Lurid macarons. Ladurée in Paris, France.

Went up to Vermont last week for two nights to see my really dear friend Maria. She’s my oldest friend- I’ve known her for over 20 years. She’s an artist and musician who just moved to Brattleboro from California- and she’ll be touring Europe for the next month with a few other bands. She’s such a badass- check out her tunes here.

Anyway, she took me to the Brattleboro Food Co-Op and here’s something I thought was super neat: you bring your own containers for liquids and dispense as you wish from big vats. Anything from honey, maple syrup, oil, to dishwashing soap.

Is this a normal co-op thing? Excuse my ignorance if it is- I thought it was so awesome!

Gorgeous fall colors from the parking lot.

I have no shame, the invitation for Kayoko’s farewell party said it started at 6:00 — and I knew Yamahomo was cooking, so I was the first to arrive! It gave me a chance to scout out all the wonderful dishes that he slaved over for all of us. And it also gave me the opportunity to take some photos of everything before the party animals dug in. (I took photos of mostly everything, I think I missed a few things like the homemade guacamole and veggie dip — I must’ve started eating and got distracted.)

Just look at this spread, compliments of Yamahomo:
Bacon wrapped dates:

Pastry cups filled with Swedish meatballs & potatoes:

And pastry cups filled with a special cream cheese and dill mixture:

Mini-chicken burgers:

Pigs in a blanket (with kielbasa, not hot dogs!):

Salmon avocado tartar (my personal fave):

Homemade sushi!!

Once the party was underway, Chef Yamahomo started cooking his homemade gyoza (potstickers):

When he plated and served them, everyone screamed in delight. Partygoer Erin had the line of the night: “This is the weirdest f**ing party I have ever been to.” What can we say? We Umami’s love our food!

If you think that’s weird – who would’ve ever thought a gourd would be the highlight of the night:

What a great way for all of us to send off Kayoko…it was also nice for many of us to meet face-to-face since we have all read each other posts. Even two-time blogger (okay, maybe three) Mel made a special trip back to NYC for the bash!

Just when you thought you couldn’t eat enough (at least those of us who were there from the beginning), Yama presented his famous mille layer cake — to die for!

As the night went on, more fun was had…kimonos started breaking out — what in the world??

What a beautiful bride she will be:

And then you knew it was getting crazy when Yamahomo started walking about in heels!

Keep eating and writing, Kayoko — get the west coast branch of Umamimart up and running! Bon voyage and safe travels!

And thanks to the host with the most — it was all incredibly delicious!

Häagen Dazs ice cream fondue. Häagen Dazs Café, Seoul, Korea.

*Note that I got watermelon on one occasion and tomatoes on another. To dip into chocolate.

Buckwheat crepe with spinach, Gruyère, mushrooms and “lardons.” Geneva, Switzerland.

Preface:
Umamiventure #13: Flushing Food Circuit, Pt. I
Umamiventure #13: Flushing Food Circuit, Pt. II

GOLDEN MALL
41-28 Main Street
Queens, NY

ON THE DUMPLINGS

YAMAHOMO
Dumplings were tasty, but to me a bit too chive heavy.

HAMAMAMA
I wasn’t feeling too adventurous – tried more dumplings (this time steamed — flavorful and fresh as well, but preferred our first stop).

JONES
I preferred the basement food court dumplings (steamed) rather than the leek dumplings at the counter (pan fried). But they were both delish.

+++

ON THE CHINESE BURGER

RICKY
Lamb sandwich – if I didn’t buy these myself I wouldn’t have guessed these were Chinese. These tasted like really spicy Moroccan lamb tangine in freshly made english muffin.

YAMAHOMO
Chinese burger tasted like a taco, because of strong cumin flavoring. Again, lamb smell was everywhere and I was getting nauseated by this time.

HAMAMAMA
Intriguing, but as Yamahomo said, “It tasted Mexican”… because of the spices — cumin? Maybe they should change the name to Chinese taco?

SONJA
“Chinese burger” was quite good…more like Chinese Manwich, no chewing needed. Actually the guy said it was pork but totally tasted like super soft Korean kalbi jjim (braised beef).

KELLY
The Chinese hamburger was good because the filling was chopped meat, and it reminded me of Korean “kalbi-jiim”. The meat was wrapped in a tortilla-thin bun which was lightly toasted. It was good, but half of it went into the trashcan.

TYSON
I had seen and read about most of the various stalls inside the Golden Shopping Mall, but it was my first time trying this location of the Xi’an “lamb burger” joint (the one in the now-closed Shi Fong mall was good, at least based on my sole visit in July).

+++

ON THE COLD APPETIZERS

TYSON
The cold-gluten-noodle “salad” liang pi was tasty as always, although this version seemed to lack as much chili oil in the ‘dressing.’

KAYOKO
Liang pi ROCKED! Very refreshing, would be great on a hot tropical day.

TYSON
Also, there was a Sichuan / Hunan stall that had dumplings and nice appetizers / room-temperature prepared foods; the dry tofu slices with chili and Sichuan peppercorn were $3 for a large styrofoam box-full, and were tasty.

HAMAMAMA
Loved the spicy tofu dish that Tyson got in the food court– reminded me of the cold appetizers that you can get at Spicy & Tasty.

+++

ON THE MALL

YAMAHOMO
Totally shocked. Utterly speechless.

HAMAMAMA
I had always wanted to go to the food courts in the mall, but was too intimidated. Glad to be going with someone who had experienced them before. There were more menus written in English than I was expecting – but the tight quarters and just the overall “unknown” still made it quite intimidating.

JONES
I do enjoy watching the food preparation and trying to guess the ingredients (note to self: do not ever bring Health Department brother on an Umamiventure).

TYSON
Probably as a result of Julia Moskin’s recent Times article on Flushing as a food destination, there were more non-Chinese than I’ve ever seen down in that smoke-filled basement. I definitely want to further explore the network of stalls at the Golden Shopping Mall, especially since many of them now have picture menus posted on their walls with English captions.

Preface: Umamiventure #13: Flushing Food Circuit, Pt. I

DUMPLING TIME

Zhu Ji Guo Tie
40-52 Main Street (Entrance on 41st Avenue)
T: 718.358.6265


YAMAHOMO
They tasted good, and damn cheap. 8 huge dumplings for $2.50 were great. I thought I got vegetable and pork dumplings, but somehow something was lost, and I got fried pork bun. Good, but way too much skin, especially since I thought I would be having dumplings. It’s like going to K-town, thinking you will eat BBQ, but end up going to Korean vegetarian restaurant (talking from own experience). WTF!

HAMAMAMA
The fried dumplings are not like anything you get in your average Chinese restaurants (all dough, no meat) – these are so fresh, filled with seasoned pork, wrapped in a thin layer of dough.

RICKY
Pan fried juicy pork and veg buns – these were like pan fried nikkuman (Japanese meat buns) I would have eaten a whole bunch of these if we didn’t have more places to go to.

SONJA
Fried dumplings had this strange overly Chinese-food taste to it. Is it a certain spice or something? Like pork floss. I liked the fluffy tennis balls of dough filled with pure pork better.

KAYOKO
I could live off of those tea-smoked eggs.

+++

STREET MEAT

Xinjiang BBQ Cart
41st Avenue near Kissena Blvd.

HAMAMAMA
Beyond flavorful and juicy. I could make a meal with those two stops alone.

KAYOKO
I don’t understand why more people haven’t commented on these meat sticks- they are fucking mind-blowing. Hands down the best thing I had on this trip, no question. There’s only lamb and chicken, spicy or not. $1 per stick.

The chicken alone beat out any yakitori I’ve had in the city- that’s Tori Shin or Yakitori Totto (a personal favorite). But the lamb. Oh, the lamb. So tender, void of any gamey-ness, just flavored by the charcoal, salt and spices. Incredible- if this doesn’t turn around the lamb non-believer, I’m not sure anything will.

The smoke from the cart is a bit hazardous, though. Really can’t be good for the team working the grill.

Razor clams in black bean sauce. Shanghai, China.

I’m back!!! I have been terribly UM delinquent- it’s been totally crazy over here in the last two weeks, what with trying to finish up stuff at work (impossible) and packing up 6 years of my NYC life into little cardboard boxes (unfathomable).

But I’m taking some time out for the post that everyone has been waiting for- FLUSHING! I brought on Tyson as our guide- he’s a true Flushing Pro who had a meticulous agenda mapped out for us. SWEET! I had wanted to tour Flushing since our very first Umamiventure- we had walked across the street to Flushing Mall and the food court like nothing you would find at your local mall- stay tuned to see what I’m talking about.

Tyson incorporated a mall into the itinerary, as well as some stand alone shops to mix things up a bit. I was going to try to do this all in one post, but it’s pretty hefty, so I’m gonna break it up into 3 parts. Va bene? Ok.

This was a totally awesome trip, in my opinion one of the best Umamiventures we’ve had (16 people came out!). Some weren’t so enthusiastic, however… read on for all the feedback.

Most importantly though, thank you Tyson for showing us around!!! We couldn’t have done this without you!

Photos by Hamamama, Jones and Tyson.

+++

Chinatown to Chinatown Shuttle
Pick up is like every 5 minutes on Division, right east of Bowery.

This is so sweet- for $2.50, you get a shuttle ride from Chinatown Manhattan to Chinatown Queens (Flushing), which only takes about 30 minutes. We got to watch the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies on a flatscreen all the way there- could you do that on the subway? I don’t think so.

+++

$1 Pecking Duck Pancake Sandwiches
Corner of Main Street and 40th Road


A takeout window we randomly stumbled upon as we waited for people to get together, right in the thick of Flushing. Check out the neon signs- you can’t miss it.

HAMAMAMA
I can’t forget the one nice surprise that was not on the scheduled tour – the $1 warm, crispy peking duck in the little bun. What a bargain!

SONJA
Peking duck takeout was the best! Needs a little more cucumber but what a fantastic idea.

KAYOKO
How amazing is it that this is only $1? Seriously, they are made to order, the buns come right out of a large steamer and the beautifully marbled duck is nestled within.

+++

Qin’s Lamb Noodle
13631 41st Ave, Queens, NY
T: 917.838.1011

HAMAMAMA
The noodle shop was interesting and needed to be accompanied by someone who has been there and/or spoke Chinese as the menu was entirely in Chinese. Tried a little bit of both the lamb and beef noodle soup. Though the noodles were fresh and homemade, thought they were too thick & doughy and without the chili sauce the broth was bland… an interesting find and definitely off the beaten path.

TYSON
Delicious. I love the cloud ear mushrooms, the strips of tripe, and the unidentifiable pickled vegetables… This is the ultimate noodle (literally–it’s one gigantic noodle!), in texture and mass… I still like Lanzhou/fujianese hand-pulled noodles a lot too, but Qin’s has more subtle broth and better toppings.

YAMAHOMO
I don’t like the smell of lamb. I like to eat lamb chop, but hate the smell. I have a lot of olfactory issues. Probably I would eat a lot of cheese if I didn’t have a nose, but the smell always keeps me away from stinky stuff. The place smelled of lamb, lamb, and lamb! The fact that a place where only customers are Chinese, and no English is spoken exists in New York is quite amazing. Noodle was weird. The way the chef stretched it and dumped in the water was cool, but way too doughy. Soup? What soup? It was white, so I am thinking they put lamb bones but it didn’t taste like much. We had to put in a lot of salt and hot sauce. Toward the end, I had to evacuate from the place to breath fresh air. Failure for me.

JONES
I wasn’t crazy about the lamb noodle venue, partly because I have a low mutton-stink tolerance, and partly because I wanted the broth to be richer (like tonkotsu ramen, maybe?).

RICKY
The lamb broth didn’t have much flavor, adding pepper oil helped it. It was pretty evident that the chef cut corners by using a pressure cooker instead of simmering for hours judging by the way the lamb cubes retained shape as if they were just cut.

SONJA
I had the beef noodles that were only slightly improved by copious amounts of chili oil. Only took a few bites but it was lacking…in everything?? There was no flavor. Noodles were nicely elastic though.

KELLY
The beef noodles were just freaking nasty, and it was even nastier when you had to throw out the remains in a bucket that had a sieve on top (which was one of those cheapo neon green baskets you find at Asian marts).

KAYOKO
Like nothing I had ever had- perfect for a cold winter day. I enjoyed the broth- it was light and drinkable. The noodles were really doughy, mochi-like. I especially liked the tripe and pickle toppings. It was neat to watch the guys behind the counter pull these noodles though- they were really sweet too (even though we couldn’t really communicate properly).