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?  

NaschMarkt

So much fresh produce and so much color!

The Naschmarkt has put every other market I have ever been in to shame. 1.5km of produce, meat, spices, candy, cheese, wine, coffee and prop-up eateries. Sit-down restaurants serving sushi, sausages, pizza and everything in between. Fruit stands selling the most exotic fruits I have seen since coming to Europe. Asian stores stocked with every variation of soy sauce imaginable. Gyro stands paired with fried noodles and a whole bunch of olives and feta counters. 

And lots of dried fruits and sweets.
We dried some dried kumquats from a stand which had a very intense citrus flavor. 

Handmade pasta freshly made in this makeshift dining room/kitchen. SUCH GOOD PASTA. 

We passed by this pasta stand and just had to stop. The pastas were all freshly made and next it to them were an assortment of sauces including wonderfully aromatic pesto and the classic marinara. We opted for some tagliatelle and prosciutto ravioli. The owner took our selection and immediately bustled off to the kitchen. Behind the pasta counter was a dining room kept warm by heating lamps. 

And the pasta. WOW. I think this was the first time I had pasta cooked truly al dente. The marinara sauce was light but surprisingly flavor. It was an epic moment. 

Stand upon stand, and deli upon deli of cheese, wine, and cured meats 

We also knew that we had to sample some of the plethora of meats and cheeses...with wine, even though we really know nothing about wine. We settled on a great spicy chorizo that and truffle cheese paired with honey. The wine shop was quite accommodating and paired our snackies with a lovely red and white. Best part is, we got to eat it all on a barrel. :D

A sampling of
+ Chorizo
+ Truffled Cheese with honey
+ Red & White wine
...all on a barrel. SCORE. 

Apart from my absolute adoration for European cafes, I think the Nachmarkt was definitely my favorite foodie experience of the city hence why I saved it for last! Now I'm on to a whole bunch of Czech adventures and then some brief posts on Italy (why they are brief, I will explain later). But for now, auf wiedersehen Vienna!

(Fruity) Colors of Thailand

So we did street food. kind of. Does juice in a bottle count? Well we also did have tofu out of a bag. Papaya out of a bag. Banana out of a bag. Lots of food out of plastic bags. OH right and (Thai) iced tea. Although, is it still called Thai ice tea in Thailand? Do Thais even drink Thai iced tea? But they do drink coconut water. Lots of it. Considering all of the coconut meat that gets used to make all of the coconut cream for all of the green curries, paid thai and tom yum soup that us tourists consume :)

Dragon fruit juice. Who knew dragon fruit was a fruit much less juice producing fruit? All freshly hand squeezed! 

Stories from Manhantan (and Brooklyn)

OK so story #1: I was determined to visit the famed Brooklyn Flea Market after reading about it on NY Mag (which has just about replaced Yelp at this point for restaurant recommendations), and in particular - the foodie bonanza known as Smorgasburg.

Last weekend, we hopped on the ACE train and headed out to Brooklyn. First we got lost, then we walked 15 blocks only to find out we ended up at the wrong flea market and that the one were looking for was only open on Sundays. Sigh. Oh but of course it turned out to be an amazing (foodie) experience and I wound up staying for 5 hours. Today, I went to go see the "official" flea market in Williamsburg and who knew? It was basically the exact same thing. ha-ha.

HomeMade Fizzy Juice: Grapefruit & Jalapenos.  Sounds weird but you're talking to someone who eats jalapenos as a condiment. It was delicious :)

Other eats that I still need to try.

Pork Sandwiches on Ciabatta bread. and a piggie toy. adorbs. 

Corn Tortillas, Fresh Salsa and Spicy Toppings. All fresh and beautifully prepared. Sigh. 

[Pork Tacos]  Reminded me of the AMAZING tacos from Cancun. I've never been a fan of tortilla until I realized on day it was just flour tortilla. Corn tortilla gets a gold star from me. 

YUM YUM YUM!!! Can you tell I was excited?

Story #2: I was majorly craving fried chicken one night so I went over to Kyochon on 31st and 5th Ave.  I asked for the spicy wings and holy cow it was SPICY....like inedible spicy, I didn't even know such a thing existed. Kind of disappointing. Scratch that - really disappointing.  At least the pickled veggies were yummy except they were spicy too! Which would of course normally be ok but not when you've already lost feeling in your tongue. And the kicker of the story is that BonChon was only 1 block away and would probably have been infinitely better. Sigh.

That chicken even looks spicy in the picture.

Story #3: On a much happier note, I have had the most amazing, life-changing and memorable macarons of my life. WOW.  Bouchon Bakery has instantly become a new love. Located in the Time Warner's Building which is conveniently "only" 10 blocks from my apartment, we stopped by after a filling brunch at Silhouette.   Everything about the macarons was perfect. The texture was very cake-like and the fillings were creamy and not overwhelmingly sweet. I could easily eat a whole box of them. Fortunately or unfortunately, $4/macaron kept me from ordering a whole box.

Blueberry Cheesecake, Salted Caramel.

Story #4 Lunch at Ciano's on the hottest day of the year. Thank goodness for AC and prix fixe lunches :) We were literally drenched from the 1.5 blocks it took to walk to the restaurant.  For once, I was grateful for the freezing AC that's always being blasted at work.

I personally can never turn down eggplant when I see it on the menu. I don't know what it is for other people but its eggplant for me; plus Italian cuisine just happens to be one of the ones that consistently serves up delicious eggplant.

Crespelle; Savory Crepes filled with Ricotta Spinach, Zucchini and Swiss Chard
Tre Formaggi Raviolo; Stracchino, Burrata and Parmigiano with Rosemary-Brown Butter

Shaved Vegetable Salad with Mixed Greens, Carrot, Fennel, Peppers and Ricotta Salata
Roasted Eggplant “Amatriciania”; Tomato, Guanciale and Pepperoncini

Strawberry Sorbet & Biscotti. Of course, there is no other dessert choice but sorbet when the weather outside is spiking to 105 degrees.

Story #5: Brunch at Esperanto in the Village. With my weekends in NYC sadly winding down, it meant it was time to get adventurous. Instead of the usual brunch in Hells Kitchen - we ventured to the East side (so East that numbers turned into letters...which I of course didn't even realize existed) . And a prix fixe brunch that includes coffee and a cocktail for $10.95? Who can say no to that? 


Confession time: we were actually trying to get brunch at the Sunburnt Cow (unlimited mimosas for $20...) but the wait was over 2 hours and it was 2:00pm already. So we settled on Esperanto but I am very tempted to actually experience the experience  the midday version of an open bar. 

Huevos Rancheros. Esperanda with its colorful table designs and plastic decor reminds me of a fancier food shack off a beaten road somewhere in a tropical island. The side potatoes had flavorful kick to them - reminded me of paprika.

Tropical French Toast.  Nothing fancy, no brioche, no creme fraiche, no fruite compote. This french toast tasted like the french toast I had when my dad made it for me for the first time.

Huevos Languas: poached egg, greens and potato shrimp cake. The food here was also really similar to RX at Penn in the sense that the food is on the simpler side but well-prepared and in a light-hearted ambiance.

Doing the New York Thing

1. Bagels 

[French toast bagels with butter] Who knew semi-burnt sugar + powdered sugar + butter + carbs could taste so good? Well duh, why am I even asking that question? I don't think adding brown sugar to a bagel qualifies it as "french toast" but I'm not complaining when the sugar is all but caramelized perfectly.

2. Knish

I have never heard of a knish before. I didn't even know how to pronounce knish. I thought the "k" was silent. I also thought that I was ordering a sandwich haha. At least, I really liked it.

3. Shake Shack

What is the deal with this place? Every time I get off of work, I see the line stretching all across Madison Square Park. I mean yea its a good burger but its not that good. I personally think In n Out is way better and a lot less greasy.  Shake Shack describes themselves as the "modern roadside burger", whatever that means. For the wait you have to go through, it'd be easier and tastier to just get a real burger from an actual restaurant. 

4) (Mini) Cupcakes - Baked by Melissa

When I first saw these mini concoctions (and when they say mini...its actually quite mini), I thought it was the most adorable creation ever - especially with the plethora of diverse flavor combinations...then I learned that Baked by Melissa's is actually a chain of cupcake stores. And we know how I feel about chains/franchisees. Oh well, the flavor combos were still fun. Shown above: peanut butter & jelly, chocolate peanut butter and chocolate chip pancake. 

5. Truffle Fries & Black and White Photos 

My roommates went to Delicatessen in Soho for dinner the other night that I was at Giorgios. After they came back and raved..literally raved...about the truffle fries - I all but demanded that they go again with me. The fries were indeed quite fabulous and came in a well-received extra large portion. Unfortunately,  the rest of the menu was severely lacking - not enough to go back for another full-fledge meal, but I wouldn't mind returning and getting another order (or two) of those fries.  Speaking of which, Elle's latest issue features the actress Emma Stone and there is an entire section of the interview paying homage to truffle fries.  You can find some shots from the issue here .  A girl who can't live without truffle fries is my kind of girl :)