KennethT

I thought it was an interesting business choice that during the pandemic, they decided to close all of their stores - because you'd think a place like that would be very conducive to take out/delivery. They cited that the quality would degrade too much during the transit - which makes sense because I remember them, years ago, with signs on the wall saying that they didn't recommend getting their food for takeout - and especially if you've never had it before in the restaurant minutes after it was made, they didn't want you to take it out. Even now, when practically everyone does takeout/delivery, the only thing they have is meal kits so you pull the dough yourself, boil and dress...

Me too... one day I'll make my way to Xi'an and let you know!

When I used to go to Xi'an Famous Foods, a restaurant chain in NYC that focuses on Xi'an food, I would the get the liang pi from time to time as well as the tiger salad. I've seen just a few raw dishes, like the liang pi - a smacked cucumber salad with chili oil and lots of garlic, and I was surprised to see some sort of salad in the donkey meat restaurant in Beijing - I think the salad was made from celtuce tops:

Insert groan button here...

Can you freeze pate? I'm sure it's not easy to make just enough for 2 sandwiches and I'm not big on leftovers... @ShelbyAnother thing to add (for next time) would be a cucumber spear running lengthwise and some black pepper.

Unless you're getting specialty stuff, most yogurt in the US doesn't have much in terms of live cultures still in them. And most probiotics are ridiculously expensive. Years ago, my mother found a chewable probiotic tablet that wasn't that expensive - in Shoprite of all places. I would take it when taking antibiotics (but you have to take it about 2 hours after each dose of antibiotic otherwise it'll get killed off also) and didn't really have any intestinal distress that I usually get with antibiotics... whether it's because of the probiotic or coincidence, I'll never know. Right now, there is a dearth of decent places in NYC that do Malaysian or Indonesian food. Thai has become everywhere, for better or worse - there's a lot of crap - but most of SE Asia is really underrepresented. I get that Indonesian is not represented well - lots of that cuisine revolves around various sambals, and those are made from various fresh chilies - none of which are available here. Substituting jalapenos or serranos or anything else easily available here just doesn't work because the various chilies have different flavors as well as the heat. And Malaysian is usually a tough sell here. My thought is that it is because there is a lot of shrimp paste used which can be really funky. Personally, I love it but I can see why a lot of NYers (many of whom go to these restaurants to say they've been there) could be put off by it in its non-watered down form. And when watered down, it doesn't work at all. I can't wait till I get cooking again - hopefully I won't bug my neighbors too much by stinking up the hallway... I'll probably have to hook up the carbon filter (from my tent) in the kitchen to minimize the stench...

We first tried Kopitiam because of all the hype. I was sooo looking forward to it, which is probably why I was so disappointed. As people kept raving about it, I couldn't understand it, thought I might have been tehre on a bad day, etc... so we went back... nothing had changed - same as the first time. I've never heard of Overseas Asian... There's a Singaporean/Malaysian place on Grand St. (I think) - Nyonya - that's pretty good. If I didn't make some of my favorite dishes taht I get there at home (mine are better, just sayin') I'd be there all the time. Laut in continually disappointing and expensive - I haven't bothered trying Laut Singapura since it's even more expensive than the original and I'm sure is just as mediocre. Personally, my bagel slicing technique is to lay flat and slice like a genoise. No risk of injury with my wicked sharp Dehillerin bread knife that barely gets used so it's just as sharp as when I bought it. Hope your finger heals fast!

Slicing a bagel in the hand more than once a year is just an invitation to the emergency room.... I haven't tried it yet - it looks pretty good. Interesting that the Kopitiam (Malaysian) people are stretching out to Sichuan food. I know the chef at Kopitiam is Malaysian but I don't know where the owner is from. I hope the Sichuan place isn't as mediocre as their Malaysian place is... don't get me wrong - I'd only been to Kopitiam a couple times, but both times I was severely underwhelmed. Their curry puffs were really good though. Their kueh (which were often lauded) were disgusting1 1 It wasn't really disgusting per se, but compared to what I got all over Singapore it was very disappointing.

I'm with @Katie Meadow - if I had an injury like that, I'd just get food delivered for the next few days... especially being in NYC it's just so easy, convenient and most times really tasty (if not quite a bit more expensive than cooking - but to me, that's part of the price of getting injured).

you've obviously never been to a NYC kosher deli... You have to be a boa constrictor to be able to open your mouth wide enough to take the first bite. There's like half a tongue on a each sandwich...

I didn't realize that they franchised - I thought they expanded on their own. I used to go to the 34th St one once a month or so - it was usually consistent and good, although I never had the original before... but I did see Jason in there from time to time especially in the first year or so after it opened.

Right - but sorry, I wasn't clear. I thought it weird that the author, when talking about the history of this dish coming from Xi'an, interviews a guy from NYC to talk about the writing character rather than talking to a food authority or historian in Xi'an, the place in question.

I find it rather curious that the author interviewed Jason Wang from NYC - he's the son of the founder of Xi'an Famous Foods. His father started with a stall in a mall foodcourt in Flushing, NY (which has a large Chinese population) and his son has expanded it all over the city with even broader distribution goals.

Try driving it every day!!!

I recently tested the tap water in the new apartment with my TDS (total dissolved solids) meter (I use for my hydroponic garden) - it was 53ppm which is ridiculously low for unfiltered tap water. Yes, there's some chlorine in there but that's not a solid and will not create scale. Normal household TDS is like 200-300ppm with some areas being even higher. Some well water can be over 600ppm. What's funny is that the tap water in the old apartment used to be this low, but for the last year or so there's been tons of construction in the area (water mains etc) and the TDS has been about 300 for a while now. My new apartment is about a mile away from the old one.

The family in their temporary new home

Agar gels tend to be crumbly - but if you add a little bit of xanthan gum, it helps the texture.

Roagna is one of our faves...

Shelby - you are the Mistress of Deep Frying!!! How do you do it? Specifically, what type of pot do you use and do you constantly reuse the oil? Where do you put the oil between fry sessions? It seems that you're not frying very much at a time - since, like us, it's only the 2 of you. My problem is that every pot seems way too big (meaning that it would use a ton of oil for the amount of food we have).

They've been looking forward to it...

Getting ready to be moved...

I love the idea of such a UK type dish such as steak/kidney pie served with something so SE Asian - stir fried cabbage with chilli. How did it go together?

Jesus... I know what I want for lunch now!!!

You could ship some of those leftovers up to us - they'd last about 10 minutes!!! Drool...

The curry tree is not looking forward to moving...