SobaAddict70
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Very interesting that this should appear three weeks later.
It's got that BLT mix of elegance and informality, in its case arguably tipping too far toward the latter.My companions and I tried a Kobe-style beef rib-eye and a strip steak, both expertly charred on the outside and pleasantly juicy within. A lamb shank was braised to a state of tenderness that made up for an excessive, intrusive red wine jus.He could make a bid for the breakfast crowd: BLT Cornflakes.Related discussion regarding Mr. Bruni's style as the main restaurant critic for the New York Times and the star system can be found here.
Sounds like a two star rating. Has anyone been here lately?
Soba
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I used to be like this.
I think my record stands at 45 minutes. By then, people had moved on to dessert.
I'm hoping I've improved over time...
Soba
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This thread will be open for the remainder of today in case anyone wants to post follow-up questions or wave goodbye.
Tune in on Saturday when the eGullet Foodblog reappears in the wilderness of North Cakalacky. (That's North Carolina to all y'all Yankees.
)Soba
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Let other restaurants do pork three ways. This one does it as a hefty, juicy chop with an apple ginger chutney and creamed corn. Let other restaurants dress their fish in minimalist attire. This one drapes its moist red snapper in avocado and mango and its crispy skate in a hailstorm of capers and a blanket of smoked chipotle butter, whose color you will never, ever guess.That broiler needs better tending. Two of the four steaks I sampled weren't cooked to the requested doneness.
Soba
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Welcome to eGullet, Adam. Good to see you here.
Please keep us updated when you can about your new place. I'll have to go out there sometime and check it out.
Soba
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No, but it reminds me of the orange food incident in the Worst meals in someone's home thread:
Step Great Aunt Jennie's ORANGE salad. There should be an international tribunal to address Jello salads like this.My father's second wife was from a part of Ohio which might as well have been Mars.
14 years old and feeling very uncomfortable at my first Thanksgiving at their house, I turned to the old lady next to me, and mumbled, "What nice orange salad you've brought."
It was a lie, but after an hour of being stared at I was trying to seem normal somehow. Aunt Jennie beamed and me and dumped a huge mound onto my plate.
The salad was actually an awful Jello concoction, orange jello with mayonnaise or angel whip, pineapple bits and some lumpy, poorly incorporated dairy product.
Somehow, I managed to fork it down. It was like a lesson for your tastebuds about why it is wrong to tell a lie.
Aunt Jennie was so delighted she brought the same thing next year, and all the years after... Like the beating of the telltale heart, the orange salad kept coming back for Thanksgiving dinner.
When Aunt Jennie started sending the electricity bill to a televangelist, she was put in an assisted living home and my stepmother's sister moved into Aunt Jennie's house. I breathed a sigh of relief. Goodbye to the orange salad (my step-aunt's signature dish was a sausage roll made with rolled out canned biscuit dough).
That year for Thanksgiving, my stepmother's sister brought.... THE ORANGE SALAD.
Deciding that now Aunt Jennie was gone I might gracefully free myself from the Jello curse, I decided to ask my step-aunt what the awful lumpy stuff in the orange salad was. I'd always assumed it was half-melted cottage cheese or something.
"It's grated VELVEETA! It's got orange cheese in it, that's why it's orange salad!" She looked amazed anyone would have to ask.
Petroleum and gelatine product abuse in the third degree.
and also this particular gem:
But can any Jell-O nightmare story beat my grandmother's Chicken Salad Jell-O? Boiled chicken, canned chicken broth, plain gelatin, and celery--set in a jello mold--with a generous dollop of Miracle Whip on top? A more foul substance has never passed my lips (I had to try "just one bite").Edited because "foul" and "foal" are very different words.
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A starter of braised pork belly disappointed, presenting surprisingly ropey flesh. But a starter of sweetbreads, served with browned butter and rhubarb chutney, was excellent.That organic feta, for example, was chalkier than ordinary feta, and it lacked ordinary feta's pleasant saltiness.
Related discussion regarding Mr. Bruni's style of reviewing and the NY Times star system can be found here.
Soba
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They don't have to, but speaking for myself, I derive satisfaction from a review if the reviewer manages to impart concrete, specific information. That doesn't seem to be the case with Bruni.
On another note, whereas Grimes focused on decor and design, and Reichl focused on the food and presentation, Bruni seems to focus on indicia that are irrelevant to the restaurant he's reviewing more than half of the time. Should falling lamps and broken toilets be mentioned? Seems like filler to me.
Soba
Absolutely they should be mentioned. If there's, say, outstanding food but in a 'broken down' atmosphere, I want to know that. Yes, he should definitely mention it. Its important information for me; therefore, not filler.
Perhaps, but for such mention to constitute more than 10% of a restaurant review serves no real discernible purpose. People do not read restaurant reviews to hear about the aesthetics of bathroom design. Less smoke, more substance please.
Your mileage may vary considerably.
Soba
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Take his onion soup dumplings, which epitomize the way he cobbles together unrelated traditions - in this case, French and Chinese - and tweaks staples, changing their contours or contexts.
Each of these dumplings has a hot liquid center, a Gruyère-drizzled exterior and is meant to be hoisted with a toothpick and consumed in one big, flavor-detonating bite. The subsequent explosion is wonderful.
Soy-lacquered chicken and the beef Wellington were dry. Ravioli filled with braised short rib were clumpy.The Stanton Social (Frank Bruni)
Related discussion regarding Mr. Bruni's style of reviewing and the NY Times star system can be found here.
Soba
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Since the thread has been moved to the General Food Topics forum, it might be worth opening up the dialogue to other Society members, eh? I don't live in Vancouver but I'm sure many of the issues talked about amongst the participants so far are universal the world over.
What have your experiences been in restaurants where you live?
Soba
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Jack's Foodblog installment will remain open for the remainder of today until early evening in the event anyone has followup questions or commentary.
After that, we'll take a short break for a day or so. Tune in on Wednesday morning when the Foodblog returns to the other side of the pond -- this time to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Soba
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I had errands to do all day, but managed to make room for an hour or so this afternoon. Just got back a few minutes ago -- have laundry to do in a few minutes.
Impressions:
1. A Bubba Fast Pass is crucial. There were people who waited on the regular lines for upwards of half an hour only to find out that what they wanted was close to gone. Imagine a line twice as long as the length of a regular New York City block and you'll see why a BFP is practically mandatory.
2. I didn't get to sample everything but I was disappointed by Mitchell's (a bit too fatty to my liking though the crackling made up for it); Dinosaur's baked beans are amazing and the pork sandwich was no slouch either, and Elgin's.....O Elgin's, well let's just say that if I my evening was free I'd still be there.
Kudos especially to Mr. Meyer for making this brainchild come true.
Soba
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C'est incroyable!
Soba
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Also, tell me more about authentic moo shu, please. I take it to mean it has more eggs, hence the name.Do you want hoisin sauce on your Moo Shu? Did you know that hoisin on Moo Shu is like catsup on steak?
I just wanted to point this out again.
Anyone know why? Anyone care?
Yes eddie, please enlighten us tourists...
MOO SHU PORK
Moo Shu Pork is a northern Chinese egg dish typically wrapped in wheat flour pancakes. In Chinese, the words ‘Moo Shu’ are the name of the yellow cassia flower, a poetic reference to the look of the scrambled eggs in the dish. Moo Shu Pork first became popular in the US during the late 60’s and early 70’s. There were so many exciting things about it! Here was a delicious new dish that was fun and authentic, and you could eat it with your fingers.
Classically prepared Moo Shu Pork is a stir-fry of scrambled eggs, pork shreds, tiger lily buds, shredded bamboo shoots, tree ears, and scallions. It does NOT contain: carrots, cabbage, nappa, ginger, garlic, mushrooms, chicken, beef, or shrimp.
When properly made it is ‘dry-cooked’. This means that the finished dish should have no visible sauce. There are liquids that flavor it, but they are used in small quantity and then reduced away during stir-frying. The distinctive aroma of an authentic Moo Shu Pork is created by the subtle muskiness of the sautéed lily buds combined with the smell of the just warmed sesame oil. When cooking Moo Shu Pork, the goal is to bring out this subtle musky aroma and combine it with a tasty/savory background of flavor.
More information can be found in this thread in the China forum.
Soba
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There is, lol.
The best authentic Americanized Chinese, in my opinion, can be found in this thread:
King Yum Polynesian Chinese Restaurant181-08 Union Tpke., Fresh Meadows; 718-380-1918
King Yum, established in 1953, is the oldest continuously operating Chinese restaurant in Queens (Wo Hop, in NYC's chinatown, opened in 1939). This makes it probably one of the oldest in the country as well.
(edit: Hawaii has some that are considerably older -- Wo Fat in Honolulu opened in 1882 (rebuilt twice) and Lau Yee Chai (demolished and moved locations in 1968) since 1929, and San Francisco has Hang Ah Tea Room, 1920. None of these have continuously operated under the original owners/families to my knowledge, however).
King Yum's original owner, Jimmy Eng, 84 and still going strong in the restaurant biz after 51 years, is a man of legend. He doesnt look a day over 60.
All of the Tiki/Polynesian fixtures you see here, including the bar and all the bamboo accoutriments (all the walls in the main dining room are paneled with bamboo, the place looks the restaurant that used to be in the Polynesian Resort at Walt Disney world), are ORIGINAL. The restaurant appears as its was, back in 1953, with little or no changes. This also goes for its food -- it was created for a simpler time in our country's history, and when this particular neighborhood -- Hollis Hills/Hillcrest/Fresh Meadows -- was 90 percent Jewish. You know the adage about not opening a Chinese Restaurant unless you have Jews in the area? It was probably started because of the huge success of this place. The local synagogue is only about 300 feet away, just down the block.
This is a shot of their Subgum Wonton Soup for 2 -- it contains fried wontons, as well as big slices of roast pork, white meat chicken, shrimp, bok choy, mushrooms, water chestnuts and snow peas.
A portion of the wonton soup in a retro chinese soup bowl.
These are King Yum's famous egg rolls. As you can see from the closeups, these contain ample amounts of roast pork AND shrimp, and even the cabbage has a strong pork taste in it, due to the penetration of the grease. These are AWESOME egg rolls and are the benchmark to which I compare others to.
Shun Lee West runs a distant, distant one hundred and fiftieth by comparison (in my opinion). YMMV.
As for authentic Chinese? Well...I can name a half dozen places but very few beat Mom's and Grandma's cooking. I have yet to find a restaurant that can make lion's head meatballs that beats the version my grandmother makes.
I think a better question to ask is "What does authenticity mean to you?" and to keep in mind that there's more than one valid definition.
Soba
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The ironic thing is that I took a course in Middle English lit as well as a Chaucer course as little as seven years ago (English major here with a concentration in British literature) and I can't translate that quote anymore.
Time flies.
Wonderful photos, Jack.
Soba
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*drool*
I have to go to the gym later today. Not sure when I'll be able to make it to MS park.
Most likely tomorrow though.
Soba
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Perhaps not, but somewhere out there I'm sure there is an amah slaving away on a hot stove, stuffing cream cheese into wonton skins.
You can never tell.
Soba
I might be reading the above incorrectly. Do you mean crab ragoon is authentic Chinese?
Is cheese a traditional Chinese ingredient? The first time I had cheese was from a British lady living next door when I was a youngster in HK.
The only cheese I knew until then was Chinese Cheese: fuyu... and somehow, I can't imagine that in wonton skins.
I am saying that there are two kinds of "authentic Chinese". There is the authentic Chinese which we (you, sheetz and myself) know to be authentic and there is the Americanized "authentic Chinese" exemplified by crab rangoon, chicken Soong and fortune cookies. They're both valid, just not to the same sets of people.
Soba
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Ah, lol. Must pay attention to work (not eGlutton) on a Friday afternoon.
The "A" word can be so tricky sometimes. I have my own issues with fusion food -- namely that most fusion tends to blur the boundaries of taste and become mostly one note wonders -- but that's a separate thread.
Authentic Chinese food to me is something that respects the source cuisine and attempts to replicate it with a reasonable amount of substitution, taking into account modern taste. Some renditions of authentic Chinese are more authentic than others. The soup dumplings at China 46 come to mind (vs. the xiao long bao at say, Joe's Shanghai), for instance.
Then, to some people, something is authentic because it matches up with their expectation of what it ought to be, not necessarily with how it ought to be. The type of food served by Shun Lee West in NYC comes to mind.
Both versions of Chinese food are equally valid, in my opinion. They're both authentic, but to different sets of people.
Soba
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Perhaps not, but somewhere out there I'm sure there is an amah slaving away on a hot stove, stuffing cream cheese into wonton skins.
You can never tell.
Even if I taught my Toisanese grandmother how to make fettuccine alfredo that wouldn't make it Chinese.
Isn't that a bit limiting?
I'm not Italian but I can make a mean minestrone invernale. What makes it Italian isn't necessarily the person behind the stove.
Soba
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The bao gave me an idea...
How about a rendition of pork bao, only this time with bacon and mushrooms? You know, like a re-interpreted version of a Chinese steamed bun and a Cornish pasty?
Well, maybe not mushrooms. Without knowing how the bacon tastes, I'm kind of at a loss to suggest an accompaniament.
Soba
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Perhaps not, but somewhere out there I'm sure there is an amah slaving away on a hot stove, stuffing cream cheese into wonton skins.
You can never tell.
Sweet and sour pork is a traditional Cantonese dish but the Americanized version is so far off the mark that it might as well be its own version. Ditto for moo shu pork (more egg, less pork).
Soba
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Things like crab rangoon, fortune cookies, etc. are not things that a classically trained Chinese chef woud naturally dream up after moving to America. Those types of dishes are served only to non-Chinese customers and never served within Chinese-American homes.
Not necessarily....
I am Filipino-Chinese-American (born and partially raised in the Philippines) and I can attest to having had Americanized interpretations of Cantonese staples such as sweet and sour pork for dinner when I was growing up. (Yes, the kind with chunks of Dole pineapple, although if memory serves, Mom used water chestnut powder to coat the pork.)
Soba
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I wonder what Mr. Bruno (any relation to Frank?
) would have thought of El Bulli.Soba
Bruni and Beyond: NYC Reviewing (2005)
in New York: Dining
Posted
From today's Diner's Journal:
A little over the top, eh wot?
Soba