Monthly Archives: February 2020

Jian Bing Man

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Instagram Post 2/10/2020

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Part One. Someone mentioned Korean food and my thoughts went straight to Northern Boulevard in Queens. But I realized I hadn’t visited Manhattan’s Koreatown in far too long and that includes the time since the renovation of Food Gallery 32 (11 West 32nd St) so a jaunt was long overdue.

One of the first floor vendors there wasn’t Korean at all (don’t worry, there’ll be Korean food in subsequent posts); Jian Bing (煎餅), literally fried pancake, are Chinese street food, griddled crepes flipped, filled, folded, and frequently found in Flushing’s Chinatown. The eponymous stall, Jian Bing Man, serves these along with a few noodle and rice dishes. It’s a familiar DIY format – [1] choose your type: signature (crispy bao cui, like deep fried wonton skins on steroids), you tiao (like crunchy fried savory crullers), or egg (neither crispy nor crunchy and therefore flaccid and pointless IMO since the first two incorporate egg anyway); [2] your sauce: spicy, hoisin (they call it soybean paste), or both; and [3] extra toppings (actually fillings, but why quibble?).

The 16 toppings included the usual suspects like pork floss and sausage in addition to the less common BBQ chicken and cheese. I’m a traditionalist when it comes to jian bing so my first mistake was to investigate what they did with BBQ pork (actually pork belly) and BBQ chicken. As you can see, there was an abundance of meat inside, but less would have been more; better yet, I should have cleaved to my time-honored favorites. My second mistake was to get it to go. It arrived tightly wrapped then boxed which had the effect of steaming any crispy crunchitude out of it and left me biting into a study in sogginess.

Don’t do what I did and you’ll probably end up with an okay jian bing. More KTown soon.
 
 

Chilaquiles Rojos con Cecina

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Instagram Post 2/7/2020

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In my last post, I referred to our Ricos Tacos visit (505 51st St, Sunset Park, Brooklyn) as “hunger quelling”. That’s because we ordered more than that massive torta; we also indulged in one of their Platillos Principales, specifically, Chilaquiles Rojos con Cecina. Chilaquiles are tortilla chips that have been drenched in very spicy red (in this case) salsa. The dish is classically served with crema and crumbled queso fresco.

Mexican cecina is usually characterized as thinly sliced beef that’s been marinated, salted, and dried. Accurate though it is, I’ve never much cared for that description because it just doesn’t sound all that tempting. IMO, the drying process concentrates the flavor of the meat in a manner similar to that of dry aged beef and the result is an intense burst of beefiness with each bite. See what I mean? Better yet, go taste what I mean.
 
 

Pierna Adobada Torta

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Instagram Post 2/6/2020

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A hunger quelling visit to Ricos Tacos, 505 51st St in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, featured this Pierna Adobada Torta. A torta is an over-the-top Mexican sandwich; it begins with perfectly fresh bread from which some of the fluffing has been removed to make room for your specifications – from the aforementioned top burrowing down through the strata, ours were chiles en vinagre (pickled chilies), avocado, fresh onion, tomato, quesillo (a soft, white, Oaxacan pasta filata string cheese not unlike mozzarella), and sautéed onion from the pierna adobada, roasted pork leg in adobo sauce, the star of the show. Top notch.

Given the choice between a torta and a cemita (a different type of Mexican sandwich that features a sesame seed bun and pápalo, one of my favorite herbs), I generally choose the latter, but it didn’t appear on the menu. As we were leaving, I discovered that they do indeed serve these gems, had I only asked. I didn’t know. But now you do. ¡La próxima vez!
 
 

Japan Village – Moriya

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Instagram Post 2/5/2020

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Meanwhile, back at Industry City’s Japan Village (934 3rd Ave in Brooklyn) my dining buddy had set his sights on Moriya’s Oyako Don, donburi with boiled chicken leg and simmered egg. Boiled Chicken! 🤢 My thoughts harkened back to childhood dinners at my grandmother’s house and her rubbery boiled chicken. “It’s healthy!” she shrilled as if that somehow made it edible, although I was relieved that at least the poor hen wasn’t ill before its demise.

But having survived it, I decided that this rendition would surely be better and I’m pleased to report that it was, and significantly so. Tender and flavorful, pairing perfectly with the egg (a little culinary nepotism there) those two ingredients (along with some oomph from scallions and pickled ginger) had to be persuasive enough to carry the dish. And it worked; satisfying comfort food.
 
 

Japan Village – Hachi Revisted

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Instagram Post 2/3/2020

Industry City’s Japan Village at 934 3rd Ave in Brooklyn boasts a variety of food stalls, each offering a different category of Japanese comestibles including sushi, rice bowls, ramen, udon and soba, baked goods, bentos, and fried foods, along with an izakaya and a steak and lobster house.

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We visited Hachi, the stand that vends street food like takoyaki (octopus balls), yakisoba (stir fried wheat noodles) and okonomiyaki, the shredded cabbage pancake whose name means “your preference” (okonomi) and “grilled” (yaki). We chose the okonomiyaki which is offered in three styles: Pork, Hiroshima Style (pork with a layer of yakisoba noodles crowned with a fried egg) – great if you can’t decide between okonomiyaki and yakisoba, and Seafood, with octopus, shrimp, and scallops, “our preference” but with the addition of a fried egg, just because. IMHO, the Kewpie mayo was squiggled on a bit heavy handedly and the sauce was a tad too sweet for my taste (don’t think I ever wrote that about anything); other than that, not bad.


I was hoping for more dramatic yolkporn but for the sake of de rigueur Instagram completeness, here ya go. They can’t all be gems.