Great Escape

Chai Tea Latte ($3.25).

Blink.

Cafescape. 59-02 Woodside Av. Woodside, NY 11377.

Christmas Came Early

Photo by Tavalon.

For my kind of guy...

Not Terrible, But Not So Teariffic

Teariffic.

This review originally appeared on The Gotham Palate.

Fresh from a weekend trip to Boston, my friend and I arrived back in the brusque city streets of Chinatown where the scents of fish markets, dumplings and automobile exhaust accosts you from every angle and the food is plentiful. Famished (notice how most of my entries mention acute hunger pangs), we trudged along to Mott Street, my wheeled luggage jolting up and down over crooked sidewalk cracks.

Destination: Teariffic.

Squid Balls & Shrimp Balls Noodle Soup.

I had the Squid Balls & Shrimp Balls Noodle Soup ($4.85) and small hot Honey Green Tea ($2.55). I like the squid balls, which had a chewy give, but for some reason I couldn't get into the shrimp flavor. It was off-tasting. Perhaps this was a subtle hint to me that shrimp should stay in its original form and not morph into a ball. Ever.

The udon noodles were overcooked and lacked any al dente buoyancy. Lucky for me, I was too hungry to obsess over the texture, so long as I had sustenance in my belly. Also, the hot broth worked wonders in clearing up my nasal congestion. For brisk fall and winter nights, hot stews and soups are just what the doctor ordered.

Hot Honey Green Tea.

The green tea was steeped too long and had a bitter, acidic quality, despite tasting like a sugar pill - no shortage of honey in here! Generally, for green tea, the tea leaves should remain in the pot for no longer than two minutes.

Service lagged, and the waitstaff seemed inattentive and unenthusiastic. Our waiter looked indifferent - or maybe just tired. I think the restaurant was short on staff. Luckily, we didn't have to wait too long for our food. As for the decor, it was very much like Saint's Alp, except transported in a Chinatown setting. Small wooden tables matched with low, square stools. Each party sat in close proximity to one another, enhancing the convivial atmosphere.

Steamed White Rice with Marinated Pork.

My friend had Steamed White Rice with Marinated Pork ($4.85). As always, Taiwanese cafes serve boiled tea eggs with their hot meals. I happily chomped on mine, but my dining companion does not enjoy boiled eggs. The pork was plentiful, however, and a sufficient amount of sauce covered the hot rice.

Prices were very affordable, as are most of the restaurants on this strip of Chinatown (Mott St). The cafe was 80% full, which, on a weekday at 5 p.m., is saying a lot. It seems people aren't cutting back on their bubble tea anytime soon. I didn't try the boba, but I hear the ginger black tea and mango with green apple and aloe vera are a thumb's up.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars. While the food is decent, the spotty service and ultra-sweet tea detracted from the tea-drinking experience.

Location:
Teariffic
51 Mott St.
New York, NY 10013
212.393.9009

Northern Manor: Dim Sum Dujour

Beef Tripe, Preserved Duck Egg Congee, BBQ'd Pork Bun.

This review originally appeared on The Gotham Palate.

"Dim sum taught me Chinese."

As a kid, I learned the bulk of my Cantonese Chinese food words from simply hearing the ladies who strolled past me hawking their carts' wares. I never cease to marvel at the sweet, salty, spicy, fried and steamed aromas and textures wafting by me every time I'm out to yum cha. In Cantonese, 'yum cha' literally means 'drinking tea' but has become synonymous with the dim sum we know today (eating small servings of different foods). Most traditional Chinese restaurants that sell dim sum have a sit-down menu in addition to the carts of steaming hot plate-sized Chinese delicacies. Wash it all down with jasmine or oolong tea, and you're good to go.

There's a reason why dim sum has become so popular: It's quick, tasty and cheap.

Northern Manor fits the bill. It's located on the border of Queens and Long Island, which is great because that means I don't have to trek out to Flushing every time I'm in the mood for dim sum. I tend to go with my family - the bigger the group, the better! I once had dim sum with just two other people, but it wasn't quite the same experience. Especially when you calculate the amount of food you're eating (count on a minimum of six or eight dishes). If you want to sample other things, it just makes more sense to go with a crowd.

Dim sum dining.

Here's a breakdown of the popular dim sum eats we feasted on:
-pay dahn sow yook jook (preserved duck egg congee - my preferred congee)
-law bahk go (white turnip cake with hoisin sauce)
-siu mai (pork dumplings)
-ha gow (shrimp dumplings)
-ngow pahk yeep (beef tripe)
-pie gwat (spareribs)
-ngow toe (beef stomach)
-ha chong fun (shrimp rice roll)
-ngow yook chong fun (beef rice roll)
-cha siu bao (barbecued pork bun)

Jasmine Tea, Joong, Shrimp Rice Roll.

After all these years, Mom's favorite dim sum dish is still shrimp dumplings - I think because her grandma used to make them from scratch. Of course, nothing can compare to homemade, but when you can't be bothered to cook, dim sum is where it's at.

Personally, my cousin's auntie in California makes the best joong (sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves), but Northern Manor's isn't bad. The Chinese sausage is sharp and aromatic; salted eggs, mung beans, chestnuts, dried shrimp, dried black mushrooms, pork and rice are rolled into a tight hot mess (the good kind).

Turnip cake.

I also like the don tat (egg custard tart) and law my gai (rustic lotus-leaf wrapped sticky rice) here. It's a tough call, but my hands-down favorite dim sum dish is the turnip cake (which is actually made of Chinese radish and rice flour, not turnip). Taro cake is it's nearly identical, denser cousin. But given a choice between turnip and taro, I'd choose turnip every time.

Downside: No sesame balls or mong gwor bo deen (mango pudding) to be found. What gives!

Although dim sum allows you to try a variety of dishes, it can also turn out to be an MSG-laden grease fest. Luckily, Northern Manor shuns the overly processed gook in favor of fresh ingredients and healthier methods of food preparation. This means that the congee is seasoned correctly and utilizes a finer grain of rice that isn't just mush on the table, barbecued pork buns have a just-baked, golden sheen and the shrimp dumplings haven't been dragged through a vat of oil.

Final consensus? Northern Manor is a dim sum restaurant that even Grandma would approve! (Just don't come here if you're on a diet.)

Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars. Northern Manor does a solid dim sum, but something's not quite allowing me to give it 4 stars - could be the tight quarters, the wait (try to avoid prime time lunch hours between 12 - 2pm) or the lack of some aforementioned dishes. Be aware that it may take several tries before you master of art of not overeating. Good luck to you.

Location:
Northern Manor
251-15 Northern Blvd
Little Neck, NY 11362
718.281.1500

The Biggest Food Coma: Woorijip

Lincoln Center. Upper West Side.

Russian Tea Room. Theater District.

Radio City Music Hall. Theater District.

Woorijip. Murray Hill.

It's 10 p.m: Do you know where your children are?

I don't, but I can tell you where my stomach is!

At Woorijip, where you can stock up on your fill of cheap and tasty buffet-style Korean food.

Above, clockwise from top: Kimchi, zucchini pajun (pancake), kimchi pajun, kimchi fried rice (gotta have my kimchi intake), egg roll with sauce, ddukbokki (spicy rice cake), rolled omelet, zaru soba, bok choy with shiitake mushrooms, fish.

I swished it down with Pomegranate Blue Honest Ade Tea, an organic thirst quencher that adds just a hint of sweetness without all of that artificial gunk.

It looks like a lot of food, but surprisingly it all went down without so much as a burp. I'm an animal.

Sticky nubs of rice awash in kochujang.

My sister [who asked me to take down that picture of her food coma] thoroughly enjoyed her share of hot Korean food. Promptly after the meal, she sat slumped down in a daze and refused to move. Methinks she had a rather severe bout of food coma. Woorijip's homestyle Korean food is so good that it makes you want to stay there forever listening to the jazzy jams of Clazziquai filtering through the restaurant. (Our friend Sarah is over there in the blue, checking out the desserts).

Get a plate to go! Woorijip also has a wide selection of foreign sake, soju and beers. I was entranced by all the shimmering colors and intricate bottle shapes...one of which resembled a stout perfume bottle, dressed up in pink. But it was sake. Go figure. Also on hand: Fizzy lemonades in blood orange and grapefruit flavors, $1 cups of citron tea, kimbap-in-a-box, red bean desserts.

It's fun to people-watch here. There's your pick of lanky Korean power couples dressed in coordinating swanky threads, hipster club kids, dress shirt-clad working people clinking Heinekens out of paper cups and, of course, the tourists who linger at the buffet for 20 minutes agonizing over what to get (AKA confused about what's on the menu).

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Pancakes were a bit on the mushy/soft side and could've used some crisping up, but I do appreciate how Woorijip keeps their dishes considerably reduced on the grease-o-meter. Even after I consumed the egg roll, I didn't automatically feel like I was sweating oil. The tender, salted fish (I wish I knew what kind it was) was the highlight of my night, along with the solid kimchi fried rice. The only thing missing was an egg on top!

Location:
Woorijip
12 W. 32nd St
New York, NY 10001
212.244.1115

Eating, The Art of

Char siu red pork, assorted fish, broccoli.

Daeji bulgolgi (Korean spicy marinated pork).

Korean appetizers: Spinach, Gobi (cauliflower), etc.

Eight Treasure Rice.

Ingredients: Lotus seed, red date, red bean paste, sticky rice oil.

Dong Suh Brown Rice Green Tea.

Flushing, Wo Ai Ni!

Bori cha and Pokka aloe vera juice.

After dim sum in Flushing, time to hydrate! My sister and I checked into Bakery de Paris.

OK, so I had no idea that the small green can was bori cha (barley tea) when I bought it on a whim. Not a smidgen of English on the can, and I can't read any Korean. I could've asked the staff what it was, but that would take the fun out of it, wouldn't it? Sometimes I like to be pleasantly surprised.

And I was. The can was cool (not cold, which I would have preferred), and the barley tea was a less-than-nutty flavor. I tend to like my barley strong, and this was not it. However, for purposes of hydration, it did the job. It could be a little plumper, though. My sister liked the refreshing (semi-artificial) sweetness of the Pokka aloe juice.

Walking back to our grandparents' apartment, we passed a number of sites and sounds...

Madina halal cart.


The Korea Times.

Magic Castle: Purveyor of all things cute.

Dori.

NYC's Coffee + Tea Fest and Ktown Cool-off

This is how we do.

At the Coffee and Tea Festival, Chloe and I downed tea sample after tea sample, ranging from persimmon to chocolate rooibos and even these goofy-looking organic coffee pouches that made us feel like we were chewing paper. Our collective favorites were Serendipitea and Tay Tea. Try Serendipitea's Buccaneer (Coconut, Chocolate Bits, Vanilla, Rooibos, Nilgiri, Indian Black Tea) and Tay Tea's caffeine-free Better Than Sex ("A sinfully delicious rooibos blend with bits of Belgian dark chocolate and peppermint"). Joe Tea was another winner with their cold Classic lemonade that actually tasted like real, fresh-squeezed lemons, rather than a sugar pill.

I think I would have appreciated the Korean tea brand Hancha a bit more if the green teas had actually been brewed properly. Due to mass production sampling, they left in the teabags longer than originally intended, lending each of their teas a bitter acidity. "Earth," a green tea, had a rustic flavor that almost tricked me into believing I had munched on grass. Not sure if that's a good thing...

Yoon Hee Kim from the Korean Tea Culture Foundation (also the owner of Hancha) demonstrated a Korean loose leaf tea ceremony. Unfortunately, it was hard to see what she was doing since she did not have a raised platform to view the ceremony and instead poured tea from ground level. Kim went into a detailed history of tisane tea and how Korean teas, specifically green tea, are now becoming more popular in other parts of the world. Chloe noted how she kept making eye contact with us (because we're so Korean...actually, we're not).

A scruffy, nondescript guy in a black hoodie and skinny jeans (doesn't this sound like a lot of people?) was peddling his photography. Next to no one stopped by his stand. Tough crowd.

When I passed by the Sacred Rose booth, a woman accosted me with a bottle of what looked like aromatherapy oil. However, upon closer inspection, it was actually rose elixir. She squeezed a drop onto my hand. I thought she wanted me to sniff it, but then she told me, "Lick it." With some hesitancy, I acquiesced. Nothing harmful, but it didn't exactly knock my socks off.

And what is this rose elixir supposed to do again? According to the flyer, it "softens and heals the heart with love to forgive the past pain that women have endured and encoded in their bones." A bit of a stretch, but um, sure.

Other highlights:
Zen Green Tea Liqueur: The suited up Japanese guy manning the booth made cocktails with the liqueur. The zesty, tart lemon-green tea concoction was so invigorating that we went for seconds. We hope Booth Man didn't notice. ("Really, you haven't seen us before. We're all Asian and we all..uh..look alike.") If only he'd given away a bottle of that stuff. I'd readily take up bartending if I had this liqueur on my hit list.

Some recipes:
Zentini
1 part Zen Green Tea Liqueur
2 parts Skyy Vodka
A splash of Fresh lime juice
Shake and serve in a martini glass.

Zen Saketini
1 part Zen Green Tea Liqueur
2 parts Dry Sake
Shake and serve in a martini glass.

Zen Breeze (Virgin)
1 part Zen Green Tea Liqueur
2 parts White Cranberry Juice
Serve in a tall glass over ice. Garnish with mint sprig.

Zen Milkshake (Looks highly adventurous. Attempt at your own discretion.)
2 parts Zen Green Tea Liqueur
1 part Skyy Vanilla Vodka
2 parts milk
Shake well; strain into martini glass. If desired garnish with a very small scoop of green tea ice cream.

Potential DESSERT usage: Served over vanilla ice cream or used as a glaze over a pastry dessert.


I spotted a woman chomping on a big ole raspberry croissant and followed her flaky trail. I ended up at A Taste of Home and stuck around to joke with the proprietor -

Me: What's the name of this?
Him: That would be a chocolate chip cookie.
Me: (thinking it was going to be some special, intricate name) Ah, I see. How about this? (points to another pastry)
Him: Mm..brownie.
Me: (Chomps on one, feeling stupider by the minute) Oh, they're good.
Him: Would you like to give it a name?
Me: How about Bob?
Him: Sounds good to me. You can name it whatever you want. :winks:

Ban chon. My favorite part of the meal.

Two hours later and all this liquidage has made me uber hungry. While we're not claiming Korean heritage, what do we go for? ......Korean! At Hangang.

It was a hot day - I was wearing jeans and sneakers, and the jeans were starting to stick to the back of my thighs. Gross. Should've gone with a skirt...

Oddly enough, Chloe and I were both craving the same thing, Mul naengmyun: slices of beef and vegetables over chilled noodles in cold beef broth soup. And loads of ban chon to go with it (a salad with ginger dressing and eight side dishes we couldn't finish, though we did our best).

Mul naengmyun, take 1.

Though Chloe says it's not the best mul naengmyun she's tasted, I was just relieved that the cool broth was rubbing off on my internal temperature. Within ten minutes I could feel the positive effect of the ginger-infused soup. Plus, I loved the starchy, chewy texture of the buckwheat noodles. The beef, however, was on the dry side.

Mul naengmyun, take 2.

Charmsoju. How...charming?

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Admittedly, I've never tried mul naengmyun before, so I don't have much to compare it to. However, this cooling soup is the perfect antidote to an overdose of sun exposure. And who can resist the ban chon? My personal favorites are the dried squid and potatoes.


Location:
Hangang
34 West 32nd Street
New York, NY 10001
212.736.9900

Caked by Chai

Photo by The Food Librarian.

The Food Librarian's recent foray into baking Sky-High Cakes using Chai Black Tea inspired me to do the same. Her three-inch stack rendition, above. As much as I'm a tea connoisseur, I'd never really thought about incorporating tea into cakes. (Can someone tell me why tea cakes don't actually...contain...tea?)

Oh how I love Chai Tea. I like mine spicy (as I enjoy most things). While I don't mind a cup of Yogi Chai Black or Peet's Masala Chai, nothing beats home-style Punjabi Chai. I had it once in Arlington, Mass. and it was the epitome of Chai-ness. Stash Chai Spice is great for making at home.

I declare Chai Cake as my next experiment!

Masticating Ramen

Photo by toyohara.

Peeped this over at Treehugger and was delighted to find that my dear friend ramen was featured in the slide show, entitled "9 Iconic Foods from 5,000 Miles Away or More." Something about spicy seafood and beef noodles warms me up right away, especially on a blustery, rainy, biting cold day like today. So you may not be overjoyed with the MSG content, but no one said you had to eat it every day. Dieters will rave in shock at this admission, but when I'm craving a late-night snack, Shin Ramyun hits the spot. Just...do it.

My other friends, Ceylon tea, and Thai Jasmine Rice, were also featured.

Yesterday while masticating a Mandarin Oriental Chicken Salad at Wendy's, I was reminded why I only eat salads as a side dish and not as the main course. Way to skimp on carbs, Wendy's. What? Not even a slice of bread to go with that? While your leaves certainly are fresh and crunchy, I can't imagine eating this as a reoccurring entree. It's deprivation, I tell you.

Such are the thoughts from a non-herbivore.

Beyond Turkish Delights: Coffee and Tea Festival NYC

Coffee and tea lovers UNITE! This April 18-19, the Metropolitan Pavilion is hosting NYC's annual two-day Coffee and Tea Festival. In its 4th year, the festival's schedule is brimming with plenty of classes, contests, coffee and tea samplings, and lots more! Learn the art of the Korean loose leaf tea ceremony, create snazzy tea cocktails and discover the rich culture of Turkish coffee. To register, click here. If you type in the promo IMBIBE, you'll receive a 50% discount (that's a mere $10). All proceeds go to Cup for Education, a non-profit committed to building schools in coffee growing communities in Central and Latin America.

Day 7: In the Mood for Mango

This entry originally took place on March 25.

Wednesday, March 25: I took the 1 p.m. Fung Wah bus from Boston to New York. When I emerged from the heat-regulated bus, it was a sunny 50 degrees. I couldn't have picked a better day for arrival. The sun covered my back. Everywhere around me, friendly smiles greeted me. People's faces seemed to glow from the touch of spring. Boys played ball in the park and passersby reclined on benches in the nearby park, watching the children hoot 'n holler.

Back to Century Cafe. (I'll locate more local cafes/bakeries in Ctown next time I'm not loaded down with three big pieces of luggage...) I was in the mood for mango and pointed to the mango boba. The counter lady informed me that the cafe had run out of boba. RUN OUT OF BOBA??! How does a full-service cafe/bakery run out of boba? Beats me. In any case, I settled for the mango slushee instead, which only put me back $2.50.

Happily sucking mango icies through the tall straw, I am happy to report that the slushee was made of real mango and not...sickly sweet sugary syrup. I sat next to an uncle in a black puffy coat. Peeking below the table, I noticed he was wearing black-and-white checkered pants. The soaring strains of David Tao's "Melody" played softly in the background, followed by James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" and a smattering of Jay Chou ballads. Go Mandarin/Taiwanese Pop!

Oh how I love you, New York. Just when I think I've had enough of your windy 20-degree temps, spring comes and smacks me upside the head.




Then I headed underground. Pick-up point: Kew Gardens. After emerging back into the light, I was thirsty again. All that human contact in heavily congested subways while heaving around luggage had sucked the strength out of me. Enough weightlifting madness. As if I hadn't had enough of my mango quota (haha, you can never OD on that stuff, so says I), I ordered Starbucks' Vivanno banana-orange-mango smoothie. Almost too thick for a straw, but chock full of vitamin-infused fruit.

Nourishment.

Rachel gave me her special stash of tea from her spring break Hong Kong trip. Her aunt packed me all that berry goodness. Fortified. Now the only problem is finishing my already bountiful tea collection. I counted 25 varieties in the pantry last time...I only wish I was joking. Well, if all else fails, I'll open my own tea-pothecary. After all, sharing's caring!

TriniTEA Electric Maker

Photo by justindz.

For tea drinkers tight on schedule, here's a new product for you: TriniTEA Electric Maker is a three-stage loose leaf tea steeping system that bypasses the fuss and mess of teapots, kettles and over-steeped pots of tea. Now you don't have to worry about your tea catching cold or over-brewing your tea. In fact, this appliance serves three functions: "heats water, steeps leaves, and keeps tea warm so you may enjoy it all day long."

Temperature and timer controls allow you to adjust teas' strength to your preference. The 32-oz. Electric Maker costs $99 and produces four cups of tea. So pull up a chair, kick back and let TriniTEA works its magic. The only thing I'm wary about is its "Made in China" label, but I guess one can't be too picky nowadays.

Former Kuomintang Brings Oolong to Thailand

Formosa's Jewel: Oolong Tea Leaves.

"The general is tall and thin, with silver hair and wild, wispy eyebrows that fly from his face like a set of wings. He sits before the windows of a concrete room painted mint-julep green, wearing a brown winter jacket with a fur collar that rings his wrinkled face. It's cold up here in the mountains along the Thai-Myanmar border; wintry air invades the general's home.

Lue Ye-tein, 92, is known for soldiering. He fought in Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang (KMT) army against Mao Zedong. Later, he was instrumental in defeating Thailand's Communist insurgents. But first, before any talk of war, he offers tea -- a pale, peach-colored oolong grown in his garden. 'The plant is from Taiwan,' he says. 'The Taiwanese government gave the plants to the people here to help us grow them.' Tea is key to General Lue's story."


Full disclosure here: I drink tea like water. Few other pleasures in life can rival that fragrant mix of herbs and spices, combined with hot water to produce a vapory brew. I can savor a cup of English breakfast tea over biscuits and scones with friends, at home with a honey vanilla chamomile mug after a grueling day of work, or in a raucous Korean BBQ restaurant, knocking back small cups of boricha (barley tea).

So when I came across this eye-opening piece from Gourmet magazine about a former Kuomintang general who fled Mao Zedong and took refuge in Thailand, later becoming a purveyor of oolong tea there, I was hooked. Lue brought oolong seeds back to Taiwan as an excuse to reestablish communication with his homeland. In the process, this nonogenarian developed a profound love for tea and continues to grow it for pleasure. For Lue, tea is a way of life.

Small wonder that I, too, enjoy tea so much. Tea is something that runs in my family's heritage. My mom and my aunt both love tea. Mom prefers the soothing scent of jasmine and the therapeutic properties of hawthorn (which helps reduce high blood pressure). My aunt, on the other hand, goes for strong oolong tea and British brews, with milk and sugar. I myself am partial to rooibos, or African redbush tea, and a heady cup of Punjabi Indian Chai, made with lots of cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Recently, I've discovered Rooibos Punjabi Chai. I have yet to try this particular version, but I'll be sure to put it on my to-drink list.

NOTE: This counts as a vegan-friendly post!