M(Y) SHANGHAI’S COLD WONTONS IN SPICY PEANUT SAUCE

[ezcol_1third] YOUR ULTIMATE REVENGE TOWARDS THE COMING ASS-BINDING HEATWAVES A REFRESHINGLY PLEASURABLE PAIN, BEST SERVED COLD [/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end] It might say something about me, perhaps not in the most positive light, whenever I fell for a Chinese dish-inspiration from half way around the world while living right inside the epicenter of it all, where the "real things" are or so they say.  What kind of a food-blogger, who eats and breathes right off of the ground-zero of a very old, very diverse and rapidly morphing food-culture often generalized as "Chinese foods", would cook you a Chinese dish that comes from an Instagram of a New Yorker who took it at a restaurant that are, out of all places, in Brooklyn. Lazy?  Perhaps.  Utter dumb luck?  That's for sure.  Because you see, without this inconvenient loop around the globe it has traveled, the inspiration for this down-home Shanghainese summer snack, in one form or another, would have otherwise never found its way to melt in my warm embrace.  And this is, I guess especially for those who have experienced living abroad, a perfectly explainable social phenomenon. Thing is, I believe across all cultures, that the restaurants indigenous to where they are located, often times with great effort, focus on serving what they perceive as "restaurant-style/worthy" dishes only.

THE SHIT I EAT WHEN I’M BY MYSELF – GRILLED CURRY CHEESE, iPHONE ONLY

[ezcol_1third] NOT KNOWING IF (THE SWEAT) WAS DUE TO THE HEAT OF THE KITCHEN, OR HOT-FLASHES AS EARLY SIGNS OF MENOPAUSE [/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end] OK, so it's been awhile since I last did The Shit I Eat When I'm By Myself Series, and I thought today - the day I turn 35, the day when the oestrogen has officially left the party, the day when avocado becomes a face-cream instead of food - is a good time to rekindle (it's called letting it go).  And also, because I got this lovely birthday present from you-know-who, I thought I will follow Tiffany and do a post entirely shot/edited by iPhone 6 only!  Initially, I thought it would be the most liberating thing ever, not having to carry a heavy and bulky camera while dripping sweat, not knowing whether it's due to the heat from the kitchen or hot-flashes as early signs of menopause

JERKED SRIRACHA ROAST PORK TACOS W KIWI SALSA VERDE

[ezcol_2third][/ezcol_2third] [ezcol_1third_end]  WHY CAN'T WE ALL JUST BEHAVE LIKE TACOS? I don't know, if there was any other single food-item in this world that, in the best sense possible, welcomes manipulations as much as say, tacos. I mean think about it.  In this world where the not-so-secret food-police who enforces the law of authenticity, still patrols much of the way we perceive and evaluate what and how we eat, this iconic Mexican establishment seems to be freely, and deliciously if I might add, looming well outside of its strict jurisdiction.  They have applaudedly gone over and beyond their traditional origins, shown more adaptability and dare I say, humour, that's unbound by the narrowness of ethnicity without muss or fuss.  How does it do it?  This means, to me at least, more than eating.  If you just take a look at this mad house we're all living under now - where you can't cook a pot of bolognese sauce without turning some Italian nonna in her graves, or enjoy any other blurred out version of mapo tofu without stepping on some bitches' toes (who me?), or fucking crack a joke without hate - it would appear that, fingers crossed, the modern tacos are practically a beacon for social miracles.

MY XIAN FAMOUS SPICY CUMIN LAMB HAND-SMASHED NOODLES

[ezcol_1half] ONCE YOU GET THERE, WHATEVER IT TAKES FOR YOU TO GET THERE, THE REST IS AS EASY AS BIANG [/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end] Does this recipe really need introduction?  If you have been enjoying, following, or even just been seduced from afar by the unstoppable uprise of this basement-stall to now 10 flourishing locations throughout New York, you would not be unfamiliar with the signature dish, from Xian Famous Foods.  The spicy cumin lamb hand-ripped (biang biang) noodles. I have certainly been a fan.  More precisely, I have been enjoy Xian Famous Foods for the past few years, without actually stepping a foot inside any of their 10 locations.  Because I've been here, in Beijing, where "Xian famous foods" are not known as the name of a trending chain-restaurants, but in fact, a genre.  Those 4 Chinese characters almost recognized as their "logo", are actually common here as a phrase that describes the local street foods of the city Xi-An.  Kind of like having a restaurant called "Texas BBQ", or "Chicago Hotdogs".  And on top of the usual suspects of cold skin noodles, cumin lamb burger (called "rou-jia-mo"), lamb offal soup

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