Remembering China 46: “House Special” Spicy Capsicum Saute

When a favorite restaurant dies, you undergo a bereavement process as a former patron. You try to replace it with another one, usually failing to do so. Then occasionally, you come across a dish at another place that tastes familiar, but doesn’t -quite- get there. You see glimmerings of the original, enough to make you do a double take, but then you come to your senses and again realize you are someplace else. Its like walking down the street and seeing someone who resembles another person who has been dead for years, or playing with another person’s pet that looks remarkably similar to one of yours which passed away. You tear up a bit, think about the good times, and then move on.

Such as it is with my favorite Chinese restaurant, China 46, which closed down in September of 2007. I haven’t taken this loss particularly well, as there were a lot of dishes that were prepared there that I cannot get at any other Shanghai/Sichuan restaurant I’ve been to, and this includes the very good local newcomers such as Chengdu 1 and Petite Soochow, which I recommend heartily. I thought I had moved on until I had this dish recently at China Palace restaurant, a small authentic Chinese place in Durham, North Carolina:

Spicy Capsicum Pepper Saute with Pressed Tofu, from China Palace restaurant in Durham, NC.

This dish closely resembles another dish at China 46 restaurant, which was called “House Special Saute” and consisted of ground pork with finely chopped Chinese green peppers and pressed tofu, in a spicy Sichuan hot bean sauce. The China Palace version here is excellent, using julienned pressed tofu and shredded portk, but it is not the same — the China 46 one was drier and less saucy and a much finer dice.

Once I had this dish, I was committed to faithfully replicating the China 46 version, at least as close as to it I could recall. I don’t have original photos of the dish I am trying to replicate, so I am just going from memory here.

Spicy Sichuan Capsicum Saute, fondly remembered and re-created from the late China 46 restaurant in Ridgefield Park, NJ.

Re-Create this fantastic Sichuan dish in your own home. Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

Tam Tam Unobtainium

I’m not sure how I missed this one, but OTB fan, Flickr Jewish Cuisine diva and net-bubbie Melissa Goodman notified us of this March 27th New York Times article about the scarcity of Manischewitz Tam Tams this year due to manufacturing delays at the Newark, New Jersey Manischewitz Matzah plant.

Passover without Tam Tams? What are we supposed to eat instead, Shmurah-etes? There’s just no substitute.

Related:

Manischewitz: No Tam Tams by Passover (UPI)

Glitch Creates Shortage of Passover Crackers (SJ Mercury)

NJ Dining: Al-Basha

Al-Basha Restaurant
1076 Main St, Paterson, NJ 07503

Web Site: http://www.albashanj.com/

The Main Street stretch of Clifton and South Paterson known as “Little Arabia” is an area that I always wanted to explore, but never really got to. Sure, growing up Jewish and having traveled to Israel when I was younger I know more than just a little bit about Middle Eastern cuisine, and I’ve eaten at a number of very good Lebanese (1) (2) and Turkish restaurants in Bergen and Hudson County and have prepared a number of authentic dishes at home. But South Paterson always seemed to escape me, I guess because I don’t speak Arabic and having such a huge choice of shops and restaurants to look at seemed overwhelming to me. I wouldn’t say that I am uncomfortable around Muslim and Arab people — I have a number of habibi of my own but the language barrier is definitely an obstacle for me.

Fortunately, I had my friend Ghassan Fawzi to bring me on this trip. Ghassan is a fellow Linux-head that lives in New York City and comes to Paterson during the weekends to shop for those special groceries he doesn’t easily have access to. He’s also an Israeli Palestinian (an Israeli citizen of Palestinian descent) and we are both working on a computer project to help bring Israeli and Palestinian kids together. To reward me, he wanted to bring me to eat Palestinian food at his favorite place in Paterson. So Rachel and I joined Ghassan and his wife at Al-Basha restaurant, on Main Street, for a lunch of a couple of plates of mezze.

“Al-Basha” is named for Yaser Basha, a Ramallah-born Palestinian who came to the US in 1980, and went on to become an Italian chef. He started his own restaurant in 2002, which serves traditional Palestinian and other Middle Eastern foods.

Come inside Al-Basha and try some authentic Palestinian cuisine. Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

Picnic Caterers and Sara Moulton Cooking for Kaley

This week, on Wednesday the 19th, 2008, I had the opportunity to attend the second charity benefit for Kaley Smith, an infant with a debilitating brain disease. Again, it was was spearheaded and hosted by Picnic Caterers, with celebrity chef Sara Moulton as the guest of honor and who’s recipes served as the focal point of the charity event. Rachel attended in my stead last year, as I was on a business trip. I was really happy to have gone this year because I got to see Christine Nunn and the staff at Picnic Caterers in their true element, at an actual catering event.

Sara Moulton, Christine Nunn, Kaley Smith’s mom, Kerryan and big sister Kara.

Ready for some hard core catering action? Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below.

A NJ Benefit not to Miss with Great Food and Great Chefs!

NJ Dining: Julia’s Market and Café

Rachel has recently started contributing articles directly to Off The Broiler. As I was on a business trip to California all last week, Rachel started to do some scouting of lunch spots on her own. Here’s a friendly cafe in East Rutherford that specializes in Vegetarian and Vegan options — Jason

Julia’s Gourmet Market and Café
216 Park Avenue

East Rutherford, NJ 07073

201-531-9099

Julia Enerson with a Veggie Delight Sandwich

OTB’s good friend, Christine Nunn of Picnic Caterers, recently recommended we check out Julia’s. She knows we’ve been trying to eat healthier and her neighbor’s place offers several vegan and vegetarian options in addition to traditional deli options. Julia Enerson has been operating the place for three years with her husband, Bill Spada. Their café features weekly specialty sandwiches, salads, and home style dinners to take out, although there is seating for about 15 in the store. During recent visits, two soups, salads and a sandwich were sampled, pulling from the healthier aspects of her menu. The Turkey Vegetable Soup has large chunks of carrot and zucchini, and can be ordered with or without noodles (16 oz, $3.95). The vegan Mushroom Barley was thick with pearled barley and full of fresh mushrooms. The same size portion is served in house, an enormous bowl, so you could easily make a meal out of Julia’s soups. Both soups were rather lightly salted, allowing the guest to season to their taste.

Julia’s vegan Mushroom Barley Soup

All of her deli sandwiches can be ordered over greens for those of us watching our carbs. So the Veggie Suspect Sandwich was ordered as a salad instead. Julia’s “signature balsamic” dressing is drizzled over greens, marinated artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted peppers, avocado, fresh mozzarella, and tomato slices, and served with an 8-grain roll. She also features a daily “grain salad.” And that day’s was Cous Cous with chick peas, broccoli and grape tomatoes with lemon-oregano vinaigrette alongside. (Of course, it must be acknowledged that cous cous is not a grain, but a pasta.)

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Veggie Delight Salad

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Passing on the full complement of meats and cheeses available, the Veggie Delight sandwich was also vegetarian, this time featuring grilled vegetables, including eggplant, portabella, zucchini, red onion and sliced hearts of palm. Fresh mozzarella cheese is optional. This was also served on the 8-Grain roll, but don’t worry, Julia has a large assortment of breads and wraps from which to choose. I wanted to try her Turkey Chili, since that’s something we make at home and I like to compare mine to others. Unfortunately, she had run out of that day’s supply. Perhaps if one of you in OTB land visit, you can let us know how it is.

 

– Rachel Perlow 

NJ Dining: A Taste of Greece 2.0

A Taste of Greece
935 Kinderkamack Road, River Edge NJ
(201)967-0029

Back in April of 2005 one of the first restaurants that I chose to profile during my 2-year stint as NJ Quick Bite writer was A Taste of Greece, a tiny Greek takeout in River Edge. One of the things I liked about this restaurant was its attention to detail and authenticity in its dishes, choosing to buck the “homogenized” Greek restaurant trend found in most Northern NJ Greek eateries with its real Pork Gyro and use of real imported Greek ingredients.

The original owners moved on two years later. One of them, Vasili Mastrokostas, went on to open Vasili’s Taverna in Teaneck. For a brief period A Taste of Greece was ran by the owner’s children and retained most of its original staff, and was recently sold to a new owner, Themis, a young, friendly, service-oriented and health-obsessed marathon runner. Themis took a rather unattractive, small takeout and put some money into the place, adding nice ceramic tile and other positive aesthetic changes, such as new wooden tables and chairs.

Themis has kept much of the restaurant’s original flavor (including its signature pork gyro) and has added more fresh and healthy Mediterranean dishes such as more grilled seafood plates. I actually think the place is a better restaurant now and is more compatible with my current lifestyle, and along with my other favorite Mediterranean options in the local area, such as Joeyness and Bennies, has now become one of my favorite places to eat well and eat healthier.

A Taste Of Greece on Kinderkamack Road in River Edge, Photo April of 2005.

A Taste of Greece’s new owner, Themis. Themis is extremely accommodating to special requests (such as low-carbing the entrees) and is himself a health and fitness nut.

You too will want A Taste of Greece. Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more. 

Chengdu 1: Year of the Rat

Chengdu 1
89 Pompton Ave (Pilgrim Shopping Plaza)
Cedar Grove NJ, 973-239-7726

Chinese New Year is one of my favorite Jewish holidays. Let’s face it, any occasion that calls for lots of food and drink is a good one, no matter what culture you belong to.

Traditionally, we’ve gone to China 46 to celebrate the New Year. But as that restaurant closed back in September of 2007, we had to find ourselves a new venue. Fortunately, as it turns out, one of our new favorites, Chengdu 1, had prepared a special menu for the occasion.

Here’s a partial list of special New Year’s dishes.

Chengdu 1’s dining room, decked out in Chinese New Year decorations.

Spicy Shrimp and Chicken with Chile Peppers. The peppers are of the preserved vinegared type and really add serious punch to this dish — kind of like a Kung Pao Chicken but without the peanuts and more vinegar bite.

Shredded Pork with Sliced King Oyster Mushrooms

Green Jade Delight, one of our favorite vegetable dishes.

Superbowl Tailgate Degustation Menu 2008

Click for Hi-Res Slideshow!

So, the last time we decided to have a Super Bowl party, around this time last year, things were a little bit different. For starters, let’s just say I was not as focused on maintaining a healthier lifestyle. But most importantly, the NEW YORK GIANTS WERE NOT IN THE SUPER BOWL!

This year, we’ve made more of a commitment to eating healthier. But the Super Bowl is still the Super Bowl, and that doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy yourself. The folks over at Promise Buttery Spread contacted us and wanted to know if we were going to be posting any recipes this year, and of course I said we would. As it turns out, for this Super Bowl, Promise is having blogs participate in the 2008 Cardio Kick-Off, where they have their resident cardiologist, Dr. Richard Collins, help bloggers prepare heart-healthier tailgate menus.

So without further delay, here’s our heart healthy Super Bowl Menu for 2008.

Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

Wrappin’ Them Turkey Leftovers

If you’re like the average American family, you’ve got a lot of leftover Turkey. There are the obvious ways of getting rid of it — Turkey Tetrazzini (fattening although this Tyler Florence version looks like it has some potential to be improved) Thanksgiving Sandwiches (Turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy on a sandwich, delicious and also fattening).

Turkey, in both ground and breast forms, has now become a staple in our household. It’s high in protein and relatively low in fat, and can be transformed for use in a number of adaptive dishes. We go through about a whole Turkey breast every week, because I’m now “brown bagging” it for lunch. My typical lunch these days is the Monster Wrap, which ends up working out to only a few dollars per sandwich. If I had to buy the equivalent sandwich in downtown NYC, I’d probably have to pay 3 or 4 times that amount and I wouldn’t have as much control over the quality of ingredients I put into it. I like wraps because you can stuff them full of protein and vegetables, and it takes up relatively little real estate in my laptop bag. Unlike a regular sandwich, getting a little compressed or smushed in the bag doesn’t really affect the quality of the product once its time to eat it either. I don’t have to bring any containers with me — just wrap the sucker in aluminum foil, and I’m good to go.

Toufayan is a NJ-based commercial bakery that supplies much of the wraps for use in delicatessen and catering applications. If you live in the Northern NJ area, you can actually go to the bakery and buy their goods fresh. They make a number of flavors, many of which you can get in your local supermarket. The larger ones they use for food-service size, however, might be difficult to get. In particular, I like the large multigrain wraps since they have more complex carbohydrates in them, so we get them straight from the factory.

Fresh Spinach is a great vegetable to use in wraps. Unless you plan to eat a wrap immediately, you want to avoid high water content vegetables like lettuce because they’ll get your wrap wet and gummy if its going to sit in your bag or briefcase for a few hours. Arugula is a nice vegetable to use as well.

Line wrap with mustard or your favorite spread, such as babaghanoush, mustard, salsa, or hummus. Place lots of turkey over the bed of spinach. Add tomatoes and sprouts, liberally season with salt and fresh cracked pepper.

Wrap it up!

Eat!