Eat to Your Heart's Content

2007-11-12T13:35:00.000-05:00

On Sunday November 11, 2007, many of you gathered at Art In General to order in and "Eat-In".

Many confused and bemused delivery persons arrived at the gallery-dining hall to find the semi-chaotic delivery menu feast in progress.

Thanks to everyone for participating and sharing your food.

Elaine

Dim Sum in Absentia

2007-11-11T21:20:00.000-05:00

Hi All,
I'll post the pictures and a full report on today's Eat In. It was just the
loveliest way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, here's a link to my Gascon BFF, Kate Hill:
http://katehill.blogspot.com/2007/11/eating-to-my-hearts-content-gasc...

I send you dumpling-sized kisses,

Elaine

A Wish List

2007-11-10T16:45:00.001-05:00

Here are a few places I didn't have time to write about:

La Esquina Taqueria is open 24/7. I usual find myself there around 2 or 3 am.
106 Kenmare St
(646) 613-7100
Take Out 24/7, Delivery 5pm-12am
http://www.esquinanyc.com/
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/la-esquina/menus/takeout.html

Dim Sum Go Go does made to order dim sum (no pushcarts). One of the best dim sum places in Chinatown according to my friend Lucas. I like it too.
5 East Broadway
212 732-0797
Take Out and Delivery
http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/menu?id=11443782

Chatham Restaurant has gotten raves from various restaurant sites. I haven't tried it.
9 Chatham Square
212 267-0220
Take Out Only

B'un Soho just opened their doors for dinner on November 1. They expect to open for lunch by December.
143 Grand Street
212 431-7999
www.eatbun.com

Mandarin Court Restaurant
61 Mott Street nr. Canal St. See Map
212-608-3838
Take out
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/mandarin-court/menus/main.html

Nonya
194 Grand Street
212 334-3669
Take out and Delivery
http://www2.seamlessweb.com/AtHome/Nyonya.NewYorkCity.3017.r

New Green Bo has great northern style dumplings
66 Bayard Street nr. Mott St.
212-625-2359
Take Out
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/new-green-bo/menus/dinner.html

Moon House Restaurant
67 Bayard Street
(between Elizabeth St & Mott St)
212 766-9399
Take Out only

Pongsri Thai Restaurant
106 Bayard Street at Baxter
212 349 3132
Take Out only
http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/menu?id=7113363

Hope to see you on Sunday, November 11 at 2pm. For those of you who are curious, I do plan to continue eating after The Eat In. I'll send you posts periodically if you like. Just sign up for the posts on the right hand side of this page.

Points West

2007-11-10T16:38:00.000-05:00

Here's the bad news: Nobu does not deliver. But Next Door Nobu does take out. But they aren't open for lunch. Drat.

66 Restaurant, Jean-Georges Vongerichten's take on Chinese is closed for renovations.

Some of the AiG staff order lunch regularly from Columbine. I have not eaten from there myself but the AiG staff looks healthy. Sadly, they are closed on Sundays. Check it out on another day.
229 West Broadway
212 965-0909
www.columbine229.com

Here are some places to the west of AiG that you can take out from:

The Odeon
145 W Broadway
(at Thomas Street)
(212) 233-0507
Take Out during the day and deliveries after 5:30pm.
http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/menu?id=7113301

Bubby's does take out during the day, deliveries after 5:30pm.
120 Hudson Street at N. Moore Street
(212) 219-0666
http://bubbys.com/index.php/main/menus/Tribeca/brunch

There is a place on Church and Lispenard called something like The Westside Coffee Shop which is a lunch counter specializing in Dominican and Mexican food. They make an excellent roast pork burrito there. My friend, Joseph recommends it. Sofia says it's a the kind of food you want after you've been partying the night before: rice, beans, stick-to-your-ribs stuff.
323 Church St
(212) 334-0185
http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/menu?id=7113332

Further south on Church and Walker, we have Bread which also does take out and delivery. The food looks great there.
301 Church Street
212 334-0200
http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/menu?id=38055715

Franklin Station Cafe is a French Malaysian Bistro. They do deliver. You can order straight from their site.
222 West Broadway at Franklin Street
http://www.franklinstationcafe.com
212 274-8525

North of Canal Street on Broome is Sunrise Mart, a Japanese grocery which has take out. I used to shop there all the time. I'd grab some octopus sashimi or a hamachi roll, then top it off with a mochi ice cream bonbon.
494 Broome Street
212 219-0033

Ruben's Empanadas, to paraphrase an amateur critic, is good finger food for discerning foodies.
505 Broome St at Watts
212 334-3351

There are another half dozen places I can think of but you get the picture. There's food out there! Go get some and eat in with me on Sunday.

My Secret Places

2007-11-10T14:35:00.000-05:00

I say I don't play favorites, but because we have shared so much already, I will tell you (and only you) about my secret nameless places.

First is a northern style dumpling place on Mosco Street. Mosco Street is one block long and spans a steep hill between Mott where the Transfiguration Church is and Mulberry along the edge of Confucius Park and near the funeral home. If you walk to the middle of the block just up the hill from the Thai grocery there is a hole in the wall that sells northern style dumplings. Five for a dollar. I will not hard sell this place. These are great dumplings. I took E here once on the way to a dim sum palace, just to dull our hunger a bit. We stood there and ate the dumplings hot from he griddle. Everything we ate that afternoon paled in comparison. You can buy bags of frozen dumplings too. They are in the two ratty stand up freezers in the back of the place. But don't tell everyone. It's a secret.

I have thing for fresh warm tofu. There is a place on the east side of Mott Street between Bayard and Pell that sells "tohu." This is the most silken tofu you'll ever have. They ladle it into a container for you and they give you a little magic syrup too (jaggery and ginger, I think). When I'm a little blue I have been know to buy a pint. I take it with me to the dumpling place where I eat a plate of dumplings in situ. Then further down the hill I buy some comfort foods for my pantry at the Thai place. And finally I find myself at Confucius Park on a bench with a bag of groceries. I watch the children play and the old people do what they do. And I eat my warm, smooth sweetened tohu with a plastic spoon. It is a wonderful to feel maudlin.

When I am feeling perky I go for a bubble tea and a dumpling at Ten Ren Teatime. I sit down and I try one of their little snacks. I like all these little tea parlors that have sprung up in the last few years. The crowd is young and lively. I feel at home wearing my Hello Kitty earrings--the ones that Kathy bought in Milan. But that is another story for another time.

------
We can accommodate everyone at The Eat In on Sunday, November 11 from 2 til 4pm. Please come! At least one couple is bringing their 10 month-old son. They recommend serving him with a red wine reduction.

The seamlessweb to AiG

2007-11-10T12:32:00.000-05:00

"Is that it?" I said, entering the office from another fruitless trip to the restaurant supply store.

Sofia and Meghan nod. "Where is it from?"

"Province," I say. Sofia smiles knowingly.

This time I used seamlessweb.com which had a different set of participating restaurants. Like delivery.com, seamlessweb.com has a very easy interface to sign up and order. I like it even better because the restaurant can post pictures of dishes along with their menus.

Province was great. I shared the veg dumplings with Sofia since she doesn't eat animal protein. They had the whiter, translucent dumpling skin to which I am partial for veg and seafood dumplings. The insides were oh so good.

Province is sort of New Asian food. Hipped up versions of Asian foods with the contemporary palate in mind. These are dangerous waters. Take two classic flavors jam them together and that is how the inedible is born. But luckily, Province is not another story of culinary stupidity.

Take for instance their short rib and kimchi sandwich: marinated slices of shortrib and kimchi stuffed inside a divine bun. I can only understate how good this sandwich is. The bun is a Chinese style steamed mantou bun, characteristically sweet, and some how firm and soft at the same time. The angelic bun is topped with sesame seeds and baked to brown for a bit then stuffed with the meat and kimchi. You could stuff anything in that bun and it would be heaven. That it is stuffed with slices of Korean-style short ribs and kimchi is gospel to my palate.

The pancake rolls are a similar story. I ordered mine with beef. So there was a delicious bits of beef rolled in a rich scallion pancake type thing minus the scallions and maybe made with butter (boy, it was rich). Also inside were julienned pickled veggies similar to the pickles in bahn mi. The tartness of the veggies offset the rich pastry and the sweet meat. Another homerun.

Because some of you have been worried I don't eat enough veggies, I also ordered the baby bokchoy with Chinese sausage. It was also delicious.

Province offers a number of special hot and cold beverages as well. I had the hot yuzu beverage. Yuzu is in the citrus family, a half-brother to the lemon, whose aunt is a smallish grapefruit. The concoction is not exactly warm juice, but it is not quite a tea either. It tastes of citrus and a bit of ginger. It is slightly sweetened. Be sure to take the lid off the cup; there are delicious slices of boiled yuzu rind in the bottom of the cup.

"They have catered our parties," says Sofia. What an enviable position the staff is in. So much great food with arm's reach everyday.

Oh God, please forgive me! I just did another check on the seamlessweb site and I see that Province is not open on weekends. But there are some other great places that do deliver on Sundays through the site: Kitchenette (I suggest "the Dinette" or the black cherry pancakes), Nonya (they have stingray dishes on the menu I haven't tried), and Franklin Station Cafe (try the crispy duck roll) to name a few. Be sure to enter the right date and time when you order. I love online food delivery!

www.seamlessweb.com

Province
305 Church Street (Church & Walker)
(212) 925-1205
Closed Weekends
Take Out and Delivery

Franklin Station Cafe
222 West Broadway (Franklin & West Broadway)
(212) 274-8525
Take Out and Delivery

Kitchenette
156 Chambers Street (Chambers & Greewich)
(212) 267-6740
Take Out and Delivery

Nyonya
194 Grand Street (Grand & Mott)
(212) 334-6701
Take Out and Delivery

HSF

2007-11-09T10:17:00.000-05:00

Early on in this eating journey, I stumbled into a place just south of the Elizabeth Street Arcade on Bowery. In the window, in very large red letters are the words "DIM SUM." It is called HSF.

It was late afternoon and most of the other dim sum places had stopped serving. I took a seat. The carts of steamers still seemed to contain fresh looking offerings. The staff all wore t-shirts that say "DIM SUM" just like the window. They also have a bubble tea counter which is where you can get a dim sum order sheet to check off what you want to take out (There's a link to the dim sum menu below).

Here's what I ate there:

The taro cake was average but not greasy with a touch of heat probably from white pepper that made it interesting.

I always order the steamed spareribs with black bean and chili when it is offered. These were a bit too salty (perhaps because it was late in the day).
The yuba roll with bamboo shoots and shrimp was very good.
Their steamed pork and peanut dumpling was yummy. It contained diced vegetables and pork and roast peanuts.

Don't let the roomful of tourists fool you; the place is putting out good stuff. But it's a trek from AiG, so you might want to pick up on the way to the The Eat In on Sunday Nov 11.

HSF
46 Bowery
(below Canal Street)
212-374-1319
Take Out (no delivery)
Here's a link to their menu:
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/hsf/menus/dim-sum.html

You can RSVP for Sunday's The Eat In by emailing: info@artingeneral.org.

Invitation to The Eat In

2007-11-09T10:13:00.000-05:00

You are cordially invited to participate in "The Eat In" on Sunday, November 11 from 2 to 4 pm at Art in General.

Everyone should eat to their hearts' content. We will provide the tables, chairs, tea and menus. You are invited to order your own take out or delivery (and pay for it yourself). Sharing is allowed. Collaboration is its own reward.

You can come to AiG first (it's at 79 Walker, between Broadway and Lafayette) to check out the dozens of menus I've gathered. You can order by your mobile and have it delivered, or go pick it up yourself. Or you can pick up your take out before you come in.

Or you can order from delivery.com or seamlessweb.com. A computer with an internet connection will be made available to make orders. Or you can log in before you leave home to have your food delivered to AiG at a specific time (for example 2:15pm). It's your choice.

As you know I've been eating around down there. You can read my journal for suggestions: the-eat-in.blogspot.com.

The most important thing is that you join me for The Eat In. And tell your friends to come too!

RSVP to info@artingeneral.org

Goodies at Art in General

2007-11-07T23:34:00.000-05:00

"I'm doing a dry run of delivery.com," I say. "What floor should the food go to?"

Always cheery and never flustered, Meghan says, "I'll tell Mariela to expect it."

"I've already paid for it on my credit card." I hop on the downtown train.

Of course, I arrive late for the delivery. There it is on Meghan's desk: ordered on my computer in Harlem at 10am to be delivered at 11:30 to Walker Street. And it's there! On Meghan's desk! How cool is that?

Speaking of cool, I hope you all will be coming to AiG on Sunday Nov 11. We'll be set up by 2pm. We'll hang until about 4pm. You can bring your take out or come first, check out the menus I've gathered, and order from here. More details in the next post. Also, it would be cooler if you would let us know if you think you are coming. Do that by emailing info@artingeneral.org. Oh and please bring your friends. But I digress...

The bag from Goodies was waiting when I arrived. Meghan and I took it back to the conference room. Sofia dropped in also. We chatted about logistics for The Eat In on Sunday and tried the vegetarian duck and the wontons in spicy sauce. Meghan and I had already tucked into the three delight soup dumplings which had arrived in surprisingly good shape. They were juicy and soup squirted out when Meghan bit into hers. The texture of both the skin and the filling were perfect. Oh yum. They were great.

I love mock duck. It is actually bean curd skin that is rolled around sliced black mushrooms. The rolls are soaked in Chinese wine (and other secret duck-ifying ingredients), then brushed with soy sauce then steamed . The resulting brown-on-the-outside ("duck skin") roll is chilled then sliced to reveal yellow-on-the-inside "flesh" and the black mushroom "bone." Executed well, this a one of my favorite dishes. Goodies' version was more than just good.

I also ordered the jellyfish, which my lunch mates declined. Jellyfish is all about texture and sauce. The jellyfish was prepared quite well. The texture was great, but the sauce was too subtle for my taste. I have had mind-blowing, can't-get-enough-of-it jellyfish in the past few weeks at a place in midtown (if you ask me in person on at The Eat In, I'll tell you where it is).

Goodies also makes a great turnip pastry. My favorite thing about it is that they come two to an order, so just when you start getting sad about finishing the first, you remember you can have the experience all over again. These are flaky pastry buns filled with a grated turnip and mystery-meat filling (it tasted like chicken) topped with sesame seeds. I think these were Meghan's favorite.

Goodies
1 East Broadway
212 577-2922
Take Out and Delivery
www.delivery.com
www.goodiesnewyork.com

Meat Markets

2007-11-07T09:29:00.001-05:00

Because we are friends, I will tell you my secret: I often buy my dim sum to go from a little butcher on 89 Mulberry Street. The shop makes all manner of things from spring rolls and stuffed tofu to chicken feet and deep fried shrimp. Everything is sold by the pound. They have a freezer case filled with spring rolls and dumplings with a large variety of fillings. All of it is made in house. Towards the back you can buy the various fillings by the pound as well from the butchers and wrap your own dumplings at home.

On this particular day, I buy a handful of deep-fried head-on shrimp and some Chinese mustard greens and a few steamed spareribs. I add to that a package of frozen pork and chive dumplings for a rainy day. On the way home I can not help myself. I open up the container of shrimp right there in the subway car. The shrimp in my bare hand is room temperature but the shell is translucent and crispy from frying with just a light coating. I eat it shell and all, sucking the roe from its head. I am embarrassed to have another on the crowded train. But I think about it all the way home.

There is another one of these prepared food places just north of Canal Street spanning the block between Mott and Elizabeth. Deluxe Food Market is an enormous and chaotic indoor alley of food. It is fascinating to push ones way through to peek at the endless line of dumplings and buns and goopy steam table Chinese food as well as the butcher cases displaying marinating frogs legs and octopi. There is a counter for Cantonese style barbecued meats such as roast pork, chicken or duck. They chop it up to order. There is seating in the middle of the store if you want to eat right there and then. But like I said, the place is sprawling and crowded. I’d rather go to my small butcher on Mulberry.

Mulberry Meat Market
89 Mulberry Street
212 267-0350
Take Out (No delivery, and you’ll have to go there to order)

Deluxe Food Market
79 Elizabeth
212 925-5766
Take Out (No delivery, you’ll have to go there to order)

Pies

2007-11-07T00:55:00.001-05:00

On Sunday, I wandered about making a bigger circle around AiG, picking
up menus along the way. Then, finally, west to Tribeca for a yoga
class. The half a bahn mi from 138 Mott Street I had eaten was nearly
walked off, but the rest of the sandwich was stinking up my bag. An
hour of chaturanga, up-dog, down-dog and a good sweat in the sauna
later, the bahn mi had graduated to stinking up my entire gym locker.
I was tempted to cut my losses, but I was taking it home to E.

Perhaps it was the turning back of the clocks, perhaps it was the damp
chill in the air, perhaps it was the New York Marathon, perhaps it
was John returning to Detroit, (or maybe it was my smelly bag). I dunno what it was,
but I was feeling a bit blue even after yoga. So I took my odorous bag
and walked to the best solution for the blues I could buy: Bubby's Pie
Shop on Hudson and N. Moore Sts.

When one first enters Bubby's one is confronted with a chalkboard
listing the pies available that day. About six pies and a few other
desserts were on the board. I made my order and went back uptown with
two slices of pie.

After a bit more unpacking at E's, we tucked into the pie bag. We eat
the slices straight out of the take out boxes. The banana cream pie
was suave. The smooth pudding covering sliced bananas is contained in
a crisp, light pie crust. Crushed, caramelized pecans are sprinkled on
top. the pudding is not too sweet. The fruit is actually sweeter (as
it should be). The apple pie is a totally different approach to pie.
The double crust is that soft, tender, like buttery leather. There
must be a variety of apples in the filling. The flavor of the fruit
comes through. It is as honest an apple pie as anyone can ask for: not
too much sugar, not too much spice, not too much butter. I have
nothing but admiration for this particular pie.

As much as I love E, I found myself watching him jealously with each
forkful he lifted to his mouth. I had a cat who used to watch me this way.
He allows me the last bite from each box, because he knows what is good
for him. "Thanks, sweetie," I say. I do not have a sweet tooth.

Bubby's offers a full menu of Southern specialties. A complete menu is
available online: bubbys.com

Bubby's Pie Shop
120 Hudson Street (at N. Moore)
212.219.0666
Take Out (call about delivery)

Dim Sum Palaces

2007-11-05T00:56:00.000-05:00

The trouble for us with the big dim sum palaces is that none of them deliver and most do not do take out. But these are the places New Yorkers think of first for dim sum. They are cavernous and noisy and chaotic with push carts of bamboo steamers. Many are multi-storied. The trick to these places is to go early in the day (before noon) and sit as close to the kitchen as possible. The crowd favorites are Golden Unicorn, Jin Fong, Grand Harmony and 88 Palace in the Manhattan Bridge. Recently closed is a place called Sweet'n'Tart at 20 Mott. I mourn it’s loss. Right next to it is Ping’s which specializes in seafood. And is quite excellent.

Of all these banquet halls only Grand Harmony has a take out menu. It is also the only place on the list that I have not eaten. If you have eaten at New Harmony I would be happy to post your recommendations to the rest of the group.

Meanwhile, here's a list of what I ate the last time I was at Jin Fong:

Chinese broccoli

Chinese cruller wrapped in rice noodle

fishpaste balls with curry and plain

peanut dumplings (yummy)

beef rice noodle roll (also delicious)

spring rolls

shrimp ball

steamed book tripe (in a light gingery sauce)

spare ribs (tender steamed)

yuba roll (these were stuffed with bamboo shoots and veggies)

deep-fried taro ball

I have had wonderful luck at all these places but abysmal luck when I go after two. The selection is not as broad after two and what is available is not as fresh.

Grand Harmony
98 Mott Street
212 226-6603
crystalpalace9898@yahoo.com
Take Out (no delivery)

These places do NOT offer take out or delivery:

Jin Fong
20 Elizabeth Street
(212) 964-5256

88 Palace
88 East Broadway, 2nd fl
(inside the mall under the Manhattan Bridge)
212-941-8886

Golden Unicorn Restaurant
18 E Broadway
212 941-0911

Pho in Three Blocks

2007-11-04T14:10:00.001-05:00

"We'll have the number 1 and the number 7b pho, an order of spring rolls, and I'll have an avocado shake."

Nha Trang Centre is on Centre Street Just a hop, skip and a jump away from Art in General. This is where I go when I'm downtown and need a pick-me-up.

Everyone has his or her favorite pho. The secret is the broth. Each place carefully guards their recipe. Traditionally the broth (usually beef bones sometimes with chicken or pork bones) is simmered for hours, sometimes days with a mixture of five spice (star anise, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger). Each eater finds a broth that does it for him or her. That is why Baxter Street just below Canal can support four pho establishments, with Pho Viet Huong around the corner on Mulberry.

I don't know how Nha Trang Centre became my regular place. I always get the number one, which is the rice noodle soup with beef brisket, raw eye round, tendon, and omoza (book tripe). The raw beef is sliced thin and cooks to rare in the heat of the broth. John had the number 7b, which was pho with grilled pork chop. Surprisingly, the 7B broth had a cleaner, porky taste than my number 1. They either use a different broth for the different soups, or the poaching raw meat in the number 1 changes its flavor.

I eat my soup two–handed. I squirt a bit of plum sauce and siriracha on to a side plate. I dip the meat in it and place it in my soupspoon. I pick up some noodles and stack them on top. Then I try to slurp everything off my spoon. It's the way I do it. There are other approaches.

The spring rolls there are good. But John and I agreed that if you fry anything and wrap it lettuce with a mint leaf, carrot pickle and cucumber, it's going to be delicious.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have not been to Pho Viet Huong in some years. However, I still fantasize regularly about their grilled grape leaf wrapped beef. The beef is highly-spiced with ginger, garlic, lemongrass and fish sauce. Bite into the crisp but smoky grape leaves and the insides are steamy and juicy. As I remember, the spring rolls and the summer rolls there were pretty darn good too. I know they deliver, so I'll be sure to supply a menu for you all.

John and I finish everything on our plates. Slurp the last of my avocado shake and we gather up to leave. I say to John, "After Lust, Caution, we have to get tacos a La Esquina."

Nha Trang Centre
148 Centre Street
212 941-9292
Take out only (no delivery)

Pho Pasteur
85 Baxter Street
212 608-3656
Take out only (no delivery)

Thai Son
89 Baxter Street
212 732-2822
Delivery and Take Out

Pho Viet Huong
73 Mulberry St
(212) 233-8988
Delivery and Take Out

Halloween is Not About Food

2007-11-02T14:12:00.000-04:00

It is the day after Halloween and the perfect day for dim sum but some of us have day jobs. Last night I rushed home from mine to get dressed for the night's activities.

When E met me in front of Roseland, he had come by way of the parade. Purple Afro, feathered Mardis Gras mask, bright green pants, and a flowered terry cloth poncho. "A clown dressed as Mrs Roper?" suggested the beagle in a straitjacket.

We went in and wound our way past the pirates and devils and angels and ipods to the middle of the floor where we stood in front of a giant Muppet--Ernie, to be specific. Everyone was dancing to what the Vampire DJ was throwing. Then the lights lowered and out came the B-52's. They were a retro band in the 80's (the ultimate hairdo band). Now they were retro-retro. And it was when I looked to my right, just past the group of forty-something men with receding hairlines and and eye patches, and saw the spitting image of my college sweetheart hopping up and down clapping and screaming at the band. He was a tall, thin man extremely attractive, with blond hair. He was wearing a sheepskin bolero over a white short-sleeved collared shirt with a red kerchief. He had J's short, distinctively shaped nose, and also J's haircut from the eighties (a blond mop). It was uncanny. Then I paused to realize that J was old enough to be this beautiful young man's father. The blood-spattered Catholic school girl to my left was dancing frantically. "We love you!" she screamed. The band was as high energy as ever. The girls still had pipes. We stayed for the encore set: Love Shack and Rock Lobster, then left for Long Island City.

Another room of costumes: a drunken rich housewife, a pregnant Mia Faro in Rosemary's baby, a woman chained to a radiator (now that takes commitment), the requisite man wrapped in foil, three Robert Palmer Girls, who arrived separately, and a Robert Palmer. An inflatable man, a drunk businessman, Einstein, and a man dressed a German beer wench were warming themselves around the fire pit. That is when the beagle approached for conversation. He had ideas about who I might be dressed as: Elle Wood's sorority sister in Legally Blond 2. It was the pink vinyl hat (and the matching mini dress) that started it. I told him it was what I wore to my day job. By now, the cowboy was doing the lambada with an Indian. I begged Mrs Roper to take me home. I'd eaten a slice and a couple handfuls of Doritos all night.

I woke up in Harlem with a craving for dim sum but obliged to go to my day job.

Sorry no food in this post. I am copying menus for you to refer to at the Eat in on Sunday November 11. I recommend you and your friends RSVP to the nice people at AiG so you'll have a seat. info@artingeneral.org

Friday's Take Out continued

2007-11-01T22:57:00.000-04:00

To continue from the last post...

Here's what I ordered from XO last Friday night:

steamed sticky rice with pork and preserved egg wrapped in lotus leaves
steamed squid in shrimp sauce
shrimp roll with preserved egg
pan fried dumpling (Peking Style)
pan fried fishcake
soup dumplings
snow pea leaf dumpling
watercress dumpling
steamed bun with cream paste

XO's rather extensive dim sum menu is available all day and night in addition there are about a million other appetizers on the regular menu. And a drinks/dessert and bubble tea menu, to boot!

The quality for the food was high. The order taker was courteous and helpful even though the restaurant was packed. However I must mention that they gave me fried custard buns instead of steamed buns I ordered.

The highlights were the shrimp roll with preserved egg and watercress dumpling. The steamed squid was perfectly tender in a salty sauce made of shrimp paste. It was simple, perfectly executed, and delicious. Though I must warn you that it was not to E's taste as a cold leftover breakfast.

XO does a brisk business. Lucky for us their complete menu is available on delivery.com. But do make it a point to drop in some time to see the fake tree in the middle of the restaurant.

XO Cafe & Grill
96 Walker St.
212 343-8339
212 343-8625
Delivery and Take out

Friday's Take Out

2007-10-28T17:09:00.000-04:00

Fri 10/26/07 6:14 pm:
Me: marco's opng @ ise 555 bway. Call u after.
E: cool in brook bak by 7
Me: wanna meet dwtn?
E: gotta pak
Me: k. ill get tak out. phn dying.
E: okay baby

It is raining. I have been sick for five days. I am starving. I have cabin fever. After Marco's opening, I decide, innocently, to go by La Esquina for a variety of tacos to go. But as I am walking I decide to try to find a place I've read about: Chinatown Brasserie (best damn dim sum in New York City or so the NY Times says). I walk forever down Lafayette. I find a tiny new place that will open next week called Bun Soho. I peer in the windows. I stroke the menu. But nothing will open the doors. It is raining now and my umbrella is stylish but shitty. I move on. Further south I go. No Chinatown Brasserie. Finally, right below Howard Street, under the awning of the "Nite Stop" I look up CB on my dying phone battery and call them. They are at Great Jones (Christ, that's the Time Cafe!). I am billions of blocks in the wrong direction and it is outside the eight-block rule for the project (shit). The small detour from La Esquina has landed me with in view of the lights of Chinatown. I can see Excellent Dumpling House. I am without tacos but I'll be damned if I back track.

A million years ago, my friends, Sammy, Danielle and John worked in a gallery in Lower Soho and they ordered from "Ex Dump" a lot. I looked at the menus in the window. Gee, how could one go wrong? I step in and order, oh, about five or six things. She says 15 minutes. So I step out and stumble into XO Kitchen, where I order another, um, maybe eight things. By the time I get back to Excellent, my order is ready.

Then I go back with this sack of food to XO but it is a considerably longer wait there. And the joint is jumping. Finally I have three very large bags of take out, my purse and laptop and I'm holding an umbrella. I text E. "Oh geez, call friends: I've bought too much food."

I get in a cab and head to Chelsea. The smell is making me nuts. How do the delivery guys control themselves? Is that the real reason they staple the bags shut? I climb the two flights of stairs and disgorge the booty all over the kitchen counter. E claps his hands. It is just us against um-teen containers of steamy food.

I open the bags and nothing is what I remembered it to be. I am dumbfounded with the number of things I have ordered. Some dumplings I have ordered from both places for a side by side. But the specimens are visually dissimilar;dissimilar from the picture on the menu, or the picture in my head, and definitely each other. None of the dumplings seem to share the same genome. I say desperately to E, "We have to be methodical about this." But truth is, the guy in XO took the list of things I ordered and I am not certain what method I should employ.

I examine the two orders of Shao lun pau first (incidentally it's spelled three different ways on the same menu) . "Have you had soupy dumplings before?" I ask E. "Well, they are kind of delicate meat or seafood dumplings which contain soup inside the dumpling skin. You pick it up carefully with chopsticks and a spoon. Put the julienned ginger on top. A little black vinegar in the spoon. Take a little bite just big enough to to suck the soup out of the dumping skin. Sadly they are delicate and don't travel well." Such is the case with both specimens. One container held beautiful, glistening white, but slightly deflated dumplings swimming in what must have been the escaped soup. The other ones, from Excellent, the skins have absorbed all the soup making the wrapper strangely thick and chewy. The pork stuffing in both are good and juicy but XO's have a more refined texture. I promise E that we will go to Joe's Shanghai for the real thing fresh from the steamer. I love soupy dumplings but they always disappoint as take out.

The pan fried chicken dumplings from Excellent were very good. They had a healthy bit of ginger and garlic and were wrapped in a yellowish wrapper, like a wonton skin. The scallion pancakes were disappointing, I won't order them again. The Peking style dumplings also disappointed. They were excessively doughy (too much wrapper and the meat inside was a bit heavy though well seasoned). Nothing beats the northern style dumplings on Mosco Street, well maybe New Green Bo is close, if you want to sit down.

What else did I order? Deep fried coconut milk. This is a fried confection with a hard crispy batter coating a soft rectangle of coconut custard. It is served with a jaggery syrup on the side. These too are crazy good hot, but like an hour-old Krispy Kreme donut, still not so bad lukewarm (if you like that kind of thing). I don't have a sweet tooth but I felt obliged to eat three of them total through the next few hours.

The take out dumplings from ED were good but not excellent. But, to be fair, by the time I ate, the food was getting lukewarm. ED is half a block from AiG, when I've had their food steaming hot, it's been yummy.

This post is getting long. I'll tell you about XO's selections in the next post.

Excellent Dumpling House
111 Lafayette Street
212 219-0212
Delivery and Take out.

Plan B (from bed)

2007-10-25T18:04:00.001-04:00

I write you from my sick bed. This week's ailment has curtailed my ambitious food scouting plans. But I have been able to spend sometime on the internet looking for likely places we might enjoy. My favorite site has been delivery.com which actually offers a menu directly from the restaurant. You fill out the form online and order what you want. There is a confirmation email, and then the food is delivered to you. It is an easy site to use.

On Monday night, against my better judgement, I fortified myself with a martini and acetaminophen went to see Morrisey. In the ladies room at the Hammerstein Ballroom a woman shared with me she had come to the realization right then that she was an adult. She had worked since 6am and had another similar day staring her down. "You wouldn't believe the countless nights I spent in those bathrooms doing drugs to push through the night and the next day of work. But today is the day I become and adult. I'm going home." She was 34 and a TV producer. Morrisey had just come on stage two songs ago, it was maybe 9 pm. She stepped out on to the street as I joined my friend. After the concert we stopped for lobster rolls and margaritas at Bongo.

On Tuesday, I went back to my friend's place in Chelsea after my doctor's appointment. I was wiped and feeling rather sorry for myself. Lying alone in bed I was able to look up the closest Chinese restaurants on delivery.com and order using my laptop and credit card. I was nowhere near Chinatown, nor was Noodle Corner. I ordered a wonton noodle soup with crispy chicken on the side, steamed chicken dumplings, and deep-fried tofu bits. A few minutes later the doorbell rang and I signed the slip in my over-sized, borrowed bathrobe. All aches and pains, I somehow unpacked my bounty and spread it on the kitchen counter. Not to seem a slob, I poured the soup into a proper bowl and enjoyed the aroma of the classic chicken-pork broth. There were spinach leaves, thin egg noodles and shrimp-pork wontons afloat in the broth. I ate everything else from their containers. It was not the most transcendent meal I've ever had, but it was good and I was happy for it.

When I was not feeling well as a child, my Anglo-Burmese grandma, Eleanor, would fix me bowls of a rice slurry that I now know as "congee." The Burmese term is "san byoke." Grandma's soup was made from rice, lots of water and a bouillon cube or two. One boils these elements until the rice grains split and are suspended in a starchy goo. Many Asian cultures associate this rice gruel with breakfast. But it is eaten as a quick pick-me-up any time of day at congee stands and shops. Often it is made with only water and rice. It is a perfectly bland, white, blank canvas that can be garnished with all manner of yumminess. My grandma would fry a little minced garlic and ginger and pour the resulting hot oil on top of the bowl of congee. And ground white pepper. Sometimes there were bits of chicken meat, if she had some leftovers, or slices of Chinese dried sausages. But always there was garlic and ginger, and chopped scallions, and when we had it, cilantro. Some of my favorite accompaniments when I order congee now are the fried yeast dough sticks and sliced thousand year-old egg. But hungry eaters, you must take caution! The gruel holds its temperature unnaturally long. Many's the time I have burnt the roof of my mouth raw from impatience. The trick is to harvest the cooler top layer with a spoon, bring it to your lips and blow on it some more before tentatively bringing it to your lips. Then a preliminary testing with, say, just the small beak of your upper lip as a temperature sensor. Then slurp only the top layer off the spoon. And blow again before the next test and slurp. I wish grandma could make me some right now.

There's hope I'll be in shape to eat again by week's end. Until then, my Internet searches continue. I read Gastro Chic for reviews of food and fashion. I mourn the passing of Saute Wednesday. I had bad luck early on with menupages.com. Many restaurants were incorrectly listed as offering delivery. When I went to recommended restaurants, they were either closed or did not offer delivery or take out. Citysearch.com is not a bad resource, however. I like that they have editorial reviews along with the user reviews. I trust the professional eater.

Sandwiches

2007-10-15T00:00:00.000-04:00

I walked all over the northern part of Chinatown this afternoon. I have a stack of paper menus for you to read. I will gather more menus from an eight block radius of AiG--from Next Door Nobu to Dim Sum Go-Go to La Esquina and who knows where else.

Earlier today, I sat on the sidewalk in front of a little store, where there are three chairs next to a garbage can. The day was lovely and people were just hanging out. The nice man who took my order in the store hands me a red plastic bag. Inside are three sandwiches. I share these sandwiches with my dear friend, Dean. We are talking about art and real estate, and the general state of my sanity, and sipping strange-looking drinks when the sandwiches arrive. I am crazy hungry. Each sandwich is wrapped in two layers of paper, then a paper bag, then the plastic bag. Pickled radishes and fresh cucumbers stick out of the warm, crusty baguettes.

Ten minutes earlier I had ordered the number 1, number 5 and number 10--an all-pork triple play. While I was waiting inside for our sandwiches, I told the tall, cute rockstar in line that I had ordered three sandwiches for two people. His small-but-still-a-rocker friend registered shock. But Mr Rockstar decides to take up my challenge and orders two sandwiches for himself. I suddenly feel shy and scurry outside to sit with Dean. That is when I first sip my beverage made of soaked basil seeds and sweetened with sugarcane. Dean says it looks like plastic cup of tadpole eggs. But it is yummy. Then the bag of sandwiches arrives: roast pork, vietnamese salami and pate in one; roast pork and cha (a sort of pork roll) in another; pate and veggies in the last. Taking a bite of the number 10 all the world seems right again. The lightly pickled julienne of radish and carrots are stuffed in the baguette with lettuce and cucumber sticks. There is a healthy amount of cilantro. The baguette has a bit of mustard smeared on it. There is no chunk of pate in the sandwich as one might expect. It is instead mixed in with the veggies like a pate dressing. Pate infused crisp veggies--mmmm.

"Surprisingly light," I hear Dean say, "for pate." I guess my eyes have rolled back in my head because when I snap out of it, Mr Rockstar is standing there on the sidewalk in his basketball shorts smiling at me with his number 15 and number 7 in a red bag. I wanted to invite him and the mini rocker to sit with us (I wanted to try a bite of his extra spicy beef with lemongrass) but there was only one extra chair and my mouth was so full, a sprig of cilantro hung out as I chewed, and yes, there was a cascade of huge bread crumbs down the front of my sweater starting at my chin. We exchanged shrugs and he moved on. Dean handed me half of the number 5...

Viet-Nam Bahn Mi So 1
369 Broome Street
New York, NY 10013
btwn Mott and Elizabeth Street
212 219-8341

Take out only. No delivery.