chili oil 辣椒油 (là jiāo yóu)

Li Na does the US Open and chinatown

(Li Na walking around Chinatown. Photo Credit: Joshua Bright for the New York Times)

I just read an excellent profile of 27 year old Chinese tennis player Li Na in the New York Times. Li Na is China's best female tennis player and she competed week before last in the US Open here in New York City and made it all the way to the final 8 but ended up losing to Kim Clijsters. On the day of the interview Li Na was taking the day off of practice because of an injury and the journalist got to interview her while walking around and eating in Chinatown. They began the day at Columbus park down by City Hall and Li Na said, "It's exactly like China." I've often thought the same thing. Retired Chinese-American residents sit in the park during the day playing Chinese chess, playing Chinese musical instruments like the Erhu, or practicing Tai Chi in the morning and it's easy to forget what continent you are on. She says she feels right at home in New York City. “I love New York City,” she said. “People in China say: ‘If you love your children, send them to New York. If you hate your children, also send them to New York.’ ” Ha!

Li Na is from Wuhan, China in Hubei province and when she was little she had never even hear of tennis. A tennis coach saw her play badminton, asked to coach her, and she's been kicking butt ever since. During the Olympics she even beat-out Venus Williams. I've read some interviews with her since her loss at the Open and she seems to haves such a great attitude. I have high hopes for her.

I didn't make it to the US Open this year but I went out to Arthur Ashe Stadium the day before it began for the free open practice day with my friend Laurel. We didn't get to see Li Na play but we saw Djokovic, Sharapova, and funny enough, John McEnroe. He was playing for charity or something but still managed to scream the f-word a bunch. I think I would have been disappointed if he hadn't.

Check out out the article in the Times HERE by John Branch. I totally agree with her thoughts on milk tea. The stuff is so addicting, milk bubble tea has replaced my Pinkberry cravings this summer.

-Nate

how to fold chinese dumplings (jiaozi)

ingredient stalker: what are bamboo shoots?

Bamboo shoots (竹笋尖, zhú sǔn jiān) are the tender edible shoots that sprout out from the ground when bamboo is just starting to grow. Bamboo is actually a grass and there are over 1500 species but not all have edible shoots. I learned this the hard way the first time I came back from China and wanted to cook Chinese food for my family. I went in the backyard and pulled some of the bamboo plants growing next to the shed and brought some back in the kitchen. I was rinsing them in the sink when my dad (a biology major and botanist wannabe) said something like, "doesn't bamboo contain cyanide? Are you trying to kill us?" I did some research and found out that my dad was right. Most varieties have low levels of cyanide in them. The cyanide can be removed by boiling the shoots to leech the poison out, but I don't recommend it. What if it didn't?   

Edible bamboo shoots vary in size from large foot-long shoots to tiny slender shoots. They have a sweet and sour taste similar to artichoke hearts. You can find the sliced versions canned at most western supermarkets and whole shoots (canned and fresh) can be found at asian grocery stores. They taste great in salads or thrown in a stir-fry for extra fiber and potassium. I have yet to see bamboo shoots catch on as an ingredient in Western food dishes... but they should. You can however find bamboo bed sheets and bed bath and beyond and other similar stores in the states. Mary Kate loves them, they're too soft for me.  In China, bamboo is also fashioned into chopsticks, food, furniture, water pipes, helmets, music instruments, paper, and the list goes on and on. 

On a side note, I recently saw the new movie District 9 and I was struck by how much the aliens' facial tentacles resembled slender bamboo shoots. I did some field research and have concluded that Peter Jackson got his inspiration for the Aliens from canned bamboo shoots.  See my findings HERE.

Here's a photo of canned bamboo shoots...

 

chinatown new york soup dumplings (xiaolongbao)

(Grace, at Shanghai Café, serving some of the 1000 dumplings the restaurant serves every day)

I’m always on the prowl for good xiaolongbao (pronounced shou long bou) dumplings. Xiaolongbao are commonly referred to as Soup Dumplings in the West because in addition to a meat filling, they’re full of a flavorful soup broth. You can find Soup Dumplings at a lot of Chinese restaurants, but unfortunately the real thing is hard to find outside of China, specifically Shanghai where they are originally from. I’ve eaten at dozens of restaurants across Chinatown New York and Flushing, Queens (an area in Queens that feels like a city fresh off the boat from China) and I’ve only found one place that has Soup Dumplings that I truly crave: Shanghai Café in Chinatown. I highly recommend the crab and pork Soup Dumplings.

 What makes a good Soup Dumpling? I would gander that it has to do with the thickness of the dumpling skin and the “soup” inside. At the Shanghai Café, the skin is so thin that it’s almost translucent and there is so much soup inside each dumpling, that it’s best to eat them with a spoon so as not to lose the soup. I went there yesterday on the impulse of a craving and while I was waiting for my dumplings, I spoke with Grace, a waitress who has worked at the Shanghai Café at least as long as the six years that I’ve been going there. She was only too happy to talk about why their dumplings are the best in Chinatown. “The dumplings are the best because we only use fresh ingredients,” she told me. “If you come in late in the day maybe there are no more because we run out of the fresh pork and crab meat.”  She said that dumplings are by far their most popular dish with well over 1000 dumplings prepared and sold each day in their cozy-sized restaurant.

Grace then pointed directly at two unsuspecting customers and told me what I already knew: Shanghai Café is a great deal. She said, “see those two college students over there? They just ordered two trays of xiaolongbao, two beers, and green beans and it’s only costing them $12! This is not possible at other places in New York.”

-nate