eating in manhattan

waiting feet at Russ & Daughters

I need to finally get around to finishing my NYC posts, since I've already been on another food-heavy trip in the meantime.  There are just so many photos of delicious foods backlogged in iPhoto that I get overwhelmed and keep putting it on the back burner!  It's gotten so that I have neglected photographing meals that I cook, since I haven't been posting them anyway.  I want that to change!  And maybe it will soon enough, since I am now in my final semester of grad school.  We shall see.

On our trip in August, we didn't even make it onto the island of Manhattan until the last two days, and then we had a lot of catching up to do, food-wise.

Lower East Side


We are always on the lookout for a good donut, so I knew we couldn't miss the Doughnut Plant.  To start off our day of devouring fried doughs from all over the world, we bought a half dozen donuts.  Besides the one you see below, we also enjoyed flavors such as oatmeal, fresh peach, salted peanut, blackout, and a creme brulee raised donut.  Man, my mouth is watering just typing this.

tres leches donut

Cocoron Soba came highly recommended from Serious Eats and provided one of the lighter options of our day--yes, noodles dipped in scalding pork and kimchi was light, relatively speaking.  And it was incredibly satisfying to boot.

pork kimchee dip soba

Apparently the LES location of BaoHaus has closed since we went there, but it would be worth seeking out their new location for the tender, flavorful pork belly they serve.  

the Chairman Bao: braised Berkshire pork belly, crushed peanuts, cilantro, Haus relish, and Taiwanese red sugar

After recommendations from our buddies Joey and Tony, we had to hit up Russ & Daughters for bagels and lox to eat on some park steps.  To be honest, it was my first experience with lox (I realized lox was really not the same thing as smoked salmon) and I'm not sure I want to have it anywhere else after this.  It was that good.

 everything bagel with lox, scallion cream cheese, red onion, and tomato

On the same park steps, we enjoyed our first knish.  Every little place on Coney Island sells knishes, but our traveling host let us know that those are typically just frozen, heavy prepackaged things that they reheat.  Although this knish from Yonah Schimmel Knishery was not exactly light (you should feel the heft of these things), the pastry was flaky and buttery and the potato filling well-seasoned.  Since we were amateurs at knish-eating, we got ours topped with cheese.  You can take the kids out of Wisconsin...anyway.

mozzarella knish 

Vanessa's Dumplings was just on the edge of Chinatown and on many lists of the best dumplings in the area.  I didn't have any other dumpling with which to compare, but I certainly wasn't complaining about these.  Be sure to find the Chinatown location, though, where dumplings come 5 for $1.  The newish midtown location gets away with charging $3 for the same number.  Please excuse the terrible photography as we were shooting in the low light of an apartment stoop.

pork dumplings

 steamed pork buns

sesame duck pancake - we were so stuffed by this point, but couldn't pass up the chance to try this

 Midtown

I don't know my New York geography all that well, so if I put a restaurant in the wrong neighborhood, please go easy on me.


One of my major goals in visiting NYC was to eat in Flushing.  The other was to eat at a Momofuku location.  Weird how I wanted to eat at the most authentic Asian restaurants and also one of the most popularized Asian chains.

Because we couldn't afford--or even get a spot in--the high-end Momofuku restaurant, we opted for the  Ssam Bar, with their delicious-sounding duck lunches.  Indeed, delicious they were.

rotisserie duck over rice with greens and many tasty sauces

 steamed bun with pulled duck, sauerkraut, and smoked mayo

Waddling across the street, we completed the Momofuku experience by visiting Milk Bar.  We had read some complaints that the quality was compromised when Milk Bar had recently centralized their baking operations and sent prepackaged sweets out to their several locations.  I couldn't say for sure, but I do wonder whether the cookies wouldn't have been better fresh.  However, we had no complaints about the pies...

 candy bar pie

aptly-named crack pie

compost cookie - not pictured: cornflake marshmallow and blueberry cream

We waited in line for an hour to get ice cream at the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck (since expanded into the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop), but it was worth it.  The line moves slowly because the proprietor does everything himself: he takes your order, pulls the soft serve, carefully injects it with dulce de leche, grinds sea salt over it, dips it in chocolate shell, and handles the money.  So good.

 the Salty Pimp

West Village


Our only foray into the West Village was motivated by--surprise--food.  We had read--and had it confirmed by a New Yorker--that Taim had the best falafel in the city.  I had not had a ton of falafel, and the falafel Matt had tasted he had not enjoyed.  We both loved this.  The green variety really is green, packed with herbs and flavor.  Coupled with a refreshing mint ginger limeade, the sandwich made me forget my tired feet for 20 minutes.

 green falafel sandwich with hummus, israeli salad, pickled cabbage, and tahini sauce

That's it (finally) for my New York photos!  Hope they were informative and inspiring.  Check back for pics from our recent Portland trip and (hopefully) more home-cooked meal posts!

eating in queens

Here comes the next stop on our NYC food tour...only three months after the first installment!  Better late than never?  


Oddly enough--and it seemed to strike New York residents as especially odd--we stayed exclusively in Brooklyn and Queens the first 2/3 of our week-long summer trip.  We didn't even make it across the water to Manhattan until the last two (food-filled) days.  Those photos will be coming along, hopefully soon.  It's not necessarily that we didn't want to go to Manhattan, but there was already so much to see and to eat in Long Island's boroughs.  So, without further ado, Queens!


Long Island City


We spent one hot day in LIC and managed to swing by M.Well's diner for brunch between "Warm Up" festivities at MoMA PS1 and just before the diner was scheduled to move from its location at that time.  (Not sure what the status is currently.)  M.Wells had just been named in the Bon Appetit list of Best New Restaurants in 2011.  So, it was justifiably very busy, but worth the wait.  All our food was amazing.  Would definitely seek it out again when we return to the city.

adorable diner car interior 

egg-sausage sandwich with cheddar, pickled jalapenos, and tomato

fish & chips 

simple, but rich hamburger 

custardy maple pie 

Flushing

After seeing Serious Eats writers repeatedly gush about the food courts in Flushing, I knew we had to go.  We took the long train ride out on a miserably rainy day and felt almost like we had left the states completely, the smells and sights were so fully Asian.

Here's a photo of the lovely food court at Flushing's New World Mall.

Here's a small corner of the food court where we actually ate something: Golden Shopping Mall's food court.

At the experts' insistence, we sought out Xi'an Famous Foods' cold skin noodles, a Chinese dish--and a combination of textures--like none I'd ever experienced before.  Hand-cut noodles with plenty of bite, cucumber, onions, and cilantro sit in a tear-jerkingly spicy sauce that's soaked up by spongey cubes of wheat gluten.  I want to go back to try stir-fried skin noodles, plus everything else on the menu.

Later on that evening, in sheer, wet exhaustion, we stumbled into a shabu shabu place called La Mei.  The kind couple sitting near us recommended the all-you-can-eat-in-two-hours option.  Even though we weren't all that hungry, we couldn't pass up the chance to dip a ton of different things in scalding pots of broth.  Seasoned buffet-goer Matt broke down during the last leg of our eating marathon, but I got a second wind when the fresh udon noodles showed up.  Oh man, I want some right now.

just some of the many things we tasted: fish balls, beef, napa cabbage, corn on the cob, pork blood rice cake, lamb, whitefish, cuttlefish, shrimp, spinach 

tasty little straw mushrooms

Check back for food tours of the Lower East Side and midtown Manhattan!

portland: dinner highlights

So, onto the other meal we ate in Portland.  There were no lunches, since the breakfasts were so huge.  Even though we ate at a lot more breakfast spots than dinner places, the dinners we had were some of my favorite meals on our trip.

Pause

Wonderful seasonal and local dishes.  I got to try my first fiddlehead fern and huckleberries.  Seemed like sort of a Portland version of our favorite restaurants in Madison.  Great for grown-ups and kids.

special: seared halibut with morels, fingerling potatoes, fiddlehead ferns, and tarragon vinaigrette

braised pork collar over greens and potatoes with apple butter

cuban sandwich with ham, roasted pork, house-made pickles, and mustard aioli

huckleberry cheesecake

Toro Bravo

A Spanish tapas joint--my first tapas meal.  We each ordered something we thought sounded good, then shared.  It was a very nice, though dark, birthday meal for Matt.

fideos with spring vegetables and bacon

drunken grilled pork over avocado salad

braised lamb with coriander and apricots over house-made noodles 

(my personal favorite of the night)

Pok Pok

Would definitely return for more spicy, rich, sticky Thai food.  Whiskey Soda Lounge would make a fun stop--their related bar across the street serves really intriguing Thai appetizers.

clockwise from top right:

khao soi kai - curry noodle soup

duck larb issan

sticky rice & sides

sai ua samun phrai - Ching Mai spicy sausage

Vietnamese fish sauce wings

huckleberry drinking vinegars

greens overload--conquered!

Our CSA has been pretty much straight greens for the first two weeks.  Spinach, kale, arugula, bok choy, mustard greens.  Although I could freeze the spinach and possibly some of the other greens, I've decided to take on the challenge of working through bag upon bag of leafy greens.  

spicy greens and soba noodles

Have you ever had the experience where you look at a beautiful seasonal cookbook in late winter and salivate over the early spring recipes?  Then you realize you're in the upper Midwest and those spring ingredients won't be available locally until June, or late May if you're lucky.  I'm trying not to whine about other parts of the country being way ahead of our growing season.  Instead I'm pulling out my spring recipes and enjoying the first crops of the Wisconsin summer.

heat sources utilized

I've been taking some liberties with my recipes since I have had spring garlic and onions readily available.  In addition to a couple of cloves of garlic, I added my last spring garlic stalk and tripled the green onion input.  I was also pretty liberal with the ginger.  And I opted to use some teeny tiny serrano peppers from the farmer's market in place of the crushed red chili flake.  But when I got to tasting the noodles, the heat from the peppers was not coming through, so I threw in a scant teaspoon of gochugaru, Korean chili powder.  When that wasn't cutting it either, Matt suggested we turn to togarashi, a tasty Japanese seasoning mix of sesame seeds, chili powder, orange peel, and more that was one of the only spicy things to cross our lips in Japan.  My good friend togarashi finally did the trick.

This is an easy and solid stir fry that could be very flexible with the greens and seasonings used.  Throw in whatever greens you've got on hand--they cook down quite a bit.  It calls for balsamic vinegar, which I can only assume is a stand-in for Chinese black vinegar.  Along with the rice vinegar, I thought it lent kind of an odd sweetness to the dish, so I think next time I might try sherry vinegar instead.  

Spicy Greens and Soba Noodles

very slightly adapted from Cookstr.com

6 oz soba noodles; or substitute other Asian noodles such as udon, somen, or ramen 
2 tsp sesame oil; or substitute peanut oil
1 tbsp vegetable oil, preferably peanut
1-2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
2 tsp minced garlic
½ tsp crushed red chile, such as piquin
¼ c chicken or vegetable broth (be sure to use vegetable broth for a completely vegetarian dish!)
8 oz mustard greens, bok choi, spinach, or other greens, stems removed and coarsely chopped
2 oz straw mushrooms (I omitted these this time)
1 c mung bean sprouts
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds for garnish, plus sriracha, sambal, or togarashi as desired

For the sauce:

1 tbsp balsamic or sherry vinegar

4 tsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp peanut oil

2 tsp light soy sauce

1-3 green onions, chopped

¼ tsp dark sesame oil

¼ tsp crushed red chile, such as piquin or gochigaru

¼ tsp sugar

Cook the noodles according to the directions on the package. Drain and rinse the noodles and place in a bowl. Add the sesame oil and toss to coat.  Combine all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and stir to mix.

Heat a heavy skillet or wok over medium-high heat, add the vegetable oil, and when hot, add the ginger, garlic, and chile and stir-fry for a couple of minutes.  Add the broth, and when simmering, add the greens and cook until done. Add the mushrooms and mung beans and cook for a couple of minutes.  Stir the sauce into the vegetable mixture, add the noodles, and toss to coat and reheat.  Put the noodles into a bowl, garnish with toasted sesame seeds, and serve.

A meatless meal actually on a Monday...imagine that!

umami

At the beginning of March was the grand opening of Madison's new ramen and dumpling restaurant, Umami, on Williamson Street.  It's tucked up into a residential stretch, so if you blink, you might miss it.  The Wednesday before the grand opening we tried a sampling of their menu for their "soft opening".  We've had our eye on the development of the restaurant since the fall, so we were were thrilled when we finally got to try the food.

The restaurant's shell is a quaint old home that looks like it could have come out of a Miyazaki movie, but the interior is surprisingly modern with great atmosphere.  We sat at the bar, which had a rough-hewn feel reminiscent of the ramen-ya where we ate at in Tokyo mixed with a sleek contemporary feel complete with backlighting.

We started out with tasty salads, which were not particularly Asian, but definitely solid.  The inclusion of some not-so-Japanese items on the menu will prove helpful when we take less adventurous friends and family to Umami--and we certainly will!

 

 

We did not get shots of the gyoza (dumplings) since for the soft opening we were served passed dumplings on a platter.  We enjoyed the traditional pork dumplings, but surprisingly liked the chicken and mushroom best.  The pork bun and tuna poke were both impressive--the pork bun with a nicely cooked piece of pork belly on a fluffy steamed rice bun, and the poke a pile of fresh raw tuna tossed in a pleasantly spicy and gingery sauce.  This from a woman who would never have considered eating raw fish a few years ago.

pork belly with hoisin and pickles on a steamed bun

 tuna poke

The main event--and honestly the reason we went--was the ramen.  Matt ordered the thicker, richer tonkotsu broth topped with pork and I tried the lighter miso broth with chicken.  They also had a vegetarian option that we did not try.  I had not had miso ramen previously, and that might be why I was surprised at its lightness.  The miso ramen had a nicely cooked egg and tender chicken on top, but I still preferred Matt's (perhaps because a richer broth is what I'm used to) and ate a lot of his noodles.  Tonkotsu broth is cloudy, salty, fatty, porky--definitely multidimensional--and the flavor seemed to soak into the noodles more than in the miso bowl.  I didn't get any of the pork, but Matt (obviously) liked it and wished there had been more.  Ultimately, both bowls had that essential smell and flavor of ocean that typifies Japanese food and took us right back.

 tonkotsu ramen with pork (left) and miso ramen with chicken (right)

My dessert order was a no-brainer--green tea creme brulee.  The tea flavor was not overwhelming, but present.  I always enjoy a good creamy creme brulee with a nice crackly crust, and this hit the mark.  Matt's ice cream sandwich was fine, but not a stand-out.  I'd go with the brulee again next time.

 green tea creme brulee

chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich

For their first week in operation, Umami made a great first impression.  I look forward to trying their menu again and taking others there for the variety of tasty dishes and fun atmosphere.

tv dinner

So, I've already missed my goal of blogging every day during break.  Last night the internet was out for awhile in the evening, and then I fell asleep on the (very orange) couch.  Oh well.

I had already enjoyed Makiko Itoh's Just Bento and Just Hungry websites, so when Serious Eats posted recipes from her Just Bento Cookbook, I was ready to jump on the chance to try some reliable and fairly simple Japanese recipes.  By the way, I just found out that Makiko lives what must be an amazing life split between Japan, Switzerland, and Southern France.  Wow.

My first foray into Just Bento recipes was Chicken Karaage - Japanese fried chicken.  I typically avoid frying foods at home, but this sounded too great to pass up.  Unfortunately for my health, but fortunately for my taste buds, this frying adventure led to several more fried dishes in the following weeks.

The recipe called for boneless chicken thighs, which I was unable to find, so I struggled with pulling the bones out of a package of thighs.  I do recommend using thighs, despite the hard work.  All the fatty strains liquefied and just made the already juicy dark meat even more succulent.  I opted to leave the skin off this time, but I'm sure my husband would have appreciated the inclusion of the skin.

The chicken karaage was meant to be a bento meal for the following day's lunch, but after our first bite, we couldn't stop eating until it was all gone.  Best TV dinner ever.

Chicken Karaage
from the Just Bento Cookbook by Makiko Itoh via Serious Eats

This recipe was intended for one serving for a bento lunch.  I quadrupled the recipe to use a 1-lb package of chicken thighs and it served two, although it could serve more if you are not as gluttonous as we were!  We dipped our chicken pieces in green onion sauce as we ate them, but I'd be interested to see what the texture would be like if I followed the directions and dipped them right after frying.

1 lb boneless chicken thigh, with or without skin, cut into 3–4 pieces  

4 tsp soy sauce (if you are not making the green onion sauce, increase to 2 tsp) 

4 tbsp sake 

4 tsp peeled and grated fresh ginger 

vegetable oil, for deep-frying 

8 tbsp cornstarch (or enough to cover chicken pieces)
handful green salad leaves or other vegetable

cooked short-grain rice

For the green onion sauce: 

4 tbsp rice vinegar 

4 tbsp soy sauce 

4 tbsp finely chopped green onion
Pinch sugar
A few drops sesame oil  

4 tsp peeled and grated fresh ginger

Combine the chicken, soy sauce, saké, and ginger. Let marinate for at least 10 minutes or overnight. (If you need to leave it marinating for more than 12 hours, omit the soy sauce and add it 10 minutes before cooking, or the salt will draw out too much moisture from the chicken and make it dry.)
 
Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade, drain, and coat in the cornstarch.

Heat 1 inch (2.5cm) of vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Test the oil temperature by putting a little of the cornstarch-and-marinade coating on the end of a wooden chopstick and dipping it into the oil. If the coating sizzles and turns brown immediately, the oil is hot enough. If the oil starts getting smoky, turn down the heat.

Fry the chicken pieces in the oil, turning once, until a deep golden brown. Drain well on paper towels.

To make the green onion sauce, combine all the ingredients in a small frying pan over medium heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Put the chicken pieces in the pan and toss to coat each piece with the sauce.

Let cool completely before packing into a bento box. Putting a layer of arugula or other salad leaves under the chicken enhances the color of the chicken and provides another texture in the bento.

Note from Serious Eats: You can cook chicken karaage the night before. If I’m making this for dinner, I usually set aside a few pieces for the next day’s bento. Chicken kara-age can be frozen uncooked and marinated, or cooked. To freeze it uncooked and marinated, put the chicken and marinade (excluding the soy sauce) into a freezer bag. Defrost in the refrigerator in a bowl, adding the soy sauce before frying. Cooked frozen pieces can be defrosted in the refrigerator, then crisped up for a few minutes in a toaster oven. I don’t recommend defrosting cooked pieces in a microwave, since this will make the chicken tough.