Jerry is a church dude who is known as the most discerning Chinese food diner out of all of us. Perhaps it's because his family owns a Chinese restaurant.
While dining at the newly renovated Mulan the other day, I asked him which Massachusetts restaurant has the most authentic Chinese/Taiwanese food. Jerry immediately answered, "Chung-shin Yuan in Newton."
Apparently they have the most amazing Taiwanese brunch menu on the weekends. I've heard stories from co-workers who live in the neighborhood about the long lines of customers they see everytime they drive past the building. Church folk have told tales of waiting an hour before the 11:30 AM first seating... Jerry's even had to wait over an hour for take-out.
I'm so eager to try this place for myself. Though, even more intimidating is Jerry's advice to bring someone with me who can read Chinese (apparently translations won't help you much).
Chung-shin Yuan INC
183 California St
Newton, MA 02458-1008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
One Look at Asia Fabulous
Remember the Tofu Egg Curry I made for Iron Chef? Jen helped me recreate it for Asia Fabulous!
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Monday, April 07, 2008
Iron Chef Tofu Battle: NYC Chinatown Edition
Jen's boyfriend, Daniel, has been on a 6 month in NYC. While I'm not totally clear on the origins of our dinner party, it seems safe to say that one of his Princeton buddies, Olympia, decided to challenge Daniel to an Iron Chef-like dinner battle. From an email thread, I gleaned that he is apparently naturally suited to such a competition because of his "Bobby Flay-esque egotism." I received a voicemail from Daniel and a text from Jen: Would I go to NYC to be his "secret weapon/sous chef?"
I agreed at the last minute. I knew I'd be in town to have Filipino brunch with Jen and Thuy and Nicki pre-dinner battle. And, if I took the Chinatown bus, I'd only spend $30 round-trip. A day of good food, old friends, and new people? I couldn't pass it up.
The secret ingredient was announced at 4 pm in Chinatown. Tofu.
Jen thuy and I were in SoHo when we got the news. "What a piss-poor ingredient," I thought out loud. I was a little mad. Tofu? I rarely use the stuff. And we were against two Cantonese girls. They'd out-Chinese me for sure. I had to think out of the box.
Jen and I arrived at 5 pm just before Daniel. The girls, who went by both Queens of Canton and Team Canton, had pre purchased 6 or so different types of tofu. We claimed our tofu types and all shopped separately before returning to the kitchen. Both teams shared the stove and rotated to accommodate each other... by 8 or 9 pm we presented our dishes and started to eat.
True to Chinese form, Team Canton had a hot and sour soup with the soy-marinated tofu, wood ear, and pork. It was super yummy - you could taste the melted pork fat. They followed up with fish paste-stuffed tofu and eggplant. They even scored the eggplant so it'd "absorb more flavor." I thought it had good texture. Then they had a noodle bowl with tofu, kailan, red pepper and (a store-bought) roast duck. It was a pretty dish the judges liked in appearance. [The dinner "Chariman" originally asked that duck be our secret ingredient, so one of the Queens of Canton purchased this to appease him] Their closer was "tofu" almond gelatin topped with mangoes. I must say, I was a little skeptical of it's true "tofuness," butI'm sure it tasted just fine.
Daniel and I donned our yellow aprons and named ourselves "Team Awesome." We started our international tofu menu with a silken tofu/soy ice cream/peach-berry smoothie. It was California-inspired for sure. Daniel is not Canto, but he is obsessed with Sichuan food, so he used his Blackberry to craft a super-spicy ma po tofu. It got high flavor marks from the judges. Next I took the judges to Southeast Asia by making a yellow coconut curry with potatoes, okra, deep-fried tofu puffs and deep-fried hard-boiled eggs. I was so proud of this dish because the texture of the exterior of the eggs matched the puffs so well. Plus, the nooks and crannies of the tofu skin, egg "skin" held the sauce nicely. Then we closed with a trip to Italy. We combined silken tofu and ricotta to make a lasagna with a pork ragù and and homemade balsamella (bechamel) sauces. It was sooo surprisingly good we could have left out the ricotta entirely.
the judges deliberated on....
Flavor (ma po tofu and lasagna hit the spot)
Presentation
Creativity (smoothie and lasagna)
Use of ingredient
We won the flavor and creativity categories so it came down to points. .... and we won! Bringing tofu out of Asia was our biggest asset.
I agreed at the last minute. I knew I'd be in town to have Filipino brunch with Jen and Thuy and Nicki pre-dinner battle. And, if I took the Chinatown bus, I'd only spend $30 round-trip. A day of good food, old friends, and new people? I couldn't pass it up.
The secret ingredient was announced at 4 pm in Chinatown. Tofu.
Jen thuy and I were in SoHo when we got the news. "What a piss-poor ingredient," I thought out loud. I was a little mad. Tofu? I rarely use the stuff. And we were against two Cantonese girls. They'd out-Chinese me for sure. I had to think out of the box.
Jen and I arrived at 5 pm just before Daniel. The girls, who went by both Queens of Canton and Team Canton, had pre purchased 6 or so different types of tofu. We claimed our tofu types and all shopped separately before returning to the kitchen. Both teams shared the stove and rotated to accommodate each other... by 8 or 9 pm we presented our dishes and started to eat.
True to Chinese form, Team Canton had a hot and sour soup with the soy-marinated tofu, wood ear, and pork. It was super yummy - you could taste the melted pork fat. They followed up with fish paste-stuffed tofu and eggplant. They even scored the eggplant so it'd "absorb more flavor." I thought it had good texture. Then they had a noodle bowl with tofu, kailan, red pepper and (a store-bought) roast duck. It was a pretty dish the judges liked in appearance. [The dinner "Chariman" originally asked that duck be our secret ingredient, so one of the Queens of Canton purchased this to appease him] Their closer was "tofu" almond gelatin topped with mangoes. I must say, I was a little skeptical of it's true "tofuness," butI'm sure it tasted just fine.
Daniel and I donned our yellow aprons and named ourselves "Team Awesome." We started our international tofu menu with a silken tofu/soy ice cream/peach-berry smoothie. It was California-inspired for sure. Daniel is not Canto, but he is obsessed with Sichuan food, so he used his Blackberry to craft a super-spicy ma po tofu. It got high flavor marks from the judges. Next I took the judges to Southeast Asia by making a yellow coconut curry with potatoes, okra, deep-fried tofu puffs and deep-fried hard-boiled eggs. I was so proud of this dish because the texture of the exterior of the eggs matched the puffs so well. Plus, the nooks and crannies of the tofu skin, egg "skin" held the sauce nicely. Then we closed with a trip to Italy. We combined silken tofu and ricotta to make a lasagna with a pork ragù and and homemade balsamella (bechamel) sauces. It was sooo surprisingly good we could have left out the ricotta entirely.
the judges deliberated on....
Flavor (ma po tofu and lasagna hit the spot)
Presentation
Creativity (smoothie and lasagna)
Use of ingredient
We won the flavor and creativity categories so it came down to points. .... and we won! Bringing tofu out of Asia was our biggest asset.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Quick! Go find a farm with a CSA program!
Folks a the office are starting to talk about their grand gardening plans for the Spring/Summer growing season. Some have backyards or deck gardens. Others are urban gardeners with plots in neighborhood community gardens. And for a hot minute, I, too, considered the adventure of urban gardening.
Ha! That would be a horrible idea for me.
Instead, I got my Google on and looked into local farm share programs. Community Supported Agriculture programs are pretty popular and nowadays farms will often deliver into the city and many no longer require that members put in work time. Some CSAs ask that you commit to a full or half share at the beginning of the season, $250-$500, and in return you receive between 5-15 lbs of produce weekly. Instead of equating your share to fixed amount of produce, other CSAs count your share as afixed percent-off at their farmer's market stands. These are all good things for the carless city-dweller that I am.
I'm splitting a half share with friends this year at Stone Soup Farm. I'm excited because it means I'll have access to organic produce at around $2/lb. That's definitely better than most of the deals at Whole Foods or anywhere in my neighborhood. I hope to report back in June with the first fruits of the season and share recipes.
www.localharvest.org is a neat site where you can find local CSAs, farms, markets, and even restaurants that support local farms.
Ha! That would be a horrible idea for me.
Instead, I got my Google on and looked into local farm share programs. Community Supported Agriculture programs are pretty popular and nowadays farms will often deliver into the city and many no longer require that members put in work time. Some CSAs ask that you commit to a full or half share at the beginning of the season, $250-$500, and in return you receive between 5-15 lbs of produce weekly. Instead of equating your share to fixed amount of produce, other CSAs count your share as afixed percent-off at their farmer's market stands. These are all good things for the carless city-dweller that I am.
I'm splitting a half share with friends this year at Stone Soup Farm. I'm excited because it means I'll have access to organic produce at around $2/lb. That's definitely better than most of the deals at Whole Foods or anywhere in my neighborhood. I hope to report back in June with the first fruits of the season and share recipes.
www.localharvest.org is a neat site where you can find local CSAs, farms, markets, and even restaurants that support local farms.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
More Stanford wine without the Stanford label.
I totally was into the story of the dudes at Vinum Cellars when the Stanford Alumni Wine Program announced last year's selections. Richard Bruno and Chris Condos both headed to UC Davis to study Viticulture & Enology. Lucky for us, they began Vinum and brought forth into the world some phantasmic wines.
Last year, Stanford panel awarded Vinum Cellars' 2005 Red Dirt Red with it's highest honor and made it available to lucky Stanford folk under the name 2005 Cardinal Cuvée (sounds like coo-vay?). At some point I should learn what folks javascript:void(0)
Publish Post mean when they describe it as a Rhône-style or Châteauneuf-style wine. I can't find the tasting notes from the panel and Mr. Bruno, but the praise was high and the advice was to keep it as a collector wine. Well, I don't know if all my bottles will make it to the 5-7 year mark, but the bottles we've had so far are amazing. $30/bottle
I went so far as to contact the winery and join their wine club. They actually ship to Massachusetts!!!
Here's a snippet from my WineBeagles tasting note.
"bold. a drier red with lotsa cherry going on. the tannins greet your first sip with a swift, but enjoyable, punch on the kisser... uber hip label and cork design, too. "
Last year, Stanford panel awarded Vinum Cellars' 2005 Red Dirt Red with it's highest honor and made it available to lucky Stanford folk under the name 2005 Cardinal Cuvée (sounds like coo-vay?). At some point I should learn what folks javascript:void(0)
Publish Post mean when they describe it as a Rhône-style or Châteauneuf-style wine. I can't find the tasting notes from the panel and Mr. Bruno, but the praise was high and the advice was to keep it as a collector wine. Well, I don't know if all my bottles will make it to the 5-7 year mark, but the bottles we've had so far are amazing. $30/bottle
I went so far as to contact the winery and join their wine club. They actually ship to Massachusetts!!!
Here's a snippet from my WineBeagles tasting note.
"bold. a drier red with lotsa cherry going on. the tannins greet your first sip with a swift, but enjoyable, punch on the kisser... uber hip label and cork design, too. "
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