04/02/19
Joe’s Steam Rice Roll located in Flushing & New York City is slowly becoming legendary. This is my third time visiting this place and I wanted to make sure that my senses weren’t fooling me after the first two tries. And sure enough, this place and the Steam Rice Roll is definitely a Hall Of Fame dish. There’s definitely something about the simplicity of steaming rice flour, eggs and a protein together to make a dish so memorable. To start, the rice flour batter mix is thinly layed out on a steaming pan. As it begins to gelatinize, an egg is cracked and spread along with the flour mix to become a thin, perfectly rectangle sheet of greatness. I ordered mine with shrimp and as the rice flour/egg mix is being steamed, plump tender shrimp is sautéed with soy sauce on the side. Then the magic happens. The shrimp pieces are placed on the thin sheet of rice four and egg and the cook begins to fold the thin sheets over and over and over again until layers of rice flour and egg begin to build a pillowy like blanket around the shrimp. This folding technique gives the dish the soft, but slightly chewy texture with a velvet feel. Mixed in with the soy based homemade sauce on top, the saltiness is absorbed and released with each bite and the shrimp adds that perfect snap of contrast. The floss of rice flour and egg are great on their own as each bite tends to melt and leave you longing for more. And to be greedy, I ordered the curry fish meatballs as a side dish. The meatballs are a great addition as it adds a differing flavor with the spicy curry base. They are also very soft, also marshmallow like on the inside with a snappy sausage casing texture on the outside with each bite. Please be sure to try this dish next time you are in the NYC area. They currently have two locations, with a third one planned out for the East Village area.