Day 4 grub in NYC - diners and burgers

Breakfast at a nearby diner - am a sucker for French toast!! This was nowhere as good as the version I had at Balthazar though...

After spending the afternoon exploring the Met, we stayed on the Upper East Side and headed for burgers at JG Melon - more of a neighbourhood bar than resto but the burgers and fries were tres delish. If the weather hadn't been scorchingly hot (we are getting 35C every day and blazing sunshine - I know, I know.....boohoo, huh??!!), we could've easily polished off another couple more! ;)

Light wasn't great inside but spot all the melon pics on the wall, hehe!!

Cheeseburger and fries - so simple but so darn good. Forgot to take pics of the juicy insides of the burger so you will have to take my word for it......soopoib!! :)

4th July dinner - Blue Fin restaurant

We've been really slack with making reservations for restos in NYC and come dinner time on Independence Day, we were stumped with where to go. Since we had been eating a lot of meat recently, we thought we could go to a fish restaurant so asked concierge for some recoms. Unfortunately, the place they recommended was close on 4th July as was the other places I had come across on the net. Eventually, we decided to head out and try our luck at Shake Shack (one of Norie's fav places in the city for a burger). Unfortunately, the queue was out the door so we went with plan B and headed to Blue Fin restaurant, a fish place which was in the W hotel near Times Square. There is an entrance to the resto from the hotel reception which is how we entered. We waited for someone to seat us but alas, no such luck. By the time we managed to flag down a waiter who was walking by, he then told us to head to the other entrance where someone would seat us.......and what exactly is the point of having an entrance by the hotel reception then??

Dinner was pretty solid but not cheap. Note to self: do research if coming again on 4th July as some restos will close on that day.....

Jumbo lump crab cake with pickled vegetables and aioli. Crab cake was 95% crab which was impressive and yummy :)

Salmon with shrimp and asparagus risotto - nicely cooked salmon and very sweet shrimp. Risotto was undercooked.

Peach, blackberry and nectarine crisp (ie. crumble) - OK but too sweet for my taste and a bit stodgy to finish off a meal.

Lunch at Chelsea Market: Friedman's Lunch, Ninth Street Espresso

 

Lychee bionade - some sort of fermented, carbonated beverage that's supposed to be good for you? Fermented - yes, carbonated - sort of, lychee flavour - no way!! 

JD's pulled pork sandwich (with the sumo tee in the background being particularly apt, hehe!!) :)

My market plate of broccolli rabe, mac 'n' cheese and quinoa with seasonal ingredients. First two were nice but the would skip the latter if I were to order again, do not like raw onions!

Mmm, wonder whether the guys from Prufrock have ever visited this place? Or was it vice versa?

Liking the logo on the cup :)

Momofuku Noodle Bar

I have to admit it; once we decided to head to NYC, I was super excited about finally being able to visit Momofuku having heard and read so many good things about it. I am also a dedicated reader of Lucky Peach and have a lot of time for David Chang based on the quality of the writing in the mag which he was part responsible for creating. He's also got the seal of approval from Mr Bourdain and in my experience, that's a reliable indication that the food will be OK.

My friend Norie had managed to secure us reservations at Momofuku Noodle Bar to try their fried chicken dinner, as well as at Ssäm bar for the bo ssäm dinner. After a little confusion, we ended up trying the fried chicken and giving up on the bo ssäm dinner (as much of a fan as I am, I figured 2 meals in one week at David Chang restos was a bit much). The blurb says that the dinner is enough to feed 4-8 people; we managed to get a party of 6 and still had chicken left over!!! The verdict? Pretty disappointing - both JD and I were left wondering what on earth the hype is all about? In addition to the dinner, I also ordered extra portions of the famous pork buns and a bowl of ginger scallion noodles (read about these in the cookbook and they sounded pretty good). Not only was it disappointing but the food wasn't even just OK :(

My GIANT can of Asahi - a 1 litre can!!

Pork belly buns - Chinese aromatic crispy duck with a twist. The reason why the original version works so well is the great combination of flavours and textures coming from rich  meaty duck, sweet smoky hoisin sauce, thin starchy pancake, crunchy cucumber and refreshing tangy scallions. This version is a mouthful of squishy mush with no distinguishing flavours or textures :(

Ginger scallion noodles - it was too hot for a bowl of ramen soup so figured I would try these instead. I am guessing that the ginger scallion flavour is influenced by the ginger scallion oil one usually gets with 白切雞. There was no punch of flavour coming from the ginger scallion noodles - how hard can it be? I usually make mine up by eye!! (ginger, scallion, salt, soy sauce and hot oil) My guess is that the oil was not hot enough to bring out the flavours of the components. We all know about David Chang heading off to Japan to learn the intricacies of making ramen; can't say I am convinced sadly. The stuff on the bottom right hand corner looks like white kimchi (recipe in Issue 2 of Lucky Peach which I was looking forward to trying out. My friend Won had warned me not to bother; at the time, I scoffed when he told me. I am sorry to say but Won was right, don't bother!)

Fried chicken dinner - one half Southern style, the other half Korean style and served sauces and saw veg. I actually preferred the Southern style even though it was over fried and on the dry side. The Korean style had a nice kick to it but had too much of a greasy aftertaste for my liking. 

   

As expected, Momofuku was heaving with people and this was the queue when we were leaving!

I really wanted to like Momofuku but I didn't (we finished the meal by trying some strawberry lemon cake truffles; read sweet sickly strawberry lemon cake pops, gross!); the only positive thing I can say is that I am glad I got the chance to try it and many thanks to Norie for organising :)

I still remained baffled by the popularity of the place??? (Norie's sis later remarked it was Asian food for white folk. JD disagrees and said the food is just poor which I concur) I will continue to read Lucky Peach tho.....don't believe the hype, I guess...

Slummin' in Soho: Balthazar and Ceci Cela

Brekkie is not included with our hotel room which means an excuse to find some yummy food to kick start the day :)

We made the trek from Midtown down to Soho for a late brekkie at one of Keith McNally's restos, Balthazar. The place was cavernous; again, there was no problem with us securing a table (it was a Tuesday). There was too much choice on the menu but I finally settled for brioche french toast and bacon whilst JD went for steel cut Irish oatmeal (think porridge) and tartine (ie. slice baguette with butter and jam). Service was attentive and courteous (bar the front of house who took us to our table who had 'tude galore). Everything was tasty and there was a lot of attention to making this as slick an operation as possible (spreadable butter, water fountain tall enough for water bottle to be filled); like Bouchon Bakery, I couldn't help but think that it was just French cuisine executed very well. Of course, the French don't do brunch or Oreos so I guess this comment is more directed at the "bread" side of things.

 

Me "testing" foam on JD's cappuccino!! Foam looks good but erring a bit on the dry side :)

Takeaway bakery next to the resto where we went for a pit-stop after me spending a ridiculously long time at "Sur La Table" on the opposite side of the street (pondering whether to buy a mandoline or not!)  

Our amblings later on in the day took us East where I managed to track down Ceci-Cela patisserie (the same place which inspired Won's sister's place!!). Very bijou and very French - I was "under orders" to try their almond croissant - OK but not as great as I had expected :(

Our afternoon ended with no lunch (we're encountering the problem that it's just too hot to be eating 3 meals a day) but a quick snack from a taco truck nearby - nice (am sure there are better, the chef at this truck was too busy shooting the breeze en castellano with his Latino customers before I was lucky enough to warrant his attention) but no salsas on either taco despite the server asking me what I wanted, mmm.....

First NYC dinner: Blue Smoke

Our dining aims in NYC are pretty simple - try and eat stuff that you can only get in the US. As most folk know, it is pretty difficult to get delicious American BBQ on this side of the pond so thats what we tried to track down for our first meal. Blue Smoke had been recommended to me by a former employer who used to live in NYC and after much trawling through the net for BBQ places in the city, Blue Smoke was where we ended up heading.

JD and his siblings/Dad had tried to get in for dinner the last time they were in NYC but were met with a massively long queue which they refrained from joining (and somehow ended up in a not-so-appetising Indian vegetarian resto for dinner instead!). Luckily for us, we were going for dinner on a Monday night and got seated straight away. 


Apologies for the lack of photos due to a combination of jetlag and lots of catching up with my friend Norie whom I hadn't seen in a long time :)

Norie and I shared the rib sampler for two (it looked pretty manageable at the beginning, 5 ribs each. By the time I had reached my 4th rib, I had hit my "rib wall"!!) JD plumped for the pulled pork platter which he managed to conquer!!

We shared spicy cheese fries and sauteed spinach

Too stuffed to try anything else sadly so no starters or desserts!! The food was tasty but am guessing that we did not try the real deal when it comes to BBQ......more likely to be found in the Southern states :)

Greetings from NYC

We have temporarily left the grey and cold of the big smoke for a whirlwind vay-cay in NYC. For no apparent reason, BA (big thank you!) very kindly upgraded us to Premium Economy which was tres nice (bar JD's entertainment system control literally falling out of his arm rest. When I asked the air hostess if she might have a screwdriver, I was greeted with the response, "I'm not an engineer"?!!!!)

View from our cab heading into Manhattan 

After dumping our bags at our hotel, we walked a few blocks north in search of lunch, our first meal in NYC. The weather was seriously hot so started looking for grub around the Rockefeller Center and dropped into nearby Bouchon Bakery. 

We had a sandwich each and I finally got to try the (in)famous TKO. The sandwiches were nice and well made, very good French bread but overall too cold for my liking as they were sitting in fridges (if I ever go back, I would try the soup and grilled cheese sandwich combo which I saw someone else digging into, it looked good!). The TKO was similar to the homemade oreos I make using a modified recipe from Joanne Chang and to be honest, I prefer mine to the great TK himself (ditto for his salt caramel macaron)!! Good to be able to visit Bouchon Bakery but prices are super steep.......30 bucks+ for sandwiches, iced teas and a couple of sweet treats!!! :(