Late Summer in NYC Part 1

Lingon has conferences this week and next, so here I am again, tagging along and getting stuff done.  I'm trying to write more current posts, so let's see how it goe.

Tuesday September 8
We get upgraded on our flight yesterday from SFO to JFK, which is nice because I always feel so special when I get layflat seats.  The flight shockingly left on time and arrived early, and we made it to the Big Apple in the early evening.  We checked into our hotel, the Chatwal, probably the last of the Starwood hotels that I am curious about.  It is situated near Times Square, which is awful, but at least it is east of Times Square so for the most part we can avoid it.  We booked the most basic room, the superior queen room, and requested for an upgrade with our Starwood Platinum upgrade nights.  Unfortunately, our request was denied, and we did not get a complimentary upgrade, so here we are in a tiny shoebox room.

The room itself is nicely appointed, with dark grey furniture, clean looking, some kind of paint splotched walls that looks intentional.  The cabinetry is all lined with leather, nice touch to give it an old school kind of feel.  Sadly our view is to some space in between a building that is maybe 10ft away, so it is dark and miserable when the room lights are not turned on.  They provide Voss brand water as the free water, which amuses me, but I guess I should be thankful for free water and not complain.  Turn down service disappointed me.  We had some water, and they laid out slippers, but NO FREE CHOCOLATES?!?!  I always look forward to the free chocolates, even though really I should not be eating anymore chocolates.  Grrr.

After washing up, we went to dinner at the newest branch of Ootoya on 11th Street, because apparently according to our friends it typically does not have a wait.  The restaurant serves mainly rice bowls, noodles, simple Japanese fare.  We were told the tonkatsu there was really good.  I got the katsu toji set - breaded and deep fried silky pork loin and onion, topped with layer of custard like egg, served in a soy sauce infused broth, with rice, miso soup (pork and vegetables, homemade pickles and steamed egg custard.  Great value at only $22, but I think I could have done without the set in terms of quantity.  Lingon got some salmon special thing with udon, but I did not love it, maybe because it was over brown rice and the flavour of the brown rice overtook the salmon thinggy.  Our friends got a kaisen don, which pretty much seemed like a chirashi, and a regular tonkatsu don, and both looked fabulous.  Since my tonkatsu had a broth over it, it was not crispy, but I tried my friend's and it was super nice and lightly breaded and crunchy.  I would definitely go back here again to try the different bowls.  Nice comfort food.

After dinner, we went to Van Leeuwen, an artisanal ice cream place with a truck.  Lingon and I tried got 3 flavours - pistachio, ginger (my favourite by far with the sharp taste of the candied ginger accentuating every bite) and espresso (guess whose pick).  The truck ran out of regular pistachio, so there was only vegan, which instead of regular milk was made with almond milk that I loved.  Overall great experience!

So that ended our first night in New York.

This morning, we got our free breakfast at the Lambs Club in our hotel.  I think my favourite Starwood Platinum breakfasts are where they give me a dollar amount that goes towards my meal, since it generally prevents me from overeating, and I like the hot food better anyway.  This one was just a continental, valued at $34, which seemed silly to me because the a la carte items were a lot cheaper.  So this one.  You get coffee/tea, juice, granola/cornflakes/muesli (I got granola, Lingon got muesli, and his was better), a giant pastry basket each with 5 pastries in it (we asked to only get one), and a berry granola parfait topped with honey.  So I guess that's a lot of food, but not my preference.  The food was really good though.  The pastry basket had a regular croissant (boring, did not eat), chocolate croissant (yummy), scone (super yummy, I swear it had a stick of butter in it), berry muffin (yummy, with amazing crumbly thinggy on top) and a cannelé bordelais (SUPER YUMMY, the outside was perfectly crunch outside, and perfectly moist and custardy gooey like inside).  How anyone can eat 1 of these pastry baskets perplexes me.  I saw one other table get what we got, and the lady's eyes opened wide as the waiter plonked the 2 pastry baskets down.  Please stop wasting.

In the afternoon, I went to lunch at Ayada Thai in Queens, NY.  I'm not sure I have ever been to Queens, aside from the airport.  I ran there, across the Queensboro Bridge, and it was my first time on that bridge.  I have now done Brooklyn, Williamsburg and Queensboro, looks like I have the Manhattan to do, and then I would have done them all, maybe?  Anyway, it was hot as hell, probably 90 degrees and super humid, and me being not very fit and all did not contribute to the slow 6.8 miles I had to go.  Eventually I made it there.  Why there?  Well, Queens is supposed to be known for Thai food - I did see a lot of Asian signs and people out there.  But more importantly, my Travel and Leisure Thai food list.  I got one of the items on the list, which was the kang som sour curry (bottom left picture).  It came with 3 sad pieces of shrimp and this broccoli omelette which was interesting.  I guess it's only $10, so I should not complain about the shrimp.  The broth itself was yummy, but I did not love the omelette which was kind of airy.  I also got the pad see ew, which was nice and sweet and had a few bits of char burnt noodles, YUM.  This was part of the lunch special, which was very inexpensive and came with tom yum soup/salad (I chose tom yum soup) and an egg roll which sucked as the dough was super thick and the filling was tasteless (see second picture for gross egg roll).  Lastly I got the duck panang curry, which was one of the items I was really interested in but what really tipped me in that direction was a little sign on the menu saying "recommended by the New York Times".  Sucker.  The curry sauce was really good, but the duck was just good.  The skin was not crispy as I had anticipated, and was really fat, which was disappointing.  Duck was also $20, almost twice the cost of any other protein, but I guess the NY Times said I had to try it.  I'm glad I went, and worked out for my meal.  Queens is a really long ways to go for that, but I felt fulfilled and glad I got to check out somewhere new.

As I was sitting at the restaurant, hot and sweaty and mopping my face and my legs off with paper towels, I noted that on my left, there was a Thai girl with a Caucasian or maybe Latino man (presumably the boyfriend) looking at Yelp picture to decide what to eat.  They did not seem to communicate very well, so that was interesting.  On my right were 2 Chinese aunties speaking some kind of Chinese dialect, and they definitely seemed to have read reviews and knew what they wanted.  They took photos of their food, and asked to take photos of my duck, and I tried to offer them some duck but they declined.  Oh well.

So before visiting Ayada, I tried to study the lunch specials menu, but had a hard time finding it online.  So I took a picture and am sharing it in this picture below.  Everything else can be found in their fairly substandard website here.

I took the train back after lunch which was super convenient.  However, when I got back to the hotel, housekeeping was in my room, despite my privacy sign.  She even changed my sign to say "service".  WTF.  She said she thought I forgot to change the sign.  They really should not do that, it's not appropriate.  I'm still deciding what to do but I'm definitely going to complain.  I just don't want to get someone in big trouble.

Wednesday September 9
I ate too much for dinner last night, which is what has happened every meal (and in between) since we got back to NYC on Monday evening.  For dinner, I went back to Ootoya, but this time on 41st Street because it was close to where we were staying.  I arrived at 7.12pm, and was told I had about a 25 minute wait, and lo and behold at 7.37pm I got seated!  I had studied the menu very hard, and thought I knew what I wanted, but when I went to the restaurant I got distracted by their special, which was a hanabi soba bowl with minced blue fin tuna, tempura flakes, okura (okra/ladies fingers), natto (smelly fermented bean), tororo (wiki says "a sticky food made from grating a yam") and poached egg.  So shame on me, I saw blue fin tuna, and immediately said OK.  I did not know what okura, natto or tororo was.  When it came and I realized there were these mystery things in my bowl, I was pretty mortified, and took the latter two out (I actually love okra), and had a hard time doing so because they were so sticky and stringy bits kept sticking to my cutlery and mouth and bowl.  Thankfully it did not leave much of a residual taste.  Aside from that, the dish was lovely.  I also got a salmon sushi, which was pressed salmon into a rectangle piece of rice, done 3 ways.  The first time I saw a rectangle sushi was at Kusakabe in SF, and I remember really liking it or at least thinking it was cool.  One was just raw salmon, and then just seared, and seared with mayo and basil sauce.  I really liked them, all very distinct flavours.  Even the lattermost which was a bit heavy was super delicious.  The mushroom accompaniment was very soft and tasty too.

After dinner, I walked around trying to digest my food, and met up with Lingon outside the Rockefeller Center, where Ellen was hosting Bieber.  I only saw Ellen (from a distance), and Bieber was due to come out and maybe he did, but I did not care much for him.  You can see Ellen in my picture on the stage, and also on the TV screen - photo strategically taken!

We went to some bar with a friend.  I had water.  Thus ended my night.

This morning, when I woke up, I was debating getting my free breakfast, but the other option was going to Wafels & Dinges, which Lingon encouraged me to do.  This is a Belgian waffle chain, with a cafe in Alphabet City, stand (by Bryant Park which I went to) and some carts around the city.  I've wanted to visit this place, at least for a year, if not more, but there are always so many (too many) places to eat in NYC.  I actually did want to try both the Liège and Brussels waffle (2 cities in Belgium), but just as well I was told that only the one in Alphabet City has the Brussels waffle, so I did not overeat too much for breakfast.  I ordered"de throwdown wafel" which had speculoos spread, whipped cream and speculoos cookie crumble on a Liège waffle.  Speculoos is "a type of spiced shortcrust biscuit, traditionally baked for consumption on or just before St Nicholas' feast in the Netherlands (December 5), Belgium (December 6), and around Christmas in the western and southern parts of Germany. Speculoos are thin, very crunchy, slightly browned and, most significantly, have some image or figure (often from the traditional stories about St. Nicholas) stamped on the front side before baking; the back is flat."  Well thanks for that, Wiki!  Liege waffle is supposed to have little sugar pearls in there that gives it a slight crunch.  I don't know why I'm spending so much time writing about waffles here, but I am, and I will continue.  There is this waffle guy in SF that I like using called Gerald, and his company is called b. street waffles.  He only makes Liège style waffles and I love his waffles.  Both these Liège waffles are kind of different though.  W&D was a bit darker, more crispy, and Gerald's are on the lighter side, so when he is less busy I try to tell him I prefer mine more toasty.  Both taste good, but different.  Gerald's usually has some interesting flavour, like I think apple cinnamon the last time, though his plain ones are bomb too (like I said his batter is good).  I liked the speculoos on my W&D waffle, but like a Belgian friend of mine who says they need to be eaten plain, I agree that the plain waffle brings out the flavour of the batter, which is amazing when the batter quality is amazing.  So there it is, I have rambled on and on, and I will just say, this is great, but a bit pricey, and I wish I could feel/taste the sugar pearls a little more acutely.  I wish they had an option for plain, because the free topping made me feel like I wanted something (and I chose speculoos because it is Dutch/Belgian), and got the special since it had the cookie crumbs and I thought that was cool, so by that point the combination waffle was the most worthwhile for my $.  Kind of expensive on its own, probably a little under $7 for just the waffle with one topping which is the cheapest you can get, but it was a fun little waffly adventure.

For lunch, our NY friends had told us about Soba Totto (whose cuisine is similar to Ootoya where I've been to twice this trip in 2 days), which is related to all the Totto restaurants in midtown Manhattan.  I had planned to go there last night for dinner, but I saw they had a $10 Bara Chirashi Set lunch special - dice cut sashimi (tuna, salmon, mackerel, shrimp, eel, eea urchin & flying fish roe) over sushi rice bowl, soba (hot/cold), small appetizer, salad, & pickles.  What a deal, right??  So I decided to go there for lunch instead.  I thought, for some reason, the restaurant opened at 11.30am, so I went there at 11am, even though I read a thousand Yelp reviews that said it opened at 11.45am, and felt silly.  However, first in line, I was reminded of my kiasu-ness, and was somewhat proud.  By the time the doors opened at 11.45am, there was most definitely more than 20 people in line and I was pleased.  I sat down and the lady almost immediately asked if I wanted the bara chirashi, and then we proceeded from there.  You get a salad with some crunchy thing, maybe soba, in it.  Not bad.  Then the main arrived.  A generous serving of soba, and a very high seafood to rice ratio for the rice.  But, no uni!!!  I asked, and then checked the menu, and it said it was seasonal.  Oh well.  Still, really really good.  I especially loved the sharp mackerel taste (is that how one would describe mackerel?).  After enjoying my meal, I looked up high on the wall, and saw a painting with what I think is my name in Chinese and took a picture of it. It must have been fate!  What a steal, a simple meal but definitely amazing quality fish, and the fact that the whole deal cost $10 just totally made my day.

Not quite related to the food or the dining experience per se, some lady was seated next to me at the counter, and then like 2 mins later she asked to be moved.  Did I smell or something?  :-(  Well the answer to that question is no, but I'm curious.  Maybe it was cold by where we were sitting (I was freezing), or maybe she's racist haha.  JK, I think.

I took a walk home through Grand Central Station.  What a pretty interior, I loved it.  I love train stations, gives me the travel bug.

Thursday September 10
Last night for dinner we ate the Thai leftovers.  I must say, cold noodles does not taste very good.  Cold rice though, is a different matter.  Anyhow, that was not enough.  So we went for Thai take 2 (does this expression exist?!) at Pam Real Thai, one of my favourites for years.  We decided to share our favourite item there, the anchovy fried rice.  Normally the rice is very fragrant, and mixed in with the mango, egg, pork and cilantro, the taste is impeccable.  I am crushed to say that the rice this time round was not very fragrant.  The pork was still nicely cooked with the sweet dark sauce, but my favourite part was the rice, and I just could not get over it.  :-(  I saw Pam the proprietor sitting down and not cooking, maybe that's why it was not good.  I will give it one more shot next time I visit, but if it sucks again I will not go back.  Ayada Thai supposedly had a shrimp paste fried rice (a reviewer on Yelp talked about it), and I'm sure I will find another something paste fried rice.  Oh the passing of an era.

This morning for breakfast, we decided to get our breakfast to go.  They did not give us our granola or muesli, which was disappointing, but we got 2 yoghurt parfaits and 2 sets of pastries.  I guess we will take this on the road, because I will be sad to waste these.  I had the parfait, cannelé bordelais and scone, and was happy.

Then, I went on a quest.  So on our previous road trip in NYC, we used the toll tag of the rental car.  The problem with that was that they charge you a per day use fee, and then on top of that the ENTIRE (not discounted for using the toll tag) toll fee, which I think is BOGUS.  At least I think this was the case, or maybe confusing it with FL, but anywayz.  So apparently if one wants to buy the E-ZPass® On-the-Go tag in downstate New York from a shop, one has to either have some account thing or live here or something, which was too complicated for me, OR, go to the traveling Metrocard Center!  So this is a bus or a van that travels and can provide certain services.  I walked 30 mins or so to the morning session in the rain, thankfully so because when I arrived with my credit card in tow, I found out it was CASH ONLY!  It would have been nice to say that on the website.  So I had to go back to the hotel, and then go to the later session van, and purchased the damned thing.  At least the people were friendly and helpful enough.  Mission accomplished.

Lunch took me back to Ootoya near our hotel on 41st again.  I did not have a very great experience this time.  First of all, maybe it is just a function of what I ordered, which was the grilled mackerel.  I love fishy fish, so I was looking forward to this.  The taste of the fish was not bad, but there were like a gazillion bones (even after I removed the spine of the fish, the meat itself had SO MANY other bones, large and small), and it was just a tad dry.  But worse than that, my napkin had soy sauce on it, as did the napkin of the place setting next to me.  I requested for it to be changed.  Then, I asked for water, and lo and behold my glass had some leftover food on it.  Again, requested for another, and still had some leftover food.  I just didn't drink water.  Left the restaurant a bit sad.

Some other interesting sights.  I have no idea what these women were doing.  But they were all dressed up in the middle of Times Square.

And then this.  Not sure if you can see the numbers, but it reads $26.5mm for the bottom picture.

And then a sight familiar to me, people eating at Halal Guys.  Braving the nasty weather.  On both sides of the street, both Halal Guys had lines, which was crazy to me.  Just checked their website and it seems they are taking over NYC with a ton of carts.  Madness.  Someone also said they are fundraising to open a brick and mortar in SF.  Interesting...

Lastly, for dinner, we went to Sushi Seki on the Upper East Side.  2 people independently told us to get the Seki Special, which was 9 pieces of nigiri and a roll.  So we got that for 3, plus siew mai and soba, and ended with a tempura ice cream.  Pretty good place, and not crazy expensive for good quality unique sushi.  For me, the eggplant stood out because it was unique and was actually really sweet and delicious.  I could never make eggplant taste that good.  They also had a cooked white fish that was really amazing.   The siew mai (after boiling it they did not fully drain the water so the plate had some residual water which I think is not cool), soba and green tea tempura were ok, but unremarkable.  I might go back again for the decent value, but probably if in the area.

Tomorrow, we begin our road trip to VT, QC and ON, and back for round 2 of NYC next week!  Pretty stoked for that!  Now off to do some packing!
xoxo

PS I am really proud of myself for not lagging on this post!  :-D

One small update...  The next morning, we got a Bergamot Jam and Earl Grey Ganache cronut from Dominique Ansel.  Lingon described it as a giant frosted fruit loop.  What a fancy name.  Basically it was a giant fried croissant donut, tasted deep fried, sugared on the outside, with bergamot jam (did not know this existed before I had this cronut), stuffed with earl grey ganache.  The taste of the topping and stuffing flavours were great, and intrigued me more than the creation itself.  I really enjoyed it, after waiting for so long.  Lingon and I should have shared one, but I was greedy and ordered 2, so we stuffed these down.  Yum.

W New York Times Square

We stayed at the W New York Times Square during our most recent visit to the Big Apple.  We got upgraded to a room overlooking the Hudson.  The room was supposedly the same size as a normal room (small), but the view was nice, and I appreciated not staring directly into someone else's room or office.

Since they were undergoing renovations, I have no idea where breakfast usually was for the Starwood Platinum amenity, but this time it was at the Blue Fin restaurant on the ground floor of the hotel.  The free breakfast was pretty generous.  I got the Power Drive juice, which was orange, carrot and ginger, and loved it.  One could also get a bakery basket, coffee or tea, cereal and yoghurt.  I got some cereal and yoghurt to go, but did not try the rest (trying to keep healthy!).  What seemed silly though was there was this section that said "feel like a little more", where you could "upgrade" your breakfast with some additions for $12.  Your choices were buttermilk pancakes (normally $15), breakfast sandwich ($14) or poached eggs ($16).  Well, thanks for the $2-4 discount.  I suppose something is better than nothing, but I just wanted to gripe about it.

The hotel overall was fine, Lingon tends to like W Hotels, I'm so so on it.  I did not like the area, literally right by Times Square, which was crazy busy.  I wouldn't stay here again if I could help it.  I would choose a quieter location, and probably a less happening hotel like a Westin or Sheraton with a less edgy interior.

NYC Restaurants - Daniel, Uncle Boons, Rice to Riches, Osteria Morini

We arrived in NYC and sat in traffic for most of the way, knowing we had a 5.30pm reservation at the two-starred Michelin restaurant, Daniel.  Thankfully they have a 30 minute grace period (OpenTable typically gives you a 15 minute grace period, maybe they operate on New York time?), and we made it right at 6pm on the dot.  We decided to go for the 4 course menu instead of the large tasting menu, since some of that menu's items did not appeal to us.

We had an amuse bouche, some kind of cracker with some kind of something on it, that I distinctly remember as super tasty.  The bread was very good, and throughout the meal I think I had 4 pieces of bread (2 garlic parmesan, clearly the favourite, a brioche and some kind of wheat or grain bread).  The butter came with sea salt from Bretagne and some other salt from somewhere.  Damn I forgot.  But they were amazing.  And then another gift from the chef.  I remember the center one being carrot soup, delish, and looks like ish and shrimp.  Really good!

Then, I got SAINT-JACQUES (Nettle Wrapped Sea Scallop Salad, Young Leeks, Purple Potato Confit, Hazelnut Oil) and Lingon got THON ROUGE (Yellowfin Tuna, Shiso Bavarois, Young Radishes, Anchovy Meyer Lemon Coulis, White Sturgeon Caviar).  I liked his tuna a lot, and mine was interesting but just not bad..

Next, I got the FOIE GRAS (Grappa Flambéed Hudson Valley Foie Gras, Chilean and Mojave Grapes, Pistachio, Wisteria Flower Pink Peppercorn, Pickled Cape Gooseberry).  The portion was generous, and the accompaniments were great, and I loved it.  Lingon got GRENOUILLE (Florida Frog Legs, Velouté Hon-Shimeji Mushrooms, Garlic Chips Vadouvan Oil, Watercress “Pistou”), which was so amazing.  That soup was just so amazing.  I think this was the best course.

For the main, I had been really craving beef for weeks, so I got the BOEUF (Duo of Beef, Imperial Wagyu Tenderloin, Gourgane Crèpe, Smoked Bone Marrow, Fava Beans, “Bordelaise Jus”, and the Black Angus Short Ribs, Chermoula-Carrot Mousseline) which was good but not blow-me-away good, and Lingon got the LAPIN (Black Garlic Stuffed Rabbit Saddle, Swiss Chard Fricassée, Spinach Pasta, Jus “à la Moutarde de Dijon”) which I thought was just OK.  Not sure how I feel about rabbit, as I have not eaten it a whole lot.

For dessert, I got the “Saint Honoré” (LINZER SABLE, VANILLA-MASCARPONE CREAM, CARAMEL-BUTTER SALTED CREMEUX, CARAMELIZED CHOUX).  St. Honoré is the patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs. This classic cake, named in his honor, comprises a baked circle of “pâte sablée” at its base with a ring of “pâte à choux” piped on the outer edge. Small cream puffs dipped in caramelized sugar are attached side by side on top, and are finished with whipped cream, piped on using a special tip.  I fricking loved it.  The pastry on the bottom was divine.  Suitably flaky, extremely buttery and moist.  I could die for this.  Lingon got the CAFE (Jivara-Coffee Chantilly, Ginger Caramel Chocolat Fondant, Turkish Coffee Ice Cream), which he loved, but I did not since I am not the biggest coffee fan.  The dessert was really really really good.

Then, we got an anniversary cake!  Yay!  Happy anniversary to us!  Plus a small basket of madelaines and canale bordelaise to take home.

This was a good meal, but too fancy for me.  While the food was delicious, I think I can get better for less $.  Lingon was glad to have fulfilled his desire to try this place, but I don't think we will be back.

Also, out Travel and Leisure list had Uncle Boons for Thai food, so off we went, and we tried the items they had recommended, which were the lamb larb, beef massaman curry and the dorade (more for the nam prik chili sauces).  I have always loved larb, but probably most used to pork larb.  The lamb had a lamb flavour, which is not my favourite, but was not that strong and the herbs and spices and other flavours were very fresh and delicious.  The beef massaman curry was not bad, though not spectacular.  It came with what tasted like shredded julienned potatoes, which was different.  Lastly, we got the grilled dorade, which was the best dish of the evening.  The meat was clean, fresh and tender, and paired with the nam prik sauces was absolutely divine.  The whole shebang was rather expensive though, and for Thai I will, in the future, probably revert back to my Hell's Kitchen favourite Pam Real Thai for their unbelievably fragrant anchovy fried rice.

A stone's throw away was my long time favourite Rice to Riches, so off we went for some post dinner sweetness.  They seemed to have made the names of the flavours more interesting.  We got our favourite cookies and cream (now called the corner of cookies & cream...), which contrary to a lot of cookies and cream things which involve oreos, was more a white cookie.  New (at least to us, as I don't remember getting this before and I most certainly would have had I seen it), was "oreo"gasm, which are the oreos.  Still very very good.  And very very expensive.  For soupy rice.  But suckers we are.  And we enjoyed it!  I thought I took a picture, but cannot seem to find it!

I had been wanting to try Roberta's pizza in Brooklyn for a long time, since it is a huge favourite of our friends.  Finally I decided to un-lazy myself and take the train to Brooklyn to try them out.  I got the Bee Sting pizza (think it was pepperoni, mozzarella, chili flakes and honey).  The crust was nice and chewy and crispy at the same time, and the toppings were delicious.  A bit of a trek for this though, and probably will try to find something closer that does not require me to cross the water!

We went to Osteria Morini with our NYC friends who had been there often before.  They told us on Monday after 9pm was industry night where one could have pastas at normal portion size for $10.  Definitely jealous, since now we were paying more than 2x.  We got 6 different kinds of pastas, and I know I did not take any pictures coz I was too hungry and the lighting was bad anyway.  But memorable ones were the garagnelli (pasta quills, cream, peas, truffle butter, prosciutto) and cappelletti (truffled ricotta ravioli, melted butter, prosciutto).  I did not like the corzetti (pasta coins, house made lamb sausage, nepitella pesto), felt rather unremarkable, even though the server recommended it as one of the favourites or something.  Overall great meal!

After dinner, we went to Morgenstern's for ice cream.  We were told that it was fairly new, and there was always a line.  They had a durian banana flavour which I sampled and really liked!  We stood in line for about 30 minutes, and ordered salted chocolate in a cup with the cone on top.  A single scoop should have been $4.50, and we ordered 2.  I realized they had charged me 50 cents extra and when I asked why, the guy was like, oh it should only be 25 cents extra, and I suppose its the cost of a cone or a cup.  WTF.  So he refunded me my 25 cents, and in my jeans pocket I had 3 quarters of change from this place, which dropped out in the hotel room when I was packing and I forgot to pick that up.  Grrrr.  Hope housekeeping is making good use of my 75 cents.

Oh NYC, I will miss eating there.

Other NYC Eats

I really want to close out the NYC section and focus on more current things.  So I lumped a few food experiences into one.

My second to last night in NYC, I had the pleasure of dining on my own, so I went to an old favourite that I had not been to for a long time, The Halal Guys.  What surprised me was across the street, there was another Halal Guys, same colour scheme and everything.  I think it was the same cart.  Anyhow, I ordered the combo plate, and went back to the hotel.  Strangely enough, we entered the lift, and the couple already in the lift were carrying the same coloured plastic bag with the same food.  We asked, and they had indeed gone to the same place.  The food was still good, I think less tasty than previously, so was a bit disappointed.  However for a cheap good meal in NYC, and the fact that I have not found anywhere with a better version of this dish, I guess I will go back.

The next morning, I sort of ran out of cheap fun places I was interested in to visit, so I thought of some comfort Chinese food.  I found some article about cheap eats in NYC, and one of them was porridge at Great NY Noodletown.  Despite reading a kind of creepy article about the chemicals used in the fermentation of the duck egg to make it into pei dan (century egg), I decided this was the dish of choice.  I also ordered a plate of roast meat with char siew and duck.  Hit the spot for a little Chinese craving, but I suppose I wouldn't really particularly recommend this to anyone.

Next stop, I decided to be clever and try to find the famed cronut at Dominic Ansel Bakery.  When I entered the bakery, I was met with this line.  I walked to the back and asked some bakers if there were still cronuts and they regretfully shaked their head.  Well, if you really want a cronut, don't get there at 11.30am!  Off to the next place!

In that same food article where I heard of Great NY Noodletown, I read about a delicious olive oil bread at Abraço.  Since today was a day of exploring maybe what I just invented So14th, I marched on.  The window was out of olive oil bread!  I persevered and asked the dude behind the counter, and he said they had a fresh one.  In luck!  I was 1) hungry and 2) overly excited, so I forgot to take a picture, but here's one I stole from the www.  Dear person to whom the photo belongs to, please let me know if you have an issue with it, and I will take it off.  Please do not sue.  This was a most DELISH piece of bread.  Super olive oil-y, moist, I wanted to finish it, but I was kind and saved half for Lingon.  LIKE!

Last on my stop before I had to head back to the hotel and the off to the airport (sob), I went to another old favourite, Rice to Riches.  Got my favourite cookies and cream, and then the mango peach which I liked but both Lingon and I found it too sweet.  The price of R2R (I'm so witty!) has gone up so much since I first went there.  Too bad it's by far the best rice pudding I've ever had.  Hm, well maybe La Regalade St Honore, but Loving Cup here in SF doesn't hold a candle to it.  I think the quality is still really high, and I really enjoyed my last special treat!  :-)

Breakfast at the St Regis in NYC

This must have been the most ridiculous eat in NYC.  Granted it came free with the hotel room because Lingon is a Starwood Platinum member, the bill was ridiculous.  The meal seems to come with unlimited coffee, tea and juice.  Then, they offer you a choice between granola (which is some amazing grains, dried cranberries coconut, etc.), muesli and a mountain of yoghurt with some fruit or granola on top.  And then, they give you a bread basket.  Yes, one bread basket a person, with 5 pastries.  They jam and honey is packaged specially for the St Regis, made in Austria.  On the second day, we informed them that we would just share one bread basket.  Who can finish 5 pieces of pastry on their own?!  Certainy not me!  Everything is pretty damn yummy.  And then... they give you the bill.  $55/person for the continental breakfast.  FWAH!!!! Well, luckily it was free.  :-)

Babbo NYC

I have heard so much about Babbo since my sister lived in New York something like 6-8 years ago.  Never been there, but we decided to try it this time.

From the chef, we got chick peas on bread.  We were hungry so we ate it, but it really was not very good.

For starters, we had sardines and beef tartare.  We were really only going to do the sardines, but the waiter made a good sell and told us about the (RED) program, and Lingon's just like, OK we'll do it.  They were both pretty good, but I wouldn't say I died for either.

Then we came to the part I was so excited about - the pastas!  We ordered the Black Spaghetti with Royal Red Shrimp, Spicy Salami Calabrese and Green Chilies, Garganelli with “Funghi Trifolati” and Fettuccine with House-Made Pancetta and Asparagus and.  They were all very good, but I wouldn't say outstanding for the dishes themselves.

For dessert, we had the olive oil cake, which was quite olive oil-y but a bit dry.  With the ice cream, it was OK.

Overall, a solid meal, but for the price I'd go somewhere else.

Totto Ramen NYC

There is/was so much hype about Totto Ramen, I've wanted to try it for a very long time but the wait has always daunted me.  It's funny, I used to be OK waiting in line for Mama's for 2 hours, but now time is more precious, and I have to choose wisely what lines I want to wait in.  I think part of this change is due to Lingon's aversion to standing in line.

I was trying to find somewhere new and yummy to eat close-ish to our new hotel.  I read about Totto Ramen opening a second location and how the lines were shorter there.  We decided to hit it!

We arrived early, about 15 minutes before the restaurant was to open.  To my dismay, there were already 2 people in line.  Oh well, no big deal I suppose.  That's just me being competitive.  I'm glad we arrived early though, because when the restaurant opened its doors at noon, we obviously managed to make the first seating, but I think 10 minutes after opening and people had to wait for the second seating.  That's what I call kiasu.  ;-)

We ordered the spicy tuna don, which I think was OK but Lingon said it was his favourite.  The pork buns were pretty good - 2 to an order.  I really enjoyed the ramen - we got spicy and miso ramen and I liked both quite a lot.  The thing about ramen is I'm not that discerning.  I thought Totto was really good, but not that special.  Unrefined palate, I suppose.  I wish I was like those people who could comment on the texture, thickness of the broth, etc. but I'm not.  Then again, maybe it's good, and it will just let me be happy and enjoy my ramen without being too analytical.

The only ramen place I've really found truly super special was Ippudo in Japan.  I went to one in Tokyo and one in Kyoto.  (On that note, I've never been to an Ippudo outside of Japan.)  They had very unique flavours, so in that sense it was special to me.

Summary:  go early if you want to eat at Totto.  The wait's not that worth it.

SakaMai NYC

I really don't like writing my posts weeks after.  For this reason, you will be (hopefully) seeing in the coming days a bunch of posts from my NYC trip.  Sadly I will not attempt to blog anything before that.  I wish I could, but it's just hard.  I will strive to be more timely with my posts.  Makes me sad to think of so many wasted memories.

I always have troubles with trying new foods or restaurants when I make repeat visits to places.  I'm trying.  SakaMai is probably the best new restaurant that I got to try.  Again, recommended by my NYC friends, it was a hit!

From left to right, top to bottom, let me start.
Foie gras chawanmushi - starved of foie gras here in California, I try to get it wherever I can.  The combination was killer, silky smooth tofu with the rich fat liver.  At times like this, I'm glad that Lingon tries to eat healthy, since I got to eat most of this dish!
Sake - this was mostly Lingon, I have no idea what it was but it was cold unfiltered sake.  It was quite tasty, and I actually had maybe a quarter of a shot (which is a lot for me!).
Seared scallop, wild rice risotto, anchovy miso, fried dill - 'tis what the menu said, so 'tis what I said.  The scallop was very fresh and sweet.  The risotto was rich, creamy and tasty.  But I tasted no anchovy!  Wasn't a big deal, I do love anchovy, but this dish was really good anyhow.
Homemade tofu - good but nothing special.  Lots of people seemed to love it on Yelp, but for the most part tofu is just tofu, to me.
Egg on egg on egg - sea urchin, sturgeon caviar, bed of scrambled eggs.  Definitely the most innovative dish imo.  The server told me it was the most popular dish, and people would just come here because they wanted to take pictures of it.  Well, great idea, and super delicious.  Pardon my lack of adjectives, but the whole dish was so rich and creamy, I could have gotten a heart attach.  Thankfully I did not.
Kanpachi - good quality fish, well put together, but I feel like any decent sushi place could have done this.
Secret iberico pork, farro salad, kogashi shoyu - super yummy pork, and give my recent fondness for farro, really appealed to my senses.
Tai Cha (Japanese sea bream) with grilled rice ball, hojicha soup - I actually found the fish rather miserable.  It was the one disappointment of the meal.  Lingon on the other hand liked it, but I dare say his standards for good food is different from mine.  Well, given that both of us don't have exactly the same tastes, it happens.  I found the fish a little too fishy for a bream, kind of like old fish.  The rice ball was interesting, different, and having the tea soup poured into it was a pretty elegant touch, but just seemed like the Korean stone pot rice bowl where they pour the tea and it becomes porridge like.  I wouldn't say I liked the rice ball and soup, but appreciated something more than fish on a bed of rice.
Green tea creme brulee - the cookie/cracker thing that came with it was nice, like a soft short bread, very buttery.  The creme brulee was good, nothing special or innovative about it, just good ol' green tea creme brulee.

Yum!

Maialino NYC

We went here for brunch as I had a recommendation from a friend for the ricotta pancakes.  We arrived a little early for our reservation, and the hostess rather rudely told us that we had to wait.  I was a little annoyed, but I suppose I just accept that NYC people are a little snobby.  Anyhow, we finally got seated.  I ordered my ricotta pancakes, and Lingon ordered this vegetable egg white frittata thing.  So first, the frittata.  It ABSOLUTELY drives me insane when Lingon goes somewhere and orders healthy food just coz it's healthy.  It's like, why don't you eat hard boiled eggs?!  But of all the healthy options, I suppose this was the most interesting on the menu, and thank goodness it was not oatmeal or yoghurt or I might have flipped the sh*t.  It was very normal.  I could have made it.  NEXT.

My ricotta pancakes came with strawberry jam and maple syrup.  They were both good.  The pancakes... they were DIVINE.  They were soft and fluffy and fragrant.  Every bite was like a bit into fluffy pancake heaven.  The inside of the pancake was warm and moist.  I'd definitely go back again.  I'm not big on brunch, but this was YUMMY.  Plus they serve it everyday so I could probably take a morning and go get breakfast.

I got overly excited with our entrees.  I forgot to mention, we also got the Suppli al Telefono, which were Tomato Risotto Croquettes & Mozzarella.  Pardon the caps, I stole the name of the dish from the website.  The croquettes were crunchy on the outside, and the risotto on the inside was moist and tasty.  The tomato sauce was delicious, a little too salty for me, but full disclaimer - most things are salty to me.

Maialino brunch is a go!  <3