Tofu Haiku
As a vegetarian I’ve had a lot of tofu in my life. Some of it has been very good, some of it has been very bad, but it’s hard to tell how tofu is going to be until you eat it. When I saw that SeriousEats was giving away a pair of tickets to a tofu making demonstration at En Japanese Brasserie, I was intrigued. To enter the contest you had to write a haiku about tofu, so I submitted the following “masterpiece”:
people say “tofu”
like it’s a curse or bad word
have they eaten it?
I didn’t expect to win, so I promptly forgot about it. Then late Friday night I got a congratulatory email from SeriousEats, which left me scrambling to change my work schedule and to find a second person to join me at the last minute for a class on tofu.
Jackson Heights
One of the great things about living in NYC is that a short train ride can get you just about anywhere in the city. A few weeks ago I went up to Jackson Heights in Queens to meet my friend Jeff for Indian food at the Jackson Diner, one of my favorite Indian places with an awe-inspiring buffet.
Market Watch: Potatoes
In this time of “economic uncertainty” we should give the humble potato its due. I prefer smaller potatoes if I’m eating them whole, I think the smaller ones have a more concentrated potato flavor. Of course, the bigger ones have their uses too: french fries, mashed potatoes, hash browns, gratins, potato salads, and much more. I think the only thing you can’t do with potatoes is eat them raw.
L.A. & S.F. Eats Day 4 - Maxim Cafe & Birthday Meal
Haha another day and another Hong Kong style cafe. This time we went to Maxim in Rowland Heights. Straight translation, Maxim means “beautiful heart”. Since I was not craving for anything specific I went for my usual baked ox-tongue over rice. The baked ox-tongue over rice is a very common dish in HK style cafes but not all cafes have it. I didn’t remember if Maxim had it or not but apparently not because I went through the menu three or four times and I didn’t see it on the menu. So I settled for the next best thing, baked pork chop over rice. Certain cafes let you add a fried egg on top too!
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Cambodian Comfort Food at Kampuchea
A few months ago I started hearing about Kampuchea, a Cambodian place on the Lower East Side. I don’t know how many Cambodian restaurants there are here, but the Village Voice recently voted it the best Cambodian restaurant in the city. I checked out the menu on line, and was happily surprised to see a lot of vegetarian options.
L.A. & S.F. Eats Day 3 - Boston Cafe & Home Cooked Meal
Craving for food is such a weird feeling especially when there was nothing to trigger it. A sudden crave for McD’s chicken nuggets will only be satisfied by McD’s chicken nuggets. So on Day 3 of my LA trip, I woke up to find myself craving for curry beef stew, specifically curry beef brisket from Hong Kong style cafes that I love. Good thing my parents are cool with whatever and wherever I wanted to eat. My mom have always praised about the curry beef brisket at Boston Cafe in what used to be the Hong Kong Supermarket plaza.
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