Return of the rice roll 🍚

This time with curry.

Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, we meet the King of Mangoes and drink some milk tea. Check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.

The King of Mangoes at Ample Hills Creamery

Dekalb Market Hall, 445 Albee Square W, 11201 and several other locations

Whenever I undergo anything medical I always try to treat myself to ice cream or boba tea afterwards. Sometimes I feel kind of stupid being nice to myself, like I’m a big dumb baby who can’t take the abuse of the American healthcare system, and that’s exactly why I know I need it. Plus, it gives me more ice cream opportunities to write about. Case in point: I always forget how good the mango sorbet is at Ample Hills Creamery. I tacked it onto my cup of strawberry ice cream like an afterthought, mainly for lactose damage control, but it was so good I liked it better than the actual ice cream. It’s dense and creamy and the color of a salted egg yolk, and it tastes exactly like super-charged, really ripe, orange-yellow Alphonso mangoes.  

Curry fish ball rice roll at Joe’s Steam Rice Roll

422 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10024

Did you know that cheung fun from Joe’s Steam rice roll are the original muse for Five Things I Ate? I was so enamoured by the soft and comforting carb blankets I had to write about it, thanks to the encouragement of a friend. Well, two-plus years later, I’ve ~* just happened *~~ to move right next door to a shop. You would think that a restaurant that sells only one type of food would grow old quickly, but it manages to wake up my tastebuds with new flavor combinations. I tried out the curry fish balls rice roll for the first time this week, and the combination of springy fish balls, soft, wrinkly rice roll sheets, crunchy bean sprouts (I always ask for beansprouts, cilantro, and scallion) topped with creamy rich ma jiang (sesame paste) sauce and hot chili oil was a revelation, let me tell you. There’s something magical about the combination of curry sauce paired with the nuttiness of the sesame, and now I’m thinking about pouring tahini on top of Japanese curry. A little lunchtime escape for a little over $7.

Brown sugar iced milk tea at home

Better than the boba shop, in a manner of minutes.

I always forget that I can have delicious, cravings-worthy milk tea at home in a manner of minutes. It’s so cheap and tasty I always think I should make it more often. The most important thing is that you have the right kind of black tea bags. Ideally it is cheap but good black tea, nothing too astringent. I like Tetley’s British Blend. Just throw two tea bags into a mug, and pour over 2oz (a quarter cup) of boiling water. Stir in one packed tablespoon of dark brown sugar, so that it dissolves. Let it steep for a few minutes, and then take the tea bags out and let the tea concentrate cool to room temperature, or at least five minutes. When ready to drink, fill a pretty tall glass with ice, pour the tea concentrate over, and top with 2oz (a quarter cup) of whole milk. Enjoy, preferably with a straw.

Bucatini with pancetta, scallops and shallots in a Cava butter sauce

At home, restaurant style

Listen. Does anyone know what the hole inside bucatini is for? I don’t know and I don’t want to find out. But I do like that the noodles are nice and chewy. Because of the bulk added by the tubular structure, bucatini can hold its own against the layers and layers of fat and salt I throw at it. To make a ridiculously extravagant pasta dinner, cook thinly sliced shallots in good salted Kerrygold butter until caramelized, adding a big splash of Cava until it all cooks into a creamy sauce. Meanwhile set a pot of water to boil with plenty of salt, and cook bucatini. In a big clean saucepan, fry pancetta till crisp, lower in fresh scallops and sear on both sides. Add freshly cooked bucatini, the buttery winey shallot sauce, and pasta water to taste till creamy.

No-recipe recipe baked chicken tendies (or chicken katsu!) at home

Here is a recipe you can follow if you want to do it with guidance.

I was having a really intense craving for chicken katsu curry (as I do just about all the time), but had already spent way too many dollars on organic chicken at Whole Wallet this week and only had garlic bread crumbs in the pantry, so instead I ended up with some really delicious homemade chicken tenders. You don’t need a recipe to make quick and easy chicken tendies. Just preheat the oven to somewhere between 400F and 450F (depending on how much you like it toasty) and line a baking sheet with foil, take skinless, boneless chicken breasts, carefully butterfly them in half, season generously with salt and pepper and slice into strips, then dip them first in flour (seasoned is even better), then a beaten egg, then seasoned breadcrumbs. Lay them out on the sheet, drizzle with olive oil, bake for 10 mins and flip and bake for another 10. This “recipe” also makes great, juicy breaded chicken for chicken parm, if you just butterfly the chicken breasts and pound them flat instead of slicing. Oh, and for chicken katsu, use panko crumbs and serve with tonkatsu sauce. 

Have a good weekend,

Soph

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