Anywhooooo, here comes the fun part. CHINESE take-out! Whoo hooo. I don't know about you guys, but I remember a day when chinese take out was like the total bees knees. My mom would say we were getting Chinese take-out and my mind would light on fire, happiness shot through me, rainbows sprouted from my stuffed animals, I could barely concentrate, even taking a shower seemed like fun. The deep fried egg rolls filled with little unidentified bits of light green stuff with tiny weird shaped mini balls of pink meat. The delightful peppersteak oozing with brown sauce peppered with red and green crunchy peppers. Ahhhhhh, the wonton soup. Heaven in a bowl with little pouches of love and tiny slivers of pork floating around them. The light sprinkle of scallions on top. So delicious, so 1993.
Ok, so, here's my question of the night. WHEN DID CHINESE TAKE OUT BECOME SO, SO BORING? I don't know. I'm just not feeling the love anymore from this genre of food.
Is it because when we were younger Chinese food was exotic? Think about it. What else was there? I didn't even know mango existed until I was like 16 years old. When I was 10 (think 1993) Chinese food was like literally eating brain in todays standards. There was not much else. No sushi. Well, maybe sushi but most everyone was like "Ew, raw?! Say whhhhhhaaaaaa" and definitely no Indian food...options were extremely limited.
Or is it because Chinese food restaurants are literally taking over the country? There are 15 Chinese restaurants in my town alone.
Or is it because I'm just old now?
The options confound me and I'm left in a chinese food quandary. I wish I could go back to the days of doing the "dance of joy" (think Balky Bartakamous, gosh, i love him) for take-out chinese but instead i'm left emotionless and purely saddened by it's utter lack of excitement. Why is this happening to me? Now of all times when I just don't have the time to cook!
Moving onward, I have some fun food plans for this weekend. Two dinners out at pretty fancy places!
Friday I am going to Marcus Samuelson's (Top Chef Masters winner) restaurant 'Red Rooster' where they serve such items as braised oxtail with mother's milk stout and plaintain or spiced duck liver pudding with duck pastrami, almond and pears!
And, Saturday I'm going to Abe & Arthur's Steakhouse. Steak is my best friend. No, seriously. Steak has always been there for me since day one.
That is all! Ciao for now and goodnight.
ps. what's your go-to Chinese take-out order???
OMG. I totally know what you're talking about. All of it! I LOVED chinese food when I was a kid. It was like the best thing ever. But then when I got older, it became greasier and bad for me, and tummy aching, and all. It was like every Sunday in the Abrams house growing up. I miss that. And now I virtually never eat it! I feel like in NY Thai has taken the place of Chinese. Its like on every corner. And if its not Thai, its like one of those asian-fusian joints that has everything! Chinese-Thai-Japanese and everything in btw, Which seems somehow wrong!
ReplyDeleteMy go-to Chinese order has always been Chicken and Broccoli. My adult chinese food order always has steamed chicken dumplings and stir fry veggies: So boring, you're right!! What happened when we b/c adults?
SO jealous about Red Rooster!! I wanna go. Lady's goin to Harlem! I can't wait to hear about it. Eat some for me. :)
xo