Bye!
I've moved, but not far. You can find me over at my brand new site, jillieofalltrades.com.
Still lots of New York City and lots of food.
Jillie
I've been with Blogger/Blogspot for over 2 years now. And it's been great. But I've been using Wordpress for another little project and really like the functionality. So the goal this week is to move Jillie of All Trades over there. I'll be honest, they make it sound pretty easy, so figure I can import it in about 5 minutes. I'm not sure what that means for my email followers or anyone reading via RSS. But will figure that out and provide the link to the new site.
In the meantime, why not end the weekend with this week's doughnut? The Pumpkin Cake Doughnut from Doughnut Plant. Not really pumpkin-y enough for me, but still enjoyed it with my Lavazza at Eataly. When they put out a seasonal doughnut, I feel the need to try it (if you remember, I had the pumpkin yeast doughnut a few weeks ago). But still need to get to the Tres Leches and a few of the other standards.
Book Club again, a small group of us, but we are continuing on! This month was The Lotus Eaters, which follows a female photographer in Vietnam. I thought it was very fascinating for a fiction piece. And I had to speed read through the end to find out what happens. So there was no talking over coffee last Saturday. I'm Type A and like a good student, read the book...even if we never talk about it.
I hosted this month, so neatened up the little apartment, bought some more plates (I am short!). And made Elizabeth's Pumpkin Pie Squares. I realized too late that I had thrown away my 9x13 and didn't replace it. So at 5 am that morning I had to go with the 9x9 pan. I might reassess the topping amount in a smaller pan. And then Deb's Chicken Square's for dinner.
And my guests were so sweet to bring more tasty desserts, macaroons and cookies.
Our Sunday lunch discussion started with Red Farm, a new dim sum place, in the West Village. You know, Chinese food that appeals to the professional Chelsea/New York crowd. It was closed for lunch. So we jumped right to very authentic, in Chinatown. Lam Zhou Handmade Noodle.
4 stars on 228 reviews? That's pretty darn good. 4 stars on at least 100 reviews is Mark's minimum. We jump on the F train and head south. We get to 144 East Broadway and think "this is it?". But they had an "A" rating, and the cool little wine bar near us got a "C". So it can't be that bad. I'll admit, the beef had some beef parts there were chewy, which I kind of expected after having eaten calf's calf muscle soup in China. But I left some broth to cover that at the end. The noodles and broth were so good, though. The dumplings were great.
They rolled out handmade noodles on the table next to me (it's loud, the banging of the dough, sort of a "thwack thwack" every time it hit the counter). And they wrapped dumplings behind me.
And you can't beat the prices. Now, I hear the place to go for really authentic Chinese is Flushing, it's not even Chinatown. But we are starting to test the limits of our comfort zone. You basically pay by walking to the back of the store when you are done and handing over cash. I'm not sure a tip is even really necessary. Prices are great. How can you not order a dozen dumplings for $3?
