08.16.10
Posted in food-related musings, New York City Reviews at 18:03 by Dominique
I went to Hong Kong Supermarket on Hester and Elizabeth today because I am completely out of groceries, and I can only cook really healthy if I have things to make. Not trying to do the anorexic thing; not on purpose, anyway. This was my loot:
mmm, healthy food
As you can see, I packed the stuff together and it pretty much covers my dining table, which has an area of 1,590 square inches, or 11 square feet. I got a pound of 33-40 count shrimp, a salmon filet, 2 giant chicken breasts, 2 Dover sole filets and enough veggies to feed an army of bunnies. Plus a couple of prepared things, which are always more expensive. The cost of all this food was $42.39.
If you live anywhere near Chinatown and have even a little time to cook, this is really the way to go. Especially now that I don’t have to feed the ex-Boyfriend, I can make these groceries last 3 weeks or so. I portion out the meat for freezer storage right away and prep the veggies. They keep a surprisingly long time in the fridge when stored in plastic containers. (Don’t expect the plastic bags to do the same trick, though – I’ve wasted some carrots and celery that way.)
This is why I generally don’t bother with Whole Foods.
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08.13.10
Posted in Asian, Barbecue, Midtown Central, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5 at 23:42 by Dominique
32 W.32nd St. & 5th/6th Aves., 212-947-8482
Great for: apps, good cheap Korean barbecue
There is lots of Korean bbq in New York. A great deal of it is mediocre and expensive, though, and especially in Koreatown, it’s hard to figure out which kind is which just by looking. I am here to tell you that Kom Tang hits the sweet spot in terms of being delicious and not breaking the bank. After years, I finally found the grail!
The man doo gui, fried beef dumplings, are terrific. The small hae mool pa jun, a seafood and vegetable pancake, is actually pretty big, and soft and scrumptious. There are a bunch of other appetizers and mains I would definitely go back for as well.
The meat comes in nice huge portions and the waiter cooks it for you. We tried the bul go gi sirloin and the kal bi sirloin tips, which were both delicious. The menu offers lots of other combinations that are also great deals. The tiny free plates are yummy as well. Next time you’re hammered after karaoke, any hour, any time, you know where to go.
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Our cost: $85 (2 beers, 2 apps, 2 plates meat)
Noise level: probably noisy when busy
Chance of walking in: pretty good. They’re open 24 hours.
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08.07.10
Posted in American, Italian, Lower East Side, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 6 to 6.5 at 02:31 by Dominique
84 Stanton & Allen/Orchard Sts., 212-982-8895
Great for: pork meatballs, spicy meat sauce, cream sauce, bread, ice cream, destroying your hearing
I had an exhausting and strange audition – the weekend ones are always the worst – and my reward was to go try this place. Fortunately I had a wonderful book to read, so the noise didn’t bother me much. I highly recommend Leo Babauta’s Power of Less. Sadly, I can’t recommend the Meatball Shop anywhere near as wholeheartedly, but they do some things well.
There’s no mix-and-match option, so I ended up ordering 5 different meatballs as sliders. That was the only way I could try all of them (I didn’t bother with the veggie ball, that’s just dumb). They’re quite small for $3 – they’d fit comfortably in my tiny curled-up palm. You get a cool laminated menu to write your order on, since there are many permutations of sauces, meats and sandwich formats. I didn’t have stomach space to try any of the sides. You can get up to four of the same meatball on a sandwich as well.
My favorite was the pork in spicy meat (pork) sauce. The pork itself was flavorful, moist and spicy, and the sauce helped it along. I also quite liked the juicy special of tandoori lamb in tomato sauce. It had a good combination of spices.
The chicken in parmesan cream was tasty, not amazing, and soft. It scares me when chicken is very soft. I loved the cream, which definitely had some cool spices in there. I was a bit sorry I got the salmon in parmesan cream. Not as tasty or moist as I’d hoped, I definitely did not need more than one. I tired of it halfway through. Good thing I ordered it with the cream sauce.
The worst was the beef in tomato sauce. It was bland and had lots of gristle, unlike all the others. Shocking, that such a standard meatball was so underwhelming.
Whatever each bun was, brioche or something, it was terrific; fluffy and tasty without competing with the meat. And you guys know I don’t eat bread. Sometimes there isn’t enough sauce but that’s ok, the bread is good all by itself.
I’d heard a lot about the ginger snap ice cream sandwich. Since I was being a dutiful blogging piglet anyway I figured I’d go the distance. The ginger snaps were pretty good but ultimately they are still messy, bready sweets. I preferred the caramel ice cream. The sandwich is fairly difficult to eat – I found it best to nibble one side at a time so as not to squeeze out all the ice cream. For $4 it was a pretty good deal.
Service is nice, but scatterbrained and slow. It’s very likely that was because they just opened and were swamped from day one, so I didn’t mind being patient. I finished my book, though. The décor is colonial/crazy American Gothic. I have never seen so many black and white pictures of loony old people. I probably won’t again, as this place is very overpriced for being only decent, and insanely packed all the time. Only two meatballs of six offered are good – not a very good success rate. I’ll give them this, though; it’s a cool gimmick and they seem to be raking it in at the moment.
Rating: 6 / 10
My cost: $25 (5 sliders and an ice cream sandwich)
Noise level: noisy as hell; the music is loud rock and the people are just as bad
Chance of walking in: bad. But at least they’re open late (noon until 2am Sunday to Wednesday, 4am other days) and have many seats so you have a lot of chances to try.
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08.06.10
Posted in Asian, Chinatown/Little Italy, Chinese, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 8 to 8.5 at 00:49 by Dominique
66 Bayard & Elizabeth/Mott Sts., 212-625-2359
Great for: dumplings of all kinds, especially guo tieh (potstickers)
I live near Vanessa’s and their four dumplings for $1, but sometimes I make the trek over here for juicy, crisp, slender potstickers. Only my parents make them better (though they grind their own meat, so that’s not quite a fair comparison). I have been known to eat a plate of ten all by myself!
Their xiao long bao and scallion pancakes are pretty good too. Both are a little thick and could use some more spice – only in comparison with Shanghai Café, though. In general Green Bo does everything quite well. I was delighted to find yummy nian gao (oval rice cakes) here, and if I could tear myself away from the dumplings I’d be able to try many of the other delicious-looking things I see every time I’m here.
Rating: 8 / 10
My cost: $15. Cash only.
Noise level: it’s pretty loud during lunch
Chance of walking in: outside of peak hours, not too bad.
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