Chinese
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…
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 expensive.”
But that’s the thing – here, a giant bowl of noodles costs you around a fiver and kebabs a mere dollar. You can sample baked goods for even less than that. At my favorite sorta-ghetto clothing shop, Pretty Girl, which sells women’s clothing and accessories at wholesale prices (t-shirts for $3, dresses for $8-15, jackets $10) I picked up a surprisingly ladylike ruffled, floral print shirtdress. I imagined myself walking through Harvard Yard, oversized sunglasses, pneumatic of lip and balancing on 4 inch high espadrilles, coursebooks swaying at my hip. $13. Yes.
So it was off to the Flushing Mall again, which was featured in an earlier post for their shaved ice and takoyaki. I have to say, I enjoyed the shaved ice at JoJo Taipei in Allston more since the ice was more finely grated and my waitress had been kind enough to do an everything-but-the-kitchen sink piling of toppings. This time around, you can see the szechuan dumplings ($3.95) (the Chinese name for them is “red oil dumplings”) with a healthy dose of garlic and dan dan noodles ($3.95) (my mother criticized them as inauthentic – the noodles were flat, not round). Sadly, neither of these were spicy in the leastest. And I even ordered in Chinese, so not sure what the problem was there.
Later, I ran across some adorable cakes, which I obviously had to photograph. I am always a sucker for food shaped like animals. And tiramisu. This version, $3, was had at Yee Mei Fong Bakery. The thick layer of cocoa powder on top made it a bit messy to eat. It was just prepared just as Chinese like their desserts – mostly a light cream, a suggestion of cake, not much else.
Scenes from Boston’s Chinatown
their beady eyes were watching me
Carbs carbs carbs
better than a dollar menu.
Vegetarian beef: it's what's for dinner.
Spiny crabs?!!
“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 “fire casserole” (unclear), pig intestine in you noodles, pig intestine fried, pig instead steamed. It was a heaven of porcine entrails.
But that left many more options, since it would be hard to make a meal entirely of intestine. The waitress dropped off our complimentary roasted peanuts and pickled cabbages (delicious) and I did the ordering in Chinese. She seemed determined to speak Chinese, actually – usually waitresses pick up that my language skills are a little rusty, and switch over to English, but Dan only got a few quick admonitions to use his spoon and I did the ordering.
“We’re not very hungry,” I explained, requesting some suggestions.
“Ok, I’ll bring over stinky tofu and ‘xiao long bao’ (soup dumplings) then,” she replied immediately, already writing down our order. I was relieved to not have to make any decisions.
My camera crapped out after one picture, so dear blog reader, you will be treated to a far fancier camera this post.
Stinky Tofu
Stinky tofu arrived first. As soon as she set it down, the eponymous stink immediately hit you – like a breeze had blown over a manure pile. The dish itself was pretty disappointing – dry, with a the texture of a delicate sponge, and flavoring came only from a thin chili sauce that refused to cling to the fried surface of the tofu. Dan took one bite and made a face. “Like a barnyard in your mouth,” he said. I found that subsequent pieces didn’t have the same effect. You get used to the smell very fast.
Pig Intestine
Here is the pig intestine, with a nice peanutty dipping sauce and stuffed with chives. It reminded me a lot of the meat found on pig’s feet, with the same chewy, gelatinous quality.
Xiao Long Bao - soup dumpling
Our waitress brought his over, along with soup soons. I was confused on eating technique and just popped the whole thing in my mouth and struggled not to let a boiling mouthful of soup and pork overcome my physical capacities. Definitely something you have to eat hot. The skin of these buns are unleavened, so they have a thinner, translucent quality.
Bao Bing - Shaved ice with toppings
Finally, dessert time. It said to choose 3 toppings, but the waitress just smiled and said she’d put everything on a large shaved ice for us. It arrived on an enormous platter, every bit as bizarrely and richly satisfying as I remember – kidney beans, mung beans, red beans, tapioca pearls, condensed milk, some kind of sweet syrup, soft, mealy peanuts, all haphazardly lobbed onto a fluffy, finely grated bed of ice.
A worthy finale to an adventurous meal.
Tapioca pearls, peanuts, other kinds of goodness
Trinity: Duck, chocolate creme brulee, cooked blood.
Slow roasted duck, braised escarole, roasted fingerlings, Sicilian olives (Rialto, The Charles Hotel)
Blood with scallions - probably duck or goose blood. (Somewhere in Flushing, Queens)
Chocolate creme brulee, Cafe of Love in Mt. Kisco