eating empanadas on the street in Tafi del Valle

When Barry and I went to India a couple of years ago, the advice we received from the travel doctor when we went for our yellow fever injections  was, if you want to eat street food, make sure it is steaming.

With 9 months travel ahead of us I am relectant to go down with a bug from contaminated food so early in our trip.  But who can resist empanadas? 

Here we are in Tafi del Valle eating empanadas from a guy who made them on the side of the road.  If you remember, I wrote about them in one of our earlier posts when our first couchsurfers, Alejandro and Mariana made them for us a special treat. 

Empanadas are a pastry with a frilly edge, baked or fried and filled with beef or chicken.  They are delicious and are famous in Argentina.  They are found on almost every street corner and are very reasonably priced.  With a splash of lemon or lime they are a perfect snack at any time of the day.

In this case, this empanada “chef”, cooked in character too!  At night he wore a smart white shirt and black waistcoat with white gloves.  During the day he looked smashing, dressed all in white, standing under the shade of a white umbrella and his white gloves once again.  He never touched the money either, this was handled by his assistant who managed the finances.

Not every exchange student in India gets to witness an Indian wedding, and very few of them get to witness their HOST SISTER’s wedding. Indian weddings are definitely a big deal, and I was extremely lucky to be as immersed in one as I could possibly be.

The most important thing worth noting about Indian weddings is that they make American weddings seem like funerals. The difference was so profound that I couldn’t help but be reminded of Eugene Hutz’s take on them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o76YbAfFfJ8

You just got Gogol Bordello’d.

Anyway, Dipti’s wedding ceremonies lasted three days. During the first day, I arrived just in time to attend a long wedding pooja for Dipti and Saurabh. We had a very talented live musicians who performed Hindu spiritual songs and guided the couple through the ceremony. A whole bunch of Dipti’s relatives were staying the night, so it felt like I had the whole of Punjab living in my house.

The next day we went to the Radio Club, where all of the girls had mehendi applied by professionals. We mingled a bit and went home for another pooja just for Dipti. This one was really interesting as they smeared a whole bunch of this yellow stuff all over any bit of exposed skin. It’s supposed to help make it glow.

Then they put on these bangles, which Dipti had to wear for the wedding and a few days afterward. She even had to sleep in them.

That night we went to a hall in Worli for the celebration part of the wedding. It was INSANE. I danced for six hours, nonstop. I had pretty much decided that because I didn’t really know anyone at all, I was going to have to get my drink on and stick to the dance floor in order to not seem or feel awkward.

This tactic worked out pretty well for me, because at some point in time I danced with Bollywood star Neil Nitin Mukesh. In a lewd and lascivious fashion.

Don’t be jealous.

Oh, and if you think I’m lying, it made the papers:

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=30&contentid=20091208200912080232512492963815

Anyway, the best thing about the dance party is that it wasn’t just the young people dancing. It was EVERYONE. Even the old people. 

The next day, we had the actual wedding. It was down in Colaba at the Indian naval base. Saurabh made a regal entrance on a horse, greeted by crowds of dancing trumpeters, drummers, friends and family. The wedding ceremony went on for TWO HOURS at this chapel type thing, but I wouldn’t know anything about it because I was too busy eating food.

Yep. The best thing about Indian weddings is definitely the food. I’m pretty sure  I ate more at that wedding than I had ever eaten before in one sitting in my entire life. And an hour after that, I went back for some more. It was an absolute smorgasboard, with buffet tables running around the entire field.

I also sat and chilled with some pretty cool people, and then of course my Rotarians. A lot were NRIs (non-resident Indians) or friends of NRIs. I met this really cool guy from Oregon who lived in a small village in Korea for a year, and we talked about culture and loads of other things. I also met this Canadian girl who had backpacked all over the world. It’s crazy who you meet while traveling.

Anywho, back to the wedding. After the ceremony, poor Dipti had to stand in her extremely weighty wedding sari for another 3 hours at the chapel while EVERYONE (at least 600 people) came up to meet the bride, groom, and their families. After that, she finally got to sit down and eat with her family. We then commenced the downing of a ridiculously expensive bottle of champagne, put Dipti into this thing called a doli, and that was that!

After the dance party I definitely thought I wanted to have an Indian wedding, but then I realized that I will never be able to AFFORD and Indian wedding, and also, it’s so strenuous for the bride. Saris are hard enough to wear as is, let alone one that’s weighted down by a heaping assload of jewels and embroidery, and you have to stand around in it for HOURS. So I think at my wedding I’ll just have a big dance party and no ceremony. I’m sure everyone else could appreciate that too.

Oh, and guess what! I switched host families! Now I’m living with Yogiraj and Madhu Gupta. And I have my OWN ROOM. And my OWN BATHROOM. On my first night here all I did was walk around naked and read Calvin & Hobbes (Madhu is a Calvin & Hobbes fan and has books of it! Awesome!). It’s just them and me (all my host siblings are living back home in Delhi), and they seem like really chill people. They go on these daily walks together on Marine Drive, eat insanely healthy food, and spend a lot of time out of the house doing things. The only forseeable problem is that they do not have Internet here . . . .

;_______________________________________________;

. . .. but. I guess this could be a good thing. I will survive, I suppose. I’m definitely getting a lot more reading done. And now I’ll be kept out of the house a lot more.

Anyway, having my own bedroom again is definitely a wonderful thing. I can listen to music whenever I want now, I can decorate it however I want, I can have my peace and silence and privacy, which I had really, really been missing. But most of all, nakedness.

Anyway, since I feel pretty bad about not posting any new content for what might have been forever, here’s some bonus content just for you:

NICOLE GULDIN’S OFFICIAL GUIDE TO BOMBAY STREET FOOD.

Perhaps one of the greatest things about India is that even the food that’s supposed to taste bad tastes so, so, so good. It’s not like in America where anything that’s fast, cheap and convenient takes on the enjoyability of styrofoam. I don’t really understand how I lost weight here, because I’ve never in my life enjoyed food more. 

PAV BHAJI

Pav bhaji is my most favorite of all Indian foods. It consists of toasted, buttery bread (pav) and bhaji, which is this delicious, spicy, tomatoey sauce. You mix some chopped-up onions and lime juice into the bhaji, and you scoop it up and eat it with pieces of the pav. And it is the most delicious thing that exists in this world. I have killed several people over pav bhaji. I will never get tired of pav bhaji. 

VADA PAV

Bombay vada pav is famous. It’s one of those things that you never stop being hungry for, either. It consists of this fried, fist-sized lump of spiced-up yellow potato, and you stick this in the pav like it’s a burger. You dip it in tomato sauce or spicy green chutney. You’re supposed to get the best vada pav in Bombay outside of NM College, which I have lovingly sampled, courtesy of Archit. But since vada pav is literally sold on every street in Bombay, I have a lot more places to investigate.

PANI PURI

I have mixed feelings about pani puri. Basically they put this weird sweet/spicy watery sauce into these little round shell things called puris. And then schlep some chickpeas in there. It isn’t that great.

PAAN

Oh, paan. How I love you so although I know you will turn my teeth into freakish brown craters. Paan consists of pretty much everything in the world wrapped in a betel leaf. Seriously. It’s so fascinating to watch it being made. And each paanwallah makes it differently!  It’s really great to gnaw on after a meal.

Alright, well, that’s it for now. Later days! On Sunday I’m seeing Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Prithvi Theatre with Archit, and I’ll be sure to let you all know how that goes.

Peace.

Serves: One Person

Time Taken : Ten Minutes

Ingredients:

2 Eggs

1 Small green chillies Minced

1 Small tomato Minced

1 Small Onion Minced

2 pinch of salt

2 pinch of red chillies or black pepper

Some oil

Method:

Break the eggs in a small bowl and beat them with a fork for a couple of minutes. Add the salt and the red chillies or black pepper as per your taste. Add onions, tomatoes and green chillies as per your taste. Beat the mixture some more.

Heat some oil in a non stick pan till it is smoking. Lower the flame  and pour the egg  mixture in the pan. Wait till it is brown on the frying side and turn it and fry the other side till all the egg is cooked to golden brown. If you like your omelette half done then you will have to take it off the heat sooner.

Serve with butter toast and tea.

Mumbai street food arrives in Artesia:

PHOTO by CHRISTINA HOUSE / L.A. TIMES

Pomegranate seeds spill from the sandwich after each bite, brilliant and glistening like freshly polished rubies. Peanuts tumble out too, speckled with flecks of cumin, cinnamon and ground chiles. They land with a percussive patter that completes the sensory experience that is the Indian snack dabeli, a White Castle-sized, potato-based slider that’s a staple on the streets of Mumbai. At Artesia’s Mumbai Ki Galliyon Se, dabeli is just one of Sailesh and Shruti Shah’s edible odes to their former home.

The husband and wife brought the pulse of Mumbai’s cosmopolitan streets with them to the United States a decade ago. Sailesh spent most of his years here as a software engineer, all the while accumulating the knowledge and resources required to launch a restaurant. A year and a half ago, he put programming in the past and opened Mumbai Ki Galliyon Se with Shruti.

Much about the Little India restaurant is familiar: Its tableware is disposable (plates are Styrofoam, cutlery is plastic) and its ambience depends on whichever choreographed bit of Bollywood happens to be dancing across the TV. But Mumbai Ki Galliyon Se (literally “from the streets of Mumbai”) is unique to the neighborhood. While Gujarati chaat shops offer an increasingly familiar cast of snacks, Mumbai Ki Galliyon Se is the only eatery to focus on the flavors of India’s largest city.

Read the rest of my story in the L.A. Times.

Chicken Satay

So, some friends and I are at this media party thing at the Mill St. Brewery, and they’re serving free appetizers and cookies and the like. One of the items being displayed on little platters are sticks of satay with a tiny dish of peanut sauce for all of them. I’m not going to talk shit about Mill St. (their taps are pretty great) but when my friend said the satay was good, I begged to differ. I was 75% sure the meat wasn’t marinated in anything, and it definitely was missing some key ingredients if it was, since there was no distinctive colouring, or any significant flavour. Basically it was some pieces of chicken on a stick. Maybe some salt and pepper. That’s not satay.

I was (and am) biased when it came to satay though, since a few years before that, I was sitting in a outdoor food court on Pasir Ris beach in Singapore, watching an old Malay man fanning satay on a proper satay grill. Unbelievably good. That’s how satay is actually done – you’ve got white-hot coals slow-roasting the meat, and when the chef determines it necessary, he fans the coals to re-ignite the flames to sear and blacken the meat, while he’s basting it with oil or coconut milk. Plus, the whole thing’s been marinated for a day in spices and aromatics. The difference between this and a piece of chicken on a stick is fairly significant, to say the least. Can you blame me for being an ass about it, then?

So I told my friends, “Look, this isn’t satay. I’ll make you some satay.” And I did. We started our series of summer grill parties and I brought satay and peanut sauce. This is a variant on the satay I brought. The other thing about satay is – pretty much everyone and everywhere has got their own recipe, and some of them are very different from what you get around here. There’s a lot of ways to make it, that’s the point - for instance, many recipes call for onion in the marinade, but I personally don’t always prefer the onion flavour added. To each their own.

A final note: Fire is crucial here. You can cook this in your broiler or propane grill if you really have to, but ideally you want to cook satay over charcoal. I’ve done all three (and a few times on an indoor electric grill) and the charcoal-singed flavour and smoke is the extra flavour layer to make your satay go from good to great.

Ingredients (to serve 4):

• 4 chicken breasts
• 16-18 bamboo skewers (1 foot in length)
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 stalks of lemongrass, sliced with outer layer removed (see below)
• 2 large cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp chili powder (optional)
• 1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
• 2 tbsp unsalted peanuts, ground into a fine meal (optional)

Serve with: peanut sauce, quartered chunks of cucumber, rice cakes, sliced red onion, fried chili paste or sambal

What you will need: Charcoal grill or a broiler sheet for your oven, a large glass mixing bowl, measuring cups and spoons, large knife and cutting board, serving plate

Directions:

1. Your first task is to prepare the marinade. In the mixing bowl, add all the ingredients except the chicken (and the bamboo skewers, obviously) and lemongrass. I saved the lemongrass for last because you might not know what to do with it, assuming you found it at the grocery. You can watch Pranee prepare lemongrass here. The short, non-video version is that you want to remove the root end and the upper, green and dry parts of the stalk. Then remove the outer few layers of the stalk to get to the softer whiter center. Then slice that against the grain to get a pile of little rings and discs about 1-2 mm thick. You don’t want to make the pieces too small, as we’re going to remove the lemongrass from the chicken before grilling.
2. Next, prepare the chicken. Slice the chicken into long strips (down the length of the breast) about 3-5 inches long, 1/2 inch wide and 1/4 inch thick. As best you can anyway – a thinner cut piece of chicken will be exposed to more of the marinade, so you’ll get more flavour packed into each bite if you avoid putting large chunks of chicken onto a skewer.
3. Put the chicken into the marinade bowl, and use a spoon to stir the chicken around in it. Make sure no chicken pieces stick together. You want an even distribution of marinade over the chicken. Put this in the fridge with some plastic wrap over it.
4. Wait until tomorrow. Seriously. Some recipes will tell you that you can marinate satay for 2 hours and then cook it. Maybe you can, but why not be safe and marinate it for a day? This means you have to plan this meal a day in advance. This is a problem for some people, including me. But it will be worth it. No shit.
5. Let’s assume you smashed together this satay marinade and chicken at about 12:30 a.m. after coming home early from the bar. Now it’s 5 p.m. the next day. That means 16.5 hours have gone by. That’s long enough.
6. Soak the skewers in cold water. Find a plate, or large cup, storage jar, etc that can hold the length of the skewer, and use enough water to cover the entire skewer. They’ll float initially, but as they soak up water, they will sink slightly.
7. Go get a bag of quick-start charcoal and light it up in your grill. By the time you’re done the next step, the charcoal should be ready to grill on. You don’t want to throw shit on the grill before the briquettes have turned white, because before then, there’s still a lot of chemical fumes coming off them. That will make your satay tastes like lighter fluid. It’s not awful, just not the intended result.
8. Take out your marinade bowl from the fridge. Get your soaked bamboo skewers and start threading chicken pieces onto them. Something like this. Take care not to push the chicken pieces together too tightly, or else it won’t cook as evenly (the denser parts will cook slower) Flick the lemongrass discs off the meat. If you tried to eat these, they will be woody and chewy. If you miss a few, whatever, but get the big chunks off for sure.
9. You are ready to grill.
10. Push the coals to one side of your grill and grill the skewers slightly to the edge of the pile of coals. You don’t want to put them directly over the coals as this may cook them too fast and they will get burnt. These are chicken, and chicken requires medium-high heat for about 8 minutes. You’ll know when they’re done because the meat will be firm, edges blackened and the meat directly touching the skewer is no longer pink.
11. Eat it hot! With peanut sauce! You did make peanut sauce, right?

Peanut sauce. I can’t stress that enough.

Nice to have an affordable change-of-pace option for weekday lunch. Today: Korean from a cart. Koh’s Bulgogi cart hangs out at the corner of 9th and F (Portrait Gallery) during most of December, and I hit them up for beef bulgogi and soup. Koh’s frequently changing locations can be tracked here. The bulgogi is good, garlicky, a little dry, but sure beats hot dogs, the only other street food available for blocks around. Better is the side salad — cabbage, spinach, another leafy green or two along with cold noodles in sesame sauce — and the kimchi, which is cubed instead of the usual sliced variety, but packs decent heat and flavor despite less surface area to absorb the sauce. Koh’s also features bibimbop and “bulgogi tacos” which normally I would have been all over but a colleague warned me away, so instead I got today’s special, the fish cake soup, which was not bad, a semi-clear delicate broth with green onions, fish cake slices, and too-large chunks of onion. None of it is good enough for me to want to eat there repeatedly — it’s no Woomi, but then Woomi’s kitchen is a lot bigger than a 4×8 food cart — but I enjoyed it as something different for a change. Tough to find quick, inexpensive takeout at Metro Center that isn’t a chain or a hot dog. Hooray for diverse street food!  I also appreciate Koh’s commitment to environmental responsibility, which is secondary to the food, but a nice bonus.

On 12 Dec Saturday, we met at the lobby of our hotel at 7.30am and set off on the bus to the Great Wall of China. The journey was pretty long so it was a good time for many of us to catch up on our sleep, having been tired out from company visits, networking sessions and late nights out over the week.

There was a lady tour guide who was on the bus with us so she gave us an overview of the history of the Great Wall. All I know (and remember) about it is that the Great Wall was built by the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, and that it’s 6000 km long. Right? :)

We were taken to a place to look at some Jade products, but I don’t think any of us bought Jade there. However, we did learn how to distinguish real jade from plastic and glass imitations. =) Then we were brought to the foot of the Great Wall where we had to walk a little to get to the sliding car terminal to take the sliding car (an extremely slow and relatively unexciting version of the roller coaster) up to the Wall. The view was fantastic and so was the wind, albeit too cold to hold your face to it for more than 5 seconds. As usual, there were cameras snapping here and there.

Since I did not have a camera of my own, I basically jumped into my friends’ shots and took pictures with them. Lol. ^.^ It was an experience not to be missed since we were in Beijing in WINTER and I wouldn’t miss the trip to the Great Wall for anything, even though I was quite tired and I wished it was summer instead. After the Great Wall, we took the bus to the Forbidden City where we were left to wander around on our own. One of the iLeaders, Zhu Ke, had a friend in Beijing, Shi Yao, who took some of us to the Zhong Guan Cun e-plaza to get some electronics. It was then that I purchased a cheap and simple nokia phone since my cheap LG phone which I bought in Sg specially for the trip, dropped into the toilet bowl within the first few days we were in Beijing. =S

Two of the guys – Li Ren and Benjamin bought iPhone lookalikes which we have termed the “uPhone”, for 500 RMB which is a pretty good deal for a phone like that. That evening after getting our stuff, we went to this place with some pretty good street food and met the rest of the iLeaders there. We had hot meatball soup, vege wrap, candied haw and strawberries, pork and chicken satay-like things, tako pachi-like snacks, burger-like meat buns and we even tried fried scorpions!~ ^.^ Yum!

But that was not enough! Zhu Ke’s friend, Shi Yao, brought the whole bunch of us (about 12 ppl) to the small lane near his university (Sports University) for street bbq where we sat on small stools at low tables and warmed our frozen hands with the heat from hot coals in long metal trenches on the tables. Beer and bbq was what we had for supper that night, and I must say it was the company we had that made the food taste so good. )

Nat ^.^

Tag, you're it!

That’s really a funny game!

I’ve been ‘tagged’ by my virtual friend Donna Hull, who has a fabulous blog with a fantastic name: My Itchy Travel Feet, to write my 3 best kept travel secrets. I have to admit, at the beginning I did not really understand what this all was about. Then, I found out this is a superb game launched by creative blogger Katie of Tripbase.com (at least, so I thought from earlier posts…), imitating a game that I believe we almost all played when we were children. Slapping someone on the back and yelling, “Tag, you’re it!” as Barbara Weibel recalls in her blog Hole in the Donut.

Therefore, thanks to Donna I am now sharing my 3 top secrets. I’ve thought for a while at what could be the nicest secrets to share. Then I thought that being Italian I had to focus on one of the most appreciated characteristics of my country: Food. Thus 3 little secrets which I hope you’ll enjoy!

Carapina Ice Cream - Looks so tasty!

• Gelateria Carapina, in Florence: Although Italy is often associated with ice cream, it has become difficult to find good ones prepared according to the handmade tradition. If you happen to visit Florence, I warmly suggest you to drop in on Gelateria Carapina to have an unforgettable ice cream experience. You can choose among traditional flavors and creative proposals. All are fantastic, as they only use natural seasonal ingredients of excellent quality (no chemical powders as it happens so often by now). Last creation? Gelato al Panettone, an original way to follow Christmas tradition!

• Focacceria Revello, in Camogli. It’s just a tiny bakery in the seafront but it displays fabulous local food specialties. The real challenge when you enter Revello is refraining from buying (and eating) everything but a few things are a must. Let’s start with the obvious: focaccia. As for pizza, there are many versions with different ingredients. A must-taste is focaccia alla genovese (plain) and focaccia al formaggio (with cheese). This latter absolutely must be eaten hot, so better wait a few minutes until next one is extracted from the oven to taste something that I find absolutely heavenly. Then you can go on with a slice of Torta Pasqualina and of Torta alle erbe, similar to French ‘quiche’ but filled with local ingredients they actually taste quite different.

Camogliesi. Absolutely delicious!

• One cannot leave Focacceria Revello without buying a few Camogliesi, a sort of ‘bigné’ which are not ‘bigné’ (I mean, they look like, but they don’t taste like. They are by far more delicious!). My favorites are the Camogliesi al Rum, filled with chocolate flavored with a pinch of rum! If you’re lucky enough to visit Camogli by a sunny day, take your delicatessen and have a picnic sitting on the beach and enjoying the view.

Panzerotto! One of the best street food in the world! Photo by *hoodrat* on Flickr

• Luini, Milan: The best of world-wide street food, the temple of Panzerotti! I’d never be able to describe in English what a “Panzerotto” is, thus I rely on this long-tradition bakery self description of its unique delicacy: “Panzerotti dough recipe is a family secret, jealously kept by Luigi, Giuseppina’s son, together with Emanuela e Cristina, the grandaughters. The reason of success and longevity of the historical Luini activity is ascribing to the preservation of the bakery as a family business. The most demanded panzerotto is, beyond all doubt, the classical one, stuffed with mozzarella cheese and tomato”. Located in the heart of Milan, just a couple of minutes walk from Piazza del DuomoLa Scala, Luini is perfect for a lunch break. Don’t let yourself be discouraged by the queue. Tasting a Panzerotto is really worth waiting a while!

And now time has come to finish the game, by ‘tagging’ 5 new bloggers (which does not happen to be an easy task since so many already shared wonderful secrets!):

Alexandra M. Korey at arttrav

Italy and cooking lover Panini girl

Leyla at Women on the road

Aaron and Georgie at Happytimeblog

Mark Sukhija at Marktravelnotes

I was so excited to see saba bananas the other day at this Filipino grocery store I recently discovered in the city.  The first thing that came to mind: I can fry them and make banana-cues!

Banana-cues are deep-fried bananas with caramelized sugar on a stick.  It’s one of my favorite after-school snacks growing up.  Instead of frying them after slicing or mashing like they do in Latin America, Filipinos deep-fry their saba or Philippine plantains whole and then stab a bamboo stick through them to make them a little more handy.

I actually have never made banana-cues before since my mom, of course, made them for us and they’re ubiquitous back home.  Apparently, it’s really simple to do: heat a wokful of oil, roll the bananas in brown sugar and deep-fry them. It’s easier said than done, I guess.  After burning a couple bananas in my first try, I managed to get the sugar nicely caramelized with the rest of the batch.

They were not perfect but they were truly homemade.

The Health Dept. is barring street food vendors from selling seafood of any kind on the sidewalks of New York from here on out. The best part of the post on Grub Street about the new regulation? This comment from someone called Smokedragon: “[Street vendor] Kim’s Aunt’s fried flounder sandwich gets me through Fridays in Lent. I guess the Health Department wants me to go to hell.”

Book: Thai Street Food by David Thompson Theme: Beans Recipe: Crunchy Omelet of Mussels

Week 4 of the Cookbook Challenge! Personally, I feel like this week is a bit of a cheat really. I did use David Thompson’s new Thai Street Food as an inspiration and a guide but I deviated from his recipe so far that it practically was something I made up. Ah well. In fact, I’m even slightly indignant about calling it ‘Crispy Omelet’ as he did because as far as I’m concern egg is an optional ingredient in this dish. I think that’s the main difference between this dish and the Fujian oyster omelet. Well, that, and the fact the mussels, not oysters, are used.

But anyway, I love Thai Street Food. At first I thought, ‘What a silly idea! Aren’t all Thai food sold on the street anyway? What’s the difference?’ Until I had a chance to really flip through the book (I mean the thing weighs a tonne! Who randomly flips through a book that weighs a tonne?) and listened to his explanation of what he meant by street food. ‘Street food in Thailand’, he said, ‘as opposed to home cooking, are those food that are eaten throughout the day as snacks and main meals where a portion is not made for sharing. A single dish food, if you like.’ and that’s when it came to me that I would never find such a book that has all of these recipes. That was when I bought it. And David Thompson signed it. In Thai. Isn’t that cute?

But back to this dish. My mum used to take me around to her favourite hoy tod vendor on the street (of course) near the market where we used to live. It was one of her favourite street vendors (mine was the khao mun gai, chicken rice, lady) She would have hers with extra mussels, no egg and with picked sliced chilli and fish sauce. No Sriracha sauce. I guess it’s one of those childhood street food memory I grew up on. I swear Australia seriously lacks street food culture. You can never be a foodie country without street food culture. No sir-ree. And drinking beer and eating chips outside a pub on a Summer day does not count.

So you might be wondering how the hell is this dish conforming to the theme ‘beans’ – to me this dish is all about the batter and the bean sprouts! Personally, I have made it successfully without mussels (i.e. when I ran out of mussels) but I cannot make this dish without bean sprouts.

First of all, a tip on how to keep beansprouts: place them in a container and fill it with clean water. Change this water every day and you’ll have beansprouts that stay fresh for at least a week (usually it deteriorates when you forget to change the water).

You should not attempt to make more than one serving at a time. And the iron cast pan is really not negotiable. Every kitchen should have one. Don’t buy the expensive one from homeware store. Buy one from a camping store instead.

Preparing the mussels

1. 1/2 kg of mussels (for 2 people)

David Thompson is right in saying that to prepare this dish successfully, you must shell the mussels raw. An impossible task for me as far as I’m concerned. So I cleaned the mussels, place them in a snug saucepan and put them on high heat for 5 minutes. No more. I then tipped them out straight away and shelled them while hot to prevent further cooking. I then put them in the fridge to cool down. It may not be raw when it goes on the batter but it’s the next best thing.

Preparing the batter

I thoroughly cheated here and used a Thai-style premixed batter (i.e. the Knorr’s batter mix) so you can do that if you’d like. The premixed batter would already be flavoured so you wouldn’t need to anything else. David Thompson reckoned mung bean flour which I couldn’t find in a short notice (found it last night, isn’t it ironic). Again, this is for 2 people.

1. 1/2 cup of mung bean flour (I think other very fine flour such as tapioca will be fine)
2. 4 tbsp of rice flour
3. a pinch of salt

Add about 1/2 – 1 cup of water to the batter and whisk to make crepe batter consistency.

Everything else (per serving)

This is per serving. I know it’s confusing because the previous ingredients were given for two but it’s easier this way.

1. 2 cup of beansprouts
2. 2 tbsp of chopped spring onion
3. 1/2 tsp of chopped garlic
4. a sprinkling of fish sauce
5. a pinch of sugar
6. 1 egg
7. 3 tbsp of oil

Okay, first of all, let me make this clear: this is not diet food*. Do not skimp on the oil. Heat an iron cast frying pan (about 20cm) – I use my camping frying pan. It’s perfect. Add the oil to the heated frying pan and wait until it smokes.

Add about 1/3 cup of the batter – spread it a bit into thin pancake (so they are crispy) add a handful of mussels and sprinkle a few pinches of chopped spring onions.

Wait for a few minutes until the edges become golden brown and crispy. Use a spatula to cut the pancake up into 2 – 3 pieces. Flip each piece over and push them to one side. Add the beansprouts, garlic and the rest of the spring onion to cook on an empty space. Crack an egg and scrambled between the pieces of batter. Keep stirring the beansprouts until they soften. Sprinkle a bit of fish sauce and sugar on top of the pieces of batter.

Once the egg is cooked and the beansprouts have softened, take the dish off heat and sprinkle with chopped coriander and serve with Sriracha (pronounced ’see-ra-cha’) sauce, which is a type of Thai chilli sauce (note: not the same as the Vietnamese sriracha sauce, nor as the Thai sweet chilli sauce) Not bad. For something so full of oil!

Thai Street Food, David Thompson, Published 26 October 2009 by Penguine Books Australia

* Josh asked ‘is anything you make ever diet?’

I think I found a new favorite street food snack. The packaging refers to it as dragon brazier charcoal fire dumpling and bread. It’s found in Insadong, along with a lot of excellent street food. The dragon egg fire dumpling comes in two varieties: Bulgogi and sweet potato and walnut. The dough is filled with either delicious option, wrapped in a ball, and slapped on the inside of a hot charcoal fired kettle to cook. The end result is a delicious, crispy, smoking hot dumpling. It costs 2,000 won, and my happy stomach during the last trip to Insadong pretty much solidifies that I’ll be throwing one of these down every time I make a trip to the area.

Manila Street Foods

The local internets were afluttler last week with word of a new addition to San Francisco’s growing street food scene, this time in Hayes Valley. Two factors converged to make this opening a particularly exciting one: 1) Most of the street food action is taking place downtown or in the Mission, so for a new venture to open in Hayes Valley, well, that’s exciting news; and 2) it’s a ramen truck!

(Above: People waiting, and waiting some more, for their bowls of ramen. On a side note, when a truck or business or whatever displays all those social media tags, Twitter, Facebook, etc, does that mean they’re sponsored to do so?)

San Francisco’s ramen scene is lacking. Sure, there are options but we’ve got nothing on New York when it comes to ramen. And why is that? There’s a fairly large Japanese presence here, and god knows there’s enough sushi options to keep people sated in their quests for the perfect serving of uni.

(Above: the menu. We had shoyu and miso.)

Anyway, Shirohige Ramen-Ya’s truck idea is a good one but I’m sorry to report that the ramen isn’t quite there. It’s not bad, but there’s not enough broth for one thing, and the bowls of noodles just lack balance. Which again, might be an issue with the broth, an element that seems to be essential for pulling all the ingredients together. Combined with the obnoxiously long waits — a problem the guys in the truck (who, it must be said, were friendly and polite) attributed to their water supply. That right there is a major flaw, one that hopefully gets worked out rather quickly. Part of the appeal of ordering a steaming bowl of noodles and sliced pork from a street vendor is that it’s, well, served up fast.

Street food exemplifies the very culture we grew up on. That small Chinese restaurant with a full plate of food that will leave you full for hours and only costs $7, or the $4 burger with everything on it is all part of any city’s street food culture. Those who operate these places love the food they make and love serving the people who enjoy it. Grabbing a quick bite has evolved into a true epicurean experience.

How would the street food scene change if there were other businesses that we don’t normally see open at night, stay open late?

99 cent pizza (even though we all know it’s not 99 cents), $2 noodles, a quick steamie hot dog, and poutine are all part of our favorites. What if in the middle of St.-Catherine or in the plateau there was a bakery that closed at 4:00 am? Danishes, croissants, pastries, and who knows, maybe a baguette or loaf of bread can be sold to the late night eaters. After a night of partying, drinking, and hanging out with friends, most of us want a late night snack. Something to satisfy our appetite, but it is much more than that. After “one of those nights” ending it with a quick and enjoyable bite can make a good night into a great one. Sharing a big plate of food, discussing the night’s events is all part of the experience. How many times have we stood on the street and ate our little bowls of food meeting other groups of friends and asking them how their night was? It’s all part of the night.

Street food is more than just food. It is no different than the feelings we get when sitting down for a family dinner. Street food includes the food, the people, the night we had, the weather, the atmosphere, and the experience. Next time you grab a quick bite think of everything that surrounds you, and enjoy it.

Coming soon: Daytime Quick Eats

チャイナタウンからShaftesbury Avenueを北に渡ってすぐ、SOHO（ソーホー）のRomilly Streetにあるチャイニーズ・レストランBa Shan（バー・シャン）。斜め向かいにある四川料理レストランBar Shu（バー・シュー）やカジュアル・チャイニーズのBaozi Inn（バオジ・イン）の姉妹店だ。伝統的な中国スタイルととモダンさがミックスした、落ち着いたインテリアはBar Shuと同じ。一番最初にオープンしたBar Shuは、オーナーのShao Wei（シャオ・ウェイ）氏曰く、「ヨーロッパで最大の四川料理店」で（イギリスは、香港が植民地だっただけあって、広東料理店が多い）、本格的四川料理と批評家の評判も高い。チャイナタウンにあるBaozi Innはもっとカジュアルで、店内は共産党のプロパガンダや毛主席のポスターで飾られ、古き良き革命時代の食堂をお洒落にした感じ。メニューには、麺類や肉まん、餃子等、北京や四川の屋台で食べられるようなストリート・フードが並び、お値段も他の2店に比べて安い。

Ba Shanの料理は、四川、河南、陕西省の小皿料理や麺類、餃子類がメイン。でも、野菜や肉類のメインディッシュもある。量・値段とも、高くもなく安くもなく、多くもなく少なくもなくという感じで、何だか中途半端。味も同じで、可もなく不可もなく。ちなみに水餃子はまあまあだったけれど、ちょっと冷めていて残念。

Bar ShuもBaozi Innもそうだけれど、小さなスペースに置けるかぎりテーブルを置いてるので、狭苦しいし、テーブルも小さく、何皿か注文したら置く場所がなくなってしまう。サービスは、まあどこのチャイニーズもそうかもしれないけれど、良くも悪くも早い。特にお皿を下げるの等は、あんまり早すぎて、急かされている気がした。この3店は雰囲気がいいのが取り柄のお店かな。Bar Shuはまあまあ美味しいけれどね。

Chinese restaurant Ba Shan is located on the Romilly Street in SOHO, just across Shaftesbury Avenue from China Town. It is a sister restaurant of Sichuan Chinese restaurant Bar Shu, across the street, and Baozi Inn in China Town. The interior of Ba Shan is a mixture of traditional Chinese and contemporary style, similar to Bar Shu. Bar Shu, the first restaurant opened by the owner Mr. Shao Wei, is “the biggest Sichuanese restaurant in Europe” according to the owner, and has a good reputation among food critiques as authentic Sichuanese food. Baozi Inn is a casual restaurant decorated with chairman Mao and Communist propaganda posters and is like a people’s diner during the good old revolutionary time in the countryside of China. It offers Beijing-style snacks and the Sichuanese street food such as baozi, dumplings and noodles, and the price is cheaper than other two restaurants.

Ba Shan specialize in small plates, called xiao chi or “small eats”, roadside snacks like noodles and dumplings sold by street vendors, from the Sichuan, Henan and Shaanxi provinces. The price was not expensive but not cheap, and amount of the food was not a lot but not too little, and the food is the same – not great, but not too bad. Their pork dumplings were OK, but it was not hot enough – one another thing to mention.

Like other two restaurants, the space was so small but crammed with as many table as possible, and I felt a bit claustrophobic. The table was tiny as well, and there was no space for several dishes. Their service was quick, good and bad, like any other Chinese restaurants, and I felt rushed. Ba Shan, Bar Shu, and Baozi Inn have nice decor in compare to most Chinese restaurants in London, but that’s it for me, though the food at Bar Shu is quite decent. The place is too small!!

16 Dumpsters

Originally uploaded by dgray_xplane

Last night, Chris pulled together a light dinner for two of chicken salad, multigrain toast, and bruschetta topping. Though I was initally skeptical of eating a mayonnaise-based dish that came from a dumpster, I am still indigestion-free and kickin’ it new school. Admittedly, I have been pondering the pros and cons of dumpster diving ever since I got to Minneapolis.

Fortunately for me, it was Chris who took the first step. He and his friends drove out to a particularly welcoming dumpster (location withheld to preserve the sanctity of the hoard) in the middle of the night and grabbed around $50-$80 worth of groceries, including tangerines, lamb, tons of bread, tomatoes, and convenience food.

One of our acquaintances — Chris’s dumpster field guide — boasts that he hasn’t had to buy groceries for a year now. The prospect is pretty tempting, especially now that Snowmageddon 2009 has already hit the Upper Midwest and the outside temperature isn’t even close to the danger zone for food (40-140 degrees Fahrenheit, last I checked). I’m also living paycheck to paycheck, so the added savings are a pretty big draw. As I’m writing this post, however, I’m chomping on a slice of dumpstered Asiago bread, so I think I’m dancing around a foregone conclusion: snobbery is overrated.

near the four seasons is the Wujiang food street!!!! and within the food street is Yang’s Fry Dumplings(小楊生煎館)!!!

there’s always a line up.. especially when i go buy my breakfast..but the line up is a good thing because you’re sure to get piping hot sheng jian baos..

the sheng jian bao’s are steamed and then pan fried until the skin on the bottom is golden coloured and crispy..

the sheng jian bao is filled with juicy meat and soup (oil again) that oozes out!! and the bottom is so crispy!!!

plus! it’s really cheap! 4.5 rmb for 4 sheng jian baos!

FAIM? OUI OUI!!

Yang’s Fry Dumplings 小楊生煎館

60 Wujiang Rd., Shanghai