Lingbo Li
Testicles.
So after my food column debut in the Crimson (a day in Chinatown), I have a few other columns in the works. I think one of my favorite kinds of food adventures is the complete gross-out.
Which is why I need to know if you know where to get testicles. Not frozen ones from the supermarket. Because I can’t really cook, and I’d like to give testicular-induced culinary joy its best shot.
So pray tell, gentle readers: what restaurant in Boston serves balls?
Darwin’s sandwiches, strawberry eclairs, fish fragrant aubergines
From Taste of China in Tarrytown, NY
From Darwin's
From Darwin's
Harvard University Dining Services, sometimes you just get it right.
The Best Pizza in New York?
So this slice here from Bleecker Street Pizza is supposed to be the best pizza in New York, as declared by the Food Network, New York Post, and a whole bunch of other places. I didn’t go here on purpose. I was just wandering around the downtown area and passed by the sign, so I knew I had try it out. (Despite not being hungry at all.)
The pros: the employees were incredibly sweet. I’m not sure if this had to do with me being a girl, but hey, I often get shitty service too. But the pizza definitely had that reheated texture, where the crust has gotten a bit gummy and the cheese just lacks that magical just-melted quality. Still a tasty slice, but wish I could have had it fresh out of the oven.
I really liked this place called California Pizza (not sure why its named that) which is in downtown NYC, around Union Square. I see that Yelp doesn’t agree with me though. :(
Eating faces
I’ve never quite understood why people can’t take their fish with a face on it. I’ve grown up in a family where my mother talk rapturously of fish eyeball and fish cheek, and when I expressed curiousity over what fish brains would taste like, she picked up the translucent skull and cracked it opened between her teeth. So that’s when I tasted fish brains. I have to say, pretty gross… a lot like a light cod liver oil.
This particular fish is from Zoe’s Chinese restaurant in Somerville, which was a bit of a disappointment. The “Mao style pork” (actually red cooked pork, hong shao rou) was nothing to write home about, nor was the tea-smoked duck or the fried taro appetizer. The fish, however, was great. Which goes to show simple presentations with that delightful combination of ginger and scallion, that culinary hallmark of Chinese cooking, plus fresh ingredients turns out a winner each time.
Zoe’s is supposed to do good Szechuan, so I tried their ma po tofu, hoping it would be appropiately spicy and laden with bits ground meat. No such luck. The search continues.
If you know where to get really good, uber-“ma la”-spicy ma po tofu, let me know…
Magnolia’s Bakery
Having reported on cupcakes in Cambridge, I decided it was time to visit the mother of cupcakes, the mythical home of tender crumb and corrugated wrapper, where this entire craze over portable sweets began: Magnolia’s Bakery in NYC.
I arrived in the city with literally no idea of what I was going to do that day. I went into a Hallmark shop and bought a map, before suddenly remembering that I was in the city that birthed Magnolia’s. I asked the cashier, who referred to a Zagat guide, pointing me to the west side of Central Park.
bethesda terrace
So I wandered through Central Park for an hour, trying to make my way from the east to the west. Along the way, I discovered the incredibly beautiful and seren Bethesda Terrace, where a musician happened to be playing harpsichord. (Or maybe some other instrument, I’m not sure.)
After a good deal of window shopping and more wandering, I eventually found Magnolia’s. Painted in pale pinks and blues and cream, it gave off a old-world charm matched by the smiling, cheerful employees. It was such a nice change from the sullen, cranky service I got at Kickass Cupcakes, where the cashier literally rolled his eyes at me.
I decided to for a red velvet cupcake, followed with a chocolate chip cookie. Two classics, but unlike their awesome service, I wasn’t too impressed by the goods. I like my cupcakes moist, and their red velvet rendition was very dry and didn’t transcend supermarket versions. The frosting wasn’t a knockout either, and failed to redeem the dry cake.
The chocolate chip cookie, similarly, was nothing too special. Just your run of the mill cookie. I struggled to find a distinguishing quality, good or bad, and failed. So… Sex and the City has overhyped this place a bit much. But the inside smells really, really good, like angel kisses and gurgling babies and sunshine. And this cute old grandma chatted with me.
If only their cupcakes were good.
Lana Lingbo Li
I'm a world traveler / enthusiastic eater who's now blogging and producing videos over at HelloLana.com. Visit me there!
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