Pan

"Jimmy Crack Corn" is a happy song about the murder of a master by his clever slave, isn't it? That's how I read it. You can read the lyrics here, on this somewhat odd website. (How many of the kids on the bus do you think really understand the meaning of the lyrics?) I haven't seen the ad for MooLatte, or at least it hasn't registered if I have. I don't think of "mulatto" as an insult per se, rather as a quaint though comprehensible expression whose history has somewhat of an air of bygone obsessions with racial divisions and the spectre of "miscegenation" (a word I had no knowledge of until I read it in an old book as a teenager), but (or is it "and"?) a drink that looks tan and sounds like "mulatto" doesn't seem like the best idea to me. So I agree with Fat Guy, and also with Mabelline. There's no important principle involved in a name chosen for marketing purposes, but God help us if we start to edit out the "nigger"s in the books of that radical anti-racist, Mark Twain! The very fact that racism is a central part of American history is a reason to avoid gratuitous insensitivity, however, and that's what we're surely talking about here. Surely, no-one thinks that this was all intentional by Dairy Queen as a way of getting increased publicity, do we?

Great sig, Chef Paula!

It may be the case that Bruni doesn't like "intellectual food experiences," as you put it, but I didn't get that from that Diner's Journal article. Instead, I got the feeling that he found the place too clever by half - i.e., he found the "deconstruction" he experienced there to be arch and not as good as the conventional execution of the dishes he described. Whether he'd react the same way to a restaurant he didn't find to be "on the precipice of parody...winking at diners or snickering at itself," I don't think I know. It may be that he'd find El Bulli to be revelatory because he'd find that their execution of their concepts was wholehearted and superb, but since El Bulli is not in New York, we may never know one way or the other. Personally, though, I have to tell you that I walked on Clinton St. recently and looked at the menus of various places including WD-50 and 71 Clinton Fresh Food. The menu at WD-50 looked bizarre to me - I might love it, I might hate it, but it's too expensive for me to gamble on. The menu at 71 Clinton Fresh Food looked more normative to me, and seemed to portend a delicious meal. I'd sooner consider a splurge at the now less-heralded 71 Clinton than WD-50. But if someone wants to treat... [Ahem! Excuse me!] Getting back to the subject, it is possible that part of the issue is that a steakhouse is a traditional, conservative paradigm, so that some people (perhaps including Mr. Bruni) might have a particularly great tendency to find food deconstructions or other major forms of "unorthodoxy" to be objectionably subversive in that context? I'm almost tempted to bring in concepts of the mythic macho male identity of steak. I suppose we'd better not go too far in that direction, but you get my drift... [Edit: I just read the one-star review in the Wednesday, July 14 Times, and I actually think if anything, it strengthens my argument about what Bruni's getting at. When something "works" to him - like the carrot cake and 14-layer chocolate cake - he praises it. When he asks the question "Does a lemon meringue `composition' that comes in a half-dozen unhinged pieces represent a bold culinary advance or merely a brash intellectual diversion," he is denigrating intellectual diversions for their own sake, not intellectual food that would constitute a "bold culinary advance" to him. I wonder whether he would have liked the dinner mascarpone and I had at Union Pacific, which we delighted in analysing because its combination of tastes was so interesting!]

Was that an ironic remark, considering that his name is on the byline? Yes, it's more description than review, but the review is ultimately there. [Nitpick mode] I noticed that Toroniku Ramen were misspelled, though (probably a typo).[/nitpick mode]

Yesterday, I posted a meal report on a dim sum lunch at A&B Lobster King House. Today, I went to the renovated Jing Fong for lunch. It was clearly superior to A&B. From the circulating carts, I had chicken feet (not as garlicky as at A&B, but at least as good if not better - I think the chicken may have been of somewhat higher quality); spare ribs (again, as good as A&B, though perhaps not better - they were a little fattier at Jing Fong, I think, though not drastically so); red pork buns (solid, and better than A&B); vegetable dumplings (very tasty); and ground shrimp (with the consistency of a packed-together paste, but not "shrimp paste" = belacan!) in fried, sesame-covered batter skins, which were flaky and not noodly (excellent). One of the things that's very advisable to do at Jing Fong is look at what's on offer against the wall that doesn't circulate. I selected one skewer apiece of fishballs (5 ball per skewer, I think) in different sauces. One was an excellent Malaysian curry (many of you would recognize it as a "Thai" curry) of fishballs, a rich sauce with coconut milk - surprisingly good, and evidence of the heritage of the owner, who I understand is from Ipoh, an ethnically diverse Malaysian city that has a large and prominent Chinese community and is known for its great food. The other fishball skewer was also good but I didn't catch the name of the sauce and I prefer the curry. It's almost unbelievable that I ate all of that for lunch today! Anyway, it cost $19 plus tip. I was picked to be on a jury for a trial that starts tomorrow afternoon, so I guess I'll be having lunch in Chinatown for a few more days (though perhaps not tomorrow)...

Hey Busboy, just remember that "amateur" means someone who loves something! I hope all of us, professional or not, are food amateurs, in the original sense of the word. Oh, and next time, tell us to speak in generalities on neighborhoods in Queens, so that you don't feel "intimidated" and actually go.

Yetty, citrus seeds are bitter and I'm guessing they have cyanide in them. Despite that, I've never tried hard at all to avoid the seeds in candied kumquats...

I choose Combat. No way will I have some poison sprayed in my apartment!

There's a sign at the entrance to Katz's that if you lose your ticket, you'll be charged $50. Don't lose the ticket!

I seem to remember looking at the ingredients panel of Rose's and seeing a bunch of artificial ingredients. Was that a false memory? P.S. It sure is a lousy substitute for lime juice. Almost reminds me of the difference between "Realemon" and lemon juice. Am I off the wall on this, or do I perhaps have a false memory of this as well?

Let me correct myself. Yes, I've seen people cut bagels vertically - I've even done it myself - but only for the purpose of eating part of a bagel. To make a sandwich with any topping, it's necessary to cut the bagel - or whatever portion of a bagel you're eating - horizontally. On that, I won't budge, and for that purpose, a vertical cut is pretty damn useless.

Good to have you here, Karla! Type of mackeral from that region - could that be what was called Ikan Selayang in East Coast Malaysian states like Terengganu and Kelantan? I never liked it - too bony! - but my father did, and it's apparently gone from the waters of Terengganu and was unavailable where my father looked for it in markets last summer. Or could you be talking about what's called Ikan Kembung in Malaysia, a fish I always liked? Does your husband speak Yawi, as well as Thai?

Thanks for the info, Lucy, Joanne, and Gary! I suspect we're likely to stick to Chinese food while in Beijing, but it wouldn't surprise me if we have some Korean food when we're in Jilin province. My brother has apparently taken care of the hotel, or so I hear. What is the whey that's served from carts on the streets of Beijing called in Mandarin? (I'm guessing the whey is still served from carts there?)

I'm glad you said that, and I agree completely.

Just tell the counterman to give you a nice, tasty (or you can say "juicy"=fatty) pastrami sandwich. When he gives you a sample, if you like it, let him know. If you find any fault with it, tell him why and ask for a different piece. Tip at least $1, at least $2 if he gets a different slab for you or the pastrami is particularly outstanding. Needless to say, you should not ask for any bread other than rye. (If you don't mention a type of bread, rye should be assumed. When I met Hillvalley and Squashblossom there, I was helped by a counterman I didn't recognize, and there were loads of tourists there, which is probably why he asked me whether I wanted rye. My response? "Do I look like a white-bread kind of guy?" ) I don't happen to like mustard much, but it's very normal to have mustard with pastrami; but don't ask for mayo, that's just so non-Jewish! Do not have any kind of cheese with your pastrami: They'll do it for you, but it's wrong. Do feel free to have some soup or a side like their cole slaw, and drink Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray or Cream Soda with your sandwich. I hope you don't plan on going to Katz's for lunch and having a big dinner on the same day. Or at least, if you are, I hope your reservations are pretty late. Katz's is not a place to nibble.

I think you're going overboard on that. The lunch and dinner specials suck, because they're "Chinese-American" dishes. I also avoid almost all dishes that are in sections of the big menu other than Sichuan dishes, Hunan dishes, and special dishes like those for the Prodigal Daughter, the special Chinese New Year menu (when in season), and such-like - no Chinese-American dishes, no Cantonese dishes, and rarely any Shanghainese dishes. That's not why you're there. Busboy, great report! You're adventurous, so I think next time, a trip to different parts of Queens adjacent to the 7 line is in order.

No. I've never even thought of the idea of cutting a bagel vertically. My reaction is "What's the point?" Why would anyone go and do a thing like that?

What's an "Atomic Fireball"? Sounds like something your bosses at LLNL would like to keep away from the institution...

Any thread about food erotica has to mention Tampopo, one of my favorite films!

I'm doing jury service this week, and I decided to have lunch at A&B. I'll plus and minus it, but on balance, it was pretty good dim sum for New York. I asked the woman pushing the cart with the steamed stuff to show me everything she had, but I didn't find out until later that she had chicken feet and steamed spare ribs with black bean sauce but didn't show those to me. So be warned that the "You no like" syndrome is in operation for English-speakers (or at least non-Chinese English-speakers). And I'm glad I had those dishes. The chicken feet were made from the typical cod-liver-oil-fed chicken I've gotten at every other dim sum house in New York, but the sauce was very garlicky. The spare ribs were much lighter than usual, not really oily as usual, and had only a touch of black bean sauce. I think both of those dishes were better than the run of the mill. I also got beef balls and shrimp siu mai, which were average, and red pork buns, which were OK until the bottom of the buns started to become distressingly mushy from condensation (I guess). The total was $11.80 plus tip, I think. Sure, I'm damning the place with faint praise, but remember that no dim sum in New York is ever likely to come anywhere close in quality to Xin in Kuala Lumpur, so whatever is best here is best of a comparatively mediocre lot. I thought it was good enough to go back some time this week.

Update: It looks like we'll spend 9 days in Beijing, starting on August 12, and 6 days based in Changchun. I'm looking at possible day trips from Changchun to Jilin city, Shenyang, or/and Harbin. Any recommendations of eateries in those cities would be most welcome!

I guess so, if I really looked hard. But as with many specialty items in New York, it's best to go to specialty stores for them. Jaggery at the Bangladeshi store, etc. Have a good day, Sugar.

Ore, I'm enjoying this. Please continue to post on your experiences.

Non-vegetable kimchi also exists: Octopus kimchi, for example.

Whoa, Yetty, that's true food porn! Americans eat maple candy whole, and my parents and I did the same thing with manisan, to the utter disgust of our neighbors. Manisan is not quite as fragrant as maple candy, but it's pretty damn good! I take it you're getting that sugar in Indonesia?