Dinner and conversation with Marcellus at House of Vegetarian, a Chinatown restaurant with dishes that are substituted with mock meat. I’ve never been a fan of mock meat and don’t understand why you’d want to eat it outside of health & dietary reasons. It’s doesn’t taste as good as real meat and why would you eat something that is made to look and taste like something you are repulsed by? I can’t see myself eating Mock Human Honey-BBQ Ribs or Mock Fried Roach Legs. …Okay, maybe I’d try it, but I don’t think I’d like it.
Anyway, I went in thinking that I’d rather eat the vegetable only dishes (sans mock meat). But once we sat down and looked at the menu, I figured we’d better get mock meat. You don’t go to Peter Luger’s for the salad. We should live a little. We split Combination Triple Vegetable with Mock Roast Pork and a dish called “Wealth and Fortune.” No description on the menu. The waitress said it was mushrooms. I asked what the “Lucky Season” was. She said cabbage.
The dishes were Chinese stir-fried mixed vegetables with sauce. Both of them similar in context, but different in ingredients. Wealth and Fortune had tofu. Every piece of mock roast pork tasted different. One would be buttery, another salty. But it wasn’t as bad as I expected. I don’t think I would mistake this for pork, but it was a pretty good stab at it. It gets me wondering how these future lab-grown meats will taste. But if that does work out, maybe we could engineer Human Honey-BBQ Ribs without ethical or moral questions. What if it could taste like the race or ethnicity? It would give more meaning to eating Chinese, French or Mexican cuisine.
House of Vegetarian – 68 Mott St (btwn Bayard & Canal St) New York, NY 10013
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I started the night off by going to Limewire’s Ear to the Ground:Tokyo release party. It was great to see my old friends, Kelly and Jeremy. I texted Marcellus to come over, who was at an art exhibition. Then he unknowingly shows up with two America’s Next Top Models. It was sorta funny he didn’t know who he brought. Well I didn’t know either. There was a photographer taking our photos and we got into a conversation about this Japanese treat (Yatsuhashi) he’s been trying to find all over NY. Then somehow I was blocked out of the conversation and I found myself hovering outside the group. The photographer apologized later figuring that I was trying to talk to the models, but I actually was trying to finish my conversation with him about the treat. That’s how sick my food blogging obsession has become.
We left and Matt & Marce took me to Thái Son for me to food blog. We weren’t even hungry. How nice of them. We got some summer rolls and a bowl of Bun Cha Gio Thit Nuong (Spring Rolls & Grilled Pork W. Lettuce On Rice Vermicelli). Affordable and good Vietnamese food. I likee the fish sauce.
Thái Son – 89 Baxter St (btw Bayard & Walker) New York 10013
I should plug my band’s live EP that’s on Limewire – Tigers and Monkeys Live at Lime.
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Perfect weather for this big bowl of hand pulled noodles and pork bone soup. I got some good meat off it and plenty of bone marrow. Cheap around $5. I was like “I Am Legend” on them bones.
Lan Zhou Handmade Noodle – 144 East Broadway (btw Allen & Essex) New York, NY
Related post with more photos and video
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Matt got the cravings for some Flushing Chinatown food late in the evening. So he picked me up in the rain and we headed over to Corner 28. The downstairs $1 Peking Duck Bun window was closed and so was the cheap pick and point prepared steam tray selections. They have an upstairs sit-down restaurant.
The menu was a big book with photos of the dishes (like Denny’s) mixed with photos of their bubble tea drinks. Sorta difficult to find what you want, but I love to see what the food looks like. So I’ll take that. A late night menu with a lot of selections at $6.99. We chose the Chinese Sausage & Smoked Pork (possibly belly?) with Vegetables and Shrimp w/ Lobster Sauce. Matt also ordered the Shrimp Dumpling Noodle Soup and I got the Pumpkin & Clam Congee (rice porridge) at $3.50 each.
I been hankering some Chinese Sausage and vegetables for a while. It did the job. The Pumpkin & Clam Congee was interesting. I don’t think it would appeal to someone who’s used to bland or salty rice porridge, but might work for an American taste who’s never had congee. The Shrimp w/ Lobster Sauce was a little chalky, probably from the flour to thicken up the sauce. The food overall was good and affordable. The selection and quality is comparable to Congee Village House in Manhattan, but a little cheaper. And they’re opened until 1am.
We could barely finish it all. Partly because it was a lot of food and also because I had just turned Matt onto Paul McKenna’s weight loss hypnosis system
. I might have screwed him with that. Look how skinny he is.
Corner 28 – 40-28 Main Street Flushing, NY 11355
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I saw the Roboppy/Serious Eats post about a Xi’an now opening in Manhattan’s Chinatown. This is the famous place in Flushing’s Golden Mall everyone keeps talking about. Even more so after Bourdain went to it on his No Reservations show. I still need to check that show out. Not to brag or be clueless (depending on how you look at it), but I still haven’t really seen the Bourdain show outside of a few mins while eating a taco in LA. My point is that it’s just surprising for a food blogger and someone who likes ethnic food and weird shit. I’m also surprised I don’t have an iPhone yet.
I did once try to find Xi’an in Flushing one time, but I didn’t know where it was except that it was in some mall. This would have been a good time to have one of those iPhones. So I was so glad to see this place opening an outpost so close. The shop is really small. Not really a dine-in restaurant. It has a tiny counter that maybe three people might be able to stand/squeeze in on. That’s what Yoshie, Rob and I were able to do on this rainy day. It really got tight when four other people were trying to order. There were photos of Anthony Bourdain on the wall. A sign that says they must give you a receipt or you’ll get your food for free. Another sign that says the bathroom is in the basement of the plaza/mall, toilet paper available on request. What happens if you forget to ask?
I got the popular Cumin Lamb Burger ($2.50). It was pretty good. Well seasoned lamb meat in a bread pocket, kind of similar to pita or English Muffin without the nooks and crannies. Yoshie and Rob noodle dishes (Mount Qi hand-pulled noodles & Cumin Lamb Noodle Soup – $5 each). The noodles are hand pulled in front of you at the counter. The way they pull it, it is a much broader noodle than of the Lan Zhou hand-pulled variety. Yoshie and Rob really enjoyed their food. It’s a good deal. I want to try the noodles next time. Maybe some day they’ll put up a photo of me on their bathroom wall.
Xi’an Famous Foods – 88 East Broadway #106 (but really on Forsyth at the corner of E. Broadway) New York, NY 10002
Ramen and Friends – for Yoshie & Rob’s thoughts
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A Yoshie/Ramen & Friends get-together at Famous Sichuan, the place across the street from the people waiting outside to get into Joe’s Shanghai. We did it up family style. I got to eat the tail from the Camphor Tea Smoked Duck. It was fatty and delicious. Melted in my mouth. Duck Tails – A Whoo Hoo!
Later in the meal, I saw one of the girls wearing the very mustache I was looking for all day. “Hey, that’s the mustache I was looking today!” “Why were you looking for a mustache?’ “For a Spinal Tap Sing-along I’m hosting. Why do you have that mustache?” “I’m going to a mustache fundraiser party.” She gave me the mustache. Bless her heart. Four people have asked me if I used the Secret to get this mustache. I can’t really say …it’s a secret.
I was planning on going to the mustache party that Matt was also going to. But somehow we all got lost in the shuffle, when Rob and I snuck off across the street to Quickly for a bag of Fried Squid Balls. They were spicy, spongy, delicious snacks.
We met back up with the rest of the crew that were still around and headed off for dessert at Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. I wanted to try Durian flavored ice cream, just like at the time I was in Sunset Park at No.1 Ice Cream. But like them, they didn’t have any. I wonder if they run out or they just don’t make too much of it. Adam says Durian smells like garbage, but it’s good because of the texture. I ended up with Zen Butter (toasted sesame seeds with peanut butter) and it was heavenly. I did get a taste of what Durian might be like as we walked past a garbage truck on our way to the subway station.
Famous Sichuan – 10 Pell St (btw Bowery & Doyers St) New York, NY 10013
Quickly – 11 Pell St. (btw Bowery & Doyers St) New York, NY 10013
Chinatown Ice Cream Factory – 65 Bayard St (btw Elizabeth & Mott St) New York, NY 10013
Ramen and Friends cross post review
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