During the holidays it is guaranteed to have Arroz con Gandules (rice with pigeon peas) accompanied with other traditional dishes. While having so much rice is not the healthiest diet, I love when my mom cooks up a pot of rice and peas. Let’s not also forget the slab of pork chop that’s perfectly seasoned and fried with a small green salad to complete the whole dish. The juice that drips as you bite into the pork chop is mouth watering as I type this description.
Unlike everyone, I do not have such a passion for food. To me food is one of the basic requirements that I have to take to survive. However, it does not necessarily mean that I hate food. I just do not have any fondness with food. I am pretty easy with any type of food as long as it is eatable and not sour. Thus, I was super confused on writing the food rant. So, I chose to write about the food that I often eat, Gyro. I think Gyro is a delicious platter, which is not only easy to get but also save my time on cooking. I think it is also a good combination of carbohydrate and protein, which fulfill my nutrition needs as well.
There are three types of Gyros: chicken over rice, lamb over rice, and the one I like to order is chicken and lamb over rice with extra white and hot sauce, without any onion in it. I usually buy Gyro from JacksonHeights, Queens. There are so many Gyro food carts on 74t and 75th Street inJacksonHeights, and most of their customers are working people and students. The lifestyle and working environment inNew York are making people depend more and more on eating meals outside of their house while on the way to work and school. Likewise, I am dependent on this type of food so much because I do not have enough time to make food at home after juggling with school and work. Also, I just do not like to waste my time on cooking.
Despised by children and often adults, they are gratuitously given a small spot on the dinner plate. They are often boiled beyond recognition or drowned in butter or unnecessary fatty sauces. Vegetables are simply the best. They are my favorite food and deserve to be in the center of every plate.
Hot, cold, raw, steamed or juiced, the flavors, textures, colors and varieties are endless. I try to eat as many different vegetables as possible, not only are they delicious and low in fat and calories, but they also are the most nutrient dense foods you can eat. I love watching them grow from the ground and change colors as they ripen, and there is no way I can resist a farmers market.
Asparagus, arugula, brussels sprouts, collard greens, okra, radishes and spinach are just a few of my favorites. I’m amazed every time I find new varieties or new ways to eat them. Whether they are in salads, entrees or soups I can’t get enough of them.
My girlfriend has now created a problem in the household. Now don’t get me wrong, its nothing that we can’t resolve but its a problem that usually happens every few weeks. That problem is my craving for Guyanese food, most notably Guyanese lo mein. First and foremost I had no idea any other culture did lo mein other than the Chinese so that fact alone had me curious to try it. My girlfriend told me it was the best and she was not lying. I went to a restaurant in queens called The Nest, its located on 125th street and 101st avenue. I ordered the 3 meat lo mein which contained chicken, beef and pork. Now with Chinese food I’m assuming bits of chicken, some pork here and there and pieces of beef. With the Guyanese lo mein they actually used chicken wings, seasoned them, cooked them and cut them up and put them in the lo mein. The pork as well, it was like they pulled the meet off a BBQ’d Rib(no, there was no BBQ sauce) and the beef was the same size you would normally find in beef and broccoli at a Chinese restaurant but it was a def a different cut. It was like the type used in Beef stew but slices thinner. All I can say that it was soooo good and once it touched my lips I was hooked.
I sometimes go on lo meine binge but the sad part is that I have to drive to Queens to get it and since I live in Harlem that is definitely a trek for some food, guess that what addiction does to you. So, in closing, if you ever want to try something different then you should try Guyanese lo mein because you have nothing to lose but everything to gain(no I did not mean for that to rhyme,lol)
In my house Sunday’s breakfast and dinner are Thanksgiving meals. On Sunday’s everyone must eat together as a family. Nothing absolutely nothing is better then waking up to the scent of roasting breadfruit in the oven on a Sunday morning. The sweet scent lingers from the kitchen to my bedroom, smothering my nostrils. My mom always cooks ackee and saltfish alongside the breadfruit. I’m salivating at the mouth just thinking of it. I am of Jamaican descent; this is a traditional Jamaican dish. A lot of things can go wrong with this dish; the breadfruit can be bitter or too ripe. I like when it’s partially ripe. The saltfish can be too salty (not boiled in water long enough) or not salty enough (boiled in water too long). This dish is all about precision; everything must be made just right to efficiently compliment all the different flavors.
This has always been my favorite meal because it’s always a special treat. It brings me such joy each time because it’s not something I have everyday. However, on those random Sunday mornings when my mom is up for it, it is a welcomed treat. I don’t think I could ever make it the way she does. I speak of precision but my mom doesn’t use any measuring utensils, she uses her eyes to measure and instinct. She is a cook not a chef. The intoxicating, luxurious smell of ackee and salfish infused with red and green sweet peppers, white onions and other bottled spices as you uncover the pot lid make my stomach weep for more. The mouthwatering aroma of the breadfruit perfumes the air as my dad peels the skin and carves it like a turkey makes me pant like a dog. The polychromatic combination of the breadfruit with ackee and saltfish is appetizing in the display alone.
If I were to eat one meal for an entire month, it would have to be chirashizushi.
Chirashizushi (ちらし寿司) is one my favorite Japanese meal. Chirashizushi means “scattered sushi”. It is a bowl of sushi (seasoned) rice topped with a variety of sashimi and garnishes. There is no set of ingredients for the toppings, usually it is the chef’s choice. Due to the various toppings, this meal allows you to have more than just one taste, one flavor, and one experience. There is honestly no way, I can describe the oishi-ness (deliciousness) of this meal. You’ll just have to try it for yourself and experience the bowl full of flavor.
I came across this dish while eating at a sushi restaurant with my sister. She ordered the Chirashizushi and when it came, I just didn’t want my shrimp tempura bowl anymore. She explained to me that it is a bowl of seasoned rice with an assortment of sashimi on top. The variety usually consists of salmon, tuna, yellow tail, ikura (salmon roe), eel, and tamago (egg). Based on the size of the bowl, it was obvious that chirashizushi meal is meant for one. Honestly I love sharing food, but sometimes there are just some times when it’s so good, that you just don’t want the experience to ever end. There are some things you just don’t want to share. With this new discovery, I order Chirashizushi whenever I’m in my selfish mood.
Now some people might think of Chinese food as being General Tso’s Chicken and fried rice. I love those dishes but they aren’t your traditional Chinese cuisine. Being raised in the Chinese culture, I grew up eating foods that some people have never heard of in their lives. This is one of them.
This dish is called Churng Fun Udon and words cannot explain how much I love this dish. It is made with thick rice noodles and fish balls smothered in peanut sauce, soy sauce, and hoi sin sauce (another type of soy sauce). Add some hot sauce and you’re in food heaven. There isn’t any magical cooking process and it wont win any style points but its a one of a kind meal. I have asked friends who have been to other parts of the country with Chinatown areas and they have all told me NYC is the only place that serves this delectable dish.
The texture of the noodles are pretty firm to withstand the dredging of the sauces. Scallions and baby shrimps are encapsulated inside the noodles but I prefer mine without those garnishes. I have made an art out of using a fork and picking the shrimps and scallions out of the noodles which just makes the prize even more desirable after the work is done.
A simple dish but it has brought me years of happiness and joy throughout my childhood. As a kid going to daycare, I remember eating this tasty treat before I began my day. It is typically a breakfast food but, now that I am grown, Ive had it for lunch and sometimes even dinner! There would be one main street vendor that everyone went to and the line would be down the block at times! Churng Fun Udon is definitely a hidden gem in the humongous food culture that is Chinese.
As a recent British Jamaican transplant to Brooklyn (aka Little Jamaica) it’s no surprise that I’m passionate about the representation of our culture, especially the food, but with over 50% of Americans with Jamaican heritage residing in New York, why haven’t we made a bigger culinary impact on the mainstream foodie map here?
New York is one of THE most cosmopolitan cities on the planet so ethnic isn’t a just a pretentious food genre, it’s what we’re all eating in this town.
Zagat’s latest guide however lists only 1 Jamaican establishment in the best of Caribbean restaurants review (by contrast 7 were Cuban) and Time Outmagazine’s doesn’t even list Caribbean as a cuisine category.
This is crazy, when by contrast back in July, 10,000 people made it down to Roy Wilkin’s Park in Queens for the 2nd annual Grace Jamaican Jerk festival. People LOVE Jerk!
This lack of mainstream respect may be down to a few key things, well known food bloggers have only recently started to venture off ‘The Island’ and then only to the most gentrified of neighborhoods, so aside from places like Negril’s and Miss Lily’s (the restaurant whose very existence is much to the chagrin of Vogue’s Anna Wintour) few other less upscale but still very tasty joints get promoted.
The core customers often think their grandmother, Aunt, cousin, uncle can do it better, so blogging or tweeting about the latest store bought curry goat dish really isn’t on the to-do list, and frankly the surly, you better know what you want because I haven’t got time to answer your questions about what the hell is on (or most likely off) the menu today attitude, of some of the smaller establishments don’t make for the most welcoming of visits.
It’s not all bad, The Huffington Post just named Goat as the in-meat for 2012 but in the meantime I am going to brave the bad service, inaudible mumbling and get my chicken and plantain to go before, the hipsters push the price up.
As a Chinese American one of the many privileges I’ve had to enjoy from both cultures is their food. I can get into a bowl of noodles just as easily as I can churn through a helping of mash potatoes any day. But it pains me to know that the bridge between the two cultures themselves isn’t nearly so complete. Because when Americans typically think about Chinese food they’re trapped in the box of the image above.
Having had real home-made and formal dining Chinese food the image above does not qualify in any way beyond appearance. It’s a box of salt, sauce, and oil turned out of a fryer is what it basically is. Chinese takeout gives real Chinese food a bad name, allowing Americans to forget about the authentic version they could have if they took the time to look. A well-seasoned, evenly balanced, and thought out meal with a variety of different textures and flavors that can sing more then one note and can actually be good for you.
Penne Alla Vodka is usually my go-to dish at any Italian restaurant I am eating in for the first time. I think of it as my control experiment, I know how it tastes and therefore can attest to whether the dish I’m having is the best I’ve had or if it is lacking in anything.
La Mela, in my humble opinion, has the best Penne Alla Vodka dish ever.
They do not skimp on the pasta (as you can see in the picture above) and the sauce is rich and creamy! The atmosphere of the restaurant also adds to the experience. I went to La Mela during the summer and got to sit outside to have lunch. It’s a cute Italian ristorante in Little Italy that is run by a native Italian family.
The staff provides you with a basket of the warmest, softest bread and olive oil with balsamic vinegar. As a customer you get to munch on the bread while waiting for your antipasto or main course. Once the penne arrived I was absolutely consumed by it, barely even giving the bread a second look.
The Penne was present in abundance. I’ve eaten at different Italian restaurants or restaurants that serve Italian and the one flaw they all have is that they give you a plate with more sauce than actual pasta. For the sake of providing a visual think of the size of PAX pasta bowls, which is how most restaurants present their pasta. Now triple the PAX pasta bowl, this is a La Mela meal.
The fact that there was a lot of pasta was my favorite part, but the overall texture and explosion of taste of the sauce really brought the pasta over the top. Many places water down the sauce too much and turn their pasta main courses into a relative of noodle soups. The Penne alla Vodka at La Mela is rich, creamy, not too salty, but with enough seasoning that you just cannot put your fork down.
The most amazing thing aside from the food, the meal is under 12 dollars.
photo courtesy of www.puertoricanmeals.com
