Xi'an Famous Foods

Joe DiStefano is absolutely obsessed with this place. He wrote about it in Serious Eats, The Feedbag, and Edible Queens. And his obsession is absolutely justified.

We bravely ventured down into the basement of Golden Mall. The chef at Xi'an Famous Foods is bright and outspoken, shouting to customers in English and Chinese. We begged some napkins, wiped down two tables, pushed them together, and sat down. All self-service, but oh the food was good.

The Savory Lamb Noodles were the best dish, full of savory cumin and just a hint of chili pepper.

Savory Lamb Noodles (孜然羊肉干扯面)

The Tiger Vegetables were particularly delicious too; the Lamb Burgers and Liang Pi cold noodles were tasty. The Lamb Soup (羊肉泡馍) was just a bit bland. My dad then started wandering the mall searching for that veal neck that Joe DiStefano raved about and came back depressed that he couldn't find it. I pointed out that it was pictured on the wall. So of course we had to get it. It really does come with a glove!

Me with Lamb Spine (羊蝎子) [lamb spine closeup]

I was absolutely stuffed at this point, but my parents were somehow still raring to go! So we wandered upstairs, and Cathy led us to this absolutely amazing tray of lamb hearts!

This turned out to be a Muslim restaurant specializing in lamb offal. You could get lamb offal congee, stewed lamb offal, or cold stewed lamb offal with cilantro and chili!

Chock-full of lamb kidneys, lamb liver, lamb heart, and lamb stomach. Wow, actually pretty good, even though I was totally stuffed.

Steph says I should join the Gastronauts. I think I will.

Xi'an Famous Foods
Golden Mall
41-28 Main Street Basement #36
Flushing, NY 11354

Another branch open in the Flushing Mall.

Stir-Fried Bean Sprouts and Flowering Chives

This a simple yet incredibly tasty stir-fry. The chive flavor complements the delicate mung bean sprouts, and a tiny bit of soy sauce rounds it all out.

The key to this dish is to keep the vegetables crisp rather than soggy or overcooked. Make sure the sprouts are dry, and cook them only until they are crisp, not soggy. While you can substitute standard Chinese garlic chives (韭菜), it's worth the effort to find the flowering chives for this dish; they have more texture, so they're crisper!

Stir-Fried Bean Sprouts and Flowering Chives (芽菜炒韭菜花)

(adapted from Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen)

Ingredients

• 8 ounces mung bean sprouts, about 4 cups
• 4 ounces flowering chives
• 1½ teaspoon thin soy sauce
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon freshly shredded ginger

Method

Early in the day, wash the bean sprouts and chives and drain thoroughly in a colander until dry to the touch.

Discard the bottom inch of the chives, and cut the rest into 2-inch lengths.

In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, salt, and sugar; set aside.

Heat a wok or skillet over high heat until hot but not smoking. Add the vegetable oil and ginger, and stir-fry 30 seconds. Add the bean sprouts and stir-fry another 30 seconds. Add the flowering chives and stir-fry 1 to 2 minutes, or until the chives are just limp. Swirl in the soy sauce mixture and cook 1 minute, or until the sprouts are cooked but still crisp. Do not overcook. Serve immediately.

Icelandic banking collapse causes lobster glut!

In an unprecedented synergy between finance and food, lobster prices have reached historical lows because of the Icelandic banking collapse.

How?? Well, fresh lobster is very perishable, so most of the world lobster demand is for frozen and processed lobster product. And apparently the processing plants that turned fresh lobster into lobster product depended on Icelandic banks for financing. When the Icelandic banking system collapsed, the processing plants closed their doors, eviscerating the demand for fresh lobster, and so the price of fresh lobster collapsed. Further reading:

• The Mystery of Cheap Lobster, by the author of The Secret Life of Lobsters.
• Lobster Market Takes a Dive in a local Maine paper.
• Canadian MP Brison Speaks in Support of the Atlantic Lobster Fishery.

Well, I suppose I'd better do my part to stimulate the economy by eating some lobster! I bought a 1½-pound beauty from The Lobster Place in Chelsea Market ($9.99 per pound), and I indulged in a week of lobster! The New York Times proposes “a weekend of simple excess, starting on Friday night and culminating in a hearty Sunday breakfast or lunch. It requires only the basic ingredients of American summer, East Coast professional division: lobster, corn, potatoes, butter, rice, steak, eggs.”

Start out with Steamed Lobsters.

Don't forget to save your lobster shells to make lobster stock for Lobster Risotto!

Finally, wake up the next morning with Eggs Over (Easy) Lobster Risotto Patties. Delicious. Luxurious. For $15.

Believe it or not, 2 days later I went to New Jersey and bought two big lobsters for $5.88 per pound. So much lobster!

• Recipes from Three Ways Till Sunday, by Sam Sifton.
• Lobsters from Great Wall Supermarket, Franklin, NJ, and The Lobster Place in Chelsea Market.
• Arborio rice for risotto is available at any Trader Joe's or Whole Foods.

Hunan Salted Chilis

If you salt some chili peppers and let them ferment for 2 weeks, they mellow out and develop a really gentle spicy flavor. Rather than a sharp kick, these salted chilis yield a nice warming flavor across the whole dish.

Salted Chilis (剁辣椒)

This is a key condiment in Hunan, where they call this 剁辣椒 (literally, chopped chilis). It goes in everything!

Red-braised winter melon (紅燒冬瓜)

Steamed Eggplant with Salted Chilis and Black beans

Steamed Pork with Rice Powder (湘山老媽夫子肉) from Hunan House in Flushing

Hollow-stem Vegetable with Salted Chilis (小椒空心菜杆) from Hunan House in Flushing

I'll post recipes for these in the coming weeks, but first you'd better get started, since they take 2 weeks to ferment!

At first, I stressed for a long time about what kind of peppers to use, but I suspect that chilies can be fully described by two axes: color and hotness. Find some red chilies that are appropriately spicy for your taste buds, and just use them. :) I bought small 1.5"-long red chili at the Hong Kong Supermarket in Chinatown. Later, I discovered red Holland chilis at the Manhattan Fruit Exchange and red cayenne peppers at the Union Square Greenmarket. I think these would all work just fine. Bigger peppers are faster to chop.

Hunan Salted Chilies

from Fuschia Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province

Ingredients

• 1 pound red hot chilies
• 1/4 cup kosher salt

Method

Wash chilies thoroughly and discard any that show signs of mold or decay. Dry them thoroughly on a kitchen towel or a pile of paper towels.

Sterilize a jar and lid with boiling water or by running it through your dishwasher with a heat dry cycle. Make certain it dries thoroughly either in the air or through the dishwasher dry cycle. Do not use a paper towel or cloth to dry it directly.

Discard the stems of the chilies and chop them roughly. Do not remove the seeds. Place the chopped chilies into the jar with three tablespoons of the salt and with a sterilized chopstick or fork, stir thoroughly to combine the salt evenly among the chile bits.

When the salt is mixed in, level the top of the chilies, and sprinkle the rest of the salt over them, then tightly cap the jar with the lid and store, unopened, in a cool dark place for two weeks.

After that, it is ready to use. After opening, keep in the fridge, where it will keep for months.