an open cupboard

Some photos from my recent trip to New York City. Can you guess what they are and where they were taken?

Wandering around Chinatown one evening, I happened upon the Feast of San Genarro, a noisy street fair on the cusp of Chinatown and Little Italy. I’d heard that the Feast of San Gennaro was once a charming event celebrating the Neopolitan heritage of the residents of Little Italy. Sadly, the festival is now a kitschy spoof of its former self. Throngs of people wander from one identical street to the next, surrounded by a mass of vendors all noisily hocking the same cannolis, calzones, and irritating pop music. It all looked so commercial, I didn’t even feel like eating a cannoli. Who knows, the cannolis might have been good. On the other hand, they may have been just as bastardized as the Feast.

On I went, away from Little Italy and into Chinatown. A lot of stores were shut, but many restaurants and some markets were still open. I walked into what I thought was a hole-in-the-wall food shop, which, like Mary Poppins’ bag, turned out to be a quite an extensive Chinese market that was much bigger on the inside that it looked on the outside.

The market is basically a long, wide aisle, stretching from one street all the way through to its parallel. Either end has a take-out section with food rivaling that of any local restaurant. The left aisle has a series of meat, seafood, and confectionary counters, while the right aisle is filled with cured meats and fresh and frozen produce, meat, and seafood. Naturally, I couldn’t resist photographing as much as I could. There’s something satisfying about capturing on flashdisk the smoked duck legs for which you’re lusting. Though not quite as satisfying as actually consuming said foods.

Fresh bao at the deli counter. I believe these are stuffed with shrimp.

The deli section between the fish and meat counters offers “beef tendon balls,” meatballs, “fishballs,” and “fish meat bean curd” balls.

Dainty fresh fish fillets and steaks at the fish counter (I wonder what the “silver fish” tastes like?).

Prawns, shrimp, and very large fish.

Raw and fried chicken feet.

Honeycomb tripe. According to Wikipedia, this might be steamed and served with spring onions and garlic sauce, for example.

These preserved duck feet bunches are in the cured meat section of the store.

Preserved quail in the cured meat section with butchers hanging out behind the meat counter.

Smoked duck legs, smoked bacon, and Chinese sausages.

The sign says “Preserved Duck Head” but they look more like duck necks.

Scrumptious looking goodies ready for take-out.

I’m really curious as to what exactly a turnip cake tastes like. Is it savory? Sweet? I probably should’ve just bought one and put it in my carry-on.

Lotus seed buns, red bean buns, and muffin-looking rice cakes in the bakery section.

I must have some sort of weird magnetic aura that attracts Israeli Knesset members. The other day I walked right past Silvan Shalom—former Israeli Foreign Minister—in the crowded theater district after seeing “The History Boys.” It’s pretty common to spot celebrities casually walking the crowded streets of New York, but I would sooner have expected to run into David Bowie buying a carton of milk than an Israeli MK looking anonymous among the post-theater throngs.

On the food front, I ate dinner at Four Food Studio and Cocktail Salon last night (no seriously, that’s the actual name of the place). Contrary to what you might think, the wait staff does not cut and style guests’ hair before, during, or after dinner. Rather, Four specializes in fusion style cuisine based on the seasonal foods of Long Island, a laudable concept for a local restaurant.

We started our meal with a basket of warm country style bread with soft butter, followed by the fairly pleasant house cheese fondue. The market salad, punctuated by kernels of fresh corn, and bits of chevre and bacon, was quite good.
For the main course, I had cappuccino dusted rare ahi tuna with jasmine rice pilaf and a sweet eggplant concoction consisting of small, meltingly soft chunks of eggplant. The tuna steak was perfectly seared a thin pale beige on top and bottom, remaining dark pink within. The steak, beautifully speckled with cappuccino (finely ground espresso?), was both delightfully meaty and soft, as you might expect a tuna steak to be.

The dessert menu included such whimsical offerings as “Chocolate Coca Cola Cake with Tahitian vanilla ice cream” and “Coffee and Donuts,” comprised of bread pudding made from donuts and Turkish coffee ice cream with caramel sauce. I don’t care for very sweet desserts, so I ordered a scoop of the vanilla and Turkish coffee ice creams. Both were excellent.

Service is attentive and generous. Our waiter Josh kindly arranged a vegetarian dish with the chef in order to accommodate my veggie brother. Be sure to take some money with you to the restroom, as there’s a nice person there whose job it is to open the tap for you and hand you a paper towel (a bit much for me, but hey, it’s a job). Similarly, several valets are available to park your car for you when you arrive, not that parking is particularly difficult in Melville.

Following dessert, Four serves a large, fluffy ball of pink cotton candy along with the check. The candy floss symbolizes the ethos of the place: deliberately silly, but fun, and pretty tasty, if a little sweet. That the giant wad of fluffy sugar arrives atop a large wine glass points to the restaurant’s ultra-trendy vibe. In all, a fun place to eat on Long Island.

Four Food Studio and Cocktail Salon
515 Broadhollow Road (Rte. 110)
Melville, NY 11747
631.577.4444

I’m on vacation in NYC, hence the slowdown of posts. Foodwise, I’ve had:

• A corned beef sandwich on rye with mustard at Katz’s, which, I’m sorry to say, was better than the corned beef I make at home.
• Some sort of rice and red bean pastry from a Chinese bakery in Nolita. It was covered in sesame seeds, slightly crisp on the outside, and chewy on the inside. The pastry was filled with sweet red bean paste.
• An H&H bagel with cream cheese and Scottish lox, which is almost as good as Norwegian lox. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a proper, boiled bagel, rather than a bun with a hole in it. I recommend the pumpernickel bagel.
• Chocolate cake at My Most Favorite Dessert Company.
• Perfectly grilled, rare lamb chops at Blair Perrone steak house, courtesy of my sister and brother-in-law (thanks, guys!).

Other than eating, I’m doing the usual New York City thing—museums, shows, taking photos of buildings like a crazed tourist.

That’s about all the news that’s fit to print. I’m going to go polish off the rest of my corned beef sandwich for breakfast.