Phö Băng

Yes, there are countless jokes out there about the Vietnamese dish called pho.  The correct pronunciation of it is fuh like fun minus the n.  It is actually a similar pronunciation for a Chinese rice noodle called fun.  In case you haven’t heard any of the jokes, there’s, “What the pho?” and plenty more out there.  Pho is a staple in Southeast Asia.  It’s rice noodles bathed in a spiced beef broth accompanied by various cuts of beef and garnished with bean sprouts, basil, lemon, cilantro, jalapeños and onions.  I always add Sriracha hot sauce into my bowl of pho as well.  Anthony Bourdain once compared his steaming bowl of pho to paradise and I don’t feel that he was far from the truth.  A friend and I ate at a chain called Pho Bang in Chinatown on Mott Street.  There’s also one in Elmhurst that I frequent.  It’s where I go whenever I am craving Vietnamese food.  Delicious pho sure!

10¢ Wings at Croxley’s

I don’t normally hang out in Long Island but I decided to join my co-workers for a pre-Thanksgiving Buffalo Wing night at Croxley Ales.  I had been hearing about these famous wing nights and I finally got to experience one.  The evening was preceded by a discussion of the name Buffalo wings.  Without even having any beer the discussion we had was quite ridiculous and I will not recreate it for you here.  I suppose I could Google or Wiki it but perhaps an informed reader can educate me.  Also, I’ve never been to Buffalo so I’ve never had true Buffalo wings, just like I’ve never had a true Philly cheese steak or true Chicago pizza either.   I had a pear cider and then I lost track of the number of wings that I had.  I think I stopped counting on purpose in order to prevent myself from quantifying the guilt!  I loved the hot wings but people ordered mostly mild or medium.  I couldn’t taste the difference between the mild and medium but it didn’t really matter because the bleu cheese sauce prevailed, anyways.  The wings were great, the company was fantastic, and the beers were plentiful.  ’Twas a great night.

Korean BBQ on 35th Street, K-town

I was recently invited to a meal at Madangsui on 35th Street in Midtown.  We sat down to evaluate an event that our team had just executed.  Interestingly enough the event was a discussion around the topic of interracial dating and marriage.  Around the Korean BBQ table we had two Korean-Americans, a Hispanic-American, and a Chinese-American.  Honestly, I thought Chinese-Americans got a hard time from “real Chinese people” for not speaking the language but I discovered that it is even worse for Korean-Americans.  The New York Times recently ran an article about how South Koreans struggle with race.  Abe, who hosted us that night did indeed speak Korean, at least well enough to seemingly win the respect of our waitress.  This is what I love about Chinese and Korean style dining- that family style meal.  The host takes responsibility for ordering for the table.  Needless to say the food was absolutely delicious.  We ordered BBQ chicken with vegetables and Galbi (marinaded short ribs served with onions) with lettuce and sauce to wrap.  They grilled it right at the table for us but luckily I didn’t leave the restaurant smelling like BBQ.  At least I don’t think I did.  We also had fried dumplings, tofu stew and an order of Bibimbop.  They also gave us the ban chan dish of egg in a stone pot (someone please tell me the name of that one!).

NYC’s anti-soda campaign

Subway Campaign

Have you seen these ads on the subway?  The NY Times published an article about this recent campaign talking about the controversy over them.  I’ve recently entered at Fatbet with some co-workers and it has forced me to reconsider the choices that I make in my diet.  I’m brought back to my high school days when we had health as a topic for a week for PhysEd class.  The teacher tried to explain the concept of empty calories to us.  This was during the time when fat free foods made their explosion onto the market.  Another voice ringing in my head is that of my mother’s, who was always telling me not to drink soda.  All this information clicked with me a few years back when I was living in China, with Coca Cola as one of my few American staples that I could rely on getting abroad cheaply and easily.  My friend who worked at Amnesty International challenged me to give up Coke and Nestle products in order to protest the evils of globalization.  As reluctantly as I did give up Coke products for 6 months (she couldn’t convince me to give up Nestle products, though, because they were the only ones making American style breakfast cereal at the time), I had an epiphany.  My body really didn’t need the rush of 240 calories from pure sugar.  The empty calories were equaling fat, exactly the way it is portrayed in the NYC subway campaign.  Of course, anything is permissible in moderation.  This brings me back to the Fatbet.  People inevitably frown at me when they see me eating a cookie or anything slightly unhealthy.  And drinking empty calories is not evil, it just needs to be moderated.  If you drink a bottle of coke and you’re on a 1700 calorie per day diet, that’s one seventh of your daily allotted calories.  And diet drinks aren’t a good alternative.  According to my friend’s dietician, your body does actually need and crave sugar.  If you use a sugar substitute, your body will still crave actual sugar so it is best to use real sugar, but sparingly and in moderation.  What I learned from my previous Fatbet was not to unknowingly drink your calories.  Sports drinks, sodas, sugar and cream, “enhanced” waters all add up.  And they can add up to fat.

Pinkberry

I was introduced to the phenomenon of Pinkberry while working in Midtown.  My colleagues and I would walk to 32nd street to get a fix of this frozen yogurt.  And I really mean frozen yogurt- yogurt that is frozen, not an unsatisfying substitute for ice cream.  My usual Pinkberry order is original or green tea yogurt with berries and mochi.  My friend Dave and I stopped in at Pinkberry before our friend’s performance on Theatre Row.  I decided to try the Pinkberry Parfait because it looked so pretty.

Pinkberry Parfait

If you are wondering if the word phenomenon is an overstatement for a frozen yogurt product, you can read about it in the LA Times.  Pinkberry has become a staple in many Manhattan neighborhoods.  You’ll probably see me in line one of these days.

A Classical McDonald’s

There’s no playground at the McDonald’s on 56th and 8th Ave but Molly and I walked into this one and were struck by the decor and the classical music playing over the loudspeakers.  There were prints of classical looking paintings (insert comment by Art History majors here) on the walls, across from the giant Angus Burger signs.  I would have taken some pictures but I had an ice cream cone in my hand.  They’re only 150 calories, by the way.  No Less guilt!   If you’re in need of a little zen, stop by Mikkee Dee’s.

Gettin’ Jigae With It

One of the best parts of Midtown is K-town (Korea town) on 32nd Street, or I suppose it is more Murray Hill.  After a meeting in Midtown, I met some friends at Seoul Garden for dinner to celebrate my new job!  They specialize in Korean BBQ and natural tofu (Jigae).   We decided not to do the BBQ that night mostly because I was feeling lazy and didn’t feel like grilling my own meat at the table.  We ordered a couple of appetizers: the beef dumplings (Mandoo) and the seafood pancake (Pajun) and a couple of entrees: tofu stew (Jigae) and the marinated short ribs (Galbi).  Of course the dinner was accompanied by the traditional side dishes (Ban Chan).  There was Kim Chi, seaweed, fish, string beans, bean sprouts, and a particularly tasty zucchini/egg dish that I never had before.  Dinner was really calm and relaxing until a party of 20 was seated next to us.  Luckily we were finished by then and made our exit.  I’ve eaten more Korean food in 4 years in New York than I have during all the rest of my life.  I love gettin’ Jigae with it!   [Listen to Will Smith]

Seoul Garden

Flushing- Sago

Sago Tea Cafe on Main Street in Flushing serves appetizers, rice, and noodle dishes along with bubble tea (aka pearl tea or boba).  They also have a Korean food menu.  Instead of having my usual almond milk tea or green tea smoothie, I tried the Fried Green Tea Ice Cream as I caught up with friends.  Joe’s Bestburger is right across the street they have a half price deal for their Rewards Card members a couple hours before closing.  My friend Sam was recommending the chicken sandwich, claiming that it is better than Chick-fil-a.  I tried holding out until 10pm to have dinner but I didn’t make it.  I had Burger King instead.  Hardly interesting at all.  My model/actor friend Jay gave me his rewards card to Joe’s Bestburger so I’ll make it there sometime soon.

Sanur Indonesian and Malaysian

Sanur in Chinatown

I was in desperate need of company after a couple weeks of not seeing any friends.  Diana and I were going to have dinner with Kai, a guy.  I told him that we were going to take him to Alice’s Teacup and he said that was fine with him!  We couldn’t do that to him in good conscience, though.  We ended up at Sanur in Chinatown where the food is good and cheap.  You have to go downstairs to be seated.  We ate family style, of course.  We had seafood soup (hot and sour), curried beef with potatoes, Yang Chow fried rice, Roti Canai, and Mee Rebus, which is a spicy noodle dish with vegetables, egg, and potatoes.  Kai is a chef and gave it a positive review.  Well, he picked the restaurant so he’d better give it a good review!  It was a highly satisfying dinner for the palette as well as the fuel tank.

Curry Beef, Yang Chow Fried Rice, Roti Canai

Soup and Mee Rebus

NYC has 35,000 restaurants and called Forbes’ Best City for Singles

Listen to this according to “Best Cities for Singles 2009″ in Forbes magazine:

“With an unemployment rate of 8.2%, many of this metro area’s finest unmarried folks–who make up 28% of the overall population–are taking advantage of generous severances and enjoying the spoils of the city–including its 35,000 restaurants, 3,800 bars and 734 museums–with dates they’ve found online.”

This article also refers to a map featured in National Geographic a couple years ago:

National Geographic Map of Singles

Takeaway from this article?  It would probably be 1) there are a whole lotta restaurants in NY to try, 2) I will try not to be discouraged by the fact that there are 180,000 more single women than men in NYC, and 3) that I’d better dust off my e-Harmony profile.

I suppose there are plenty of fish in the sea and there are plenty to places in NY to have seafood!

Museum of Natural History sells Insect Amber Pops

I was assisting in a Fright at the Museum scavenger hunt at the American Museum of Natural History yesterday and I was looking at the staff favorite picks at the museum shop.  I did get quite a fright when I saw the chocolate covered insects.  They even had meal worms and insects in a lollipop and boxes of flavored crickets.  Sour Cream n’ Onion or Bacon Cheddar!  They are made by Hotlix.  I’d like to see you eat these on camera, Andrew Zimmern, Anthony Bourdain, and Jeff Corwin!

The Met Museum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is quite large and impressive.  You will most likely become hungry at some point in your visit.  There are actually many dining options available at the Met.  If you are there on a Friday or Saturday when the Met is open late, they have live classical music playing at the Great Balcony Bar between 4 and 8pm.  I ended up at the Cafeteria eating a cupcake from Crumbs. The prices are a bit on par with the food stands at Central Park (read ummm…how much for that?) but considering that admission is pay what you will to see incredible art work, I guess you can’t really complain.  What do you think?  I happened to be there on the last day of the Francis Bacon exhibit.  I’m glad I got to see some of it because a lot of people are talking about it.   He was trying to paint the perfect mouth.  I must admit, though, that the whole time I was looking at the Francis Bacon exhibit, I kept hearing the Beggin’ Strips commercial.  You know, the one with the puppy dog begging, “Bacon…bacon-bacon-bacon!!!”

Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch

Here’s the link to a really interesting article in the NY Times: Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch. It is 8 web pages so allow yourself some time to read it.  It is written by  Michael Pollan, whose most recent book is “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.”  In this article he talks about how America’s cooking habits have changed over the years.  He starts out referring to the new movie Julie and Julia, and ends up giving us some interesting results from recent studies.

“But here’s what I don’t get: How is it that we are so eager to watch other people browning beef cubes on screen but so much less eager to brown them ourselves? For the rise of Julia Child as a figure of cultural consequence — along with Alice Waters and Mario Batali andMartha Stewart and Emeril Lagasse and whoever is crowned the next Food Network star — has, paradoxically, coincided with the rise of fast food, home-meal replacements and the decline and fall of everyday home cooking.”

This is quite funny to me, considering that my last blog post was me raving about these micro curry dishes I’ve been eating!  This is interesting:

“The more time a nation devotes to food preparation at home, the lower its rate of obesity. In fact, the amount of time spent cooking predicts obesity rates more reliably than female participation in the labor force or income.”

I think it really is the paradox of plenty.  We have so much food available to us that we have a hard time deciding what to eat and trouble limiting our intake of the “bad” foods that we love to eat.  We often choose convenience over nutrition.  When I was living in Shanghai, there were innumerable conversations that people had with me.  ”Why are Americans so fat?” “Why is your roommate so fat?” “Why are you fat?”  Weight is not a taboo topic of conversation there, along with age and salary.  It’s just a cultural difference but you also have to understand that the girls in Shanghai are literally stick thin.  They would even call Angelina Jolie fat by their standards just because she has curves.  Don’t get me wrong, they know how to eat there (oodles of rice and noodles) but the girls in Shanghai are petite and on par with Twiggy.

Whatever the case is, the idea of celebrity chefs and food as entertainment is definitely a huge money maker nowadays.  I’m a huge fan of Food Network even though I must admit that I don’t actually cook many of the recipes they present.  I’m  very much looking forward to being entertained when I go to see Julie and Julia.  Anyone want to go see it with me?

Swad- Just Heat and Eat!

I’ve been living off these heat ‘n eat dishes that I found at the Indian grocery store.  Trader Joe’s has their own brand but the ones I’ve been getting are made by Swad (Micro Curry) and they sell them for a whopping ninety-nine cents!  Peas Pulov, Dal Makhani, Baingan Bharta.  They call Baingan Bharta the Baba Ganoush of India on the back of the package.   Each packet contains 2-3 servings. Hot, spicy, and convenient.  Life saver!  They’re even all natural with no preservatives and Kosher!  Really?!?

What's for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

Breakfast at Tiffany’s Per Se

My version of having Breakfast at Tiffany’s is getting a Pain au Chocolat from Bouchon and then going one floor up to look at what’s on the menu at Per Se.  I never really liked diamonds until I walked into a Tiffany’s and I’ve never thought of food as poetry until I looked at the menu at Per Se.  OK, listen to this:  TERRINE OF HUDSON VALLEY MOULARD DUCK FOIE GRAS- Tellicherry Pepper-Scented Yogurt, Strawberry Gelée, Watercress and Balsamic Reduction with Toasted Brioche.

Or this: MUD PIE- Dark Chocolate Mud Cake, Liquid Caramel, Chocolate “Crémeux” and Caramel Parfait  with Sassafras Ice Cream.

Did you read it aloud?  Is not the alliteration just savory?  Just reading it makes me feel elegant.  Like I could be so Audrey!

Indian Taj

Indian Taj on 74th Street, Jackson Heights

I had a chance to try the buffet at Indian Taj on 74th Street in Jackson Heights.  I really liked their curry goat and chili chicken.  Great flavor, although I don’t claim to be an experienced Indian food diner.  The fresh nan that they brought around during the meal was delicious as well.  My friend Leigh ordered a Gin & Tonic.  Next time I will order a lassi which looked quite refreshing.  I’ve only tried mango lassi before but I’ve never tried the plain one.  Something to look forward to!

Chinese-American Menu in Spanish

Just as a point of interest I’ve scanned part of the menu from the Chinese place around the corner.  One side of it is in English and the other side has Spanish on it.  I’ve scanned the Spanish side for you to see.  Also notice that under the “American & Chinese Special” is platanos and cheese wontons.  I wonder if Andrew Coe considered this at all for his book Chop Suey.  The 2010 Census is coming up and the Hispanic population has already been shown to be the fastest growing population in America.  Spanish is also the second most spoken language in the world just behind Mandarin.  I need to learn how to say more than just, “Dónde esta el baño?”

Neighborhood Potluck with Bruce Lee

When I walk into my apartment building at dinner time, I always smell curry on the side where the mailboxes are and fish on the other side.  Even within my building, let alone the rest of Elmhurst, there is an incredible amount of diversity that can be captured with the senses.  I absolutely love the fact that at my apartment building’s potluck we had Filipino meat loaf, Filipino fruit salad, chick peas with broccoli made by and Indian neighbor, KFC, French Fries, pasta salad, baked pasta, fruit, pecan pie and Filipino cakes dessert. I was too lazy and it was too hot for me to cook anything so I just brought some fries from the Chinese place around the corner. I thought about getting plantains from them but I was in the mood for potatoes.  Yes, I know- a Chinese place and plantains?  [See the next post.]  The potluck was a great chance to meet some of my neighbors and I even got a recipe for Indian cauliflower with onion.  Ah, I really need to start learning the names of these dishes!  I’m not very good at remembering names sometimes.  That is why I appreciate the Chinese guy who’s lived in the building for years and knows Kung Fu.  He said to me, “Just call me Bruce Lee.”  Hey, that works!

Peanut Butter & Co and Elvis

Another Elvis reference I found recently is at the adorable and ultra-fun Peanut Butter & Co in The Village. Yes, some people may scoff at the idea of paying $6-8 for a peanut butter sandwich but the peanut butter that they make is pretty darn good. It is a peanut butter paradise. They serve The Elvis, which is a “grilled peanut butter sandwich stuffed with bananas and honey.  Try it with bacon for extra indulgence.  Long live the King!”  I ordered The Heat is On with chicken and pineapple. It was really good, actually. All sandwiches are served with chips and carrot sticks. PB & Co is also featured in the Scavenger Munch Hunt that Watson Adventures runs in the Village. An especially great hunt for any foodie at any level and you pick up great trivia bits along the way!

Love Me Tenders

I flipped to a program on Elvis’ Love Songs on PBS and they were talking about his song, “Love Me Tender” which, by the way, is actually the tune of an American folk song, “Aura Lee,” and I was reminded of the time I ate at Thai Select on 9th Ave at 36th. While looking at the menu, the item “Love Me Tenders” caught my eye and I had to order just for sake of saying, “I’ll have the Love Me Tenders, please.” Although I would have enjoyed hearing my date say, “She’ll have the Love Me Tenders,” even more! The dish was pork tenders with a sweet glaze served with sticky rice and papaya salad. Love me sweet!