Menudo at Tortelleria and Tacos in Baltimore

A guilty pleasure of mine is Menudo. A Mexican dish, it's basically a soup made of tripe cooked for a long period of time with chile peppers and spices. You add onion, oregano, and lime juice to the soup and eat it with some corn tortillas. So good, but not so great on my cholesterol level.

Fusion tacos

In an attempt to eat up food in our fridge, I made two types of tacos with some non-traditional fillings. Even though I learned to make tortillas from masa and roll them by hand last night in my Mexican cooking class, I still had about half a kilo of tortillas in my freezer from Tortelleria and Tacos in Baltimore that I had to use up.

Besides cheese, tomatoes, and guacamole, I sauteed chopped onions with char siu (Chinese roast pork), seasoned with some honey and soy and spiced up with red pepper flakes.

For the other ones, I sauteed up ground pork with sun-dried tomato tapenade from Metropolitan Bakery in Philly. The tapenade was nice and basil-ey so just some black pepper and herbs de provence were the only other spices added.

Jell-O Cupcakes

Inspired by Rose's in Hampden, I decided to make my own Jell-O cupcakes for my friend's Ghetto Housewarming/Going Away Party (I won't go into the details of how one can throw a simultaneous moving in-moving out party). At any rate, the Jell-O of choice was cherry flavor -- about 1/2 the pack went into the batter. And instead of Reddi-Whip as frosting as they do at Rose's (which I didn't think would last through hours at a party), I dissolved the other 1/2 the Jell-O in hot water and mixed that into a basic buttercream (sweet butter and confectioner's sugar). Finished off with colored sprinkles of course!

Witherspoon Bread Company, Princeton, NJ

Everytime I go into here - with its racks of loaves, baskets of croissants, and case of sweets - I get indecisive and wish I could order one of everything. N. is a fan of the sausage fritatta sandwich - at $2.50 one of the best deals in town.

Today I was in a sweet mood, so I got a ficelle with nutella and mascarpone, and a chocolate brioche. The brioche was a bit too dessert-like for breakfast, but the ficelle was just right - crusty chewy bread with a thin layer of sweet hazlenut and cheese. On my salty mood days I like their walnut and blue cheese bread or grana cheese bread.

Caffe Swish, near Columbia University

The NY Times food section a few months back did a little neighborhood overview of "new" Harlem, and mentioned Caffe Swish, even though I don't really consider this area Harlem anymore. It's even more Columbiaized than when I lived there 10 years ago. A couple of bartenders I knew tried to dub the neighborhood SOHA (SOuth of HArlem), but it never really caught on. The neighborhood has just too many annoying college kids to ever be cool for hipsters. I think Soha, the bar, still exists though on Amsterdam Avenue.

At any rate this Pan-Asian joint was OK -- didn't blow me away but decent and cheap. I have no idea if they are sister restos with the downtown Swish Cafe. I guess their signature is shabu-shabu (Swish for the swishing of dipping meat in broth), but it was a balmy Saturday evening, so a bit too hot for shabu-shabu. My cousin had this fusion dish above -- grilled chicken and mesclun, served sandwich-style between scallion pancakes.

Other dishes ordered included miso ramen with salmon, and a Thai duck dish served in a basket over an open flame. Thankfully I didn't get E.coli from the spinach in the ramen.

CAFFÉ SWISH
(212) 222-3568; 2953-55 Broadway (115th Street)

Lower East Side, 5 Years Later

I lived in Lower Manhattan during September 11th, and one of my strong memories was a meal I ate only a few days after the attack. My brother had surprised me and journeyed into New York by train, despite my warnings against doing it, and I was so frazzled that I left my office in the middle of the day, and took him home. That night, not knowing what to do, we went to a restaurant nearby, Prune. There was something satisfying to sit together and have a civilized meal, and I felt calmed after eating, probably the first time in days. Moreover, the staff at the restaurant thanked us very sincerely for coming out, and keeping them afloat in that difficult time.

Today I found myself having lunch on the same block as that dinner five years ago. The kiosk near the F train has turned into an extension of Veselka, a East Village Ukranian diner. I enjoyed a kielbasa and fresh saurkraut sandwich on cibatta bread, eating al fresco on this strangely beautiful and haunted day. I was reminded that meals are a good time to gather people together, and I think I need to get some dinners with friends and family soon.

Super Star East Chinese Buffet

So like everywhere else in the US, Princeton (well actually West Windsor) has one of those big box malls with the Wal-Mart and Home Depot and Target etc. And as in most of these places, there's an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. Now lest you think I pooh-pooh a place like this just cause I'm Chinese, I actually love it.

Of course they have crab rangoon and General Tso's chicken, but they also have tons of stuff that clearly are catered to Chinese people like whole fried little fishes, shrimp with heads on, ti pang (roast pork butt), chicken feet, and tripe stew. (Again, sorry for the crappy cell phone pics). Mostly I like going for lunch on weekends, solely for 2 items: the congee with 1000-year-old egg and the sesame sticky rice balls in syrupy soup (tang yuan) for dessert. I think I once ate 3 bowls of the former and 2 bowls of the latter.
Unfortunately we went for dinner tonight, so they didn't have either of my two favorite things, those being breakfasty dim-sum dishes. I'll remember to bring my camera next time I go for lunch. I had to settle for a close second in favorite type of Asian dessert -- dou hwa (silky tofu with honey syrup). Not quite as good as the dou hwa window vendor on Mott Street in Chinatown NYC, but I think part of that appeal is just getting it scooped up steaming hot from a giant wooden bucket and eating it on the street.

Super Star East Buffet, 311 Nassau Park Blvd, Princeton, NJ 08540 (Here's a tip: avoid the sushi. Also another touch that felt just like Asia with all its glorious cutesy cheesiness -- when it's someone's birthday they blast "Happy Birthday" sung by little kids "It's a Small World"-style over the PA system!). Don't know the name or address of the dou hwa window, but just walk south down Mott Street from Canal and keep an eye out for the window on the East side of the street before you get to Pell.

Tomatoes Out the Wazoo

So despite my un-green thumb and the overeager weedwhacking of the lawn guy hired by our landlord, we managed to grow tomatoes this summer. Of course this meant a valiant effort to eat tons and tons of tomatoes -- lots of homemade sauce for pasta and enchiladas, and lots of caprese salads. My grandmother ate a tomato and drank a glass of milk every day and she had great skin and jet-black hair till the day she died. Maybe she was on to something there...