Koi - NYC

This past week, I went to a business lunch at Koi, by Bryant Park in midtown. Koi is a branch of a sushi restaurant that started in Los Angeles. I have been to both of these restaurants before and I definitely think the Los Angeles restaurant is better. Maybe it's because NYC has so many high-end sushi restaurants or maybe it's the location in the middle of all the midtown office buildings, but Koi definitely seems like an overlooked restaurant. However, I still like this restaurant because it has a large variety of sushi rolls - including those crazy rolls with baked seafood and crazy combinations, that you really only see in California (in particular, I'm thinking of Tomodachi by the UCLA campus in Westwood...soooo good, and the rolls are gigantic). So anyway, I'm glad there is a place where we can find these types of rolls in NYC - even though they are crazily overpriced.

One of the best things at Koi is their Crispy Rice with spicy tuna. Spicy tuna is just one of my favorite foods ever (I sometimes make spicy tuna at home and just eat an entire bowl of spicy tuna in one sitting!) - and this is definitely something unique that you will not find at other sushi restaurants. I love the crisp I get when I bite into this - I love different textures in food, and you definitely get that here.

Although, like I said, it is kind of crazy expensive - $16 for these 4 pieces you see!

One of the other dishes I love at Koi is their Creamy Rock Shrimp Tempura ($18). I really like the coating on the shrimp tempura at Koi - it has a little heat to it - and I love piling the shrimp onto a piece of the endive and eating it together that way. I think this is much better than the rock shrimp tempura at Morimoto in NY.

We also had the dragon roll which was reallyy good as well - although I don't know if I would say any sushi roll is worth a $22 price tag? I would recommend Koi as a good place to go to for just a light bite and drinks - but the appetizer portions are still about $15-20 so ... it just depends on your budget! If it's a nice day out, I would really just recommend buying food somewhere and eating it in Bryant Park - one of my favorite parks in the city!

Another thing I should note is that Koi is extremely noisy. I thought maybe it was just noisy at night when I was here for dinner the first time, but I don't understand why it was so noisy during a weekday lunch in the middle of all the midtown office buildings? And I wasn't even sitting in the main dining area, but rather at the sushi bar!

If I ever go to Koi again, it would just be to get the crispy rice with spicy tuna and to try the Chef Sampler Plate for dessert - it was $44. I was very intrigued by this on the dessert menu just because I have never seen a $44 dessert before. On their website, it says it "includes all desserts," but ... who orders that?

A Day in Chinatown - NYC

Moving to New York from the suburbs can definitely be quite a shock, especially when it comes to the prices of...just about anything, and especially food! Where I grew up, $10 is the average for a meal at a restaurant but when I moved to NY, I had to adjust that prices to $20+. This is especially hard if you are on a student budget. However, fortunately, you can eat well and cheaply in Chinatown! My two favorite restaurants in Chinatown are Joe's Shanghai (they have one of my favorite dishes - shrimp with walnuts and mayonnaise!...oh and of course, the soup buns) and Excellent Porkchop House. Joe's Shanghai is a good place to go for family-style eating with a big group of friends and you want to share a bunch of dishes. However, Excellent Porkchop House is one of the few places in Manhattan for Taiwanese food - needless to say, it has become my go-to for Chinatown. Also, since you usually just order your own food, it's kind of low maintenance.

My guy friends love the porkchop over rice and all say good things about the chicken leg over rice as well. My brother actually says the chicken is better than the porkchop! It might sound ironic, but I don't think I've ever ordered the porkchop at Excellent Porkchop House. Instead, I get the "gan mein" [soooo good, tastes like cold sesame noodles but better] and the spicy wontons in chili oil ["hong you chao shou"?]. [Ok, so the gan mein is actually listed on the menu as Herbal Soup with lo mein - but the lo mein is what I'm talking about - you can get it as a dish by itself if you ask...although it might help to ask in Mandarin, since we're in Chinatown and all.] When I went the other week, I was feeling a bit under the weather so I just got the fish ball soup which looked kinda boring, so I didn't take a picture of it [although, I definitely recommend the fish ball *noodle* soup ~ their noodles are really fresh and kinda awesome]. Here are the spicy wontons:

I love getting these and dumping the extra sauce on any leftover rice to eat. It's not actually spicy, but just very flavorful. [Side note: I also love these wontons at the Flushing Mall in Queens - at the stall that is at the far right when you are walking into the food court. At that stand, they give a LOT of sauce and minced garlic on top of the wontons. One thing I sometimes wish the Excellent Porkchop House had is the minced garlic topping.]

After lunch with my friend, I walked over to Xi'An Famous Foods on East Broadway under the bridge to pick up some dinner for my brother. They were recently voted Best Noodles for NY magazine's best food of 2010. It is a tiny stall but they are continuously turning out fresh noodles and sandwiches.

My brother told me that their "savory cumin lamb-pulled noodles" tasted like the noodles we had in Guangzhou a few summers ago - which was probably some of the best food I've ever had. We scarfed down that meal in like literally 3 minutes. However, when I tried some of the noodles from Xi'An, it was not that good. The flavor was excellent, like NY magazine describes - you can definitely taste the cumin and I do like the smoky flavor of the lamb. However, I think I prefer thinner noodles than the ones at Xi'An. I'm not sure if Xi'An makes thinner noodles or if I could request that somehow? I guess these thicker noodles are just too chewy for me...and I'm lazy...

This picture isn't that great since I picked up the noodles for take-out. This past week, my brother also picked up the spicy tofu there and I loved it - same flavor as in the noodles, but just with tofu! [Tofu is one of my favorite foods in the world!]

Totto Ramen

A while back I watched a terrible movie starring the late Brittany Murphy called "Ramen Girl." It's about an american girl who gets abandoned by her boyfriend in Tokyo, discovers the mood altering properties of a good bowl of ramen, and learns to become a ramen chef. The movie is probably the worst that I've ever seen, with a strange plot, bad acting, and overall just didn't make any sense. The only good thing that came out of the movie was it presented the importance ramen holds in Japanese culture. In fact, in the movie she visits a museum devoted to all things ramen: Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum. 

In NYC, there's a wealth of ramen places available to satisfy a hankering for traditional japanese ramen. I was looking for a good ramen place in the midtown west area and found two good restaurants: Menkui Tei, and Totto Ramen. Menkui Tei is a bit cheaper, but we went to Totto Ramen because of their super spicy ramen. 

Totto Ramen is one of those places you can easily overlook if you're not looking for it. The entire restaurant is in a narrow and small basement space that seats at most 20 patrons.  They don't do take out, so if you want a bowl, you must put your name down on the list hanging on their door and wait it out. It's a very popular local restaurant so expect at least a 30 minute waits at all times. We had to wait about 45 minutes for dinner around 6:00pm. They only accept cash so you could take the time to go to the ATM and withdrawal some money. 

We were seated around the bar and ordered the spicy vegetable ramen, spicy ramen, extreme spicy ramen, and a side of spicy bamboo shoots. 

spicy vegetable ramen

The spicy vegetable ramen came stuffed with vegetables. They were not really veggies that you'd expect in ramen, such as a ear of corn, or raw zucchini. The broth was good but very light, compared to the regular ramen it tasted watery. The spiciness was there but at first did not taste very strong. DF later added so much spicy bamboo shoots to this that the broth was like drinking fire. If you're not a vegetarian, I would recommend against this dish since it doesn't really give you a good idea of the deliciousness of real pork based ramen. A plus is that since this is not made with pork broth, there is less oil in the broth.

spicy ramen

I think this spicy ramen is the winner of the night. The pork broth was rich and flavorful, and one taste made me feel happy and relaxed. The spicy sauce is the reddish color on top and you have it mix it in yourself. It did not taste very spicy at first, but the hot taste builds up as you eat, and the level of spice was perfect in the end. There was enough of a kick but not so spicy that you cannot enjoy the other flavors of the ramen. I'm not a pork girl but I really enjoyed the char-siu pork they put in the ramen as well. It was perfectly marinated, but I just wish there was more meat and less fat.

extremely spicy ramen

DF's roommate was the only one brave enough to try the extreme spicy ramen. His chili sauce came in a separate bowl so he can control the level of spiciness. He mentioned earlier that the Japanese usually do not do spicy so well. I think its because all of their dishes are very delicate in structure and taste, so too much chili sauce would overpower the taste. But his ramen was so hot he kept sniffling! He enjoyed his ramen but said it was so hard he couldn't really taste the ramen broth. 

Spicy bamboo shoots

I ordered this side of spicy bamboo shoots because I was afraid my spicy ramen may not be spicy enough. You can see the bamboo shoots are smothered in chili. I ate one bamboo shoot straight and it was so dry and spicy I had to keep rinsing my mouth with water. It's better to put it in the broth of your ramen (I think this was what you're supposed to do), but be careful, a little goes a long way!

I really enjoyed my meal here and hope to try Menkui Tei soon to see if I can get the same quality taste at a lower price. 

Definitely recommend this place for a casual dinner!

Calle Ocho

Calle Ocho is another place that I found out about while doing research for the engagement dinner. Unfortunately, the ambiance is too casual for me so it didn't make the finalists list, but it definitely made my NYC must eat list.  Everyone always raves about the unlimited sangria brunch here, so we took advantage of the extra vacation day on labor day weekend and tried out the famous brunch.

One thing to note, if you are coming with a large party be sure to make a reservation a couple of weeks in advance. Their brunch is so popular, it is pretty much impossible to get last minute reservations. We ended up just showing up around 2:30 to try our luck. We were able to get a table, but the dining room was completely packed, so this may not always work.

It doesn't looks like it from the outside, but the inside dining space is REALLY large and spacious.

Calle Ocho interior

Whimsical warped lampshade decoration

I love the curved skylight ceilings. It really made the room feel large and cheery. Look how packed it is!

Sangria bar

Their sangria bar is free with any entree purchase. This is a great value since the entrees are pretty inexpensive, maxing out at around $15.

Blanco - Fresh fruit + splash of spirits

Havana banana

This was my fave drink out of the line up: Havana Banana. It's made of coconut rum, banana flavoring, and real pieces of coconut, banana, and lychees. Its light and sweet, so it went down really well. I usually enjoy white wine more than red, so of course I preferred the white colored sangria selections here over the red. 

Yummyyy

I tried all the white sangria selections, but I only tried the Fresas in the red section, which is raspberry rum, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. Fresas was too strong for me. The taste of alcohol was overwhelming and the fruits did not taste fresh. 

Complimentary bread and dip

Since there were so many people dining at Calle Ocho, the service was a bit slow. We did not receive our complimentary bread for a long time, but when it came we realized it was sooo worth waiting for. The bread you see are warm brazilian cheese bread. Its soft and chewy in the middle, absolutely incredible! The black bean dip looked a bit questionable at first but after the first bite I was hooked. Its lightly flavored so it's a savory dip with a distinctive latin american flavor. I found a recipe for it on the food network site, it's a bit like salsa but with blackbeans instead of tomato chunks: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dan-smith-and-steve-mcdonagh/black-bean-dip-recipe/index.html

Burrito Sucio

I had the Burrito Sucio - Chorizo, scrambled eggs, black beans, and Tetilla Cheese wrapped in a burrito with salsa verde on top.  I liked this, the salsa for this had quite a kick to it, and the chorizo and scrambled eggs fillings are quite different from a typical burrito. Parfait for brunch though!

Cachapa de Salmon

DF's roomie ordered the Cachapa de Salmon - Venezuelan sweet corn crepes, smoked salmon scrambled Eggs, caper red onion, crema nata.  Notice how blurry it is, because I did not like the dish well enough to retake for a clear picture. Actually, none of us liked this dish. It may be because we were too busy stuffing our faces full of alcohol and other dishes, so by the time we got to this it was already a bit cold. The smoked salmon were in little pieces mixed in with the eggs, so the flavor did not really shine. It tasted like creamy scrambled eggs. I'd skip this dish next time.

Quesadillas de El Salvador

DF actually ordered the best dish of the day. The Quesadillas de El Salvador. The usual quesadillas you find in restaurants are filled with boring old cheese and chicken. If they're not cooked correctly and eaten immediately, they can also be quite dry. So I usually avoid ordering the quesadillas if I can. At Calle Ocho, their quesadillas also includes curtido (pickled carrots, onions, and peppers), and avocado, with crema nata on top. The curtido  gave the quesadilla flavor and kick. The avocados were also a nice touch as a balance to the heavy cheese and provided a great smooth texture.   

Yuca Fries

Chorizo

We also ordered two sides: Yuca Fries and Chorizo. Yuca is also known as the Cassava root and a large part of South American cuisine. As fries they were a bit too starchy for us. It was also crunchy like a crisp apple, but without the juiciness. Our dislike of this dish was mainly due to personal preference and not because of Calle Ocho's preparation. It was served with a red sauce that tasted a bit like marinara sauce with the spicy kick of cocktail sauce. The Chorizo was really good, but it seems like a hard to mess up side. They are not stingy with their side dishes, so again brunch here is a very good value. 

One additional thing I just HAVE to mention. During the meal, perhaps because I was a bit too tipsy from all the sangria, I dropped my fork on the floor. It literally flew out of my hand. Before I even realized what happened, the manager (Manager! not waiter!) was at my side with a new fork and napkin. Now THAT'S service! Especially in such a crowded restaurant. I didn't even get that caliber of service at michelin star restaurants. Needless to say, that really impressed me.

There were mixed reviews for this brunch. I thought it was great! DF thought it was only okay and still prefers Chipotle, and his roommate said he was too drunk to taste the food. However, we all enjoyed the experience and were all quite tipsy at the end of the meal. 

Calle Ocho is definitely a must do for brunch, especially if you enjoy your alcohol. It's a very comfortable and friendly environment, which is seriously hard to find in NYC, and you get so much for your money. 

Cupcake Overload! - NYC

This week was my friend's birthday, which obviously means birthday cake! We were celebrating her birthday at a bar, so I decided to bring cupcakes instead, so we wouldn't have to worry about silverware and having to cut the cake. Over the past few years, there has definitely been an overload of new cupcake bakeries opening up in NYC, particularly after Sex and the City featured Magnolia Bakery cupcakes. I've tried Magnolia cupcakes a couple times, and each time, I am disappointed by how dry the cupcakes are! Instead, I much prefer Crumbs. However, since their cupcakes are pretty massive (see below), I decided to pick up mini cupcakes in one of their "Best Seller Collection - Taste Pack" ~ 12 one-inch cupcakes for $18. I only had the strawberry shortcake one and absolutely loved it! It wasn't as sweet or heavy as you would normally expect from cupcakes, since there was a slight tartness from the strawberry - but then again, I didn't eat all the frosting. Crumbs definitely layers on their frosting! Some of the other flavors included red velvet, chocolate, vanilla, cookies & cream, chocolate black out, chocolate chip cookie, peanut butter & jelly, s'mores, and squiggle (which looks like the Hostess black and white cupcakes!).

These "mini" cupcakes at Crumbs are also muchhh better than the mini cupcakes at Baked by Melissa's in Soho. The ones by Melissa are much smaller [the size of a quarter] so it really is only like 1/2 a bite. Those just taste like pure sugar to me, nothing to really appreciate. Although, Melissa's cupcakes are quite adorable since they are so much smaller.

Since I was already at Crumbs, my brother asked me to pick up 2 cupcakes for him and his friend as well, one red velvet and one vanilla. The red velvet only came in their "signature" size - which means it is massive.

After another tiring week, I noticed that my brother's cupcake was still sitting on the counter, uneaten. I always hate wasting food, so I decided to help my brother out and eat half of his cupcake...just trying to be a good sister ;)

My two complaints about Crumbs are always (1) the massive size ~ really, who can finish one of these in a sitting? and (2) frosting overload! I am not a frosting person, and definitely cannot handle the frosting-to-cake ratio that Crumbs seems to prefer. But I will still choose Crumbs over Magnolia because the cake is much much moister and I can always scrape the frosting off. The red velvet cupcake was incredibly moist and it was definitely a nice treat after my week.

If you aren't as dedicated to red velvet as I am, you should definitely go for one of their smaller "classic" sized cupcakes! Crumbs has started posting their calorie counts [one thing I love about living in NYC is that chains are required to post their calorie counts!] and if you get one of their massive vanilla cupcakes, that's 780 calories! That's almost 50% of your daily recommended caloric intake for girls...not good. [These smaller sized vanilla cupcakes are only 330 calories.]

Caracas Arepas Bar - NYC

The best thing about NYC is that there are so many people of all different nationalities in close proximity to each other. So you're bound to find foods you've never heard about in other cities. I found Caracas Arepas Bar on yelp when I searched for a well reviewed restaurant for cheapies. The fact that I had no idea what an arepa is made it an immediate must try.
The restaurant is situated in East Village, so it is very similar to other neighborhood joints, crowded, hip, and kind of a dive. The dining room is so small, I feel like the average NYC apartment is more roomy!  The walls are decorated with latin american-esque imagery (think religious).

Inside Caracas

So DF forgot to bring the camera with him, so we had to improvise with our iphones. Since it was so dark in the restaurant, I could not take a decent picture with just my iphone. DF channeled his inner MacGuire and downloaded the flashlight app. I actually really like the effects this created (I always found camera flash to be super unflattering anyway). Once again, the iphone saves the day.

The pretty table cloth

What I love about this place is that they have interesting non alcoholic drinks. I am trying to cut down on the frequency of my alcohol intake so I was really glad to see they offer juices and milkshakes as well. I settled on the jugos naturales, there are two flavor choices - papaya and passion fruit. I had the passion fruit, and it was super delish! highly recommend this.

Passion Fruit Juice

I love this picture! The colors looks so vibrant and spicy!

DF had the mimosa (made with passion fruit juice instead of OJ) and his roomie tried a beer cocktail called the Michelada; it's made with Pacifico beer, lemon, spicy panela, and salt.

The Michelada

Mimosa

The mimosa came in a rather unexciting glass, but it packs quite a bit of alcohol. For only $5, it is definitely a good deal. 

For our appetizer we had Guasacaca (Guacamole) with chips: 

Guasacaca and Chips

The chips were a mixture of plantain chips and taro chips. I found this dish only average. It could be because I had the same dish a week earlier from Empanada Mama's. The chips are physically very thin and light but I found the fried preparation to be heavy on my stomach. I'd skip this dish, there are many other appetizers on the menu that I feel could be more appealing.

To help with the arepas decision making process, they have special sampler plates of three arepas each. We chose the La Popular plate (La de Pabellon, La Reina Pepiada, La Mulata) and the La Playera arepa:

La popular

La playera

I guess the best way to describe an arepa is a mini fried cornmeal pita pocket. 

1. La de Pabellon - Shredded beef, black beans, white salty cheese, and plantains. Out of the ones we had, I liked this second best. The beef tastes like a stronger version of the carnitas they serve at Chipotle. This was a bit too much flavor for me, but overall it was quite satisfying. 

2. La Reina Pepiada - chicken and avocado. I love avocado and i always get chicken if seafood is not available. However, together, this was not my fav mix. The avocado and chicken mix was cold and I felt a bit like I was eating giant mouthfuls of bland guacamole because the avocados completely overpowered the chicken chunks. In addition, I think a bit of lemon and spice would have made this more enjoyable for me. 

3. La Mulata - cheese, jalapenos, red peppers, plantains, and black beans.  This is by far my fav. It was at first quite unappealing to look at, it's the arepas at the bottom of the picture on the left. It's hard to see partially due to the darkness and also because all you can see in this arepa is the black beans! So I expected a really dull taste, but the taste was a big surprise thanks to the jalapenos and red peppers. Just the right amount of spicy and juice. 

4. La Playera - shredded white fish, onions, peppers, herbs. I love fish but this dish was a serious disappointment. First of all, the meat did not taste like fish, and it was way too dry. It tasted more like shredded pork with barbeque sauce. This would probably be my least favorite of the night, and a definite skip for next time. 

Finally, piggy me added on the Plato Oriental- minced tilapia, white rice, black beans, plantains, cheese:

Plato Oriental

I really liked this dish. The fish was very juicy and flavored just right, a huge contrast to the La Playera.  I also really enjoyed the plantains in this dish (the brown things between the rice and black beans). They're chunky cut plantain slices (about 1 cm wide) and lightly fried so the inside is still soft and gooey. 

If you don't like fish, they also offer a shredded beef version called Pabellon Criollo. 

The dinner came out to be around $24+ with tip each for three people. This includes alcohol! So it is a pretty good deal. Overall, I enjoyed Caracas and trying arepas for the first time. Unlike many, I am not a huge fan of the fried cornmeal pockets (it made chewing a lot of work for me), but the non arepa dishes were quite good here too, so there is something for everyone. I would come here again if I was in the area, but it is not a place I'd plan my night around. This is actually a good restaurant to go before a night of drinking (pre-game on the cheap alcohol here), because of the good value and also the heavy meal will pad your stomach well for the rest of the night. 

Whisky on the Hudson

Last week my friends and I attend the "Whisky on the Hudson" cruise, an event by the Whisky Guild where you could sample over 200 of the finest whiskey in the world. I am by no means a whiskey connoisseur...actually, I'm not even a fan of whiskey at all! However, my guy friends all seem to love whiskey, and I am always up for fun and different experiences. The buffet dinner (nothing special) was on the lowest level, the second and third floors were where the different booths for whiskey were set up, and there was a top floor deck.

Unfortunately, I cannot give many recommendations about any of the whiskey that I tried...I could not make major distinctions between them, most of them simply burned. However, according to my guy friends, whiskey is about both the taste and the feeling (aka the burning), and they actually like the ones that burn the most. For me, my favorite was the Bunnahabhain because it was the smoothest and I did not have to dilute it with water to be able to drink it.

I love booz cruises, because you always get amazing views of the city...