Puff Cha Cafe, New York City, NY

Posted on August 15, 2016 by rundlea

puff-cha-cafe-300x300Puff Cha Cafe is a Thai restaurant that focuses on Curry Puffs (Karee Paps in Thai) which the menu describes as “a deep fried delicacy/snack consisting of individual small round pockets of dough that look like a small Cornish pastry (sic), Indian samosa, Portuguese empanada, or Mexican empanada”.  Puff Cha Cafee serves an original style Curry Puff, which are traditionally filled with chicken, taro, onion and curry powder, and a variety of other styles.  They also serve stir fried dishes over rice, ramen soup, dry ramen, soba and bubble tea.

The Dumplings:  In addition to the traditional style filling, Puff Cha Cafe serves:

  • Basil: chicken, basil, taro , onion and chili.
  • Thai BBQ Red Pork: pork, onion and sweet red sauce.
  • Korean BBQ: beef, onion, scallion and Korean chili paste.
  • Crab Rangoon:  crab stick, cheese, and scallion
  • Pad Thai: tofu, carrot and green beans
  • Taro: taro and coconut milk
  • Coconut & Corn: coconut, corn, milk and heavy cream.
  • New York Cheese Cake:  Cheesecake wafers
  • Apple Strudel: apple, cinnamon, raisin, cashew nut
Pad Thai Puff Cha

Pad Thai Puff Cha

If you buy three Puffs you get free peanut dipping sauce and sweet and sour or spicy cream sauce can be bought for a dollar.  I was in a bit of a rush so I grabbed one Puff to go and  went with the Pad Thai Puff.  The puff filling had a sweetened soy flavor that was enjoyable, but it is not really clear to me how this puff got the Pad Thai moniker, it didn’t have the Tamarind/fish sauce/spicy/peanut flavor I associate with Pad Thai and wasn’t filled with any of the ingredients I think of with Pad Thai.  The green beans turned out to be green peas and the cubed carrot and pea mix looked like they were from a supper market freezer aisle bag.   The fried dough wrapper was excellent, very flaky in texture like a croissant and a pasty shell had a love child – you can see the croissant like outer layer in the photo to the left.

The Dipping Sauce:  I was in a rush and eating as I walked through Hell’s Kitchen so I did not grab any dipping sauce.  Next time.

The Location:  Puff Cha Cafe is in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen, which is home to tons of great restaurants and is the setting for Marvel Comic’s Daredevil series (the Netflix series is awesome).  They are on 50th Street between 9th and 10th Ave.

Posted in New York City, Pasty, Vegetarian | Leave a comment

Oriental Taste, Northampton, MA

Posted on August 8, 2016 by rundlea
Pan-fried vegetable dumplings

Pan-fried vegetable dumplings

The atrocious Zen in Northampton MA (reviewed here) finally closed and in short order was replaced by Oriental Taste, which is brought to us by the same guys who own Oriental Flavor in Amherst, MA.  I previously proclaimed Oriental Flavor to be the best Chinese Restaurant in the Pioneer Valley, and the guys have ported their menu over to Oriental Taste.  I think both Oriental Flavor and Oriental Taste are kind of painful names for Chinese restaurants, so I have  been referring to them respectively as OF and OT.  Both restaurants have a Dim Sum menu and steer away from American-Chinese dishes and focus on more authentic Chinese styles.   Since Zen had a sushi counter, OT has added sushi to its menu, not sure if I approve of this, but those counters are expensive and OT seems to be making the most of it.

The mouse shape

The mouse shape

For my inaugural visit to OT I tried the pan-fried vegetable dumplings, which are filled with the same, or very similar, filling as the steamed vegetable dumplings at OF, but the green spinach wrappers are center pleated and the dumplings have a mouse shape.  The filling seems to a mince of pressed tofu, bok choy, carrots, shiitake mushrooms and glass noodles and is just as good in the pan-fried version as in the steamed version at OF.  These dumplings are vegan.

I am really psyched to see the guys behind OF expanding and bringing their more traditional style Chinese dishes to additional towns in the Pioneer Valley.

Posted in News, Vegan, Vegetarian | 4 Comments

The Pasty Shop, London, England

Posted on August 1, 2016 by rundlea
Vegetable Pasty

Vegetable Pasty

As I have written before, when I travel to London I am in the habit of having a pasty for breakfast at Paddington Station as my first meal in country.  After a recent flight to London, I was distressed to discover that the West Cornwall Pasty shop in Paddington Station has closed.  But thankfully the gentleman at the information booth directed me to The Pasty Shop which has opened near Track 12.  The Pasty Shop sells traditional Cornish Pasties, some not official Cornish, but fairly traditional pasty varieties (steak and ale pasty, vegetable pasty and chicken and vegetable pasty), and some distinctly non-traditional ones, including a pulled-pork pasty and a spicy chili beef pasty.  I went with the vegetable pasty which was filled with potato, peppers, onion, swede (turnip), celery, parsnip and sweet corn.  Given that sweet corn is a new world plant, having corn in the pasty made it very non-traditional.  As a traditionalist I don’t think I approve of the sweetness of corn in my pasty, but overall their veggie pasty was quite good.  The Pasty Shop is transit oriented, the company only has locations at train stations and airports in England.

Cornish Pasties

Cornish Pasties

The Cornish Pasty is an EU recognized Protected Geographic Indication and Cornish Pasties can only be sold as such if they are made in Cornwall and meet the EU specification (EU specification is here).   A genuine, EU designated Cornish Pasty may only contain roughly diced or minced beef, potato, swede, onion and spices, must be savory and must be crimped into a D shape.  Apparently, Cornish Pasty makers generate 300 million pounds in trade a year and employ 2000 people.  But with Brexit, the pasty may well lose this designation and market anarchy may be unleashed of inferior “Cornish” Pasties made in Wales, Kent, Yorkshire or even France.  During the Brexit campaign The Cornish Pasty Association came out as anti-Brexit and argued that the UK should stay in the EU.  Or perhaps, without the EU strictures (“vegetable content must not be less than 25% of the whole pasty” and “spices” defined as salt and pepper), there will be an explosion of pasty innovation.

Posted in Pasty, Vegetarian | 2 Comments

Gohyang Korean Restaurant, Hadley MA

Posted on July 18, 2016 by rundlea

Gohyang Korean Restaurant in Hadley MA, recently changed hands when its owner, Hyunjeong Kim, had to return to Korea to take care of elderly family members (a loving article about Gohyang closing is here).  Hyunjeong Kim was actually the second owner of the restaurant, she began at Gohyang working for the original owners in the early 200o’s and took over the place in 2004 when the original owners retired.  I really enjoyed the food at Hyunjeong Kim’s Gohyang V2, but never tried the dumplings because they only served beef dumplings (I am a pork-a-terian). Gohyang V2 closed in December 2015 and new owners opened Gohyang V3 in April 2016.

On my first outing to Gohyang V3 I was under-whelmed by the food.  The bibimbap rice and vegetables were not seasoned and the red pepper paste served on the side was straight out of the tub Gochujang with no additional seasoning.  Plus the stone bowl was not hot enough to crisp the rice at the bottom of the bowl.  The Sundubu Jjigae was spicy but lacked a depth of flavor, but on the plus side Gohyang now serves vegetable dumplings.

Fried Vegetable Dumplings

Fried Vegetable Dumplings

The Dumplings:  the vegetable dumplings come either fried or steamed and I am almost certain they are Assi Brand Frozen Vegetable Potstickers, which I enthusiastically reviewed here.  Now, I assert this because; 1) they looked just like the Assi brand potstickers, 2) they were filled with the same ingredients as Assi brand, and 3) the Korean grocery store that is attached to Gohyang and owned by the same people sells Assi brand as its only frozen vegetable potsticker option.  These dumplings are vegan and are filled with onion, cabbage, green onion, textured soy protein carrot, Chinese cabbage, bread crumbs, tofu, leaks, garlic, ginger, black pepper and MSG.  They have a meaty texture and flavor and are more a fake meat dumpling, than a leafy green vegetable dumpling.

The Dipping Sauce:  Gohyang serves a watery soy based dipping sauce, that, like the entree dishes I tried, was very bland.  I found that dipping dumplings into this sauce defeated the purpose of a dipping sauce, the sauce actually diluted flavor out of the dumplings.

The Location:  Gohyang is on Russell Street (aka Route 9) in Hadley MA in a small strip mall of connected Korean businesses, all owned by the same people.  There is a Korean grocery store, Gohyang Restauerant and a noraebang, which is a Korean style karaoke, where you rent a private singing room for you and your friends to sing in.  This is pretty much the trifecta of Korean businesses for a college town.

Posted in Frozen Dumpling Review, Korea, Potsticker, Vegan, Vegetarian | 2 Comments

The Golden City Asian Cuisine, Calabash NC

Posted on July 13, 2016 by rundlea

A quick guest review of The Golden City Asian Cuisine in Calabash NC was sent in recently.

At The Golden City Asian Cuisine in Calabash NC, there was a choice between pork or vegetable dumplings. We chose the vegetable dumplings which were good. The vegetable fill was ample. The exterior was crispy, possibly not enough browning on the bottom and the ginger soy sauce was very tasty with a good ginger flavor.

Vegetable dumplings at Golden City

Vegetable dumplings at Golden City

While very good, they were not as good as the pork dumplings we had at The Red Bowl* in Aberdeen NC. They were so good we got a second order of them.

Golden City serves Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese entree and Sushi dishes.  On the dumpling front their also lists Crab Wonton “Wonton stuffed w. a crab meat and cream cheese blend” and Shumai “Favorite Cantonese dim-sum, traditional Chinese shrimp dumpling”.

  • editorial note: I will ask for a  review of The Red Bowl.
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A Shanghai Native Hunts for Soup Dumplings in NYC

Posted on July 11, 2016 by rundlea

New_logo_smThe folks at Quartz posted a great article and video about an expat, Siyi Chen, from Shanghai  hunting for Xiao Long Bao in NYC.  Chen hit eight dumplings houses with highly rated online reviews – Joe’s Shanghai, Taste of Shanghai, Nan Xiang Dumpling House, Yaso Tangbao, 21 Shanghai House, Yu Garden Dumpling House, Shanghai Asian House, and The Bao – with The Bao getting the top review in Chen’s tour.   I also really enjoyed The Bao, although I think the Pork and Kimchi soup dumpling at La Salle Dumpling Room is my new favorite.  I recently tried to introduce a friend to the wonders of soup dumplings and took him to Oriental Flavor in Amherst MA where I had been served some really good dumplings on prior visits.  Unfortunately this time the dumplings were a complete fail, so over steamed that the wrappers were ruptured and disintegrating in the steamer.

Posted in New York City, Soup Dumpling | Leave a comment

Great Wall Chinese Restaurant, Florence MA

Posted on July 5, 2016 by rundlea
Pan-fried pork dumplings

Pan-fried pork dumplings

The Great Wall Chinese Restaurant in Florence, MA is a mom and pop Chinese restaurant that has a strong local reputation for its food and is one of the few places in Western MA that has a Saturday Dim Sum brunch.  They have been in business since 1998 and pride themselves on using locally grown and purchased produce – Asian greens from Jiang Farm in Montague, sweet corn from Golonka Farm in Whately, and fish and lobster from Bekshore at the Tuesday Farmers’ Market in Northampton, MA.  Chinese Celebrity Chef, Martin Yan, from “Yan Can Cook” has visited Great Wall and gave it good reviews.  Great Wall has a Standard Menu – heavy on American Chinese food, as the hostess said, a menu heavy on fried rice and Lo Mein – and a much more interesting Gourmet Menu, which features more traditional Chinese regional dishes. On the Gourmet Menu I liked the sound of “Traditional South China Pork” –

“Pork that is first stir-fried, then arranged in multiple layers alternatively with sun dried vegetables, and Guangdong pickled mustard greens, and slow cooked for many hours”

But instead I tried the Singapore Style Mai Fan Noodles on the Gourmet Menu , which is my standard benchmark entree dish for comparing Chinese restaurants.  Great Wall offers a vegetarian version of this dish which had an awesome, smoky Wok Hei flavor, but unexpectedly wasn’t prepared with any curry powder and included a couple of stray little shrimp – so, not so much vegetarian.

The Dumplings:  The Standard Menu includes steamed or pan-fried pork dumplings and steamed or pan-fried vegetable dumplings and the Gourmet Menu additionally has the Chef’s Special Dumplings, which are filled with shrimp and chicken and come steamed and pan-fried.

Pan-fried Pork Dumplings – these dumplings were a pretty standard Chinese style pork dumpling, but well seasoned and fairly juicy.  The dumplings were large and the wrappers were quite thick and doughy and a single order of these dumplings was really filling.  I  would not go to Great Wall just for these dumplings, but they are worth getting as a starter to share before eating something from the Gourmet Menu.

Pan-fried vegetable dumpling

Pan-fried vegetable dumpling

Pan-fried Vegetable Dumplings – The waitress told me the vegetable dumplings are house made (I assume this is true for the pork ones too) and that the filling varies seasonally.  The ones I tried were filled with carrots, onions, cabbage, peas and greens and were wrapped in a green spinach dough wrapper.  While I love pork, I liked these dumplings better than the pork ones – within the genre of vegetable dumplings these were a very good veggie dumpling, in fact a better example of a vegetable dumpling, than the pork dumplings were an example of pork dumplings.   The vegetables were fresh tasting and had crunch and texture, but the wrapper was a little too sweet.  The dough wrappers on these dumplings were also pretty thick and, so again, this was a filling order of dumplings.

The Dipping Sauce:  Great Wall serves an enjoyable, slightly sweet, soy and vinegar based dipping sauce with some chili pepper in it and maybe ginger.

The Location: The Great Wall Chinese Restaurant is located in Western Massachusetts, in the town of Florence, in a strip mall – pretty much a classic location for a small mom and pop Chinese restaurant.  Don’t let the strip mall location fool you, some great Asian restaurants are inconspicuously located in strip malls.  It is at 178 Pine Street in the Florence Mini Mall, opposite the Arts & Industry building.

Posted in Chinese, Dim Sum, Pan Fried, Pork, Vegetarian | Leave a comment

Restaurant Review Summer Slow Down

Posted on June 28, 2016 by rundlea

IMG_4460I am spending the summer in an area with relatively few dumpling eating options – few Chinese, Japanese or Korean restaurants, low quality Italian spots and no Eastern European restaurants.  I will hit every spot I can find but I am afraid the frequency of reviews will be lower for the next two months.  Back in full effect in late August/early September.

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NY Times: A Slovakian Secret

Posted on June 22, 2016 by rundlea

The Eat section of the New York Times Sunday Magazine this week was an article entitled A Slovakian Secret, which described the history of a Slovakian family and its pierogi recipe.  The recipe is for a potato and cheese pierogi served with crispy bacon, it looks really good.

Potato and cheese pierogi with crispy bacon from the NY Times Magazine

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Vegan Palate, Northampton, MA

Posted on June 20, 2016 by rundlea

One of the surprises about the college towns in Western Massachusetts is that, with a few notable exceptions (Bela, Oriental Flavor, Pizza Amore) the vegetarian and vegan dining options are often so weak: bad hippy food, bad Asian food or bad food.  Thankfully the relatively new Vegan Palate in Northampton is providing some excellent new options.  The hot and sour soup, spring roll and Singapore Chow Mai Fun were all great and Vegan Palate is getting a lot of love in Yelp! reviews, so I am excited to go back and try some more dishes.

The menu at Vegan Palate appears to be largely inspired, or is perhaps a direct copy, of LuAnne’s Wild Ginger in New York City (reviewed here and here).   Did a chef from LuAnne’s move to Western MA and set up shop using the same menu?  Or was there some other third party restaurant that originated this menu and both LuAnne’s and Vegan Palate copied it?  I guess I don’t care how the menu and recipes got to Northampton, I am happy they are here because I really like the food.

Pan fried vegetable dumplings

Pan fried vegetable dumplings

The Dumplings:  Vegan Palate carries the same dumplings as LuAnne’s, which supports my suspicion that LuAnne’s uses frozen dumplings, and is also disappointing because the dumplings are the weakest part of this otherwise superior menu.  Vegan Palate offers, steamed or pan fried vegetable dumplings, spinach Shumai, and watercress and soy cheese fried wontons.  I tried the pan fried vegetable dumplings and the watercress and soy cheese wontons.

Pan Fried Vegetable Dumplings – to paraphrase my review of LuAnne’s – The bright green vegetable dumpling seem to be the same frozen vegetable gyoza I’ve eaten at several Japanese restaurants (see Moshi Moshi) and are fairly bland but serviceable, definitely better pan-fried than steamed.  The pan fried version at Vegan Palate were limp, I think they had been micro-waved and then insufficiently pan fried.  Moshi Moshi’s pan fried preparation of this frozen dumpling is better.

Watercress and soy cheese wontons

Watercress and soy cheese wontons

Watercress and soy cheese fried wontons – I had some reservations about ordering these at LuAnne’s but ended up really liking them, to quote myself – “While I admit that these dumplings sounded gross to me and I had to be convinced to order them by my dining companion, they turned out to be really good; better than their vegetable dumplings or the shumai. The filling was mainly comprised of spinach and I didn’t notice any peppery watercress flavor, but the spinach mixed with the creamy, American cheese style, soy cheese was really tasty.  The wontons were perfectly deep fried and crispy and crunchy without any oiliness.”   

Flavor-wise the wontons at Vegan Palate are really similar to the  ones at LuAnne’s, but are folded differently from those at LuAnne’s.  So maybe my original supposition that these are a frozen brand of dumpling is incorrect and they are in fact house made at each restaurant.   A thought that struck me while eating them this time was that “wonton’s filled with vegan saag paneer” would be a better description for this dumpling.

The Dipping Sauces:  In my review of LuAnne’s I was quite critical of the mango dipping sauce served with the Watercress and soy cheese wontons and of the soy dipping sauce served with the vegetable dumplings.  For both dishes I though the dipping sauce was too sweet.   The versions of these sauces served at Vegan Palate cut back on the sweetness and the sauces were more enjoyable for the change in the recipe – maybe someone read my earlier review?  Rather than serving the mango sauce in a dipping bowl, the wontons at Vegan Palate are served on top of a smear of mango sauce.

The Location:  Vegan Palate is at 261 King Street in Northampton, MA and is behind the Sakura Asian Buffet restaurant.

Posted in Northampton, Pan Fried, Vegan, Vegetarian, Wontons | Leave a comment