Pot Sticker (1968); READEX Early American Newspapers

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    You do parking tickets all week and get one day to do research in the New
York Public Library, and it's certainly a bit of heaven.
    You try to sleep late, but David Shulman calls you in the morning to be
at the library.  He's got "good news."  It turns out ot be more poems.
     You request some books to research "pot sticker."  But the books aren't
at the library.  They're "off-site."  And the library is closed Sunday, and
closed Monday, and it'll be ordered on Tuesday--well, maybe late next week you
can actually get a book.
     So then you go to the microfilm room, and you order a microfilm, and one
hour later they bring you the wrong microfilm.  And it's too late to re-order
it.
     So then, after researching "pot sticker," you're in the mood for
Chinese, so you go to your old cheap Chinese restaurant, Garden Won Chinese Noodle
Shop, 12 East 42nd Street.  But it's closed.  A sign in the window reads: CLOSED
BY ORDER OF THE COMMISSIONER OF HEALTH AND MENTAL HYGIENE.
     Life in New York City is just great.

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READEX "EARLY AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS"

http://www.readex.com/scholarl/earlamnp.html

   I checked this a few days ago.  "Early American Newspapers (1690-1876)
Digital Edition" was "Coming first quarter 2004."
   This is very important coverage for this period of American history.  I'd
like to check for "cocktail," "eggnog," "fish house punch," "bakery,"
"johnnycake," "election cake," and much more.
   First quarter of 2004 means January-February-March.  A few days?
   I checked the Readex site again.  It now says "Coming second quarter
2004."  That means April-May-June.  Which probably means July.  Which probably
means the OXFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN FOOD AND DRINK won't be able to use it.
Oh well.

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POT STICKER

   The Whole Foods Market at the new Time Warner Center here in NYC sells
"Ling Ling Pot Stickers," but it contains no panda meat.
   NYU has a good selection of Chinese cookbooks thanks to the Cecily
Brownstone acquisition of its Fales Collection, but that's not open weekends or
weeknights.
    For now, this will have to do.  Again, Merriam-Webster has 1975.

HOW TO COOK AND EAT IN CHINESE
by Buwei Yang Chao
London: Faber and Faber
2nd revised edition
1968
(The first edition is 1945.  I didn't have time to check that--ed.)

Pg. 253:
   20.6B.  POT STICKERS

   Pot Stickers, a favourite Northern food, are simply _Chiao-tzu_ grilled on
a griller.  The skins and the stuffing are made in the same way.  As a
variation, the skin may be made by rolling the dough into large sheets aboit 1/16
inch thick, or thinner, and cutting out round pieces with a cookie cutter about
3 1/2 inches in diameter.  Then wrap in the stuffing as in Fig. 7.  With a
little stretching you form _chiao-tzu_ about 3/4-in. wide by 4-in. long.
   Preheat your electric griller to 350 deg. F, with 2 tb.-sp. salad oil over
it.  Lay the formed _chiao-tzu_ in close contact with each other, so that
with a 9-by-14-in. griller you can grill about 30 pot stickets at one time.
Grill for 5 min., with lid on.  Open the lid and brush the tops with a wetted
pastry brush and grill 5 min. more.  Turn up temperature to 400 deg. F for an
additional 10 min. or until bottoms are brown and slightly crisp.  Serve by
transferring the pot stickers with a spatula.  If it is desired to serve in the
griller, turn off heat before the 10 min. is up, since the griller will retain the
heat for a few minutes.
   Though pot stickers are so called, they should not stick so hard to the
bottom as to break when spaded up.  If they do more oil should have been used to
start with.  Instead of an electric griller, a large grilling pan over the
kitchen fire will also do, in which case you will have to experiment with your
stove to have the time and temperatures right.
   Pot stickers are a typical Northern-style food and are found (Pg.
254--ed.) in some Northern Chinese restaurants in New York and San Francisco under the
name of _kuo-t'ier_, which means literally "pot sticker."  Leftovers can be
regrilled, especially if underdone the first time.