Sometimes a little spontaneity will result in big or positive rewards. That’s what happened with my friends and I with Yee Eng Home Cooking. So it all started out with me craving for cheap fried dumplings at the Dumpling House since we were in the area. I never know the exact street that it is on but I think it’s on Eldridge…..it’s on Eldridge right? We walked up and down twice on Eldridge and right when we gave up we found it annnnddddd it was closed. Okay fine it was 4th of July but come on!!!! It’s a Chinese restaurant!!! Chinese restaurants don’t close for western holidays!! Boo!!! And I was sooooo looking forward to some fried dumplings. Being the stubborn aZZ, I lead the group to the other cheap fried dumpling place that I know of on Mosco St. YES! They’re open!
But right when I was about to walk in for some delicious fried dumplings we noticed a sign on the road right across from the fried dumpling place. It’s a menu sign for Yee Eng, with an arrow pointing up. It’s a small restaurant on the second floor and everything on the menu was extremely cheap. Instead of getting dumplings we all decided to JUST try this place for the heck of it and shortly after we found ourselves sitting in a rather non-decorative place by the only window that faces the church. For some reason the kitchen took up half of the space, leaving only room for 5 or 6 tables. While going through the menu, we were all amazed at how cheap everything was. Majority of the items on the menu were only priced at $2.50 with $4.50 being the most expensive. We put in our orders and waited patiently for our delicious food. I told my friends that it felt like we were transported to some European country because our only view to the outside was the stone wall of a church. Being on a tiny street away from the busy Chinatown streets also helped.
Finally one by one our food came. I got the cold sesame noodles and pan fried wontons. The pan fried wontons were good, meaty and nicely fried. It was served with a mysterious brown sauce, might have been the same sesame sauce that they used for the cold noodles but I couldn’t tell. *Shrugs… The noodles were quite good, really flavorful and for $2.50 what a deal! Everybody enjoyed their meal and was quite happy with our spontaneous decision to try this place.

- Yee Eng Home Cooking 105 Mosco St, Chinatown NY

It seems like only yesterday that I was excited about the arrival of summer squash, and now the fall is upon us. Is there any better indicator of the season than the arrival of acorn squash at the market?

Last year I made some acorn squash gnocchi which came out pretty good.

carottes râpées

Originally uploaded by Fido Cat

My sister, who lives in Wisconsin, found herself with an over-abundance of carrots and asked me for suggestions for what to do with them. I remembered an article I’d seen about carrotes râpées, which is apparently a popular dish in France, linked from the Amateur Gourmet. Here are the results:

“The hardest part about this was cutting the carrots (which became much more easy when I stopped caring about the size of the cuts). I cut 4 large carrots by shaving off the sides with a sharp knife, and continued until there was no carrot left. If bigger chunks came off, I just cut them down later. In a bowl I added the carrots, about two tablespoons of parsley, salt, extra virgin olive oil , a tablespoon of sugar, lemon juice (two caps full) and ground pepper. Mix well and enjoy.

It was tangy and sweet but surprisingly full of flavor. A perfect light treat with my dinner.”

Jess & Garrett have discovered the Red Hook Vendors and it seems like they fell in love. Click the ink to read their write-up.

…we worshiped at the altar of jugo de sandia (watermelon juice). Now that we’ve been, we have our strategy down for our next visit…”

In addition to the Red Hook Ball Field Vendors, another main attraction of Red Hook is Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies. Tucked away in a warehouse space on the water, Steve’s offers homemade pies made with imported key limes. You can buy the regular pies in many different sizes, but the real attraction is what they call a “swingle.” That’s a personal sized key lime pie dipped in chocolate and frozen. Steve’s may be a little hard to find, but it’s worth seeking out.

Steve’s Authentic — 204 Van Dyke St, Brooklyn

For their final stop during Restaurant Week, Jess & Garrett hit up Del Posto. It sounds like a good choice for RW — I thought the food was more refined than at Babbo, but the experience was not as fun. Click the quote for their full write-up.

Batali and Joe Bastianich are trying their damndest to get Italian cooking taken as seriously as French, and nowhere more so than here.”