asian

week 31: momofuku {noodle bar and milk bar}

i am going to say it.
i think. 
yes.
i think i can i think i can.
...
...
ok here i go:

 baohaus baos are better
and i think i prefer top ramen ramen.

 
don't h8.
i enjoyed my
experience a lot!
i really did!
i even brought my childhood friend michael
{who met snooki that day, for what it's worth}
i simply found more tasties and amusement in the other little snackees that weren't front row and center...
like the boozey slushies!!
in limeade {yum!}
arnie palmer {yum!}
and
lychee {as yum as lychee gets!}

and this...
an egg

fact: hard-boiled eggs are the best way to lose friends in the elementary school cafeteria.

until i got real and discovered bosco sticks,
i was on the constant hunt for ways to secretly enjoy my beloved lunchtime egg while hiding that repulsive eggy smell from my little friends.
{in a true fatty fashion, the egg won, and i was soon left alone}

...and how ironic it is that years later i found myself at a communal table faced with:
an egg
and
michael.
and michael's roommate who also does not like the egg. 
only this time, 
instead of being the weird egg girl,
i was the empowered omniscient guru 
because i ordered
the soy sauce egg
it's more a medium-boiled egg
with soy sauce
and scallions
and crunchies!

the eggy smell was masked.
and the taste was good...so good...
it was good enough to convert both michael and his roommate.
it was so simple and salty. just what an egg needs. how nice of the crunch to join us.
i'll take a dozen.
ok let me explain my doodle preference.
i got the 
momofuku ramen
 lotsa meat, an egg, seaweed and what would ultimately be extracted and handed over to michael: mushrooms and fishcakes {ew}

 and michael and his roomie both got
chilled spicy doodles
cold doodles with spinach, sausage, and 
nuts like those nuts you get from the nuts 4 nuts street stands
{and i kept stealing michael's nuts cause they were so good}

they were both very tasty & flavaful
and i've got lotsa 'spect for meester chang
{have you read his story in the momofuku book? you should, it's fascinating}
it's just that...
i'm a mushy noodle kind of girl 
and these bougey ramen places ain't gonna boil the living daylights outta their noodles. 
as they shouldn't. but it's just not in my style these days.
what is japanese for "al dente" anyways? 

 michael had sodium overload.  
he vetoed milk bar.
so i rode home on the molly mobile and went to sleep
and had a dream that we actually went to milk bar
and i had a crack pie.  
and do you want to know something so trippy?
the very next day, by chance, i happened upon milk bar
and got a 
crack pie.
and it was the same crack pie that was in my dream!
and, with the exception of the name, i had no prior knowledge of crack pie! 
:-O
it's more like a thick half-baked chewy cookie
and it kind of reminded me of a seven layer bar.
it was so rich and gooey and sugary!!!
it really was like crack!!
{wait...}
i also got a compost cookie, or whatevs.
and a sample of cereal milk ice cream {cool idea. but i forgot that i never liked the leftover milk from cereal. in fact, i never really liked cereal. it's what you eat with the babysitter.}
and barbecue ice cream never again.
 ....

i had so much fun on my momofuku days!
i really like the silly ideas that the momofuku people think up...
and even though the pork buns weren't as life-changing as i expected,
i was satisfied with my meal.

it's a fun time.
 it's worth the wait.
now i just have to figure out that goofy ko reservation system...

it's ok, i've got 21 weeks to learn...
xoxo
yeh
noodle bar is on 11th and 1st
milk bar is on 13th and 2nd {next to ssam bar... and no, we did not stand outside of ssam bar for twenty minutes wondering why it didn't look like a milk bar until we found the real milk bar}




week 30: xiao ye

if you're drunk and you're in harlem,
you go to lincoln fried chicken.
if you're drunk and you're on the upper west side,
you go to grey's papaya.
if you're drunk and you're in taiwan,
first of all,
call your mother. does she know you're there?
then,
i'd imagine you'd eat something like the booty call food* at 
the soon-to-open
{from the punks that brought you baohaus}
*it's a technical term, coined by owner eddie

please enjoy these pretty pictures from this weekend's six-course preview love fest:
 concubine cucumbers
no,really, that's the name.
they're deliciously sweet and garlicky pickled cucumbers
with a touch of salt 
that i imagine give you way more joy than a concubine.
tofu bricks
and you will shit a brick, these are so good
if you made a marshmallow into a donut
and then extracted the part where marshmallows are a million times too sweet 
and then added chili sauce and peanuts and scallions
you'd get these.
and you'd never want to stop.
poontang potstickers
filled with pat lafrieda meat
imagine:
a dumpling dressed up as fat bastard yelling at a mini me black label burger, saying 
"get in my belly!"
...
these are your wildest dreams come true.
summa the most outrageous dumplings you'll ever have.
in true pat lafrieda fashion, these melt-in-your-mouth puppies don't need any condiments.
just love.
all love.
taiwan most famous pork on rice
the filling of a barbecue pork bun, ground up
over rice
simple & comforting.
like your favorite hamburger helper on asian steroids.
hainan chicken
ginger
christmas-colored sauces
chicken flavored rice
odd. my grandma didn't tell me she got a job cooking at xiao ye...
sweet potato balls
fried sweet taters with sesame seeds
brown suga
sneakily disguised as red bean balls...
a wonderful, happy ending :-)

.....

ahh the satisfaction.
i can't wait for this place to legit open.
i'm going to get, like, a trillion poontang potstickers.
it's going to be amazing.


whoa.
22 restaurants to go.


xoxo


yeh


xiao ye is on orchard and stanton 


p.s. am i naive for not knowing what "poontang" meant?
i googled it.
bad idea.




week 27: canteen 82



in the molly yeh book of commonly kvetched about things,
there are three huge chapters:

1. idiots
2. lack of good restaurants on the upper west side
3. lack of good dim sum in manhattan

i recently discovered that two of these things
are defied by the new-ish-ly opened
 and since idiots will sadly always be an obstacle of life,
you may safely assume i am referring to numbers 2 and 3.
vibe was clean, sterile-y {in a good way}, and comfy
but more importantly, 
the food was magnificent! 
ok here it goes:

taro bubble tea
yes!
is bubble tea coming back by way of its hype being almost as vintage as 
saved by the bell swag?
probably not. 
but this place serves it shamelessly and i don't mind because it's dericious! 
really, if there's one flavor i'll ever favor over red velvet, it's taro.
scallion pancakes
exactly how a scallion pancake should be:
crispy on the outside
doughy on the inside
greasy enough to feel a little bad
but not bad enough to keep you from fighting over the last one with your date
sesame doodles
not their strongest point
in fact
not good.
i like my sesame noodles swimming in sauce a la empire szechuan
but these were... not....
pan pan buns
it's true.
frying things makes things better. 
#donutsarethenewcupcakes
...as if steamed buns weren't good enough already.
these might have been the highlight.
there was a bit more depth given to your typical steamed bun...
the crunchy fried bits on the outer edges were its way of playing hard to get.
that sassy minx. 
and the innards were supremely tasty, too.
everything worked well.
it was an unexpected and lovely surprise.
i love it.
soup dumplings
what drew me to canteen 82 in the first place.
the cool kids around school seem to talk about getting soup dumplings as if they're going to buy weed.
it's kind of only for those in the know,
invite only,
and you have to travel to the far places to get the best ones.
and i'll admit, i've been way too lazy to go to joe's shanghai. 
evs.
don't need to now.
canteen 82's were just fantastic.
even better than the ones i've had in chicago.
the soup actually tasted like soup- not watery goop we pretend is soup because we're too busy being excited about the concept of there being liquid in a dumpling.
really,
they were as tasty as the concept is cool.
{except i probably could have done with a bit of a thicker dough, 
as to not stress out about it breaking and having the soup fly everywhere except my mouth. really, it's a stressful situation. think: SAT II stressful}


stresses aside,
i'm so happy to have found 
incredible
fresh
dim sum
on the island
!!!!!!!!!!!!


ok how many am i at? 
25!
25 restaurants to go, ladies and gents.




xoxo




yeh




canteen 82 is on 82nd and columbus




 

week 24: baohaus


the asians know their bread,
and that's the truf. 

i'm no expert on the east,
but something culinarily spectacular happened where the chinese
 {my 'cestors} 
mastered the art of crustless bread.

{if you've never been to a chinatown bakery, you haven't lived}

this doughy goodness became apparent to me in my youth
in a time where meat,
vegetables,
and crust
were nowhere near my dietary wants (or needs?)

dough balls
were what i called the filling-less version of my favorite chicago dim sum joint's cha sao bao that mum and i used to make...

and the filling in the ones at the restaurant were just another obstacle to get past before indulging in the sweet, pillowy soft buns.

now, although i've since expanded my fave foods to include meat and other things,
the doughy part of the bao has always been the best part.

until
i
tried

on the lower east side

where the bun and the filling go together hand-in-hand like macaroni and cheese,
country fairs and fried things,
and gustav mahler and french horns.

the bun and filling are equally delicious
and each one enhances the other as you gorge.

and i don't know when this started,
but it seems that all the haute baos these days are no longer dough balls
but more like doughy taco things
where the bread dough is flattened out 
and then steamed 
and then wrapped around their hangar steak or berkshire pork belly or tofu 

which is pretty friggen genius if you ask me.

it allows for more filling options,
like cilantro and crushed peanuts and taiwanese red sugar.
{enter a whole new world of tastes}
and allows for prettier pictures {see above}

baohaus' baos are
ridiculous. 
outrageous. 
you've got no idea.

they're cheap,
they're comforting,
and they go well with juice
 hey, juice.

and the tenderness of their perfectly cooked fillings
inside of their maximumly doughy casings 
make for a near-perfect bao.

the only thing i ask is,
why do they have to be served in a closet-sized l.e.s. florescent light land?
why can't they be stationed on the upper west side inside my living room?
and can there be a baohaus truck?
and after eating these, is it possible that i will ever meet a better bao?

i'm really close to calling this the best bao in the world.

but i ain't gonna because
mum might get sad
and because
i've got 28 more restaurants to go!!!


xoxo


yeh




baohaus is located on rivington and norfolk in the glorious lower east side.