Pan

Is it just me, or has the activity died down in this blog lately? Did you all go away for the weekend? Well, guess what, Amy? I had Japanese comfort food for dinner. I wanted to feature a longstanding Italian restaurant, Col Legno, in this blog, but I wasn't hungry enough. In retrospect, there's something a little funny about that statement. Well, here's the place: I'm so pleased that a night shot came out well. I usually have so much trouble with night shots. Anyway, there are two branches of Menkui-Tei: The Midtown branch and this East Village branch, on Cooper Square (the extension of Third Avenue) between St. Marks and 7th St. This is a real Japanese place that seems to me (at least based on two visits so far) to cater to Japanese customers more than any others. And there are signs up inside that look like this: Such a funny beer ad! Can someone please translate it? Will the translation make it less funny? But I digress. My friend ankomochi told me the gyoza are really excellent at the Midtown branch of Menkui-Tei, so I tried this branch's version: Really flavorful, definitely meets my approval. I then got Chan Pon: This soup includes almost everything but the kitchen sink, including shrimps, squid or cuttlefish (I forget which), surimi, and pork, but I got it in large part because it has a lot of vegetables (cabbage, snow peas, bean sprouts, carrots, etc.). It was very soothing, but I wonder if you can tell just how humongous that bowl was! It was almost like some kind of mega-oversized crock pot. Especially as I was already getting full by the time I finished the gyoza, there was no way in the world that I was going to finish that bowl of soup. I took most of it home. All that said, the total bill including tax was $14.65. I thought of getting green tea ice cream but didn't. Perhaps I'll get something cold later; if I do, I'll post about it. Tomorrow, unless something happens to change things, I'll be taking a friend to a late dinner at an Italian restaurant in this neighborhood. It can't be Col Legno, because they're closed on Monday, so it may be one of the newer places.

They did that a lot when all those 16-story apartment houses were being built on West End Av. on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in the first couple of decades of the 20th century. They're trees now.

Ed Hamilton, host of the Ministry of Rum, was at Bistro 60 at 37 E. 60 St. to promote a wonderful drink called Ti Punch, made with a rhum agricole from Martinique that Ed is importing into the US. This is Ed with two lovely young women -- Marie on the left and Natalie on the right -- who work for the Martinique Promotion Board in New York and Paris, respectively: Marie and Natalie are sisters. They were born in Paris of Guadaloupais parents and have relatives in both parts of France (Guadaloupe, though in the Caribbean, is politically just as much a part of France as European departements). And here is the drink: I probably took too close a shot for it to come out really good on this camera (Panasonic DMC-LC33), but I wanted you to see how clear the drink is. I don't drink that much. And lately, I've been getting away from cocktails with rum and having drinks with vodka more often, except for an occasional caipirinha or mojito. Rum is usually distilled from molasses, and that gives it a somewhat unpleasant overtaste Ed calls its "molasses bite." The Ti Punch is made with a rum that's fermented from pure sugar cane syrup. As a result, the drink has a pristine quality and a very pleasant aftertaste. It's a delicious drink, and I had two. Ed is a real free spirit and a delightful guy to talk to. He's importing a product which I hope gets wide distribution, so that I can have more rum cocktails. I was really impressed. If you have a chance to try a Ti Punch or get your hands on a rhum agricole, consider it, even if you don't drink much. It was great to meet Marie and Natalie, as well. [Edited based on Ed's corrections downthread.]

Well, faithful readers, remember when I said I didn't do anything to celebrate 14 juillet? That's no longer true. In the old-time tradition of "Wednesday is Sundae" (some of you may remember that slogan from Carvel ads in the 70s), the Alliance Francaise celebrates Bastille Day the Sunday after 14 juillet with a fair on 60th St. from halfway between Lexington and Park Avs. to 5th Av. The Bastille Day Festival is one of the really nice street fairs in New York. Most street fairs have the same food booths, representing establishments that do all or most of their business on the street (and mostly mediocre or worse), so that the 3rd Avenue fair becomes like the 9th Avenue Fair, etc., etc. This is different. Yes, the regular crepe place is there, but so is the one that made this: This is a crepe with ratatouille inside. The ratatouille was tasty and the eggy crepe dough was also nice. They guessed wrong about how long to heat it, though: It was a bit cold inside. But no matter, it was very good street food. This was from the booth of: Maison 1700 Broadway (corner of 53 St.) New York, NY 10019 (212) 757-2233 Also represented was an establishment called Frere Jacques: You can't really see the merguez in the sandwich very distinctly, though if you look between the tomato slice closer to the bottom of your screen and the bread, one of the sausages is there. The pasta salad came with the sandwich. The bread was rather hard and the merguez was just OK, but I was still happy to have it. Then, I found this booth: I don't recommend showing up close to 5 P.M. at a fair that ends at 6 P.M., but I did have the advantage of missing an earlier downpour and also that, near the end of the festival, the remaining food gets discounted. The guys at this booth were trying to get rid of everything. They priced their tarts at $2 apiece and kept saying "Allez, allez, $2, $2, who wants it? Next!" This lemon tart was delicious, so I ended up getting two: Have a look at a long shot, to get a feel for what it was like to be there: There was a stage between 5th and Madison where musicians were playing amplified dance music. The booth that didn't seem to be attracting any business was a French express-mail company. I almost felt bad for them. Booths selling food, CDs, clothing and such seemed to be attracting a lot of interest, and people were talking to some tourism promoters as well. I didn't look at all the food; I had had an adequate meal. Besides, I had another reason for coming to the fair.

I have a vague recollection that it was on E. 4th street, and now I'm wondering if it was a Basque (rather than Portuguese) restaurant.[...] ← Got it. Euzkadi. We actually have an old thread on it, but no recent posts at the moment.

I happen to dislike dried rose hips very much. Somehow, they irritate my throat. Odd, because when I was little, there used to be rose hips preserves available in supermarkets, and I particularly liked them. The preserves were sweet, but the dried rose hips are very sour. I just had the last of the Ting Ting Jahe candies. I fell asleep after dawn and woke up for good fairly recently after talking on the telephone with a friend in the morning, and much later, hitting the "snooze" button on my alarm clock several times. I will get myself together and go out. Pictures later.

I've never had a congee with basil in it. Sounds good to me! Sort of a Thai-Chinese congee, maybe. One of the greatest meals I had when I was a kid was a Thai-Chinese dim sum meal, just a few things (dumplings and bao, I think) bought in a hole-in-the-wall in Bangkok's Chinatown back in 1975. I don't remember the food so distinctly, but it was a combination of Chinese and Thai flavors, which any fan of both cuisines would probably agree is a terrific idea! ← No... not the congee with basil. The steamed basa fillets with basil! (Though congee with basil might be good, too.) ← Oh, I see where I read that wrong. Well, if you try making congee with basil, I'd be interested to know whether the result was good.

Mmmmmnnn... fish congee! We had basa fillets the other night... steamed with lots of garlic, basil leaves, cilantro leaves, and lemon juice (a spontaneous invention as my husband is on a diet -- my main way of preparing basa/catfish is fried with a cornmeal crust). ← I've never had a congee with basil in it. Sounds good to me! Sort of a Thai-Chinese congee, maybe. One of the greatest meals I had when I was a kid was a Thai-Chinese dim sum meal, just a few things (dumplings and bao, I think) bought in a hole-in-the-wall in Bangkok's Chinatown back in 1975. I don't remember the food so distinctly, but it was a combination of Chinese and Thai flavors, which any fan of both cuisines would probably agree is a terrific idea!

Fascinating stuff, MumonA. You'd think a doctor promoting a Vermont-style diet would also tout maple syrup. Now, shall we imagine a curry with maple syrup?

Sounds great! Yeah, I do think I've had those, but it sure hasn't been lately. I'm having some more comfort food: Some of the same brand of chocolate pudding I had for dinner a couple of days ago.

Chinese Road Trip I. Yeah!!

Vermont style? Seriously? If so, what's the derivation of that term for a type of curry?

With the meal, I'm drinking water in the cup that still has the tea spoon of fennel in it.

Had I gone to my parents' place tonight, I probably would have gotten takeout from Congee Village. I'm happy I was able to feature them, anyway.

Here's the chicken: I wish you could smell it! Delicious, earthy mushrooms, baked rice seasoned with garlic, ginger, scallions, and of course the chicken. Such a very pleasant and tasty dish!

I'm putting a little bit of Sambal Oelek in the congee.

Delivery from Congee Village: Chinese comfort food. Sliced Fish and Lettuce Congee. You see all the lettuce, which is on top. The fish is lower down. I will mix the congee now. I also got one of my favorite dishes, in order to go over the minimum of $8 for delivery: Rice Baked with Chicken and Black Mushroom in a bamboo pot (it is served to diners still inside a bamboo cylinder. The customer serves himself/herself via a spoon which is inserted into a hinged piece of wood in the center of the bamboo contraption. I'll take a picture of that dish tonight if I eat any of it tonight.

You can read the whole thing here . Something tells me it's not over yet... ← No it's not. I heard on the news this morning that there is another hearing on July 27 and the American producers want to close the border to Canadian beef permanently. While this is good news for my family today, I think the damage has already been done and I don't know if the ranch will recover. ← Seems to me, they're acting crazy on both sides of the border. Since both countries have had mad cows, both countries should agree to open their borders to free trade in beef permanently, barring a true emergency, and should establish and maintain a uniform inspection standard and stop pretending the problem is in the other country. What's NAFTA useful for, if not something like that? I admit to being very puzzled by the plain fact that the "North American Free Trade Association" is nothing of the kind. Wasn't the elimination of disputes over agricultural products one of the reasons NAFTA was pushed through over strong opposition in all three member countries?

That explains something I hadn't realized I didn't know: When I see dried fructus lycii in Chinese supermarkets, those are wolfberries, not lychees, as I had thought. I really couldn't tell from the shape or color. So should I just buy those dried wolfberries that are in a box and eat them like that, or do they need to be reconstituted?

Presumably leeks. By "lunch buffet," are you referring to the display of cold dishes near the window? That's not a buffet; it's just a large selection of cold dishes to have as part of your meal. If you haven't been following my blog, you might be interested in looking at pictures and discussion of Spicy & Tasty, starting here.

Percy, can you tell us more about the Chaoshou dumplings? [Edit: Never mind; I found the thread on that type of dumpling But where's all the sauce? ] I'm amazed that some of you can get really good closeups. You must have much better digital cameras than I do. If I try to get closer than a certain amount, everything is blurry.

Now, I'm having the second-to-last Ting Ting Jahe.

I'm not quite sure what the dividing line between Cantonese and Hong Kong style is. I like congee and noodle soups, salt baked dishes, pork and chicken buns, fried seafood dumplings with leeks or chives, some of the casserole dishes, soy sauce chicken, lotus root in red bean sauce (one of my favorites at Congee Village), chicken feet... I'll see how that yogurt sits. If I feel like it, I may get delivery from Congee Village tonight. As I said earlier, I'm at the limit of their delivery area, and I think they have an $8 minimum. That means I can't order just congee, and it also means I tip the deliveryman well.

I'm going to try having some of this and seeing how my stomach responds: It is full fat, but it's yogurt. The local Met Food supermarket also sells a Greek (or Greek-style?) yogurt that's creamier and tastier than this, but at some $3.50 for a container half or less than half the weight of this container, it is pretty pricey by my standards.

Actually, Russell, I like Cantonese food very much. I still have great memories of a dim sum breakfast in the Guangzhou Station at 7:30 A.M. after arriving on a 33 1/2-hour train ride from Beijing in 1987, one of the best dim sum meals I've ever had (and very cheap). Things don't have to be spicy all the time. I usually buy two or three bags of Ting Ting Jahe at one time. Had I had the chance to pass by a supermarket in Flushing while it was still open, I would have bought more yesterday, but that didn't happen. That tripe in chili sauce is fairly tender, just a bit chewy. They do a really good job with it. I want to give everyone an update: I feel a lot better after the fennel tea relaxed my stomach some and I had about 5 or 5 1/2 hours of sleep. I felt fine right after the meal, didn't feel overstuffed and even commented on that fact, saying that we had ordered just the right number of dishes. I felt pretty good during and after playing ping pong. My stomach was just a bit fragile afterwards, but nothing serious. I really think that what set me off was the gas from the blown-out pilot lights, but once my system was set off, I concluded that the dish that gave me trouble was the Spicy Double Cooked Pork. It really is a delicious dish, but it's really fatty and oily. I usually feel fine after eating at Spicy & Tasty, but I hadn't had the double cooked pork before. I don't think I'll order that again, and if someone else does, I'll eat enough for just a little taste.