Kin Shop - NYC

I'm a big fan of Top Chef, so Perilla (Top Chef Harold Dieterle) has always been on the top of my restaurants that I would like to try in NYC. It's one of the favorite restaurants of some of my friends in the city and it's gotten really good Yelp reviews. ...I still haven't been there yet, BUT I did get to go to his newer restaurant Kin Shop which is Thai fusion. One of my friends always insists on Asian food whenever we go out to eat, so I chose Kin Shop for her birthday dinner!

I really liked the understated decor of Kin Shop - it feels relaxed and doesn't try too hard. There is a green motif throughout and the marble-top bar area has gilted gold accents that gives the restaurant a bit of understated glamour.

I loved that the menu had a mini "glossary" explaining many of the menu items on the back page:

The food definitely did not disappoint either. The noodles were good, but paled in comparison to the red snapper in green curry. The red snapper was perfectly tender and the sauce was so good that both my friend and I used our roti (which we ordered as a side) to soak up all the leftover sauce. This was definitely one of the more memorable and unique fish dishes that I've had in a while.

Fresh Egg Noodle & Maitake Mushroom Broth poached duck egg, green onions & spinach ($14)

Green Steamed Red Snapper cashews, bok choy & kabocha squash ($27)

The restaurant's dessert menu was extremely limited but we decided to go with the passionfruit pudding with buttermilk sherbet, topped with candied cashews. My friend thought the pudding was a little too tart for her taste - which was perfect for me because I prefer tart desserts nowadays and I actually thought the buttermilk sherbet was too sweet for me.

For those that live in the West Village/NYU area, this is the perfect neighborhood restaurant. Amazing food and it doesn't feel like it's trying too hard. (Lately, I've been feeling like a lot of restaurants in NYC are just too high maintenance!) Perfect for when you can't think of a restaurant to go to (although given its popularity and rave reviews, you might end up with a long wait...).

Testaccio - Long Island City

I've been meaning to try out Testaccio since it opened last year and I read about it in this New York Times article: In New York Restaurants, the Rise of Rome. I hadn't gotten around to it though because when I looked at the menu prices, their pastas and second courses were all around $15-25. I just can't bring myself to pay those prices when I'm looking for a casual bite in my neighborhood. I have a mental barrier that, for $20+, it should be for a nice meal in Manhattan. However, I had a friend come visit me in LIC for lunch one day. I was craving Thai food at Tuk Tuk, but he wanted Italian, especially after I told him that the restaurant had been written up in the NYT. Testaccio it was!

When we walked into the restaurant, I was absolutely blown away by how gorgeous the interior was! They have a gorgeous wine wall/display that separates the main dining area from the seating on the second floor, and really nice chandeliers as well. You would definitely not expect to walk into a restaurant like this off of Vernon Blvd in Long Island City. It would seem more suited for Soho or Meatpacking.

The food also did not disappoint. The prices at brunch were a lot more reasonable than their prices at dinner. The bread basket alone made me happy - breadsticks, focaccia and regular rolls. The focaccia was warm and fresh (I hate when restaurants give cold bread baskets!) and I had to stop myself from filling up on that before our food came. I ordered the bucatini all'amatriciana (hollow spaghetti with guanciale, spicy tomato sauce & pecorino, $11), a nostalgic favorite from my study abroad days in Italy. It tasted exactly like I remembered from Florence.

We also got the "Pizza con i funghi" with tomato, mozzarella, cremini, shitake & porcini mushrooms ($12). The crust was very thin and crispy. I'm not a super huge fan of pizzas, but I enjoyed it.

I was already stuffed from the bread, pasta, and pizza, however my friend insisted that I order my favorite dessert, tiramisu...and really, he has the best ideas because this was definitely the star of the meal. When the dessert came out like this, we were extremely confused. The waiter chuckled at our expressions as he explained that it was a "do it yourself" dessert - you take the ladyfingers and dip it in the mascarpone sauce with bitter cocoa & the cup of espresso coffee next to it. I love interactive stuff and playing with food - so my friend and I loved this. Each component was also extremely well made.

I didn't notice it at the time, but the menu actually lists this dessert as "tiramisu fai da te," so it tells you that it is DIY.

The service at Testaccio was also really nice. About halfway through our meal, we were the only table at the restaurant and it was really nice having the restaurant to ourselves! This is a new neighborhood favorite of mine!

Alpha Fusion - NYC

So it's been a while since our last post, keeping up with a blog is a lot harder than we thought it would be! Today's errands took me to the Penn Station area and lunch was at Alpha Fusion. I had heard that their Chelsea location was really good and they had really unique and inventive sushi rolls - like the kind from California that I always miss. Then Alpha Fusion came out with a Living Social coupon offer - $25 for a $50 gift certificate, which I quickly grabbed up. The 34th Street location is in kind of a random location between 8th and 9th - it's actually next to a small parking lot, and the inside wasn't too great either. Actually the inside was fine by itself, it had a modern decor, but they opened the restaurant to the outside that day so I couldn't really get past the random location. I don't know how to explain it...it seemed a little strip mall-ish to me. I guess it would be an okay place if you are already in the area but based on the atmosphere and out-of-reach location alone, I don't know if I would come back here.

The food didn't make up for the location either. First off, we got the "Spicy Tuna on Pringles with Black Tobiko." Yes...that's raw tuna on a Pringle. I really liked the novelty factor, and their spicy tuna is pretty good, but I don't think it was particularly enhanced by the potato chip at all. I actually didn't really notice it.

For sushi rolls, we got: the Volcano (chicken tempura roll topped with spicy tuna and chili pepper), Red Hot Dragon (shrimp tempura roll topped with spicy tuna and crunchy), and the Spicy Alpha (crunchy spicy salmon roll topped with tuna, salmon, and avocado) - each around $14. None of these rolls really stood out to me - I don't think their sushi rice was made that well. It seemed like regular white rice to me and didn't hold together well on some of the rolls (there was also just too much rice in my opinion). My favorite of the three would be the Red Hot Dragon, if I had to choose. They give a fair amount of spicy tuna on top of the Red Hot Dragon - the spicy tuna was probably my favorite part. As for the Volcano roll, it was my first time having chicken in a sushi roll...and I just don't think it's meant to be. If it was just chicken and rice - sure. But adding spicy tuna to fried chicken didn't do it for me.

The service at the restaurant was really nice though. They were attentive and I think the bartender was trying out different drink recipes at the time - the manager came around with free shots for us to try. However, my dining partner was dreadfully hungover from the night before, so we politely declined.

Alpha Fusion was definitely a good value with our gift certificate, but it probably won't be a repeat for me. The Chelsea location might be better? I also didn't think these rolls compared to the sushi I had in California!

I'm back! with tons of FOOD!

In this day and age, living without internet is extremely inconvenient! But I was determined to not fall into the trap of Comcast, so I chose to live in the stone age for awhile. Thus, I was not able to blog about my gluttonous activities for quite a while. But now I'm back to civilization. However, it's been so long since I took these pictures, I have very vague memories of the meals. So I'm just going to post it all in one giant brunch edition post.

44 & X - 622 10th Ave, New York, NY 10036


My opinion:

This place is definitely my go to brunch spot. Ambiance is very bright and pretty, with a fresh rose on every table. (The bathroom is magnificently decorated with candles and roses!) The cute waiters wear tight t-shirts that say "Heaven in Hell" (lol, get it?), food is solid, AND instead of bread, you get muffins and jam.

Good Enough To Eat - 483 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10024



Review: The highlight of this meal was the strawberry butter! I could eat that stuff all day every day. Other than that, this place is pretty ordinary in my opinion. The restaurant is pretty small and for some reason it's very popular. So prepare to wait in line to be seated.

Thanksgiving Dinner - Home, NYC, cooked by roomie

Ever seen how brussel sprouts grow naturally?
$1.99 per STALK at the grocery store in Chelsea Market. It's a Thanksgiving miracle! Picture shown half "de-sprouted." Roasted in the oven with oil, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Addictingly delish!
Lobster Thermidor. Lobster purchased from Fresh Direct. So fresh that after being in the fridge for 3 nights and 2 days it was still alive! Poor lobster, thank you for providing us sustenance.

Cornish Hen stuffed with apple stuffing? Raw hen and mashed potatoes in background both from Fresh Direct. Apple stuffing - randomly made up.
A view of our humble but fulfilling thanksgiving feast.

Cafe Henri - 1010 50th Ave, Long Island City, NY 11109



Review:
Lol, as you can see, I was too busy eating that I forgot to take a pic of the escargot until there was only 1 left! I love that there is a good brunch spot right in LIC. So those days when I'm too lazy to commute into the city, I can enjoy a relaxing meal just a few steps away from home. The food here is pretty typical of what you'd think of when you say brunch. I thought the savory crepes were quite special and not something you can find in ever NYC brunch spot. We went during a cold winter morning, so the hot chocolate was especially inviting. They present it in such a large cup! The one I got has Grand Marnier mixed in. It actually became a bit too bitter for me to handle, I would have preferred something lighter and sweeter. But I have the commend their service. I asked for my left over hot chocolate to go and they gave me a piping hot cup of it. So they must have either heated it up again, or gave me a brand new cup! It was very thoughtful.

Uncle Ben's Chili Bowl- 1213 U St NW, Washington, DC 20009Review:
Uncle Ben's Chili Bowl is a DC food institution. It's beloved by everyone from Bill Cosby to Barack Obama, who are the only people allowed to receive free food from this chili joint. The restaurant is right next to the metro exit and very easy to find as it has a patchwork multi colored bear randomly sitting outside. Due to its popularity, its almost always crowded and being inside can be a bit claustrophobic. We ordered a half smoke and some chili fries. To be honest, the chili was tasty but I did not think it was extraordinary. The half smoke hot dog with chili is definitely a better choice than the chili fries which just weighed you down.

M. Wells - 21-17 49th Ave, Queens, NY 11101

Review:
This place was quite a shocking contrast for me. It's located in a pretty isolated area in the industrial section of Long Island City. It's basically an old fashion diner cart plopped on the side walk of an everlasting construction area. There is very little seating due to the size limits of the restaurant and nearly no space to wait your turn. The plus is that in such a small area, there is nowhere to hid the kitchen, so you can basically watch your food being made. The menu itself is quite different than expected. It includes upscale restaurant faves such as bone marrow and foie gras. I ordered the Biscuit and Jam and was surprised at what I received. Visually, it looked like a mess. But the apple sauce like raspberry "jam" was quite delish and refreshing. We were served our order of steamed eggs with bonito flakes in a cute little cauldron. I especially enjoyed this dish since it reminded me of the steamed eggs my mom made for me when I was still living at home. I have to say, I've only seen this dish in Chinese and Korean restaurants, so it was pretty unexpected for me to find it at M. Wells. That bone marrow you see? Hides a couple of escargots underneath all that marrow! From our entrees, the one that stood out the most was the lobster roll. It was decently sized and you can taste each bite of the fresh lobster meat. The one I enjoyed least was my breakfast sausage. I really just picked it for the "pickled jalapenos" that was on it, bad idea. It was too heavy for breakfast. Overall, I felt this place was a bit overrated. True it has a creative menu, but the taste was just not there for me to make that trek out to this part of town again.

My Favorite & Most Important Meal of the Day

I am obsessed with breakfast and brunch foods. I could eat breakfast foods any time in the day. This morning, I made myself french toast for breakfast, and for lunch, I made scrambled eggs with chiptole salsa and just buttered toast (plain butter on white toast is such a simple comfort). I felt like the scrambled eggs deserved a special post because of my newly discovered trick of putting MAYONNAISE in EGGS. I have neverrr heard about this idea, but this morning, I couldn't think of what I wanted to eat for breakfast so I googled "easy breakfast recipes" and found suggestions on adding a little bit of mayonnaise (1 tsp. per 2 eggs) to eggs (I then opted to make the eggs for lunch, not breakfast). They came out delicious! The eggs had a much springy-er texture. I actually haven't made scrambled eggs in a while - I usually eat sunny side up eggs, but after discovering this trick, I might be making it for breakfast more often!

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!]