NYC in February

Back to NYC for Valentine's Weekend. Discovered some amazing new eats and returned to some old favorites.

Xiao Long Bao from Joe's Shanghai.

$5 for an entire basket of plump and delicious XLB? Yes Please. Each dumpling is big and juicy and filled with meat. Yums. Ignore the rest of the menu. Sesame chicken and lo mein? Might as well just go to Panda Express.

Chicken & Rice from the Halal Guys

Ah finally I have eaten the "official" chicken & rice from "The Halal Guys". That spicy sauce sure packs a punch. I have finally met my match which was a feat even Han Dynasty failed to accomplish.

Our selection: panna cota & french toast

Last week, we were watching Hitch and suddenly, a restaurant name flashed across the screen: Rice to Riches. Considering the movie is almost 10 years old, I was rather skeptical that the place still existed. But I was so fortunately wrong. The place was packed when we finally trekked our way over to Prince Street. The entire restaurant is devoted to rice pudding and it is delicious. I don't think I've ever eaten rice pudding before, but I am officially in love. Guess what's coming up next on my cooking list?  

May Eats - Prague & Beijing

May literally came and went: semester finals, Prague farewells, sojourn to China, move to NYC and now the first week of June is already reaching its conclusion. With the end of May, it also meant the end of my travels (and eating) through Europe. I am so extremely grateful for having had the opportunity to experience not only Prague but all of the  vibrant culture and history that each city I visited had to offer. I know for a fact that this will not be the last time that I journey to Europe (especially with many countries left to visit!). It also really does not feel all that long ago that I was blogging from NYC  about all of the ramen and cupcakes I was planning to feast on for the summer. Now, here I am once again in the Big Apple having completed yet another week of training (ironically, it was the exact same training program) - what a weird sense of dejavu. So here is the official wrap-up of my  final days in Prague and an overview of my eating adventures in Beijing.

1) Back to Aromi 

+ Seafood tomato soup with fish sashimi on croutons

Linguine with crab and tomato; Agnolotti filled with cooked ham and ricotta served with asparagus

Aromi quickly became one of my favorite restaurants in Prague. With michelin level quality of service and a bowl of authentic pasta for around 15USD - its one of the nicest experiences I discovered in Prague, too bad the only place you can find a deal like that is in Central Europe. Compared to the pastas that I ate in Italy - Aromi's pastas are easily just as good as what you would get from the home country.  During our visit, we were given an amuse bouche of smoked salmon and a hummus-like puree as well as a refreshing lemon sorbet drink. I never got a chance to post the pasta dishes I had for my first visit at Aromi (mostly because I devoured too much of my meal before I remembered to take a picture) but those dishes we ordered were also amazingly good and that was right before my Italy trip.

2) Completing the trio - Mlynec 

Veal Sausage with Celery puree; Deer Medallions with potato dumplings; Crispy Roasted Duck with bread dumplings

Mlynec is owned by the same restaurant group that also owns V Zatisi and Bellevue (probably one of my favorite restaurants of all time). The three together are some of the most popular and prestigious restaurants in Prague. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to post about V Zatisi or Bellevue since all of those food pictures are on V's phone (maybe I'll have a nostalgia Europe post on all of the eats that I missed). Mlynec is located right next to Charles Bridge and the menu has a heavier emphasis on Bohemia and Czech cuisine compared to its sister restaurants. The meal was hearty and satisfying and pretty much what you would expect when it comes to Bohemian cuisine.

3) Oh Hello Beijing & Ding Tai Fung

Spicy Wonton dumplings; Dan dan mian; Seaweed & tofu cold salad

Shanghai juicy buns: original pork and crab roe (look at those 18 folds on each dumpling!)

Sweet red bean buns; grass jelly ice dessert

Dim Sum Done Right

On the top of my to-do list in Hong Kong? Get dim sum. ASAP. Crowned one of the top 10 best restaurants of the world by the New York Times and awarded one Michelin star by the Hong Kong & Macau edition of the Michelin guide, this internationally acclaimed restaurant has put all of my other dim sum experiences to shame. Who knew that Ding Tai Fung had its start  with a broke husband and wife originally selling tinned cooking oil? After some quick googling, I've also just discovered that there is a branch in Arcadia, CA...where the heck is Arcadia? Can they please open a branch in NYC already?

This is a sign...

Duck bowl! I am a hugeee fan of the rice bowls at Sangkess. The portions are large but just large enough that I can still finish everything if I really wanted to :)

that I need to mix things up. I've realihzed that the only three places I go to eat now are Capogiros, Sangkees and Taphouse. Yes it is (mostly) the only places worth going to on Campus in a pinch but for someone who is always espousing the boringness of the same old same old, I really need to get a little more adventurous...until then: here are some snapshots of lunch of Friday and Sunday at Sangkees.

Chicken with lemon grass. I also really like this dish. The chicken is actually flavored and cooked pretty perfectly.

I went with the lunch special of beef&eggplant, dumplings and rice. The dish was satisfying but a little too sweet for me and the e ginger dressing on the salad was definitely too sweet. 

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Some sort of flat noodle dish with shrimp. After all the times I've had these rice like noodles, I still don't like them because they're always cooked in too much oil. Can someone find me a place that actually does them right??

On another note, the chilli oil at SK is absolutely AMAZING. I usually go through at least one of the these in one sitting...hehe.

Some quick shots of a spontaneous dim sum run on Sunday. Naturally the food was not as good as Chinatown but it did the trick. Yes we ordered too much. Yes we basically finished all of it. )Plus some Vietnamese Iced Coffee. FTW.)

Currently contemplating a BYO to go to this Friday on South Street. Guess we shall see how this planning works out.

...Fried Chicken & Lychee

Probably not the best combination to try together....If you haven't had the chance to try Lychee bubble tea yet, get on it!
After walking 10 blocks from the Chinatown bus stop, this was the perfect thirst quincher on another sweltering summer day. The fried chicken had a really unique blend of spices and was served with thai basil.

Dim Sum at Golden Unicorn (NYC Chinatown). Now that is some real shrimp shumai.

Chocolate Froyo at Forty Carrots (Bloomindales NYC). A well trusted NY foodie told me this was the best place to get Froyo and I think I have to agree. You know its good stuff when you don't even need a single topping.