Holiday Gift Idea - Crazy and Fun USB Drives

The Dim Sum USB drive from Solid Alliance with the capacity ranging from 1GB to 4GB for a price of 7,980 yen (about 90.84432 US dollars as per Google's currency conversion as of the date of this post.)

SolidAlliance offers some other bizarre gadgets like the USB sushi and the USB foodhub. The site is in Japanese so you might need to use Google Translate to read it. For reviews in English, visit: http://www.engadget.com/tag/SolidAlliance/

Gigantic Holiday Wish List

My wish list and holiday picks for the foodie:

Foods of New York Tours

I just stumbled upon Foods of New York Tours. Offering some coverage on dim sum, it includes stops at:

• Dim Sum Go Go
  
• Peking Duck House
  
• Fried Dumplings
  
• New Beef King (Chinese beef jerky)
• Ten Ren Tea House
  
• Egg Custard King
  

I have not gone on their tour and have not been to a couple of these places ... but I'm curious.

The cost is $65 per ticket and it includes the food, bottled water, and a Foods of New York neighborhood guide. "Two tastings are served seated at restaurants and the others from specialty shops on the go."

The tour is probably a good idea if you've never been to NYC's Chinatown and don't know where to go. The con is that with a little Googling and a little point and smile, you'll be able to discover great places on your own. The rule of thumb for me is to go to places that are crowded. Order dishes that look good - Look around and point it out to your waiter/waitress. It's rude but it gets the job done. Order tea or beer. You don't need to speak Chinese but if you try and fail, the locals will think it's cute.

The Fish Ball Guy

Vegetable spring rolls and stir-fried noodles
Originally uploaded by goyumcha

Dumplings with chili sauce
Originally uploaded by goyumcha

Everything is a must-try and it is cheap!

The stall is unnamed but we call it the Fish Ball Guy at the corner of 45th Avenue and Broadway in Elmhurst in Queens. And yes, they sell great fish balls and fish ball noodles, but they don't photograph well.

Frozen Grub

Originally uploaded by zeroion

With finals, graduation, studying for standardized exams, and the day job, I had no time to prepare and cook my own meals. Food had to come out of a box and/or must be zapped in a microwave. With that, I wonder how many actually feed from frozen dim sum.

Frozen dim sum was definitely my primary source of Asian food when I used to dorm in college (before I discovered Tops & Wegman's). Having dim sum, albeit coming from an ice box, was a taste of home for me while I was at school 8 hours away. Nowadays, I'm a five minute walk to the nearest takeout dim sum place. But with work being crazy busy and at most times, having no minutes to spare, I'm forced to limit my indulgence only on weekends. So, here comes the return of the frozen grub.

Pork Bun from Mei Li Wah

DSC01323
Originally uploaded by goyumcha

How is the new Mei Li Wah doing? Well, the last time we went there (a year ago perhaps), we could not get serviced because the staff was flooded by customers at the counter. Recently, my husband and I, although apprehensive, decided to give it another try. He got the pork bun and shumei and I tried the shrimp noodles and hargow (not pictured.) If you can get over the shrimps not getting deveined, the shrimp stuff is generally good...comes out hot and melts in your mouth. The shumei and pork bun are decent, according to my husband; they are good, but does not achieve the must-try status. Will be back to sample other dishes.