NYC ExTRAVELganza! Part 2: Asian Invasion

While New York City is undoubtedly a mecca of good ol’ American food, it also has a wealth of restaurants that draw their inspiration from international sources – from Venezuela to India to Japan, and everywhere in between.  For whatever reason, we ended up eating at a lot of East Asian places, which was fine by me because almost all of it was friggin’ delicious.  If I ever find myself living in New York, I’m sure it won’t be too long before I begin to resemble this guy.   Here are some highlights:

Republic – I wouldn’t have expected a place called “Republic” to be all about Southeast Asian fusion cuisine, but with the Red-Star moniker I guess it’s a reference to the myriad of “republics” that make up that region of the world. From what I remember the food was pretty solid, though I just had a sashimi salad.  They have a very generous “happy hour” – from what I remember, the only evening hours that aren’t encompassed by happy hour are 7-9pm (don’t quote me on that).

Xi’an Famous Foods – Looks like a hole-in-the-wall, but has its own merchandising! There were Mandarin speakers abound, so you knew the place had the approval of some actual Chinese people – and indeed, the food was pretty damn good! The fresh, hand-cut noodles (or hand-torn, it almost seemed) were nicely springy and the broth was very tasty (even if there was barely any meat in the soup). Pretty good value for NYC from what I could see – one of the few places that we ate at that ran under $10 per person, including a (non-alcoholic) drink.

Korilla – The food truck made famous through television (and accusations of cheating), Korilla is for some reason tiger-striped instead of gorilla-themed (but hey, it stands out!). We happened upon it when having a pint at The Lot (a nice, if pricey, beer garden/food truck hangout that also featured wine on tap!) This isn’t the only Korean taco truck in the city, but it’s the only one I tried – I really like the concept, but I kind of felt the execution was off. The sauces were good, but the meat and tortillas were rather poor in my opinion. Maybe my perceptions were biased by the fact that I was still more than full from our meal at The Park just minutes earlier.

Ippudo – Apparently this ramen place in the lower east side is a pretty big deal, because the first night we went there was a 2-hour wait (we didn’t actually stick around to verify the accuracy of that estimate though). We did wait an hour the second night we went, but were able to kill the time at the bar with some very tasty (if pricey) pork buns and plum wine at the bar.

Perhaps it is because this is the first time I tried this style of bun but I think I liked it more than the much more lauded ones at Momofuku Ssam Bar – the nice light, sweet bun with a bit of may and slightly spicy sauce combined with the super-fatty pork belly is just a great combo. The décor is modern but still very interesting, and with servers ranging from modest and polite Japanese to loud and spunky Japanese. The gyoza chicken wings were hot as Haphaestus (temperature wise) and brimming with juice (excellent!), and the ramen broth is incredible – nodogoshi is noodle nirvana! Unfortunately Matt had to leave early, but fortunately for me I got to eat the remaining half of his order of samurai ribs, which were killer. We finished up with a crepe cake, which is just like it sounds – a big stack of crepes held together with whipped cream. All in all, worth the wait!

Num Pang – This sandwich place close to union square serves sandwiches along the lines of some sort of Southeast Asian country (Cambodia, it seems?) – the takeout window always seemed to have a few people hanging around it so we figured it would be worth checking out. I had a porkbelly sandwich, which was one greasy motherfucker – the “meat” was probably 80% fat, and was dripping like Jabba the Hutt. The wetnap that was provided didn’t even come close to cleaning my hands afterwards, but it was pretty delicious, with some interesting flavours emerging from the pear and Viet sub toppings that were loaded into the bun. I also had the rootin’ tootin’est root beer that I’ve ever had (ie. it had a very rooty flavour), though I don’t remember what brand it was.

Momofuku Ssam Bar – This was one of the $$$ier places that we went, but graciously subsidized by Matt. The Momofuku name seems to be a great success story for its creator David Chang, and based on the Ssam Bar I can see why. They have the coolest (ha ha) ice cubes ever, and hey the food ain’t half bad.

We started with some pork buns which surprisingly I enjoyed less than Ippudo’s (maybe because they were less fatty), but they were excellent nonetheless. There was also some bread with lard “butter” – great stuff, though basically tastes like the lard packets that you get with Nissin beef ramen. Matt had ordered us the “Bo Ssam” special – which is something like 4 lbs of the tenderest, melt-in-your-mouth pork butt that you’ll ever have. Eat it up in a fresh lettuce wrap with some absolutely exquisite kimchi (you can even mix in your own raw oyster) – fuckin’ top notch. Definite Recommend, if you got the bones.

Spice Market – This trendy place in the meatpacking district came as a recommendation to Matt from none other than Lynn Crawford! The lighting is pretty low so you don’t have to worry too much about how underdressed you are compared to everyone else in the restaurant, and the décor somehow manages to look distinctly “Asian” without being a direct ripoff of any particular cultural style. The place seemed pretty classy but the staff was very down-to-earth, and both servers (we had a seamless transition from one to another over the course of the meal) were really friendly and knowledgeable about the food. We started with a couple drinks at the bar while we waited for a table – I had a cherry old fashioned, which was surprisingly sweet but not bad overall.

They kick it off by giving you complimentary papad, which was pretty good and comes with a kickass sauce. We grabbed a number of seafood dishes for our meal, since seafood seemed to dominate the menu – black pepper shrimp (nice level of spiciness, depth to it that reminded me of black bean sauce, and a mild moistness in the dried pineapple that accompanied it combined for a great dish), lobster roll (sushi-roll-like in consistency, with a nice tangy sauce but not the best dish of the night), steamed snapper (beautifully moist, mushroomy and minty), and laksa (perfectly done scallop, silky smooth throughout, and plentiful amounts of sweet succulent seafood – nice soup (if a bit light) and beautiful noodles – this dish was absolutely divine!). Something that we ordered came with free white rice (always a plus in my books!), but we also ordered a ginger fried rice that had a nice scallion-rich flavour – and the egg on it was done perfectly medium, which is my metric for a good line cook. We also ordered some eye-wateringly hot wings, that revoked memories of an Indian-Schezuan dish that I once had in Bombay – impressively, there were still some extra tangy flavours that shined through the heat. Kiran had to order a dish of vegetables with the wing sauce (which the restaurant graciously whipped up as a custom order!) just to see what we were raving about! Yeah so this review ended up way longer than I expected – but what can be said, this place was straight up amazing and justified a minor essay. Highly recommend!

 

And that’s a wrap!  Next time we’ll be finishing things off with part 3: Sweet Dreams!

-Richard

NYC ExTRAVELganza! Part 1: America, F*ck Yeah!

New year, New York!  Actually, this trip was from last September, but as I am a procrastinator extraordinaire, I just now got around to compiling all my notes into an article – however it turned out to be so much content that I decided to break it down into a three-part series.  Kiran and I went to visit my friend Matt in NYC, and naturally food was a big part of the trip – luckily for us, Matt had lived there for several months already and had a number of stellar recommendations for places to try.

Writing a full review about each of the places that I ate at would take an eternity, so I’ll try to keep things in bite-sized pieces!  This first article covers all the classic American food joints that I had the joy of sampling – burgers, hot dogs, pizza, pastrami – all the greasy goodness that you could hope for, and more!

The Smith – My first dinner in NYC was at a place in the east village called The Smith – classic American food in a trendy setting. It seemed pretty busy for 9:30PM (though I would soon learn that this is the norm in NYC) but we were still able to grab a seat reasonably quickly. The short ribs were the fattest that I’d ever seen and were absolutely delicious – though unfortunately I only got a taste because Matt had ordered that (I had the “sticky ribs” – St. Louis style – which were pretty good but not mindblowing). The grits here are like eating pure butter with a bit of cornmeal thrown in (a bit rich for my taste), but the biscuit was really quite good (and I don’t even like biscuits normally). The waiter had no idea how to describe the Rare Vos beer that I ordered though – at least he could have told me that it was from Belgium!

[Sorry no pics! As if this page wasn’t long enough already…]

Luke’s Lobster – There’s not many times that I would be willing to put down 16 hard-earned bones for a sandwich the size of a hot dog, but the lobster roll from Luke’s convinced me to do it – twice! Even though they’re expensive as fuck, they are goddamn delicious – they pretty much fit an entire lobster’s worth of meat (though there’s no tail meat – so multiple lobsters worth of claws) into the nicely toasted bun. This place also introduced me to the wonders of pairing pickles with crab claws, as well as the sweet sweet taste of sarsaparilla (one of many Maine root sodas that they offer). Their Lower East Side location has a punk rock/maritime thing going for it, though they also have a food truck kicking around NYC that I saw but didn’t have adequate stomach space to try. Highly Recommend! (if you aren’t a dirt-poor student, a vegetarian, allergic to shellfish, or for some godforsaken reason someone who dislikes lobster)

Park – Just off the highline in the fashionable Chelsea district, this spacious place has a classy lounge atmosphere from eras gone by (except filled with hipsters). The Old Fashioned that I got at the bar wasn’t the greatest nor the cheapest, but helped kill the time while we waited for an actual seat (it seemed to be pretty understaffed, given that it seemed like 1/5 of the tables were empty yet it still took us 20 minutes to get a table). I greatly appreciated the fact that their free bread was banana bread, but wasn’t a huge fan of the degassed water that they had as the table water. I ordered some brisket and eggs, which wasn’t too bad and reminded me of Chinese-style anise-heavy braised brisket. The smoked salmon on bagels was really solid as well – perfect proportion of toppings (capers, arugula, cream cheese, onions) and the bagel itself was nicely toasted. I had a bite of Matt’s burger and was instantly converted to being a proponent of medium-rare burgers.

Papaya King – Apparently papaya joints are a big thing in NYC, with joints like Grey’s Papaya featuring in several shows. Papaya King claims to have started it all, and Kent said it was a must visit – so visit I did! Can’t say I’m the biggest fan – the papaya juice was pretty good, except for the tasteless, pasty dregs at the bottom, and the hot dogs were among the worst that I’ve ever had. I honestly think that I might have preferred the free cook-your-own hotdogs that you can get at paintball over these. The onions were in some kind of bizarre red sauce and the buns were “toasted” to the point of dryness. I quite liked the various motivational signs, nutritional information and propaganda that they had inside though.

Shake Shack – Can you get more American than burgers, fries and milkshakes? Shake Shack was one of the places that I received recommendations for from multiple people, and for good reason! We went to the original one in Madison Square Park, and while the 55+ person lineup looked a little concerning it moved at a pretty good pace (took about 30 minutes from entering the line to receiving our food). Worth it? HELLS YES. The meat is absolutely amazing – done a tender, juicy medium – though the buns are only alright. The ripple-cut fries were pretty solid too, with just the right crispiness – and though the shakes are rather pricey the creamsicle one is rather delicious. I’m not sure if it tasted so good because we had to wait so long for it, but if so maybe this is party of their strategy!  Highly Recommend!

Katz’s Deli – Another one of those famous places where lineups are de rigueur – they got lots of neon signs and a strange “one per person only!” ticket ordering system for all your kitschy needs. When you look at their menu, you might think “$20 for a sandwich and a soda? You gotta be kiddin’ me!” But you should probably plan to split it or come with an athlete’s appetite, because the pastrami sandwich here comes loaded with what seems like a solid pound of succulent meat. Smooth, moist, thick-cut and perfectly salted – THIS is pastrami! Plus they give you an entire cucumber AND and entire pickle (quartered, of course) – so all in all it even turns out to be pretty decent value!

Crif Dogs – Brooklyn’s answer to Tubby Dog? Ok, I guess they’ve been open for longer than Tubby Dog, but sorry dudes this is one where I think YYC does it better. Not to say Tubby Dog is some sort of gourmet joint, but when it comes to the toppings Crif Dogs looks somewhat tame in comparison. We went to the Crif Dogs in Williamsburg (not sure if they’re all the same), which was all hip-hop and hot dogs (well plus the dozens of Star Wars figurines for which I must give major kudos) – seemed cool enough, but unfortunately the hot dogs are NYC style (read: tiny sausages). I ordered the BLT dog, which wasn’t bad but wasn’t anything special – basically, it was exactly what it sounds like, a hot dog with bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayo. The late 80’s/early 90’s videos that they were showing on their TV were kind of cute though.

Grimaldi’s Pizzeria – Unlike Kiran, I enjoy doing super-touristy things, so I dragged Matt along to check out this famous symbol of NY-style pizza. There was a pretty healthy-looking lineup when we arrived, but fortunately we cruised through in around 35 minutes – not too bad since I’ve heard people will often wait over an hour to get a seat. They really play up their Italian background here, with a seriously Sicilian-looking doorman and the motto “I’m gonna make you a pizza you can’t refuse.” As for the pizza – yep, it’s pretty damn good. Piping hot, delectable cheese and great crust – the only downside is the somewhat steep price. We ordered 2 toppings for each half of the pizza, though they charge you the same price for each topping whether it’s for the whole pizza or half, so the toppings cost almost as much as the base price of the pizza itself. Fortunately, they are reasonably generous with the toppings so perhaps they give you the same amount of toppings either way and just concentrate it on half of the pizza. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to compare this to other coal-fired institutions such as Lombardi’s or Patsy’s, but regardless I’ll give Grimaldi’s a thumbs up (as long as you don’t mind tourists).

 

Whew!  That’s it for this episode – tune in next week for part 2: Asian Invasion!

-Richard