Fish Market

Location: Fish Market on Aðalstræti in Reykjavik, Iceland (fiskmarkadurinn.is)
Occasion: Our fancy dinner of the trip
Edibles: chef's tasting menu (8900 ISK, or ~$75), courses detailed below

Musings: A friend absolutely raved about this place, so I went ahead and made reservations well in advance of our trip. We actually came here twice, once for lunch and once for dinner. (Since the cod dish I ordered at the lunch turned out to be the sixth course of the dinner, I figured one post would cover it.)

The restaurant has a trendy, eco-hip style of décor with lots of natural woods, rough-hewn stone, etc. The dining room is split into two levels. We ate both times on the lower level but I prefer the look of the upper level, particularly for lunch. Being half underground, the lower level is quite dim and dreary during the day. Something to keep in mind if you're making reservations.

Most of the smaller tables in the lower level are up against the back wall, with one person sitting on a long bench that runs the length of the wall, and the other person in a chair. I was the person on the bench both times, and I note that the fake plastic bamboo plants were quite bothersome, poking me in the back and snagging in my hair multiple times.

As with the tapas place, our table was quite close to the kitchen, affording us a good view to spy on the team in action. The chefs were pretty calm and the place was scrupulously clean. However, the long and narrow space didn't look to be very well laid-out and people did seem to get in each other's way a fair amount.

Our first courses were langoustine tempura with a seaweed salad and honeydew melon, and mussels with bonito in lobster broth.

A less-than-stunning start. I thought the deep-frying completely overwhelmed the delicate flavor of the langoustine, and broth for the mussels was likewise quite powerfully smoky and pungent. I also found an untrimmed beard on one of the mussels. Tsk, tsk.

Our third course was mink whale sashimi with two sauces - a wasabi cream cheese, and a lemon soy sauce.

The whale tasted the most like beef to me; Yining perceived more fishiness and likened it to a gamey tuna. I liked the wasabi cream cheese for its richness but Yining thought it was an odd note.

What struck me the most about this course (and the sashimi I ordered at the lunch) was how bad the knifework was. The whale was presented in clumsily hacked, lopsided slices. It's like the chef only got the basic concept of serving raw fish, completely missing the finesse element of Japanese culinary philosophy.

Next up was a romaine salad with wasabi dressing, fried quail eggs, soy jelly and mandarin oranges. The dressing was lovely and delicate but balance of the salad was off, with too much of the salty soy jelly.

Salmon nigiri, salmon cucumber maki, tuna and scallop sashimi.

Again, substandard knifework, particularly on the tuna. The rice in the sushi was horrible, overcooked and almost mashed into a paste. The quality of the seafood was good, but frankly you can get better made sushi at the takeout place around the corner from my apartment back home.

Cod with cherry sauce, an unidentifiable white sauce, sunchokes and celery, on top of some kind of purée.

Probably my favorite course, but still, there were problems. First, there was just too much going on. Too many flavors and sauces piled on top of the wonderful fish, a cacophony where a couple of strong accents were all you needed. When I had it at lunch, the cod was perfection - really rich and tender, each flake almost like silken tofu on the tongue. At dinner, one piece of fish was significantly smaller than the other and got overcooked to the point of dryness. Also, the dish was much saltier the second time around. And the sunchokes were poorly trimmed.

I know, I sound like a Grumpy Gus. But we went in with certain expectations and instead just kept getting disappointed every course.

Next, chargrilled salmon with potatoes, with a side of broccoli-raisin-walnut salad in creamy dressing.

The salmon was cooked perfectly but that broccoli salad was the worst thing in the whole meal. I think the first word that popped into my head upon tasting it was "disgusting." I almost spit it out.

The final savory course - lamb with sweet potato croquettes and shittake mushroom.

The famous Icelandic lamb was terrific, and cooked to perfect doneness. But, once again, the chronic problem of questionable composition interfering with the purity of the raw ingredients. The dish needed salt, the sauce was too sweet, and the mushroom overpowered the other flavors.

Dessert was white chocolate cheesecake; chocolate cake; crème brûlée; chocolate ice cream and pineapple sorbet. Unremarkable. Unrelieved sweetness across the different items - a little acidity for contrast would have been welcome.

Bottom line, I just don't like what this chef does. On the raw dishes, not enough care with the knifework. On the cooked dishes, not enough editing. Instead of fumbled attempts at innovative flavors, I'd love to see some restraint. Emphasis on finesse and skill. Let the amazing local ingredients shine. They deserve it.

Noodle Station

Occasion: Pre-pub-crawl snack
Location: Noodle Station at the intersection of Skólavörðustígur (damn - that took 5 min to type!) and Týsgata in Reykjavik, Iceland
Edibles: beef noodle soup (950 ISK or ~$8)

Musings: We weren't expecting much and popped in out of curiousity more than anything. How *is* Chinese food in Iceland?

Pretty mediocre, as it turns out. Neither the beef nor the broth were very good - the former being tough and chewy, and the latter tasting completely artificial and chemical-y. Pass on this one.

BBQ Village

Occasion: Yet another meat-a-palooza shenanigan with Yining.
Location: BBQ Village on Northern Blvd in Flushing, Queens (bbqvillage.net)
Edibles: bbq'ed meats galore, all you can eat for $30

Musings: We went during ultra peak hours (i.e. regular weekend dinner) and paid the highest price on their matrix. You can get a better deal for more inconvenient time slots. On weekdays it's $25 per person. And the late night special is hard to beat - after 10pm on weekdays it's $17 per person, and after 11pm on Friday and Saturday, 10pm on Sunday, $20.

The meats all looked fresh and were of a decent quality. Be careful not to overcook the beef - it goes from juicy and tender to tough and chewy in about 30 seconds. Surprisingly, the pork kalbi was our favorite. It stood up to erratic cooking times really well and had the same yummy marinade as the beef.

There's also a selection of cooked dishes, vegetables, soup, rice, and fresh fruit for dessert. I quite enjoyed their braised short ribs and was hard-pressed to stop at just one bowl of rice.

This is a niche restaurant - all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ is not for everyone. If you are usually satisfied with a normal-sized Korean dinner, you might as well stay in Manhattan at the weekend prices. Meat-tooth that I am, even I don't think I'll be shlepping out to Queens just for BBQ Village.

In the end, transportation's the biggest hurdle. The closest LIRR stop is Broadway in Queens. After dinner, you might decide (as we did) to walk to the Flushing Main Street stop, about 20 minutes away. If you're headed back to the city in a rental car after some event, the late night special might be worth considering.

Asia Dog

Location: Brooklyn Flea in Williamsburg (asiadognyc.com)

The Vietnamese-style Vinh dog (on the left) was disappointing. The carrots and the daikon weren't pickled long enough and tasted pretty bland.

The Thai-style Sidney dog (on the right) was better. The mango relish is a lovely condiment for a hot dog (though it'd be even better with a homemade chicken sausage). I think the ingredients minus the fish sauce would make a great lobster salad too. Yining immediately agreed that we have to try it.

Regular dogs (beef, chicken or veg) are $4 each or two for $7. Organic dogs are $5 or two for $9.

All told, Asia Dog was not particularly memorable and, by itself, is not enough to drag me off my island. The flavor combinations are thoughtful and interesting but the hot dog is dragged down by the grocery-store quality meat and bun. They should definitely consider making their own sausages. Or, at the very least, sourcing some fresh local stuff.

Momoya

Occasion: Post-movie dinner
Location: Momoya on 7th Ave and 21st (momoyanyc.com)
Edibles: chef's choice sushi dinner

Musings: Of course, I walked out of "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" just starving, and dying for sushi. After a few blocks of aimless wandering failed to uncover a sushi place, I asked a gay guy walking his dog for a recommendation (because a dog's a good indication that the walker lives in the neighborhood). The guy sent me to Momoya. (Hilariously, he didn't remember what corner it was on in terms of ordinal directions, but did remember that it was where some bar or club named Merkin used to be. Oh, New York.)

The chef's tasting included ten pieces of nigiri sushi and one roll. The Black Dynamite roll I picked had a bit too much going on with two sauces and multiple fillings.

The sushi was likewise overly complicated. There were lots of garnishes piled on top that made it impossible to dip the sushi in soy sauce. And they didn't make much sense, e.g. a slice of jalapeno and some caviar on the fluke. The best pieces were the eel and the rock crab.

A nice dinner, and one that certainly hit the spot after the movie. But not worth $50.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Directed and produced by David Gelb
Featuring Jiro Ono of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a three-Michelin-star sushi restaurant in Tokyo

My review: 4/5 stars

If you like food porn, this is the movie for you. Macro shots of the sushi just fill the screen with their vibrant colors and varied textures. The way with slices of fish repose, glistening under a thin glaze of sauce.... it's sexy stuff. From the visual style alone, you can tell that the filmmaker loves good food.

Jiro clearly loves food too. His dedication to his craft is simply mind-boggling. His work ethic, and attention to detail, his drive to innovate and perfect - he puts even NYC workaholics to shame. The movie is a great character study, and provides interesting insight into Japanese culture. Not just Jiro himself, but his staff and his suppliers all pride themselves on being shokunin, the very best at what they do. And almost none of their knowledge comes from formal education - instead, it's built on decades of practical experience.

The rice dealer: [I'm paraphrasing] "The Grand Hyatt asked to buy the same rice. I said, only Jiro's apprentices can cook that rice. You can't cook that rice with just big talk. If Jiro says you can buy it, I will sell it to you." (At which point Jiro agrees that the particular rice he buys is very hard to cook, requiring a lot of pressure.)

[Note: The film picked up a North American distributor, Magnolia Pictures. In fact, it was the first sale at Tribeca this year. So hopefully it'll be publicly released soon!]

Social Eatz

Occasion: Lunch with Meredith and Mike, with lots of ex-Death Star crew
Location: Social Eatz on 53rd between 2nd and 3rd (socialeatz.com)
Edibles: I had the bulgogi burger and fries, and a bite of Meredith's spring rolls and chop salad

Musings: Social Eatz is the new eatery of Top Chef Season 7 finalist Angelo Sosa. It's Asian fusion - not exactly a shocker for anyone who's seen Angelo cook on TV. But I actually like the concept here - Asian-inspired burgers, tacos, etc. Casual streetfood, in a yuppie diner setting. The menu's got some cheeky, fun items like the Imperialist Hot Dog, and some cringingly pretentious ones like the Chili-Kissed Tilapia Tacos.

The shrimp and chicken spring rolls were flavorful, but surprisingly heavy considering the ingredients. The chop salad not a hit with the table - it's a tiny little portion, and the so-called six minute egg was barely cooked long enough to hold together. Meredith rightly avoided the egg; the runny yolk would have completely drowned the small amount of lettuce.

I got the bulgogi burger with a side of fries. First of all, potatoes are dirt cheap, Angelo - your burgers should come with fries. Second, my burger was way underdone. I mean, it was literally half raw. Not rare. Raw. I practically like my steaks still mooing, but that burger was on the borderline of what I'd eat (v. what I'd send back and ask them to cook longer). Another person in our group left her burger patty half uneaten for the same reason. So please ask your diners how they like their burgers.

That said, I think the concepts of the bulgogi burger, bibimbap burger and Korean taco are genius. I love the salt-sweet flavor of the beef, accented by the tart bite of the pickles. I'd come back to try those latter two.

Ember Room

Occasion: Pre-theatre (Importance of Being Earnest) dinner with Amy, Howard, Brigid, John and Josh
Location: Ember Room on 9th between 45th and 46th (emberroom.com)
Edibles: I had the miso eggplant and the oxtail; Josh had the shrimp satay and Korean BBQ fried rice; we also had the mushroom salad, chocolate baby back ribs and the slider trio on the table, among others (I don't remember precisely who ordered what)

Musings: Ember Room is a new Todd English restaurant in the Hell's Kitchen / theatre district area. Unsurprisingly, the service felt like it hadn't quite settled down into a comfortable routine yet. We were eating pretty early and the restaurant was half-empty, but they had a bit of a delay in seating us and then didn't have enough menus to go around once they did.

The waitress recommended that we order tapas-style and share, but the portions are so small that they're really only practical for two people to share, not a whole table. The only dish big enough for multiple people to try was Amy's mushroom salad.

I was not impressed by the food, as I'm generally not by fusion cuisine. I thought my two dishes tasted overly sweet, and flavors were heavy-handed and muddled. It's like the food that was all the rage twenty years ago when chefs though it would be rad to put soy sauce, miso and wasabi in everything. With all the delicious, authentic and cheap Asian food available in the city, why bother with this junk?

The hunt for a good theatre district restaurant continues....

Chai

Occasion: Pre-theatre (Arcadia) dinner with Winnie and Erin
Location: Chai on 55th and 8th (chai-restaurants.com)
Edibles: duck salad; beef stir-fry; cold glass noodles

Musings: We tried this place reluctantly, having not budgeted enough wait time to get seated at Yakitori Totto. The theatre district is infamous for having dismal dining options, and unfortunately Chai is a place that proves the rule.

It's a tiny space, and they really crammed the tables in. The table next to ours was pretty much inaccessible. The waitress had to reach over our heads to serve them, and couldn't even fill water glasses without the diners passing them to her. If the owners were really so desperate for extra seats, they should have foregone the large water fountain behind our table. Which is quite poorly situated anyway - I kept worrying I'd knock my purse or my coat into it accidentally.

When it came time to order, they didn't have any of the three dishes Erin wanted to try. I also heard them tell another table that they only had two of their desserts available, one of them being just ice-cream. My guess is that they were too ambitious with the menu when they started out, and have since trimmed it drastically to keep food waste down.

Of the dishes we ordered, the beef was the only decent one. The cubes of beef were surprisingly tender and the dish overall was pretty flavorful. The glass noodles were completely waterlogged, like they hadn't drained the noodles properly before dressing them. The duck salad the worst - the pieces of duck were totally dessicated and tasted like nothing so much as balsa wood.

In any other NYC neighborhood, this place wouldn't last three months. But with a steady stream of clueless theatre-going tourists, who knows? Do yourself a favor at least, and give Chai a wide berth.

Xi'an Famous Foods, part II

Occasion: More food court explorations with Mom
Location: Xi'an Famous Foods, also in the Flushing Mall food court - 39th Ave off Main St in Flushing, Queens
Edibles: lamb (or possibly goat - it's the same word in Chinese) offal soup; noodles with braised pork and cabbage

Musings: If you're wondering why I'd order such a crazy-sounding soup, let me state for the record that I've had it in Asia and, when done right, it can be awesomely tasty. The key qualifier, however, is "when done right." As it certainly was not, here.

I had one spoonful and that was plenty. All the unpleasant tastes that offal can impart were all there in that one soup - the bitter chemical taste of digestive organs, the iron-blood taste of liver, the general gaminess of lamb. Ugh. My mom had a little more than I did, but eventually even she had to concede that it was just awful. After a few minutes, I actually had to get up and throw it out - even the smell was making me a bit queasy. Epic fail.

The hand-cut noodles with braised pork were better, but also a bit lacking in technique. Some of the noodles were really thin while others were really thick and doughy, and almost all of them were too long to eat in a single bite. The braised pork was yummy, though.

[Note: As unlikely a dish as it is to order in a food court, the steak may be the way to go. A couple sitting nearby had one and it looked great.]

Ay Chung

Occasion: Lunch with my mom
Location: Ay Chung, in the Flushing Mall food court - 39th Ave off Main St in Flushing, Queens
Edibles: cuttlefish soup

Musings: Too hungry to wait patiently for a table at the always-crowded Asian Jewels, we popped across the street to the Flushing Mall food court.

We started with Ay Chung's cuttlefish soup. It's actually pretty good - a cornstarch-thickened bonito broth, lots of cuttlefish dumplings and lots of fresh cilantro. A nice little snack for around $3.

OBao

Occasion: Lunch with my mom before some furniture shopping
Location: Obao on 53rd between 2nd and 3rd (obaonyc.com)
Edibles: fried tofu app to share; I had the pho and Mom had the Singapore-style laksa with spicy coconut broth

Musings: My mom loves Ariyoshi, and that's where we had planned to go, but it turns out they're not open for lunch on weekends. Boo. We walked in to OBao, a new place in the old work 'hood.

First thing I noticed was that the restaurant is very dim, so if your seat faces the windows, the light will hurt your eyes. You will not want to linger. (Which I guess works in the restaurant's favor.)

As for the food, the fried tofu app was a nice big portion, about 15 cubes piled into a little wok. Good to share. Unfortunately, both noodle dishes were mediocre at best. The broth on the pho tasted like it came from a can and was loaded with MSG. The noodles in my mom's laksa were mushy.

Finally, an Asian restaurant charging $4 for tea is nothing short of highway robbery. Just ridiculous.

If I still worked at the Death Star, I'd probably find myself eating lunch here occasionally, if only for variety's sake. But OBao is certainly nothing to go out of your way for.

Kang Suh

Occasion: Pre-Knicks dinner with Robert, Nimish and Jenny
Location: Kang Suh on 32nd and B'way (kangsuh32.com)
Edibles: japchae (stir-fried glass noodles); seafood scallion pancake; kalbi (bbq short rib); ddeokbokki (cylindrical rice cakes in spicy sauce); bibim bop (rice with fixins'); plus lots of little dishes (complimentary; chef's choice but always includes kimchi)

Musings: I've been coming to Kang Suh for over ten years now. To be brutally honest, the food is solid but the décor is perfunctory, the service is brusque at best, and it's not particularly easy on the wallet.

So what keeps bringing me back? First, consistency. The prices have inched up over the years, but the food still tastes exactly the same as it did when I first ate here. And they never waver - the food just *always* tastes that way, no better and no worse. Given all the staff and supplier changes they must go through, that's pretty amazing.

Its location also works in its favor - just off Herald Square, it's a block away from MSG and surrounded by karaoke places.

You never need reservations. They can get you in and out quickly. My mom loves their spicy tofu pot. And they're open 24 hours a day. That's right - you can get Korean bbq at Kang Suh at 4:00 a.m. if you want.

So while Kang Suh will never make any "best of" lists, I've eaten here an awful lot and will undoubtedly continue to do so as long as I'm in the city.

Oh, and Melo? Welcome home, dude!!

Hatsuhana Park

Occasion: Dinner with Jon
Location: Hatsuhana Park, in the little passageway between Park and Lex, 45th and 46th (hatsuhana.com)
Edibles: Jon got the sushi dinner; I got the Ladies' Set

Musings: It was pretty empty for dinner, but I bet this place is hopping at lunch. (Not that I'm complaining - it was nice to be able to chat without having to shout over ambient noise.)

I got the intriguingly named Ladies' Set. Upon seeing it, I was immediately curious if they would actually refuse to serve a man who ordered this, but Jon didn't put them to the test.

The first course was a trio of pickled okra, a bite of egg omelet and tempura salmon with pickled carrots and daikon. All very nice. Next, I got some broth noodles, and a little sushi plate with four pieces of nigiri and a roll (diner's choice). There was also a little scoop of vanilla ice-cream for dessert. Good value at $18.

While it's nothing spectacular, Hatsuhana serves a nice dinner set - for women, at least. The restaurant and sushi counter were scrupulously clean and the fish was of a decent quality. Our waiter was also funny and personable. All in all, a solid option for a quiet weekday dinner in midtown.

Mmmm... my mom's meatballs

Mom's Meatballs

1 lb of ground pork
1 egg
sesame oil
soy sauce
rice wine (I've substituted vodka in a pinch)
scallions, finely chopped
ginger, grated (I use a rasp)
salt and pepper
1 tbsp cornstarch for the meat + 1 tsp for the cornstarch slurry
water
cooking oil (not olive)

As you can see, there are a lot of ingredients in common with the dumpling filling recipe. In fact, you can season 3 lbs of pork and split off 1 lb to make meatballs to save some work. The difference between the two recipes: NO shrimp or napa cabbage in the meatballs; NO cornstarch in the dumpling filling. They have all the other ingredients in common.

Once you've marinated the meat for a while with the seasonings, add 1 tbsp of cornstarch and enough water so that the meat mixture is almost soupy, but still firm enough to hold a shape. Start with ¼ cup of water, then add more if it's still dry-looking.

To make the meatballs: First, heat a skillet with about half an inch of cooking oil on medium heat. (I like canola but you can use something else. Just don't use olive oil - the smoking point is too low.)

Make some cornstarch slurry - just 1 tsp of cornstarch dissolved in 3-4 tbsp of water. Dip a metal soup spoon in the slurry, then scoop out a spoonful of the meat mixture. Using the spoon and the palm of your opposite hand, form a nice smooth meatball. No harm if it's not perfectly spherical - in fact, if you've got the texture right, it'll flatten out slightly when you put it in the pan.

Gently place the meatballs in the hot oil. Fry until brown on one side, then carefully turn over and repeat on the other side. This step is just for developing some flavor from the browning - don't expect to cook the meatball through. When browned, remove to a cookie sheet to cool.

At this point, you can put the meatballs in plastic containers and freeze them. I drizzle in a little of the oil they cooked in, along with any browned bits - it gives extra flavor to whatever dish you use the meatballs in. They'll keep about six months in the deep freeze.

Otherwise, you can go ahead and finish cooking them in a number of recipes. In my family, we usually have them in a soup made of chicken stock, napa cabbage, tofu and shiitake mushrooms. You can throw together a makeshift pho with wide rice noodles, chicken stock and cilantro. These meatballs will also work in a marinara sauce, over spaghetti. They're generally a good resource to have on hand.

Alternative preparation: We do a few "crunchies" at the end, as a sort of cook's treat. These are about a third the size of the regular meatballs, only about 1 tbsp each. Fry them until they're very brown and crisp on the outside, and cooked all the way through.

Mmmm... "red-cooked" tilapia

"Red-Cooked" Tilapia

a fresh tilapia, about a pound and a half
⅓ cup soy sauce
⅓ cup water
4 scallions, cut into 2-inch pieces
3-4 slices of ginger
2-3 cloves of garlic, cracked with the flat of your knife but not chopped
1 tbsp sugar
a splash of cooking wine
3 tbsp oil

I'm so happy to have found several sources for fresh tilapia in New York. In the city, there's the Chinese supermarket on Elizabeth (near Hester). Both of the big stores on Main Street in Flushing have it as well. I emphatically cannot guarantee any worthwhile results with frozen fish - my mom attempted to make this dish with a frozen tilapia from Whole Foods once, and it tasted terrible and stunk up my apartment to boot.

The fishmonger should have cleaned and scaled the fish for you. Give it a quick rinse and blot, and go over it with an angled paring knife to catch any scales they might have missed.

In a large skillet or wok, heat up a few tablespoons of cooking oil. When it's nice and hot, give the scallions, garlic and ginger a quick toast. Slide the fish in. Dissolve the sugar in the soy sauce, and add it, the water and a splash of cooking wine to the pan.

It takes about 10 min per side on medium heat (so the liquid's bubbling gently). Use two spatulas to turn it - very carefully, so it doesn't fall apart - halfway through cooking. Decant the whole thing onto a large platter, deep enough to hold all the sauce. You can't eat the ginger but the scallions and garlic are quite tasty so pile them on top.

If you have any leftovers, cover and refrigerate. The next day, you will notice the sauce is jellied - that's the natural gelatin from the bones in the fish. To revive it, pour some Chinese black vinegar (or balsamic is a fair substitute) over the whole thing and eat at room temperature. I actually like it this way so much that I usually try to talk my mom into cooking an extra fish to set aside for this express purpose.

Enjoy!

Mmmm... homemade dumplings (jiaozi / gyoza)

Mom's Dumplings

2 lbs of ground pork
½ lb of shrimp, shelled, de-veined and chopped
1 - 2 napa cabbages (a.k.a. Chinese cabbage or bok choi), finely chopped
2 eggs
sesame oil
soy sauce
rice wine (I've substituted vodka in a pinch)
scallions, finely chopped
ginger, grated (I use a rasp)
salt and pepper
~300 dumpling wrappers

The flavoring is highly, highly subjective. I personally like a lot of ginger, sesame oil and pepper. My mom likes it more delicately seasoned. One thing to consider is that you'll want to salt it on the heavy side, as salt leaches out during the boiling, and what tastes a bit salty when freshly made will end up just right.

Pork: Season with some splashes of sesame oil, soy sauce, rice wine, the ginger and scallions, and some salt and pepper. (If you're not comfortable seasoning without measurements, take it easy - you can always add more after testing it.) Add the chopped shrimp. Crack in two eggs as a binding agent. Let the pork mixture marinate a bit while you deal with the napa cabbage.

Napa cabbage: Fair warning, if you chop the cabbage by hand, it will take a bleeping long time. We discovered that the cross-cut blade on a mandoline works great - you just hold the whole cabbage by the base and grate the whole head. Don't try to do this step in a food processor - it will pulp your vegetable too badly.

When it's all chopped, salt it generously to draw out some of the water (regular table salt will do here - no point in wasting your nice kosher or sea salts). Give it a bit of a massage to work in the salt, and after 5-10 minutes, squeeze out as much water as you can, one small lump at a time in your hands. If you have a potato ricer, it's perfect for this task. Mix the dehydrated cabbage with the pork.

Testing: Make a small patty out of the filling and fry it in a small skillet until fully cooked. Taste for seasoning - correct as needed. Make another test patty if you were pretty far off the first time; no need if you just did a little tweaking.

Wrappers: For our semi-annual dumpling-making enterprise, my mom brings fresh wrappers from Vancouver. (There's a shop under the Granville Bridge that makes fresh noodles that makes them.) They're fantastic: just the right thickness and really resilient and elastic.

You can get frozen wrappers from any Chinese grocer. Be sure to get the round, white wrappers. (The square, yellowish ones are for wontons.) We've experimented with a few brands, but found them all to be somewhat substandard - on the thin side, very dry and brittle. But you can make do with them.

As a final option, you can make your own wrappers. The dough is just flour and hot water. You want to knead it a fair amount to develop the gluten. It'll be a hard, dense texture, far stiffer than bread or pasta dough. The tricky part is to find someone who's handy with a rolling pin to roll out small rounds about 4 inches in diameter. This option has a fairly high degree of difficulty and I wouldn't recommend it for beginners. You would definitely have a head start if you're an experienced baker with a good "touch" for doughs.

The amount of filling in the recipe above will make about 300 dumplings. (It's not as much as it sounds! They go quick!)

Assembly: Place about a tablespoon of filling in the middle of the wrapper, wet the edges of the wrapper with water, fold over and seal. The clumsiest seal is just to press the edges together, flat. My dad starts at one end and makes little pinch-pleats until he gets to the other. My mom pinches the wrapper together in the middle, then seals up the two open ends in a gentle crescent shape.

Place line them up on a cookie sheet (in a single layer) and freeze for one to five hours. Then you can put them in plastic freezer bags for long-term storage. Make sure they're pretty solidly frozen before you move them into bags or they will smush and fuse together under their own weight and be very hard to separate later. The dumplings will last about six months in the deep freeze.

Cooking: Bring a big pot of water to the boil. You want plenty of water for them to swim around in, or they'll stick horribly to each other. You want to stir the water gently and continuously from the moment they go in until they start to float on their own. If they sink to the bottom of the pot and stay there, they will also stick horribly and you will rip the wrapper and boil all the flavor out of the filling. Suboptimal, after all the work you went through to make them. They're done a couple of minutes after they're all floating on the surface.

It obviously takes less time too cook a fresh dumpling the day you make them than one that's been frozen solid. If you're unsure how long to boil something of this size so it's definitely cooked all the way through, best give it a few extra minutes just to be sure.

To eat, I like a simple dipping sauce of either sesame oil and soy sauce, or Chinese black rice vinegar and soy sauce. My mom adds a good squirt of sriracha. If it's for a meal, I'd say portion about 15 per person (though it can be up to 30 or 40 if you're feeding a bottomless pit of a teenager).

There's a Chinese custom to pour some of the cooking water into whatever sauce you have left over, and drink it as a soup. I do it once in a while myself, but this part is most definitely optional.

Cooked leftovers: Keep them on a plate, so that they're not touching. Cover with cling film and refrigerate. The next day, you can put them in a skillet with a little oil and make potstickers. (Note that you can't make potsickers directly from frozen so you might want to boil some extras on purpose.)

Ninh's Vietnamese Sandwich

Occasion: Lazy take-out dinner
Location: Ninh's Vietnamese Sandwich & Bubble Tea on 2nd between 31st and 32nd
Edibles: I had the chicken sandwich; Edward had the beef sandwich and a bubble tea

Musings: The bubble tea was terrible. Tapioca doesn't keep well and a place needs to either have enough business that they go through their batches quickly, or be committed enough to quality to throw them out when they begin to harden, and start over fresh. This place is neither.

The chicken sandwich was okay but they were a bit stingy with the chicken - Baoguette gives you a lot more per sandwich. And there was too much mayo. The beef was pretty tasty.

Because it's so insidiously close to my apartment, Ninh's will probably get some repeat business from me.

Sapporo

Occasion: Lunch with Kathy and Gerald
Location: Sapporo on 49th between 6th and 7th
Edibles: pork katsu and miso ramen

Musings: The pork katsu is actually a meal in itself, but I ordered it as an appetizer / side dish. It's two enormous pork chops, breaded in panko and fried to crispy perfection, conveniently sliced for easy sharing. Yum.

The ramen was okay, but not particularly memorable. (It certainly didn't help that I had already inhaled an entire pork chop and half a bowl of rice by the time it arrived.) Is Sapporo as good as my go-to, Minca? Sadly, no. It is, however, a decent midtown lunch option.

Note: If you only have an hour for lunch, get there early. We arrived just before noon and there were already people waiting; by the time we left, the line was out the door and down the block.

Momofuku Ssäm Bar, part II

Occasion: Pre-movie (The Social Network) dinner with Robert, Ingrid and Judy
Location: Momofuku Ssäm Bar on 2nd Ave at 13th (momofuku.com)
Edibles: steamed pork belly buns; blackened bluefish sandwich; spicy pork sausage and rice cakes; tilefish with chai masala, squash curry and pumpkin seeds; amberjack with pearl barley, smoked marrow and chestnut

Musings: First, the good stuff. As before, the pork buns were magnificent (and not so fatty this time). The bluefish sandwich was another standout. Crispy, plump fillets of fish, creamy sauce, and a nice soft bread that didn't cause the all the fillings to squirt out when you bite into it. I hope they keep this on their menu - I liked it a lot.

The fish was likewise fresh and well-cooked in the two other dishes we ordered.

The Cons: The sides on both fish mains were terrible. Strange flavors, poorly matched to the protein, and parsimoniously portioned. At $27 and $23, I expected better and more. By comparison, the bluefish sandwich is a steal at $14.

The rice cakes I thought were too spicy and Ingrid thought were too salty. Which was a pity since it was the biggest plate of all the things we ordered. We had tons left over.

We considered but decided against ordering the clam chowder raviolo when we discovered that the $15 dish consisted of a single raviolo. Highway robbery! This, I think is the major failing of Momofuku - it's kind of overpriced. (Though it hasn't stopped my fellow New Yorkers from keeping this place packed day in and day out.)