Dim Sum
by Celia Cheng
April 16th, 2008
CHINATOWN BRASSERIE
380 Lafayette St
@ Great Jones St
212-533-7000
The more I eat at Chinatown Brasserie, the more I like their dim sum. It has to be some of the best in town. The prices aren’t cheap compared to Chinatown – ironically, the restaurant is not in Chinatown but in the trendier area of NoHo — but I certainly don’t mind paying for good food. Lately, when I crave dim sum or fried rice, Chinatown Brasserie is the first place that comes to mind.
I prefer Chef Joe Ng’s dim sum to the rest of the menu, because everything from the steamed dumplings to the pan-fried goods is just scrumptious.
I always start with the shrimp and snow pea leaf dumplings. The steamed roast pork buns are fluffy and the pork juicy. The turnip cake with ham and XO sauce is near perfection with just the right consistency of crispy on the outside and creamy inside. XO sauce is a Hong Kong specialty of dried seafood cooked in chili oil. It makes everything taste good, as proven by another dish, the seafood and pork fried rice with XO sauce. This gogi berry-topped fried rice is spectacular, as the rice stays white and silky smooth, while the seafood and pork add rich flavor and aroma. Plus it’s not overly greasy. The shrimp rice noodle rolls are a staple favorite, and even though I don’t eat the ginger that accompanies, some friends love it.
The highlight for me is always the crispy taro root shrimp. Taro has a neutral flavor but is starchy in its consistency like potato, so the Chinese use it for both sweet and savory dishes. This one is savory and comes in the shape of a bird, served four to a plate. A long, thin piece of baked dough acts as the head attached to the body of the bird. The body is a complex mixture of ingredients that work beautifully together: shrimp are split, stuffed with a shredded mushroom mixture, and then covered with a chilled mashed taro paste. When deep fried, the exterior of the paste turns lacy, like a thousand delicate shreds, which form the body of the bird. And appropriately, the shrimp tail is proudly displayed as the tail of the bird. The sweet mustard sauce is a good complement.
And for the finale, I swear by the custard bao. These tiny bite-size custard-filled buns are dreamy.
This is definitely one of those restaurants where the food is first and foremost. Sometimes I find the service to be a little vacant, but that’s easily overlooked because there are so many dishes I crave. Hooray for good dim sum!
Posted in Brunch , Chinese , Dim Sum , Dumpling , East Village , Rice
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Kimchi Sot Bab
by Celia Cheng
November 25th, 2005
CHO DANG GOL
55 W 35th St
(5th & 6th Ave)
212-695-8222
Cho Dang Gol has been my favorite Korean restaurant in the city for many years now because the food and service is of the highest quality in Korea town and the atmosphere is absolutely charming. How can you not love it when the “grandmother” — the matriarch of the proprietors — is sitting in the kitchen (visible to diners) preparing the panchan, or side dishes, herself?
Cho Dang Gol’s specialty is tofu. While I love the biji — ground bean-curd, pork and vegetable casserole — I don’t necessarily go there for their tofu. All the appetizers are great, and I love their specialty casseroles: boo dae jun gol, which my friends and I call the “Spam pot” because it includes Spam and hot dogs and pretty much every kind of pork you can think of (I know not everyone appreciates Spam, but hey, I grew up in Hawaii) and gam ja jun gol, which is spicy pork bone soup with potato. The menu says these casseroles serve two people, but in reality, it’s more suited to four to five people.
On this visit, with a party of five, we ordered some of the usual dishes but also tried the kimchi sot bab, namely steamed rice mixed with kimchi and pork (or beef or shrimp) in a hot stone pot. It arrived at the table still cooking in the stone pot and that’s in order to get the rice to stick to the outer edges of the pot and make it crispy and crackling, for which you then have to use your spoon to scrape and scoop out. In other words, you have to work a little for the good stuff. When you mix everything up, in a single spoonful, you can taste kimchi, pork, steamed rice and crispy rice — it’s as if all the stars are in perfect alignment!
I’ve always loved kimchi and pork, a dish the Japanese themselves have adapted into part of the regular izakaya (the Japanese pub) repertoire called buta kimuchi. I used to cook my version of kimchi fried rice at home, but now I know what I’ve been missing: the stone pot. The crispy rice really does add another dimension to this simple dish and elevates it to another culinary realm. My friend who ordered the dish cannot take too much spice, so I was more than happy to partake of more than my allocated share. I liked it so much I wanted to go back the following night and order the same thing. Don’t get me wrong, this is a rustic and simple dish, but it’s one of those things that you just can’t stop craving. And then there’s the spice factor: it’s just so easy to get hooked. I’m planning my week now to see how I can take a detour through K-town just to get my fix.
Posted in Koreatown , Korean , Rice
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