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!

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!