Chicken and Apple Dumplings

Ever gone apple-picking on a 90-degree day? Last weekend probably had the last of such summery temperatures until next June. But instead of lounging on the beach, I was at the apple orchard helping to pick about 30 pounds of crisp, earlyish-in-the-season apples. Signs of fall weren't completely missing: on the drive up the Hudson from New York, I spotted abut one in 30 trees with a vibrant red or orange hue.

The cool weather on the radar for this week (and my insatiable craving for appley desserts) is probably a good sign that it had been the perfect time to go apple-picking.

What does one end up doing with 30 pounds of apples? Apple bread, apple fritters, and apple cookies were all cranked out this weekend. In lieu of apple pie, we attempted apple pandowdy (which, I was reminded, is in the lyrics of an oldies hit.) For something savory, I decided to try apple dumplings.

RecipesDiana KuanSeptember 28, 2010Appetizers, Chicken, Chinese, Dumplings, Recipes Comments

Mongolian Beef

I've been thinking a lot recently about how the names of Chinese foods vary so much between China and the US.

One example is lemon chicken. In Southern China, lemon chicken usually means a whole bone-in chicken, steamed, chopped up, and served with a light lemon sauce. In the US, you'd get perfect cubes or slices of breast meat that has been fried and coated with a thick lemon sauce. (In other words, more like this.) A few places, like this takeout spot in Park Slope, may serve you something that looks like a lemon chicken kit that you put together: breaded and fried chicken with little seasoning, on top of some iceberg lettuce, and a container of something that's more or less lemon simple syrup.

Another example is Mongolian beef. In Beijing, Mongolian-style lamb or beef is stir-fried with toasted cumin seeds and whole red chilis. In the US, what has become Mongolian beef lacks any whole spices, but is pretty tasty in its own right. The only thing similar to its mainland Chinese cousin is the thinly sliced steak and abundance of leeks. The sauce, when done well, is pretty terrific. The beauty of Mongolian beef sauce is that none of the flavors stand out on their own, but rather, come together (as the Chinese would say) "harmoniously".

BlogDiana KuanAugust 31, 2010American Chinese, Beef, Chinese, Global Chinese, Recipes Comments

Chinese-Jamaican Food in Brooklyn: De Bamboo Express

Every once in a while I get an craving for greasy Chinese food that's different from what you can find at your everyday takeout stand.

Some of you may remember my Caribbean-Chinese party from two years ago. The theme had been inspired by the wee bit of my childhood that was spent in Puerto Rico and the hybrid dishes I remember eating at Chinese restaurants there, like chicharrones de pollo and pineapple shrimp. I had also added some Jamaican influences as well, including jerk chicken wings and a cocktail made with hibiscus tea. It was a fun event, but needless to say, Caribbean-Chinese food never became a steady part of my diet.

Flash forward to 2010. Today I found myself in Prospects Lefferts Gardens at De Bamboo Express, one of the two or three Jamaican-Chinese restaurants I know of in the city. Objective: a cheap but filling lunch.

BlogDiana KuanAugust 19, 2010Brooklyn, Global Chinese, Restaurants Comments

Hunan Eggplant with Bacon and Shiitakes

August is the beginning of eggplant season in the Northeast, so this is as good a time as any to indulge in my favorite plump vegetable.

When I was living in Beijing and teaching Sichuan cooking classes, one of the recipes that became a regular part of the curriculum was Fish-Fragrant Eggplant. Most students were indifferent to eggplant until they tried making this particular dish. The eggplant is cut into thick slices, stir-fried, then braised in a mouth-tingling Sichuan pepper and chili bean sauce. It's one of the few hearty main dishes in Chinese cuisine that's completely vegetarian (well, if you subtitute chicken stock with vegetable stock.)

This eggplant dish I'm posting today doesn't even pretend to be vegetarian. It's more Hunan-style, and uses chopped bacon to flavor the sauce. (You can also use ground pork.) In Hunan, it's more common to see eggplant deep-fried. However, I find that with deep-frying, the eggplant gets way too soggy a day later. This is an important consideration if you're cooking for one and end up with a ton of leftovers. Plus, there is no point in wasting a couple liters of oil.

RecipesDiana KuanAugust 4, 2010 Comments

Vintage Chinese Restaurant Ad, Texas

BlogDiana KuanJuly 30, 2010Culinary Culture, Global Chinese, Vintage Ads and Menus Comments

Chinese Lemon Chicken

Most sane people keep a drawer full of delivery menus for the sole purpose of...ordering delivery. I too have a menu drawer, but can count on two hands the number of times I have actually ordered delivery in the past few years.

Call me a bad New Yorker. I'm pretty good with picking up takeout while out somewhere, but dialing from home is another story. Being so dangerously close to the kitchen, I usually wind up studying the menu for half an hour, choosing an entree, then deciding, screw this, I can make the same dish, except way better.

This hubris usually leads me to spend another couple of hours ransacking my cabinets, schlepping to the grocery store, figuring out a strategy, then executing it. Even if it is already past 9pm and I'm starving. Sure, it would have been easier and about 1 hour and 50 minutes faster to just call the damn Golden Panda Dynasty, but definitely not as satisfying. Or so I tell myself.

RecipesDiana KuanJuly 23, 2010American Chinese, Chicken, Chinese, Recipes Comments

Kunjip in Koreatown

I don't really know why I don't go to Koreatown more often, other than the fact that many of the restaurants there can get pretty pricey. But for months I had been craving bibimbap, which has been an obsession since my trip to Korea two years ago. I especially love the crackling sound of the rice when the bowl arrives at your table and you quickly mix the raw egg on top with all the meat and vegetables in the burning hot stone bowl. And the six or eight side dishes that come with every entree.

Last week I met up with Kian from Red Cook at Kunjip on 32nd St. I'm not sure if it has the best bibimbap in Ktown, but certainly one of the most affordable. We spent under $30 including tip for lunch for two people, for a smorgasbord of food. Other than the above bibimbap with ground beef and vegetables, here are a few more reasons to go.

The spicy tofu and vegetable soup. Unlike with most bright red Korean foods, this isn't going to burn your throat. It comes with the bibimbap and a few other lunch specials.

Like with any Korean meal, you get a bunch of little banchan (small dishes), including two types of cabbage kimchi, dried squid, fermented soy beans, spicy tofu, and jicama.

BlogDiana KuanJuly 20, 2010Manhattan, Restaurants Comments

Chicken Adobo

This past weekend, I saw the effects of the chicken wing shortage that was reported earlier this year.

I was all set to grill wings for a last-minute July 4th/Birthday gathering, but one look at the Trader Joe's meat department derailed my plans. Brooklyn Fare didn't have wings either. Or Associated Supermarket. Forget shrimp. Chicken wings may be this season's most sought-after commodity.

What every store had, however, was plenty of chicken thighs. At ridiculously low prices. It'll set you back $1.99/lb for "natural, hormone-free" chicken, and just a bit more for the organic, free-range variety. Legs and thighs may be awkward to pass around while sipping a beer outdoors or pretending to care about the World Cup, but are perfect for a braising dish I like to make even in the summer.

BlogDiana KuanJuly 8, 2010Chicken, Filipino, Recipes Comments

Red Curry Peanut Noodle

Every year around this time, I start to become giddy at the prospect of a long summer of cook-outs. And the excitement usually lasts about an hour, until I remember I don't actually have an apartment with outdoor space.

I have spent the bulk of my post-collegiate years in enormous cities with no breathing room (New York, Beijing, Shanghai). Outside space meant a fire escape, at best. With each passing year, outdoor cook-outs become less of a reality and more of a quaint abstract idea, like white picket fences and rent control. Aside from cozying up to friends and family in other states, I have become used to barbecue-less summers.

Until this year. This year I am the proud resident of an apartment with a guestimated 120 square feet of terrace space. With a grill. In New York. (Okay, Brooklyn, but still.) This may not seem like much, but I'm excited. This summer I'll be able to cook while communing with nature, even if "nature" just means a few trees that muffle the traffic noise from Atlantic Ave.

BlogDiana KuanJune 23, 2010Noodles, Recipes, Vegetarian Comments

Grand Sichuan Redux

Maybe this post should be subtitled "How I feel about Grand Sichuan after living in China and teaching Sichuan cooking for a living."

While I had never in love with the Grand Sichuan chainlet around New York, it had always been a dependable source of cheap, tasty, and spicy food. It was also a source of fond memories. A year after college, having finally escaped the suburbs of Boston, my earlytwentysomething self had spent the first summer in the city exploring every single recommendation from a battered copy of Time Out's Cheap Eats issue. At the time, it was my bible. Grand Sichuan seemed to be the go-to Chinese restaurant outside Chinatown, so I dutifully tried all the locations, from St. Marks to Hells Kitchen to Murray Hill. That summer, like all others in New York, was unbearable. Eating sweat-inducing dishes like Chongqing chicken and mapo tofu in an air-conditioned environment was, really, the only way to eat spicy dishes in 95-degree humidity.

Yet, as somewhat of a stickler for authenticity, I was always irked by Grand Sichuan's highlighting Shanghainese xiao long bao on the menus. The long list of Cantonese dishes, "Diet" dishes, and Americanized stuff like Orange Flavored Chicken didn't help, either. While each trip ended with me and my companion(s) stuffing our faces and delightfully bringing home leftovers, something still felt amiss.

BlogDiana KuanJune 4, 2010Manhattan, Restaurants Comments

Vietnamese Coffee Boba Drink

There are two types of people in this world: those who go through bubble tea withdrawal every few days, and those who vehemently hate the drink. The latter will shudder at the chewiness of the tapioca pearls, and complain about how drinks should not be "lumpy". I have a hard time understanding this textural phobia, but to each his own.

As for me, when in need of a cold drink and an afternoon snack, I like to kill two birds with one stone.

Or maybe three birds with one stone, if you need a cold drink, an afternoon snack, and a jolt of caffeine at the same time. Few caffeine sources taste better than cafe sua da, or iced Vietnamese coffee. While New York's early summer is not quite as oppresive as Hanoi's, it feels pretty close. So lately, I have been making Vietnamese coffee bubble "tea" to help with the humidity and afternoon slump.

BlogDiana KuanJune 1, 2010Drinks, Recipes, Vietnamese Comments

3 Taiwanese Dishes Worth the Trip into Flushing

Getting my friends to come on food adventures in Flushing is like pulling teeth. Most of them live in Manhattan or Brooklyn, and are very proud of the fact.

"I don't do outer boroughs," says one.

"I don't leave the Upper West Side," says another.

"Why take the train for Chinese food when you can just get it delivered?" asks a third.

Since my life revolves around food, I probably have a distorted view of how far the average person should go for an ideal bowl of noodles or enlightening dim sum. (Queens residents, you're lucky.) Most of my trips on the 7 train are spent all by my lonesome, catching up on the New Yorker or, in the absence of reading material, fastidiously checking email on my phone. So I was pretty excited when Kian of Red Cook suggested we head out to Flushing in search of some restaurant a Taiwanese friend recommended that may or may not have an English name. Sold!

BlogDiana KuanMay 25, 2010Flushing, Queens, Restaurants Comments

10 Tips for Low-Light Cocktail Photography, from PDT and Manhattan Cocktail Classic

One of the biggest headaches when photographing food and drinks is the amount of lighting available. When I first started working on food-related freelance assignments a few years ago, editors would sometimes ask for photos to go along with the article. Unfortunately, I was such a novice with my DSLR that the photos I took on location (whether it was a cafe, bar, restaurant, or greenhouse) came out too dark for the photo editor to use. Sometimes they sent a *real* photographer out; other times, when the budget was too tight, they made do with PR promo photos instead.

Over the years my on-location shots got a tad better, but never as good as shooting recipe experiments at home, where it's much easier to get natural lighting by the window or get faux bright lighting with a small photo tent.

And so, thank you Manhattan Cocktail Classic, for organizing this cocktail photography workshop and recognizing that there is a need for food and cocktail geeks to acquire skills for taking nice and discreet shots in low lighting. The key word is discreet. After all, the main purpose of going out to eat and drink is enjoying what you are eating and drinking, not getting assaulted with flashes or shutter sounds while someone next to you is overdocumenting their experience.

And of course, low-light techniques be as useful in noodle shops, banh mi stands, and dim sum parlors as in bars.

BlogDiana KuanMay 18, 2010Bars, Photography Comments

Why is Chinese food in San Francisco so disappointing? Also, thank you, Xi'an Famous Foods

This $4 plate of liang pi noodles ("cold skin noodles") single-handedly made up for all the bad Chinese food I have eaten in the past eight months.

First, a tangent. I spent eight months living and working in San Francisco. Apologies in advance to those in the Bay Area, but really, it seemed impossible to find great Chinese food there. Decent? Yes. Good? Occasionally. Downright atrocious? Far too common.

With such a big Chinese population, San Francisco should theoretically have Chinese food to rival Vancouver and New York. But what I found was mostly watered-down cooking, and too many restaurants advertising themselves as Chinese-Thai-Vietnamese-Sushi (what's up with that?) And yes, I also visited the purely Chinese restaurants, and quite popular ones at that.

BlogDiana KuanMay 14, 2010Flushing, Manhattan, Queens, Restaurants, San Francisco Comments

Moo Goo Gai Panini

Hankering for a sandwich while in the East Village last week, I stopped at Marco Polo Café out of sheer curiosity. The tiny shop on St. Mark's bills itself as "Asian-Italian New Cuisine." The menu, on the other hand, reveals its Asian influence to be entirely Chinese. So, in the spirit of this blog, what the heck.

The restaurant is the product of a Sicilian-American and mainland Chinese husband-and-wife team. So, naturally, you can order dumplings and buns, or pasta, like bison meatballs over penne. (Unlike another Italian-Chinese partnership I wrote about last year, whose menu was completely Western.) But...what's so interesting about a seemingly schizophrenic food selection?

Well, the restaurant does try to fuse flavors on a few of the items. I decided to forgo the Dumplavoli, which, while having a catchy name, is merely a plate of five raviolis and six dumplings.

BlogDiana KuanMay 10, 2010Manhattan, Restaurants Comments