back in the states for the holidays and eating old time favorites with family and friends ...

this will be the first of several posts made while on my trip home to america. as i do not relish these trips simply because of the arduous traveling, i do enjoy getting to see my family and spend time with them. this will be my first trip home in 25 months.

i arrived safely on EVA air at newark international airport. i took the nj transit train into nyc's penn station for a great fare of only 15.00 usd and then took a cab uptown to my brother's house for 20.00 usd including the tip (to go by cab from the airport to the house would have been 80.00 usd and taken longer). door to door the trip was 30 +/- hours. we said hello and soon crashed. as i had not slept much on the plane it was easy for me to fall asleep despite my body clock telling me it was 1nooon time and not midnight. the flight was not bad, EVA has good in-flight meals and there entertainment suite is also great. every seat back has a small computer monitor in it and all the music, movies and games are accessed with a very well thought out control/remote.

on the flight from bkk to taipei i had garlic pork and rice, from taipei to newark the main meal i selected was chicken in a tomato based sauce over pasta. these meals came with shredded green salad, fresh baked rolls and dessert. one was a pistachio pudding and the other was coffee crumb cake. both meals also had a small dish of fresh fruit salad with them. needless to say they also gave us all the juice, wine or beer and coffee or tea we could drink. the last meal, an hour before landing was breakfast. i opted for the pork congee over the omelet. having been made in taipei it was great. during the flight EVA offers all the snacks, cookies and drinks you can consume. being an asian based airline this is all part of the regular service at no extra charge unlike usa based carriers who skimp on everything, serve inedible meals and charge for the simplest of beverage service.

i got to watch some great japanese and chinese films as well as some very sophomoric american ones. all in all the flight was good and my luggage arrived along with me.


on sunday after having gotten a few hours of sleep my brother, his girlfriend and i decided to go to china town to have an early dinner. as i am not in new york a lot it was my choice. i picked a great place my brother turned me on too a few years ago when i was there last, shanghai cafe located at 100 mott street. this joint specializes in dumplings, and their soup filled dumplings are superb. we had a basket of steamed crab and minced pork ones. we also had baby bok choy in a thin white gravy, stir-fried string beans, scallion pancakes and batter fried salt and pepper squid.

the entrance at 100 mott street

click this text to see another view of this great place

the menu, i will scan my copy and post
when i get back to my scanner.

the dinning room.

obviously the emphasis is on the food, not the decor.

everything was just as i remembered it except we all agreed that the portion sizes had gotten about 20% smaller. the dumplings are all made fresh and steamed to order. filled with a very aromatic broth and served with a soy based dipping condiment they were great. the squid, which is another of my all time favorites there was lightly batter fired and then covered with coarse salt and sliced green chili peppers that have been scorched in a wok. the string beans are also simply stir-fried with a little stock and light seasoning and the bok choy came swimming in very thin white chinese gravy that does not hide the simple taste of the cabbages. the scallion pancakes were perfectly fried and was not greasy as it can be.

we washed it all down with big piping hot glasses of tea and the total bill was 54.00 usd including the 20% tip.

nikon pic

nokia 6500 pic

the last scallion pancake and the end of the string beans

baby bok choy
the waitress made a point of our recognizing that this dish
was 10.00 usd before ordering

dumpling drone at work.
how they can do this day in and day out is beyond me,
but i am glad they do.

another dumpling drone at work.

the duck shop next door.
i can never take enough pics of ducks in windows, wherever i go.

after dinner we walked 2 blocks across the border from china town into little italy so my brother could get himself a cigar and i had a cup of espresso and bought a half-pound box of pignoli cookies at cafe roma, 385 broome st.

the mulberry street cigar company where my brother gets his fix.

this too is a part of the ritual of going to china town for us. little italy is so close and the two neighborhoods are both well maintained tourist areas that are safe, clean and fun to cruise day or night.

the best thing about these was that the pine nuts were fresh
and did not taste stale as they so often do.

notice this box is tied with string and not taped.
very traditional shop in every manner.

if anyone is in nyc and they wish to go to china town i highly recommend shanghai cafe for a light meal of dumplings. if you want something more than i suggest walking to the other end of mott street to #17 and having something to eat at wo hops. their wor shu op is great (pressed roasted duck in brown mushroom gravy) as well as their sub-gum fried wontons ( shrimp, chicken & roast pork w. broccoli, chinese vegetable & crispy fried wonton) with huge slices of red cooked pork tenderloin. the hot and sour soup, as it is in almost every nyc chinese establishment.

i am writing this post on the amtrak train to brattleboro, vt where my mom will meet me and drive me home. i am sure i will post a bit on her fantastic meals as she is probably the best cook in the family and her food is tops.

my trusted wide-screen dell laptop and my nikon cool pix camera.

looking to up-grade to a better nikon or
possibly a panasonic with the great leica lens.

all of these pics were taken on the train with my
nokia 6500 mobile phone
which has only a 2.0 mega pixel lens.
it was very easy to bluetooth the images to the laptop
for reformatting in ACDSee and to later post
into the blog once i got to my mother's house.

the best food court in the city could very well be at siam paragon now

i had to go to the bank today, sunday, and unlike most other cities, bangkok is very civilized and user friendly. banks have full service branches in the local malls and they're open 7 days a week, and usually from the moment the malls open, until the doors shut. where else can this be done? nowhere as far as i know.

so after i finished my banking i decided to have lunch. i was in siam paragon one of bangkok's newest, largest, and swankiest malls. on the ground floor you will find all the banking and all the food. miles of it. simply awesome to behold. every cuisine, country and taste is represented. i would think that there is not one thing you could think of, from anywhere in the world, that would not be there, unless it is an endangered species, or on re-call by the fda.

i took a cruise through the food court to see what was on for today and a beautiful bowl of duck leg and chinese egg noodle soup caught my eye. so i got my food court debit card from the cashier and ordered a bowl with one extra thigh just for good measure. total cost 200 baht, or $6.00 usd. i was in such a hurry to eat that i forgot to take the picture until i was half way through it, sorry. but i think you'll get the idea.

the duck was falling off the bone when the girl went to slice it, and the noodles were a perfect al dente, just as i like them. tossed with a bit of toasted garlic, mild chili paste and a small spoon of soya, it was as, i always hope to say, simplicity and elegance.

after having my bowl of soup i was in the mood for a pastry and an espresso, so i cruised across to the french patisserie lenotre. there are a few of them in bkk, but this one seems to have the best assortment, and it is all the freshest. most likely because they are doing way more business than the others do.

i had my favorite, mille-fueille. it looks so plain and as if there is nothing to it, but if i could make one half as good as lenotre, i would be very pleased with myself, and a hell of lot pudgier than i am. typically the cream in these things anywhere else gets a tough skin on it and tastes like the bag or the box the mix came in, and the pastry is either soggy or to hard. lenotre seems to have solved both of these problems (i can not imagine having one made buy the chef who taught the locals how to do it - that would be pure heaven no doubt). i took a quick stab at the top and my fork easily pierced through the crispy light leaf of puff. i then turned the fork on it's side to cut off a mouthful. it simply went straight through and the cream, although it smooshed just a tad, held its own and did not squirt out the sides. a truly miraculous feat of patisserie.

upon lifting this treat to my mouth i could smell its subtle aroma and the pleasure that awaited. i placed it on my tongue and i could feel the cream simply melting on touch. perfect taste and not too sweet like so many of the bake shops in this town (and across asia for that matter). the pastry was flaky, and it too began to melt as i savored the moment. just like the soup, it was all gone in a flash. i cleared my throat with half of a double espresso (i was quite surprised when they told me the beans come from bon cafe , thank god they weren't from starbucks), popped the perfect pistachio meringue cookie in, and then finished it all off with the remaining half of my double. total cost for that, 251 baht or $7.60 usd. i remember paying that much for 2 hard-as-nails-dry-like-sand cookies in nyc just a year ago.

all in all, a great 2 course lunch, and a great trip to paragon mall.

some really low quality video clips i took at pargon when it had first opened.

i only had a little nikon cool pix s1, which is what i use to take all of these images and videos.

small, easy to use, easy to transfer to pc, and the software works quite well too.

i simply keep it on my belt in a nylon holster.