Every Sunday I wake up wanting the same thing: dumplings, scallion pancakes, and any other variation of Chinese food. Never had I ventured east to Flushing, the true Chinatown of New York, and I decided today was the day I'd swipe my Metrocard and board the 7-local until its terminus. My guide was well versed in the diverse Flushing scene, so we resto-hopped around all afternoon. It was a great time, with nothing but delicious and interesting bites along the way. We even met some random people who happened to be the cinematographers from Kite Runner.
I'm going to opt to let my pictures tell a thousand words, but needless to say, it was a great, quintessentially New York experience. The standout was the Muslim Lamb Chop, a dish from Manchuria which is without question one of the best things I've eaten in New York to date. Smothered in a rub with cumin and fennel seed, these chops are more like lamb spare ribs. The crispy skin top rivaled the most delicious bacon I've eaten (read more here). We sopped up the rub and juice with pillowly scallion pancakes.
here we go...Main St-Flushing
first stop: peking duck buns
from bird to buns...these were delightful and transcendent
white bear for some spicy wontons
spicy, delicate, juicy. awesome.
soup dumplings, or bust
little parcels of soup and pork: ideal for a chilly February afternoon
next stop: muslim lamb chops
behold: the best lamb dish in New York
the aftermath
some sweets before the westbound 7-train
like flan, in a pastry crust. must try coconut next time.
Until we meet again...
Of all the cuisines in New York, Italian has to be the most pervasive. For good reason, the varied regional cuisine of the boot-shaped peninsula offers something for everyone. The most salient contribution from Italy is of course Pizza.
My friends and I ambitiously planned a pizza tour of the city last summer. Due to recessionary dining, pizza has had a sort of renaissance and a lot of great places opened up. One of those new places was Keste--and I finally had a chance to sample their Neapolitan pies this weekend.
The Bleecker Street restaurant is long, narrow, and boisterous. After a brief wait, my brother and I were seated and immediately noticed were the only people around us speaking English. It actually felt that were had left New York and were in some pizzeria in Naples. Adding to the tourist experience was my camera lying on the table.
Getting back to the pizza, Keste is a typical Neapolitan pie. The pizzas are individualized, a little sloppy and wet, with chewy, soft dough. Most of the pies are made with buffalo mozzarella (awesome) and I opted for the namesake pie that came with arugula, prosciutto, and Parmesan. It was a great pie. I found the crust a little chewy, but the ingredients were awesome. It was a knife-and-fork kind of pizza, not a fold in half and pick up slice. If you want New York pizza, go elsewhere--this stuff is the same food you'd be serve anywhere in Italy. I enjoy Neapolitan pizza because it feels more like a complete meal as opposed to a late night snack, and I left Keste feeling satisfied but a little bit disappointed when I walked outside and realized I was still in New York.
The next big pizza place to open is Keith McNally's Pulino...stay tuned.
In celebration of my 27th year, I secured a reservation at one of the more coveted tables in New York: Momofuku Noodle Bar's Fried Chicken dinner. After a month of anticipation, I finally had the meal I had been hearing so much about since it opened up in 2009.
I love fried chicken in theory, but rarely eat it in practice. First, it is not a nutritionally balanced meal. Second, chicken bones are a real turn off. Third, when fried chicken fails, it fails spectacularly. After months of hearing the food glitterati obsess over this meal, I figured this fried chicken had to be worth it.
And it was. The chicken itself really was amazing. Of the two preparations, the korean version comes triple-fried, perfectly crispy, and coated in a delicious sauce. The Old Bay version initially struck me as a little plain, but as I dressed housemade pancakes with greens and the variety of sauces that arrived at our table, I sort of fell for the Old Bay. It was more a palate for you to design the perfect seasoning for your chicken as opposed to the Korean, which was harder to play around with.
The pieces of chicken seemed to come from some superbird. Orbs of chicken are bursting with white meat that was so tender and so juicy it made me re-think the kind of flavors a chicken can yield. The mammoth plate of chicken that arrived at our table was a formidable foe for myself and my five diners. I regret to say, we were defeated, leaving a few pieces leftover.
We ordered rice cakes and pork buns in addition to the bird, which are standards for Momofuku. Consensus was that the rice cakes are better at noodle bar, and the pork buns superior at Ssam. To top off a great meal, we ventured to Milk Bar (in the delightful late February weather). I opted for the cream cheese frosting and red velvet twist ice cream which restored my faith in the Milk Bar's flavor palate. After a couple months of interesting yet not delicious flavors (e.g. Salt and Pepper), the cream cheese frosting ice cream stopped me dead in my tracks. The texture was airy and it was chilled perfectly. Like the best ice creams that Milk Bar has churned out over the years (cap'n crunch, lucky charms, old-fashioned donut, root beer), it cannot be accurately described in words. You just have to see for yourself...and bring me along too.
