More Feet in the Kitchen

I have to admit I eat a lot of weird stuff at home. But to me it isn't weird at all! It's not unusual to find some sort of feet in my kitchen. That's a really odd statement to make! Last time it was chicken's feet, which I love at dimsum by the way. This time it's pig's feet, crispy roasted pig's feet to be exact. My mom is using them to make congee (rice porridge) tomorrow but not after I nibbled off some of its juicy meat and crispy skin.

Some Rules of the Kitchen

1. Never mess with someone's mise en place (ie. use it all on their day off and not replacing it so when they come back they are in the shit)

2. Don't invade someone else's workstation (ie. leaving your dirty crap on someone else's table)

3. Work as a team and leave as a team.

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Goddamnit!

I just recently read a post on Adventures in Culinary School and Beyond where he writes:
"I know of three basic ways you can injure yourself in a kitchen - being burned; being cut or stabbed; or slipping on the floor". And damnit I seared my arm on a hot sheet pan. I did it to myself. It was my hot sheet pan. I pulled it out of the oven. I put it in the speed rack. I told everyone the sheet pan was caliente. And then I proceeded to reach over to grab hot choux dough off the pan. And then my arm touched the hot edge. I was in a pissed off mood and was being careless. Afterwards I was even more pissed off.

Vietnamese All Around the Boroughs: Brooklyn Installment

Pho Tay Ho is my favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Brooklyn. My boyfriend, his gang of friends, and I go there almost every weekend for lunch or dinner or sometimes a late lunch depending on how hard we partied the night before to gossip and recap about the weekend's tales. They offer dishes that my favorite Viet restaurant in my neighborhood doesn't have.


My all time favorite is Bún riêu which isn't shown on the menu but is a special that's written on the wall. This soup is rich and deep with flavor due to the broth that is made by simmering crab shells and dried shrimp in tomato broth. I love the crab meat cakes, made from the meat of the crab used in making the soup, dried shrimp paste, and egg whites, that float on top of the soup. Also in the soup are chunks of tomato, fried tofu, congealed pig's blood, shrimp and onions. Once it comes to the table I like to add lemon, basil, jalapeños, bean sprouts, and extra shrimp paste. I order this 90% of the time because it is so good. Check out the May 2008 issue of Saveur: crab issue has a great recipe for bún riêu.


The rest of the time I like to order # 50 Bún bò Huế ( Hue's style beef w/ noodle soup on rice vermicelli). The beef pork broth is meaty with flavors of lemongrass, chili, and shrimp paste. The noodles are thicker and rounder than the noodles you find in Pho or Bun Rieu. It has a toothy chewy texture that kind of reminds me of al dente spaghetti. Along with the noodles there are slices of beef shank, pig feet, oxtail, and slices of some kind of sausage. I like to add lemon, shredded lettuce, and jalapeños to my soup.


As an appetizer I love #28 Muc Chien Don (crispy squid in garlic sauce). The squid is battered lightly and fried until crispy and golden brown. It is then sauteed with onions and a sweet, salty, and garlicky sauce. There's a kick ass dipping sauce to go with it too. I don't like my food sweet (e.g. Chinese sweet and sour anything; Yuck!) but the sauce that the squid is cooked in and the dipping sauce are perfectly balanced in sweetness. And of course #27 Cha Gio (Vietnamese spring rolls) are always good and a must!

Pho Tay Ho has an extensive menu. I want to try their other dishes but the damn Bún riêu and Bún bò Huế are so good I can't help but keep going back to these two dishes. Their pho, beef cubes, grilled pork chops and chicken are all really good too. But I grew up eating these dishes at my neighborhood Viet restaurant so I think it is better there.

*click on menus for viewing

Pho Tay Ho
2351 86th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11214
(718) 449-0199

* stay tuned because next I will be taking you to Manhattan to one of my favorite Viet restaurants there!

This is How I Breakfast

On my days off I usually wake up in the morning and go straight to my computer to peruse the internet and the foodie blogosphere. My computer table has also become my breakfast table, lunch table, and sometimes dinner table. Sometimes I have to make room for my plate amongst all of my post its and pens. Right now I am having a breakfast of whole wheat toast with rhubarb orange compote that I made after seeing the recipe on this awesome blog and some cut up watermelon and cantaloupe. I'm also making some soft boiled eggs which I loooooove, but they aren't shown in my photo. So what do you like to eat for breakfast?

*Damn I overcooked my eggs because I was chatting with a friend. I love my yolks runny soft and creamy. It's ok. I really shouldn't be eating yolks anyway!

Kitchen Rant: Check Yo Attitude at the Oven Door Biatch!

In every kitchen you will always find one person who is a real bitch. Someone who comes in during the morning with a scowl on their face and refuses to say good morning to anyone. This is seen as very rude in the kitchen because working in a kitchen is hard! Every night it is like fighting a war. Sometimes you get slammed and fall into the shit. And when this happens its the people around you who either pull you out or join you. So it's customary for people in the kitchen to greet one another, it is a way to show respect that you are one as a team and not as an individual. I remember when I staged at Daniel, Daniel Boulud himself would often come down to the restaurant (he lives upstairs and sometimes comes down in his pajamas) and when he does he greets every person in the entire kitchen and shakes their hand, even me, a plebeian, a lowly extern peeling crates of pears. Ok so I digress, back to bitchy people in the kitchen. Everyone who works in the kitchen has sacrificed a lot to be there. We work long hours, work when everyone else is playing, and we get paid in peanuts. Now, I'm not busting my ass and getting paid chiclets to be around someone who unpleasant and doesn't want to be in the kitchen. If you are a cranky person then maybe you should rethink your career and work at CVS! No matter how tired I am or stressed out I am I always come to work pleasant. Because no one deserves to work in a shitty environment. I will not make it shitty for you as long as you don't make it shitty for me.

There's always one who refuses to clean up after themselves or wash their own dishes. Those are the worst people! They are either lazy or too full of themselves to think that they are too good to clean up. (It's funny because head chefs usually don't like to clean up after themselves. When they are around they take up all the space and leave a mess as if a tornado just ran through. It's like they forgot all their manners. But a chef is a chef and they can pretty much act how they want to. Cooks on the other hand are supposed to clean their shit!)

There is this girl at work who obviously hates washing her own dishes and anyone else's. She always leaves dirty sheet pans in the rack. She lets all of her dirty dishes pile up and then dumps them in the sink and walks away. She never thinks about loading or unloading the dishes from the dishwasher, never has the cognizant thought to bring something up/down when she has empty hands. I feel like we constantly play this game of Who-Is-Going-To-Put-Her-Shit-Away, she knows she has the chocolate ganache out (she used it last), I know she has the chocolate ganache out, but she waits to see if I will put it away for her, and I wait to see if she will put that shit away herself. Usually I end up putting it away because its fucking annoying and because I am a team player. If I waited for her to put her own shit away I would be there for hours.

Also in the kitchen you will always find one person who is really slooooooooooooooooow. They don't realize that the rest of the team would like to get the fuck out of work after 12 hours. They are slow and they suck at what they do. It's annoying when you have a shit long production list and you know you are going to have to stay past your 12 hour shift to finish it all and the person you are working with is moving 10mph when everyone else is moving 70mph. Sometimes you can catch them staring off into space or staring at the storage closet. This now leads us to the cocky ones. I find that the slow cooks in the kitchen are usually oblivious to how much they suck and usually think they are so awesome. There's always someone in the kitchen who thinks they are more talented then everyone else and usually their shit sucks. To be a good cook you have to watch,listen, and learn. You have to be humble and be open to learning. Which means be open to some else who's had much more experience tell you what the fuck to do. So that same girl at work who doesn't like to clean or put her shit away also likes to pretend that she is top dog when she isn't. She's bossy and constantly tries to tell me what to do and how to do things. Her shit sucks. I can't respect someone or listen to someone who makes crappy products. So I don't. I just say "yup" and keep on with what I'm doing. She's so untalented.

It's important to have a good team when you are working in the kitchen. It makes the day pleasant and go by much faster. It's great when you work with people who also are working as a team and not as an individual. The kitchen can be a cutthroat place. Some people are really competitive but I think that in the end it's obvious who has the talent and skill and who doesn't. I've worked at a cutthroat place where people from the same team would sabotage each other. Now that to me is just stupid and crazy. Our job is to make a good product that will please our clientèle. The best chef will always keep that in mind instead of how to be better then the other person.

Chinese Egg Custard in Flaky Crust

"Don Tot" is one of my favorite dessert items to get at dim sum and at Chinese bakeries. It's a baked egg custard that is baked in a flaky shell. It's a simple pastry but just so perfect and delicious. Orange Tea House Inc. makes the best don tot in Chinatown, NY. Because they often run out during the day, new batches are always being baked off. The flaky buttery crunchy golden brown shell and eggy creamy smooth custard is best eaten right away when it is still warm.

*Look at that guy in the window. He's enjoying his don tot.

Orange Tea House Inc.
121 Mott Street
New York, NY 10013

Knife for Sale

I am selllng my Misono UX10 Sujihiki slicer(pictured on the right). The knife is brand new, never been used, still in the box. UX10 is Misono's most expensive and highest quality line of knives. It is fabricated in Japan out of Swedish stain resistant steel. The 9.4" blade is double edged and has a Hardness Rockwell C Scale of 59-60. The handle is made out of composite wood. The entire knife weighs 6.5 oz.

Misono is one of the most well-established knife producers of Western-style Japanese knives. Its home is in Seki, a city with a 750-year history in knife crafting. Their knives unite traditional craftsmanship with modern technology and are well designed for high-level professional use. Chefs around the world appreciate Misono knives for their quality, design, and sharpness.

I love Misono UX10 knives. A lot of the chefs I see use Misono knives in the kitchen. They are comfortable in the hand and easy to use. I can cut the thinnest shreds of cabbage with this knife. I am currently using the gyutou knife (pictured on the left) . Both knives are similar in size so I don't feel the need to have both. I'm sad to part with it but there's no sense in me keeping it if I'm not using it.

If you are interested please leave me a comment. I'm selling the knife for $170 no tax.

Vietnamese all around the boroughs: Queens Installment

Vietnamese food is one of my top three favorites. I love their combinations of fish sauce, shrimp paste, fresh cilantro, and lemon. I love all the hot soupy noodles and grilled meats.

I grew up eating at the Pho Bang in Elmhurst, Queens. Pho Bang is a chain Vietnamese restaurant but they are not all created equal. Hands down the one in elmhurst is the best. According to my mom it was around before I was born so it has to be atleast 27 years old. It's sort of a shithole in the wall place with sticky floors and cooks who hollar at you from the back door but they make the best Pho broth in town!

I love the Pho here. Pho broth is typically made with simmered beef bones, oxtail, flank steak, onions, and spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and ginger. Sounds like a lot of flavor in a pot but really once its all melted together it's very mellow. A bowl comes with rice noodles and whichever types of meats you want like thinly sliced raw beef steak, fatty flank, lean flank, brisket, tendons, and tripe and a plate of bean sprouts, lemon wedges, and basil to be added as you like. I like the #27 Tai Nam Gan (combination rice noodles, beef soup w/fresh eye of round, navel, and tendon) because I love me some tendon. Don't forget to order the #2 Cha Gio (Vietnamese Crispy Spring Rolls- Deep fried rolls wrapped in rice paper with a mixture of pork, chicken, crabmeat, black mushroom and clear rice noodles). At your table you wrap these delicious golden crispy spring rolls in lettuce and dip it into Nuoc Cham which is a sauce made out of fermented fish sauce.

Some of my other favorites are:
#4 Goi Cuon- summer rolls- rolls wrapped in rice paper with cooked shrimp, slices of pork, green leaves, mint leaves, bean sprouts, rice noodles and is served with a peanut dipping sauce

#47 Com Suon Nuong- grilled pork chop on rice

#48 Com Ga Nuong- grilled chicken on rice

#64 Bo Luc Lac- beef cubes served on rice

Don't forget to order a drink too!
#92 Ca Phe Sua Nong- espresso slow drip filtered at your table with condensed milk

#93 Ca Phe Sua Da- espresso slow drip filtered at your table on ice with condensed milk

#98 Tra Sua- Tea with condensed milk (ask for it iced!)

*click on the menus for viewing



Pho Bang
82-90 Broadway
Elmhurst, NY 11373

*stay tuned for the next installment of Vietnamese food where I take you to Brooklyn!