Everything is a dumpling if you try hard enough
Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, we test the limits of dumplinghood. Check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.
British gyoza empanadas veggie pasties from The Pure Pasty Co.
128 Church St NW, Suite C, Vienna, VA 22180
My very kind and well-meaning aunt, who is the only white person in our family, hosts Thanksgiving every year and goes all out. I’m talking about printed menus, themes upon themes, and weeks of preparations. It’s my favorite holiday by a long shot, mostly due to her efforts. (In case you’re wondering, my family always shows up several hours late and with no themed dishes.) This year, the theme was Britain (??) and Aunt Joy did not disappoint: She drove to the 2018 + 2019 World Champion Pasty Bakery, and hauled three large boxes of pasties of all kinds. Because nothing is sacred in our family, my mom proceeded to refer to them as “those big jiaozi” (大饺子) for the remainder of the trip, and my very well-meaning cousin started calling them empanadas. (I mean, what is a pasty but a large dumpling that’s baked, anyways?) Empanada or jiaozi, pasty or pie, these things are very good and I highly recommend making a side trip to Vienna if you’re ever in the D.C. area. The veggie pasties were extremely buttery, and filled with all sorts of savory things (I detected butternut squash?) inside, and hopefully no cheese (although I could neither confirm nor deny, as their menu rotates often).
If you’re reading this, thank you for another spectacular Thanksgiving, Aunt Joy!
Amaretto sour at Katana Kitten
531 Hudson St, New York, NY 10014
Listen, I know that I don’t have much going for me when I say this, but I’m not just endorsing Katana Kitten because it’s a cat-themed bar (and a Japanese-American one to boot!). Does it help that some of the cocktails have names that are cat puns, like “hair of the cat,” and “leche de gato”? That the basement, which was the perfect intersection of cool and kitschy, decked out with Christmas lights and warm with crowds of friends gathering on low benches, had scrolls featuring cats and tiles painted with kittens on the walls?* As a Fair and Objective journalist, I will be the first to admit that I have been known to support cats. But, listen, they do cocktails really well here — and if you don’t believe me, you can order the amaretto sour. An overlooked classic drink that I always wished I ordered more often every time I take a sip of one, Katana Kitten’s version was a slight update, topped with little shavings of salted plum, a perfect umami touch.
*Note that the upstairs bar, which has a much more West-Village sleek and chic vibe, serves the same menu, minus the “Lucky Kat” Christmas specials, and I’m assuming, without the playlist of tacky-fun Christmas songs.
Charred Japanese eggplant at Katana Kitten
531 Hudson St, New York, NY 10014
“It’s cold!” my drinking companion exclaimed when they took a bite of the charred eggplant at Katana Kitten. I never heard the words uttered with such enthusiasm before — especially at a cooked vegetable — but they were correct. The eggplant at Katana Kitten is deliciously cooling, and mixed with chili and topped with crunchy flakes of fried shallots and peanuts, it was the perfect contrast of different flavors and textures. If only eggplant was served more often as bar food.
Teriyaki burger at Katana Kitten
531 Hudson St, New York, NY 10014
The teriyaki burger at Katana Kitten is served with nori fries, in case you were on the fence about ordering it. Nori fries are what they sound like: Crinkle-cut fried potatoes that are sprinkled with salty dried seaweed. A fantastic concept, even if it was a bit of a messy execution (lots of the flakes fell to the bottom of the basket). Oh, the burger is pretty damn good, too. It’s one of those thin, fast-food style patties (which I prefer over thicker restaurant kinds), but cooked (smashed?) perfectly so it wasn’t overdone in the center. It had a really nice soy-saucey teriyaki taste and was plenty juicy. And, best of all? Reader, it was served with plenty of toppings and none of those were melted cheese (do you know how hard that is for a burger!!!) so bring all your lactose-intolerant friends with you and dig in.
Santa Fe salad (hold the cheese, add grilled chicken) at Chopt
200 Varick St, New York, NY 10014 and multiple other locations
God, this salad is so much salad. Just let me get to the bottom of this never-ending bowl so I feel fresh and clean and new again, like I’m eating something healthy for lunch, like it’s not just lettuce and grilled chicken drenched in spicy sauce, like I didn’t eat fries and cocktails for dinner last night, like I haven’t stayed in the office till 8pm every night this week, subsiding on a diet of frozen Trader Joe’s meals, like I haven’t woken up in a sweaty nightmare about subways and emails at 2am for the past three days, like my story is definitely coming out next week, amen.
Till next week,
Soph