Never Enough Sauce

So I ended up having to stay late at work tonight. I was planning on cooking dinner, but by the time I walked out of the hospital I lost all motivation.

Chinese takeout to the rescue!

Had my usual - chicken wings with pork fried rice, hot & sour soup, egg roll. Also got an order of pork because I wasn't piggish enough. And no to worry, I ordered M's usual as well - vegetable lo mein and vegetable egg roll. 

As with any Chinese takeout, you get the sauce packets. I really don't need them and I usually tell them not to give me any. We used up all of these, but they skimped out on the duck sauce. Four is not enough for the two of us.

Notes From the Desktop

There has been some cleaning going on here in our two-of-a-kind stone house. The grass has been trimmed, garden beds weeded, and slowly but surely the things we no longer need are being boxed up for a future yard sale or donation. Our computers, also need some cleaning. They are slow as heck and filled to the brim of my daily picture taking.

I have three external hard drives full of photos. And I bet many are duplicates. Triplicates. Videos I meant to edit or delete but never go around to. If we lived in a country that actually cared about their workforce, I would have the time necessary to go through all of those things and you know… streamline.

Tangent. I do that.

Anyways, I’m cleaning up the computer and here’s something I wrote up that has been open for… who knows. Back when I thought it would be clever to write about everything I ate. Everything. Even take out. There will be no editing, no spellcheck. Screw grammar. It’s going up as I wrote it. Greasy fingered, fatty eating stream of consciousness.

So here you go, my lazy foray back into the food blogging realm. Notes on Hao Wei (Troy, NY)

hao wei
hot & sour
dark, thick. fresh mushrooms, not canned. and not thinly sliced either. carrots, celery. tofu is silken i think. tastes a ltitle funny. hot temperature, but not hot taste. and not very sour. almost a slight sweetness. crackers help. they aren't stale. got two for a large soup. bamboo.

egg roll
typical greasiness. not too pronounced cabbage taste. decent amout of pork. wrapper not too thick. avg size.

pork fried rice and chicken wings
nice coating. curry in it? hot temp. ok size. rice good. not dry. not much filler. onion sprouts. pork. some chives.

not going to get chinese all the time,  but i will keep this in mind. 11 bucks for all this.

An Eggy, Wonton Thing

Is it normal to mix two soups together? Regardless, it was bright yellow and I’m guessing it was pretty good. I’m pretty congested and everything tastes weird.

Sneaky, Sneaky

As I’ve briefly mentioned before, the Lenten season lasts for forty-six days, with only forty counting. I never really cared about the days before, because Lent was Lent and you waited until you could have what you gave up. But then a priest (of all people!) told me that Sundays don’t count. Gimme days, so to speak. Not that I’ve used them.
Until today.
I had finished my volunteer gig and I was on my way home. I wasn’t planning on it, but I went to the Asian Supermarket to take a quick look around to see if there might be something I might need to pick up for dinner. And then I saw they had the steamed pork buns. Chicken buns. And they looked really good. And of course I was starving, so I ordered a few. And as we all know, it’s a ten dollar minimum in order to use plastic, so I went with roast pork fried rice. And at $7.55 I was thinking it had better be good.
And it was. Pricey, but good. The steamed buns were amazing, as usual – but the pork ones were maybe slightly more fatty than normal. Fatty but delicious… and so very naughty.
I’ll admit I was feeling guilty about it. But it’s Sunday! It’s my gimme day! Rest assured, it was all gone before midnight.

Chinese New Year Dim Sum

For those of you that celebrate the Lunar New Year, gung hay fat choy! M and I decided to head over to Ala Shanghai for a light lunch and welcome in the year of the snake. And just as expected, the place was packed. Most people made reservations, but luckily there was an open table for us.

The meal was primarily vegetarian, but I had to get the pork soup dumplings. I mean, come on… soup dumplings. Delicious as they should be. I didn’t realize it before, but one of the little dishes of sauce was on the sour side. Perhaps it’s a dark vinegar? Better on the spring rolls than on the dumplings.

 

Soupy dumplings aside, the rest of the dim sum consisted of scallion pancakes, spring rolls, and these vegetable dumplings. I may have had them before, but I can’t remember. I didn’t like these at all. The filling is minced, which is fine, but it was a bit on the mushy side and too mushroom heavy. It tasted like they used reconstituted shitake mushrooms, which unless really drained, has a weird taste to it. The spring rolls were crispy as they should be, but the inside was mush. And it’s mostly cabbage in there… and mushy tasteless cabbage is the worst.

I didn’t think the dim sum would be enough, so I ordered some vegetable lo mein. A safe enough option for a picky eater, but it was pretty underwhelming. It reminded me of pancit canton (which basically that is) only it needed more seasoning. Maybe if I had some chili oil or chili paste I would have sung a different tune.

When I asked M what he thought of the place, he said he really liked the scallion pancakes and that was it. He also said if we were to go out again for dim sum, we should go somewhere else. And as much as I hate to admit it… I agree with him.

Sorry all you AS lovers out there, it’s just not our thing.

Engrish Foods

This seasoning that causes fish to make delicious is something I absolutely need to have. But one question - why have a picture of a school of fish, and then a picture of the seasoning... which looks like fish food? Am I just buying fish food? Whack.

Steamed Buns

Taiwan Noodle (Albany, NY)

Is it just me, or is Central Avenue trying to Asia-fy itself?

Dinner For One

Really. I’ve been very hungry lately.

Pearl of the Orient (Loudonville, NY)

M and I decided to spend a  not-so-Chinese New Year at a place other than Ala Shanghai.

En Lai Chinese Kitchen (Albany, NY)

This take out joint will always hold a special place in my heart.

Mei Li Wah’s Pork Buns

With every trip into the city, I stop over to Bayard Street in Chinatown to pick up a dozen of these for my uncle. I normally don’t get any for myself, but with my sister back in town, I decided to indulge. They offer the pork buns, or the larger, special buns. I have no idea what is in the special ones… I’ll have to ask my uncle one of these days.

You can purchase the pork buns either baked or steamed. The special buns are only steamed. I don’t remember the individual prices, but I know that a dozen of the special is $19.20. A dozen of the pork is $9.60.

The pork buns were pretty good, and the filling was surprisingly more meat than fat. I’m fine with the bread to filling ratio, but I’ve had family members complain that they were too bready. And from what I hear it’s worse with the larger, special buns. But they store well, are easy to re-heat and eat on the go.

I remember my mom and aunts making these when I was younger. While they filled theirs with beef and pork, I made them with peanut butter and jelly. And wouldn’t you know, they were pretty tasty. I found a recipe for siopao in one of my mom’s cookbook and one of these days I’ll try it out. But for now, I’ll stick to these instead.

Breakfast

Picked this up from a bakery on Grand Street in Chinatown. Donuts on a stick, how could I refuse? Quite tasty and reminded me of bicho-bicho.

Mooncakes, At Last

So I’m late on posting the mooncakes… by well over a month. But it’s still something worth mentioning. Or at least posting all the pictures I took.

Tasty Dumpling

 

Ten dumplings for two dollars? That’s what I call a good lunch.

How to Cook Everything Project: Hot & Sour Soup

When you go to a Chinese restaurant, what soup do you choose? I almost always choose hot & sour, and when I come across a really great tasting version of it, I walk out of that restaurant with the resolve to make something just as good... if not better.

What ends up happening is my finding a recipe, whether it be from some random site online or a book that claims their method is "fool proof," and it disappointing me. So much so that I revert to using the soup mix and dealing with it... if I don't end up just ordering from the local take out.

Can the project save me? The answer to that is yes... yes I think it can.

The recipe calls for chicken stock or water. Water seemed flavorless so I opted for stock broth bouillon. Always good to have this in the pantry for those times when you need a flavored something. The directions for the bouillon I used calls for 1 teaspoon powder and 1 cup water. I still find that to be a bit too salty for my taste so I add an additional half cup or so. At the same time I was bringing the broth to a boil, I cooked the chicken breast that I would later shred. I think the next time I make this I'll try without mix/stock and see how much flavor the boiled chicken imparts on the water.

I'm pretty sure this is tree ear fungus on the left. Lily buds on the right. Both were soaked in hot water and drained. I overlooked the part where I was supposed to mince the fungus and shred the buds and just added to the soup as is. Mincing the fungus would have been good, especially now that I remember I'm not too fond of big chunks of it. As for the buds, I think next time I'll rinse them out at least one more time.

 

The recipe called for dried shiitake mushrooms, which I couldn't find a small package of in the Asian store. I considered fresh ones, but what they had didn't look that appealing either. Button mushrooms it is. Cleaned, sliced, added to the end of the cooking.

Keeping true to the minimalist title, Bittman only adds a few of the ingredients that I normally see in my hot & sour soup. It just didn't seem right, so I went ahead and added bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, and water chestnuts to the soup. This may have played a factor in the corn starch issue, which I'll discuss later.

The chicken took a little over twenty minutes to cook, and was promptly removed from the liquid and allowed to cool. I gave it a Glee episode to cool down. Shredding was a pain in the neck, but I got through it. What I ended up with seemed a bit too much for all of it to go in the soup, so I set some aside to make chicken salad the next day.

 

Because I added additional water (and those extra ingredients), the amount of cornstarch the recipe calls for was not enough to thicken the soup. Sure, I could have added more to fix that, but it was getting late and I was getting hungry. Also, I have a bit of a problem anytime corn starch is needed as a thickener- is it just me, or do you have to use a whole lot before it starts to thicken up? I get worried that I'll mess up what I'm cooking and all that work will have been for nothing.

 

The eggs are added at the end since they don't take long to cook. I'm still working on the timing on when to stir the soup after adding the eggs so I end up with various sizes of cooked egg... instead of the scrambled mess usually end up with.

EDIT: Turns out it's not the timing, it's all about the tools and drizzle pattern. A search on Youtube resulted in this video from expertvillage and the cook's method of creating "a very nice pattern of egg drops."

The end result?

 

While not exactly what I order when I go out, it definitely hit the spot. I tinkered around with the amounts of soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame seed oil until it was just right. Definitely something I would make again.

 

In cooking this recipe, I came to the realization that you can hot & sour any broth-based soup, as long as you use five key ingredients. Can you guess what they are?

The five must have ingredients to achieve hot & sourdom: soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame seed oil, pepper, and eggs. It is only after these five ingredients are added to the soup that the H&S transformation occurs.

The soy sauce lends to the color that you normally associate with H&S, along with earthiness and saltiness that round out the flavors. The rice wine vinegar is the sour aspect of the soup- I haven't tried making it with other vinegars, but in keeping with the Asian-ness of the dish, rice wine fits. The egg is pretty much the standard in what we expect from H&S soup (I'm referring to Americanized Chinese food... I'm not sure how it goes in an authentic Chinese version, and I'm definitely not talking about other Asian versions of H&S... like Tom Yum). The pepper covers the hot in the H&S, and last but not least... the sesame seed oil. If these five ingredients are key to hot & sourdom, then sesame seed oil is the leader of the bunch. For me, it's only after I add the oil that my taste buds send the message to my brain that I've got it.

To test this out, I took chicken noodle soup mix and added the five key ingredients. And it worked! To be really scientific, I should probably try it again, use another type of soup, have someone other than me attempt it, etc. And I have no problem doing that.

One of a Kind Tea House (Albany, NY)

I have been off for the last two weeks and honestly... bored out of my mind. I'm in that weird transitional state where I'm tired of school, but I still need to study, and I am not even thinking about the "job market." To clear my mind, I headed back up to Troy. While I didn't do that much, it was good to be back.

On Friday, I met up with Albany Jane and John at One of a Kind Tea House in Albany. It's located on Central Avenue, next door to Van's. All Over Albany has covered it, and if you check Albany Jane's blog, she's does a better job of writing up the visit than I will in the following paragraphs.

The mention of bubble tea is what initially drew me to this place. Not that I'm a huge bubble tea fanatic. I think the last one I had was years ago in Edgewater, and that was pretty mediocre (at Mitsuwa no less!). And then there was that time at Garden State when one of the tapioca pearls went down the wrong pipe. Safe to say I've been cautious on the bubble tea since then.

They go for $2.95, which is on the cheap side when it comes to bubble tea. According to the menu you can get them either hot or cold... but I just can't picture someone ordering a hot bubble tea. I was leaning toward the papaya, but when I asked the server if it was green papaya or regular papaya, the non-answer answer made me go with mango instead. I couldn't tell if it was made fresh or from a mix, but it tasted like sweet mangoes.

AJ and AJo went the smoothie route, and ordered lychee and green tea smoothies. Nice and thick, about the consistency of Jamba Juices. I think it may be something to check out the next time I go there with M. I also saw on the menu they have Vietnamese coffee, but no Thai iced tea. If they ever choose to put that on the menu, they will win me over even more.

Hold on... here's a thought- what if you put tapioca pearls in a Thai iced tea? I think I have to do this!

Instead of entrees, we each ordered a couple of small dishes and shared. In the picture above, one of my dishes, Golden Tofu. From what I could tell, the silken tofu may have been lightly battered and then fried. The end result was tofu cubes that had a slight crunch as you bit into it, followed by the creamy center you expect with silken tofu. Accompanying the tofu was a vegetable stir fry (zucchini, mushrooms, julienned carrots), which I could not stop eating. Both the tofu and vegetables were topped with a sauce, but I wasn't sure exactly what they were made of. I definitely tasted coconut, and something salty/sweet, which AJ may have discovered to be miso.

I also ordered the Calamari skewers, which as you can see, are not on skewers at all. It was sliced however, and came with what I think was the wrong sauce. Reminded me of the sweet and sour sauce you find at McDonalds. Corn syrupy, when something savory would have been a better choice. The squid itself was good, slightly charred on the outside, but still moist on the inside. It was presented on top of a bed of what looked like broken up fried lumpia wrappers. Only these fried pieces were slightly sweet, and lumpia wrappers on their own don't usually taste like that.

AJ ordered the spicy chicken wings, and found them not to be all that spicy. And they look a bit too saucy, but thick saucy... and that's just too much. I didn't try any, so this is all I can say about these wings. Perhaps if you go, you can ask for them to be spicier?

She also ordered the grilled lamb salad, which is pretty much a mixed salad topped with lamb and served with either the house sauce (the not-so-great sauce I got with my squid), or the spicy garlic sauce. I was imagining bigger slices of lamb, like you would see on a grilled steak salad, but then again... the pieces were small enough so that if you were to mix everything together, hopefully the meat will have dispersed evenly throughout the salad. The lamb was alright, especially if I came across a crunchy grilled piece. The salad was meh, but I wasn't really expecting a salad at a Chinese restaurant. Oh and the spicy garlic sauce? Didn't taste all that spicy... or garlicky for that matter.

AJo ordered the House Spicy Shrimp soup (which I did not take a picture of), and the beef curry. I didn't try the beef or the vegetables, but I did try some of the curry sauce. And it was good. Good enough to dip bits of lamb in. Good enough to dip the calamari in. Good enough to just get a cup of it and drink on its own. This small sampling makes me believe that OoaKTH knows what they're doing when it comes to curry dishes.

The curry was served with scallion pancakes, which I forgot to take a picture of, but they were really good. Not saturated in oil, like I've had at other places. These were slightly glistening and very flaky. Pair this up with some of the lamb and that curry sauce? I think we have a new dish in the making- curry lamb scallion pancake tacos? What? Yes!

The Golden Tofu was my favorite dish, but the curry a very close second. And for the price (the tofu is a whopping $3.95) it's something you really shouldn't pass up. I'm already planning my next trip there... this is something M needs to try.

One Of a Kind Tea House
305 Central Avenue
Albany, NY 12206
(518) 729-3067


M-F 10:00 - 9:00
Sa 11:00 - 10:00

Take Out Rice

Being of the "Asian Persuasion", I think cooking rice is genetic. Not only is it something we seem to be born knowing, but the process of cooking rice is quite therapeutic. The quiet crash as cupful after cupful of uncooked rice is poured into the pot... the swishing of rice and water as you wash off the excess starch... the graceful precision as you measure the water level with your fingers... and the soft click when the rice cooker lets you know it's ready.

Who needs meditation? Bring out the rice pot and I've found inner peace.

Recently, my dad stopped by our local Chinese restaurant. He placed his usual order, and an additional pint of white rice. He's really been on a kick about their white rice. Not too sticky, and just a touch of sweetness. So he asked them how they cook it. And wouldn't you know it, they told him. They even showed him what type of rice they use.

The secret?

3:1 ratio - 3 cups long grain to 1 cup short grain. Try Jasmine and Japanese sweet rice.

Now go find your rice nirvana.

Dim Sum Dynasty (Ridgewood, NJ)

Holy moly... how did I forget to write about this place? Sorry it's more pictures than text-multiple things going on right now and I'm kinda freaking out about tomorrow. I don't do well with the whole "if you fail, you're out" thing they've been using.

Huge space. Sadly it was empty. But we ate early.

Salty sweet peanuts. Will make this.

Mag's Roast Pork Lo Mein, my General Tso's Chicken. Both exceptionally good. And so reminicent of food you would see in Chinatown. Hey... so what if it's a fancy place, BRING ON THE GREASE!!!

Dim Sum at Peter Wong's (Montvale, NJ)

Went with D to Peter Wong's for some dim sum. I don't recall the names of any of the dishes except for the steamed pork buns. All was very good, and prepared us for the snow that started to fall.

Stay warm everyone. If you're out where it's snowing, be careful on the roads.