“My wife challenged me to cook, 5 mins later someone tweeted or blogged about [Gojee] and … BAM! I’ve done two dishes already, and I have never cooked in my life before :O Great job guys!”

It’s emails like these that makes me feel like we’re making big changes with Gojee. We’re converting people into home cooks, one recipe at a time.

My first encounter with Laphet Thote, tea leaf salad, was at the Burmese restaurant Village Mingala in the East Village.  There’s something about the sharp zing and pronounced flavor of fermentation that really speaks to me.  While the namesake tea leaves were the star of the show, the roasted peanuts, along with a smattering of nuts and seeds stirred into the dish, played a strong supporting role, offering a rounded, nutty contrast to the sharp, pronounced flavor of fermented tea leaves.  But before I could return to Village Mingala for a second taste, I was sad to learn that the restaurant had closed down.

Eaten the authentic Burmese way, Laphet Thote challenges the conventional concept of salad. The first thing that comes to mind when you think “salad” is some sort of leafy green.  Well, in a Laphet Thote, there are none.  The laphet, the Burmese word for these fermented tea leaves, is served in the center of the a dish with other assorted ingredients, which differ according to your preference, encircle the star of the dish.

Typically, a telltale sign of a good salad is a balanced distribution of salad components and dressing in each bite, commonly mixed together in a larger portion then served.  On the other hand, tea leaf salad is served in a compartmentalized container, making it possible to adjust the proportion of the ingredients of each handful according to your taste.

I was able to recreate tea leaf salad at home thanks to my Burmese friend Sophie, who not only serves as my resource for all things Burmese related, but also kindly supplies me with laphet, which is apparently illegal to import and distribute here in the United States.  I didn’t have a cool compartmentalized platter handy, but here’s Laphet Thote, done my way: A scoop of laphet surrounded by roasted peanuts, fried yellow lentils, toasted sesame seeds, fried garlic, and some more nuts

The import of laphet has been banned because certain brands have been found to contain traces of Auramine O, a yellow dye used for coloring silk, cotton, paper and leather, was found.   I’m not sure if this is still the case, but I’m hoping that with a gradually growing Burmese community in New Jersey and Queens, there’ll be more chances for laphet thote to emerge on more menus and restaurants.

Hey there, Ramen-loving New Yorkers.  Here’s your lucky chance to win 2 FREE tickets to Ramen Fever at Asia Society this Thursday, December 16th from 6:30 – 9:30 pm.

The program will include a discussion with Shigeto Kamada, owner of Minca Ramen Factory and Kambi Ramen House, Jenny Miller, Assistant Food Editor at Grub Street/NYMag.com, Adina Steiman, Food Editor at Men’s Health magazine, and Rickmond Wong, owner of Ramen blog Rameniac, highlighting this exciting new trend. The talk will be followed by a Ramen demonstration and tasting given by Shigeto Kamada.

So, how does this work? Just leave a comment with your favorite NY Ramen joint and I’ll pick a lucky winner on Wednesday.  Deadline to enter is this Wednesday, December 15th at 12 noon. Good luck!

Check back on Wednesday — we’ll announce the winners and also be posting up another product giveaway for all you non-New Yorkers too (I haven’t forgotten about you guys).  Until then, eat well and stay warm!

Big thanks to Kian for a beautiful meal, Jeff for organizing, and Talisa for this recap of the rooftop Hot Pot Ambassador Dinner.  Oh boy, I’m getting hungry again.
- Veronica

–

When Jeff’s email blast arrived in my inbox announcing the next Ambassador Dinner — an evening of traditional Asian hot pot dining with Kian Lam Kho — it took me about fifteen seconds to send in my RSVP.

I love hot pot. It’s something I grew up doing with my family at home (somewhat infrequently, but with zest — usually in conjunction with a slew of sweet and savory fondue nights, the better to make use of the cooking equipment needed for such endeavors).

The concept of Hot Pot is simple: a pot of hot broth sits in the center of the table on a burner which keeps the broth simmering. Everyone at the table partakes in adding a variety of uncooked items (like veggies, meat, seafood, dumplings, and noodles), and fishing them out as they’re ready to eat. Since most of the ingredients aren’t seasoned, additional flavor is added via the broth during cooking, as well as with dipping sauces after cooking. At the end, everyone slurps up the remaining broth, which has been infused with the flavors of everything that’s been cooked in it throughout the night.

For me, Hot Pot embodies some of my favorite aspects of food: it’s engaging, it’s interactive, it’s social, and it’s a group effort, where everyone gets to be part of the cooking process, play with their food, and eat for hours and hours. And, if the chef on duty happens to be Kian, a master of traditional Chinese Cooking, it’s really, exceptionally delicious.

Kian and his partner, Warren prepared a magical night for the 25 lucky RSVP’ers, on Veronica’s rooftop in Long Island City, Queens. All the ingredients were freshly prepared and thoughtfully presented on beautiful tableware.

Kian

Menus! And delicious snacks of pickled vegetables, boiled peanuts, and ginko nuts. We were so spoiled.

Before the dinner, Kian prepped in the kitchen and held a cooking demonstration: making Southern-style egg dumplings. Kian had already prepared a batter of egg and cornstarch, which he then cooked and filled with a mixture of pork, scallions, and sesame oil, and sealed with finesse. According to Kian, the egg dumplings, which are often served in soup, are a common item at Taiwanese Chinese New Year Celebrations because of their golden color.

We onlookers also gave it a shot, with mixed results. Kian makes it look so easy! Apparently they are traditionally made in a shallow ladle over a flame — we definitely would have failed.

Egg dumpling action

Ta-da! No problem.

Veronica’s Attempt

Deborah

Jeff, under Kian’s watchful eye.

Okay, okay. Enough with the teasers. Time for dinner!

Before digging in, we each made our own personal dipping sauce, a combination of wet ingredients: peanut sauce, sesame paste, sesame oil, chili oil, soy sauce, black vinegar, and chili paste, as well as additional goodies: toasted sesame seeds, fresh garlic, fried garlic, scallions, cilantro, pickled peppers, and fermented tofu.

Dipping Sauce Spread

My first sauce attempt. Peanut-y, sesame-y, and spicy. YUM.

Then, we divided ourselves up into tables, each one with a pot divided in half to accomodate two broths: one Szechuan-infused, and one Chrysanthemum-infused. I know, I know. Aren’t you jealous already?

Prepping the spicy Szechuan soup stock

Hot Pot Stocks

Then it was time to get cooking!

Assorted Greens and Shrooms

Vegetable and Crab Dumplings

Rib-eye, chicken, and lamb

Fried Tofu Skins

Veronica with more shrooms and tofus!

Shrimp and Crab

Crab wonderment. Gary, Jeff, and Veronica

How can so many good things be in one pot?

Kian put fish paste into pastry bags. Pipe into simmering broth et voila! Fish Noodles! Here, Jim executes for the table.

Fish paste noodles! Airy and delicious.

Similar to the fish paste, we spooned shrimp paste into the broth and out came magical, squishy shrimp balls!

Hot pot means business.

Chowing Down.

NOODLES? There are noodles?! Two kinds?! This night keeps getting better.

And to finish… the best fruit platter you’ve ever had. Rambutan, starfruit, apple, longan, and dragonfruit.

Thank you to Jeff, for organizing, Veronica, for hosting, and especially Kian, for sharing such an amazing night with us and stuffing us with such delicious morsels. It truly was an experience. I can’t wait to go home for the holidays and have hot pot with my family.

–

See all the photos from the World to Table flickr set here.

About the Ambassador Program: The Ambassador Program has one expert of a cuisine lead a group of people for their dream meal in their favorite eating environment. The menu is entirely chosen by the ambassador. Guests pay for the ambassador’s portion and the results are written up somewhere on the internet. Everyone wins.

About Me: I like stories, science, and snacks. You can find me on the interwebs at Rocketships, Jellyfish.

Two weeks ago, I was involved in producing an event to showcase Korean Temple Cuisine, a specialized cuisine originating from the culinary practices of Buddhist monks in Korea.  There were no barbecued meats to be found.  Instead, the tables were lined with plates of steamed lotus roots stuffed with multicolored rice, sprouts wrapped with paper thin sheets of pickled white radish and tied together with strands of chives, and rosy pink pickled vegetables sliced into precise uniform squares, just to name a few of the items in the spread of over 40 dishes.

Temple Cuisine is characterized by its refined presentations, innovative uses of natural ingredients (such as mushrooms, roots and vegetables), and profound respect for food.  In accordance with the Buddhist spiritual philosophy, no animal products are to be used or consumed, and waste is discouraged.

The evening began with a reception in the foyer.  An exhibition of photographs depicting daily life at the Korean Temples in Seoul lined the walls.  Beneath the photos were displays of utensils and other objects used in the daily eating practices of Korean Buddhist monks.

Eating meals in the Korean Buddhist tradition is called Baru Gongyang, which literally translates to “bowl offering”.  The action of eating meals is seen as an offering to Buddha, and the food is to be eaten in a set of wooden bowls and carried out in a orderly ritualistic procedure.

Baru Gongyang is a reflection of virtue and respect, and regardless of social or monastic stature, all participants sit and share food together as peers.  Each person takes only as much as he or she can eat, and no food is to be left over or wasted. Even the water used to rinse the bowls should be consumed.  The dinner did not require diners to engage in the full Temple experience, but these procedures and rituals were highlighted not only in the display but explained during the dinner, and guests were encouraged not to take more food than they could eat.

Baru, the set of wooden bowls used to eat meals at Korean Buddhist Temples

A complete set of baru with utensils.

After months of planning and preparation, a culinary team comprised of five monks and two assisting chefs flew in from Seoul to cook this special dinner with the assistance of students from the Culinary Institute of America, French Culinary Insitute and Institute of Culinary Education, ladies from the local Korean temples in Long Island, and chef Youngsun Lee.  Thanks to the collaborative effort of many nimble fingers and quick knives, the night was a success.

The comprehensive dinner program began with a dramatic dharma drum performance followed by speeches from the Most Venerable Jaseung President of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, Ambassador Young-mok Kim Consul General of the Republic of Korea in New York, Venerable Hyo-tan, Joe McPherson of ZenKimchi Food Journal and Venerable Myong Haeng.  After the series speeches ended and the performances finished, came the part everyone was anticipating for. The food.

Here’s a glimpse of what went on behind the scenes and in the kitchen.  Prep began the night before at a kitchen in New Jersey, and commenced again the morning of the event up until the start of the tasting.  Here we go..

Tables were set up, sheet trays were pulled out, and an assembly line of Korean ladies and culinary students fell into formation.

Buckwheat wraps: buckwheat pancake, sweet pumpkin, sweet potato, cabbage, tofu, cucumber, oyster mushroom, red and green peppers, and a sprinkle of sesame oil

These shimmery jello gems made from red bean and agar agar embedded with chunks of red bean and chestnuts.

Culinary students carefully cut and plated flower-shaped blocks of sweet pumpkin tofu.

Cucumber seon: cucumbers sliced and stuffed with ginseng, stone mushroom, pickled radish, red paprika and salt, topped with pinenuts.

Tri-color radish wraps: radish, carrots, radish shoots, shiitake mushroom, water parsley

Nuts jorim: a sticky mixture of walnuts, pine nuts, soy sauce, grain syrup, red pepper paste, and jaepi, a leaf of Zanthoxylum pipperitum.

Even the kimchi was wrapped and cut into precise, uniform pieces.

Children dressed in traditional Korean outfits arrived to rehearse their lantern-lit entrance for the beginning of the dinner program.

Crisp lotus root chips were served as a precursor to the menu.

Assorted pickled vegetables

Lotus leaf rice: lotus leaves stuffed with glutinous rice, beans, and pine nuts

Vegetable stuffed pear

Tri-color Lotus Root Rice: lotus root, sticky rice, carrot, shiitake mushroom, sweet pumpkin, vinegar, radish juice, soy sauce and ginger.  The rice is colored with gardenia seed juice, cactus powder and rock tripe powder.

Fried tofu stuffed with shiitake mushroom, dried kelp, sesame seeds and grain syrup

Five Elements Gim-bap: Rice, fried tofu, burdock, carrot, pickled raidsh, spinach, dried shiitake, sesame oil, soy sauce, roasted sesame seeds, black bean sauce, black bean, and kelp rolled up in seaweed.

Soy bean sauce seasoned Aster vegetable: aster, soybean paste, perilla oil, ground sesame and bamboo salt.

Ambassador Young-mok Kim, Consul General of the Republic of Korea in New York being interviewed by Korean media.

The theme for the night was “The Night of a Thousand Lotus Lanterns”.  Lotus lanterns are prevalent throughout Korean Temples, since the lotus flower is symbolic of Buddha and the progress of the soul.  The circular light fixtures were studded with lanterns to create the ambiance and long tables were set up, encouraging a communal dining experience.

Dharma drum performance.

The speakers were  projected onto the walls for everyone in the room to see.  Here is the Most Venerable JaSeung.

Joe McPherson from Zenkimchi giving his perspective as a Westerner living in Anyang, a mountainous region near Seoul surrounded by Korean Buddhist Temples.

While everyone was sampling the Temple Cuisine, the walls lit up with a preview of Charles Pinsky’s latest series, The Kimchi Chronicles with Jean-Georges and Marja Vongerichten, following Jean-Georges and Marja (who is half Korean) as they explore the culinary history of South Korea through food.  The series is currently still being filmed in Korea, so keep an eye for it sometime next year.

Marja Vongerichten

Charles Pinsky

Vivian Lee, reporter-correspondent for NY1, was the emcee for the evening.

She interviewed a few guests for their perspective on Korean Temple Cuisine, including Professor Pardus from the Culinary Institute of America

And Cathy Erway, author of The Art of Eating In and the host of Let’s Eat In.

The culinary team striking a victory pose.

That night, the guests saw a new side of Korean food and culture, and they left with tickled taste buds, full bellies and clean plates.

If anyone wants to attempt the Korean Temple Experience at home, I’d be happy to share recipes for any of the dishes, just leave a comment.

When the idea of doing an Asian Feastival bike tour came up, the first person that came to mind was Youngsun Lee.  A Korean chef born in Seoul and raised in Queens, he first began biking to get in shape for the snowboarding season but now he is an equally expert biker.  Together with Emily Lew, Asian Feastival graphic designer and correspondent, we discussed our shared passion for biking between bites of teok (Korean rice cakes) at the Asian Feastival press conference.  By the time the conference was over it was settled, we were going to take it to the streets and do the bike tour.  The fourth biker in our bike brigade was Jeff Orlick.  Having lived in Jackson Heights for the past two years, he’s been spreading a good dose of Queens love through food.  Organizing Queens-centric food gatherings and events, he’s been exploring the culinary landscape of Queens and bringing people together through a shared love for exploratory eating.

Emily, Jeff and Youngsun

Two Tuesdays ago, the four of us set off to test out the tour to get an idea of which roads to take, which stops to make, and to spend a nice sweaty Tuesday afternoon exploring the streets of Queens by bike.  Meeting in front of the Queens Museum of Art, we started off through the World’s Fairgrounds at Flushing Meadows Corona Park and made our way to our first stop, a local Korean community garden.

Youngsun deciphering the community board at the garden

A tall patch of scallions

Hidden amongst the neighboring residential and commercial buildings, the Korean community garden is just a stone’s throw away from the busy streets of downtown Flushing, yet it feels like a hidden oasis amidst the daily hustle and bustle of the area.  Divided into several plots, the gated garden was lush even in the thick of the summer heat.  We brushed past rows of scallions, green and deep burgundy perilla (sesame) leaves, tall stalks of amaranth, and other plants, while we watched the elderly Korean gardeners tend to their shared plots.  With a watering hose or hoe in hand, outfitted in complete trend-bending gardening regalia, they seemed so at peace sitting in plastic beach chairs, tilling the land and tending to each manicured plot with such great dedication.  There was no plant left thirsty or uncared for.

One of the winning gardening outfits of the day

Perilla (sesame) leaves

Korean hot red peppers

Amaranth off in the distance

Touring Queens by bike is an amazingly visceral experience — it’s just you, the road, and the wind in your face.  Since the areas in Queens that I frequent tend to be either near a subway station or a high traffic area when I’m traveling by car, I never really considered the borough to be much of a looker when it came to landscape and scenery.  I made a wrong assumption.  For the next leg of the bike route, we rolled through the bike paths along several parks, winded down shady tree-lined paths, and breezed by the quaint residential areas.  Riding through the pathways and streets at a bike’s pace is one of the best ways to instill some Queens pride.

Emily and Youngsun locating the bike path

After our leisurely stroll in the garden, we mounted our bikes and pedaled off to our next destination: The Queens County Farm Museum.  Right off the Littleneck Parkway, the Queens County Farm Museum comprises of 47 acres of New York City’s largest remaining tract of farmland and the oldest continuously run farm in New York State, a historical site whose mission is to restore, preserve Queens County’s agricultural, horticultural and viticulture past.  On a typical day, you can find volunteers weeding the watermelon patch, young families visiting the farm, and troupes of visiting children from schools and summer camps.

The farm is home to many furry residents. Let’s meet some:

Grazing llamas

Ducks

Lazy goats

Nosy goats

Small-eared goats

Itchy goats

A lonesome turkey

And these two porkers

After our meet and greet with the animals, we met with Amy, the director of the Queens County Farm Museum.  Even after working there for twenty years, she still gushes with passion and enthusiasm when she talks about the farm.

Edgar, one of the workers on the farm, was kind enough to walk us through a quick tour.  First stop was the Adriance Farmhouse.  Built in 1772 and done in the Flemish style, the farmhouse is where cooking lessons are held and the general caretaker of the farm resides. Stepping inside, lingering smells from the last meal cooked in the kitchen perfumes the farmhouse with the woodsy smell of roast pork.

Dutch kitchen

Edgar showing us a wind-resistant lantern

In the far corner of the living room is a foot-operated fan chair. If you step on the lever, it triggers the wooden flap to sway from side to side for a fanning effect

Across from the Adriance House is the farm store where produce, eggs, and other farm products are sold, in addition to other artisanal products such as their namesake Queens County Farm Museum wine made from the grapes on their vineyard and processed in Long Island.

The farm store

Inside the farm store: eggs, lollypops, herbs, and jam

Queens County Farm Museum wine

Edgar led us into the chicken coop and the hens didn’t seem to mind our company, continuing to strut about, lay eggs, and eat grain.  While Edgar passed around some freshly laid eggs, Jeff was busy picking up some ladies — as in some hens.

A grain buffet

Jeff and his new lady friend

Welcome to the chicken house

Aside from the farm animals, another major attraction at the farm is the corn maze, which changes shape every year (this year it’s supposed to look like an ipod). Hand-cut by farmhands after using lasers to direct the design, it isn’t much of a maze right now, but come fall the stalks will be tall and the maze will ready.

The ipod corn maze in the making

To conclude our farm tour, we ended at the vegetable patch, comprised of neat rows of vegetables and flowers.  The produce harvested here is picked and then sold at local farmer’s markets.

We looped back into the parking lot of the Queens Museum of Art slightly tanner and sweatier than when we started, but the 22 mile ride was worth every drop of sweat.  Thanks to Emily, Jeff and Youngsun for an epic ride.

To join the “Tour du Jour”, email biketour@asianfeastival.com with your Brown Paper Ticket purchase confirmation and we will send you a waiver with detailed instructions about the ride.  See you at Flushing Meadows Corona Park at 8:30am on September 6th!

The Javanese Gamelan group Kusuma Laras holds rehearsals at the Indonesian Consulate twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays. Beginning at 5:30, members trickle into the basement of the Consulate, each taking their respective place in front of the majestic bronze instruments, sitting shoe-less and cross-legged while rhythmically beating to the numbered musical notations.  An hour and a half later, a cooker of rice and tupperwares filled with aromatic Indonesian home cooking are placed on the table buffet-style, indicating that dinner has commenced.

I was introduced to Kusuma Laras by Josh, who began playing gamelan in college and now regularly practices and performs with the ensemble.  What is gamelan?  “A gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included.  The term “gamelan” refers more to the set of instruments than to the players of those instruments. A gamelan is a set of instruments as a distinct entity, built and tuned to stay together — instruments from different gamelan are generally not interchangeable.” – Wikipedia

Kusuma Laras consists of an eclectic mix of Indonesians and non-Indonesians from a diversity of backgrounds.  There’s Amy, a host at NPR, Jon, a native of rural Appalachia who leads Wednesday rehearsals and speaks in fluent Indonesian, Stuart the seasoned gamelan player who also contributes to the potluck style rehearsal dinners along with the “ibu ibu” – from the long chains of emails that I receive from the gamelan google group, I believe the term is a reference to the Indonesian ladies who kindly feed us their homecooked dishes (a few of the ladies also participate in the Masjid Al Hikmah bazaar) – as well as a smattering of musically inclined guys.  And that’s just a small sampling of the wide spectrum of members who make up the ensemble.

Having sung in a children’s choir and spent years devoted to piano and flute in grade school, my musical talents have since waned while I’ve been busy pursuing my other interests and hobbies.  Learning gamelan was my personal attempt to awaken my latent musical abilities and renew my interest and love for music. But ultimately, I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I was initially lured into this tiny subterranean musical den by the promises of a good home cooked Indonesian meal.

The bait

Josh playing the Bonang

A typical Wednesday dinner in the Indonesian Consulate consists of:

Green curry with tempeh, green beans and onions: Unlike most of the Westernized vegetarian restaurant-style tempeh I’ve had, which usually is pretty tough and chewy, this tempeh was surprisingly dense yet soft.

Meatballs stir-fried with broccoli, beans, carrots and other vegetables; salted fish.

The spicy salted fish is fried, bones and all, resulting in a dense, slightly chewy texture, similar to my favorite canned comfort food — Chinese fried dace with fermented black beans.

Last but not least, Stuart’s eggplant stew, which he calls Terong Apa-Apa, made with sautéed then stewed eggplants and red peppers.

Visit Stuart’s website for some Indonesian recipes, and for those of you who are unfamiliar with Javanese gamelan, here is a small sampling courtesy of Josh: Srepegan, Ladrang Rajamanggala, Sampak

Braving the summer heat and crossing borough lines for the sake of some home cooked Indonesian food at the Masjid Al Hikmah bazaar, Talisa explores Queens cuisine and recaps our epic Indonesian eating adventure. - Veronica

Being a Greenpointer, I’m only a Pulaski bridge away from Queens: that mythical, magical place of delicious food that has somehow managed to evade my ever-growling stomach since I moved to New York almost five years go. Aside from a few bites here and there and some lovely home-cooked feasts courtesy of the Chan’s themselves in Long Island City, I’ve been without a proper introduction to Queens Cuisine—a source of distress for a grub-lover like myself.

Last Sunday all was made right. Veronica invited me to go with her to the Indonesian Food Bazaar at the Masjid Al Hikmah, where I think I might have eaten all five-years worth of repression in one long, hot, delicious sitting.

I don’t know Indonesian food very well, so everything at the Bazaar was a pleasant surprise to me, not the least being the amazing home cooks who were extremely friendly and eager to share their food with us:

But the real treat was the food! So, so much food. Our group went for a divide and conquer strategy—hitting up almost every table and sharing our dishes back under a very-necessary tarp. We had a mix of salty, sweet, furry, fried, and extremely colorful bites. I loved the different textures—from the kelly-green, play-dough-like pandan leaf deserts, to the hard-boiled egg deep fried in a tapioca and fish paste batter, the doughy meatballs, sticky rice, and creamy satay sauce.

In the end, we could barely finish half of all the delicious food, but we really, really tried! I’m pretty sure we were all done-in by the same last bite: a taste of an innocuous looking triangle tempeh treat that turned out to be a dense, chewy, flavor-packed, gut-busting morsel of unidentifiable savory and sweet. I felt like the glutton in Monty Python’s Meaning of Life who has one last grape and explodes all over the restaurant.

Ok, no projectile food explosions. Just Indonesian food-bliss. Thanks, Queens! You’ll be seeing me soon.

Sticky rice with sweet chicken filling

Beginning with a bang: “Furry” Chicken, jerky-esque beef, delicious kale stewed with green curry, and rendang beef curry–dense, slightly sweet, and packed with flavor. Easy on the rice.

Bakso: two types of rice noodles, doughy meatballs, tofu, and lots of fixings. Perfect for hot summer slurping.

Satay, of course!

Assorted Delicious.

A real doozy: A hard boiled egg inside a tapioca and fish paste batter, deep fried, chopped up, and served with noodles, chopped fresh cucumber, and a yummy, salty broth.

More assorted goodies: taro in a fried sesame batter, fried cake things, sticky, red dough filled with yellow bean paste, sticky rice filled with tuna, and the day-ending tempeh culprit is the brown triangle in the center.

Dessert! Banana covered in soft, sticky pandan pastry with sweet, pink, milky goodness and ice cubes.

Sweet, milky, goodie-filled drinks to cut all the spice and wash everything down!

Shanghainese soup dumplings are a culinary phenomenon: a bite of pork and a spoonful of soup all within a neatly pleated wheat wrapper.  You’re probably curious: how does the soup get in there?  Over the years, I’ve come up with a fair share of outlandish theories – at one point I was convinced the dumplings were injected with a soup-filled syringe. But all my conspiracy theories were finally laid to rest two weeks ago when the high priestess of Nan Xiang Dumpling House, Chef Huang Jian Ping (黃建萍), came over to make soup dumplings from scratch.  In anticipation for Asian Feastival, an epic culinary event in Queens on September 6th Labor Day Monday (check out asianfeastival.com for the complete rundown), we decided to put her off-site dumpling-making capabilities to the test and invited some friends over to witness her pork and dough sorcery.

A special thanks to Roboppy for taking photos!

Pulling up to the curb, Chef Huang arrived by car with Nan Xiang’s owner, Tai Viem Ma, and Asian Feastival advisor and guru, Alex Peng, with a bag of dough, a bowl of pork filling, a rolling pin, and a stack of bamboo steamers packed into the trunk.  Once we carted all the materials to the roof, she began to set up her dumpling operation.

Chef Huang’s rooftop dumpling corner. Yep, that’s me creeping behind her shoulder.

Hailing from the town of Wu Shi (無錫) in the Jiang Su (江蘇) province located in the northeast area of China, Chef Huang has been pinching, twisting, kneading and pleating dough and pork filling into bundles of soup dumpling perfection since she was 18 years old.  Nowadays, she can practically make them with a blindfold and a hand tied behind her back.  According to Mr. Ma, he was able to recruit her from China because she was just one notch below the very best in China; top-tier dumpling makers are barred from leaving the country, since their skills are considered a national treasure.

Now, here’s a breakdown of how to make soup dumplings, from soup to nuts:

First, roll out a long snake of dough and pinch into little pieces.

Roll the dough nubs into round little orbs — Chef Huang does so by shaking them in a plastic bag like so.

Using a thin rolling pin, roll out the little dough orbs into a thin pancake shape, thicker towards the middle and thinner towards the outer edges.

With a butter knife, fill the wrapper with the filling. The secret of the soup lies in the paste-like pork filling, which consists of a secret mixture of pork, seasoning and its jus in gelatin form, the last of which melts into a liquidy soup when the dumpling is steamed. Then comes the hard part: cup your hand to make a pouch, then using your other hand, apply nimble pinching and twisting movements to seal off the top.  Chef Huang emphasizes that as a food safety measure, your finger should not touch and contaminate the pork filling, only the wrapper.

A metal circular plate resembling a big, thin metal washer is placed on top of a big stockpot of hot boiling water, funneling the steam through the small hole and upwards through the bamboo steamer to cook the dumplings.  It took a few tries to get the correct time it required to steam the dumplings — 12 minutes was just enough time to steam a bamboo steamer filled with 6 dumplings, but the stove temperature varies so adjust accordingly.

Before.

After!!

And there you go, the secrets of the soup dumpling, thanks to Chef Huang, Mr. Ma and Alex Peng, who made this all possible.  Come taste Chef Huang’s masterpieces for yourself at the Asian Feastival in September.  If you just can’t wait, pay Chef Huang a visit at Nan Xiang Dumpling House for a steamer full of some of the best soup dumplings outside of China.

Nan Xiang Dumpling House
38-12 Prince St
Flushing, NY 11354

According to the Food Section, Italians are expected to eat 40 million panettone this holiday season. What is panettone? A holiday sweet bread originating from Milan dotted with dried fruit, usually rum raisins and bits of citron.

Example of generic panettone in a red box

When the supermarket has red boxes of pre-packaged panettone stacked to the ceiling, it’s a strong indicator that the Holiday season is in full swing. Having heard tales of dry, stale and dense panettone, I’ve been hesitant to invest in some for myself. Luckily, my friend Gary, who works at Grandaisy Bakery, gifted me a loaf and I’ve been carving away at it like a turkey on Thanksgiving day.

Panettone from Grandaisy Bakery

Studded with zesty citron and plump rum raisins, and enhanced with a touch of honey, the panettone at Grandaisy is freshly baked. This panettone is perfect to soak up your morning coffee with but light and airy enough to eat on its own; totally unlike what I imagined panettone to be. When storing panettone, make sure to keep it wrapped tightly to prevent it from becoming hard and stale. Ok, now that I’m getting hungry, time to carve a slice for breakfast. Ciao!

Grandaisy Bakery
212.334.9435

73 Sullivan Street
New York, NY 10012

176 West 72nd Street
New York, NY 10023

250 West Broadway (at Beach St.)
New York, NY 10013