Going out to eat in NYC is so convenient but I get sick of it after a while. After spending some time in the kitchen, we realize there's nothing better than home cooked (and grown) food.

Dinner

Wonder Bread!!

My Peach Pop

Perfect for the hot weather!

Ippudo + Minca updates

Update: 1/26/2010

I was able to get into Ippudo as a walk in single at the bar, with no wait. I promptly sat down and got to business and ordered a Sapporo, Hirata Buns (Pork) , and the Shiromaru Hakata Classic Ramen. Overall the bun's lacked the finesse of Momofuku's buns, and the classic ramen was good, great broth and nice textured noodles however over priced at $14 dollars with only a small portion of their simmered berkshire pork (you can get an additional serving for $4 dollars). Overall good quality but you are mostly paying for the atmosphere.

Update: 3/7/2010

We decided to hit up Minca again (no wait) for some ramen and to order their Toroniku Ramen (slow cooked pork belly with fresh cabbage) along with their basic (pork) broth and thick noodles, as it was sold out the last time we visited. I must say that it was the best bowl of ramen I have had in NY hands down. It is one of their more expensive items on the menu at $14 dollars but the portion was overwhelming, with a large bowl of soup, noodles and approximately 2-3 large pieces of melt-in-your-mouth pork belly. A must try if you want to get the best ramen in the city.

Menchanko-tei

www.menchankotei.com

131 East 45th Street

New York, NY 10017-3131

(212) 986-6805

We were in midtown the other night and still having the "ramen" craze I decided to go check out Menchanko-Tei. I heard they made very good hand pulled ramen noodles so I decided to give it a shot. Once we got there there was a 10 min wait, once we were seated we took a look at the menus and they had a big variety different Japanese food to choose from.

We started with their winter special $1.99 hot sake, a spicy salmon roe rice ball, agedashi tofu, and shrimp gyoza. The rice ball and tofu were excellent, however the gyoza lacked flavor and were stuffed only with 2 pieces cut up shrimp.

I chose the "Hakata Ramen", which was their ultra thin ramen noodles in a rich pork broth topped with simmered pork slices, black mushrooms, red ginger, and scallions. The broth was very tasty not overly porky, the noodles to  us tasted more like lo-mein then ramen, not sure if that is good or bad. The topping were just ok, the pork was a bit to lean for me, I prefer a little fat. We also tried a bowl of their "Shoyu Ramen"l, their traditional tokyo style thin ramen noodles in a soy sauce broth with the same topping as above. Again the broth seemed just ok and nothing to special, not overly salty. One thing is, I did not leave a MSG headache after dinner.

All in all Menchanko-tei is a good ramen shop, with a wide variety menu, and good prices.

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/

Minca - 536 E. 5th Street + Ippudo update

Minca is a authentic Japanese Ramen shop in the east village. After being denied at Ippudo several times due to the outrageous long wait (average 2 hours+) we have decided to try out Minca in the east village, and boy are we glad we did as it did not disappoint. We have heard good things about Ippudo from the decor to the food, but we would never wait longer then 30 mins to eat ramen, the crowd and atmosphere also wasn't for us. Minca on the other hand, was more our kind of place, a small discreet shop at the far end of the street, the hostess greeted us with friendly and fast service. The open kitchen allowed us to watch the Japanese cooks put together our dishes.

The menu had a fair selection, that included appetizers, ramen, and special ramen's/donn.We started with some hot green tea, a few sapporo's and shrimp gyoza. The handmade gyoza was brought out hot and fast, it was a generous size portion with whole peeled shrimp inside(nice touch) along with their soy dipping sauce. They were very good~ We also saw orders of kim chee and radish salad being served which both looked very tasty.

For the ramen the menu had several options which allowed you to choose different types of stocks(pork, chicken, miso and spicy), noodles(thin, thick, wavy, whole wheat, and bean) and toppings(pork or chicken charshu). One our first visit I had the pork and chicken broth - Kambi (soy sauce flavor), Angie tried out the pork and chicken broth - Kambi Sio (salt & roast garlic flavor), and my sister had the Miso ramen.  The Kambi's stock was very rich with soy and reminded me of a adobo(filipino style) sauce, the Kambi Sio has a nice earthy salt and very garlic flavor(not overly salted i.e Momofuku), while the miso had a strong bean taste(not my favorite). I had the thin noodles which were cooked a little less then al dente giving it a springy texture, I am pretty sure their noodles are not handmade. Each ramen also consisted of sliced stewed pork, scallions, seasoned bamboo shoots, mushrooms, nori, and a half of an egg stewed in soy sauce.

On my second visit I tried the Charshu ramen, with pork broth and thin noodles. This stock was very very rich, that had a strong pork flavor and had a noticeable amount of pork grease, which gave the stock a thicker/gelatinous consistency. This bowl was generously fitted with about 6 pieces of charshu, which was melt in your mouth good.

Overall Minca was above average, the stock, noodles and topping are all done well. On both occasions there were several Japanese expats dining along side us, along with local neighborhood folk, which confirms its authenticity. I did however leave with a slight MSG headache. All in all Minca's ramen was satisfying and we we should be back again.

Gahm Mi Oak

One restaurant we can always count on in consistency and availability is Gahm Mi Oak, as it is one of many of the 24/7 K-town restaurants down on Korean way row. Gahm Mi Oak does fail in one category service, as if you are not a fellow Korean, be prepared to wait a little longer for your food. But since their menu has a reasonable cost rate, no one can complain.

Gahm Mi Oak has a exotic and limited menu, mostly bar food type items that pair well with their selections of soju and beer, the menu consist of items such as oxtail, pigs feet, stomach, bossams(raw oyster asian burritos), bipimbob(rice stone bowl) and blood sausages, but the only thing we come in for is their ox tail soup "Sul long tang" and for me its the best I've tasted. Every table is first treated to their famous kimchi and kaktugi(radish), which are served and cut up table-side. Most begin with Sul long tang which are brought out on medium size stone bowls, filled with a beautiful white cloud of ox bone soup boiled for 12 hours and topped with layers of rice, rice noodles and beef brisket. Each patron then adds their own scallions, sea salt and pepper to taste. We truly love this soup and the perfect combination of ox bone soup, rice, noodles and brisket, its definitely seoul of a king~

43 W 32nd St, New York, NY 10001

nr. Broadway

212-695-4113

BCD Tofu House

BCD Tofu House
17 W 32 St
New York, NY 10079
(212) 967-1900

One of our favorite k-town spots. Organic Tofu "soon dubu chige", tons of banchan (including fried fish), and L.A. Kalbi.

Curry-Ya

Another spot around LES/NYU 10th Street area.
Curry-Ya
214 East 10th Street New York, NY 10003 - (866) 602-8779

Had some recent menu/price and decoration changes. At first try quality seems a little down, or just could of been one of those days.

Little Manila

Sisig (banana ketchup), palabok, sinigang and rice $5.00
Lunch spot for the day(desk) job... Little Manila

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

p.h.o real

With the bad economy, wedding planning, travel goals, and hefty dreams to fulfill, we have been seeking out cheap eats around town.

Today we bring you a 24 hour corner deli:

Sunny and Annie’s

94 Avenue B

New York, NY 10003

Unassuming little places like this is just our style, we found the corner-bodega (aka Korean Deli) via NYMags article, along with its standard deli fair this bodega’s delicatessen masterminds, offer up alphabet cities drunken late night crowds such concoctions as the biden, 09 Obama, Mr.Bloomburger, and when your in the mood for some PHO-to-Go, without the noodles and tender loving broth of course, you can grab yourself their claim to fame “P.H.O. Real” a hefty roll layered with fresh cut roast beef, bean sprouts, avocado slices, tomatoes, onion, Thai basil, cilantro sprigs, hoisin sauce, and sriracha all piled on a 6 inch roll.

surprisingly PHO tasting, yummm....

fresh and local

there was a huge new sign at fairway that instructed everyone to buy fresh and local, so i just did that and came home with some wild hake , cremini mushrooms, thyme, meyer lemons, white mushrooms and rock shrimp

we put together an inspired

olive oil slow poached hake fillets
with cremini mushrooms and diced shrimp in a shrimp and ginger infused lemon broth.

Parmesan crusted potatoes Au gratin

Mac n Cheese

comfort food: refers to a variety of familiar, simple foods that are usually home-cooked or eaten at informal restaurants.

for angie her grandmother used to put together a campbell's cream of mushroom mac and cheese, we did a modern play on that after hitting up the market.

after walking by the cheesemonger we picked up a nice cave aged gruyere, a swiss emmenthaler and a local NY cheddar to go along with some fresh shiitake mushrooms, baby portabellas, fresh thyme, green beans, meyer lemons, and fresh strawberries. Later that evening we treated ourselves to a nice dinner that included:

3 cheese elbow macaroni
stacked over thyme and truffle oil infused mushrooms

blanched green beans
with a first press olive oil (from fairway) and sea salt

sparkling strawberry lemonade
with a pure cane sugar syrup