Bruce eats New York: from cheesecake to yogurt and everything in between
4 Comments
Bruce Nguyen
January 5, 2010
This is the third post in a three-part travel series called Bruce eats New York, where Tiny Bites contributor Bruce Nguyen chronicles his ‘New York virgin’ dining experiences during the summer of 2009.
New York is home to some of the most upscale restaurants in the world but it can also be done on a budget. After all, the foods that bear the city’s name include the bagel, the pizza, and the cheesecake. Speaking of which, let me first state that the advertised “World’s largest cheesecake” really wasn’t all that large.
Below is a selection of tasting notes from the rest of the trip.
Ippudo
Ramen – very tender slices of pork. Noodles were well textured and not overdone. The decadence of eating ramen with what is more ladle than a spoon has to be experienced. Still, it was the pork belly cutlets which really shone. And that’s saying a lot.
Friends appreciated the ramen here more than at that at Momofuku Noodle Bar.
Ippudo
65 4th Avenue | East Village, New York
(212) 388-0088
Cafe Fiorello
Cafe Fiorello was recommended by the same trusted hotel concierge that recommended Ippudo, so our a group of twelve met there with promises of some of the best pizza in town.
Meal post-mortem: preference still leans towards properly prepared Chicago style deep dish pizza. Maybe I just need to try a non-white-tablecloth pizzeria. Their sangria, however, is pretty amazing. Can’t put my finger on what made it stand out…cinnamon and something else that I couldn’t identify.
Cafe Fiorello
1900 Broadway | Upper West Side, New York
(212) 595-5330
Pinkberry
Pinkberry, where the frozen yogurt craze first gained popularity. The plain yogurt itself didn’t have that slightly sour tang I’ve become accustomed to. The toppings I tried (blackberries, mochi, coconut, manga) were all fresh tasting with the mochi winning much praise.
Yes, I realize the picture below is not what I just described above. Blame my horrible photography patience when food is involved.
Pinkberry
330 W 58th St | Columbus Circle, New York
(212) 397-0412
Katz’s Deli
My experience with deli meats are of the cold cut variety. It may have been the glitz of being in New York with some of my closest friends combined with the lack of sleep, but that late-night pastrami seemed like tender cuts of heaven served between two slices of bread.
Katz’s Deli
205 E Houston St | Lower East Side, New York
(212) 254-2246
And there you have it: my effort to eat my way though a weekend in the Big Apple. Throughout this series, I’ve made mention of the eateries that were memorable. The full photo gallery below contains pictures from lesser pit stops, including the not-so-large-world’s-largest-cheesecake.
Categories: Food, Restaurants, Travel, USA
Bruce eats New York: Republic and Viet-Cafe in a Vietnamese showdown! (Pho-down?)
4 Comments Bruce NguyenNovember 24, 2009
This is the second post in a three-part travel series called Bruce eats New York, where Tiny Bites contributor Bruce Nguyen chronicles his ‘New York virgin’ dining experiences during the summer of 2009.
Growing up, my family was never very adventurous in our culinary tastes. For each new city we’d visit, while we would try to dine on the local cuisine, by the end of the trip we would invariably end up eating at a local Vietnamese restaurant. The quality would vary, but at least my parents would be darned sure of their opinion. No “that’s was an interesting dish” remarks for us!
Once I was old enough and mobile enough to have non-family travel plans, experiencing new flavour combinations and arrangements would be the new norm. But every now and then, especially on a hectic or stressful day, a restaurant sign with Vietnamese writing would draw me in like a sailor to a lighthouse.
So it’s understandable why, on hearing that I dined at two Vietnamese restaurants during my short stint in New York, people ask if I was homesick or under duress. Believe it or not, neither of these restaurants were my choice but the choice of my dining companions.
I just didn’t complain when they made their suggestions.
Republic
Republic has the byline of “Vietnamese Sandwich Shop” but carries a ranging menu including twists on the standard beef noodle soup (pho). We tried a dish with a seafood base, one with a duck base, and a spicy beef variety, the last being the only traditional Vietnamese noodle soup – Bun Bo Hue.
We also shared a standard Vietnamese submarine sandwich, complete with three types of cold cuts, pate, pickled veggies and cilantro. The pate was not very noticeable and I would have liked a touch more. The sandwich came with a papaya salad pre-seasoned with fish sauce. It was good if not jaw-dropping. What was jaw-dropping, however, was the price. $10 USD for the same quality and quantity of what you can get in Vancouver for $6 CDN – $3 or less if you only want the sandwich.
One thing I must comment on the menu is the inclusion of “Iced Thai Coffee”. With a restaurant byline of “Vietnamese Sandwich Shop” why the insistance on calling it an iced Thai coffee? I tasted coffee, condensed milk, and ice. To me, that’s an iced Vietnamese coffee.
In the end, while I can’t in good faith recommend their sandwiches because of the price, I can recommend their noodle soup. The duck was excellent and the spicy beef and seafood varieties were very good, all of which are beyond the typical fare you’ll find in any Vietnamese restaurant in Vancouver.
Republic
37 Union Sq W | Gramercy/Flatiron, New York
(212) 627-7168
Viet Cafe
Wasn’t much a fan of the veggie spring rolls. They were good but were nonetheless rather standard fare. The pork spring rolls, however, were memorable. Using deep fried rice paper as the wrap gives it a paradoxically crunchy yet chewy outer layer.
The chicken pho was clean tasting without any hints of MSG or added oil. If you’re a fan of ‘dirty’ pho, this particular dish may not be for you. I was a fan.
Viet Cafe
345 Greenwich Street | Tribeca, New York
(212) 431-5888
Categories: Food, Restaurants, Travel, USA
Bruce eats New York: fried chicken overload at Momofuku Noodle Bar
2 Comments Bruce NguyenNovember 17, 2009
This is the first post in a three-part travel series called Bruce eats New York, where Tiny Bites contributor Bruce Nguyen chronicles his ‘New York virgin’ dining experiences during the summer of 2009.
Momofuku Noodle Bar landed on our radar because of a celebrity chef, but what drew us in was promise of fried chicken. For my first ever meal in New York, expectations were high and we decided to stick with comfort food.
The reservation process, however, nearly scared us off. In order to have fried chicken at Momofuku Noodle Bar, you need:
- Four to eight people in your party (no more, no less)
- A registered account on their website
- Availability within a small number of pre-defined timeslots available each day.
It’s clear who the alpha dog is in this restaurant-diner relationship. Most restaurants I’ve been to are trying to attract more customers, not create further barriers to entry!
Then again, if we consider the pedigree of Momofuku Noodle Bar, it doesn’t seem that bizarre. This is the first restaurant of New York resident rockstar chef David Chang. Chang’s restaurant lineup includes Momofuku Ko, where reservations are taken exactly six days in advance, online only, on a first-come, first-served basis. No leeway is given to social status or income, which is a blessing since I constantly find myself lacking in both.
As we waited for the restaurant to open, a line started to form outside. It became clear through conversation with other expectant diners that we were the only ones with fried chicken reservations that day. Our reserved table was easy to spot as soon as the doors opened: it was the only one with a protective paper covering. Makes it easier to clear and clean the table, I’m sure. And believe you me, there was plenty of carnage to clean up after this meal.
Our chicken arrived accompanied by mu shu pancakes (think steamed soft taco shells), a selection of house made sauces, and a basket full of a greens including long peppers, red ball radishes, and shiso leaves. Even if the chicken were mediocre, I would still be raving about the accoutrements.
Thankfully, mediocrity wasn’t an issue. We were presented both Southern-styled and Korean-styled fried chicken. That’s two whole chickens for those of you following at home. The former had a buttermilk flavour that penetrated deep into the meat while the latter, triple-fried, had a light, crispy skin. Combining all these ingredients into a soft taco was comfort food at its best.
I enjoyed the southern-styled buttermilk fried chicken more, but overall our group was split… both figuratively and literally. Once we were through, all that was left marking this heroic battle between man and bird were grease stains and burstingly satisfied tummies.
After a meal like this, our only disappointment was that we didn’t have a second stomach to keep on eating! After all, for a place with ‘noodle bar’ in the name, we didn’t actually get to try the noodles. Later on in the trip we did end up trying noodle dishes at various New York restaurants, but that’s a story for another day.
Momofuku Noodle Bar
171 1st Ave | East Village, New York
(212) 777-7773
Categories: Food, Restaurants, Travel, USA
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