Bánh mì truck...

It wasn't so good--permissible compared to some places in NY. It was super slow. A little disorganized. The bánh mì wasn't really an issue as opposed to the summation of slights in regards to other offerings and pure laziness in effort here.

The tapioca in the bubble tea was INSULTING--it was like little balls of super old red bean paste that's dessicated and covered with a slimy boba casing. Teeny little truck on Pearl St & Hanover.

Sammiches--barely any fillings which is APPALLING for 6 bucks. At least Baoguette and An Choi charge for sammiches that actually has more than ONE THIN LAYER OF MEATS. The "do"/vietnamese bologna fish cake type of processed pork meat-ness was WEIRD. I'd consider eating this if I worked on this far downtown and I was hot mess in withdrawal of sammiches...or snowed in. This is the #1 (special combo).

The tuna was Bumble Bee Tuna (canned of course), the eel was the frozen packaged stuff u can get from JasMart or whatever. The other meats looked legit but again, thin single layer and not much else. Really is just...passable--granted I"ve had more offensive sammiches but...WHATEVER.

Julia got the grilled chicken. Jay got the eel sammich.

The only gripe I have with this place--whereas I majorly ripped into Bep is that Bep lacked flavor and panache (and in many regards "authenticity"), this place has the seeds of 'authentic' flavor but was just so damn slow and poorly executed in everything else and lazy.

If you want to even separate it further--my problem with Bep was that it just...didn't know any better. Something that can def be improved upon. This place, however, knows at least SOMEWHAT better but is completel haphazard--not that it knows so much better and wants to screw you over for a dollar, but that it seems indifferent--as if to just cover the bare minimum b/c it can't do any more and doesn't want to, but will just sweep over the flaws a little and call ti a day.

And, as always, this remains fairly popular and had good foot traffic when I was there (on the way to Fulton Stall Markets--entry belooowww!). Baffling really--but I guess until there's some other

Honey + Miso chicken...

I think my obsession with leeks has overtaken my obsession with brussel sprouts. >.<

Didn't wanna let the giant leek stalks go to waste so I thought I'd make some chicken out of it since I still had a ton of miso leftover (and tomatoes as u can tell). I made the same thing in CA for that giant post-xmas dinner w/ the famiglia except I used a honey miso soy sauce marinade/glaze. Ran out of soy sauce (incredible fail as an asian, I know!) but I still had my fish sauce HEHE!! Didn't do too much with the fish sauce tho except to season the leeks b/f i dropped in the chicken.

we also had some salad--the dressing was sesame whatever mixed with the juices from when i sauteed my spinach in garlic with some tomatoes and fish sauce (not shown). YUMMAAAAY!

Again, I don't...really...measure much when I cook. It's just straight eyeballin' and in my head so..here it is!:

* * * * *

Honey-miso marinaded chicken!...

1. cube chicken breasts (big chunks--1-2 inches?)
2. drizzle honey over it--just enough to splatter most of the chicken but not cover EVERY inch. drizzle like u would olive oil cruet.
3. 1 tablespoon-ish for every couple pieces of chicken breast...granted i kind of add as i go along, but i always mean to start with a generous tablespoon (heaping really).
4. massage that sh*t in! i like using my hands when i have to marinade with oils and meats--always feels really productive and visceral and connected to ur foods i feel...
5. saute garlic and leeks (and i threw an a$$load of leeks cut thin in there!) olive oil or butter (or if u will a combo of both to get the taste and...unsaturated goodness--btw i've been meaning to switch out of using olive oil b/c it's a heavy/flavored oil and the italians only dress with it and not actually cook anything in it and use sunflower seed oil insead but i haven't found the right alternative =/)
6. pour in the marinaded chicken (it doesn't need to sit too long to season the chicken bits) and let it cook on med high heat w/o turning it for about 1-2 min? then toss all around. throw in some tomatoes just towards the end so that it wrinkls and maybe chars the peel a little--then put a lid on the whole thing to let steam it thru--maybe 2 min like that?
   

Amy's Bread & Ronnybrook Farm Milk Bar!...

Part of turkey day brunch avec Mama Ly in the city. Ate @ Chelsea Market (on 16th and 9th ave) since Momofuku Milk Bar was only open for pickup! :( Then got groceries (pancetta, porchetta, olive/black truffle tapanade etc etc) to make Turkey day dinner & grubbage for the drive down to DC the next day...

And yes, they quoted There Will Be Blood below.... heheheheeh

Eggs Kaush..something. Eggs in casserole! like at Viceroy (18th & 8th ave) and Relish (North 3rd & Wythe in Williamsburg). Came with roased potatoes w/ pepper & chives.

I swear though...somethign about poached eggs...i'm still fixated with them...

Mama Ly got the free range roast chicken w/ what looks like fresh mozarella, tomatoes, and a salad with really good vinaigrette!

Apparently it's diff from what the menu says (some kinda...cheddar. WHATEBBS). it was tasty. organic and all that ish but all that matters was that it tasted fresh and was prepped quite well yaaaaay.

The Ronnybrook Farm chocolate milk is whole milk but INFINITELY "thinner" and cleaner taste than most chocolate milk--even the chocolate soy milk. No aftertaste, no...lactose-y...intolerance...harshness. Tastier than Horizon Organic Chocolate milk (omg did i...did i blaspheme? HA!! HOCM def pales in comparison exponentially...and i once thought very highly of it. esp when buying it in bulk @ costco :D or whole food's :))

That said...Mama Ly's hot chocolate was also damn festive and good...

And to end with: almond buttered toast from Amy's Bread. Very soft--brioche-y kind of bread, subtle almond paste (not crazy sweet like how the Sicilians prefer it!--sweeter than Almondine)...

Brussel Sprouts & Bacon!....

Claudz got me some brussel sprouts the last time we were @ Karen's making beignets & apple tarte tartins so I decided to test drive them out for Thanksgiving, along with chicken in bacon fat and lotsa rosemary...

and by "we were making beignets and tarte tartins" i mean I showed up uberlate after my NY Urban game and got a sammich nearby and ate while Shanaz made the tarte tartin and the other girls made beignets (and deep fried snickers!) while I noshed and bitched about being sweaty and tired :P more pics of that some other time.

In this version, I had about...3 cups of brussel sprouts halved, sauteed with shallots, pine nuts, and about 1.5 lemons. Didn't have pancetta so I used center cut bacon (b/c it was like..10pm on a Sunday when I decided to do this little culinary experiment and Gristedes isn't exactly...gourmet central :P). Prosciutto would've been nice but it's so thin and when I've crisped them up before it's just TEEEEEEEENY!!

So...I was reading a lot about how to prepare them sprouts--and I opted for a compromise of boiling for 3 min and then sauteeing the rest. I'm going to have to say...I'm going to just nix the boiling and do fullon sauteeing or roasting next time.

I really lament the loss of color w/ boiling and the texture is like any boiled cabbage would be. I think w/ all the layers it's so much better roasted or whatever to maintain the crispness of each layer. It's like if u had a soggy crepe mille cake. EES NO GEWWWD. Crispy! Also...note the diff b/w flash and natural light...

That's brussel sprouts I had in Italy--really really fresh sproutsies! ^_^ boiled, with a little olive oil. granted it didn't taste all that exciting b/c it was fully boiled, but the quality of the produce--YUMMMM. and the sprouts were much bigger than here. I also hafta say...the bacon really darkens and chars the chicken and sprouts well, but since the sprouts were already soft and boiled it didn't add much dimension to the coloring. FULL CHAR NEXT TIME! :)

That's mah full meal. let's hope turkey day sprouts will be much more interestingly plated. Also trying to switch up my cakes this year. still befuddled. HRmmmMMmmmmm....>.O...

I'm also hoping I can buy the brussel sprouts on the stalk at the Union Square farmer's market when my mom's in town (tomorrah!) and we'll be makin' my first Turkey day dinner in NYC!

Leftover materials...

Had some extra tomatoes and herbs, excess of soba noodles but no soba sauce so here's what happened:

Here are more pics. just b/c I can. blah di blah blah I buy and make enough food for like five people and then end up eating it forever, which I'm perfectly fine with.

From ...food/ACTUALLY...

and...one more!....

From ...food/ACTUALLY...

so...my bodega (which is pretty much 2 floors under my apt building) rocks, it has mango juice :)

costco has it in little bottles and in bulk. me loves. save the ales.

mi Chelsea kitchen...

Contrary to popular belief, and what you might surmise from this site anyway, I actually don't like to dine out TOO often. I do, when I have the time and serenity of mind, very much enjoy cooking--except I'm no vegan/organic/food snob, I just like to make what's good to my palate, down home shit with a little fancy pants to it now and then, and a little nouveau asian-mediterranean twist to it, as I've coined my style anyway.

Jun and Jane came over for dinner and yelled at "The Hills Have Eyes" playing OnDemand while I poofed it all up (dunno why that was the film of choice for dinner given some uh...unsavory scenes :P). Went to Whole Foods (the Gristedes near me is appallingly shady in produce/expiration dates/pricing for that kinda wilted crap anyway so I had to settle for overpriced perceivably organic fancy pants crap) and picked up some Bok Choy, dill, parsley, lime, roma tomatoes, shallots...AND LOTS OF GARLIC. Toss in a little fish sauce in there (and yes I use it in EVERYTHING I make and no one knows the diff).

Jane brought over her mom's pork...things. I can't remember what I/she/we call them but they're just pork pieces on bone, sauteed--u know, often in those clay pots. Whatever, moving on. Made my random concoction of usually pan-roasted chicken in a lime-dill-tomato sauce, and the giant bok choy with oil and lotsa garlic, sometimes in the remnants of whatever sauce I made for the meats. And we had brownies for dessert :)

And all with rice of course, b/c well, that's the way we do. YAAAAAAY.