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I don’t really celebrate Easter. I’m Chinese and not religious, but when you start seeing bunnies and peeps everywhere, you get sick of pink and yellow, and suddenly crave eggs. Right? Well, good thing I now have a batch of tea eggs in the fridge, ready for me to snack on any time. It’s actually so common to find in any Chinese household, but every family has their own way of making tea eggs, probably passed down for generations.
The Meatball Shop 84 Stanton Street, New York, NY 10002 just opened a couple of weeks ago but they seem to have things in good working order. Waitstaff is friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful. The menus are mark-your-own (like at Akti Seafood Restaurant), but all the combination and possibilities have been thought out so that choices are clear and easy. Each person gets their own menu so you can all get acquainted with the menu at the same. You do have to share an erasable marker though.
Have you been to a Chinese restaurant with a variety of meats dangling in the window? (If not, read this later and run to Chinatown now!) It’s usually roast pork, crackling pork, roast duck, ginger (white) chicken, and soy sauce chicken. Sometimes, there’s pork intestines or other innards. You can buy any by the pound or have the classic workmen’s lunch: San Bao Fan. The rough translation would be Three Specialties (Treasures) Rice, a choice of 3 of the meats over rice. There’s usually a vegetable included and sometimes a stewed egg.
New East Cuisine Manor 37-02 Main Street, New York, NY 11354 is the new name for Gala Manor, but ownership has not changed. Not much else has either and dishes were as forgettable as they were before. I’d even go ahead and call most of it bland.
Now that we live in Long Island City, we’re sure to be exploring Astoria more. The funny thing is, Lon and I both lived in Astoria for a short time before, but that was over 10 years ago. A lot has changed, expanded, and diversified. Still, one of the biggest draws is the abundance of Greek restaurants. Lon’s family came to see our new place yesterday, so we took advantage of our group size (so we could order more) and chose Akti Seafood Restaurant 34-19 30th Avenue, Astoria, NY 11103.
Finally! We moved, but it’s not all smooth sailing yet. We’re living out of boxes and we don’t have a kitchen yet. While our perfect kitchen is being built (which we will be talking about soon), I’m going to have to get crafty. I do have many plug-in appliances (rice cooker, toaster oven, panini press, waffle maker, microwave, etc.) so we’re still going to have a ball here. I think we’re going to be pleasantly surprised with how much I (or you) can do without a kitchen. (Gulp) Determined to eat well every single day without exceptions, here goes…
As I packed up the kitchen at our last apartment, and cooked my last few meals, I started panicking a bit. Ok, a lot. I knew we wouldn’t have a kitchen for a while. But, as I started packing up our utility junk drawer, guess what I found inside?
Since I posted my mom’s recipe for Za Jiang Mein (a Chinese staple I could not live without), I’ve promised to post my mom’s vegetarian version. I know it took forever (four months), but all good things come to those that wait, right? Well, this is a good thing, a very good thing. Plus, you will not get this anywhere else. Though every Chinese family has a recipe for Za Jiang Mein (always made with pork), this Vegetarian Za Jiang Mein is my mom’s own recipe that she developed herself. I guess the apple doesn’t fall from the tree. She’s often creating new dishes or figuring out a restaurant dish. She doesn’t write her own blog though, so this is the only place you’ll get a Kelly Lee recipe.
Finally! We moved, but it’s not all smooth sailing yet. We’re living out of boxes and we don’t have a kitchen yet. While our perfect kitchen is being built (which we will be talking about soon), I’m going to have to get crafty. I do have many plug-in appliances (rice cooker, toaster oven, panini press, waffle maker, microwave, etc.) so we’re still going to have a ball here. I think we’re going to be pleasantly surprised with how much I (or you) can do without a kitchen. (Gulp) Determined to eat well every single day without exceptions, here goes…
I’m so happy we’ve hit perfect walk-around weather, ideal for my first few days of neighborhood exploring. I’m disappointed by the dark and dreary C-town by me, but on another ugly block, I found Breadbox Cafe 47-11 11th Street, Long Island City, NY 11101. It was right next to a Getty gas station, an unexpected cafe, clean and new with the Grand Opening sign up. I felt a connection like I wanted to go in and high-five them, and say, “Hey, I’m new here too.” ( I didn’t of course.)
Like our last meal in Union Square, our first in Long Island City was destined to be less climactic than we had hoped. Exhausted, Lon came home from work before lunch. We had the Verizon guys hooking us up (FIOS!) and a delivery of Elfa shelves arriving. We had to settle for ordering in and Gaw Gai Thai Express 23-06 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101 was one of two menus we had. With “express” in the name, you never go in with high hopes, but there was a teeny part of me hoping that this was going to be a secret diamond in the rough, just a short skip away from us.
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been dreaming about what our last dinner in the neighborhood would be. Yet, when the time came, we were both exhausted from the final leg of packing. Winded, aching, and ready to collapse into a dust pile, we just couldn’t go far, or get dressed up, or wait on a line, or put in any effort at all. We decided on The Loop 173 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10003, the kind of place that you could go to before the shower, even when you really need a shower.
