Food Adventuring Around NYC
Tasty Dumpling, the tiny storefront facing Columbus Park, seems to always be packed with people. And not all of them are ordering dumplings. During the 20 minutes or so I spent inside the shop, I counted at least 5 people that came in solely to use the prominently displayed ATM machine in the middle of …
Kai Feng Fu sounds to me like a form of martial arts. I hope I’m not being offensive and I certainly don’t want to piss off anybody who is well-versed in the fighting style. From my limited research, it seems that Kai Feng Fu is a destination in Northern China. Well, it’s also a destination …
Anita Lo has been on TV (most notably Top Chef Masters) enough now to be considered a celebritychef. Yet her food is modest and well-presented and her restaurants don’t garner the crowd-busting lines as places like Del Posto. All the better for us. Annisa recently re-opened in the West Village after a fire shut it …
There are a number of reasons not to eat at Shanghai Café (now called Shanghai Café Deluxe) on Mott Street. First off, they have been undergoing some lawsuits filed by six former employees who accuse the restaurant of breaking certain labor laws. They were paid well under minimum wage, forced to work overtime, and the …
A dear friend of mine was in town and we decided to meet up for some dumplings. She was one of my eating buddies for many years until she moved away to Ohio. Who moves to Ohio? I was excited to see her and to get another sampling of soup dumplings. I picked the new …
SADLY, FRIED DUMPLINGS IS NOW CLOSED. When a restaurant names themselves after a specific menu item, it had better be good. I don’t know any pizzeria that touts the name: “Pepperoni Pizza” or “Margherita Pizza”. To name yourself after one dish almost alienates everything else on your menu. I don’t think I would ever order a …
If Time Out New York can do it, so can I. I’ve been inspired and satiated by Time Out’s 2009 Top 100 list and look forward to conquering their 2010 list very soon. But from now until the end of the year, I present my own Top 100 Dishes of the year in reverse order. …
I’ve always known that some of the big chain restaurants adjust their prices based on location. A sandwich at TGI Friday’s in Times Square is going to cost considerably more than it would at a location in Nebraska. And although I’ve never been to Nebraska, I’m guessing the prices are cheaper there than on Broadway. …
If Time Out New York can do it, so can I. I’ve been inspired and satiated by Time Out’s 2009 Top 100 list and look forward to conquering their 2010 list very soon. But from now until the end of the year, I present my own Top 100 Dishes of the year in reverse order. …
SADLY, C & L DUMPLING HOUSE IS NOW CLOSED. \Most of these dumpling houses are so segregated in Chinatown that it’s hard to get much information on them. Trying to find a website, a menu online, a company back story is next to impossible. Besides an entry on yelp and some unhelpful blog reviews (like …
If Time Out New York can do it, so can I. I’ve been inspired and satiated by Time Out’s 2009 Top 100 list and look forward to conquering their 2010 list very soon. But from now until the end of the year, I present my own Top 100 Dishes of the year in reverse order. …
SADLY, PROSPERITY DUMPLING IS NOW CLOSED. My first dumpling venture taught me quite a few things. It taught me that this is going to be much cheaper than any of my previous searches. Even ice cream was running me close to $5 a cone. I think I’ll leave most of the dumpling shops with a loss …
SADLY, METRO CAFE IS NOW CLOSED. When I first saw Time Out’s list and read that one of the dishes was from Metro Cafe, I almost ripped up the issue right then and there. How could they possibly claim that one of those cheap, generic lunch chains in midtown had one of the best dishes of …
SADLY, GOLDEN MALL IS NOW CLOSED. Ah, the Golden Mall! It’s a food adventure in itself. For those more timid eaters or the ones with a fear of the 7 train, let me tell you about it. The Golden Mall is in Flushing, Queens (the other Chinatown) and it’s more a basement crammed with food …
These are a far cry from the cakes we’re used to in this country. I could not imagine sticking a candle in and presenting this to anybody as a birthday offering. They’d have to really like root vegetables. Taro is a root vegetable that most people in this country know only from healthy chips. They’re …
Little Pepper (or Xiao La Jiao) is a misnomer. They might be small tiny particles of crushed peppers and spices, but they don’t just put a little on their Szechuan dishes. They load them with lots and lots of pepper. I speak of one dishe in particular, but this cuisine as a whole is not …
The relatively new Flushing restaurant M & T is a total dive that specializes in Qingdao cuisine. If my Chinese (which is limited to the back of fortune cookies and Internet research) serves me correctly, Qingdao is pronounced Tsing Tao, just like the region’s famous beer. Even with the three Chinatowns in NYC, it is …
I grew up on Chinese food. Besides Italian, it was the only ethnic cuisine my conservative (on the food front, not politically) parents ever dared to let me try. I begged them to let me try sushi when I was younger, but their fear got the best of them. Interestingly enough, the two cuisines I’m …