We Goin HAM

I told myself: money, power, get yourself on a hood party flyer. We goin HAM. Erryone's invited. Bring your whole crew, leave the gun, bring the cannoli. Go Knicks.

Vegas we comin

I'ma be in Vegas next week. We'll definitely be droppin heat rocks like this. LOL. HUSTLE HARD, how funny is this bootleg video? I miss Virgin Megastore on 14th, but only for the mixtape hustle. #Fauxury #itwasalladream

Time

Funny, I saw this article this morning and thought, this is like getting caught with my pants down (pause). Cause the people coming to the blog for the first time off the article are gonna see a post about amare stoudemire. Not even a review of the Coney Combo at MSG (RIP, I miss you coney combo - knish hot dog jumpoff FTW).

Josh is a cool dude and I really liked his piece. I do stand by my food though. Even though I got a goose egg the first time for Xiao Ye, Sifton did come back for CNY and I got a favorable review from Sarah DiGregorio at the Voice for XY which covers ethnic food better than anyone. I definitely understand that the things I do and say outside the restaurant are at times bigger than the food, but you're only as good as the last dish you served. I'm about my food, the culture, and peelin' money rolls till our thumbs get the paper cuts... #startrak #PushaT

p.s. saw the king's speech last week, new vocabs "we king'in" dumb hard

My Man My Melo

Listen, this is classic NY to ask for something then front like you don't want it when you actually get it. People are really too cool for Melo right now. If you told someone before the year, that we could have Billups, Landry Fields, Melo, Stoudemire, and Ronny Turiaf, that person would have bugged out and then they'd say, "Who the fuck is Landry Fields?" Half-way through the season, Landry Fields is Spike's new favorite and people are upset we gave up Mozgov!

Mozgov is a project who's at least 1.5 to 2 years away from being a legit starter if he ever is. People constantly over project the talent of young centers: Samuel Dalembert, Nenad Kristic, Spencer Hawes, Chris Kaman. These guys all had good individual years, but never sustained that level. I have two words for you: Darko Milicic. I'm not saying Mozgov is Milicic because Mozgov seems like he can actually tie his own shoes, but it's a crapshoot. With the NBA rules, it's a perimeter game and moreover a scorer's game. No one can project Mozgov accurately right now, but I'll say he never makes an all-star game. He doesn't have that back to the basket game or a consistent enough jumper to be a force offensively and he's too timid on the glass.

Raymond Felton was MADE by D'Antoni this year. He has career highs in minutes, shot attempts, points, assists, and steals at the age of 26. This is a product of D'Antoni's system and lately, people have learned how to defend the Knicks. Stay with Stoudemire on the pick-n-roll and make Felton shoot his wack ass 42% jumper. Felton had a great year so far, was great on the break, but he's replaceable. Coming into the season, the book on Felton was slightly above average speed, decent assist to turnover ratio, and above average defense. He is a lot like what Orlando had in Jameer Nelson his one all-star year that Nelson over performed. They both got opportunities to hit big shots created through pick-n-roll with howard/stoudemire, but when forced to win their individual match-up against the top tier teams, they can't. Plus, we're getting BILLUPS. This dude is proven in the playoffs and even though he's lost a step, he gets it done. Billups is a much better shooter and smarter in the half-court than Raymond Felton. He's a leader who in D'Antoni's system is going to approach the 9 assists a game that Felton had.

Gallinari has the most upside of all the pieces we gave up. He's a pure shooter who actively tries to go to the basket. I think high-end he's a slightly more aggressive Rashard Lewis, but more realistically, he has a career like Mike Miller. He isn't a legit #2 scorer but he is a #3 on half the teams in the NBA. Defensively, he just doesn't have the foot speed and you'll always suffer with him defending the 3. His shot has also gone AWOL for parts of this season going a career low 41.5%. Gallo is a good piece, but he is limited. He's not going to be Dirk.

Chandler had a breakout year. In December, his best month, he put up big numbers against the Magic, Heat, Celtics, and Nuggets. He scores in the post, face-up, and beyond 3. I really think he was a poor man's Danny Granger but his shot is also really streaky. Chandler doesn't have the pure jumper or athleticism to be a legit #2 scorer on a playoff team and is a career #3. Also, Gallo, Chanlder, Melo all play the same position. With Melo on board, Gallo/Chandler wouldn't have even gotten the minutes they needed. Plus, Chandler's a restricted free agent after the season and we probably wouldn't have resigned him. I like Chandler's upside, but he's not a superstar and we upgraded the position.

We took on a lot of trash like Anthony Carter and Ronaldo Balkman, but Carter is off the books after the season and we all loved Balkman as an energy guy when he was here a few years ago. Cory Brewer is overpaid, but he is a great perimeter defender and if we go with a small unit at times with Stoudemire at center and Melo at PF, he can play 2 or 3 with Fields and lock people down. Shelden Williams was a bust because he got drafted too high, but he's a serviceable big man that already has a better rebound rate than anyone on our roster. He's going to be valuable for our squad. I like that we got some pieces who are not offensive minded guys and will just do the dirty work. We still have some firepower off the bench with Shawne Williams, Bill Walker, and Azubuike is coming back.

In football, this would be a bad trade, but in basketball you win with stars and very rarely do you have a shot at one. Unless you have one of the top 3 picks in the draft or cash in free agency, you don't get one. And only once ever 10 years or so does a legit superstar become available for trade in their prime. Let's look back, Barkley to Phoenix, Shaq to LA, Webber to Sacramento, T-Mac/Grant Hill to Orlando, T-Mac to Houston, and KG to Boston. Did I miss anyone? When you trade for a top-5 talent, which Melo is, you can't go wrong. We upgraded the PG and SF positions and basically swapped Mozgov for Shelden Williams while giving up a potential sixth man in either Chandler/Gallo. We have 2 superstars and a top notch veteran at the point. This is what you wanted NY, stop frontin.

p.s. I understand some wanted to just wait till free agency and sign melo but you never know what could happen. If we missed out, do you really want to be sitting there knowing we didn't get him cause Timofey Mozgov was just too much to give up? Have you ever seen anyone who spelled Timothy with an "f" do anything? No. This is the cost of doing business. People don't just give away superstars. Those trade rumors 2 weeks ago saying that we would get Melo for Chandler, Eddy Curry, and a pick were ludicrous. You couldn't get High School Cam'ron and Mase for Chandler and Eddy Curry.

Slow Food...

These are razor clams. According to twitter, they are all the rage.

GaelGreene Gael Greene 

We had razor clams three nights in a row last week. John Dory, Bar Basque,Dressler. Good but not a match for Esca's. #fb

mattduckor Matt Duckor 

@ 

@GaelGreene Casa Mono's razor clams predate the trend and are excellent.

MrEddieHuang Eddie Huang 

@ 

@mattduckor cantonese razor clams predate the trend by at least a couple dynasties... #ohamericans...

Gael and Matt know their shit. Not trying to call them out on anything. It's their job to report trends and identify them, they do it well. They didn't determine the way Americans and to a certain extent post-modern foodies around the world dine. This is just how they found it. You may think, Eddie, why would you care if razor clams are a trend or not? Let em eat razor clams! It's not that simple.

From Skate to pork belly to razor clams, there's always something that's priced reasonably, previously ignored, and able to fill a role on a menu. That's where these things start. Your purveyor comes to you with a new product, say, Mangalitsa Pork and asks you to try it. It was almost extinct in Hungary as a lard animal but now they want you to experiment with it. There's an introductory rate. The pig really isn't good for anything but lard, yet, you can charge a premium for the experience and novelty. Call it kobe pork! While the purveyor is showing it to you, he's showing it to 5 other chefs in your neighborhood, boom. We have a trend. 

The Mangalitsa isn't a bad product. It's interesting. I'd like to spend some time with it, slowly integrate it, and figure out how to deliver it at a fair, sustainable price so it isn't here today/gone tomorrow on my menu. Am I selling a trend or selling a good dish? By the time you cycle through those thoughts, Mangalista prices go up for a summer, then they level out. But by the time it levels out, the eating public is bored. They just paid $30+ for a mangalitsa experience that doesn't really out-do your average berkshire. With pork, the problem has never been marbling. With the loin, YES, the Mangalitsa has an advantage there, but in terms of the rest of the animal, especially belly or butt, I doubt the berkshire lacks marbling. On top of that, chefs are coming up with specials and pushing trends before truly understanding the product because they don't have to. The novelty sells itself. 

It's a disservice to the product and the eating public. I'm sure Batali knows exactly what to do with cannolicchi (razor clam) and ditto for April Bloomfield with Mangalitsa, but they aren't the problem. It's the copy cats. They produce cheap knock-off interpretations or worse yet, drop razor clams on some shitty farm-to-table-to-bedford ave restaurant that thinks cooking simply involves buying a new locally sourced ingredient and putting some pink sea salt on it. There's no craft. Just taste the simplicity, the essence, the natural flavor. No asshole, COOK it. 

Razor clams aren't a trend. You've been able to find them all around Chinatown or Italian neighborhoods for decades. Just look at the search results for "razor clams" on yelp, it's a who's who of Chinese, Korean, Italian, and Eater Top 38 restaurants. They are on lowly Chinese diner type menus such as Wo-Hop, but once the P.A.C. (People Above Canal) play it out, the price goes up and you may see it disappear from certain menus never to come back. You have to realize, it may only take New Yorkers 5 months to cycle through a food trend like Mangalitsa or razor clams, but that's just the beginning. For the next year, you'll find it in DC, Philly, Boston, Miami, Seattle, Portland, Austin... God, and at some point dare I say, it'll be in Orlando. Just like "the man" took the black eyed peas from the underground and sold them back to us auto-tuned with a chick that should have been in the WWF, we are going to be buying back razor clams at $20 a pop in chinatown soon. But after a year or two, someone will announce that razor clams are endangered and that it'll take another 20 years to repair the beating they took during the "trend". Which sucks, because those consuming it as a trend couldn't care less that it's gone. But for the rest of us, it isn't a trend, it's a staple. 

It is better for food culture if we are slower to absorb new ingredients into the canon so that they have staying power. I understand that the foodielution in America is only about 15 to 20 years old, but this isn't a trend either. I STILL somehow end up on dates with birds who only eat chicken (canibals) and don't eat bone meat. There's a lot of work to do and we aren't even close. On the flip side are line cooks from 2 or 3 star restaurants who hang out at Baohaus measuring cocks. "Oh, dude, pork belly is so played out!" "Yeah, fuck foie gras, Mugatu is so hot right now." You guys are a bunch of Zoolanders. People "in the scene" (puke) need to dig their heads out of their asses and understand that the rest of the nation still subsists primarily on 80/20 ground beef and chicken breasts. 

I'm not saying we should serve burgers and chicken breast, but if we look like a bunch of chickens with our heads cut off running from new ingredient to new ingredient and the public can't follow, well, then this whole exercise is just intellectual masturbation cause there is no lasting effect on national eating habits. Maybe that isn't our concern, but again, everything is everything. If we can't affect the rest of America, then all this sustainable talk is for nothing because they're going to eat McDonald's ground beef until it kills us. We may go down with Mangalitsa saddle bags, but we're going down nevertheless. The rate of consumption during these trends is unsustainable for most products. They need to be given time to grow and meet demand slowly. We also have to manage demand so that people don't dismiss our products with only a surface understanding. I am somewhat passionate about this cause I saw it happen to street wear. We thought we were the epicenter in New York, boutiques were busy, and certain brands were selling across the nation, but we were packaged as a "trend". People didn't understand what we were trying to say, they just recognized a common aesthetic between certain designers and stigmas formed. People bought the "look" not the message or the actual soul of what was going on. When that happens, you have no longevity. As soon as the recession hit, every one went down. There was no customer loyalty because they hadn't bought into the culture.

Beyond taking an item out of the price point where ethnic restaurants can deliver consistently, there's a level of disrespect. I've never been a respectful guy myself, but I do believe in a nod to the Gods. Whether it's French, Italian, Chinese, or the clam diggers in Long Beach, Washington, l try to peep the history before I talk about trends or innovations and then proceed to credit the proper Iron Chef. I couldn't find out who was first in razor clams, but from my research it's common all over Italy, the Pacific Northwest, and China. Just looking at Chinese history, razor clams have been harvested for over 500 years in Fujian and Zhejiang, which is why you see them more in Manhattan Chinatown as opposed to Flushing: more Fukienese people. As Chefs, don't we have a responsibility to educate? As writers, is it enough to just identify the trend? Spend the extra 30 minutes and shout-out the OG's. That's all I'm saying, that's all Kool Herc wants, and if Jay-Z can oblige Kool Herc during Home and Home, then we can too.

As consumable art, food lends itself to competition, but why are we in such a rush? Does it really matter if you were first in line? As eaters, it makes sense if you are more concerned with understanding the food, experiencing it, and soaking it in. There is no need to run around town eating, dismissing, and checking things off a list. One of my favorite things is to take a train to a neighborhood I don't know and just collect menus representing a certain style of cuisine, perhaps Eastern European in Brighton Beach or Coney Island. I'll look at them all and try something new, then I'll go back in a month and try something else in the same vein. I keep going back trying the same food item at different places until I develop a foundation and frame of reference. I remember my first piroshky in Seattle (Piroshky Piroshky). I told every one about it, how awesome piroshky was, but I didn't realize how dope that first hit was until I started eating it more. It's really fucking hard to make a good piroshky. Now, imagine the inverse if all I had were horrible Brooklyn Piroshky? I never would have given the one in Seattle a shot. It's for your own good to eat slowly. There's only so much you can glean in one sitting. As my mother always said, chew slowly and eat every grain of rice cause anything you leave will be a freckle on your baby mama's face.

P.S. it didn't fit in the flow of the post, so I didn't mention, but I am guilty of selling a trend as well. people wanted cheeto fried chicken from the blog, a lot of people were mashing up Asian-Down Home American, so I got caught up in a trend and introduced some really shitty items at Xiao Ye. I didn't intentionally sell shitty items, they were just shitty because I didn't take the time. It happens. No one's perfect. Live and learn.

TVBS

I come in around 1:20 minutes in

456 Shanghai

I wanted to keep this to myself and not share with anyone, but the owners of 456 Shanghai are the shit. So, here you go. Officially, the best soup dumplings in Manhattan. Bar none. Please don't tell your obnoxious friends, don't come poking and prodding, just enjoy it.

I spoke to David Liu. Him and his daughter had been to baohaus before and David had a Taiwanese restaurant on Pell decades ago. There was also an original 456 on East Broadway that was owned by one of the owners' grandparents. 456 specializes in Shanghai cuisine obviously so go with the whole fish, lion's head meatballs, soup dumplings, turnip pastry, and cold appetizers. For stir fry, try bean curd, pork, hot pepper stir fry. Shanghai Cuisine still does eel and yellow leek stir fry better and the clear broth lion's head, but different strokes. All depends on what you're craving.

I enjoyed the review of Bar Basque so much today, that I want to be Sifton for a day... Here's my attempt:

The soup dumplings are ethereal. Shanghainese by nature, yet, decidedly Taiwanese by nurture. Reminiscent of Taipei's Din Tai Fung, 456 understands that less is more. Contrasting the clown college of Soup Dumplings one block over - Joe's Shanghai - where the bridge and tunnel soup dumpling is served, 456 delivers a one bite, clean, minimalist dumpling with slick skin. The soup made of pork bone stock is a sniper shot. There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. If an over sized soup dumpling with your mother's kitchen bouquet is your bag, this isn't your joint. But if it's precision that you seek, by all means, run to 456 in your Air Siftons (new balance).

69 Mott (between Bayard St. and Canal)

Atmosphere: Chinese Banquet meets Convention Center Conference room. If the convention involves pokemon, it's the same crowd.

Sound Level: I could faintly hear wong fei hong's theme song, but it didn't move the chinese broccoli.

Recommended Dishes: Soup Dumplings, turnip pastry, any of the whole fish

Wine List: Great Wall Wine '96 might be the only bad '96 ever produced

Ok, I'm running out of gas. Being Sifton is fucking hard. Back to being Eddie Huang...

Wheelchair Access: Chick in the wheelchair could definitely get it. I grant her access.

turnip jump-off