While in Chinatown, after having dinner, I wandered around the streets. I wanted desserts. But it was too cold to get an iced jasmine milk tea at Ten Ren. Then I thought about getting egg tarts so I strolled over to Mott St to Egg Custard King. Hoping they still have some banana flavored egg tarts. I never know where Egg Custard King is on Mott St until I see it. So I was looking for it on Mott St but I was getting closer to Canal St yet no Egg Custard King sign. Then I realized I was standing right outside of it or where it used to be. Hm.. ah shit when did it close? At that point I really wanted an egg tart so I walked over to Grand St and Forsyth St to the other Egg Custard King. As I got close to Forsyth I could see the big Egg Custard King sign and was glad that it wasn’t closed yet. But as I got closer I noticed a different sign over the Egg Custard King sign…NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I walked by and it was just a regular ole bakery.

Where the hell does one get a banana flavored egg tart?

When we told our friend Anh that we wanted to get some banh mi, she suggested her favorite place in all of NYC: Ba Xuyen, in Borough Park. We met up with her and two of her friends for lunch there last week. They have (among other things) eight different banh mi on the menu, but none of them are vegetarian. They were more than willing to make one for me though, and they only charged me $2.25 for it.

I’m used to the vegetarian sandiwches at Hanco’s or Nicky’s which have some kind of filling — tofu or portobello mushrooms — that getting this sandwich was kind of a shock. It was just the pickled vegetables with a handful of cilantro and sauce. It wasn’t bad, but not my kind of banh mi. Much better was the excellent jackfruit shake I got along with it.

Ba Xuyen — 4222 8th Ave, Brooklyn

24 HOUR SAKE BAR!!! KNOW WHAT WE CAN BE DOING AT 6AM ON A MONDAY MORNING?! SAKE!! Thats what I told my friend Matt when I found out Haru Hana, a 24 hour sake bar, was opening soon near our work. After coming back from the holidays, on my way to get lunch at Woo Ri Jip, I noticed Haru Hana was opened. I quickly ran back to the office after getting my lunch of course to tell Matt. I believe it was the next day that I IM’ed him to ask, “lunch?” he said sure but where? I replied “24 sake bar of course!”

*Note, I don’t see the sign that says “24 hours” anymore and can’t really find any info if it’s still is “24 hours” so maybe its no longer “24 hours”.

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The email invitation was clear:

“This is a private event. Please do not post this to any mailing lists, blogs, websites, printing presses, social networks, Twitter, etc. It is critical that our activities stay under the radar… We must leave no trace of our activities.”

The directions themselves (not mailed out until the night before the event) were purposefully vague. To get to the Market you had to walk down an honest-to-goodness “passageway” — in reality a candle-lined alley covered in potholes full of what may or may not have been water. The door, nondescript, had a handmade sign taped to it, and opened onto an unlighted hallway. And only then did we emerge into the Market itself. But what exactly is the Lost Horizon Night Market? And why am I writing about it on a food blog?

Noodles & NSFW cookies after the jump…

For pure research and to blog more for Drink To Blog, Matt, Phae and I went to a beer tasting at the Beer Table recently. The guest talker was Chris Munsey of Murray’s Cheese. You can read about the stout tasting here.

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OMG I never seen mini pork dumplings before! They’re quite cute. For about $4 these definitely aren’t the best deals but heck they’re cute! I found these at the Hong Kong Supermarket on Hester and Elizabeth. I bought a bag along with some veggies and wonton noodles. Since they were tiny I thought I didn’t need to do the 3 boil rule but there it was clearly stated on the back of the bag to use the 3 boil rule.

Were these made for kids to eat?

Anyways, these came out just alright. Obviously with the small size there wouldn’t be much filling and the ratio of skin to filling was about 50/50. Worth getting, heck no. Cute, heck yes.