Momo-mo-mo-mo-fuku

Momofuku Ssam Bar
207 2nd Ave
New York City

"Greek Sardine - arugula, strawberry and toasted rice"

We went to dinner here at 9PM on a Monday night, and the place was full. But we had better luck here than at The Daily Show, and, as soon as we arrived, a table in the corner--adjacent to the kitchen with a long view of the restaurant--opened up.

View from the corner table by the kitchen.

Originally we had gone to Balthazar in SoHo, but were turned off by the touristy atmosphere. And it looked a bit like a deluxe version of TGI Fridays. In contrast to the website photos, there seemed to be no feeling of intimacy there. So we pulled our name from the reservation list and headed to Momofuku, another of Vicki’s favorite restaurants.

"Warm Silken Tofu - heirloom tomatoes, myoga, watermelon"

The service was knowledgeable, unpretentious and endearingly disheveled-looking. Our waitress had a nose-ring, tunic and sparkly eyeshadow; and our two other servers were dudes in baggy cargo shorts and sneakers. They knew how to present a steamed bun to the woman at the table--open faced towards her.

"Blackened Bluefish Sandwich - iceberg lettuce, potato chips" -- A to-die-for fish sandwich.

The restaurant is connected to a milk bar (more in the next blog), which features items like "Hawaiian BBQ" shakes, "Banana Green Curry Bread," and "Crack Pie" (“toasted oat crust and gooey butter filling”). There, a clerk was wearing a huge blue bow around her head earlier on in the day.

"Steamed Buns - pork belly, hoisin, cucumbers, scallions"

Open plea to David Chang: please open up a restaurant in San Francisco.

Pork Steamed Bun - A special of the day

In Short

Food: Small plates of creative fusion (not just Asian-fusion); they call it American food
Bathrooms: Clean but small
Ambiance: Local, sophisticated, creative crowd
Quirks: They serve no hot water!
Other: Lots of meat (pork) on the menu. Vegetarian plates are limited.

Street Food

Monday, August 16, 2010, 2:00PM

1,171 Yelp reviews (as of this writing) and 4.5 stars!!!


And right on my block!

Met Carline there for lunch. This is inexpensive and satisfying street food...and they give you generous portions (two meals worth, depending on how much you eat).

There is a line. But it moves fast. There are also Halal carts on every corner, it seems, and they look similar. So look carefully if you want to try this this one, though given the competition in New York, I wouldn't doubt it the other ones are also tasty.

Window Shopping at Chelsea Market

Chelsea Market is windowless and basement-like, but it has a satisfying selection of eateries (or satellites of them). I like focusing on the carbs, chocolate and dairy. But it ain't the Ferry Building for anyone who is wondering.

Ronnybrook Farms' Milk Case

Ronnybrook Farms' Milk Bar

Jacques Torres. Would love a hot chocolate stand like this close to work.

Sarabeth's Kitchen

Inside the kitchen of Sarabeth's Kitchen

9th Avenue Espresso

Next to Jacques Torres

Eleni's

"Cheers," on the Upper East Side

Sunday, August 15, 2010

The view from the TVs at Kinsale Tavern

Source: http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/our-opening-day-in-pictures

Determined to watch the season-opener Liverpool/Arsenal game on Sunday, I searched sports bars in NYC on Yelp, my source for everything. I entered search terms like "English football," "EPL," "World Cup," and "Soccer." My final analysis:

• Nevada Smith's - fun sounding but smelly
• Atlantic Chip Shop - cool but too far (Brooklyn)
• Clancy's - Perfect; walkable...but upon calling discovered they were no longer Clancy's.
• Kinsale- way up on the East Side, but what the heck. Options were narrowing.
  

Dudes with fohawks making football predictions after the game.

The deal on Kinsale, 1672 3rd Ave:

• Patronized by locals
• Serious about their football
• Excellent service
• Clean
• Cozy
  

Kinsale has a sweet, female, Irish bartender who calls you "love," along with other friendly servers. Patrons are in t-shirts and shorts, and jeans, including the women. When I arrived, a few minutes after kick-off, the bar was packed.

I found a spot in the back towards the dining room with excellent viewing of the game (along with that of lacrosse games).

Clearly people knew each other at Kinsale, and as I watched them analyze plays and chat with one another, I longed to be one of them. There were men and women there of all ages. For a while I thought I was the only Asian in there but no! There were even a few young Asian dudes! The atmosphere was boisterous with some standard New Yorker cursing and shouting at bad plays.

With Ravenna watching in California, I was able to text with a kindred spirit, making me feel less lonely.

I loved this bar. I have a go-to for the next time I need a football fix while in the Big City.

Oh, yeah--the game: it was a draw at 1-1--very exciting. And both boyfriends played too!

Cheers!

Dinner & Dessert

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Comfort food at Kennedy's

327 W. 57th

I love Thanksgiving dinner. So I ordered it on this evening, before the Lincoln Center concert.

At Irish pubs in New York, the staff have Irish accents--at least some of them. What a perk! What a glorious perk!

We were seated in the clubby dining section in the back where a Musak version of "Penny Lane" played repeatedly for a good twenty minutes. Deep in conversation, Maura and I had tuned it out, but during a pause we noticed it was still playing. But our server quickly did something about it: moments later it was other Musak-type songs, but at least they were different.

Maura says this place is reliable for standard Irish fare. Burgers, Shepherd's Pie, etc. (attention carnivores).

Dessert was Lincoln Center.

The Mostly Mozart Orchestra played an all-Mozart program of his popular works:

• Symphony No. 25 in G minor

• Piano Concerto 20 in D minor (Antti Siirala, Pianist)

• Symphony No. 40 in G minor

The concert was the highpoint of the day. The music had a rapturous quality. (Tinkling piano and melodic reeds will get me on most occasions.)

We had good seats in row T of the orchestra section, at $62 each, purchased about a month before the event. If you get them sooner, you'll have even better seats. Below is a poor picture that will (hopefully) give you a sense of where we were seated...although now that I am looking at it, it looks farther back than it seemed then. Whatever the case, yes I would totally do that again and be delighted with those seats, especially if the man in front of me weren't as tall.

(The staggered section of people way in the back are audience members--not musicians. The stage is between them and people dressed in white who seem to be arranging themselves.)

The scene at the fountain at night.

The Mostly Mozart concerts, like the beach, epitomize summer for me. So I had me my summer moment.

5 Ave

Louis Vuitton

Even though I favor grunge-wear, I enjoy seeing high-fashion. So Maura, who has a designer's eye, and I headed up Madison and Fifth avenues after lunch on Saturday.

But the experience was a let-down. Everyone was dressed as if going to a carnival: in T-shirts, shorts, sneakers and flip-flops...and many were carrying cameras. (Including me! But I was wearing a tank top with sequins!) And the stores were...well, not exactly inviting. Not because they had snooty vibes but because we could not get past the cosmetics' counters without getting accosted!

We entered Bendel's and were promptly ambushed. Seconds later, Maura had creams on her face, and was being told by an ebullient saleswoman that the all-natural products she had on--which were making her wrinkles disappear and her lips get plump--were available for only $300.

When at last we made it upstairs, we discovered that there were no clothes anywhere. Sections of floor were closed off for renovation. What? No clothes at Henri Bendel's?!

We were now deep into the store's accessories' section. But Bendel's has only one set of exit doors, and they are located beyond the dense makeup counters and perfume sprayers we'd managed to escape earlier.

Well, we made it out alive without hurting anyone. The other store we went to (and quickly exited) was Bergdorf's. It was too overwhelming.

That said, Fifth Avenue had a few noteworthy storefronts. Besides Louis Vuitton, there was Christian Dior:

Christian Dior scaffolding says "Closed for renovations. Opening December 2010. Visit our boutique on Madison..."

(Apparently Christian Dior will provide car service to their boutique to its customers. Nice.)

And then, in a completely different class of its own, there was this:

Do they look like they love their jobs or what. Blond bookends at Abercrombie. Where else?

When I told Carline, a New Yorker, about the these guys at Abercrombie, she said, "You mean they had shirts on?"

Josie's

300 Amsterdam Ave
New York, NY 10023
(212) 769-1212
http://www.josiesnyc.com/josie_west/josie_west.html

Reviewed 7/29/2008

This place was a balm--no, more like a blast of chilled air flowing through the tresses--on a sweltering July evening.

A girlfriend and I were foraging for eateries following a few hours of dancing at Lincoln Center. We were sweaty and tired but needed fuel before meeting up with Batman around midnight. [Okay so it was just a showing of "The Dark Knight," but we can fantasize.]

We didn't know what was good on the Upper West Side (it's been a while since I lived there) and were just too F-ing hot to walk farther uptown.

We passed by Josie's initially, then returned to it a block later. It is neither particularly stylish nor conspicuous, so why we didn't just stop there in the first place is ironic for us given our grungy preferences. The heat had gotten to us perhaps.

Josie's accommodates opposing food preferences, offering a fair variety of meat and veggie dishes. A Hindu-style eater, I had a tofu stir-fry over brown rice, and Lil' Carliners, a/k/a meat-devourer, had turkey meatloaf. We were both very satisfied. And our waitress was wonderful. She kept callings us "girls," which I found endearing because her tone made it sound like she knew us. (We aren't exactly spring chickens anymore, though might be mistaken for them--in the dim light, anyway.) Plus, being called "girls" somehow reminded me that I was in NY rather than, well, where I live now.

We wanted the scrumptious-sounding desserts (I remember something heavy and chocolate on the menu. Not delicate stuff, but hardcore comfort food material) but didn't want to be sans seat at The Dark Night so we left.

If I were still living in the Gotham, I could totally see myself becoming a regular at Josie's. The prices are reasonable and the place seems to offer frill-free, stick-to-the-ribs fare.
As a visitor of the city on this particular summer night, Josie's fit the bill. It fed us, cooled us off, and refreshed us for the remainder of our evening with the Big Bat.

Pastis

9 9th Avenue
New York, NY 10014
(212) 929-4844
www.pastisny.com

Reviewed 7/27/2008
Disclaimer: I am biased towards Frenchy things.

Pastis, je t'adore.

It was a Sunday morning in July, already sweltering, when I stepped into the bistro. And I immediately fell in love.

The service was gracious and accommodating upon arrival. Though I was twenty minutes early, I was promptly seated. Chilled water and coffee arrived immediately. Even after sitting there alone for TWENTY minutes, they accommodated me with kindness when I told them that I needed another table because, unexpectedly, an additional guest--girlfriend M's brother--was arriving.

It is casual dining, but it is French, and so it is refined. The service is not only attentive, but works harmoniously--I was waited on by at least five people if you include the hostesses, and everyone was working in synch, complementing one another.

Bright with natural light, the place is inviting, and inclusive. Something about the way the tables are set up evokes the warmth of a meal in someone's dining room.

And you can show up in jeans there.

The food is awesome...well, truth be told, I haven't had anything substantial enough to critique; but, I am so taken by the place that I have near-blind confidence that everything will be good. If it's any indication, my chilled orange and carrot soup, with its slight tang, was incredibly refreshing on a hot and humid day--and my yogurt with granola and fruit was exactly that--pure and simple--with no detectable funky additives. You actually can mess up a simple dish like this by using chalky yogurt, store-brand granola, and out-of-season fruit. By the way, their coffee was perfect. Very possibly it was laced with something that made me very happy to be there. Because I was.


I went to Pastis again later that day to pick up bread for friends, and a very kind waiter, who saw the streaks of sweat staining my blouse, offered me a glass of iced water. It was a nice touch that won me over. Again.

I almost went to Pastis again the next day, alas, there are too many awesome restaurants in Manhattan, and I was running out of time. So I went to Jean Georges instead. It was also excellent (and I ate a real meal there), but beneath it all, I'm more of a Pastis kinda-girl.

Pastis is like the man I am willing to hold out for: simple yet refined, unpretentious, yet brimming with understated charm.

Anyone know any places like it in the California Bay Area, please e-mail me. I don't like long-distance relationships.