In a recent thread started by NYNM, many folks came up with lots of interesting places in the city that only sell one food or are based on a singular food theme. With that in mind, I travelled to the West Village and Greenwich Village today to check out two such places. I started out at my favorite fish and chips shop, A Salt & Battery, 112 Greenwich Avenue (bet. 12th and 13th Streets, phone# 212-691-2713 and the website is
www.asaltandbattery.com. I used to eat mostly at the 2nd Avenue location, which is now closed, but I've been here before. I really love this place, but only eat here about 1-2 times per year as I don't think it would do to make a regular habit of it. Ceci, I have a feeling you might be particularly fond of this trip report!
Outside of the shop. It's a very small place without any tables, but has tall stools to sit at where you can eat from the shelf that runs along the wall and window that looks out on to the street. The condiments (as shown in this pic) are pretty basic: salt, ketchup and malt vinegar. Just some napkins and plastic forks are the only other things necessary for a great meal here.
The drinks list. I'm not familiar with the British sodas. I may have to try one on my next trip. I just went with a Coke today. They do serve Newcastle beer though, which is my favorite beer ever!
The sides and desserts. Lots of British favorites such as mushy peas and Heinz baked beans here. The chip butty (which I've had before) is a buttered roll with chips on it. Verrrrrryyyy good and it's rumored that whenever somebody eats one, a cardiologist gets his wings (said with my deepest apologies to "It's A Wonderful Life"). I have also had the deep fried Mars bar which is extremely sinful and one word of caution: wait about 5 minutes before eating it as the liquid center can burn your mouth like Krakatoa on a bad day! I didn't have dessert here today, but more on that in a bit. Seriously though, chocolate that is batter dipped AND deep-fried, is a very good thing.
The reason for coming here. I usually order the small cod, but they've stopped selling cod (see below) and I went with the haddock and a small order of chips and a buttered roll. I highly, highly recommend the battered chicken chunks. The batter has some curry in it that lends just a subtle curry flavor and they are very addicting, especially when dipped in their killer tartar sauce.
I think this sign is fairly recent and it sounds like a good idea to me. I like it when small business owners decide to go local and sustainable whenever possible. It's not just environmental, but good business sense in the long run. Why deplete the product that enables you to make your living? I don't know much about pollock. Can anyone shed light on it? Taste? Texture?
Ahh yes, every Easter when the creme eggs are available, A Salt & Battery deep fries them, like a sweet rendition of a scotch egg.
I really dig the tiled interior with the fish on them and the color scheme just works for me. Not too busy, but very pleasing.
Some of the decor on the walls.
A nice cross section of my fish (and chips). They really do put out a good product here. The owner, Mat Arnfield was frying my order and I'd seen him on Bobby Flay's "Throwdown" show and he had learned his technique working in his dad's chip shop. First, the batter is really crispy and crunchy without being heavy or interfering with the taste of the fish. And it's not at all greasy. I think he's pretty meticulous about changing the oil as it has never gotten in the way of the flavor of the fish. It has a light taste and the tartar sauce is an amazing complement to it. The chips are really good too. Not terribly crispy, but I'm not sure chips are supposed to be. In any case, I drown mine in malt vinegar
Another shot of the fish and chips. The fish was $6.25 and the chips were $3.25.
My buttered roll. open and ready for is glistening close-up. ($1.00)
As served.
After leaving the chip shop, I began walking towards Greenwich Village in search of my next stop, the Dessert Truck, when I came upon something beautiful. I noticed this tree and realized it was the first tree that I have seen in bloom so far this year. I always puts a smile on my face when I notice the first sign of spring.
On my way to my destination, I came across a place I'd read about on Chowhound, Insomnia Cookies, a place that specializes in late night cookie deliveries. It's on 8th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues and it is a chain that has franchises near colleges such as Syracuse, Purdue, Cornell, Indiana U., Michigan State, Ohio Sate, Penn State, Virginia Tech, University(ies) of Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania. A lot of the people online didn't have good things to say, but I had to find out for myself. The website is
www.insomniacookies.com. This pic is their logo drawn on the sidewalk out in front of the shop.
The awning.
I thought these cookies looked kind of tired at first until the counter girl explained that they were for display only and they kept the fresh ones warm in a small oven by the register.
Another shot of the display cookies.
The menu.
My jumbo Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup cookie ($2.00). This was moist with a bit of crispness, just the way I like it. And the couple of mini peanut butter cup chunks weren't bad either!
My Oatmeal Raisin cookie ($0.90) I really loved the cookie; soft and chewy with a hint of cinnamon and a nice nuttiness from the oatmeal. This was washed down quite rightly with a tall, cold glass of milk.
As of late, there has been a new food trend to pop up on the NY scene, mobile dessert trucks. One is called the Treats Truck and travels around the city on different days. I stumbled upon it once and picked up a Pecan Butterscotch Bar which was quite amazing. Check them out on their website at
www.treatstruck.com. They do a lot of comfort food treats and give back to the community, which I think is a nice touch. Their charity this month is an organization that pairs kids with theater professionals to create original theater. Very near to my heart. Anyway, I hope to get some pics of that truck soon. On to the Dessert Truck. It can be mobile, but right now it is stationed in just one location, on the corner of West 8th Street and University Place. The website is
http://www.desserttruck.com/ It's open Tues-Sun 6 pm to closing (not sure when that is, I guess when they run out). It was started by two friends, one of whom was a pastry sous chef at Le Cirque here in NYC, so this the focus is comfort dessert, but with a gourmet twist. Here is a shot of the truck. They have a sweet location as this area gets a lot of foot traffic from tourists and from the neighboring NYU students.
A close-up shot of the order window.
The menu. I had the Molten Chocolate Cake and most desserts are $5 (tax incl.). Another trend in NYC that has made it's way on to this menu is pairing bacon with sweet desserts. The Chocolate Bread pudding can come with a bacon creme anglaise. It seems a lot of purveyors are making bacon chocolates, PB & Co. has the bacon "Elvis" sandwich and so on. I'm game for something new!
My Molten Chocolate Cake. I only remember feeling this way about a dessert twice before in my life. The first time was eating a specialty cannoli from Mike's Pastry in the North End of Boston and the second time was eating a Galactoboureco (greek custard cake) from Taverna Kyclades in Astoria, Queens. In both insstances, I had to gather my senses after the first bite as I was so blown away. It was like when Jerry ate the "soup nazi's" soup and had to sit down because it was so good. That's how this cake was. Rich, dark, but not bitter and still very warm, almost hot, but not quite. There was hint of olive oil in it that gave it a lush mouthfeel without being oily. The roasted pistachios (one of my favorite nuts) lent a welcome textural contrast and had an assertive presence without being overbearing. The sea salt elevated this to another level though. It balanced the sweetness of the chocolate and was an inspired twist on the classic "salty/sweet" combination I fell in love with the first time I tasted a chocolate covered pretzel as a kid. "Salty/sweet" is the original Odd Couple: salty is the Oscar Madison, it can be a little rough around the edges and can rub some people the wrong way, but it has good intentions. Sweet is the Felix Unger, eager to please, can be cloying and a bit much to take at times but usually wins you over. Paired together, however, just seems right and makes perfect sense. I really couldn't believe how good this was and I had to stop walking and eat it slowly to take it in. I would go back in a heartbeat as many of the other items were calling to me as well and I would gladly pay $5 for this instead of a bag 'o fun size Snickers or other such candy.
Sometimes, I don't have the luxury of staging my food in ideal conditions and I wanted to get a good shot of it before I dug in. Here is a (somewhat) far away shot of my staging area, a newspaper box. Only in NY kids, only in NY!
