Week in Review

You know how marathon runners train the week before the race? Well, I don't, really, but I assume they do something of the sort. Anyways, this week was the week before Thanksgiving. Like any good fat kid, I did as much eating as humanly possible in order to prepare myself for the big day. Here are some highlights.

TRIBECA BREAD
I think shopping at Uniqlo whet our appetites for the finer things in life - after a show at the Knitting Factory, Trent and I were feeling particularly fancy and came here to eat. We found it about two blocks north.

This is what it looks like inside.

All high ceilings, wine barrels in the wall, loft-like Tribeca feel, with an open kitchen. It made me feel like I was in a restaurant in the French Alps.

Tribeca bread.

Or rather, what was left of it after about 2 minutes. I was really hungry.

What I ate:

Sauteed squid, potatoes, tomatoes, and olives. the combinations of textures, flavors, and colors made this a really intense, but delectable, appetizer. The squid was perfectly tender and just the right amount of chewy (which is not a lot, but with a healthy amount of elasticity)


You can see Trent's vegan pasta with tomato sauce in the background. Boring, but still pretty good.

Since my meal was an appetizer and we didnt' get drinks, I think our meal only came out to $40 or so. Not bad for a really decent place.
Food: 8.5 Service: 8 Atmosphere: 8.5 Value: 6 Overall: 8


TOMOE
I've been coming to this sushi joint for about ten years now, and this was the first time I've been there when there wasn't a line. I think that was an indication, because I found this experience to be both sup-bar and overpriced, which is truly sad for what was once my favorite Japanese restaurant in the city.

Toro Nakitori (around $9)

This is cooked toro ina sweet sauce. It was really tender, and the flavor was quite nice. However, I found it to be a too heavy, especially eaten as an appetizer.

Sashimi Regular (around $27)

The sashimi, which is really what makes Tomoe stand out, did not let me down. It is still amazingly fresh and well-cut into the biggest sashimi pieces I have ever seen.


It's a great deal - so much sashimi that even I couldn't eat it all. It's so beautiful.

What made the experience subpar was really owed to the uni handrolls, which were shameful. The uni was too mushy and had a bit of an aftertaste - not fresh. Plus they were $8.50 each. I was so sad I couldn't even take their portrait. The ones I had been eating all week at Marumi (on LaGuardia between Bleeker and W. 3rd), which were only around $5 each, were much better.

Food: 6.5 Service: 7.5 Atmosphere: 6.5 Value: 5 Overall: 6


WINDSOR GARDENS RESTAURANT
2nd installation of the Chinatown food blog: This is another random place my mother and I stumbled into tonight. We'd never been there before, but decided to go because it was raining, I was starving, and it was right next to the parking garage. All excellent criteria for choosing a Chinese restaurant. 81 Chrystie Street.

This was a Cantonese place, which, in Chinatown, is really hard to go wrong in since the Cantonese are more obsessed with food than any other Chinese (as the saying goes, they'll eat everything with legs except the table, and anything that flies except the airplane). Actually the same can be said for most restaurants in Chinatown since they are primarily catered towards Chinese people and not "westerners." But the caveat here is that you have to know how to order. That is why, Jeffrey Max, you are wrong, wrong, wrong.

Pork lo-mein, Hong Kong style ($6.95)

There are infinite varieties of lo-mein, and each restaurant does it differently. This is not what we were expecting, but it was very good. The noodles were thin but bouncy, the bean sprouts added a pleasant crispy element, and the flavor was just right.

Fried Japanese tofu with assorted mushroom (regularly $12.95 but part of the weekly special, so $6.95)

A great choice for vegans and those who love mushrooms of all kinds. There were four, to be exact.

T-bone steak with black pepper (also a special - normally $16.95, but $10.95)

Cooked just right so that the meat was melt-in-your-mouth tender,and NOT well-done, which is a sin. The sauce was typical Cantonese - thick, soy, and robustly flavorful. It worked very nicely.

Dessert

Cantonese restaurants usually provide complimentary "sugar water" for dessert, and soup to start. We didn't get a soup, but settled for the "sugar water" (this one was sweet red bean soup with an orange zest) and the honeydew.

This was one of those Chinese restaurants that I had an immediate prejudice against because they sold sushi. Of course we didn't order any of that nonsense, and the dishes we did order were quite satisfactory for what we were looking for - quick, filling, and delicious. Oh and cheap.

Food: 8 Service: 6 Atmosphere: 6 Value: 8 Overall: 7.5

The End of Ignorance

Gandhi had the caste system, Mandela had apartheid, Che had capitalist pigs, and Fukuyama had history. I, Isadora Tang, have the eradication of ignorance as my great calling in life. Ignorance of what, you, oh naive reader, may ask. Of how to eat good Chinese food, doi! HOW-TO-EAT-GOOD-CHINESE-FOOD, and how to do it well.

Most people of a non-Chinese heritage background seem to not know that a world beyond general tso's chicken exists. And if they do know about this world, they know not how to enter - "oh yes, i was told by a wise old man about the existence of this magical fantasy land. i am still waiting for peter pan to come take me there in my sleep one day." NO!! WRONG!! There is also that strange hybrid non-Chinese person that i have seen in my eating travels. He is the one that I am shocked to see sitting beside me and my Chinese brethen in our hidden gem of a restaurant, who manages his chopsticks with such masterful elegance, who exudes in all directions supreme confidence in his food-ordering ability. Then his dishes (or, as is sadly too often the case, his sole dish) are served, and my mother and i turn to look at each other, wipe the quizzical looks off our chubby faces, and proceed to laugh heartily over this white fool's sad misadventure.

You see my friend, eating good Chinese food is an art. With my guidance, we will, together, learn how to refine this fine and ancient art in the always-smells-like-fish-or-dorian-fruit mean streets of Chinatown, New York.


Chinatown for Beginners: Shanghai cuisine
Mondays host my weekly dinner with mom. This past Monday, since I was feeling under the weather, I requested that we duck into the first Shanghainese restaurant we could find, so I could immediately soothe my sore throat with some delicious soup of dumplings. We went to Shanghai Cafe, on 100 Mott Street. We couldn't agree on whether or not we had been there before, but we decided to give it a shot regardless.

The decor of Shanghai Cafe is typical weird Chinatown - neon purple ceiling lights, industrial metal tables and chairs, big log cabin like wooden booths, all mixed into one nonsensical aesthetic. What differentiated this restaurant was the very very friendly waitresses, who answered our probing questions politely and helpfully, and who oooh and aahhed over my mom's watch. This is indeed a rarity in Chinatown, and I feel obliged to pay the waitresses of Shanghai Cafe homage here. What strangely good service.

What We Ate


These soup dumplings were okay. I would say the skin was too thick, not even clost to paper thin. We also didn't order the crab-pork dumplings, which was our own fault - those were probably a lot better. But in terms of satisfying my craving and my throat, they did a pretty good job of it.


This dish is called "Shui Li Hong," or, as listed on the menu in English, "Bean Curd Skin with Preserved Vegetable and Green Bean" (trust me, the name is much more appetizing in Chinese). It's traditional Shanghainese fare, and delicious! Basically, its tofu skin lightly sauteed with edamame beans and this salted Chinese vegetable called snow vegetable that is only grown around Shanghai. This is one of my favorite Chinese dishes.


Okay, so this is not a great picture. I need a better camera, ok?
This dish is nian gao, or sticky cake. On the menu it's listed as "Shanghai Rice Cakes." Rice cakes are another Shanghainese specialty. They are little oval cakes that are made out of sticky rice, so have a very sticky texture. In the Shanghainese version, there is shrimp, chicken, bamboo, carrots, and onion. It is a hearty helping of gooey goodness


Soup is a big part of Chinese cooking, especially in Canton, where a woman's worth is measured by the quality of her homemade soup. Unfortunately, there were no Cantonese women to be found. This soup is called "Stuffed Bean Curd Skin & Puff with Minced Meat." Basically, it is like an eggroll made out of tofu skin and filled with meat, and a fluffy tofu variety also stuffed with meat. I was really disapointed with this soup - it was so salty that you couldn't even taste anything else, and the texture was just off. I would not order this here again.

Overall
Shanghai Cafe: B

I <3 Vermont!

Well, I started writing this three weeks ago, but i suck at completion.

FUN FOOD TIMES
Oh, is there anything quite like New England in the fall? NO, there isn't. Especially when it's Vermont, even more especially when it's a big ol' scooby doo missionary van full of fat kids type of New England adventure. We basically ate our way through the weekend. Take a look:

French fries + gravy + fucking cold = most delicious thing ever.


Just ask this guy - he took a fistful!

I've been hearing about this place, the Red Onion, from Lucy for about six years now. Everytime she talked about it she would turn the knife in me a little more. Oh cruel impossible desire.


The long awaited, infamous "red onion sandwich" - fresh homemade bread, roasted turkey, apples, RED ONIONS, tomatoes and honey mustard.


Look at these scones. Soo decadent.


Hot apple cider and freshly made donuts in this cart, just hanging out on the street. Burlington is what I imagine heaven must be like.


Before we hit the road, we squeezed in one more stuff-fest, which proved once again that brunch is the best meal by far.



Tuna Salad


Eggs Arcadia - like florentine but with crab cakes. Pure genius.


Our waiter described this as the "ULTIMATE HEAVY BRUNCH FOOD." It was called Napoleon something or other, probably because, you know, "an army marches on its stomach," or something equally prosaic.


Trent paid something like $10 for this water because it had flowed through rocks that were 450,000 years old. Clearly, he has never taken a science class. But look how HAPPY the trontle is! That's because he added gin for flavor.


In between eating we found other ways to entertain ourselves.


Like enjoying the New England foliage.


Tromping through a spoooky haunted forest. BOO!


Audrey was scared.


Annie was scared-er.


Cross-dressing. (67% say Trent wore it better. bastard.)


Cheersing every opportunity we had.


Visiting an apple mill. The German tourists there made it that much better.


And shopping for viking hats.

String Theory = hot.

So I read an article in the New Yorker today that basically explored the wild, rebel world of contesting the supremacy of string theory. very sexy. it fascinated me not because i can actually comprehend string and M theory deeply enough to be truly fascinated, but because of the comparison of string theory to religion. consider the thought of 95% of the world's physics community falling victim to this cult-like relgion/psuedo-science, adhering by their lives to a theory they can't prove but can "feel" the truth of, worshipping a weird genius leader dude named Witten (who, by the way, started out his career in politics and published an article in The Nation at the age of seventeen. He argued that the New Left had no political strategy in 1968. The MacArthur Foundation sure hit the nail on the head with that one - genius.) to a God-like status. The analogy seems eerily prescient.

Yet I absolutely adore string theory (again, to the extent one can actually adore something they are incapable of fully grasping). the supreme elegance, the unparalled beauty, the endless possibilities, the promise of other universes - it's just so irresistably glamorous, kind of like hollywood in the 50's. Makes me kick myself in the ass for not paying more attention during Mrs. Mattick's AP Physics class, not that that E&M bullshit could have held a handle to magnificent string theory. *sigh*


Just look at this guy! He's got God-like cult leader written all over him.



you telling me this doesn't turn you on?

ladrones, joder!

so my bike finally got stolen tonight. i'm actually surprised it lasted as long as it did, being a month or so unchained on a block where crackheads unabashedly hang out on the corner, making deals at 7:00 in the morning. it really became this social experiment for me. i mean, my last bike lasted one night on 4th and D, so this really does speak to the relative security of my neighborhood. still, it sucks it's gone. even though i couldn't ride it (because it's made only for giants), it sure was a nice 'ol bike, so pretty. and i was planning on selling it or giving it to some random stranger as part of another seemingly pointless social experiment.

in other news, i told more people tonight about the idea i've had for a year or so - to write a guide on how to eat authentically delicious chinese food in chinatown. it seems that even whiteys who speak fluent chinese struggle with this noble endeavor. i think for the good of mankind it's time for me to stop bullshitting around and just do it, damn it. if only my elpher weren't busy being broken...

End of Summer Reflections

Tonight I had dinner at Frank's with Lucy, Eliza, Trent, Annie and Max. We decided it was appropriate to toast, and I decided that it was even more appropriate to toast to "here's to the end of summer, beginning of fall, which i couldn't help notice today, with the leaves fallen on the ground." Annie remarked that that was a very Chinese thing for me to do, making a toast sound like a proverb.

Here are some highlights from my summer:

Trip to Thailand and China


The cutest damn kittens in the world lived outside our hostel in Beijing.


Seeing Dally made me intensely happy and really brought out the woman in me, if i do say so myself.


Shanghai = The Future


Singing karaoke. Bet you didn't know it could be this stressful.


Doggy Downtime


Hans Tang's new puppy Huey.


Duke meets Huey. Neither were quite sure what to make of the other.


mi familia.


ma-ma.


The Foods of Summer
One of the best things about summer is the abundance of fresh, delicious food. The farmer's market was especially good at providing.


Millions of peaches, peaches for me.


Beefsteak. mmmm...




Using all those fresh ingredients to make a vegan meal...


for newly (and obnoxiously) vegan Tront.

To Do (Before I Die)

I've had this idea in my head for sometime now that before I die, I would like to dedicate a significant portion of my time to analyzing the science behind delicious food. Everyone has individual tastes, and these tastes all differ. But certain outstanding foods seem to be almost universally appealing (Think: Haagen Daaz vanilla ice cream). In my constant quest to eat good food, I aim to quantify what that universal goodness factor really is.

My first project will be banana bread. Following the scientific method (remember that all you old farts?), I aim to tackle different recipes of banana bread in order to find what it is that makes for the perfect loaf:

1. Observation and description of a phenomenon or group of phenomena. Lots of different types of banana bread are yummy, but some some are yummier than others.

2. Formulation of an hypothesis to explain the phenomena. Breads that are yummier than others possess specific qualities that can be distinguished and identified.

3. Use of the hypothesis to predict the existence of other phenomena, or to predict quantitatively the results of new observations. The identification of these mmmm-inducing qualities will lend insight into the cause of the deliciousness factor of other foods.

4. Performance of experimental tests of the predictions by several independent experimenters and properly performed experiments. Me and my multiple personalities will bake several different banana breads using unique "Best Banana Bread" recipes. Double blind testing and rating of breads will ensue.



Nutty bread?


Chocolatey bread?


Triple the bread?


Man bread?