Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles

Wandering around Chinatown on a chilly Sunday afternoon, I stumbled into the (vaguely recalled as recommended) Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles, and am glad I did. Unadorned entirely, with a short menu (about a dozen choices of noodles either in broth or fried, with a few supplementary appetizers and dumplings), the food was simple and perfectly delicious.

Roast duck with hand-pulled noodles in soup was intensely flavorful, with tender bits of duck hacked alongside the fresh noodles and tender greens in a rich broth. The cucumber salad to start was spicy, savory and delicious, the tea was served in styrofoam cups, and the bill for two ran to <$20, with tip.

The place is tiny and fills up quickly, so going for an early or late lunch (I did the latter) is recommended.

Food and Memory

An excellent comment from an open thread at Ta-Nehisi Coates' blog:

I agree that it's more than just the food or the convenience. It's a whole host of ancillary stimuli. I go to Popeye's, this specific one right across the Harrison bridge, when I'm feeling disappointed, which is about once in two or three months. It's just a place where I feel it's okay to be disappointed. It's that ambience, the people there, just something, I don't quite know what that allows for it. Man, after that first bite of Popeye's, it's all disappointment. If I wanted, I could make better chicken than they do and with less guilt attached. But that's not the point. I'd rather not take my disappointment home and cook with it, nor clean up after. 

Food is not just about eating.

Sichuan Peppercorn Chicken Stir-Fry

Ingredients

• 1 lb chicken breast meat cut into strips
• 
4 carrots, julienned
• 1 red pepper, sliced

• 1 onion, sliced
• 1/2 c. mushrooms, sliced

• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 
1 tsp ground or crushed Szechuan peppercorns

• salt to taste

Procedure

1. Marinade chicken strips with ground Szechuan peppercorn and salt for 30 minutes.
2. In a hot pan, drizzle some oil and pan-fry chicken strips until golden brown; remove and set aside.
3. Add a little more oil to pan and sauté the garlic. 
4. When fragrant, add carrots, red pepper, and onion; stir-fry for about 5 minutes, adding water when necessary.
5. Cover, and steam for several minutes.
6. Add mushrooms and cover for 2 minutes.
7. Return browned chicken strips to the pan and continue stirring. 
8. Add salt to taste and ¼ cup water to loosen brown bits in the pan. 
9. Cook until combined.
10. Serve, and enjoy!

The Financial Times in my kitchen

As we were leaving the brand-new fancy hotel by the Danube near Karlova Ves, I grabbed the FT Weekend Edition (there were three copies left for the others). In the Life & Arts section was a column by Rowley Leigh (never heard of him, he's a chef at Le Cafe Anglais in London, a place I've never heard of either), which included a recipe for beetroot, orange and red onion salad. Beetroots, now, I've heard of those.

With some adaptation, I gave it as a lunch project to the Slovak, who usually needs very, very specific instructions when it comes to cooking (but as someone who learned to enjoy cooking only after college, I'm not really in a position to throw stones).

The result:

Beetroot, orange and spring onion salad

Ingredients
3 medium pre-cooked and pre-peeled beetroots
Ume boshi vinegar
1 large orange
2 spring onions
no mint leaves (unless you do have them)
no black olives (unless you also have them)
olive oil

Procedure
Slice the beetroots into little sticks. Place into bowl.
Slice the orange into the same size as the beetroots (without the skin, of course). Chop the spring onion thinly.
Add salt and pepper, vinegar, oil, and mix. Milan added pumpkin seeds.

Verdict
Pretty nice! A keeper, I think, colourful and refreshing. A nice change from my usual sliced beetroot+lemon juice+salt salad. I can see how it could use some mashed or chopped black olives, but the mint might be overkill. It keeps well for the next meal, too.

Red cabbage and Feta are friends, after all

As much as I appreciate Slovakness and Slovak food, there are days when I can't stand the sight of a cabbage soup. There's a part of me that anticipates it as liquid cement, it stays there forever and there's nothing to do but wash it down with beer or Kofola or Vinea, to try to tame the saltiness of it, leaving no space in the stomach for an entree.

But cabbage is the cheapest food at the market, three blocks away, and exactly two blocks closer than any of the supermarkets from my place. (This distance differentiation is important when the weather hits -9 degrees Celsius, or 16 F). And I found a woman who sells beautiful, small veges, I trust her completely because her hands are covered in grime-it's her produce I buy every Saturday. I finally went for a cute red cabbage, mostly because I got tired of buying only onions, leeks and carrots for soup. I figured I'd make rotkohl the way my German omi made it, but today I remembered I don't actually know how to make it without a pressure cooker. So I searched the 101 Cookbooks website, and found something to work with.

Tassajara Warm Red Cabbage Salad

1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 teaspoon natural cane sugar (or brown sugar)
fine grain sea salt

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 red onion, diced
3 medium cloves garlic, minced

1 pound head of red cabbage or radicchio, quartered and cut into thin ribbons

1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, minced
2 ounces golden raisins (or other plump, chopped dried fruit)
1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

a bit of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, to garnish

Roast the sunflower seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat until golden brown. Sprinkle on the sugar, and a couple pinches of salt. Stir until the sugar melts and coats the seeds (you pan will need to be hot enough). Transfer the seeds immediately to a plate so they don't stick to the pan. Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and saute the onion for a minutes or two with a couple pinches of salt. Stir in the garlic, and the cabbage, and a few more pinches of salt. Stir and cook for just a minute or so, or until the cabbage softens up just a touch. Then stir in the rosemary, most of the raisins, and the vinegar. The cabbage will continue to get more and more tender even after you remove it from the heat, so keep that in mind, and do your best to avoid overcooking it - where it collapses entirely. Fold in half of the feta cheese, most of the sunflower seeds, then taste. Season with more salt if needed. Serve garnished with the remaining raisins, feta, sunflower seeds and Parmesan cheese.

Serves 4 to 6.

Of course I had to adapt the ingredients and the procedure. My cabbage head was tiny, I only had white onion, no raisins, no sunflower seeds, no balsamic vinegar, no rosemary, no garlic... But went ahead anyway with:

Half a tiny head of red cabbage, chopped into fine ribbons
Raw Pumpkin seeds
White onion, chopped
Two Croatian dried figs stolen from the Potential Christmas Gifts stash, chopped coarsly
A little bit of feta
Ume boshi vinegar (one TBsp)
Pinch of sea salt to taste, at the end.

I skipped the first step, because pumpkin seeds are delicious raw, but followed pretty closely the main step, though I probably overcooked the cabbage by a minute or two, and it did make a difference. So my advice would be: one minute cooking for the cabbage, this is serious.

It came out pretty delicious, and I'd only wished I'd had more feta. I was suprised that the cabbage went so well with feta and the sweet, crunchy figs. It came out with a nice range of colours, and would indeed be lovely next to a slice of quiche or an enchilada. I still have half a cabbage head left, I might do this again for dinner (for two, as a side). I still have time to run to the store to buy more feta, maybe some parmesan and some raisins. It's only 0 degrees C (32 F) out there, completely manageable.

Bánh Mi Saigon Bakery

Bánh Mi Saigon Bakery, formerly a sandwich shop in the back of a jewelry shop, now a sandwich shop with a jewelry counter in the front, is pretty much exactly what I'm looking for in terms of Bánh Mi. Bread has a good crust on it but also chewy inside, with just-enough-but-not-too-much shredded carrots, vermicelli, sliced cucumber and jalapeños. And then there's the pork: delicious, candy-tasting wonderful pork, crystallized almost. Just perfect, and at $3.75 a helluva deal for a great lunch. Iced coffee was nice enough but not the best.

Smoked Fish

By far the most exciting new part of the smoker has been my experiments with fish. Each has been instructive, and mostly delicious. And as good as the mackerel was the other week, this past weekend bluefish provided new highs. Not to be overlooked, however, a nice brine for the tuna delivered superior results – fuller description below.

Bluefish

Background: Bluefish was the cheapest but also tasty-looking at the fishmongers so I decided to give it a go. Good choice.


Preparation:

1. Prepare brine:
• 4 c. water
• 1/4 c. soy sauce
• 1/4 c. kosher salt
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 4 bay leaves, crushed
• 1 tbs. whole peppercorns
2. Dissolve all elements and combine
3. Put fish in pan and cover with brine; refrigerate for 4 hours
4. Remove, rinse, and put on rack to let drain and dry for 2 hours 
5. Smoke for 3 hrs. on aluminum foil (less for smaller filets)
6. Enjoy!

Verdict: Just great. Best fish so far, and not even expensive – already becoming a household standard.

Albacore Tuna

Background: In addition to the huge filet of bluefish, there was a lonely little hunk of albacore tuna that was the last the fishmongers had today, so I decided to give it another go and am glad I did.

Preparation: The brine I found was a lovely little ginger brine (I went pretty heavy on it):

1. Prepare brine:
• 2/3 c. water
• 2" inch piece of ginger, sliced
• 1 tbs. honey
• 1 tbs. balsamic vinegar
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
2. Dissolve all elements and combine
3. Put fish in plastic bag with brine; chill in fridge for 1 hour
4. Remove, rinse, and place on rack to dry and drain for 2 hours
5. Smoke for 2 hrs. on aluminum foil
6. Enjoy!

Verdict: The result is not overly dry, very flavorful and meaty. Looking forward to having some sandwiches this week.