Flavor: What We Thought We Knew Is Wrong
The only thing worse than beets is goat cheese.
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Lobster Cantonese in Manhattan or suburbs?
Monday night I had great lobster Cantonese at Chan's Dragon Inn on Broad Ave in Ridgefield NJ. It's about a ten-fifteen minute drive once you get over GW bridge. They make all the old fashioned Cantonese and polynesian dishes including ribs, pu pu's, subgum wonton, dark fried rice and great mai tais and zombies. It's a real throwback and we love it. Ask for david the owner and tell him Scott sent you.
Responses to Comments by scottk
Flavor: What We Thought We Knew Is Wrong
One of the most delicious dishes I ever had was a bite of my friend's vegetable Napoleon which included roasted beets AND goat's cheese. I was very sorry I did not order it and every opportunity to find something similar has been a disappointment.
We were eating at Nana's which is an excellent restaurant in Durham, NC which has far more sophisiticated eating opportunities today than in the past. Matha's good friend Sara Foster has her place offering fresh and delicious American fare right around the corner from Nana's.
I think that America's palate overall has become much more sophisitcated over the last 30 years and the breads and cheeses and fine French culinary experiences etc that were concentrated in large metropolitan areas are now much more readily available including central North Carolina. Pork barbecue is no longer the only excellent thing to eat here!
My mother drank instant coffee and served us canned asparagus. I can't imagine having to consume that low level quality of sustenance by choice.
Yes, there are many depressing examples of inauthentic and homogenized foodstuffs available to the undiscerning public. But I remember TV commercials for making pizza at home from a box of ingredients included canned sauce and a sprinkling of dry, tastless ersatz parmesan cheese.
We've come a long way baby.
dnc
Flavor: What We Thought We Knew Is Wrong
JerseyWarren, you are SO right! I live in Flint, Michigan and if I want a hamburger I still go to Halo Burger where they make them the same as they did back when I was a kid in the forties. When I want Italian food, I make it here at home. If I want Mexican food, I make it here at home. Having lived a few years in Queens, NY, my Neopolitan landlady taught me how to cook Italian, and having lived many years in Texas, I know how to cook mexican food. I have pretty much given up eating in restaurants that can be found in any city in the US and just stick to the same little places where I ate in the different places I have lived that have been carried on by the families who started them so many years ago. Nothing can compare!! And, I love beets AND goat cheese!
susi
Flavor: What We Thought We Knew Is Wrong
JerseyWarren, I agree with you whole heartedly. That is one of the reasons that I tend to enjoy our meals cooked at home, from scratch.
Flavor: What We Thought We Knew Is Wrong
Whatever determines a person's sense of taste appears to be mutating (downward) during my lifetime. Cases in point: During the 1960s, every pizzeria I visited was owned by Italian immigrants and produced true Neapolitan pizza. Most hamburger places sold charbroiled hamburgers. Jewish delicatessens sold bagels worthy of the name, and every supermarket carried Italian and French bread with a crust as crisp as any bread sold in Europe.
Now we have two generations of Americans who have grown up on Pizza Hut selling ersatz "pizza," McDonald's selling bland, tasteless hamburgers, bagels with all the character of a hamburger bun sold in every 7-11 in America, and an epidemic of Olive Gardens and their immitators serving "breadsticks" that are neither real Italian breadsticks not real Italian bread, but some like a Wonder brown 'n' serve roll that hasn't been quite baked long enough!
I call this "downward evolution."
Maybe it's simply that "fly-over" America simply has not quite caught up with the New York metropolitan area yet. However, with very little immigration from Europe to reinforce the taste bud gene pool, I'm not sure if we'll every get back to the golden era of true European-American food.
Lobster Cantonese in Manhattan or suburbs?
Take a walk through Chinatown and look at menus posted outside. You'll probably find what you're looking for within three blocks, and all that menu-reading will serve as a very effective appetizer.
Or if you like planning ahead, check out this
menupages search I just did for you.
Please let us know if you find what you're craving!
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