Tasting Hunan Taste

I had the privilege of attending my first meeting of the 'Charm City Hounds' this past weekend for lunch at Hunan Taste in Catonsville. We sampled 21 things from their extensive authentic Hunanese menu (we didn't touch the American menu).

Although I had a lot of unique dishes and most certainly broadened my horizons, there weren't any groundbreaking dishes to be had. While that may be the case, there were some damn fine ones. Let's take a look at the order list posted here near the end of the topic by one of my fellow diners accompanied by some of the pictures I managed to snap while we feasted. Keep in mind that these dishes were going around the tables so some of them were almost gone by the time they came around to me. I did the best I could!

To save myself A LOT of repetition, as my fellow foodies reported: the heat was lacking across the board, I was expecting much more after reading various internet reviews. I think they may have dumbed it down for us a bit, which is bizarre considering we were a huge group of people all ordering from the traditional Hunanese menu. Bah, we want the heat!

(#2) Spicy sliced ox lung


This was one of my higher ranked dishes. The meat was super tender and the overall flavor was great. There was much discrepancy at the table over exactly what we were eating, but nonetheless it was very tasty.

(#8) Shrimp with mixed bitter melon


I can appreciate bitter, but this melon was just too bitter. Unbalanced dish in my opinion and one of my least favorite.

(#17) Mao's braised pork


I was really looking forward to this dish and it wasn't quite as good as I expected. I would've preferred the fat rendered down a bit more due to a longer cooking time. Overall it was still one of the better dishes.

(#19) Spicy fried mutton chops


Sweet batter on lamb? Fail. And I love lamb. So sad.

(#21) Spicy pig skin


Strange texture. I, as most other diners, expected crispy skin. It was still very interesting and the texture reminded me of something but I can't quite put my finger on it... A thick seaweed salad maybe?

(#?) Spicy Chanzul Frog


This was frog? I never would've guessed... Unmentionable otherwise.

(#24) Steamed fish head-on with diced hot peppers


My first helping was great because I got a nice meaty hunk of cheek meat. The second helping was all bones and fat and remembering it now is making me sick to my stomach. I'd recommend this dish if you don't stray too close to the head and pay attention to what you're putting on your plate.

(#41) Double cooked pork with garlic


Another one of my favorites. Maybe some of the other diners didn't get a pepper on their plate but I definitely bit into some heat from this dish.

(#52) Preserved sausage with smoked bamboo shoot. Not sausage - slices of salt preserved pork


The last dish that arrived at the table and by far the best. This would be the dish I return for. Excellent balance of pork and smoky bamboo shoot. Very very good.

(#55) Minced pork with sauteed sour beans


This was the first dish that hit the table and remained at the top of my list until the very end. I can't really describe it but the flavors were very addicting. A great start to the meal.

(#75) Eggplant in clay pot with garlic sauce


Nothing memorable/mentionable.

(#83) Stewed duck with ginseng. A thin soup, more than a stew

Sorry, no pic for this one! This was by far the most flavorful soup. It was like liquid essence of duck. Very good.

(#94) Tea Tree mushroom with pork casserole


I didn't realize until my second helping that this dish had pork in it. It didn't matter, the mushrooms alone made this one of my favorite dishes. Sweet woodsy, earthy bliss. Would definitely order this again.

(#95) Eggplant on iron plate


Nothing mentionable.

(#106) Soft Shell Turtle in brown sauce


This was turtle? Everyone thought it was duck until our waiter told us otherwise. Who knew?

(#128) Duck soup


A big disappointment. This soup was very thin and only faintly tasted of duck. Completely outclassed by the stewed duck with ginseng.

(#130) Clam soup with winter melon


This was my personal addition to the order and a big disappointment. As in the case of the duck soup, this tasted like broth with a very faint clam flavor. Intentional or not, this was a letdown.

[off-menu] Saute snow pea leaves

Again, no picture of this dish. This dish reminded me of perfectly cooked broccoli rabe.

(#?) Taro pancakes


Sorry but that was my share so that was all I could snap a shot of. This was doughy and juicy, the texture reminded me of the sesame balls they sometimes have at chinese buffets. I love those things so naturally I liked this dish.

Holy crap my eyes are bleeding. If that's not enough pictures for you, then I give up... Until next time my micro friends!

The Micro Family Does NYC Day 2-3

Our snacking finally over with we decided to head up to Union Square to try to get rush tickets for Fuerza Bruta. Basically they sell 20 tickets at the box office 2 hours before showtime at a serious discount. We waited in line for the 7pm show but unfortunately we were beaten to the punch. So we decided to go back to the hotel room to freshen up and come back and try our luck at 8pm for the 10pm show. This time there was a substantially shorter line and we easily got tickets. This was most certainly one of the best $25 I've ever spent. More on that later.

So we had time to kill and dinner to be had. I had a random want for some great red sangria so I texted my friend who's a NYC native and he recommended Pipa Tapas y Mas which was only a few short blocks away. We walked over but unfortunately the place was jam-packed with a 1.5 hour wait. Unsure of what to do I whipped out my 2009 Zagat book and found a very similar spot down the street called Sala 19. Sorry no storefront pic. They said if we could eat in 45 mins we could be sat immediately as they had a large party coming in. Since we needed to get back in time for the show that worked out perfectly for us. We threw down an order for 2 glasses of red sangria as soon as our waiter arrived.


I'll be honest, I like my sangria on the sweeter side and this was more tart. I like more variety of fruit as well. It was decent but not quite as good as the sangria my mother's friend Di makes. But it was sufficient. I mean it couldn't've been all bad, here's a picture of me pounding the stuff down:


Don't you judge me! I was trying to get a nice buzz for the show, plus I was jonesin' for the stuff! Anyway, Nikki wanted the datil, bacon wrapped dates stuffed with almonds so I opted for the queso de cabra con miel which was fried goat cheese with honey and caramelized onion.


These turned out to be fantastic. The dates were roasted so they caramelized nicely. The salt from the bacon and the nutty crunch from the almonds rounded out an almost stellar mouthfeel. Great appetizer.


The fried goat cheese turned out to be another excellent, albeit expensive, appetizer. The terrific tang from the goat cheese was reigned in slightly by the honey and the onions added a nice bite. The subtle fried crust was the similar to a croqueta and suited this application. Here's a nice interior shot:


We'd heard so much about the greatness that is paella but neither of us had ever really had the opportunity to try it so we decided this would be the perfect time to do so. So we ordered the paella de mariscos for two, which the waiter told us would take roughly 35 minutes to prepare. I figured if he was offering then the incoming dinner party couldn't be that important so we placed our order. Shortly after finishing our appetizers and another round of sangria our paella arrived.



Neither of us had ever had paella before this so we had no basis of comparison. That being said we felt the seafood was mostly overcooked. The rice was great but the seafood, especially the shrimp, was definitely overcooked. We both did like the clams and mussels however. I really enjoyed the rice but Nikki was overall unimpressed with the dish. She gave it a 5/10. Here's a closer shot of my individual plate:

I decided to try the white sangria to end the meal and ended up liking it better than the red. It was a bit sweeter.


With three glasses of sangria and a full stomach I was amped for the show. We headed over to the Daryl Roth Theatre to see Fuerza Bruta. Past the front door there was a coat check and a little bar area to hang out until the show started. The show turned out to be an unreal experience. I've since encouraged everyone I know who frequents the city to make a point of seeing it. The room filled with mist before the show started to keep everyone cool.



There are no seats and the show takes place on platforms and from cables above the audience. There's a guy running on a treadmill through breakaway walls, dancers destroying an office space, chicks running across reflective sheets, and scantily clad women doing belly flops on plexiglass platforms covered in water just inches above the audience. I took some videos during the performance but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post them due to copyrights and such. Better safe than sorry I reckon.

After the show we went back to the hotel, making a slight detour to hit up the huge Hershey chocolate store on the way, and shortly after passed out. We needed our rest in order to conquer Flushing the next day.

The next morning we packed up and checked out. We boarded the 7 train and rode it all the way out to the last stop, Flushing. Our first stop? Quickly on Kissena Blvd.


This is my Starbucks. Why can't there be one of these on every street corner? I'd order a bubble tea every day. After perusing the menu I ordered an almond milk bubble tea, extra boba, and Nikki ordered a passion fruit slush with extra boba.



We've been in the habit of ordering extra boba due to the chain places in our local mall skimping on the wonderful tapioca balls. Real bubble tea places DO NOT skimp on the boba, so as you can see extra boba means half your cup is filled with them. I didn't think you could have too much boba, but I guess there really can be too much of a good thing. Nikki especially. Look at all that boba in her slush! If you've never been to a bubble tea place you basically are given a large pointed straw with which you break the top seal. I should point out to use caution when doing so because if you get too overzealous, like I did, you may end up covered in bubble tea.


The drinks were awesome. Definitely the best bubble tea I've had. The tapioca was cooked properly and the tea was very flavorful and not watered down like most chain venues tend to do. The boba can also be used to plug up any gaps one may have in one's teeth. Observe:


Hideous, aren't I?

Our next destination was Xi'an Famous Foods in the Golden Shopping Mall.


The building may be a bit dilapidated but that should in no way deter potential diners from feasting upon the goodness found within.


Anthony Bourdain featured this venue on his show 'No Reservations' on the travel channel. And for good reason. Their signature dish, liang pi, is one of the best plates of food I've had the privilege of consuming. The dish is named after the owner and translates to 'cold skin'. The establishment expanded recently, opening a location in Manhattan. I was extremely excited about the prospect of having liang pi sans the hour subway ride. Now about that dish... I find it very hard to describe. I'll borrow a snippet from Serious Eats' Joe DiStefano:

"It's a cold salad of squidgy wheat gluten chunks and wheat starch noodles mixed with cilantro, bean sprouts, a touch of chili oil and some Chinkiang vinegar. And it's one of the best things I've eaten in a long time."


I could not stop eating this plate of food. It was indescribably addicting. I know it may not look all that appealing, but trust me, even Nikki was wolfing it down. We need more pictures!



Look at how sexy that closeup shot is. Man I wish I had a plate of liang pi in front of me right now, I would wreck house. Perfect harmony is reached in this dish with the freshness of the cucumber and cilantro, the amazing noodles, and the perfect level of spiciness of the chili oil. Ahhhhh, I need to go to NYC again soon. This has become one of the culinary highlights of my newfound obsession with food. This is up there with Tony Luke's RPI. That says a lot.

We had a lot more food to get to. We hiked back up to the block of Prince Street b/t 38th and 39th. Located on this block right next to each other are Nan Shian Dumpling House and Happy Beef Noodle House. There was a large wait to dine at Nan Shian so we decided to go there first before the wait got any longer, which it quickly did.


The reason do dine here is their famous soup dumplings. I'd never had soup dumplings before but I'd read a lot about them and I was definitely jonesing for some awesome dumplings. The wait was pretty long, about 40 minutes, but the hostess and the rest of the staff for that matter was very nice and lightened the burden of the hefty wait. We were sat and presented with very simple table settings:


ordered a single order of soup dumplings. The informed us the wait would be a little while because they steam them to order so we waited and sipped hot tea and people watched. Finally our lovely steam basket arrived containing the supposedly best soup dumplings in New York.


Even after reading about the proper way to eat these and watching the other diners, it still proved to be a difficult task. The soup contained within was scorchingly hot so after using the tongs and moving a dumpling to my spoon I bit off the very tip to allow the soup to cool before diving right in. I'm very prone to burning my tongue so I had to wait quite a while.


You really have to bite-suck these dumplings to eat the properly. If you merely bite into it, it would cause the soup to spill out. Still, even after trying that the only success I had was shoving the entire thing in my mouth. While the dumpling itself was wonderful, and the soup was equally as good, it wasn't really all that spectacular. I would only come here again if I were with a group of people and we planned on eating a full meal.

We left Nan Shian and garnered some strange looks as we turned around and walked right into the Happy Beef Noodle House.


I liked this place a lot more as there was more room to dine and it wasn't nearly as crowded. The table was similarly laid out, this time with large individual cups of tea and a large squirt bottle of Sriracha.


As you can imagine, the dish to order here is the beef noodle soup. The first thing on the menu. And one bowl is more than enough to feed two people.


Again this soup was good but was overshadowed by the revelation had at Xi'an earlier that day. The one thing that really shined in the soup was the ultra-meaty chunks of beef. This was like the best pot roast you'd ever had. I don't know how they got the meat flavor so concentrated but it was like 1/2 lb. beef patty in every bite. My only picture of the meat came out a bit blurry but here it is:


You can see the grill marks. Those aren't out of a can like the ones you find at Burger King. Those are the real deal. I'm surprised just how much of this soup we finished off. We got the check and proceeded to our final destination just around the corner, the Flushing Mall.


Unfortuantely this is when the trip didn't go as planned. We entered the mall from the above pictured entrance and scoured the entire premisis and while we definitely found a food court, there was no S&C Shaved Ice to be found. When we returned from NYC I re-checked my sources and we definitely didn't see anything that looked like the mall pictured here. I'm not sure what happened and why we couldn't find this place. The mall we walked through was mostly deserted and a lot of the shops were empty. Ah well, maybe next time. It was probably a good thing since we were both on a one-way trip to a pretty serious food coma.

We went back to the hotel because Nikki forgot a library book in our room then started making our way down to the bus stop at Penn Station. We stopped at the first place we could find that was showing the Ravens game and caught the last 4 minutes of their loss to the Bengals. Bummer. We left after the game and continued our trek south. Nikki had a grilled cheese at the bar but I refused to consume mediocre bar food just because it was there. Something caught my eye on the way though, a Grey's Papaya hot dog stand.


I ordered the recession special of two dogs and a beverage. I ordered my dogs with mustard and onions and yelled at the guy when I saw him covering my dogs with some red liquidy stuff. "I didn't order chili!" I said to which he slowly responded "These are onions..." I'd never seen onions like this but I guess it was Grey Papaya's house recipe. As soon as I spotted banana daiquiri I immediately selected that as my beverage. I didn't dive into my food until we found our place in line for the bus. This proved to be a very bad idea.


The liquidy onion topping had completely soaked through the buns. And if there was any mustard on these hotdogs I certainly couldn't taste it. I took two sips of the overly coconutty banana concoction and threw it in the trash. I knew any more would've caused severe stomach issues. The only redeeming quality of this meal was the dog itself having a nice beef flavor and a good snap to the casing.


I could see this being a sufficient meal when severely inhebriated, but it fell way short of anything even remotely satisfying while stone sober.

Thus ends our 3-day trip to NYC. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did living it. Until next time!