Posts tagged chinese

Xi’an’s Tingly Lamb Face and Stewed Spine & Rib

I finally tried Xi’an Famous Foods’ Spicy & Tingly Lamb Face Salad and Stewed Spine & Rib. Brought it to Columbus Park with Yasmin, who is probably the only person I know willing to eat lamb face and spine with me. I’m not sure what was tingly about the lamb face, but the roof mouth bits were crunchy and the meaty parts were tender and tasty. It’s the most expensive thing on the menu at $8.75. It’s a good dish, but I only ate it because there was lamb face in it.

We ordered the Stewed Spine & Rib with the noodles ($5). There wasn’t much meat on the bones, but whatever was there was very tender. I was looking back at my photos and thought there was a photo of me attacking the spine bone, but dang I realized it was Yasmin. The hand-pulled noodles are good as usual.

I practiced with my new camera and new lens (Canon 50mm f/1.4). Hard to shoot the food up close, but easy to shoot the old Chinese people in the park. Those umbrellas in the tree are for shade I think? An old man laughed at me when he saw me taking photos of food. Another man hocked up a mean loogie when we ate said food. No Senior Citizens Chinese Opera this time, but I still love this park. I still have crunchy mouth bits stuck in my teeth.

Xi’an Famous Foods (Manhattan Chinatown) – 88 East Broadway #106 (but really on the corner of Forsyth) New York, NY 10002

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Fresco Tortilla Grill – Chinese Tex-Mex

Sam and I went to try the very first Fresco Tortilla …the first of the Chinese Tex-Mex fast food take-out joints. Their special combination platters at $5.79 plus tax is only 10cents more than the Super Taco Express I had a week earlier and comes with a free soda! I chose root beer. I also paid for a side of jalapeño peppers which helped spice up the iffy food. I don’t think the tortillas were as mind blowing as the Super Taco Express, but it was cool watching them use the tortilla machine. I was excited. Had a mouth boner.

Sam’s Shrimp Quesadilla looked really disappointing.

Fresco Tortilla – 36 Lexington Ave (btwn 23rd & 24th St) New York 10010

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South Street Seaport Food Court

I went out to the South Street Seaport last night to check out Best Coast. As you may know, the secret is to go to the food court in the mall to get a huge 32 oz beer (Bud at about $4.50) —at the Pizza or Seafood shop. I walked by all the other food counters. There were a number of them —Japanese, Chinese, Cajun, Seafood, American, but all of them were serving Chinese food with the same $6.99 pick two items over rice or lo mein noodles. Every one I pass, they were yelling at me to try their chicken sample on a toothpick. I felt scared with everyone yelling at me. I finally caved in for the bourbon chicken sample at Cajun Cafe. It was decent. I got that with shrimp and vegetables over lo mein. Yeah, tasted like Chinese-American Food Court food. I was wondering if I should’ve just gone to the Chinese place.

I watched a family go one-by-one tasting the chicken samples around the food court. They ended up getting their food at Cajun Cafe. That made me feel better about my decision …unless it was really all the same chicken and there was no reason to choose.

South Street Seaport Food Court – Fulton & South Streets, Pier 17. New York, New York 10038

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Super Taco Express – Chinese Tex-Mex

Sam Murakami: what’s for lunch?
chinolam: I want to eat some Tex-Mex food made by Chinese people.

I’ve been craving it since I read this interview with Andrew WK and how he used to eat at Fresco Tortilla everyday when he moved to NY. So we went to the nearby Super Taco Express. Looks just like a Chinese take-out spot, but with cheap looking Tex-Mex food instead. Once we walked in, this lady was yelling at the employees for checking her $100 bill she wanted to pay with. “I’m going to leave before I spit on all you Chinese people.” I don’t think she meant us though, because Sam is Japanese and I always think of myself as white.

Sam got the chicken and I got the steak & jalapeno special combination platter ($5.69 …$6.20 after tax). The flour tortillas were frickin amazing. I think it’s the grease on them that makes it taste so good. Definitely the best flour tortillas I can remember having. It made the so-so meat platter decent when I made them as tacos. You get two tortillas, but I think the platter has enough food to make 6-8 tacos.

If you were wondering how the Chinese started making Tex Mex in NY, here’s an old NYTimes article about the origins. Next up, Fresco Tortilla on Lex! I will remember to bring small bills.

Super Taco Express – 225 7th Ave (btwn 23rd & 24th St) New York, NY 10011

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/forkintheroad/archives/2010/05/andrew_wk_has_t.php

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Wah Fung No. 1 Fast Food’s $2.50 All Day Lunch Special

Found the Wah Fung #1 Fast Food on the Yelp. At first I thought the Fung Wah Chinatown Bus got their own restaurant, but I don’t think they’re related. Everyone was talking about the $2.50 pork or chicken special. I went to check it out during my half day of work Friday. All the Yelpers were right about the line. Seems to move so slow, but I think I see why. The guy chops up the meats to each individual order, then has to walk back and forth each time to spoon up the juices. What’s in those juices? I could even do some juice over rice. That’d make me happy.

The $2.50 tray does look small at first, but the guy packs in the meat. He chops up the meat and puts it on and you’re satisfied. But then he takes another piece out to chop and put on your tray and you’re like what a nice guy! Then another piece and you’re like fuck.

Wah Fung No. 1 Fast Food – 79 Chrystie St (btwn Canal & Hester St) New York, NY 10002

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Midtownlunch.com: Chinese Mirch

Clay wrote about the time we ate a dish of cheese and gravy at Chinese Mirch. This is the same day I ate White Castle Sweet Potato Fries …and then a can of green peas for dessert.

–>review link
01 Ultra Clay at Chinese Mirch Midtownlunch.com: Chinese Mirch

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Xi’an Famous Foods on St. Marks Grand Opening

Tomorrow (Sat. July 3rd) is the Grand Opening of the 2nd Manhattan Xi’an Famous Foods. According to Hideki K. on Yelp, the 1st 400 customers get a free burger.  (UPDATE: You had to RSVP and it’s been filled to capacity. You can still buy food tomorrow though). I looked through the window just now and the menu prices seem about the same as the other locations ($2.50 for a Savory Cumin Lamb Burger). Now that these lamb burgers and cold noodles are so accessible, I wonder if people will still venture out to Flushing to the rad Golden Mall food stalls.

Xi’an Famous Foods – 81 St Mark’s Pl (btwn 2nd & 1st Ave) Manhattan, NY 10003
…Follow-up review

Xian Famous Foods on St. Marks Xian Famous Foods on St. Marks Grand Opening

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Flushing Golden Mall Food Stall Adventure

Headed out to Flushing to finally try the Golden Mall everyone always blogs about. The last time I tried to find it, I didn’t have an iPhone to tell me where to go and what I should eat. I still don’t have an iPhone, so it’s smart to go with Brian and Jimmy, who can speak Chinese really well and even read what’s on the menu. Although they now have a lot of English writing everywhere, probably because of all the blogging folks, so don’t be too scared.

First off, the place is amazing. Nothing I’ve really seen before. A bunch of tiny food stalls down in a basement all cramped together, making regional dishes that look exotic. This here is the food blogger’s wet dream.

We started off with Liang Pi Cold Skin Noodles ($4) and Savory Cumin Lamb Burger ($2.50) at Xi’an Famous Foods. The lamb burger is just as tasty as the newer Manhattan location. The Lian Pi Cold Skin Noodles have a great flavor, but why is it cold? I can imagine it tasting better hot.

Then we walked around and into the first stall, Cheng Du Tian Fu, specializing in Sichuan. Brian asked the lady what their best dishes were. She recommended the Beef Tripe with Hot Pepper Sauce and the Dumplings with Chili Sauce. Then she told us to go ahead and sit over at the Lanzhou Handmade Noodle stall where we were going to get some noodles and she’ll bring it over to us. We noticed a lot of people doing that –taking things from different stalls and enjoying them at any table.

I’m not a huge fan of beef tripe, but this was the best tripe ever. Thinly slice and so tender. I’d order this again. Then the dumplings came over and that was the most awesome dumplings in the world. There was some garlic butter on top, like the stuff they put on garlic knots at pizzerias. So good. I want to eat that now.

We also got a bowl of Mutton Handpulled Noodles from Lanzhou and some veggies from a neighboring stall. They were decent. As I was watching the guy hand pull our noodle, I realized that the way he was doing it is just making one super long noodle in our bowl. That’s interesting. You could really go to town with a giant slurp. Jimmy and I almost did Lady and the Tramp.

The plum drink was hardcore. Really strong. Couldn’t drink more than a few sips, but interesting enough to try.

Funny enough, we ran into Todd and Sirin there. But I guess it makes sense. New York is a big city, small world. So I guess that makes Flushing, Big Trouble in Little China.

Golden Mall – 41-28 Main St. Flushing, NY 11355

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