eG Foodblog: Pan - How to stop cooking and love life

[Pan]

For those of you who don't know, zeitoun has been making himself a great source of information about inexpensive "ethnic" eateries in Astoria (part of Queens, New York) and so forth. So we two are kind of kindred spirits.

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C'mon!! I'm a rookie compared to you!!!!

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Everyone has to start somewhere.

[Pan]

[...]Well, whatever shape they were or are, they're darn good. The more onion the better, of course.

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You can say that again! As far as I'm concerned, onions are one of God's greatest creations.

[CaliPoutine]

ummm... what exactly is a black and white cookie?  Is it just the icing or is the cookie itself 2 colours?  Is is a vanilla cookie or a chocolate cookie... or what? 

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Pam, you've never had a black and white? Oy gevalt, I grew up eating those in Florida( I was born in NY as were my parents). They are like a big cakey cookie. More cake than cookie, with a sweet icing. Half chocolate icing/half vanilla. Its hard to find a really good one. On our last trip back to Florida, I tried 3 from different deli;s and they all sucked. I need to learn to bake them.

[mizducky]

Heh. Check my previous post--I found another picture that looked closer to my childhood memories of a foccacia-sized bialy-thang. Here it is again ...

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Yes, except I don't remember them being round. They were made in huge rectangular pans, and they cut off as much as you wanted. They were sold by weight. (Or maybe I'm imagining this? Does anyone else remember buying them in this form?) Well, whatever shape they were or are, they're darn good. The more onion the better, of course.

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Nope, you're not imagining that. I remember seing--and eating--that style too.

(Damn, I'm hungry now! )

[Pan]

I've continued to munch on more Ting Ting Jahe candies. I must get some more soon.

Alright, I'm off to Tai Chi again. I'll take my camera along in case I decide to pick up something other than the yogurt and chocolate pudding I bought at the nearest grocery store a few hours ago.

[Pam R]

Pan - is the onion board like a lavash? umm... good matzoh maybe? with lots of onion?

Cali - I should be ashamed. Having been in both NY and FL (more than once) there is no excuse! I don't know what I did in either places... obviously didn't eat well. I promise to try to get to NY in the next year and only eat black and whites... and onion boards.

My education has been lacking... maybe I could claim a trip as a business 'research' expense.

[purplewiz]

Those wontons really are good, Marcia, but I don't mean to rub it in...

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But....but isn't that the point of a blog ?

Marcia.

[Milagai]

lotus root - yum!

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Not I, I'm afraid. There are some good Indian lotus root dishes, though (I forget from what region). Have you made anything with lotus root?

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i've not made anything myself, because i can only get canned

or frozen where i live.....

but lots of indian regions have LR recipes:

kashmir, punjab, bengal, etc.

everything from pickle to relish to wet or dry sabzis to LR being

one ingredient in an elaborate dish....

Milagai

[Pan]

Pan - is the onion board like a lavash? umm... good matzoh maybe? with lots of onion? 

[...]

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I don't remember what lavash is, and I'm not thinking of onion matzot at all. That's different.

[Pan]

Dinner:

[Tepee]

Hello, Big Guy! I knew your blog would be fascinating! Reading it right now and linking it to the Heaven and Hell Food thread, life in the Big Apple (gastronomically-wise) would seem like one big heavenly bite every which way you turn...if you follow Pan's pipe.

Here's some lotus root recipes....Clicky.

Tai Chi...amazing an exercise with such slow (but controlled) movements can give you such a great work-out, huh? Have fun.

[Pan]

Thanks, kawan. (Kawan is Malay for friend.) I wish I could feature some Malaysian food in this blog, but I have yet to find anyplace in New York that really satisfies me.

I'm drinking my nightly cup of hibiscus tea now.

[LindaK]

...Banh Mi are sandwiches in a baguette, as you'll see in a minute.

Those photos are a great recommendation! This past Sunday some friends and I took the Chinatown bus back to Boston from NYC, with the intention of finding some bahn mi for dinner on the tedious ride home...lack of time and nothing promising nearby meant that we arrived home pretty hungry. I go back and forth often enough, next time I'll leave time to get some take-out at Bahn Mi Saigon.

Love the blog, too. I'm not sure how much I'd cook if I lived there either. I don't really know your neighborhood, but my random wanderings through the East Village have provided some great shopping and great meals. Last fall I had a wonderful dinner at a nice but informal Portuguese place that cured their own salt cod--but don't remember the name. Yum.

[Pan]

Thanks, Linda.

Do you have any idea where the Portuguese place was located? I'm interested.

[Pan]

Those red berries are wolfberries (lycium barbarum). Very healthy, but I'm a bit hazy on WHY they are so healthy![...]

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It turns out that there's an eGullet thread on wolfberries!

[anzu]

I have a huge packet of sliced and dried lotus root that I deep fry... makes for an amazing snack!! milagai, you're probably familiar with this (tamara kazhangu) ?

-w@w

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Can you tell more about this? You take it dried directly from the packet and simply deep fry it without reconstituting it with water or anything first? Do you spice it afterwards, or just add salt?

Milagai: do you find the frozen lotus root so bad to cook with? I sometimes add it to Punjabi dishes - for example, along the lines of mattar paneer, but with lotus root in place of the peas - and am happy enough with the results. Maybe my standards are just low.

Pan: (getting away from the lotus root here). The baguettes at your Banh mi place are the same as baguettes at any other place? I mean, are they completely wheat based? In Corinne Trang's Authentic Vietnamese Cooking , she gives a recipe for Banh mi (which she calls Saigon baguette) which has equal quantities wheat and rice flour, and then goes on to say that one can use a French baguette instead if one doesn't want to bake. I've never tasted this rice flour baguette, and wondered if maybe you - or anyone else reading here - had tasted it, and how it compared.

[SuzySushi]

The baguettes at your Banh mi place are the same as baguettes at any other place? I mean, are they completely wheat based? In Corinne Trang's Authentic Vietnamese Cooking , she gives a recipe for Banh mi (which she calls Saigon baguette) which has equal quantities wheat and rice flour, and then goes on to say that one can use a French baguette instead if one doesn't want to bake. I've never tasted this rice flour baguette, and wondered if maybe you - or anyone else reading here - had tasted it, and how it compared.

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The most popular Banh Mi chain in Honolulu is Ba-Le (said to be the Vietnamese pronunciation of Paris/Par-ee). They bake all their own bread for their stores and franchises, and also supply bread to wholesale accounts including other restaurants, hotels, and airlines. I remember reading that their secret to their crisp, light baguettes is the use of rice flour along with wheat flour. Their baguettes are exceptionally light, with a very thin crust that "shatters" when warm. (They heat each baguette in a toaster-oven before making a sandwich.) We sometimes buy their baguettes -- actually demi-baguettes -- plain to take home and store in the freezer!

A lot of what purports to be "French" bread in the USA is mushy (the Wonder Bread of French bread!). At the other extreme, the artisan-style French breads (pain a l''ancienne) made with a natural starter are chewy and doughy by comparison.

[Dejah]

Pan, the lotus root is intriguing.  I've purchased it at the asian market and sliced it thin on the mandoline and fried it like chips but have never seen it on a menu.  What is the texture cooked this way?  Cripy like a raw potato or does it soften up?

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Mind you, lotus root will go quite soft if cooked for a long time. Takes on the texture more-or-less of boiled taro. I've never actually timed it, but I think somewhere between 20-30 minutes of cooking is the point where it starts going soft.

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Actually there are 2 "kinds" of lotus root. The ones with round segments will soften with long cooking time, whereas the roots with more elongated segments will retain more crunch even when cooked for the same length of time.

The rounder roots are called "fun lean gnow"...flour lotus root.

My kids called lotus root soup "fiddle bridge soup". A semi circle slice of the root looks like the bridge on a fiddle or violin.

Do you like the candied lotus root sold around Lunar New Years?

I've always enjoyed your posts in the Chinese Cuisine forum, Pan. It's great having this virtual tour of your eating style!

[Laksa]

Ah! Banh Mi... how do they make a simple sandwich taste soooo gooooood!?!?

Anzu, how does one tell from eating it if the banh mi baguette has rice flour? I can describe the texture...soft, airy bread with a very thin, crispy crust that shatters when you bite into it.

And don't you love that liver paste and that rubbery, cartilage-y meaty tasting protein?

Pan, jalapeno in banh mi? Is Banh Mi Saigon some sort of fusion place? I've only ever found Thai chilis in those I've had.

Here's one of the many banh mi threads on eG.

[worm@work]

I have a huge packet of sliced and dried lotus root that I deep fry... makes for an amazing snack!! milagai, you're probably familiar with this (tamara kazhangu) ?

-w@w

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Can you tell more about this? You take it dried directly from the packet and simply deep fry it without reconstituting it with water or anything first? Do you spice it afterwards, or just add salt?

Well, I dont season it afterwards. However, I think that the dried ones I am talking about are already seasoned prior to drying them... they are spicy so probably seasoned with more than just salt. I just take them right out of the packet and fry them up :). I could mail you some if you'd like to try them... I dont have a whole lot left (after posting this yday, I had to go and snack on a *ahem* rather big set!) but would be happy to share the experience with you.

PM me if you wanna take me up on the offer.

-w@w

[daniellewiley]

Oy. You Americans.  I feel like I should know this... but don't.  What's an onion board?

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Onion board is basically a sort of cracker-like (but much bigger and significantly thicker than cracker-sized) crunchy bread with lots of bits of onions baked onto it. Very nice stuff!

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Onion board is also known as "pletzel" in Yiddish. The ones I fondly remember from my childhood weren't so much cracker-like as kinda like someone took a bunch of bialy dough and made a large, skinny, squarish foccacia-like thang with it. A little flaky, a little chewy, baked golden-brown, generously flecked with browned bits of onion. Insanely good with standard bagel-fixings.

Edited to add: here is a picture of an onion board--this one's a little bit fatter than the ones I remember from when I was a kid.

Edited *again* to add: Oh wait! Now here is a picture of an onion board that looks a whole lot more like my childhood memories.

(Yes, I'm obsessed--why do you ask? )

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At Zingerman's Bakehouse, they made Onion Board with the bialy dough, so you are right on. I LOVE onion board!

[Pan]

[...]

Pan, jalapeno in banh mi?  Is Banh Mi Saigon some sort of fusion place?  [...]

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Isn't the whole idea a fusion? Thanks for the link to the banh mi thread. No pate on either of our sandwiches yesterday, I think.

Suzi, I really have no idea what type(s) of flour they used in the bread.

Good morning, everyone.

[Pan]

In this weather, I've been taking two showers a day, and I'm due for my first. After that, I have a couple of errands to run, and I'll take my camera along, in case I decide to have a real lunch. Tonight...well, I said before that you could find out what I'm doing tonight if you look at the ISO thread in the New York forum. Or you could just wait for my report.

[mascarpone]

These sandwiches were really fantastic, among the best sandwiches I've ever eaten! I think that except for the differences in the meats (excellent roast chicken vs. two kinds of pork) and perhaps a little hot sauce on the Banh Mi Saigon, the ingredients were basically the same: cucumbers lightly pickled in a vinegar/sugar solution, shredded jicama and carrots (also very slightly pickled, with the pickling in both cases really amounting to a few minutes to perhaps a few hours' soaking -- just guessing here), cilantro, jalapenos, and a moderate amount of mayonnaise on a baguette.

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They use jicama in the sandwiches in NYC? Here, it's a carrot-and-daikon slaw.

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Yeah, I really think that was jicama. I didn't taste any of the bitterness of daikon in it. Perhaps mascarpone will weigh in later with his opinion.

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I spoke with the guy at Banh Mi Saigon where I had a chicken sandwich and and iced coffee today. I asked then about the daikon vs. jicama when I ordered. They looked at me with puzzled expression. When I asked them if they had any pickled daikon or jicama in the sandwich, they said there was cucumber, cilantro, and carrot but no pickles (although I also tasted a very spicy green pepper that was most likely jalapeno). I then inquired about the white vegetable and they replied," white carrot."

I then walked to Grand and Christie, purchased a daikon for 75 cents, and returned to the sandwich shop. When I pulled the daikon out the bag, I was immediately greeted with an affirmative smile and head nod. White carrot, or Ba Lo Pa is indeed daikon and not jicama.

Edited July 15, 2005 by mascarpone (log)

[touaregsand]

Ah!  Banh Mi... how do they make a simple sandwich taste soooo gooooood!?!?

Anzu, how does one tell from eating it if the banh mi baguette has rice flour?  I can describe the texture...soft, airy bread with a very thin, crispy crust that shatters when you bite into it.

And don't you love that liver paste and that rubbery, cartilage-y meaty tasting protein?

Pan, jalapeno in banh mi?  Is Banh Mi Saigon some sort of fusion place?  I've only ever found Thai chilis in those I've had.

Here's one of the many banh mi threads on eG.

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Jalapenos in Bahn Mi are found in So Cal places, many that cater to Vietnamese. Seems more a like a substitution more than fusion.

I wonder what Thai chilis are called in Mexico or elsewhere in Latin America? If get my drift about the origins of chili peppers.