I think it’s the color one usually doesn’t want from a boiled egg… so I’m guessing it’s related to ferrous sulfide in some way
stopped by distinctive for seafood rice cakes after the us open today, I can see why everyone liked it as one of the best bites of the day but around the 4th bite, I found myself looking for a little taste contrast, by the end of the first rice cake I started questioning the wisdom of finishing the second rice cake and by the time I finished the 2nd rice cake, I vowed to never, ever order the dish again 
I was there probably not too long before or after you
I know what you mean, though — I realized it was the perfect sharing bite. For the crawl, each square was cut into 3 sticks, so just a few bites of the mochi-ish denseness, which was perfect.
dang, sorry I missed you!
I almost messaged you and @SteveR but then checked the US Open thread for when you guy were going to be there and so I didn’t… next time.
Had a mini crawl of my own today – started at the Ganesh temple canteen and then back to the central area near the subway.
Temple – was all decked out for the Ganesh festival that starts tomorrow. It was buzzy today with organizers and also folks stopping by before the Big Deal tomorrow (which I narrowly missed and not by design).
I got the “Jumbo Idli” which is 2 idli and 2 medu vadas, to go because I wanted to eat dumplings and not fill up on South Indian food! Also madras (filter) coffee, which was suitably strong but a bit milkier than usual and a bit acidic (and I’m making my own with the coffee powder and an aero press, so I’m being all judgy). Idli were fine, but I prefer the ones at Dosa Hut outside or Adyar Anand Bhavan in Manhattan. Vadas were good, but again I prefer the ones at DH or AAB. The price at the canteen is the cheapest of the lot, though.
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They were also giving away Prasad outside – savory and sweet in a takeaway box: bisibelebhath (rice, lentils, and vegetables cooked together), thayir sadam (yogurt and rice with tempering), kesari / rava sheera (sweet cream of wheat).
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Distinctive Food / New York Food Court – Much busier than the last time, with a pre-dinner and dinner crowd. I got a bunch of food to go – Seafood Rice “Balls” (squares), Lions Head Meatballs (which @Dean had highly recommended), and crab and pork XLB (which I really wanted to try last time). The Lions Head are lovely - flavorful, soft, nit heavy, and not overdone on the star anise or 5-spice. The XLB were okay – lovely thin skins and a dainty size, but the flavor of the filling was not a patch on Joe’s or Kung Fu in Manhattan.
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There’s a new gelato place right at the entrance of the mall – big crowd!
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Pupusa Cart (corner of White Bear block) – Another miss from last time, but she had run out of everything but cheese, so I’ll have to go again next time.
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Skewer Cart (same corner) – The guy was just starting up, and I couldn’t wait, sadly.
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Maxi’s Noodles – An @Dean via @DaveCook rec. I went to get frozen wide rice noodles, which I assumed were ho fun which I have been in search of. But they were out, so I picked up frozen wontons instead (with helpful instructions from the lady on how to cook them). The wontons reminded me of the ones I ordered during the pandemic in CA, which is a very good sign.
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New Flushing Bakery – @vinouspleasure rec – but no sponge cake in sight. They did have 2 kinds of egg tarts, though (Portuguese and regular).
TSAoCAA(?) / Bake Culture – cute little bakery I passed on the way to Maxi and popped my head into to look for… yep, sponge cake. Success. Good sponge cake!
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Followsoshi / Dumpling Garden outpost — I picked up frozen siumai for another day.
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(It was pretty late by this point so I cut short my wandering and headed to the Woodside temple, where I walked right into the middle of a festival celebration – I had no idea there was something completely different today before the thing that starts tomorrow for a week. Haven’t been in that kind of crowd or festive atmosphere in a long time, and it was really lovely and happy. Still, mask on. Left with an apple!
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Circling back on the Temple Canteen – I really didn’t love the idlis (bit dense and sticky, I can do that at home on my own, lol) but the vadas were good. Sambar was spicy and average in flavor, chutney was fine.
Next time I’ll skip it and stick to Dosa Hut outside, or just get my South Indian fix in Manhattan.
(I realized too late that I forgot the tastiest thing on the block – the giant Prasad laddoos that have to be bought on the way out of the temple. Got sidetracked by the Prasad box they were giving away.)
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Cross posting so everyone who commented on this thread sees the next group dinner planned:
Eater catches up
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I always order dosa at the canteen, where do you go for southern indian food in manhattan? I’ve just been to pongal and Saravanaa Bhavan, seems like I should try the cart in washington square park…
Which temple is this?
We were dining on the patio at an Egyptian seafood place, the name of which would be a random guess, the table next to us was an Indian couple. They like the temple but prefer Dosa Hut. We have been to neither.
There are other options in Manhattan, but Adyar Anand Bhavan is where I go when I’m being deliberate.
Saravanaa UWS is the closest option if I’m being lazy, but I really don’t like their sambhar / lentils which is a problem if you’re going specifically to eat idli or dosa as it’s a key accompaniment. Too spicy and sour.
(I’ve been boycotting Pongal for years after they misbehaved with a friend.)
Saw this gosh naan (ie naan stuffed with meat) on insta today and wondered how we missed it @DaveCook et al!
Gotta go back — for those tasty diced noodles too!
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I hadn’t been to New World Mall in over three years, but have now been twice in five days. It’s been a mixed bag:
Visit 1:
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Dapanji (big plate chicken) from my long time usual, stall #28 at the far right corner as you come down the escalator. This had been my favorite rendition in years past, but it was a big let down this time. There was an agreeable bite, and an even more agreeable Sichuan peppercorn tingle, but none of the aromatic complexity (star anise and so forth) I’d come to expect. Worst of all, the potatoes were tough. How do you achieve that? The pricing was interesting. In the past there was just one version. For $12 you got essentially a whole chopped chicken. Now there are sizes. I picked the “small” which gave me roughly half the chicken for $11.50.
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Skewers from stall #8(?). That’s the stall with all kinds of refrigerated skewers on display, but few were good. The lamb was terrific, the chicken and chicken gizzards decent, the pork tough, the squid chewy, and the beef unconscionably gristly. I’ve eaten their food in the past and it was a lot better than this.
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An excellent samsa from stall #5, Tarim Uyghur Food. That was the best bite of that visit.
Visit 2:
Inspired by my first visit, and by the reports above, I went back to NWM today and focused almost exclusively on Tarim:
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The lamb skewers were really, really good – perfectly grilled and tender. They asked if I wanted them spicy. I said yes, and so should you.
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The samsa was great again. (They told me the filling is the same as in the “gosh naan”.)
Things went south after this:
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The big plate/tray chicken had even less complexity than the one at stall #28 (or other competitors), less tingle (although there was an occasional green Sichuan peppercorn here and there).
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The big tray lamb was even blander, and the lamb chewy.
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The biggest letdown was the chopped noodle dish, much praised above. It was undersalted, underflavored and underwhelming. To add to these problems there were large flakes of tasteless dried red pepper that my teeth were unequal to. I grimly chewed and chewed, and eventually spat. I had to do a similar chewathon with the small, dry chunks of lamb that flecked the dish. I recognize others might have gotten better, but this is what I got.
While I waited for my order from Tarim, I wandered around, navigated the always semifunctional, mostly semiclean, always inadequate bathrooms at NWM – ye who food crawl so extensively, have ye no bladders? – and got a container of peanuts from stall# 29.
Now, stalls come and go at NWM, but I think Laoma Malatang aka(#16-17) has been there for a while. I’ve had many a happy hotpot from them in the past (dry), but also fantastically wonderful, wonderfully tingly Sichuan peanuts. The ones at #29 were not even close.
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If you haven’t been in more than three years, then stall 28 has changed hands since your last visit. This had been Zhengzhou Noodles (or Zhengzhou Nourishing Noodles), whose first and most famous location was on the ground floor of the Golden Shopping Mall, all the way at the back and up a few stairs. The English name of the current stall might be Xi’an Cuisines [sic], although Xi’an Small Eats would be a more literal translation of the characters.
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The pretty Uyghur gosh naan tasted pretty good too
Shoutout for the Dim Sum Garden takeaway place in the mini food court of formerly followsoshi.
I took a friend on a mini crawl a few weeks ago, and we ended there to pick up frozen dumplings and bbq meats before heading home.
Well, I got home sans the Char Siu pork and ribs I was so excited about, and figured I left them in her car (good eats for someone, at least). But no —she thought they got left at the store, because they sent me further in to put at the cash counter, while the parcel stayed at the meat counter.
A week later, I happened to be back in queens and thought I’d see if they remembered that the food I had paid for got left behind. YUP! With barely a prompt (I left the…) the lady said yes yes! Had the guy cut up exactly what I had paid for, and I left with the forgotten meats (and some more).
Very nice experience.
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