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.
As of about a year and a half ago, and many stomach aches/weird ailments/and sleepy days later I discovered that I am gluten intolerant. A blessing in disguise, kind of; with the exception of a weakness for sugar cookies. How could one ever recreate the deliciousness that is a sweet, buttery sugar cookie with anything other than regular old wheat flour? Well, the wonderful folks at Gilbert’s Gourmet Goodies have not only figured it out, but have upped the bet by not only making the most delicious gluten free sugar cookies; they are also nut, dairy, soy, corn, and trans-fat free!
Basically, they are a person with food allergies dream. The only thing they are not, is vegan, as they do contain eggs.
If you happen to be rife with food allergies the way I am, you know that finding an equal (if not more delicious) substitute is a challenge. Even with all the new-found gluten free options seemingly coming out of the woodwork for people who think this is a passing fad (let me assure you, it is not – those of us who truly need to eat gluten free are more excited than we should admit to for these new arrivals), it is not always easy to find one that is delicious! Some are dry, some have a funny texture, some taste absolutely nothing like what they are supposed to be replacing, and some are just downright awful, so when you find one as good as these sugar cookies are you sing a little food song and thank the gluten free gods of the universe that someone was able to figure out how to take a delicious staple and make it allergy acceptable.
For those of you are not as married to sugar cookies as I am, but still can’t have gluten, they also make Chocolate Chip, Snickerdoodle, Simply Chocolate, and Double Chocolate Brownie flavors!
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.
I don’t believe in being forced to choose between great things. This is why I don’t have a favorite type of cuisine or even a favorite food. Maybe there is a different way to look at this, perhaps from a vehicular stand point.
In warmer weather I will still enjoy soup, although it will probably be a cold one and few and far between. The sunshine, availability of various fresh ripe produce, and access to grilling will make me crave just that- grilled food. Whether you are an Omnivore or have limitations to your dining habits the grill works for just about anyone and anything from salad to seafood to meat.
Another great vehicle is Bread/ Dough. This encompasses Pizza, Sandwiches (Various Bread), Panini, Wraps, Tacos, Burritos, Gyros, Crepes, Tarts and the like. The possibilities are virtually endless. Whether they are served hot, cold, open, closed, folded, rolled, sweet, savory, with various texture (such as crunchy and soft) or not, it is a canvas, a vehicle sure to please and open to any and all cultural interpretations. The fillings will be the varying factor, this vehicle is good year round.
You can lean one way more than another but I definitely encourage a limitless outlook. If you have access to various foods and styles of preparation then try to enjoy them all for their own particular value in your eyes. Today may be chinese take out and tomorrow, crepes with fresh blueberry filling. Why? Because you can enjoy both without having to choose.
Worms…I mean onions on the table Source: http://www.melaniecooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/sauteed-red- onions.jpg
As a little girl my mother fed me some eggplant and cooked slimy onions…at the same time. Needless to say, I was traumatized. The slimy taste of the onions combined with the disgusting smell of the eggplant scarred me for life. It did not help when a boy from next door tricked me into eating a burnt onion which looked like meat to me. While he had a laugh I was once again shaking in disgust over the slimy onion sliding down my throat. This all happened when I was six.
Of course, I was a disgrace to my Dominican mother who can eat anything and everything. She always tells me I should eat everything that is available, including onions, in order to survive. Personally, I’d rather die.
Let’s talk about the onion. First of all, sometimes they’re purple, sometimes they’re white, sometimes they make you cry? Maybe i’m thinking about it too much but why would I cook with something that brings tears to my eyes? Second of all, is the feel of onions. If they are crunchy, the taster bursts out of it like a lemon right in your mouth. It is the most bitter taste on this earth. Followed by the smell, it is completely unbearable.
I should make something very clear, I do like onion flavored chips because the smell and the taste are very subtle. However, I have a problem with onion rings. Why are these restaurants trying to trick me? You give me a deep fried onion that is supposed to taste better but inside is the usual slimy onion? It’s like that boy from my neighborhood all over again, except this time I feel betrayed because I actually paid for this experience.
In conclusion, onions do not make sense. I don’t understand why they are useful or why people eat them. They physically seek to repel any human from eating them. They make you cry, they give you bad breath and they feel like worms slowly dragging themselves down your throat and out to lay eggs on your unsuspecting stomach. How many signs must the universe give to human beings to alert them to the predator that is the onion?
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.
