Szechuan Gourmet (Midtown)

This is the third post in the series A Casual Weekend in New York. Other posts include Frank Pepe's Pizza and Salumeria Rossi Parmacotto.

It's a well known fact that Times Square itself is pretty much a culinary deadzone. As you walk between the huge M&M Store, the loud flashy billboards, and the hoards of people, you glance between your choices:

Should I eat at the Olive Garden, Planet Hollywood, or that huge McDonalds that overlooks the square? 

Choices choices.

It wasn't until years later that I learned that if you just walked a few blocks away from Times Square, there were actually plenty of excellent places at which to dine. Much better choices.

On our last night in New York, we had to make a choice.
We had enjoyed a delightful lunch at one of our favorite Italian eateries. We knew we didn't have much time before our 7PM train back to Boston. Bryan was loathed to eat train food for dinner (do they even sell food on the train?), and he really didn't want to wait until midnight to eat in Boston.

So we had to find something relatively close - a place that wouldn't balk if we walked in with our casual dress and suitcases. After a not-so-brief search online (hey, these things are important!), we found the highly reviewed Szechuan Gourmet right on 39th street, only 5 blocks from Penn Station.

Perfect.

Szechuan Gourmet is not really a hidden secret in New York.  It has a spot on Eater's coveted 38 Essential Restaurants list. The Food Network's show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" also featured Szechuan Gourmet's Crispy Lamb Filet on its show about Chopsticks. Frank Bruni gave this place two stars in his glowing New York Times review back in 2008.

We ordered some of our favorites Sichuan dishes, such as Braised Spicy Fish Filets with Napa Cabbage (literally "water-cooked fish" in Chinese), Ma Po Tofu, Stir Fried String Beans, and Stir Fried Shredded Potato.

Everything was quite good. The Mapo Tofu could have used a bit more Sichuan peppercorns, and the string beans were just at tad greasy. Overall, though, the flavors were decidedly authentic and full of intensity.

My favorite dish was the Stir Fried Shredded Potatoes (thanks to the recommendation from Frank Bruni in his New York Times review), which were delightfully crispy and surprisingly flavorful. They tasted more like a vegetable than a starch. It reminded me of a similar (but also different) dish I like to get in Boston.

Is it the best Sichuan food I've ever had?

Probably not, but then perhaps I'm a bit spoiled.

We have some pretty good Sichuan food here in Boston. In fact, well-known food writer Kenji Lopez-Alt from Serious Eats has even gone so far as to say "Boston's got Sichuan Restaurants that puts even the best in New York to shame, and that includes those in Flushing" (emphasis added). [source]

I haven't eaten at enough places in Boston or New York to make such a strong statement. However, I will say that this restaurant, which is pretty revered as far as New York Sichuan restaurants are concerned,  is at least equal to the best places in Boston.

I'm not complaining. It's awesome that there's such a good place right in Midtown Manhattan. All in all, the food at Szechuan Gourmet is very good. The intense and authentic flavors from their ample use of Sichuan peppercorns was most certainly present. Their general command of flavors is good, and every dish was really quite enjoyable.

Best yet, it was fast, which is great when you're rushing to be on time for that train.

I'm sure I'll be back again . . . suitcase and all.
Szechuan Gourmet
21 W 39th St
New York, NY

A Snowy Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year!

Can I just say it's been a crazy weekend? I really think this is the biggest storm I've ever encountered in my conscious memory. It was fascinating to watch the snow just continue to fall . . . and fall . . . and fall.

The next day, after the storm was over, we ventured out. Check out how deep the snow is! (Yes, it is up to my knees).

Virtually everything was closed in Harvard Square except for the CVS and the Starbucks. It was weird to see the door of the T (subway) closed.

Poor bikes.

The river was frozen over in an oddly yellowish color.

Stuck at home, we obvious couldn't go out. Instead, I ended up cooking . . . a lot! I was a bit bummed that I couldn't have a proper Chinese hot pot on the eve of Chinese New Year. Nevertheless, I did manage to squeeze out something sort of Chinese. :)

On Friday night I made a hearty lamb osso buco in the pressure cooker with saffron rice and cilantro gremolata. It was warm, hearty, and the perfect dinner to accompany such cold weather outside.

We had that with one of my favorite vegetable side dishes, roasted Brussels Sprouts with bacon and habanero peppers. So good.

On Saturday morning, as the snow slowly came to a stop, my mom called me to check to make sure we were OK. She also reminded me that it was the eve of Chinese New Year, a time when families get together and eat Chinese hot pot.

Alas, there was no way I could head out and pick up Chinese groceries, so I did the best I could. Bryan and I enjoyed a fun little lunch of fresh udon with XO sauce, Taiwanese meat sauce, and a simple stir fry of spinach with garlic and carrots, celery, and shitake mushrooms with XO sauce. It was surprisingly simple but really hit the spot, reminding me of home.

For dinner, we enjoyed one of my favorite fish dishes that's so easy to make and tastes fantastic. This is Nobu Matsuhisa's famous miso black cod (I'll publish a post very soon about this, or you can just Google it!). It only takes about 15 minutes of prep and never disappoints.

Happy New Year all! I have a few fun Chinese New Year themed posts lined up for the next two weeks, along with some cool Boston restaurants I've visited lately. Finally, we'll start a couple more travel series very soon.

And if you're looking for Chinese recipes, definitely check out my Asian Food Gallery for inspiration. I've fallen behind on adding a photo for each new recipe, but you can scroll to the bottom to see the entire list.

Happy New Year!

Brrrr - it's FREEZING out + Giveaway!

Brrrrrr! Are we cold yet?

It's times like these I wonder what possessed Bryan (who's from sunny Southern California) to leave what he calls "the happiest place on earth" to this freezing place we call home now.

It's times like this I start to really miss the sunshine. In the dead of winter, the sun sets around 4:30PM here in Boston, which means it's pretty much pitch black by the time I leave work. On a freezing cold winter's night like today, it's sooooo hard to get myself psyched up to open that door and brave the cold winds that come blasting inside. I've been listening to podcasts to distract myself so I can get lost in my thoughts, not my environment!

I find that this cold weather makes me quite lazy. I lose all motivation for spending tons of time chopping, cutting, and stir frying after a long day at work (plus a loooong cold walk home!). I yearn for warm, simple, and healthy meals.

With Chinese New Year coming up, my thoughts have turned towards dumplings. Sure, ideally I would make these from scratch, filling them with my favorite ingredients - Chinese chives and ground pork. But I must confess, frozen Chinese dumplings is one of my favorite "emergency" staples to keep in the freezer.

I think of dumplings as a complete food. They encompass virtually all the "food groups" (yes, I'm a child of the 80's pre-food pyramid days!) - a nice balance of meat, vegetables, and carbohydrates (OK, so we're missing the diary food group). This glorious little all-in-one package is easy to portion out (you just cook the number you feel like eating), and you can easily pan-fry them straight from the freezer.

I almost always have a few packages of  frozen dumplings in my freezer, usually purchased from a local dumpling restaurant or from a Chinese supermarket. I've never bought them from any Western supermarket. So when Whole Foods contacted me telling me about their new healthy frozen line of  foods (many of which were international), I was immediately dubious about the Chinese food.

Nevertheless, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try their new line. After all, frozen food comes in handy quite often during the winter, especially on those freezing nights (like today!) when you really just rather not even step foot outside.



Whole Foods gave me a $25 gift card to pick up various frozen foods from their new line. I thought Italian food would be the safest, so I picked up a couple of those. I also got some Chinese dumplings. I figured if they could make a good dumpling, I'd be completely sold.

Their dumplings come in a pack of eight for $3.99. This is a far cry from the bag of thirty that I'm used to getting in Chinatown for $2.99 or the bag of fifty frozen handmade dumplings I can get at Mulan, Golden Garden, or Qingdao for about $15.

They are pre-shaped in a way that facilitates pan-frying. I found it easy to follow the directions to get a nice, crispy bottom, just like a restaurant "gyoza."

But how did it taste?
It was . . . . OK. Frankly, I didn't love it. Sure, the skin texture was decent and the bottom fries up beautifully. I just didn't love the flavors inside. The pork + vegetable one had a very strong essence of celery inside, which I wasn't used to at all. I strongly prefer the flavor of pork + Chinese chives or maybe napa, a classic combination you'll see everywhere in Chinatown. I think this dumpling has been tweaked for the Western palate, which is not bad, but doesn't taste completely authentic.

Surprisingly, I enjoyed the vegetarian one a bit more, maybe because I had less pre-conceived notions about what I was expecting. It was reasonably tasty, though quite expensive at 50 cents a pop.

We enjoyed the Italian food much more. The frozen Italian meals come with the tomato sauce frozen in coin-sized chunks. This obviously speeds up the rate at which everything melts, which makes preparation quick and easy.

The Gnocchi di Polenta with Peas & Kale was not bad! The gnocchi itself was unusual in that it was made of cornmeal and thus had a slightly unusual texture. The vegetables had lost their bright green color, but overall the flavors were enjoyable. I appreciated how, unlike most prepared foods, the dish was not too salty. It came off tasting balanced and healthy, which was a nice refreshing change.

The Gnocchi alla Sorrentina was Bryan's favorite out of all the frozen dishes we tried. Of course, the texture of the gnocchi is nothing like fresh gnocchi, but it's acceptable and again, the sauce was bright and flavorful yet not too salty.

We also tried a Margarita Pizza. Although it had healthier ingredients and decent toppings, it most definitely tasted like frozen pizza. I haven't had frozen pizza in years, so this really stood out as being quite different from any pizza you'd get at a restaurant.

I guess my little home oven just can't come close to producing the quality of crust that comes out of a commercial wood or brick oven!

Finally, we tried a few of their new "Six Not-So-Secret Ingredients" ice creams.  These ice creams come  in a few simple flavors (I tried vanilla and coffee), and consist of cream, sugar, milk, eggs, vanilla, and a thickening agent, carob bean gum.

The ice cream was alright but not nearly as good as other premium brands. It lacked a depth of flavor and richness associated with the most premium ice creams. Priced at $3.69, the quality is in line with the price. It's not as good as the top premium/artisanal ice creams (which can cost anywhere from $5 to $12 a pint), but it's a step up from the national brands that typically cost about $4 for a quart.

Frankly, as someone who really loves her ice cream, I'll probably stick with making ice cream at home or buying them from my favorite local ice cream shops.

Thoughts
So it was a fun experiment. It's been so long since I've bought frozen prepared foods (with the exception of my Chinese dumplings) that it was interesting to consider this third alternative to food. I'm usually either cooking completely from scratch or eating out at a restaurant, so this in-between option was interesting to me. I sometimes forget that I can eat at home without it being a huge affair.

I guess I've been food blogging for so long that this third option doesn't even enter my mind anymore.

In any event, I doubt I'll be stocking up on these particular frozen foods, mostly because it's part of my "job" on this blog to continue to cook and try out new recipes. Nevertheless, I appreciate the fact that Whole Foods is trying to create healthy and tasty frozen prepared foods for those that don't have that much time. It's nice not to have to worry about crazy sodium or fat levels in your "fast food."

If I were to stock up on "emergency" food from this batch, I'd probably pick the gnocchi dishes, which I found to be hearty, flavorful, and quite enjoyable to eat.


Giveaway!!
Whole Foods has kindly agreed to give one Tiny Urban Kitchen reader a $25 Whole Foods Gift Card. You're welcome to try out the frozen dishes mentioned above, or you can buy whatever you want from Whole Foods. The store carries tons of fantastic produce, which I buy all the time.

To enter the Giveaway, please comment below telling me your thoughts about frozen prepared foods and how you use them. Do you eat it often? Are there some you hate and others you love?

I can't wait to hear what you have to say.

Giveaway ends this Friday, January 25th, 2013 at midnight EST. Winner will be chosen by a random generator and will be contacted via email and also announced on this blog. If I do not hear back from the winner within 24 hours, I will pick a new winner.

Good luck!

Disclaimer: The above products as well as the $25 gift card are provided by Whole Foods Market. All opinions expressed are my own.

101 Noodle Express

This is the first post in the Los Angeles Family Trip Series. 

The greater Los Angeles area is really, really big.

Unlike here in Boston, where we can drive an hour north or south and essentially end up in another state, LA seems to sprawl on and on forever. In fact, people who live in Orange County think that Los Angeles city proper is quite a trek away; and similarly, places in the valley feel really, really far away from the oceanside cities.

I got my first taste of this when we visited LA as tourists.

As tourists, we aimed to hit many places in the general LA area, from the Getty Museum (sort of west) to the Huntington Library (pretty far east) and Orange County (to visit Bryan's family). We soon realized that, not only is the land huge, traffic is really, really bad. You have to really plan your days well and allot plenty of time to travel between destinations.

On the third day of our trip, we visited the Huntington Library (gorgeous place, by the way - you get to see one of the few original Gutenberg Bibles, as well as some of the most beautiful gardens I've ever seen). By around 2PM we were famished and headed over to Din Tai Fung for lunch.

Because traffic would become bad pretty soon, we decided it was better to stay out in the San Gabriel Valley area than to try to head back to Bel Air, where we were staying.

The San Gabriel Valley is really known for its Chinese food. It was hard to pick just one place for dinner. Did we want world-famous dim sum? Or maybe hand-pulled noodles? Or family-owned Taiwanese restaurants?

Bryan voted for noodles. After some research on our phones (while hanging out inside an Asian supermarket!), we settled upon 101 Noodle Express, a place famous for its beef roll and hand-torn noodles.

101 Noodle Express focuses on food from the Shandong region in the northeastern part of China. It started out in Alahambra selling a few signature dishes. As popularity for the place grew, it expanded to four locations - three in the San Gabriel Valley and one in Irvine (Orange County).

We visited the original, humble location in Alahambra.

One of their famous signature dishes is the  "De Zhou" chicken. The waitress strongly suggested that we order it, telling us that it was a very unusual dish and something we would not be able to easily find elsewhere.

De Zhou Chicken comes from the city of De Zhou in Shandong, China and was developed during the Qing Dynasty around the late 1800's. It involves deep frying a whole chicken until it's golden brown, and then braising the whole chicken in soy sauce mixed with water, mushrooms, and aromatic spices such as star anise, cardamon, and cloves.

The dish is a cold dish - something we did not necessarily expect. The flavors are enjoyable enough, though it didn't exactly taste that unique or interesting.  Furthermore, the fried, braised chicken skin was a bit rubbery - not the most inviting texture to eat.

It's not the most beautiful dish to look at. In fact, Jonathan Gold, who still speaks highly of the dish, calls it a "gray, withered bird, which resembles the Ghost of Chickens Past".

We ordered one additional appetizer, the Soy Marinated Pig Ears. These were great - chewy and flavorful.

The Scallion Pancakes, which really resemble the exterior of their famous Beef Roll, were excellent. They were thin, delicate, full of fresh scallion flavors, and not at all greasy. If you're looking for something crunchy and deep fried, you won't find it here. This scallion pancake is almost moist, chewy, and very flavorful.

Bryan said it reminded him of the way his mom made scallion pancakes - healthy home cooking!

The free ginger, garlic, and scallion sauce that's just sitting at each table was an awesome flavoring agent and added a delicious zing to any dish.

The Beef Noodle Soup with "Hand Torn" Noodles was the main reason we came. After all, the place is called "101 Noodle Express" and supposedly specializes in "hand-torn" noodles.

We soon discovered that "hand-torn" and "hand-pulled" are two very different things. These noodles were short and roughly shredded (thus hand-torn). Frankly, we were disappointed with the texture of the noodles, which were a little soft and mushy for our tastes. The beef noodle soup tasted fine, but we had really been hoping for some awesome "QQ" al dente noodles.

We also later found out that the hand-torn noodle was a recent addition to the menu, added in 2010. It wasn't one of the original specialty menu items that made them famous in the first place.

Other noodle dishes, like the Za Jiang Noodle, Da Lu Noodle, or Dan Dan Noodle, were all solid but used the same noodles, and thus were just a bit disappointing on the texture front.  In fact, multiple times, Bryan said, "I like the version at Peking Restaurant better."

But then there was the famous Beef Roll and Pork Roll. Imagine flavorful, soy-braised meat, freshly chopped cilantro, scallions, and a special, slightly sweet sauce all wrapped up in a very thin scallion pancake.

I can totally see why they became famous. The Beef Roll was fantastic - dare I say the best beef roll I've ever had? Yes, I do like the one at Peking Restaurant, but I like this one better. It's a bit smaller, the meat inside is more tender, and the outer scallion pancake is thinner and chewier. The overall package seems more refined and perfectly executed.

And I thought the beef roll was tastier than the pork roll, which was still OK, but just didn't compare.

If I came back, I'd just stop by for lunch and eat a whole beef roll. It's by far their best product and their claim to fame is well deserved. They should really just call themselves 101 Beef Rolls or something like that.

The owner claims to be dedicated to local and organic ingredients, with an aim to provide low-cost at the same time. The prices here were definitely really reasonable, with most dishes hovering in the $7-8 range.

Everything is pretty solid, and the scallion pancakes and especially the beef roll stand out. If nothing else, it's worth the trip just for a taste of that beef roll.

Yum.


101 Noodle Express
1408 E Valley Blvd
Alhambra, CA 91801

Ding Tai Fung (Bellevue)

This is the first post in the Summer in the Pacific Northwest Series, which is sort of being run concurrently with the Oh Canada Series (partly due to some overlap).

I guess you could say I'm on a mission.

It's not a difficult mission, really. I'm just trying to eat at every Din Tai Fung in the world, that's all. I've made reasonably progress to date. I visited the original one in Taipei, of course, as well as the one in Los Angeles opened by the family's son. There are franchises around the world, and I've gone to both the ones in Beijing and Shanghai. Heck, I've even been tricked and gone to a knock-off one in Toronto.

And then they finally decided to open a second location in the U.S. I prayed that they would choose the East Coast (why not? There is already so much good Chinese food out west!). Alas, they decided to open in Bellevue, just outside of Seattle.

Disheartened, I really had no idea when I would be able to go.

As it turned out, Bryan's cousin decided to get married in Seattle. Better yet, his aunt (with whom we stayed) actually lives in Bellevue.

It's not hard to guess where I wanted to go for dinner.

Unlike some of the older Din Tai Fung locations (like the original one in Taiwan or even the original one in Los Angeles), this one is prettier and "swankier" inside, with hard wood floors, cute hanging lights, and prettier dishware. It reminded me more of the slightly more upscale ones in Beijing and Shanghai (where Din Tai Fung is regarded as a really pricey restaurant).

Your food comes out on prettier, slightly more stylish dishware. The marinated cucumbers, always a refreshing starter, were great.

The spicy wontons were average and probably worth skipping. After all, if you're coming to Din Tai Fung, you should really be getting their xiao long baos!

Speaking of which, we ordered several dozens of the dumplings. These were solid, definitely serviceable, but we noticed a quality difference between the ones here and both the ones in California (slightly better) and Asia (noticeably better).

The skins aren't supposed to break, but I think we had one or two break on us.

But really, I'm arguably splitting hairs here. The dumplings were still delicious and very, very enjoyable. The soupy pork filling is still very flavorful and satisfying, and people still gobbled it up. If this exact restaurant opened up in Boston, I would still go at least once a week!

Sauteed Green Beans

Other non-dumpling side dishes, such as the stir fried green beans, were all fine. It's nice that they have a variety of offerings on their menu. After all, if you're a local, you may not feel like eating xiao long baos all the time.

Stir Fried Rice Cakes (chao nian gao)

Of course, I think Bryan would differ. He's pretty particular about what he will eat when he's at Din Tai Fung. In short, he only eats the crab roe xiao long baos. He thinks everything else is a "waste of stomach space."

Wonton Soup

Most people aren't like Bryan, so I still think it's nice that they have a variety of dishes. We found most of their dishes, such as the stir fried rice cakes (two photos above) and the wonton soup (above) to be pretty tasty. I would definitely consider ordering a bigger variety if I lived close by and came every week.

However, if I'm only coming to visit it as a destination restaurant, I would focus mostly on the dumplings, which are still their main specialty.

Definitely try the dessert dumplings if you've never had it before. My personal favorite (by far) is the taro dumpling. Often I'll eat the same number of taro dumplings as normal pork ones! Black sesame is also pretty good. We did not try the red bean one here, but we've noticed a difference in sweetness and texture between the Los Angeles and Taiwan ones, so I can't recommend one from a particular restaurant unless if I've tried it, and we didn't try it here.

Overall, I am still very, very jealous of all you people that live in the Seattle area. You are so lucky that Din Tai Fung picked another West Coast city in which to open their second restaurant.

This Din Tai Fung is very popular, just like every other Din Tai Fung in the world. We arrived early, around 5:30PM, so we did not wait in line. By the time we left, however, the line was super long. The restaurant is inside of a mall, so if you do have to wait a long time, I guess there's at least stuff you can browse while you wait?

I still hope that someday, they will come to the East Coast. The odds of Boston may seem low, but then they picked Bellevue over San Francisco, so we can always dream, right?

Din Tai Fung
700 Bellevue Way NE Ste 280
 Bellevue, WA 98004