Harvard Square
The Chinese Food Truck on Oxford St
I first spotted Yang’s after my (baller) Sociology of Organizations class with Professor Ager. “A Chinese food truck!” I exclaimed and did one of my strange, gleeful flails – I kind of flap around my arms as if I’m trapped in a tiny bubble and make high pitched noises. So after class today, I gave it a try.
There were a lot of Chinese people in line. After being removed from the Middle Kingdom for a month, hearing Chinese again was kind of novel and comforting. It brought up no urges to yell at ineffectual service people – instead, I suddenly felt a bit safer and comforted by the sing-song tones of Mandarin. “What’s the best dish?” I asked the Chinese people in front of me.
“They’re kind of all the same,” one man in a stripped button down said.
The woman behind me suggested the crispy fried fish. “It’s very tasty,” she said, using a Shanghainese adjective for “very.” She confirmed she was from Shanghai, but when I tried to volunteering my cultural background and summer work experience, I saw that I lost her. “So you grew up in the United States?” she said afterwards. Oh. I felt too embarassed to switch to English – there is a kind of intimacy that evaporates in that act.
Click on the picture for a full-size menu.
I eventually ordered what the two people ahead of me ordered – shredded pork with Chinese pickle. When I opened up the box, my first reaction was aesthetic. This is a dish that never looks particularly great; the photos here are better than in real life. Chinese pickle – “zhacai” – is a variety of mustard that is commonly used in Chinese dishes, particularly hot and sour soup, and is often served with congee. The flavoring here, despite being such a Chinese dish (I doubt anyone used to American Chinese food would order this) was milder than my mother’s cooking. The saltiness, as well as the sour notes, had been toned down. The vegetables were cooked to a softer texture as was the meat, and there was more cornstarch used. It was overall satisfying, but didn’t really completely hit the spot – the rice wasn’t very sticky. I think I’ll try one of their more American standard dishes like Kung Pao chicken next time.
Find it!
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Yang’s
Oxford Street
Parked outside of Maxwell Dworkin (walk through the Science Center, past Peabody, then up until you hit the engineering building.)
Price range: $5-6 for a very large carton of rice and one entree, about $3 for appetizers.
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Awesome egg sandwiches, tripe-laden bowls of pho, and Lingbo in a beesuit.
This was a oozy, flaky breakfast sandwich ($3.50) from Crema Cafe, who turns out a mean breakfast sandwich (as well as zuchinni hazelnut loaf and brownie). The english muffin is homemade. I kind of regret eating it, because a Thomas english muffin will just never be the same. Maybe it is just because it’s toasted. Toasted is absolutely key.
Big bowl’o'noodles from Le’s in the Garage in Harvard Square. This was my friend’s meal, I only tasted a bit. In a very out of character move for me, I prefer my experience at Le’s to be limited to #15 on their menu: the special beef bowl of pho, complete with loveliness like tripe and tendon. Then I absolutey ANNIHILATE it with chili sauce and hoisin sauce.
The only snag in my plan was that I made my friend Ahmed taste it. He almost died. Then I thought this was hilarious, so I started laughing, which turned into a cough, which turned into FIERY SPICES UP MY NOSE.
I cried a little bit, then quietly finished the rest of my bowl, nostrils still singed. Moral of story: if you’re going to choke on something, make it mild.
See below:
glorious innards bits
And also, I made two trips down to Jamaica Plain recently for a GoodEater.org article on beekeeping. Here is a preview of me wearing a crazy beesuit:
fashion statement
I figured after all of this writing and reporting on local honey, I might as well buy some. Then I figured I would buy some bread and granola too (a girl’s gotta eat). I got some nice loot from the Allandale Farms shop, including a small jar of Mike Graney‘s honey ($4.49).
granola, EatLocalHoney.com honey, and a locally made ciabatta
Sadly, I did something incredibly typically stupid of me and tried to open the honey on the T ride back. Of course, I lost control of the jar and suddenly, I was covered in sticky stuff with nowhere to put it. After some feeble attempts to rip off the plastic seal, I wrapped it in a sheet torn from Stuff magazine and resigned myself to sticky fate. Until I hit Starbucks and washed up, anyway.
It’s good that I find my own klutziness hilarious.
A Brownie that Makes my Stony Heart Melt
Crema Cafe, 1.25 for half a brownie
another loving, chocolatey angle
There’s nothing quite like a good brownie to make the final paper blues go away. This decadent steal of a half-brownie ($1.25) subscribes to a more “cake” brownie rather than a fudgey one.
That means that each luscious little crumb is like the most densely velvety constellation of cake heaven in your mouth. It crumbles, it melts. It’s magical. I keep tearing off tiny little bits and eating the crumbs off my fingers. They must put crack cocaine in this stuff.
Oggi’s Special of the Day Slice
Ham, Spinach, Red Onion, healthy dose of basil and chili flakes
Lunch, after finishing 1/3 of my paper. When you have a food blog, eating food seems strangely pointless if you don’t take a photo of it.