PREVIEWING LUNAR NEW YEAR AT GOLDEN PALACE GOURMET

January 28 marks Lunar New Year Day with the Year of the Rooster, a day to share with family, friends and lots of traditional food.  Why wait until then to dine at yet another Chinese restaurant.  This time it was Golden Palace Gourmet that serves “authentic Northern Chinese food, handmade noodle and dumplings”.  Not all Chinese restaurants are of the same cuisine as years ago we had gotten used to the basic Cantonese style or the spicier Szechuan.   I don’t eat alone as I venture into Asian restaurants with Taiwanese-American Luchia Meihua Lee and her husband Ken Howell, who does not either understand or speak Chinese.  

 

Guan Jing is the owner of Golden Palace, located at 140-09 Cherry Avenue in downtown Flushing.  Ms. Jing owns a few other restaurants that are located in Manhattan.  The cuisine represents a city in China, Liaoning, located in the Northeast near North Korea.  That may be the reason that Kimchi and another spicy appetizer of shredded potato in hot sauce was automatically brought to the table.  I requested a small glass of milk just in case.   As it turned out, the potato appetizer seemed spicier than the kimchi.  Now you get that I don’t necessarily enjoy hot spicy foods.   Luchia had no difficulty.   

Ken is a vegetarian.  I am not and it is always interesting being able to taste vegetarian dishes.  Yes, we pigged out as we usually do and then take home the leftovers.   The Crispy Lamb with Chili Pepper sounded pretty good to me now that I gained a bit more tolerance to the “hot”.  I think that seeing the red and green hot peppers should have alerted me but my problem is that I didn’t realize that cumin was a main spice.  I don’t favor the taste of cumin and am a bit allergic to it.  Luchia thought it was delicious.  

One of Ken’s choices was the sautéed Potato, Green Pepper and Eggplant that was in a vegetarian brown sauce.  I was able to taste this one.  Great alternative to other proteins, I truly loved the flavors.  

Although I was skipping beef for a while, I noticed a photo of Fried Beef with Scallions.  The chunks of beef were on bones.  I love eating food on bones…so much juicier.   The brown sauce made the dish even more savory.  

Another vegetable dish. Not sure of the name of this one made with bean curd skins sliced up to look like a semi-wide noodle.  These are just one of many handmade noodles created on the premises.  The dish contained green beans, mung bean noodles and scallions.   I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t eaten the saucy or spicy foods prior as in comparison, it tasted bland.   That’s not to say that Ken didn’t appreciate it.   Personally I think the sauce used for the sautéed potato dish would have added a greater flavor.  

Guan Jing stopped over many times to inquire about our enjoyment of the food.  That is when I heard about the dumplings made on the premises and then looked at the menu.  Ms. Jing does understand and speak English but it was a lot easier to have Luchia speaking with her and translating to me with any questions that I had.  

The choices of dumplings were longer than any other restaurant I’ve been to.  I’ll just list: Seafood dumpling with pork, egg and chives (This is the one that I ordered); Seafood Dumpling with pork; Sour Cabbage Dumpling; Leek Dumpling with pork; Tomato Egg Dumpling (sounded like a good one for breakfast); Fish Celery Dumplings; Radish Beef Dumplings; Fennel Dumplings; Green Dumpling – spinach, scrambled egg and vermicelli ; Lamb Dumpling.  What I mostly treasured about these dumplings was that they were not only packed with the ingredients but were comparatively thin skinned to most that I have eaten.  It allows me to enjoy the steamed dumpling without the heavy amount of flour.  You can buy the dumplings wholesale frozen with a price range from $15 to $22 dollars for 50 pieces depending upon your choice.

 

Since Golden Palace is authentic, you won’t be able to get ice cream for dessert.  There are “Sweet Dishes” one of which is Pumpkin Rice Cakes.  The rice gives glutinous texture vs. the chew of rice and not overly sweet.   I just think we should all have a sweet new year.  Gong Xi Fa Cai.

Golden Palace is open 7 days a week from noon until midnight (718-886-4383).

Peace Table

CRYSTAL PARK WILL REFLECT ARTIST RETREAT

Thomas Chen is president of the manufacturing firm Crystal Window & Door Systems based in Flushing. He came to the United States from his native Taiwan in 1982 at the age of 27. After working for several years for others and learning English at night, he started a small manufacturing business in Queens. In 1990, Mr. Chen launched Crystal Window & Door Systems. The company is now one of the top 40 fenestration manufacturers in North America with additional production facilities in Chicago, St. Louis, Riverside, CA and soon to have a 226-acre plant in Benton, PA.  There is no branch in Holmes, NY.  Yet, he is creating a 200-acre space at this location and calling it Crystal Park, located 65 miles North of NYC.

Mr. Chen is a longtime patron of the arts, and established a corporate foundation in 2002 to advance and preserve Taiwanese art and culture. In fact, Thomas Chen is Vice President of the Taiwanese American Arts Council. For many years, an art gallery he created within the Queens factory building of Crystal Window and Door Systems exhibited the works of local artists. Mr. Chen has sponsored exhibits at Flushing Town Hall, the Queens Museum, and other locations around the New York metropolitan area.

I had the joyous opportunity to take a Thanksgiving Day road trip, along with TAAC Executive Director Luchia Meihua Lee, Ken Howell, Taiwanese artist Catherine Lan and journalist Emily Chang.  Prior to Crystal Park’s entrance an art piece resembling a car sits at the side of the road entitled “Sun in Action” by Lin Shih-Pao.   A logo of crystals designed by Chiehping Chen greets the main gate.  A house rests at the top of the hill, where we will later meet with his employee and their family.  Walking down to the first level, we are able to look out at only some of what is to come including another stone carving, a poem by Tingehiam Wang written in Chinese.

Luchia translated for me.

As long as

Snow has image, rain has trace,

Thunder has sound, water has pattern

There are poems.

If people no longer write poems,

Birds come to write,

Winds come to write,

Snails come to write.

Fish cannot take bait as food,

Flowers cannot choose vases as home.

A thinking reed

Is only a spine.

Under anger, no wisdom

Under jealously, no virtue.

We can view artistic wooden paths, a gazebo, hammock hung between two trees, and a distant chicken coop with the sound of a rooster crowing.  It is just perfect as this coming Lunar New Year marks the Year of the Rooster. 

Not being mobile enough I stayed in the house while the others explored the property.  Tom, meanwhile, continued working on the land digging on a fork lift. “I have watched this mountain land being transformed from a neglected rural setting towards a future multi-functional park and future artist village with art, recreation, farm and breath-taking landscape around the lake”, Luchia said. “I have arranged for many artists to visit since 2014 and were all met with a stunning experience of nature.” 

“Crystal Park carries the dream of Thomas Chen who was born and grew up in a beautiful southern village in Pingdong, Taiwan,” she continues. “If he had not been an entrepreneur, he would have been an artist. His Crystal Park will be a retreat for us to create, exhibit, enjoy and exercise; an artist village for not only Taiwanese Americans, but for all US artists that have the spirit and need the space to gain energy.”

Catherine Lan grew up in Australia where she learned her art forms and focus on nature. “It’s another world from New York City”, she commented about Crystal Park, “where you can get away for the weekend or a one-day trip.  I am really excited that I will be able to go to the park when it is completed, although it is open for visits.  I love the fresh air and even more the inspiration that it will provide me for some of my future works”.

“With such a large area, there are many places to hike”, Tom said.  “It is a great way for me to teach my international employees about American outdoor culture.” Future plans for this “artist colony” include gardens, farming areas, artist studio spaces, an art museum and the commission of outdoor sculptures by Taiwanese and international artists.

Incidentally, Crystal Window and Door Systems is open to the public but only sells to contractors.  Tom said that he welcomes people to come in and learn about the types of products that would suit them best for their home.  The company is located at 31-10 Whitestone Expressway.  781-961-7300. You can view more about Crystal Park at www.crystalpark.org. 

Burn the oil, eat the food: Celebrate Hanukkah by eating eight days worth of oil

Hanukkah... or Chanukah (we have been wandering for many years in search of the correct spelling) is the winter holiday commemorating the restoration of Jewish worship at the temple of Jerusalem when Judah Maccabee led the revolt against the Seleucid Empire in 164 BCE. Judah was called “Maccabee,” a word composed of the initial letters of the four Hebrew words “Mi Kamocha Ba’eilim Hashem,” meaning: “Who is like You, G-d.”

Having conquered, Maccabee obtained a menorah to serve as a memorial. A small amount of olive oil was used, and expected to burn for one day. Instead, the menorah burned for eight days, and to remember this miaracle, this Hebrew year of 5777, Chanukah begins on the evening of the 24th of December (Kislev).

With the exception of the High Holy Days, Jewish holidays tend to follow the same pattern: We fought, we won, we eat. Which traditional foods are served on this Hanukkah? Think of it as consuming the eight days of oil—starting with fried pancakes called “latkes.”

Most common are the potato latkes that combine raw grated potatoes with onions, eggs, and flour (or matzo meal), a traditional Ashkenazi classic. Why do we grate the potatoes? To remind us of our suffering, of course! You can certainly bake them, but it tastes so much better fried in oil.

Let’s go to our matzo maven Hal Simon, general manager of Ben’s Kosher Deli in Bay Terrace, who started working there at the age of 16 at its first location in Baldwin, Long Island. He tells me that latkes are always made with potatoes. However, they can be prepared with other added vegetables such as zucchini, spinach or sweet potato. Looking at other countries’ ideas shows that Israelis, for instance, make theirs using meat. Great for those “meat and potato “ lovers.

Another tradition is “kugel,” or pudding using either potatoes or wide noodles (“lokshon”). Potato kugel is like having a huge baked latke. Noodle pudding is prepared two ways: sweet or savory. The savory version combines noodles, eggs, cottage cheese, sour cream, and butter. Oy, the cholester-oil! Butter makes the noodles crunchy along the bottom. One sweet version uses less butter and adds sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and raisins, usually served cold.

It was Herbert Hoover who suupposedly promised “a chicken in every pot,” but Ben’s took it seriously. Half of a boiled chicken, noodles, a large matzo ball, peas, carrots, and meat “kreplach” (dumplings) are actually served in a pot. Ben’s cures their tongue and corned beef on the premises.
“It takes two weeks to do this”, Hal said.

Then, of course, there’s brisket (uncured corned beef), pastrami and turkey. But don’t kvetch if you find that the food isn’t salty enough—Hal says that you can always add salt.

Ben’s does have desserts of pastries and a few other goodies, but not “sufganiyah” (fried jelly donuts). According to Gil Marks, author of “The Encyclopedia of Jewish Food,” Polish immigrants brought “ponchiks,” as they called them, to Israel along with the custom of eating them on Hanukkah. In Israel, however, ponchiks soon took the name sufganiyah (sufganiyot plural), from a “spongy dough” mentioned in the Talmud, “sofgan” and “sfogga.”

In 2009, about 18 million sufganiyot were consumed in Israel in the weeks before and during the holiday, or about three doughnuts per Israeli, with the Isreali Defense Force alone purchasing around a half million that year. About 70 percent of all sufganiyot consumed are stuffed with jelly, but a number of other fillings have become popular, including halva, crème espresso, chocolate truffle, and numerous exotic flavors. Jelly doughnuts in Brazil are commonly filled with dulce de leche (a milky caramel), which recently also became a popular Israeli filling, known as “ribat chalav” in Hebrew. American Jews have adopted the sufganiyah, although most tend to stick to the old- fashioned jelly fillings and a confection­ers’ sugar dusting.

I got some latkes to go to make your own noodle pudding at home. Noticing that I did not have anything similar to cottage cheese, I made my own using whole milk. I heated it up to an almost boil and dropped in some fresh lemon juice. Cheese goes to the top, whey to the bottom. Drain through a cloth, and now you have fresh cheese.

Fish, particularly salmon, is neutral or “pareve.” A combo of smoked salmon, chopped hard boiled eggs, capers, chopped onions and tomato would suffice as an appetizer. In fact, you can have that, schmooze with your friends or family for an hour, and then indulge in Ben’s traditional delights.
Back to Hal, who told me that Chinese restaurants aren’t the only ones open on Christmas Day. Although the restaurant is considered to be kosher, they are not closed on the Sabbath. That means that you can dine there on the first day of Hanukkah. Check the website for specials that may have nothing to do with the holiday. Hey, you don’t have to be Jewish to love latkes—all year round.
(correcting story to say Ben’s Kosher Deli in Bay Terrace)

Updated 4:56 pm, December 22, 2016

©2016 Community News Group

POETRY TO THE ELECTIONS

I Cry for Us by Merle Exit

Tears pour down my tired eyes,

As I hear who will reign.

Could not believe the people’s vote,

I ask what’s in their brain.

Build a wall, we’ll make them pay

Deport the folks that’s here.

Will armies be sent door to door

Like Germany’s Mein Heir?

Take away some women’s rights

Forget that they’re our mothers.

Negate the Muslims who served our country,

Make fun of disabled others.

Were we all on marijuana,

Overdosed on prescription drugs?

What makes our country flash guns and knives,

Will we ever offer hugs?

So I cry for “Americakind”,

Hearts run by fear and hate.

You’ve chosen now a falsehood,

Called “Make America Great”.

ODE TO MY NEW PRESIDENT (As written by a young man) by Merle Exit

Growing up in new “Great America”,

Tell me why IRS cares. 

That I’ll stop paying income tax,

Trump hasn’t paid in years.

I intend to be a celebrity,

Might just well practice now.

Perhaps I’ll grab some woman,

Donald and I will take a bow.

And when my wife in pregnancy,

Has to abort in strife,

Abortion will never be the choice,

Rather sacrifice her life.

“Bad Hombre” and homo living down the block,

Illegal’s got my job.

I’m glad he loves amendment two,

No wall, just gun down that slob.

After all it was the bullying

That got him where he’s at,

Don’t ever have to put my “man pants” on

Since I’ve permission to stay a “brat”.