Posts from — July 2009

Last weekend I went home to NY, and my cousin had been raving about this Chinese-Indian (Chindian) fusion place, so I finally checked it out. Chinese Mirch is located at 28th and Lex, conveniently marked by a red and green neon sign. As a disclaimer, I have a mild obsession with Indian food and so I appreciate any fusion cuisine that chooses to include the Indians (dot not feather).

The first thing I noticed when we walked in was how PACKED it was. I mean, I know NYC is the city that never sleeps but it was already well past 9 when we finally got dinner and the place was bumpin’. Also, the clientele was overwhelmingly Indian. Since we are both somewhat brown, our presence wasn’t too conspicuous but we were totes the only non-Indians in the joint. This was a great indicator that the food would be amazing. Nobody goes out to eat their native cuisine unless they know it’s gonna be better than Mom’s home cooking (which is part of the reason I never eat Filipino food out).

The restaurant was modestly decorated, highlighting the minimalism of the Far East while also incorporating some Indian flair. We were seated upstairs and because of the narrow space, the tables were pretty close together. And because minorities are loud, everyone was screaming. My cousin and I felt right at home, as all of our family dinners consist of our relatives speaking at a level no lower than 100 decibals. I obvs fucking loved this place already.

OMFG, and the food. I let my cousin do the ordering since she was the expert. We got their signature Chicken Lollipops as an appetizer. Apparently you don’t go to Chinese Mirch and not get the Chicken Lollipops unless you are stupid. (Disclaimer: We are Chicken Lollipop connoisseurs. We had (incorrectly) assumed that Chicken Lollipops were unique only to our family get-togethers but we were wrong.) Because we eat Chicken Lollipops on every significant holiday, the bar was set high.

Chicken Lollipop: Further evidence that all meat tastes better on a stick.

Ummm, this chicken lollipop was lifechanging. I’m somewhat familiar with how they are made (having tried to learn the recipe basically since I’ve been born and failing miserably since apparently measuring anything is silly), and was amazed by how much flavor they had. I suspect the meat had been marinated in some sort of chili sauce, as it had a slight red tint to it, and was pretty spicy. The skin was perfectly crisp and delicious from a dip in the deep fryer (win) and was the perfect coating to protect the juicy chicken. The chicken was served with 2 dipping sauces, a gingery one and another one (pictured above) which was like a sweet Thai chili sauce. I confess; I would eat Chicken Lollipops no matter what they were dipped in.

For entrees, we got the Crispy Szechuan Lamb and the Chili Garlic Noodles.

Wooo, boy. First of all, don’t go to Chinese Mirch on a date because everything is hot as fuck (apparently “Mirch” means spicy in Hindi) and not only will your breath be kickin’ but also probs you will need a bathroom relatively soon after eating. Just sayin’. You won’t find any cow or pig on the menu because of the Indian part of the fusion, so we tried the lamb. If you’re not particularly into lamb, you’ll still be into Crispy Szechuan lamb. Crispy, fried and boldly flavored, the lamb at Chinese Mirch is a must-get. It has the familiarity of the Crispy Fried Beef commonly ordered for Chinese takeout, but with a spicy Indian kick. If Kelly Kapoor were food, she would be Crispy Szechuan Lamb. This lamb wins the Spicy Curry Award and schools Andy Bernard in a break dance fight.

The Chili Garlic Noodles tasted exactly like they sound — spicy, garlicky and noodley. They were basically lomein noodles tossed in garlic chili paste. Clearly that didn’t help in cooling the fire in my mouth, but the pain was delicious and worth it. I recommend everyone try Chindian food. It’s genius! Obvs, Chinese and Indian would make a tastylicious food baby.

Mary had a yummy little lamb named Kumar

PS There is a Pinkberry(!) mere blocks from the restaurant on 3rd Ave. Obvs we ignored the dessert options at Chinese Mirch in lieu of tangy, frogurt amazingness.

So like forever ago, in the March issue of Esquire, they had this whole spread on breakfast and all the yummy places to eat the day’s most important meal. They had a bunch of quick breakfasts that you could make using leftovers and they were surprisingly easy, not to mention AMAZING. Breakfast is hands down totes the best meal of the day and I often eat breakfast for brunch, lunch, dinner, dessert, snacktime .. you get the idea. Both of these would be amazing hangover food, brunch with the parents food or trying to impress a sleepover buddy food. Snarky highly recommends.

I Want My Baby Back, Baby Back, Baby Back Ribs … Benedict

OK, so this one is kind of ridiculous. I suppose it’s conceivable that you would have leftover baby back ribs and cornbread just laying around your apartment (like, if your mom was Paula Deen) but most likely you will have to go to the store to get some of this stuff. But, if you do happen to have all of this stuff at your disposal, this one is super easy. Shred the meat off the ribs (2-3 ribs should be enough meat, depending on how big they happen to be) and toss in a bath of bbq sauce and hoisin (this is like the Asian equivalent of bbq sauce and is most commonly seen as a condiment for pho or peking duck pancakes mmm). Roughly 2 parts bbq sauce to 1 part hoisin works best and then nuke it all for like half a minute to make it warm.  Hoisin is sort of an acquired taste so if you’re not into it, then I would just use all bbq sauce cause its probs still tasty sans the Asian flair. Now, throw this meaty mixture on top of some cornbread and top with a poached egg.

For the cooking impaired: Add a couple of teaspoons of white vinegar (this helps the whites to stay together) to a pot of aggressively simmering water. Crack each egg into a bowl and gently slide the egg into the pot of boiling water. It will most likely look like a white hot mess, reminiscent of egg drop soup gone wrong. It may or may not help at this point to pray that the egg lumps together to resemble a poached egg when you fish it out. Let it simmer for about 2 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon. As far as I can tell, there is no discernible way to guarantee success when poaching eggs (also, I think they are slightly overrated) so I think this would taste just as good using an over-easy jammy which we went over in a previous lesson. Eggs Benedict is made with poached eggs, which I find to be the most untrustworthy of them all, so if you want to stick with tradition go with the traitorous ovum.

Hungry Man Breakfast Grilled Cheese

Umm, so I’m not sure why nobody thought of this sooner because it seems so obvious, but this is basically a breakfast sandwich that has been grilled (read: soaked in butter and toasted in a pan). Genius, right? Anyway, you can either construct this after cooking all the breakfast items, or just make this bad boy if you have any breakfast leftovers to recycle. Basically take 2 slices of bread (I would suggest getting some legit bread for this sandwich, as the generic white stuff is too soft and won’t be able to hold all the breakfasty goodness), throw a cheese slice on both sides (I only had shredded, which also works), throw your leftover scrambled eggs on one side and whatever breakfast meat (ha) you happen to have on hand (ha haaa). Cover with the other cheesy slice of bread. Then just cook it like you would a standard grilled cheese.

For the cooking impaired: Heat up your griddle/pan and add a pat of butter, when it starts to bubble, throw the sandwich on there. Cook until toasty brown (about 3-4 mins), flip and repeat.