Sichuan Odyssey

Best one so far, terrible neighborhood.

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:05:45 -0400

Best one so far, terrible neighborhood.

Photo

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:04:44 -0400

Photo

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:03:57 -0400

WHY MANHATTAN?

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:43:00 -0400

Asks the food blogger Susan J.

Because it is the borough where I have the most lunch.

Since receiving this blog I have eaten at:

Wu Liang Ye 49th Street; Sichuan Gourmet 39th Street; Famous Sichuan

Need to eat at:

Grand Sichuan Chinatown, Chelsea, Lexington, St. Mark’s, and the one in the 50s on the east side; Wu Liang Ye Upper East Side; new Sichuan Gourmet?; some place called Ollie’s near Penn Station that comes up on Google? Anything else?

And then my heart will explode.

New Manhattan buses are way better than Brooklyn buses.

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:11:00 -0400

New Manhattan buses are way better than Brooklyn buses.

Weird font.

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:05:00 -0400

Weird font.

Wu Liang Ye (midtown). 7/22. Lunch. Dan dan noodles, tofu.

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:43:00 -0400

Wu Liang Ye (midtown). 7/22. Lunch. Dan dan noodles, tofu.

7/22.

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:43:00 -0400

7/22.

Sichuan Gourmet. 7/6. Dinner with Danielle and Bobby. Peppers,...

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:34:00 -0400

Sichuan Gourmet. 7/6. Dinner with Danielle and Bobby. Peppers, fish, pork, bamboo shoots.

Sichuan Gourmet. 7/3. Lunch. Chicken, bamboo shoots.

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:32:00 -0400

Sichuan Gourmet. 7/3. Lunch. Chicken, bamboo shoots.

7/3.

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:32:00 -0400

7/3.

Famous Sichuan. 6/26. Dinner with SP and Nadav. Fish, lamb,...

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:30:00 -0400

Famous Sichuan. 6/26. Dinner with SP and Nadav. Fish, lamb, tofu.

Stolen from this flickr page. This is lamb from Little Pepper,...

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:02:00 -0400

Stolen from this flickr page. This is lamb from Little Pepper, which is not in Manhattan.

NEW BLOG, INTRODUCTION, FIRST POST

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:39:00 -0400

(Stolen from this flickr page)

Hello, this is my new blog.

Beverly gave it to me for my birthday and wrote that first post. I’m new to blogging because, like playing in a punk band, it seems like the audience is necessarily limited to people who do the exact same thing as you. I already play in a punk band, so I haven’t really bothered to find a different insular group of weirdos and haven’t paid much attention to blogs (aside from, obviously, this). I will start now. My old roommate, himself an occasional food blogger, has showed me some cool ones, and in general I hope to follow their lead and avoid some of the things that I find annoying about internet food writing (embarassing prose, half “this meal was very nice” and half dated slang like “bomb ass” or whatever; a systematic refusal to understand how capitalism and food production works at scale; etc.) here.

As such, I’ve limited the scope of the project to—primarily—a discussion of Manhattan Sichuan places and what I like about them. Given that Sichuan food is the third best world cuisine (after Arabic food and the Birreria in Pilsen but before hamburgers and Per Se), this should be an exciting—if caustic and grossly unhealthy—project. A quick note about authenticity: one of the worst things about food writing and its culinary Orientalism is the idea that authenticity can be sought out, understood, and explained. As a blogger I find that stupid and lame, and as a student of cultural anthropology I find it troubling and full of incorrect assumptions about basically everything. So, I’m not going to describe this stuff as if there’s a central, essential Sichuanness that I can appraise and these places can emulate, I’m just going to talk about whether or not I like them.

Finally, the project takes its inspiration from my friends Matt and Mike L.’s successful year-long Worcester Pizza Odyssey to eat at every pizza place listed in the Worcester phone book and, obviously, from this guy.

Soon I will outline a plan of attack.

Hi my name is Kareem. I like beagle puppies, ice cream, loud...

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:55:00 -0400

Hi my name is Kareem. I like beagle puppies, ice cream, loud music, old weird amps, sleeping in, and last but not least, Sichuan food.

My mission is to eat in every Sichuan restaurant in Manhattan and then report back to you here. Also it’s my birthday today.

-Signing off, KMR