St. Alps Teahouse

Addicted...

http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/saints-alp-teahouse/

Neighborhood: East Village
39 3rd Avenue
(between 10th St & 2nd Ave)
New York, NY 10003

(212) 598-1890

www.saints-alp.com.hk/

Toronto - Spadina

Beef Tendon and Wonton noodle soup. The pan fried noodles with homemade black bean sauce was great also.

Swatow Restaurant
309 Spadina Avenue
Toronto, ON M5T 2E6, Canada
(416) 977-0601

Battle of the Banh Mi - Bandwagon Trend

ref: nymag article: another banh mi in the oven


ref: nytimes.com: Building on layers of tradition.

Seems like the Banh Mi bandwagon trend is now in full effect here in the East coast as many magazines and articles are popping up on the net featuring these mouthwatering subs.

A famous west coast foodie couple/bloggers called "the white on rice couple", created the site "battle of the banh mi" to educate everyone on the great delicacy of the banh mi sandwich. It seems that on the west coast the banh mi has been famous for years (seeing that most trends pass through the west before they are set in here in the east coast) as seen by the abundant Lee's sandwich shop chains have been popping up all over since 2001 with over 31 chains!

The classic banh mi is a Vietnamese-French influenced sandwich, that is on a crispy baguette(classically made with wheat and rice flour) and made up of an addicting combination of salty, crunchy, moist and hot contrasting delacacies such as pickled carrots and diakons, onions, cucumbers, cilantro, jalapenos, meat fillings, headcheese, pate's, mayonaise, butter and sirracha sauce.

I am holding my own personal East Coast battle of the banh mi , as we have been recently scouring NYC for the best tasting banh mi, not necessarily the most authentic, but best overall based on price, quality and taste. Which may ruffle some purist feathers, but sometimes it is what it is~ Trend or not we enjoy ourselves a good banh mi~

We have found several variets which range from: classic, chinese-influenced, and modern/upscale banh mi's. None the less I will rate and value as many banh mi's as I can get my hands on.

So far my list is goes as follows:

Hanco's - 85 Bergan St, Brooklyn -$5.50 - Value: B-, Taste: A, Overall: A
Ba Xuyen - 4222 Eigth Ave, Brooklyn - $3.75 - Value: A+ , Taste: B, Overall: B
Baogette - 61 Lexington Ave - $5.00 - Value: B, Taste: B+, Overall: B+
Banh Mi Saigon Bakery - 138-01 Mott St - TBD
Nicky's - 150 E. 2nd St - $5.00 - Value B, Taste: C, Overall: C
An Choi's - 85 Orchard St - TBD
NhaToi's - 60 Havemeyer St, Williamsburg - TBD
Saigon Vietnamese Sandwich - 369 Broome St - TBD
Paris Sandwich's - 113 Mott St - TBD
Sau Voi Corp - 101-105 Lafayette St - TBD
Num Pang - 21 East 12th Street - TBD
Thanh Da - 6008 Seventh Ave, Brooklyn - TBD

Outside NYC:

Lee's Sandwich's - Various locations California - $$ - Value: B, Taste: B-, Overall: B-
Vietnamese Cafe - Philadelphia - $3.50 - Value: A, Taste: B, Overall: B

To the Year of the OX!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Fried spring roll wrapper with sauteed vegetable and tofu filling


To celebrate the Chinese New Year, Neil made his own versions of the "Lumpia", a Filipino spring roll with Chinese origins.

Excellent Pork Chop House

Chinatown NYC can be so intimidating, foul stanching, and downright rude. A frequent tourist spot, you will find that it is always crowded, loud, and most of the time disgusting. The people are what you can say hardly friendly, but more often pushy and rude, and the service...I won't even get into that.

But with all that being said there is still tons of great eats to be had. Being pretty much American born as I can be (immigrated here at 2 years old), I can't speak, nor understand Chinese. So I mainly rely on my friends on recommending me restaurants to frequent in chinatown.

As I have learned through the years, Chinatown never will be fine dining, but finding good food at a bargain is always attainable. My fiancée and I like to frequent several restaurants in a triangular radius of each other. Our favorite stop of which would be the Excellent Pork Chop House at 3 Doyers St. The name itself is pretty daring and cheeky.

The aesthetics are nothing to write home about, it is about a 40 seater with small and large tables. They have a weird collection of dolls displayed on their back wall and most passerbys might be pushed away from their presentation of food, which is prominently displayed on their front window. They specialize in Taiwanese street food, fried pork chops, fried chicken leg, spare-ribs, noodle soups, preserved vegetables, rice cakes and crushed ice sweets. Uncharacteristically the service is great, they have a very nice and accommodating staff, who are there 6 days a week 10:30 am - 9 PM, closed on Tuesdays.

The Wonton's in Spicy oil are delicious, they are modestly filled with minced pork, mostly wrapper but the wonton skin is so fresh, along with the minced cilantro and the spicy oil it is downright tasty. The soy sauce eggs are cooked perfectly and topped with a little oyster sauce. The scalded vegetables (available in cabbage and spinach) are stir fried in chicken stock and flavored with minced garlic to add a punch. The chicken/spare-rib soup is fantastic! They use a super slow cooked process which extracts all the great flavor of the falling of the bone chicken or spare-ribs that creates a perfectly translucent and smooth tasting broth. The rice or noodle bowls are served with preserved cabbage and mince pork, which both are ultra tasty. The beef noodle soup has a strong anise flavor, which is usually missing, at other noodle houses around town. Their noodles are also exceptional and taste home made. To end the meal you can go with one of their crushed ice creations, which you choose a slew of toppings (condensed milk is a must) or a nice refreshing bubble tea. There are several items I have left out which we have tried and are all great, you won't be disappointed try it all! I can proudly say we have almost tried every item on the menu and love it