It was bitter cold today in Philly but Karen and I decided to have an adventurous day anyhoo. We walked straight north with our minds set on visiting Chinatown. Just as it was getting too cold to talk we ducked into The Curtis Center to check out the Dream Garden Mosaic, a famous piece of Philadelphia art that chef made reference to a while back. It was gorgeous and intricate as promised, but most importantly a brief respite from the cold.
When we got up to Chinatown we walked into a bunch of shops before heading back to our favorite chinese pastry shop for some steamed pork buns. They were just as delicious as always. Light fluffy white buns filled with barbeque pork, they are called Char Siu Bao on a Dim Sum menu. There’s something about the buns that is hard to describe until you’ve had one. They are sweet and soft and cloudlike. The texture is sort of soft and spongy though, not like a butter pastry. It’s somewhere between Ethiopian Injera bread and the raw dough of a Western loaf.
UPDATE: Kari, who lives in Hawaii tells me that there it is called Manapua and Benn, who just got back from Japan, tells me that it is known as Nikuman. Nice to have worldly friends. 
(recipe)
The real fun came when I saw this though:
!!!
The Century Egg is something that I’ve heard of before and have been excited to try. This was the first time seeing it in a shop though, so I got all silly and excited.
From Wikipedia:
he century egg, also known as preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg, thousand-year-old egg, (Chinese: 皮蛋; pinyin: pídàn; literally “springy egg”, or, Chinese: 松花蛋; pinyin: sōnghuādàn; literally “pine-patterned egg”) ; (Vietnamese: hột vịt bách thảo) ; (ไข่เยี่ยวม้า khai-yiew-ma (in Thai)) is a Chinese delicacy made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice straw for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing. The yolk of the egg is concentrically variegated in pale and dark green colors while the egg white is dark brown and transparent, like cola. The yolk is creamy with a strong aroma and an almost cheese-like flavor. The egg white has a gelatinous texture similar to cooked egg white, but has very little taste. Some eggs have patterns near the surface of the egg white which are likened to pine branches.
Karen joined me by trying a curry turnover.
(Sorry for the poor quality of the cameraphone pics)
It wasn’t as clear or jelly-like as the pictures I’ve seen and it was sweeter than I’d imagined. This might be because of how it was baked or what it was baked in though. It tasted like a sweet and buttery plum-sugar concoction. The yolk part was more chewy and gelatinous than the white.
I’m still not really sure if it was a real Century Egg or a pastry version. The counter person told me her favorite was the Salted Egg though, so having both for some reason makes me think they’re the real deal.
We continued around Chinatown feeling happy and adventurous.
What we found:
New Harmony Bakery (google maps)
Total Cost of Date: $1.40 per person
Go for the steamed pork buns, go back for all the other pastries and the bubble tea, go crazy and try the preserved eggs! Very inexpensive. Friendly service.
6 responses so far ↓
1 andipantz // Feb 6, 2007 at 5:06 am
aww you guys were right down the street! So is this New Hamony Bakery owned by the New Harmony/Kingdom of Vegetarians? And is it vegan? I haven’t seen the bakery…
2 woodcreeper // Feb 6, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Nice little snippet of Philly. I love that hat! I’ll have to post something about our bird-skinning escapades at the Academy of Natural Sciences over the past few weeks…peace.
3 mattohara // Feb 6, 2007 at 8:08 pm
i’m not sure andi. it’s a little chinese bakery on the corner of 9th and race. check it out!
4 D.L.A. // Feb 8, 2007 at 12:37 am
Nikuman rock! Last winter there was a kimchi-habanero concoction. Deeeeeeeeeelicous! Unfortunately, this year my route to work does take me past a single convenience store.
Sad.
5 D.L.A. // Feb 8, 2007 at 12:39 am
Correction: s/does/doesn’t/
6 mattohara // Mar 21, 2007 at 2:23 am
i always say it’s not convenient if it doesn’t have kimchi-habanero nikuman.
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