October 2005 Archives

A friend of mine sent a link to this BBC article about kimchi possibly preventing bird flu.  The article was from March of 2005 and the findings seemed to be based on superficial research, aka wishful thinking.  I want to believe, so I decided to see if I could find any recent articles on kimchi as cure-all.  Instead, I found this fabulous article on eating sauerkraut instead of kimchi on WCCO-TV Minnesota.  In this hard-hitting piece, Asian helmet-head Mary Tan reports:

Others at the store bought the sour cabbage just because they like it. They said they have no concerns about the avian flu.

Ruby Bauer just wants some kraut to eat with wieners.

No offense to you wurst lovers; believe me, I can get down with a tangy, fatty plate of choucroute.  Sauerkraut makes me think of Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres and how the one sister tries to kill the other with tainted sauerkraut.  (As usual, all I remember from that book is the food reference.  I am so predictable.)  But sauerkraut is to kimchi as a slice of American cheese is to a hunk of Cabrales, as Clark Kent is to Superman, as Tylenol is to Tylenol with codeine.  Magical kimchi has fermenting sea creature extracts and chili capsaicin up the wazoo.  It has the power of garlic's allicin and stomach soothing ginger.  I think it tastes powerful and protective.  It may or may not prevent bird flu, but why take chances when the potential remedy is so enjoyable?

I had this dish at a Japanese restaurant on Barrow St. -- it makes a quick, tasty bachelorette meal with a bowl of fresh rice.

Pork with kimchi and egg

1 tbsp. oil
1 boneless pork chop, thinly sliced on the bias
soy sauce
a couple of pieces of Napa cabbage kimchi, sliced into Trident gum sized strips
1 egg

Heat your pan up over high heat.  When it's hot, add your oil and throw the pork in and saute til meat is opaque.  Add a touch of soy sauce, add your kimchi and cook til the kimchi has warmed up.  Push everything to the sides and crack the egg in the middle of the pan.  Scramble it up quickly and incorporate the meat and kimchi.  Serve immediately with white rice.  Best eaten in front of the TV or over the kitchen sink.

Our pungent seasoning workhorses -- onions, chives, leeks, scallions, garlic, etc. -- are part of the allium genus in the lily family.  Sometimes you can find gorgeous lilac-colored chive flowers at the Greenmarket in the spring.  These flowering chives, though, are the unopened bud stems of garlic chives, also known as Chinese chives.  Aren't they gorgeous and kind of alien looking?  Flowering chives have that lovely mild garlic chive flavor with a sweet gel core inside the long fibered green exterior.  Saute 3" lengths on high heat for a few minutes with a bit of black bean garlic sauce (like they do at City Bakery) or just with salt and a touch of cornstarch.  Add beaten eggs for a yummy flowering chive omelet you can enjoy in the morning with rice porridge.  They can be found year-round at Chinatown veggie stands for about $2/bunch. 

Name: Roger Williams

Occupation: Corporate Whore/Web Consultant

Borough: Manhattan

What did you eat today?

Breakfast: Coffee
Lunch: Homemade Chicken Salad Sandwich - chicken salad has sour pickles, candied pecans, and pears all smoothed out with some sour cream, mayo, and dijon. [Fascinating.  That is beyond my taste comprehension.  I am a little grossed out, a little intrigued. -- Ed.]
Afternoon: Went to a wine tasting - the wines of Portugal - got pretty tipsy, y'all - I had some cheese there.
Dinner: At Lavagna, I had their rigatoni with ground sausage and peas in a tomato cream sauce.  I eaten at Lavagna for 5 years, this is easily their best dish.

What do you never eat?

Lima beans, I mean, what is the point?  It's mushy crap, and it doesn't go with anything.

Complete this sentence: In my refrigerator, you can always find:

Cheese, butter, and wine

What is your favorite kitchen item?

Cutting board



Where do you eat out most frequently?

I can't name one place, but if I had to pick the most frequented I would say Casimir (French), Alias (comfort and new American), Max (Italian), and Ginger (sushi)

World ends tomorrow. What would you like for your last meal?

1st Course:
Oysters
with a nice white wine

2nd Course:
Cobb Salad
Cheese Plate - all stinky and sharp
with a nice rose

Main Course
NY Strip Steak - rare
Risotto
Creamed Spinach
Big fluffy roll
with a nice Bourdeaux

Dessert
Key Lime Pie with Whipped Cream
with a nice port

Finishing it all off with as much Single Malt Scotch I can drink.

We're supposed to feel safe from biological attacks when the City Department of Environmental Protection can't even figure out where an odiferous cloud of "maple syrup", "peperkoek" and "roasted peanuts" is coming from?  Aiya.

Wut wut, Frank Bruni withholds stars from Ninja New York!

And yet, he still manages to mention a celebrity anyway:

It should also advise its ninjas that it's not nice to brag about having entertained a Hollywood celebrity who, by the account of the ninja in question, was the apparent beneficiary of recent breast augmentation. I was happy for the disclosure and appalled at the indiscretion, as I was at so much else.

Note to Ninja: a little Uma with the uni, a little Madonna with the maguro might have buttered our boy up a little.  You can't give him a taste and leave him hanging.

Thanks Mae and Pau for having sex that one time. 

It's time for my ten year progress report.  What have I accomplished since relieving my parents of responsibility for me and becoming and adult in the eyes of the law?  What's the difference between being 18 and being 28?

1995: I lived in a house with two stoves, two overpacked refrigerators, and 14 other hormonal co-ed sophomores in a historical house in Berkeley, CA.
2005: I live in the add-on apartment to an old converted butcher shop with la Doug, my once and future roommate in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

1995: I swigged cheap sparkling wine with bubbles as big as eyeballs straight from the bottle before ralphing it, and dinner, all over a cute college boy (true).
2005:  I can't quite afford to swim in Krug, but I don't have to slum it with Korbel anymore.  I am liking the NV Vouvray.  And when I have to ralph, I've learned to aim AWAY from the cute boys.

1995: Chicago Cutlery 8" Chef's knife
2005: Glestain 7" Santoku knife, Global 4" paring knife

1995: Typical at-home meal: 3 minute angel hair pasta with Classico Tomato Basil sauce straight from the refrigerator.
2005: Typical at-home meal: Ma-po tofu with kimchi and rice and/or Haagen-Dazs straight from the carton.

1995: A splurge was Zachary's Pizza on College, Chicago-style deep dish stuffed with mozz, chicken, and olives with a tall plastic tumbler of icy Coke.
2005: A splurge is three courses at al di la in Park Slope, with a nice bracing espresso to end the meal. 

1995: I would skip class to go to Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco with my buddy Julian.  We'd get there at 5:00 p.m. when the band we wanted to see (always a Brit-pop band) was setting up for sound check and wait for SIX HOURS in the courtyard out back til the band played because we knew they'd never let our underage asses through the doors otherwise.
2005: I've sung in Chiba Marine stadium in Japan.  I've sung for unenthusiastic Germans at the Leipzig Opera House.  I'm going to Sarajevo in a few weeks to sing in a festival.  A few people actually have my autograph.  I've gotten to say that not only am I with the band, I am in the band.  And I still think it's pretty fucking cool.

1995: One DOS-based Eudora e-mail account at uclink.berkeley.edu, one land line.  What's the internet?
2005: A gmail account, a yahoo account,  work e-mail, two verizon accounts (one current, one defunct), a defunct hotmail account.  As Doug has said, I've got more email addresses than a craigslist ho.  Also, one typepad blog, a flickr account, a cell phone, a shared land line, and mainlining the dubdubdub for probably 11 hours a day, M-F.  God, that's a little depressing.

1995: Number of times I called my Mae per week: 1
2005: Number of times I call my Mae per week: 1

1995: Not getting laid.
2005: Not getting laid.  But I do have a 401K.  Does that turn you on?

1995: I hoped in ten years I'd be a famous stage actress, maybe living in England.  (1996 is the year London breaks me.  At 18, I was still a hardcore Anglophile.)
2005: I hope in ten years I'll be sated and free with good stories to tell and good adventures to come.  And I hope I don't get fat.

Sometimes Sietsema and the folks on Chowhound get all creamy over out of the way outer borough eateries, promising salt of the earth, Authentic cuisine not found within the kid glove confines of Manhattan.  In the case of Sripraphai, it's absolutely true -- you can't get Thai food anywhere near as good in Manhattan or Brooklyn, as far as I can tell.

But in the case of Ba Xuyen, a Vietnamese sandwich joint just one stop away from me on the D train a little deeper into Sunset Park, I can't believe the hype.  The 10" grilled pork and pate bahn mi was perfectly fine, and a bargain at $3.  Chewy roast pork and standard pate were layered with sprigs of cilantro, a pile of pickled carrots and daikon, too few slices of ashy jalapeno, with too much butter and a sweet sauce that soaked through the only remarkable thing about the sandwich, the lighter-than-Wonder bread toasted baguette.  Unlike this guy, my friends and I requested ours spicy and got some unsatisfyingly mild sandwiches that would have left even the most Scoville unit-sensitive tongues unscathed.

Who knows, maybe we got the dud sandwich maker.  I'm definitely willing to give it another go.  Perhaps things have changed with the neighborhood's newer residents -- the only other four-top in the tiny place was inhabited by some neighborhood baby hipsters who would have looked right at home by Nicky's Vietnamese Sandwiches in the East Village.  For my money, the bahn mi storefront on Broome St. in Nolita is still better -- the bread may not be as ethereal, but the fillings are more flavorful, and even for a Sunset Parker like me, the location is more convenient.  Would I be psyched to have Ba Xuyen within walking distance of my house instead of KFC and White Castle?  Absolutely.  But is it worth the D train ride out to Sunset Park?  I'll have to get back to you after I try it again.

Ba Xuyen
4222 Eighth Avenue
between 42nd and 43rd St.
718.633.6601

D train to 9th Ave.

I love Sripraphai.  They treat me like family there, which is to say that the best waitress pokes fun at my limited Thai vocab and berates me for not visiting more often.  Eleven of my friends came out to help me celebrate on Saturday.  All the elements seemed to be conspiring against us: the cold October rain came in spurts, the 7 and G trains were not running properly, and it was completely packed when we got there.  They don't take reservations there, and I think Jim was right -- all the Thai people and old folks thought they'd beat the crowds by getting there at 6:00 for dinner, thus beating my 6:15 group out for the long tables.

I suppose this is not going to be a real review, because being critical of Sripraphai is no longer an option for me.  When I eat there, not only do I get to eat delicious, authentic Thai dishes that I can't get anywhere else in town, but I also get to feel like a part of the New York Thai community.  I recognize faces there, and I get to practice the first language I ever learned.  I feel at home.

That said, I thought you might be interested in what we had to eat.  It was my birthday dinner, and the deal was, people were invited to come eat, but I got to do all the ordering.  Special dietary needs were not accomodated.  Suggestions and requests were politely ignored.  Everyone got to choose their libation of choice, but were subject to my menu whims.  Here's what I ordered:

    * Som tam with preserved blue crab, no sugar
    * Pickled spareribs
    * Raw shrimp with garlic chili sauce
    * Fish cakes with cucumber salad
    * Soft shell crab with green mango salad
    * Chinese watercress with bean sauce and chili
    * Kao soy, curry with egg noodles and beef
    * Chicken massaman curry
    * Rice noodle with fish curry
    * White rice and sticky rice

For dessert, we had my favorite cupcakes from Baked in Red Hook.  And after that, a couple of us went to Muse Karaoke to make fools of ourselves in a tiny private room.  Muse is the best private room karaoke place in town, as far as I know -- they have the most insanely up-to-date song list, huge plasma TVs, clean facilities, and machines that don't require  international diplomacy skills to work.  Serendipity was on our side -- they were celebrating some kind of anniversary, and name brand beers and cocktails were only $1-$2 each.  We were told we could have the room for an hour, and when the party who had reserved the room cancelled, we stayed for three more hours.  I got messy and I whooped it up til my voice went hoarse, but I had a fabulous time.  Thank god I was with friends, because my Stoli-ravaged vocal chords were wasted by the middle of the night.  You'd never know from my caterwauling banshee rendition of Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" that people sometimes pay me to sing.

I should say that I brought the camera along so I could take pictures of our meal.  But I hate pausing the feast for photos.  The camera only came out after we knocked a few drinks back at the karaoke joint.  I'd like to think that mild embarrassment = a successful birthday festivity.  Click the picture below for photographic evidence of me working the disco pointer, the windshield wipers, and the drunken perma-wink.

Sripraphai
64-13 39th Ave.
between 64th and 65th Sts.
718-899-9599
7 to 61st St. - Woodside, or E, F, G, R, V to Jackson Heights/Roosevelt Ave.

Muse Karaoke
154 W 26th St
between 6th and 7th Aves.
(212) 647-0909
1, 9 to 23rd St., R, W to 28th St., or F, V to 23rd St.

Name: Jenny Feddersen

Occupation: Web designer

Borough: Manhattan

What did you eat today?

A bowl of kashi go lean crunch for breakfast, a glass of fresh squeezed (by someone else) orange juice, and a coffee from out of the kitchen with milk and an accidental pump of hazelnut coffee that wasn't so good.

Lunch: snap peas! carrots, yogurt, choc chip cookies, turkey sandwich, diet coke

Dinner: chicken tagine with prunes and apricots from Cafe Mogador, choc chip cookies [I love Mogador's chicken tagine -- I always get it with preserved lemon and olives.  YUM!  As a lunch special, it comes with a huge fresh mesclun salad with lemony vinaigrette, making it one of the best deals in town at only $7.50.  Take that, Rachael Ray! -- Ed.]

What do you never eat?

Liver

Complete this sentence:   In my refrigerator, you can always find:

Milk, leftover Thai, cheese and tortillas

What is your favorite kitchen item?

The garlic press




Where do you eat out most frequently?

SEA Thai
Saigon Grill
Esashi
Blue 9 Burger

World ends tomorrow.   What would you like for your last meal?

A big juicy cheeseburger grilled by my dad with onions, etc., corn on the cob, a flourless chocolate cake, and a tall glass of milk.

"The worst kind of hunger is the hunger that wasn't expecting to be hungry."  -- from Freddy and Fredericka by Mark Helprin

I am having one motherfucking depressing week.  Those presents I bought myself better come in the mail soon.