nice. The spicy section wasn't overwhelming.

We had a number of other really good dishes, including the tea-smoked duck, cold conch, cold eggplant, and a few others I can't even remember. It's always a great meal, the prices are good, and the spicy, garlicy taste is intoxicating and addictive.

Spicy & Tasty is located in Flushing on Prince Street. Try it out!

Cafe Sabarsky

2008-07-24T16:47:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I and a few others went to Cafe Sabarksy, which has
the reputation of being a very authentic Viennese cafe. I've never
been to Vienna, so I really can't comment, but it was very nice
looking, with wood paneling, nice silverware, and a general relaxed
but sophisticated vibe.

I got a cafe creme, which had the same smooth chocolate notes that I
remember from drinking those Nestle Viennese coffee mixes a long time
ago. I'm sorry to compare the two, since I'm sure the one at Cafe
Sabarsky is made with much more care.

We also got some dishes and a slice of cake. Everything was elegantly
prepared, and was well seasoned. I had a beef consomme with root
vegetables and wide noodles made from sliced crepe (which I hadn't
seen before) . It matched the rainy day quite well.

The chocolate cake slice we had was exceptional. It was intensley
chocolaty with cute little shave chocolate curled on top.

The whole thing was a bit expensive. I'd recommend trying it out, but
maybe a coffee and cake would be the best value.

Malaysia Taste Good

2008-04-20T10:55:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went to Elmhurst to satisfy my craving for a good,
spicy, noodle soup. Malaysia Taste Good (an oddly but accurately named
restaurant) fit the bill. I had a curry fish ball noodle soup for
around $5.50. It was a medium-sized bowl full of a nicely spiced,
coconut-based soup, with noodles, fish balls, and a handful of bean
sprouts. The noodles were soft and thick, without much chew. The soup
was well balanced and really flavorful. I'll be back again for the
exact same thing.

After the soup, I noticed that Elmhurst now has a Quickly bubble-tea
store. Good bubble tea is hard to find, and Quickly is the best you
can find here. It comes from the Bay Area, and there it is solid but
unexceptional. Sometimes I miss that place. I actually noticed a
fruity taste in my tea, which shouldn't have happened since my tea was
black tea flavored. Otherwise, the tea was good.

Hakata Ippudo

2008-04-05T07:37:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, my friend Ben and I went to try the new ramen noodle shop, the Tokyo-based Hakata Ippudo. It was packed with a mostly Japanese crowd. We were seated within ten minutes in an elegant medium-sized room that sat about 40.

The soup I ordered was very well executed. It had a rich porky broth, but it was well balanced. Not too salty, but very robust. The noodles were thinner than the usual ramen noodle, but they had a great firm texture. I think this is the best ramen noodles I've had. Unfortuntely, I have not been a good food blogger, and did not write down the name of the soup. But it was the second soup on the small menu.

For dessert we had a macha green tea creme brûlée. It came with a lychee ice cream, and it all worked very well together.

The past year has seen a huge ramen rennaisance in New York. And it is not over, more Tokyo-based shops are coming. I love it!

Taqueria Coatzingo

2008-03-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went to try the tacos at Taqueria Coatzingo, in Jackson
Heights. They come with a surprising amount of guacamole. They were
good, better than most California tacos but not quite as good as the
best Taquerias I've been to. Tacos are all about the meat, and this
meat was well prepared, but it lacked the strong meaty taste of the
best taquerias.

I hear the other food here is very good and authentic. Next time.

Chicago pizza

2008-03-17T11:12:00.000-07:00

I made a good Chicago style pizza yesterday. One of the things I did
differently this time is that I did not precook the sauce. This turned
out to make a lot of difference, since the sauce is cooked for 45
minutes in the oven anyway.

Luzzo's

2008-03-11T17:23:00.001-07:00

Today for lunch I went to Luzzo's in the East Village for some coal-
fired pizza. The pizza was ready very quickly, and was superb. It had
a crust that was fairly soft like a neopolitan, but not so soft it
needed a knife and fork. The buffalo mozzarella tasted fresh, and the
entire pie was light tasting.

I think this is now my current favorite coal-fired pie.

DiFara's

2008-02-28T17:18:00.000-08:00

DiFara's prices have increased, but it still is well worth it. It's
not my favorite pizza in the city, but its close.

I went there today with some coworkers. Most thought the square pie
was truly special, while the round pie was merely good. Both are
rather rich, but the square pie has that rich, proscuitto-infused
sauce. For me, though, the relative lightness of the round pie made it
preferable.

Pizza Making

2008-02-25T16:10:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been making pizzas at home every week. It is cheap, fun
and not actually all that hard. This weeks pizza was my first really
successful dough. It was soft and stretchable. I made it fairly wet,
gave it a 20 minute rest before and after kneading the dough, and did
a 15 minute wet knead.

I also baked it on the upper part of the oven, which encouraged
browning from the reflected heat from the top of my gas oven.

Overall, I think it came out pretty well. I now need to work on
getting more oven spring, probably by playing around with yeast
quantity and rise times.

Chao Thai

2008-02-24T13:53:00.000-08:00

For lunch today I stopped by Chao Thai in Elmhurst. I decided to order
one of my favorite dishes from Sripraphai, Penang Curry. It was
soupier than Sripraphai's, and therefore didn't have quite as much
punch. But, it was still a tasty, spicy and balanced curry, with that
familiar earthy pungency that makes a good Penang Curry.

I'll have to try this place again, as well as the other numerous Thai
places in Elmhurst.

Nutrition House

2008-02-22T20:13:00.001-08:00

In Milpitas, CA, near the Ranch 99, I had a meat-filled dinner of
DongBei cuisine. The Chinese name is 5 Fish 2 Loaves, a New Testament
reference that is overanalyzed in many comments I've read. It is at
least a better name than Nutrition House, the English name.

There was lots of good stuff here, but the highlight was probably the
impossibly tender lamb meatballs.

2008-02-22T19:57:00.000-08:00

The latest in my cappuccino creations. I really think I've got it now.

Nanjing Xiaolongbao

2008-01-13T06:37:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I went to Flushing to eat at Nanjing Xiaolongbao. It's been a while since I had some good soup dumplings. My friend Ben and I met up and ordered both types of soup dumplings, Shanghai noodles, "Shengjian" (pan-fried) buns, and cold bamboo in red oil. I think the soup dumplings there were nearly as good at Joe Shanghai, with both (and most NY places, IMHO) suffering from dumplings that are too large. The dumplings skins were also slightly too fragile, and tore on two occasions. Otherwise, though, the soup inside was delicious, as well as the pork itself. It's one of the better versions I've had in New York. The Shanghai noodles were actually some of the best I've had. And the pan-friend buns were great as well. The bottom is brown and crunchy, and the top is soft. And of course the middle is a nice dumpling filling (no soup inside, though). It's a great snack that I'd eat a lot of if given the chance...

I have no pictures of this event, sorry to say.

Doubles

2007-11-26T20:09:00.000-08:00

Doubles are largely unknown here. It's not surprising, there are probably only a few restaurants in New York that serve them. In Trinidad, though, they are everywhere, and are one of the most pervasive street foods on the island. A double is two pieces of deep-fried chickpea batter, with curried chickpeas inside. That's a lot of chickpeas. The key, though, is the chutneys and pepper sauce that are put in the double. A nice, fresh double with a spicy and tangy filling will bring tears to your eyes. If you've had chole bhature, it is very similar, except the flatbread it is on is much thicker.

Legend has it that doubles were originally a single piece of bara (the chickpea patty), with the curried chickpeas on top, but one kid insisted that two pieces of bara be used to make a sort of sandwich. The "double" option became popular, and this dish was born.

A little while ago, my friend Shantanu and I ate at A & A "'D' Original Doubles Shop". Read the 'D' as a Trini "the". It was cheap, I think $1 or so per double. It wasn't as fresh as you get in Trinidad, where they often fry it up in front of you. But, it was reasonably fresh. And it was delicious! It really doesn't look like much, and it's a complete mess to eat, but that's just the way doubles are.

I'd mention that if you are in Richmond Hill you should go eat there, but let's face it: people don't just pass through Richmond Hill all that often. Either you live their and already know it, or you are going to eat some Trinidadian or Grenadian food. Well, if you do, stop by and get a double before your meal, and make sure to put extra chutneys and pepper sauce on it.

Mama's Coal Pot

2007-08-10T20:04:00.000-07:00

I'm going to slightly deviate from the subject of this blog to write about a St. Louis BBQ joint I recently ate at. I saw it after eating with my family at Blueberry Hill in the Loop. Actually, I smelled it long before I saw it, and when I saw the little BBQ shack with a very interesting menu, I knew I had to try it.

There are two interesting dishes here, at least. The first is snoot, which is a St. Louis local dish relatively unknown in the rest of barbecue country. Snoot is pig nose, by the way. The second are rib tips, which I've never seen before either. This was all very exciting for me, so I went back another day and tried them both out, of course.

A few days later, I went back, taking with me my friend Joel.

The snoot was coated in a delicious barbecue sauce. It came with some white bread on the side. I picked some snoot up with some bread, and gingerly nibbled on it. It appeared to be nothing but bone. However, I knew it was edible, it was really just cartilage. So I put that snoot between my molars and bit down as hard as I could. It gave a satisfying crunch, and I just continued crunching through this piece and then doing the same to many other snoots I had. The snoot itself didn't have a lot of flavor. It was mostly texture with a coating of barbecue sauce. I liked it, and would order it again, but it's a bit much for one's only lunch item. It'd go better as an item in a large BBQ spread.

While I was eating, the owner came up and chatted with us. He told us all about snoot, and how in "soul food" you eat every part of pig, "everything except the squeal". I said I was also interested in trying rib tips, and he was kind enough to give us a fair portion of that too.

The rib tips were excellent. This had some actual meat, which was flavorful and a bit fatty. I highly recommend this for those who like ribs.

So, Mama's Coal Pot. If you are in St. Louis and want a unique St. Louis-style barbecue treat, head on over there! And finding it is easy, just walk around the Loop and follow your nose.

Fake truffle oil

2007-05-19T10:47:00.000-07:00

I found a recent New York Times article on fake truffle oil very enlightening. I truly had no idea that truffle oil was not made from truffles. I'm sure that many restaurants are abusing it, but one of the worst offenders surely must be Hell's Kitchen's Roberto Passon.

Although, if I have to admit it, I'd say that the truffle oil does add an interesting flavor to a dish. I've never been to France or Italy, so I've never had a truly fresh truffle to compare it to. A previous article I've read claimed that the furious competition for truffles has led to premature harvesting of truffles, with the end result being that even fresh truffles in France or Italy aren't what they used to be. Really, it's better to do without an ingredient than to have to fake it. I think the NY food scene can survive a lack of truffles. I think our cuisine can only improve by relying on native ingredients. Our high end restaurants should be serving huitlacoche, not truffles.

Burmese Cafe

2007-05-18T18:28:00.000-07:00

Back when I lived in the Bay Area, my wife and I were friendly with a Burmese woman. When I moved out, I gave my bike to her son, and she invited me over to eat dinner. She had cooked a few dishes, and they were mind-blowing. The flavors were so strong, my mouth was overwhelmed with the wonderful full salty taste of dried shrimp, garlic, shallots, and herbs. The combination of flavorings is very distinctive to Burmese food, but is fairly close to Malaysian.

Recently, I went to Burmese Cafe in Jackson Heights a few times. I was fairly impressed. Many of the dishes there were as evocative as that Burmese meal I had in California.

The last time I went was with my friend Ben. We started with fried zucchini, something I wouldn't normally order. However, it was surprisingly light and tasty, especially with the very fragrant dipping sauce.

We also ordered the dish that seems to be mandatory for this restaurant: the fermented tea-leaf salad. The taste of this was out of this world. When you eat it, it initially comes on strong, with a somewhat subdued Burmese taste, but the aftertaste has the mustiness of the fermented tea leaves lingering. The textures of this dish was also interesting, since the dish had an unusual amount of crunch to it, mostly due to the many bean sprouts involved.

Because we wanted something else unusual, we ordered a curry with goat heart, kidney, and liver. The offal meat was good, but the curry didn't have any particularly interesting flavor. Still, it was a nice change from our other dishes.

I've also had the Sorrel Leaves (not pictured), which were a small, enjoyable little vegetable dish that has a classic Burmese flavor. Speaking of vegetables, though, this place was not very vegetarian friendly. Fortunately for us, we weren't vegetarians. But almost every dish had fish sauce. While they may have been able to make it without any, the taste just wouldn't be the same.

Map of interesting New York restaurants

2007-04-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

For a friend who is coming to visit, I made a map of some interesting places to eat. Many of the places have pointers to reviews on my old blog. I'm sure I'll be expanding this map with more interesting dining options.

Resting Hot Chocolate

2007-02-25T14:56:00.000-08:00

I've read in several different places, that it is better to leave hot chocolate overnight. To quote from Brillat-Savarin:

When you wish to take some good chocolate, make it the evening before in an earthenware coffeepot and leave it. The night rest concentrates it and gives it a smoothness that improves it.

This sounds a bit strange. I would expect some evaporation to thicken the chocolate up a bit, so the concentration makes sense, although I would guess it wouldn't be a big difference. As far as the smoothness goes, I would guess that melted chocolate in milk cannot get any more smooth. But, in my quest for the best hot chocolate, I decided to do a little experiment. I made hot chocolate, left it in the fridge for two days, then I made an identical hot chocolate. After heating up the first chocolate, I tasted them side by side. It was undeniable, the first really was noticeably thicker and smoother, a substantially better hot chocolate.

I wonder if the same effect could be accomplished by gently heating the chocolate for longer, so that more evaporation takes place. As researchers say in each paper "More research is needed". Does anyone want to give me grant money?

Hunan food at St. Marks Place

2007-02-11T19:01:00.000-08:00

A coworker of mine from China recently said she went to a great Hunan-style restaurant. I was intrigued, since I had never eated authentic Hunan food (as far as I knew). Tell me more, I said. She said it was very authentic, and it was in St. Marks Place. Really? I didn't know any good Chinese place was there, besides the Grand Sichuan which I once at at. But, there is much I don't know about St. Marks Place, since it's never been very convenient for me to go there.

She took all of us there, and I discovered the Hunan place was... Grand Sichuan! But wait, Grand Sichuan specializes in Sichuan, not Hunan. She insisted the Chinese name of the restaurant was different, and this restaurant is really of no relation to the other ones. I'm not sure if I believed it, but I tried it.

So, this was a Grand Sichuan, and one I've eaten at before. But, unlike others, it had an extensive Hunan menu. She ordered a variety of dishes, and out they came.

One of the things we had to try was the stinky tofu, which is a pretty hard thing to find in Chinese restaurants. The problem usually is that the tofu stinks enough to annoy the people at the other tables, which isn't generally good for business. Grand Sichuan handled this well, serving us a stinky tofu that was noticably stinky, but not overwhelmingly so. If it were represented by a cartoon, the brown stink lines would only extend six inches or so. As with good stinky tofu, the inner was creamy and mild tasting.

Another interesting dish we got was preserved beef with sour-tasting green beans. Evidently preserved meats are a very important part of Hunan food. This dish was very well done, with the strong preserved meat being offset by the tang of the green beans. The combination was unusual for western palates, but it didn't take long to adjust and enjoy.

A particularly beautiful dish was a sweet & sour fish, sliced in such a way to fan out. The sweet & sour sauce was more sour, with a pungent dark vinegar bite to it. The fish was very well cooked, with sweet moist, tender flesh.

Another odd dish was a winter melon in a light sauce, with a few peppers adding some bite. The whole dish was fairly mellow with a subdued taste compared to the other Hunan dishes. but I liked its texture and the use of the winter melon.

The menu had several dishes consisting of a little wok held over a burner, making a nice bubbling concoction. This particular one was fish in a spicy sauce that was also a bit sour. It taste just like it looks: hot and stimulating, the kind of food that will spur you to eat as much of it as you can regardless of how full you are.

We had a few other dishes, including a nice dou miao (pea sprouts), and another dish I can no longer recall.

All these dishes added up to a great introduction to Hunan food. I've realized I've eaten many of these things in Little Sichuan, a restuarant in San Mateo, CA that I used to frequent. I just never knew that they were Hunan. Hot and sour seemed to be the predominant flavors, and they really worked well together. I'm eager for more, and I'm also interested to learn the differences between the various Grand Sichuan locations. Do some really specialize in different cuisines? I'll let you know if I ever find out.

Welcome to bimodal eating!

2007-02-11T18:32:00.000-08:00

Bimodal eating is a new food blog that I've created, to separate my food blogging from my other blogging efforts. Currently, my blogging efforts are spread a bit thin, and I don't necessarily have much time to blog. However, I'm using this new blog to blog about food going forward. My previous food blogging was done at Dresese, my personal blog.

Why bimodal? This reflects my belief that the best food is to be found at the ends of the price spectrum. Cheap food, either ethnic or not is a great way to spend money and time. Besides the already mentioned cheapness, cheap food focuses on the food as a necessity, because it can't afford any money spent in any different way. And, usually a great cheap place is just as cheap as a lousy cheap place, so there's a lot of value to be had for those who look. The other way to get great food is to go to an expensive restaurant, and that's good too, because expensive restaurants can afford to give you the truly creative, cutting-edge, luxurious food that is important to experience. The value here is good too, because if you can eat one of the best meals you'll ever get for just a few hundred dollars per person, it is well worth it.

I'll be posting various food experiences, every once in a while. I don't suggest checking back on this blog, but rather subscribe to it with an RSS reader (I personally prefer Google Reader).