‘Chinese’ Archives

Why Chinese Restaurateurs Get Stuck Selling Cheap

Egg drop soup, courtesy of Serious Eats' Robyn Lee I got an interesting comment on my post about why Chinese restaurants are so cheap about a month ago. (And my friend Sam sent in an excellent post about the culinary fundamentals that work against Chinese chefs.) The reader was Jack Neefus, a Baltimore resident who works in finance and dabbles in cooking and travel. He's been to China few [...]

M&T Restaurant in Flushing, NY: a Tsingtao in Qingdao

While in Beijing, I briefly fantasized about taking the train to Qingdao. I knew little about the area, except that it is the home of the eponymous TsingTao beer. (Same name, different romanization system.) There was a beer festival going on, and for some reason, I imagined a malt-hued scene of splendor: TsingTao-branded palaces, wheat-colored fountains, doe-eyed promo models. I never made [...]

All Chinese [parties] look alike

Chinese gatherings are all alike; every other party is unique in its own way. Chinese parties, by and large, contain several essential elements: a gut-busting family-style meal, dishes with ingredients cut into small pieces, heart-wrenchingly awful karaoke (because this is the socially acceptable way to display emotion), rice liquor and/or Chinese beer, possibly crappy wine. And Chinese people. [...]

Getting fat again

So I use "fat" in a tongue-in-cheek way. But I definitely spent the last few weeks watching what I ate, which meant no crazy banquet dinners, dinners of scrambled egg whites and vegetables, and the occasional helping of cheese dip, heaped high with guilt. As a result, my stomach became a cast iron tank. My collarbone and ribcage took greater prominence. When I lay down, I marveled at how my [...]

Gourmet Dumpling House in Boston’s Chinatown

Gourmet Dumpling House is the kind of Chinese restaurant that you hope for when you stroll through Boston's rather small enclave of all things Asia, with a focus on that mysterious Middle Kingdom. First of all, it's very, very busy. That's always a good sign. I declared "two people" in Chinese at the front desk, and I may have imagined it, but I think we were seated more quickly than other [...]

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 [...]

Photo of the Day: Beijing Roast Duck at Quan Ju De

BEIJING - You bite into the skin of this baby. The universe around you dims; the re nao din of the restaurant fades; there is only this gorgeous, golden piece in your mouth that seems solid until your teeth sink in. It melts. It slides, as sensual and full-bodied as a glass of wine; you gasp. "This is the best thing I've ever eaten," you hear yourself saying.

My mother’s cooking

So one of my favorite things in the world is my mother's cooking. I've grown up on a blessed repertoire of Chinese comfort foods like sticky rice cake and inventive stir fries. I've been spoiled with ribs and fried rice and homemade dumplings. The best (and probably only) part of going home to the suburbs is eating a mother-created feast, one of those wonderfully Chinese family-style spreads of [...]

Darwin’s sandwiches, strawberry eclairs, fish fragrant aubergines

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 [...]

Flushing, Queens

So each time I go home, I cannot resist the dirty siren call of Flushing, Queens, where the streets are stickier and the sauce spicier, where the tiny, steaming kitchens are filled with slurping patrons and the rhythmic slap, slap of hand-pulled noodles. "Wouldn't it be great," I asked my dad, "if you could just eat all day? And never be full? And never get fat?" "No," he said. "It would be [...]

Scenes from Boston’s Chinatown

“Like a barnyard in your mouth”: JoJo Taipei in Allston

It's funny how your original goal (to introduce Dan to Chinese shaved ice) can morph into something utterly unrecognizable. In an epic rock-paper-scissors battle, it was decided that the spot would be JoJo Taipei in Allston. And when I saw pig intestines on the menu, how could I resist? Actually, pig intestine showed up in 2 of the appetizers and 3-4 of the entrees. There was pig intestine in [...]

Trinity: Duck, chocolate creme brulee, cooked blood.

A Culinary Day in Flushing, Some Political Protestors, and my Hairdresser

There's always something intensely comforting about Flushing, Queens to me - how I have been going there regularly for a decade, and how so many things never change. I always get my hair cut by the same man at a salon called "San Mei" (3 Beauties) and the price of a haircut ($8) has never gone up. The food here is great and ridiculously cheap. As long as you get past the fact you're eating [...]