[Pigging by Wilfrid: December 7, 2007]
Experts tell me one can't evaluate pizza other than fresh from the oven. Not even as a 'Quick Bite', I suppose.
So I won't. But this aromatic tartufati pie I had sent over from Luzzo's on First Avenue deserves inspection on the premises.
I had thought the implication of the phrase 'Quick Bites' was obvious, not to say unoriginal; but in response to some feedback I'll pedestrianly explain that it is supposed to signal something less than a full review. Most of my full restaurant reviews are based either on more than one visit, or on a visit with enough dining companions that I can sample the menu with some thoroughness.
A quick bite is an opportunity to talk about one or two dishes, or update a previous review because something tried on a subsequent visit is worth mentioning.
Having said all that, I managed to tick the bijou New Yeah Shanghai Deluxe off my long list of Chinatown restaurants I still need to visit. But after breakfasting on a headcheese-packed bahn mi (number one on the menu) at Paris Sandwich on Mott, I had room only for a light lunch at New Yeah.
Slightly distracted by the cute little bridge and waterfall which splits the small front of the restaurant from the not-much-larger back, I remembered to order the recommended Aster Indicus. This may be an acquired taste, cold tart greens finely chopped with specks of bean curd; it had a floral, slightly medicinal flavor, and a little went a long way. Some love it.
This was followed by an unusual eel dish. I am accustomed to big hunks of eel in Cantonese hotpots, or eel sliced and fried with plenty of salt. This dish offered long, slim filets of eel, providing a textural contrast to the noodles, chives and other vegetables. It was good, but very rich - and I like eel.
A dinner a year ago at the popular Fatty Crab had the perhaps unintended consequence of making me crave rather more authentic (and less sugary) versions of Malay and Chinese-Malay cooking. I have some positive things to say about the little Skyway restaurant on Allen Street, but on a recent chilly evening I headed to Overseas Asia on a dark eastern block of Canal. Indeed so many business were dark and shuttered, it was a relief to find the lights on. They sent out good, generous and inexpensive food, among the best I've eaten of its type in the city.
The lobak, like a huge sausage roll in a crispy won ton wrapper was addictive.
First rate. Big, fluffy, not dry, and studded with plump oysters which, if really babies, were delivered at a very healthy birth weight. Best I've tried in the city.
Hainanese chicken. The Malaysia Restaurant, in a narrow alley between the Bowery and Mott, has been my standard for this dish in Manhattan. The O.A. version is just fine, the chicken served at room temperature, of course - just a little chewy, but nicely slippery.
A big bowl of duck soup. Any of these dishes might have served two or three people.
The complimentary dessert led me to reflect, not for the first time, on similarities between Asian and Latin cuisines. Although rice-based, this reminded me of nothing more than habichuelas con dulce, the sweet bean dessert readily available from street carts in Washington Heights.
