The Ivy Noodle

When I got home this week, my Dad and I were feeling adventurous and decided to try a new restaurant: The Ivy Noodle in downtown New Haven (home of the best restaurants around, as it happens!).

There wasn't a lot of seating inside - it was a narrow place and the tables were up against the wall, opposite a bar which my Dad and I sat at. Still, the place was busy, and the staff was quick and efficient as I could hope for. I ordered chicken lo mein and my Dad ordered wonton soup, and we watched them prepare the food behind the bar while we waited.

I wish I had thought to take pictures when the food came, because they first thing I noticed was that it was aesthetically pleasing. My lo mein was piled high on a plate, long noodles and strips of chicken and large pieces of bok choy glistening and steaming and promising the best of flavors. My dad's soup was even better: in a deep bowl with a large, ladle-like spoon, the wontons floated in a relatively clear broth, surrounded by strikingly green vegetables and green onions. I had to try his even before digging into mine. 

Speaking of mine, it was the best lo mein I've ever tasted. While most Chinese food places produce food that simply tastes fried, with noodles that are overcooked and mediocre flavors, this food simply seemed more "real." The noodles were perfectly cooked, for one. Whatever sauce covered it was delicious and tasted smoky, but what I really remember was the bok choy - I'm usually digging for the chicken in these kinds of dishes, but the bok choy was crisp and they had somehow brought out an indescribable and delicious flavor from it. I felt like I could have scarfed this dish down for hours, but the portion was so generous that I regrettably couldn't even finish - oh well, more for me later! My only regret is that I didn't take pictures, because looking at the food was almost as good as eating it. If you're ever in New Haven, do stop by the Ivy Noodle - after Pepe's, that is!

I'm About to Make You Really Hungry

If there's anything this travel course has taught me, it's that small-scale traveling is traveling too. I've been to a few new spots on campus this semester, from walking new paths to old destinations, to trying new food - the latter of which I'm going to write about now.

Before this semester I had never been to iSlice (International Slice Pizza), a popular pizza place at the top of campus. I'm picky about pizza; I grew up in New Haven and regularly eat at Pepe's. But I do have a soft spot for single-slice pizza. It's like pizza on the go, pizza in a perfectly not-too-filling meal, pizza that you won't overeat because it'll actually run out after one or two slices. The only excuse I have for not going before is that I didn't expect much from it - why waste my time with mediocre pizza when there's a perfectly good Mexican place around the corner?

I was promoted to a team leader at work for this semester, and every week the team leaders and our supervisor (5 of us in all) get lunch and talk about work. Going to iSlice seemed to be a time-honored tradition, and who was I to argue with that? I'd heard fantastic things about their garlic pizza, so I got a slice of that, and also a slice of "white," which looked like margherita with chunks of feta all over it.

It was what I would describe as a transcendent pizza experience - something I had only before experienced at Pepe's and a place in Brooklyn called Grimaldi's. It's when - whether it is you who is in the state to receive great pizza, or the pizza just being supremely delicious - the pizza you are eating is just perfect. This was my experience with the slice of white. Perfectly greasy, salty, warm, with thick tomatoes and even crisp and flavorful crust. I'm sure the garlic would have yielded a similar experience, had I eaten that slice first. As it was, I couldn't finish them both (they're big!) but they were both amazing.

The lesson here is to try new things despite your own expectations, and possibly that you can never go wrong with slice pizza :)

Ode to Lemon Custard

Last Sunday, my parents visited and took me to dinner in the Italian section of Federal Hill in Providence, as a belated birthday present. Instead of writing about dinner (at Zooma Trattoria, which was pretty fantastic), I want to focus on dessert instead.

We wandered into a square lined with little restaurants and shops, decorated with beautiful European architecture, with a fountain in the middle and an abundance of cafe chairs. It seems like the perfect place for a warm summer evening, or really any warm time, even though that day happened to be chilly. Still, I admired the scenery. We stopped in one place at random: Palmieri's Bakery Cafe. 

Inside it was quite cozy and colorful. The display was filled with professional and delicious looking cupcakes, pastries, and cakes. I picked a lemon square and a lemon coconut cupcake; not usual choices for chocolate-loving me. For a couple days these sat in a box in my room, until I got a craving for lemon, and remembered again why I picked them out. The lemon square, though sizable and filled with delicious lemon custard, was quite typical of lemon squares (read: really good). But I had never encountered a coconut lemon anything, and while my mother scoffed at this combination of flavors, I was intrigued. They seemed, theoretically, to go hand in hand - both were refreshing and cool flavors, to me, and both brought back memories of hot days in Belize. This cupcake, by the way, was one of the best I've ever had. It was extremely light in flavor, weight, and texture, topped with a fluffy cream frosting and sprinkled liberally with coconut shavings - though it seems like it would have been, it was not at all too sugary. In the center of the cake was a lighter and whippier (is that a word?) lemon custard than was in the lemon square, but mixed with the cream and the coconut, formed what I would call a perfect cupcake. I wish I'd taken a picture, but I ate it too fast.

This put me back on track for my lemon love affair. I'd never cared much for it before I went to Belize last January. Perhaps it was being in a different place, a different culture, that let me adapt to the taste. I first tried lemon meringue pie in a small shop in San Ignacio, the first city we stayed in Belize. I didn't know what to expect, because when it comes to cake, I typically default to chocolate. The fluff was piled high here, topping a relatively small square of crust and lemon custard, but the flavor was fantastic. It was very light, tart, flavorful, and all-around perfect. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

I suppose it's a popular dessert in Belize, because we ended up eating lemon meringue for dessert two or three more times at our various hotels within two weeks. Though none have topped the first slice I ever had in that shop, I wonder if it was the novelty of the experience or perhaps those photos that make it look as exquisite as I remember. I'm not one to branch out in terms of what I eat (surprise), but this instance gives me a bit more hope for myself and many beloved flavors to come.