4 posts tagged “food”
My parents love sushi, particularly sashimi. Part of it comes from eating a lot of Japanese food because my grandparents grew up in Taiwan at a time when Japan occupied the island. And since Taiwan's an island, they eat a lot of seafood. It's also pretty healthful as far as food goes if you don't count the soy sauce, and it's easy on my mother's sometimes delicate constitution. But for the longest time as a kid, I was afraid to try sushi ("ew, raw fish") so I always ended up eating California rolls, tempura, chicken teriyaki, miso soup, everything else on the menu. I remember getting stuck in Houston with my family after missing our connecting flight, and getting picked up at the airport by my Aunt. She took us all out for an all you can eat sushi feast where nearly everything contained raw fish, and I just sat there and watched everybody else eating, double-fisting handrolls. I finally tried sushi in high school and realized what I'd been missing all these years. Dammit! Stupid adults, why are they always right?
By the time I got to college, I was the one introducing my friends to various types of sushi, starting them off easy with stuff that's cooked, and gradually introducing the raw fish. Salmon, tuna, one piece at a time. And I've gotten pretty adventurous in the types of sashimi I eat. By now I've even had squid, shrimp, and lobster sashimi. The only kind I won't eat is sea urchin (uni).
My mother sometimes reminds me that my brother was more adventurous than I as a child. Even when he was a kid, he was always curious as to why the adults loved some food all of the kids ran away from. Sometimes it would be something good, other times my mother would end up letting him try dried squid snack or those fat Asian melon seeds, and I would laugh. As a child, out of the ordinary Chinese dishes were often deemed icky, weird, or gross, especially if they were not fried rice or noodles. My mother says you can always tell the Chinese kids that grew up in the United States because they won't eat certain foods when they're young, and gravitate towards the more Americanized ones. I blame the elementary school need to fit in at the lunch table and not be "too ethnic" or else the other kids would mock my meal (or at least draw attention to its uniqueness). Plus, I had TV telling me that normal families came home and at spaghetti and meatballs or pork chops or meatloaf every night. Plus, Chinese food was only thing my parents would eat when we went out to eat.
Another weird Chinese food (well, drink) that bewildered me as a kid was pearl milk tea. I can remember first time I tried the bizarre concoction. I was about fourteen or fifteen, and I hated the taste, the texture, the strangeness of the drink. I was eating lunch at a Chinese restaurant with my aunt and some cousins. My cousins were insane for this weird drink, and ordered one for me without me asking. Plus, she ordered it in Chinese, really quickly, and I wasn't fluent enough to hear what was happening. So to be polite, I drank it. Am I chewing or drinking? Sip or swallow? What the hell is this chewy ball doing in my mouth? It tastes like tea but tea is weird! Obviously, I wasn't having that much fun with it, so one of them offered to finish mine for me at the end of the meal.
Then, the second time I had pearl milk tea, a few years later, after I realized I actually liked tea (that is, Western black tea, not the ubiquitous oolong tea at Chinese restaurants) I loved it. Who knew that all you had to do was add cream and sugar? And, well, tapioca balls.
Dan and Beta's first trip to the Shake Shack. Showed up about 4pm, waited in line for an hour, finished eating before 6pm. The line was huge when we got there and even huge-r when we left.
We got a "Poochini" for Beta, which is ice cream, peanut butter, and two dog biscuits in a doggie sized bowl. I consumed a Taxi Dog (a regular hot dog with tomato-soaked onions), a Second City Bird-Wurst (chicken sausage dressed Chicago style), a Shack Burger, and a root beer float. Dan ate two Shack Burgers (which he thought were good but not the best he's ever had) and a Chicago dog, alongside a chocolate shake.
I thought the burger was delicious and the hot dogs were merely good. I like the idea of a Chicago style dog but it's always too messy in the end. And the root beer float was fantastic. Also, the cheese fries were surprisingly fresh and crispy, despite swimming in a lake of cheese. I couldn't stop eating them despite being extremely full. How do they do that? It's magic.
Screw missing SF-style burritos in NYC, I've got ssams.
A ssam is
a Korean wrap that's essentially an Asian burrito.
A ssam contains delicious Berkshire pork, rice, edamame, onions, pickled shiitakes, and kimchi, all crammed into a delicious wrapper.
Momofuku only serves them from noon to 4PM each day and Dan and stuffed ourselves silly at lunch today, bringing home leftovers for later. My God.
And! And! The proprietors of Momofuku are opening up a ssam bar later on this year. I hope they have delivery.
Always a good idea for dinner...except when they arrive already broken in the container. Silly Grand Sichuan St. Mark's. The soup is still tasty, though.
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