Food diary of a 24-hour medical mystery
Welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, I’ll be detailing my attempts at ignoring my body’s complaints while continuing to go on food adventures. If you’re new, check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.
Pork and vegetable bun at Fay Da Bakery
321 6th Ave, New York, NY 10014
Hello loyal readers! Or unloyal readers! Or one-time-only readers! Whatever floats your boat, and however you want to engage, I’m happy you’re here, because man, I really didn’t think Five Things I Ate was gonna make it this week. I’ve been in the throes of an ear-related medical mystery for the past few days that’s consumed much of my free time.* But lucky for you, there’s a Fay Da Bakery right next to the urgent care clinic (that misdiagnosed me) so you bet your bottom dollar I picked up a pork bun before I picked up my meds at the pharmacy. These giant, fluffy, sweet white buns with a pork and vegetable filling are nothing like the bao my mother makes, but I crave them nonetheless. I always get an extra for the next morning, to eat with a cup of hot tea with soy milk. If you’re too lazy to pull out a steamer, just wrap the bun in a wet paper towel when you microwave it so it doesn’t dry out.
*It turns out that I may be allergic to a common antibiotic.
Egg tart at Fay Da Bakery
321 6th Ave, New York, NY 10014
Once you’ve tasted pastel de nata it’s pretty much impossible to enjoy any other egg tarts again, yet somehow I still do because I’m not that picky. The egg tarts at Fay Da aren’t the best feature of this Chinese bakery. They’re a little pale and slightly soggy when I bit into mine, but they’re still eggy and comforting and budget-friendly, things I desperately need when it feels like your head is on fire and your ear is about to burn off.
Pan mee at Kopitiam
151 E Broadway, New York, NY 10002
Loyal readers will know that I effin love Kopitiam, a friendly Malaysian cafe in Chinatown. So when I made plans to eat there with a group of my favorite people a month ago, there was nothing that could stop me from following through, not even a searing medical mystery. I popped some ibuprofen and lay down in the dark for 20 minutes and then I hauled ass to the restaurant, and I regret nothing. When I eat there with a group of friends, I make sure to always text whoever gets there first (we’re all invariably running late) to put in an order of the pan mee, which takes a few minutes to prepare. The soft, doughy homemade noodles topped with tiny salty dried anchovies and mushrooms in a clear broth is just perfect for a rainy day when you’re feeling down, or any day, really.
Fish ball soup at Kopitiam
151 E Broadway, New York, NY 10002
There are so many exciting things on the menu at Kopitiam, it’s easy to overlook the simply-titled “fish ball soup,” but that’d be a damn shame. It’s simple but sublime, half-moons of fish balls floating in a clear soup. For an extra two dollars, you can add a whole mess of vermicelli noodles, which you absolutely should. I ended up eating the lion’s share of this soup, and it was the perfect thing to soothe an upset stomach, as a person whose stomach is almost always damn upset.
Stranger wine at Maialino
2 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10010
An Italian restaurant in Gramercy Park isn’t the kind of place I usually hang out on a Thursday night, but sometimes when you are on a magical cocktail of painkillers, coffee, and antibiotic jitters, you find yourself emboldened to go places you’ve never gone before, like drinking from a hundred-dollar bottle of wine while loudly discussing your private life next to a table full of finance bros.* It turns out that the thing about fancy restaurants with good wine is that people going on bad dates will leave behind half-drunk bottles of expensive wine, and if you’re with the right kind of friendly company you can manage to cajole some wine glasses from the waitstaff to finish off said bottle, which is now your very own “stranger wine.” Anyways, don’t try this trick at home, folks, but I’m just saying, isn’t it a shame to let good wine go to waste?
*Okay, maybe I’ve done this once before.
Sending you toasts with stranger wine,
Soph