Some random food and a casserole at Congee
In New York we have a restaurant name Congee and one named Rice. One of them is frequented by mostly Asians and one of them is not. It tells me not to put too much emphasis on the name of a restaurant. Congee usually is not mentioned amongst one of the better congee restaurants in the city since Congee Village is usually the restaurant at the tip of most individuals tongues. I used to frequent Congee Restaurant quite often because they make casserole dishes with tofu that I like. This time around Peking pork chops were also part of the order. They were meaty and sweet, and fairly good for the $10 dollar price tag. It's nothing special, although my complaints on that dish were minimal.
For vegetables, they were selling sauteed pea shoots at $16.95 per plate. Yaozers! That felt like highway robbery so yu choy (or maybe it was Chinese Broccoli) was the substitute and it was passable as well. Most of the time sauteed vegetables in Chinatown taste pretty good. The thing is, it's hard to distinguish one place apart just from their preparation of vegetables.
And then we arrive at the casserole! The one I got had salted fish, chicken and tofu. The first thing you notice about the dish is the smell. Salted fish is pungent and takes getting used to if you're new to the dish. For some reason my memory of the dish was that it used to be good. This time it was a bit bland. In fact the only discernible attribute to the casserole was the smell. Boo. The next day I had leftovers of this dish but couldn't risk microwaving it at work because I didn't want to be that Chinese guy who stunk up the whole room.
Congee is just a pretty random restaurant to me now. It used to be better and I frequented it more. Now it just makes me sad. To segue into something else less sad, let's talk about something happier...
This morning I had a dream. It was less ambitious than some other dreams. It was only a dream about being in a food court. I'm sure it was a fictional place because the food court had a BBQ place inside. I walk by that place first and notice a roasted pig that's the size of a full-sized bed! But being the diligent eater that I am, I passed it initially to find out what else was in the food court. There was nothing else so I ended up back at the place with the unrealistically large pig. Then for some reason I realized that I was waiting for an imaginary order of a pig that I couldn't actually taste and then woke up. Yup. That made no sense at all.
Congee
98 Bowery.
New York, NY 10013
212-965-5028
(I invite you to follow me on Twitter so you can get more of my non-sense in another medium.)
I used to go to Congee to pick up cheap dinner all the time until I got tired of the dude with the permed locks (who stands behind the register) leering at me and other young ladies.
luvsocks
February 8, 2011 11:27 am
Wait a minute, something with salted fish was bland? How could that be?!
hungry
February 8, 2011 1:03 pm
@luvsocks,
haha, I know exactly who you're talking about. That dude is always there. I can see how he could be kind of creepy.
@hungry,
It just was... the salted fish simply imparted no flavor on the rest of the dish. It actually wasn't even all that salty. haha
Danny
February 8, 2011 1:35 pm
I think this restaurant is overhyped by Yelp. The vegetable entrees are expensive and not including a bowl of rice has always been my pet peeve. ALso, my mom and I always find the basket casks to support the metal dishes to be really funny, like we're eating at some rural village or something.
Next time, you should try the egg custard with fish stomach. It's a big portion, so it's great for sharing.
kim
February 8, 2011 4:08 pm
@kim,
Yea, you can't really trust what's going on with Yelp. I just happened upon this place a while ago and it was convenient because it's closer to the yellow line than Congee Village. I dunno, it's fallen out of favor personally though.
Danny
February 8, 2011 4:39 pm
Well, you'll always have that pig in your dreams even if Congee lets you down. Have you been to Congee Village? / Would you recommend it?
my mom always insist i take kimchi with me whenever i move somewhere, so dont worry, i always risk being that korean guy who stinks up the fridge with my kimchi. it's a tough life.
chris
February 8, 2011 4:50 pm
Good to know it isn't just in Vancouver that pea shoots are a hugely expensive dish (other than Peking Duck). They are my fave vegetable but they always cost more than a lot of meat dishes!!
Shine
February 15, 2011 12:41 am
$16.95 for pea shoots?! They had better serve a mountain of them!
Su-Lin
February 15, 2011 1:45 pm