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Shrimp and Watercress Dumpling

All the food that you should eat!

NEW YORK CITY NOVEMBER 2011

By Stella Dacuma Schour

Dimsum All Day! Everyday at Nom Wah Tea Parlor

Call it pure luck the place I wanted to take my husband to was closed that day. A couple of doors down and I noticed that Nom Wah looked welcoming and pleasant inside. My husband was apprehensive, I was extremely excited. Upon seating, we were greeted with a nice table setting. Ordering was a real joy. Not only do they have a cool photo menu - but the waitstaff will hand you another piece of paper and a pen where you tick off the dishes you want. The design is seamless and very organized so you know that #35 on the menu will be #35 on that piece of paper. This order sheet reminds me of the piece of paper that gets stamped by the dimsum cart lady as she writes everything you got off her cart in Chinese characters. As this is a Tea Parlor, their tea menu is quite extensive. I highly commend that each tea has a good description. This was definitely my I learn something new everyday moment. I was truly excited with all of my dishes to come. One by one, they did. And one by one, they did not fail to amaze me. Everything I had was good! I have more reasons to love them! They are open everyday, and they serve dimsum all day! Mr. Wilson Tang, Thank You for allowing me to enjoy great dimsum without waking up early on a weekend and craning my neck for the Har Gow Lady.

Stuffed Eggplant

Doyers St, Chinatown, NY. When I first saw this street, I fell in love because I felt like I was in some back alley in Hong Kong. My interest got further piqued after I saw the Nom Wah Tea Parlor Storefront. I have been walking past Nom Wah for years but I was always afraid to go in. Back then, it was very dimly lit and it really gave me the impression that there was a dimsum nazi inside. It also felt like it had one of those secret menus that you cant read and you just must know what to order all the time. They did a few tweaks and made it brighter. I think (even if i never went in before), they stayed true to what they used to look like. Nom Wah now looks like this.

Photos by: Stella Dacuma Schour

Har Gow (Shrimp Dumplings)

Nom Wah Storefront, 13 Doyers Street, Chinatown NYC

Steamed Soup Dumplings

When I first encountered pho, I didnt understand why it has a cult following. it was bland, and i just didnt get it - yet.

When I first encountered pho, I didnt understand why it has a cult following. it was bland, and i just didnt get it - yet. Asians, for the most part - take pride in self-seasoning. We love condiments. We urge you to make it your own. Pho, is just like that.

At Vietnamese restaurants, they give you your bowl of Pho, a platter of bean sprouts, basil leaves and lemon. Squeeze the lemon, tear your basil leaves into

pieces and put your bean sprouts in (if you have never had them, they are tasteless. they are there for texture).

How to Eat Pho: In Photos

Text and Photos By Stella Dacuma Schour

There will be an abundance of condiments on your table, so squirt some hoisin sauce

and some Sriracha to taste.

Remember, you can add but you cant take away.

Mix a little bit, and hide your bean sprouts under your noodles so it cooks.

Youll know it is ready if the plant-y taste is gone, or your soup has lowered its temperature to a comfy slurpable temp.

Papri Chaat Assembly

Text and Photos By Stella Dacuma Schour

Buffets are usually easy to navigate a papri chat is one part of the Indian buffet that needs quite a bit of a lesson in assembly. This dish is suited to the taste of the one who is going to eat it and has as many permutations as a lottery number combination. While some papri chat spreads are better than others, heres a general idea of making your own.

First make a layer of the crunchy stuff.

Add some cubed potatoes and chickpeas/garbanzos.

Add some chicken cauliflower mix.

Filipino Food: Fiesta Before Siesta

Text and Photos By Stella Dacuma Schour

Stuffed Chicken Wings

Kalamansi is the Philippine Lemon. The drink is refreshing and only has a hint of it in the end. This drink rounds out the whole meal perfectly. The Pampangan-Style Contrary Sizzling Sisig with Egg and to Filipino custom, I ate Garlic Rice was good. Totally Cracker Nuts what I expected it to be. The rice at Maharlika by is garlicky good! myself. My husbands Sisig has been part of the Filipino eating schedule and work schedule does not coincide with their 11am-3pm Cuisine way before snout to tail dining weekends only schedule inside Resto has achieved its present status in the US culinary scene. In it is pork belly, Leon, and I was just hungry. Seated pig snout and ears. Some versions add at the bar, I was perusing the menu liver, but truth is its all minced that and having such a hard time deciding you dont even see it resembling any between the sisig and the stuffed of the mentioned pork parts. The egg chicken wings. I said to the bartender, Im torn. Extending his hand, he that goes on top of it is perfectly runny - when you mix it up (and you should!) answers Im Enzo. With nice, warm the egg gets cooked and it just becomes and friendly staff, Maharlika is truly a heavenly. blessing for solo diners. Sisig started out as drinking While waiting for my food, I food. The drinking culture in the munched on cracker nuts. They are Philippines is about drinking and peanuts encased with a crunchy coating and some garlic flavoring. I know they eating pulutan. Pulutan loosely translated is something to pick visually remind you of whole chickpeas on. Something like tapas. I am but they are far from it. speculating that this is brought True to the activity of weekend about the Spains Colonial brunching, I had a glass of Kalamansi Era. (Thanks, Spain!) Since Mimosa. it is good, and we like eating EVERYTHING with plain white rice, it just became a meal. This sisig wins my heart out of all the versions all over Manhattan, Queens and New Jersey because they provide the tables with this Maggi Seasoning. You have to taste it to understand it, but it is better than soy sauce. I should also have Garlic
Fried Rice

(Funny enough, the maitre d thought that there were two people dining. LOL) The dish is chicken stuffed with chicken. In tagalog, we call this process of cooking relleno. (We also do this with whole chickens, whole milkfish and sometimes lechon) Dining in Maharlika is dining like royalty

Maharlika truly is a gem for solo diners who want to eat an entre and a half.

asked some Tabasco sauce for my sisig but I was just over the moon for this bottle of condiment. Stuffed Chicken Wings! Aaaah. This is their take on Chicken Adobo. This is very good. If you dont know what adobo is, Sam Sifton have waxed lyrical about it in the New York Times. I am so glad that they allowed me to order this as a side dish. See?

minus the royal prices. I have only managed to elevate my bill by getting extra entree and the mimosa. The entree in itself is a very good sized meal. I took home what was left of my Stuffed Chicken Wings and Sisig. Leftovers of Happiness!

Left: Knorr Liquid Seasoning. Bottom: Pampangan-Style Sisig

Add some Tamarind Sauce

Add Some Yougurt and Mint Sauce

And some of the red stuff with the onions

Finish it off with Tamarind Sauce! Mmm.

This dish is suited to the taste of the one who is going to eat it and has as many permutations as a lottery number combination.

E thnics School of Cooking & Eating Eat FRIED WHOLE FISH 101
By Stella Dacuma Schour

Ingredients:

Make It

1 Tilapia Cooking Oil for Pan Frying 2 cloves of garlic, Crushed Rock Salt iodized is fine as well.

Clean and rinse your fish again. Make sure you have no part of the guts left in the cavity. Cut slits on the side of the fish and put a very light sprinkling of salt all over, including the inside of the cavity. The slits allow the fish to cook inside. Heat the cooking oil on your frying pan on medium high heat. Dont waste olive oil for frying fish. Flick a little bit of water in the oil. If it violently goes out, it is hot enough.

Gently but quickly put the fish down in the oil. DONT THROW IT IN THE PAN. You dont w ant to burn yourself. Put the garlic in as you fry. Leave it alone. The garlic helps in giving the crispy brown coating. Turn the heat down to cook before burning the skin. You will know the fish is ready to turn after the frying cackling sound goes down and the fish is easily released from the bottom of the pan. After flipping the fish, flip your garlic too.

Knowing where these bones will be will make your whole fish eating easier. If this is your first time eating whole fish, DONT WORRY ABOUT

Debone It

takes practice to debone fish tableside. Learning about the fishs anatomy will make it easier for you to navigate the whole fish that is usually on a buffet table.

DOING IT WITH CUTLERYEAT WITH YOUR HANDS! It

Blue This is the Main skeleton. This is what is represented as fish bones in cartoons. Purple On the main skeleton this runs on the vertical, if the fish is lying flat like this. This will intersect with the middle part of the blue skeleton. Expecting it to be there avoids accidentally swallowing the fish bone. Yellow this runs on the side of the fish. Green this is the fishs ribcage these are extra long bones and protects the guts of the fish. YOU CANT MISS THEM.

From left to right, top to bottom: Handsomely Fresh Fish, Frying on the first side, Frying on the other side, The doneness you are trying to achieve. Photos by: Stella Dacuma Schour

From left to right, top to bottom: Fish with ribcage Fish minus the ribcage on rice, Fishbones that run , on the side of the fish wth the main skeleton, Fried fish head.

Eat it!
Fish head? Well, you can eat that too. My mom loves it. I am not a big fan.
From left to right: Soy-lemon-vinegar dip, Ingredients for Soy-lemon-vinegar dip.

Fried Fish has a very mild taste, and would certainly usually take the flavor of your choice of dipping sauce. As a child, I liked dousing my fish with banana ketchup. Nowadays, I generally just dip it in soy-lemonvinegar dip. To me, that feels like home. Fish head? Well, you can eat that too. My mom loves it. I am not a big fan. Eating tilapia that has been cooked as a whole generally has a better taste than a tilapia fillet. I still dont understand fish sticks, and I will not buy deboned/filled fish unless it is a slice of salmon with the skin intact.