A Special Week

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

This is the third day without lunch in Chinatown. A quick recap: Monday, we were still celebrating Boaz’s third birthday on his home turf. We did not return to Palazzo di Gotthelf until Monday night. Tuesday, I stayed in my office at lunchtime in order to take a conference call on furthering the International Jewish Conspiracy. Unfortunately, only one other person got on the line. Wednesday, I had to go home at midday to welcome our new sofa bed, part of the reconfiguring of our library, computer room, music room, study, guest bedroom, television room and meditation room.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

I tried, I really tried. I walked about ½ mile north and about 1/4 mile east of the courthouse, but I could not find a new Chinese restaurant. I admittedly skipped several Chinese bakeries, which usually limit themselves to leaden buns with dubious ingredients, as I trudged around on this sunny, very cold day. I set out prepared to walk, because I wanted to buy halogen bulbs and that meant the Bowery above Canal Street. I rejected two offers of bulbs at $14 each, as much as a whole pizza on Mulberry Street, and bought half a dozen at $9 each at Lendy Electric’s Lighting Showroom, 137 Bowery, my new best friend. However, I still needed to eat and eventually got almost to Prince Street before I turned back, unfed. I got that far north because of Torrisi Italian Specialties, 250 Mulberry Street, a highly-reputed, casual Italian restaurant that had no room for me. On the way back to Chinatown I went into Hoomoos Asli, 100 Kenmare Street, a small joint featuring Israeli and Yemeni food. You could make a case for counting this in my lunchtime collection, because Israel is on the Asian continent, but that's too Talmudic for my reckoning. I ate a shawarma sandwich ($8.75), where the pita was stuffed with meat and vegetables, a preferable arrangement to wrapping the pita around them and having everything explode into the palm of your hand with the first bite.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Lincoln’s Birthday and New York courts are closed and my obsessiveness stops short of running down to Chinatown to get one lunch in this week.

However, I can offer a choice if you choose to spend your holiday weekend visiting Boaz and his Thomas the Tank Engine collection. Sichuan Gourmet, 271 Worcester Road, (Rte. 9), Framingham, MA, near exit 13 of the Mass Pike, is very popular with Chinese and round-eyed families, and deservedly so. We six adults, Boaz and Noam ordered scallion pancake ($4.95), Sichuan cold noodles ($4.95), tangerine crispy sliced beef ($14.50), sliced cumin flavored tender lamb with chili sauce ($13.95), shredded chicken with Yu Xiang sauce ($9.95), Chinese eggplant with Yu Xiang sauce ($9.50), fried tofu with vegetable family style ($9.95), and broccoli with Yu Xiang sauce ($8.95). Portions were very large and the quality high, easily justifying the prices. Except for the inherent composition of the scallion pancake (a Boaz favorite), and the fried tofu and broccoli by request, all the other dishes were appropriately spicy. Accordingly, I skipped the fried tofu and broccoli, and still had plenty to eat. Yu Xiang sauce, where we were allowed to indulge it, is a garlicky, peppery sauce. Noam napped throughout and I gave my fortune cookie to Boaz, along with several others he garnered at the table. As a result, the next day, he made some counter-intuitive, but successful moves positioning Gordon, Toby and, his latest acquisition, Harold the Helicopter.