family styles reunion

hello from irene bean and a kickass maine lobster BLT.

the sisters (and parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins) had a family styles reunion for reals in new york city this week. activities included short ribs and pies at the irish pub; bibimbap, jap chae and massive amounts of raw beef at the korean barbecue; omelettes, cointreau-flambéed orange french toast, banana blueberry pancakes at brunch, and an immense number of soup dumplings.

oh, and chicken noodle soup in the hotel room. that’s how we do.

nyc food tour, part seven: chinatown is a paradise of assorted munchies

for my final US of A post, i’d like to showcase some final photos from new york chinatown. i enjoyed a wonderful few hours wandering the area solo with the bean, and then a round table dinner with a kickass crew of dumpling eaters.

irenebean and i started off with a serious case of the munchies. no illicit substances necessary, we pretty much always have the munchies. luckily we encountered paradise in front of us, also known as aji ichiban:

obviously, one is welcome to taste anything they like in munchies paradise. did you know paradise also includes super crunchy mini dried crabs that you eat whole?

Eat Sustainable Meat From Farmers Markets: More Delicious, Less Deadly!

sup peeps. this post was originally published at eat.drink.better a few weeks ago and i want to share it with you now. reading it, you will notice that a) i  do understand punctuation and that excessive hyphenization is not normal, b) i know how to capitalize, and c) i actually can prevent my filthy mouth from spilling out onto the page if necessary. however, on my (our) blog, i just choose not to. okay? anyway, enjoy.

For those of us who love a crispy slice of bacon but also care about the impact of our food choices, eating meat can be a very complex issue. Just for starters, there’s the environmental aspects of meat production, the safety concerns with industrial processing (read this frightening article in the NYTimes about ‘anthrax sausages’) and the thorny ethical questions of animal welfare to consider. It’s a difficult question: how can we have our steak and eat it too?

My current solution? Buy locally and sustainably raised meat from farmers markets. I went to the bustling Union Square Greenmarket in New York City last weekend to explore my meat purchasing options and do some research. And by ‘research,’ I mean ‘eating.’ Here are photos and some reasons why farmers markets are a great place to get your meat fix.

nyc food tour, part six: Chinatown Rules Everything Around Me – dollar dollar bills, y’all.

chinatown in manhattan is a buyer’s paradise. you’ve got bargains galore, from imitation gucci to bootleg cds to endless loads of cheap imported crap. i used to live right off canal street, and wading through the hordes of tourists taking up precious sidewalk space while looking for fake fendi bags used to irk me on the regular (although i’ll admit that a local source for cheap sunglasses is immensely useful when you go through approximately 43.7 pairs per month). but the low prices aren’t confined to the luxury knockoffs   – the food in chinatown is plentiful, varied, authentic, and generally extremely inexpensive, not to mention FANTASTICALLY DELICIOUS.

i’d like to draw your attention to two particular purchases made with one dollar each. no joke. one single george washington, equivalent to 100 disregarded pennies that often inhabit the crevasses of your sofa or fail to merit your attention when lying unattended on the sidewalk.  regard the following plate:

lexi and irene worship at the altar of fried dumpling.

you might start keeping track of pennies now that you know that a hundred of those suckers will buy you a plate of FIVE succulent and freshly folded fried dumplings. yes, deep in the heart of chinatown exists what most be the most straightforwardly named hole in the wall food emporium on the planet: Fried Dumpling. you can tell by the name that this joint sells the best scandinavian-inspired modular shelving units in new york.

kidding. they do make a mean burrito though.

nyc food tour, part five: tofu clouds, sweet gooey balls, and family styles for reals

mei: in true family styles, we have a guest post from our stellar cuzzin and woman-about-town, lexi, with some non-italicized interjections from yours truly. along with rachel, one of my oldest friends from back in the meth-and-mary-j-day, lexi, bean and i hit up the banh mi at nicky’s vietnamese sandwiches, where we stuffed our faces to a serious extreme.  above, the juicy pork chop with fresh pickled carrots and other veggies, in the warm embrace of a perfectly crusty/soft ratioed baguette.

lexi: ‘i have delicious yammies’

mei: to be specific, a headless lexi is double fisting the classic vietnamese sandwich with a paté of roasted ground pork and vietnamese ham. YUM. below, delicious savory grilled chicken on a luxurious bed of rice vermicelli. i’ll be honest, i would sleep on rice noodles every night.  as long as i had a soft pillow of summer roll on which to lay my weary head.

nyc food tour, part four: an in-depth exploration of the deep fried oreo, complete with baby hand

holy crap! it’s a deep fried oreo! you know that’s exactly what irene and lexi are thinking. they are peering in awe at the wonder of the intensely spermlike battered and deep fried oreo in its natural habit –  sprinkled in powdered sugar and placed in a greasy paper takeout container.

nyc food tour, part three: brooklyn italian food pornography, with soundtrack

FOOD PORN. that’s pretty much all this post is. feast your eyes on this centerfold-worthy photo of lemon honey yogurt panna cotta with sweet rhubarb and homemade oatmeal cookies.

mmmmmmmm.  giving some love to that other borough where everyone i know now lives, i went to al di la trattoria in brooklyn over the weekend with my lovely friend olivia and her wonderful mother, lois.  this fantastic restaurant in park slope serves incredibly delicious and relatively uncomplicated northern italian food that is local and organic whenever possible. in case you’d like to add another sensory dimension to your food porn viewing experience, i’ve included a brooklyn-based soundtrack inspired by the saturday night shenanigans at the best dance party in the country, the rub.

nyc food tour, part two: korean fried chicken in your face

our next three nyc food tour posts cover one of the ultimate cooking techniques of all time: THE DEEP FRY. oh yes.  i greatly enjoy the excitement of deep frying.  over the course of approximately three hours wandering the streets of manhattan in search of edible offerings, irene lexi and i stuffed our bellies with korean fried chicken, deep fried oreos, and fried dumplings. a trifecta of hot batter-dripping, artery-clogging, waistline-expanding, boiling oil-dipped goodness – a FRYFECTA, if you will.

we were on a dedicated mission to hit up the KFC, thanks to a rave from my friends seth and becky. no, not that KFC, but Korean Fried Chicken, which i first read about back in the day in this article in the new york times. on the advice of seth, we headed to boka, a korean restaurant on st. marks that serves bon chon chicken.

nyc food tour, part two: korean fried chicken in your face

our next three nyc food tour posts cover one of the ultimate cooking techniques of all time: THE DEEP FRY. oh yes.  i greatly enjoy the excitement of deep frying.  over the course of approximately three hours wandering the streets of manhattan in search of edible offerings, irene lexi and i stuffed our bellies with korean fried chicken, deep fried oreos, and fried dumplings. a trifecta of hot batter-dripping, artery-clogging, waistline-expanding, boiling oil-dipped goodness – a FRYFECTA, if you will.

we were on a dedicated mission to hit up the KFC, thanks to a rave from my friends seth and becky. no, not that KFC, but Korean Fried Chicken, which i first read about back in the day in this article in the new york times. on the advice of seth, we headed to boka, a korean restaurant on st. marks that serves bon chon chicken.

nyc food tour, part one: the union square greenmarket served up family styles

i just spent a fantastic weekend eating my way through the fantastic food paradise of new york city with my sister irene (recently somewhat MIA co-blogger) and cousin lexi (maybe sometime guest blogger).  in the family spirit of this blog, irene bean,  lexi and i are going to do a couple of joint posts on our nyc food tour.

stop one: bean and i kicked things off by exploring the hustle and the bustle of the union square greenmarket. here are some photos and random comments from our adventure.

mei: one of my favorite things to do is wander around farmers markets for hours while sampling food, ogling tasty looking displays, and meeting and chatting with the cool people who locally raise/grow/bake/create deliciousness.  also, farmers markets are generally very aesthetically pleasing. yes, there are quite often cute farmer boys, but also so many beautiful colorful flowers. we’ll start with those:

mei: back to food now. here irene, aka vanna white, showcases the tart and creamy honey lemon drinkable yogurt from donnybrook farms you will win if you correctly guess the answer to the wheel of fortune puzzle:

irene: probiotic goodness can turn anyone into vanna white. grow that good fungus, dude!

mei: farmers markets bring such joy! check out the girl on the left and the ecstasy she is experiencing as she purchases fungicide-free items to put in her belly:

irene: i think i can relate to her in many ways, namely, that i feel equally smug and gleeful when purchasing tasty greens.