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January 23, 2006
Shopping and Dining with Mom
I took Mom to Costco yesterday. She’s getting older and trips that involve bulky objects and lifting are tons easier with my help than without. I think we got most of the things she wanted and I went shopping myself at Costco for the very first time.
We’ll start with what I put back: a two pound jar of herring bits in wine and one pound of vacuum packed baked smoke salmon. I ended up buying two loaves of baked-in-store bread, one loaf of Eli’s Bread, a pineapple and a three pound bag of salad. Dole Classic Iceberg.
“How can you eat that?” Mom asked. Yeah, I know, but it is so convenient when you’re (perennially) late for work and trying to pack lunch. The house Italian loaf is labeled Artisan, which is pushing things. Real Italian or French bread has a specific crust and crumb, this tasted like stuff you can produce with supermarket flour in a home oven. Pleasant enough, but I got suckered by the smell. I know from both friends and family that Costco is all about the high quality of their meats, but I would have been carrying them around for several hours before getting back to New York City.
When I take Mom out for dinner, we have Chinese food. Always. Mom is nothing if not maddeningly consistent. The living room of the house I grew up in is much the same as when we moved there when I was four. Only more dilapidated, like Miss Havisham’s parlor.
Mom likes to go to a cheap buffet in New Rochelle. Lots of mediocre food, lots of choices, a vast plastic expanse with steam tables, huge television sets and obese people piling French fries onto their plates. All for only $11.95 and there’s a senior discount. Mom trained me well with cheap genes; I regard all-you-can-eat as a challenge and an obligation to be unprofitable to the restaurant. So I don’t like it much there. We went before Thanksgiving a month later on her birthday. I suggested that I would like to go elsewhere the next time.
Central Seafood (formerly Hartsdale Garden) is right opposite where Mom used to work. The place is a large Chinese restaurant in the old style; gumball machines for the Kiwanis club in the entry along with aquariums with overgrown fish and inert lobsters. However, the food isn’t from Column A and Column B.
Most of the one-from-column-A restaurants from my childhood are gone, but there's still one in Mamaroneck, Tung Hoy. When I was a child it was in an immense (from a five year old's perspective) room in a shopping center bordering on Larchmont. I always got the wonton soup. I still love wonton soup, red tinged pork and all. Tung Hoy moved down the road from its original location to the former site of China Lion, yet another Chinese Restaurant. With Mom, I've eaten in them all but oddly enough, not one of the most ubiquitous in Mamaroneck, Lum Yen. We went back to Tung Hoy about two years ago. It was dreadful. Sticky, pasty dumplings and cold food. And it was mobbed. Maybe this explains the mysteries behind force of habit.
We’ve gone to Central Seafood about three times. Each time, one dish has been an unexpected surprise and the other a disappointment. Fish dishes there have been wonderful. Last time we had halibut in black bean and garlic, this time flounder sautéed with vegetables served on top of the deep fried flounder carcass. I didn’t realize that was edible, but it was dramatic. The fish is top quality and prepared sensitively. We also ordered MaPo Tofu, which was made with silken tofu and insipid because of it. On Chowhound, someone mentions that the restaurant excels at uncommon dishes and falters at the Cantonese hit parade. That seems about right.
When we first came in the table next to ours was occupied by a couple. The gentleman was Chinese, and spread out in front of both of them were at least four main courses. I think he was having a do-it-yourself Chinese New Year banquet. Once they left with a bag of leftovers, another couple came in and things went from aficionado to tyro. The man quizzed the waiter for his recommendation on exactly which was the best Lo Mein. The waiter didn’t get the subtlety of the request and just shrugged. I hear the Chop Suey is great, too.
Prices are slightly more expensive than in New York; a meal for two will run around $23 per person including tax and tip. The restaurant was named Best Chinese Restaurant in Westchester last year. If you need to take your Mom out for Chinese in Westchester, go there but don’t order the standards.
Posted by Leigh Witchel at January 23, 2006 5:47 PM
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