Category Archives: Food

Bouchon & Pizza

I had a horrendous experience with Katz’s Deli today, so no pictures from there. The lack of service was so great that I simply left without trying anything.

Time Warner Center

I ended up at the Columbus Circle, simply because it was outside the subway exit on my way. You can see Bouchon Bakery’s seated section on the top right.

Ham & Cheese Baguette & Orange Juice

Bouchon Bakery would make a nice upscale snack place (a date or perhaps a quick business meeting?). By upscale, I mean you will be paying upscale prices. That said, the shopping complex is very nice.

The ham & cheese was alright, but it didn’t stand out at all. Bouchon Bakery had lots of sweet baked goods, which seem like they would be worth a try to share with a friend.

I will say the OJ was good, but that’s hardly the point here? I doubt anyone cares about the prepackaged goods versus the handmade food on site.

Famous Ray's Pizza - Chicken

Just so there’s more to this post than just Bouchon, here’s a picture of some NY pizza. There are Ray’s pizza locations all around NY, and they all claim to be THE Ray’s.

The pizza here was good, but I’d go with Grimaldi’s instead.

Blurry Philly

Didn’t have the DSLR out today, and here is where the 3GS’s camera would come in handy.

Anyways, it’s blurry, delicious food time:

99 Miles to Philly

Near 14 st’s union square.

The Menu

I went with Steak + Whiz + Wit.

Supposedly Cheez Whiz & Wit*Out are the authentic options, but I like my beef with onions.

The combo - Cheesesteak, Waffle Fries, Soda

Pictured here is only 1/2 of the Cheesesteak. I went with Sunkist to mix it up, after usually going with Coca-Cola.

Everything here was good. The cheesesteak was deliciousness in sandwich form. The waffle fries had an excellent texture to it. Some minor detractors: the bread was cold to the touch, and the place has a very strong meat smell (not in a good way) inside.

I definitely recommend this place and hope to come here again (after pausing for my arteries to heal).

Pho & Pizza

This post has some Manhattan Chinatown stuff and food from under the Brooklyn Bridge.

Pho Bang

In the Chinatown district of Manhattan. They serve a variety of Vietnamese dishes, and a lot of the grilled meats over rice or vermicelli looked delicious.

#1 Extra Large

The Pho soup was decent. The meat inside was unadventurous with thinly-sliced beef, tripe, and tendons. In the Bay Area, you get a lot more exotic cuts of meat. I know it’s NY, but size-wise, this wasn’t much either. I still prefer Pho Tau Bay due to their quality, portions, and price – pretty unbeatable.

Banh Mi Saigon

The best banh mi in NY is supposed to be in a jewelry shop. I would guess that they make much more money from the bakery in the back than selling assorted jewelry.

#2 Spicy Chicken

Price-wise, a Banh Mi sandwich at ~$4 seems expensive to me. I’m used to $2, or in extreme cases $3, Banh Mi’s. But this is NY, and I’m willing to pay $4 for Banh Mi Saigon’s.

I’ve tried their #1 Pork and #2 Chicken, both of them spicy. They ask you if you want the sandwich regular or spicy. A single Banh Mi isn’t that filling, but the quality here is excellent and worth the trip to Chinatown.

Large Regular with Sausage and Mushrooms Close Up

This here is well-reviewed pizza. Many places claim Grimaldi’s has the best pizza in NY. It was definitely delicious, but I’m still trying to figure out what this NY pizza thing is about. CA pizza is edible, but Chicago pizza is where my money is at so far.

Large Regular with Sausage and Mushrooms

Would I go here again? Definitely.

They only sell pizza by the whole pie, and there are no preset combinations. At any typical pizza store, you’d find things like “Meat Lover’s” or “Hawaiian.” At Grimaldi’s, you pick Regular or White. The White is the Regular with no sauce and extra cheese. Then you pick as many individual toppings as you want to add. Like I said, there are no preset combo’s.

Food from all over NY

Another day, another post of Manhattan food.

BonChon

BonChon 20 “wings” plate. I’d say they are more like drumettes. Sorry Bay Area, but this is Korean Fried Chicken done right.

I went to the one on East Village and split 20 soy garlic ones with a friend. The sauce and texture are as good as they’re known for. Apparently they have a happy hour from 4-7pm for all you can eat wings…

Absolute Bagels

I thought this was part of Upper West Side (UWS), but apparently it’s so far up North that it’s considered Manhattan Valley on Yelp.

Bagel Spreads

Don’t be surprised – I went for the Bacon & Cheddar cream cheese.

Garlic Bagel with Bacon & Cheddar cream cheese

I decided to try the Garlic instead of Everything. Not so apparent in this picture, but size-wise, Absolute Bagels is a bit smaller than other bagel shops.

This bagel pictured was toasted and was a lot harder (stiffer?) than I would have liked. The cream cheese spread, as you can see, is pretty ridiculous in it’s own right. The giant chunks of cheddar and bacon visually overpower the cream cheese.

Hello Kitty

Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I went back to the halal cart. This would be the 2nd time within a few days. On the way to the cart, I took the scenic route and came across the Lever House. Seeing a large Hello Kitty, I had no choice but to stop for a moment.

Brooklyn White Castle

Coming from the west coast, I had to give White Castle a try. They have all sorts of retro posters, some proclaiming White Castle as part of a balanced diet.

Double Cheeseburgers

OK, so it is fast food after all. Fast food tends to be cheap, fast, and unhealthily tasty. White Castle was none of these for me. I mean, I would expect it to be tasty (by fast food standards) and not much more. I only had two of these sliders, and I can’t imagine “grabbing a sack” of these to eat.

Halal Food Cart

So there is this well reviewed food cart on 53rd and 6th. Does it live up to the hype?

Halal Guys Cart Line

I showed up on Friday around 7:30pm, and there was a 10-15 minute wait. Not bad at all, but it’s a food cart. Food carts normally have a 0-3 minute wait. This place normally has an hour long wait.

Chicken/Lamb Combo over Rice

The combo with their white sauce. Can’t get enough of that white sauce.

Chicken/Lamb Combo over Rice

This was $6 and quite possibly the tastiest thing I’ve had so far in NY. It’s grilled chicken, lamb, salad mix, yellow rice, and pita bread. What spices they use, I have no idea. But this was pretty much street crack addictive and even tastier. I will need to go back again, as I don’t think words can describe how good this simple plate of grilled meat and rice was.

Food: Queens Edition

Queens is not the closest location from Brooklyn.

Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao

Needed an excuse to go all the way to Flushing to wander around.

Beef & Chili Pepper Noodle Soup

This was very worth the trip here. It wasn’t very spicy at all, despite the name. It would be considered your typical beef noodle soup (niu rou mian). Broth, noodles, and toppings were all excellent.

Xiao Long Bao

What the restaurant has in it’s name. Size-wise, definitely larger than xiao long bao’s you may be used to. Which means the amount of meat and soup you get is more than you’re used to in a bite. Would definitely recommend these.

I also ordered some shao mai (not pictured) that wasn’t exactly what I expected. I was expecting HK style pork and shrimp shao mai, but got Shanghai-style which has lots of luo mi (sticky rice). It turned out OK, but I wouldn’t order it if I knew what it was.

Tai-Pan Bakery

Walked around Flushing, relying on my Yelp app. It’s funny, before I’d almost never use Yelp, but now it’s good to have in a completely new place. As long as the reviews are above average and have reached critical mass (not just 2 reviews), it’s good enough of a sign to give the place a try.

Neapolitan Cake

Very good texture and flavor. Not too sweet, but good. Interesting since normally I’m not a fan of these frilly cakes, but this was good.

Egg Custards

This is a staple, rich and unhealthy pastry. Pictured from top right, clockwise: (1)Portuguese, (2) Traditional, and (1) Almond. The almond type is unique, I haven’t heard of it before. You can’t go wrong with the traditional egg custard.

Everything Bagel with Bacon Scallion cream cheese

One more thing:

At Brooklyn Bagel & Coffee, I picked up an everything bagel. The bagel was completely overshadowed by the deliciousness of the cream cheese. Bacon Scallion cream cheese? How could anything with bacon not taste good?

This was very delicious, and I’m sure I could pick just about any bagel and put Bacon flavored cream cheese and it would come out OK.

Greenwich eats

Wandering around in search of more good food. The good news? It definitely exists in bounds.

Mamoun's Falafel

First up is Mamoun’s. They had the usual (for well trafficked restaurants) displays of awards won in past years. One of them was best 4AM place. I went around 4pm? Am I doing it wrong?

Mamoun's Chicken Plate

This grilled chicken plate with pipin’ hot pitas was 10 bucks. It should be enough food for most people, but I still had more appetite. The hot sauce was VERY hot. Would definitely go here again. And you can even argue the “healthy” food angle.

Tebaya

Just walked by this place on the way to another store. I saw the Yelp people like us decal, and it actually intrigued me enough to try “Japanese fried wings.” This is related to Korea fried chicken, but it has more of a teriyaki and sesame seed spin to it.

Teba - chicken wings

The chicken wings (teba), fried potatoes (potemochi), and green tea. The wings were very well flavored and textured. The potemochi and green tea were much less notable. The potemochi has a crisp outside with a gooey mochi inside. Definitely want to swing by here again and grab the katsu sandwich that people on Yelp are raving about.

Some good food and NY tourist spots

Walked around NYC some more today. Decided to start putting a very small watermark.

2nd Floor Wii Area

The Nintendo Store wasn’t as big as I imagined, just two floors near 30 Rock. There is a Pokemon Center downstairs, in which “center” means aisle against the wall.

Samus Figure

I think you can buy these?

Nintendo R.O.B.

As seen from Smash Brothers, etc!

DS signed by Miyamoto

This guy is a Nintendo legend. Created Mario and many, many Nintendo brands.

People for COCO in front of NBC

This is the backside of the protesters.

Pro COCO

The front side. Haha “Conando”

30 Rock

I didn’t go up to the top of the rock. Maybe one of these days? Also, I didn’t go ice skating today.

30 Rock Ice Skating

It looks fun.

Fifth Ave Statue

I think this is on 5th Ave, and I know it’s near 30 Rock. Pretty impressive.

Fifth Ave Signage

The texture / over-design elements interest me.

Sylvia's

Up in Harlem, we have Sylvia’s Soul Food. This was featured on the Food Channel. If I’m not mistaken, the table where I sat had a photo of Reverand Al Sharpton and Sylvia.

Sylvia's Hot Sauce

It was pretty spicy, in a Tabasco kind of way. I didn’t really use it much, because I wanted to savor the food and not just drink hot sauce.

Good Cornbread

This was “the bread” that restaurants give you to nibble on before the food arrives. I’m not a cornbread person, but I ate a lot of this because it was good – especially the crust parts.

The main entree - fried chicken and sides

From top left counter-clockwise: lemonade, fried chicken, baked mac-n-cheese, collard greens, gravy, hot sauce, and cornbread. It was all great except for the collard greens, which had a distinct taste that I’m not sure how to describe because I’m just not used to it. This was my one/only meal today. The rest of today was spent walking it off.