Sorry--no pics because I have never mastered the art of filming my food in a crowded restaurant without having everyone in sight (esp. the management) think I'm from the Health Dept. or some other upsetting possibility.
As in previous years, I am staying in Chelsea at 23rd and 7th Ave. where the
Chelsea Papaya is right across the street. I'm averaging 3 Sabrette's dogs with red onion sauce per day. I don't count any of them as a meal.
Day 1--Official arrival/hotel check-in occurred in mid-afternoon so the first meal was dinner. I planned to take in a movie in Chelsea so I wanted some place nearby and I love Indian food so I picked
Tamarind on 22nd between Broadway & Park Ave. South. I opted for the vegetarian sampler (called a Thali) which consisted of about 4 small cups of veggie dishes (all having fairly wee-known Indian names that I recognize on a menu but can't recall)--1 lentil, one spinach with cheese (saag paneer?), one potato (aloo something or other), one okra--some rice pilaf, raita, mango chutney and pickle; all preceded by papadums with tamarind chutney and accompanied by some puffy bread-like fried things I don't know the name of. I washed it down with a Taj Mahal beer and followed it with a desert referred to on the menu as sweetened, spiced cottage cheese which was something like a rice pudding and very good. Everything I had was a superior version of what it was as it ought to be considering this was not cheap food--the total bill with tip came to something like $50.
Day 2--After getting going I headed immediately to the place I dream about: The
Good Dumpling House on Grand @ Mott. As those of you who've been around here a while know, I'm from San Francisco and I am familiar with good dumplings. These are superb. And if you doubt we are in a deflationary environment, last year they were 6 for $2. This year for $2 you get 8. Throw in a buck or so for a soda and you've got an unbeatable lunch (or in my case breakfast) for $3. The place only has a few tables where dumpling-only customers are welcome (the back is for customers who order cook-to order entrees). But so far I haven't been unable to grab a seat.
After my dumpling eye-opener I headed uptown to some after-Christmas sale shopping. Hunger returned and I found a little deli just off Madison around 60th (I think it was called something like Cafe Simo) and had what in NYC would be considered a mediocre onion bagel with lox, cream cheese and red onion--but almost anywhere else would have been considered very good.
Consulting various food guides, I then found a place in Flushing offering what they called definitive Sechuan food at bargain prices:
Little Pepper (Roosevelt Ave. @ Prince St.) and I may yet try it but not today--I discovered the 7 trains aren't running this weekend.
So I dropped back to Plan B:
Ippudo NY (4th Ave between 9th and 10th Sts just off Astor Place). This place strikes me as pretty much an "only in New York" experience. It' s said to be an "American outpost of a Japanese ramen chain. At 5 PM when it opened, there was a line halfway down the block which, when they were all let in, filled the ultra-chic space with Japanese 20-somethings and me (I saw very few other gaijin in the place). Some sort of energetic and loud music was playing. Wait people shouted orders to the numerous youthful cooks who shouted some sort of Japanese response sounding like a cheer. I had the cucumber with sesame appetizer (small, whole cucumber sliced, dizzled with sesame oil and shoyu, sprinkled with ground sesame seeds), and the "Spicey Tonkatsu Ramen". The cucumber thingy was not quite what I was expecting--in most US Japanese places the cucumber is dressed with sweetened rice vinegar as well as the sesame oil but this was not. Still, it was tasty. But the ramen was really, really good. The broth almost resembled Thai "yum" soup--spicey hot and ever so slightly sweet--with plenty of noodle, a couple of pork and cabbage slices and a bit of flavorful ground pork. Fortunately, after you've finished your noodles (but not the broth), the place will let you have a noodle refill for about $2--the ramen is about $13 before the refill. Kirin and Sapporo are on draft--I had a Sapporo. Total bill was about $30.
After leaving Ippudo NY I went back uptown for another movie, showing only at a theater near Times Square. I was early so I got some desert--coffee and a very good cannoli with chocolate chips--at one of the many delis in this area (corner of 54th & 7th Ave.)
More to follow.
<message edited by BT on Sun, 01/4/09 12:50 AM>
