au revoir nyc~

we took off this morning and we’re already in another country. damn, i still had umpteen things on my to-do list for nyc that remain undone. by the time i come back to new york, i predict that momofuku will be passé and all of manhattan will look like one big jersey mall. it’s sad how with each return home, i can sense that manhattan is losing its edge. just as the small one-of-a-kind boutiques and shops have been replaced by mass-market superstores, the true-grit new yorkers have been supplanted by a bunch of complacent yahoos in expensive threads. seriously, what the hell happened to my city?

i know, i sound like an old fart pining for the days gone by but despite my whingeing, i had a blast in nyc. i reconnected with friends and revisited past haunts. i had my fill of delicious asian food and saw incredible art to rival the masterpieces of europe’s best museums. after being abroad for so long, i also took comfort in the little things i didn’t even know i had missed. chief among them are:

- taking back the street. nyc is all about the pedestrians so i had ample time to cross the street without the light changing on me as soon as i stepped onto the asphalt like in some other countries (ahem…korea, spain).

- having it your way. baristas ask you what kind of milk you want in your coffee. servers ask you how you want your salmon cooked. there’s no (spoken) judgment because the customer is always right.

- no bargaining. the price you see is the price you pay. they don’t charge you the “foreigner tax” just because you look different.

- a new york slice.

- a new york hot dog.

- being able to speak english again and not feel guilty about it.

now i’m in the S.O.’s turf, the great white north. i’m looking forward to discovering new things in the land of canadia. so stay tuned, eh?

zenzai

zenzai, originally uploaded by suddenly.

i couldn’t help it. i had to go back to momofuku ssäm bar and recruited two other diners for lunch. the tall, chatty waiter was there again but we sat in a different area and had another, less talkative server. we started with the cured hamachi with edamame, pea leaves and horseradish. it was sublime; at once delicate and refreshing with a good nose-burning kick from the horseradish.

next we had a delicious platter of benton ham, paper-thin slices of proscuitto-style cured pork. it came with “red eye gravy” which looked like mustard but was made with mayo, sriracha and coffee. a strange combination but somehow it worked.

we ended the meal with the hangar steak ssäm and pickles. i love this dish but the rice was a little hard again. i suspect that someone forgot to pre-soak the rice before cooking it.

the place was pretty empty at lunchtime and the noise level was much more tolerable. the lunch menu is more limited but the greatest hits are still there.

i have resigned myself to the fact that all my friends have crazy sweet tooths (teeth?) and the post-meal search for dessert is inevitable. i feel like nyc has had an explosion in the dessert scene and i see so many establishments dedicated just to sweets. (i’m still waiting for nyc to have cheese bars on every corner.)

after contemplating our dessert options, we decided on cha an japanese tea house in the east village. it’s a small, serene space that feels very japanese. we each ordered the zenzai (above), a chilled red bean “soup” with candied chestnuts, chewy morsels of mochi and ice cream. it was almost tooth-achingly sweet but balanced well with a side order of the bitter makinohara green tea.

oh, my days in nyc are numbered. sigh.

taking a bite out of the lucky peach – momofuku ssäm bar

the LLBFFHS and her hubby treated us dinner at momofuku ssäm bar and now i see what all the hype is about david chang — or rather, the minions who carry out his vision; they make delicious, innovative food that would normally cost a lot more because you’d have a stuffy waiter and two busboys hovering over you in a serene dining room filled with suits and tall flower arrangements. at ssäm, you get hipster waiters who crowd plates onto your tiny ikea-esque table while you balance your bottom on backless stools, and shout to your crew over the loud music.

our hipster waiter for the night was a tall, chatty fellow. he gave us a ten-minute monologue about his favorites on the menu. i was the only one who found his in-depth explanation helpful. the others in my party had glazed-over expressions. (note to self and hipster waiter: some people do not like to hear others drone on and on about food. oops!)

we ordered and the procession of communal food went thusly:

oysters on the half shell with kimchi consommé – fine if you love raw oysters, which i do.

uni with whipped tofu and tapioca pearls with crackly bits on top – intriguing and strange combination of flavors. the foamy tofu melts on your tongue as you chew through the tapioca pearls.

charred squid salad with mizuna – spicy and tangy korean-style salad with lots of chili flakes and vinegar. one of the best dishes of the night.

steamed buns with pork belly – the bun seemed softer and fluffier than the last time i had it at momofuku noodle bar. still, the pork belly was divine. everyone loved theirs and contemplated ordering more.

seasonal pickles – loved, loved, loved them all. our assortment included turnips, ramps, carrots, celery and kimchi.

crispy pig’s head torchons – a fried cutlet made of porky bits from you-know-where. the meat was tender and extremely flavorful inside the crisp panko crumbs. i really enjoyed this dish with the spicy mustard.

hangar steak ssäm with kimchi puree and ginger scallions – (why, oh why does chang put the two dots over the “a”?) – sublimely tender and rare slices of beef wrapped up with garnishes in bibb lettuce. my one gripe was that the rice that came with was undercooked. learn your basics, ssäm cooks!

ssäm has their own house sake which was dry and refreshing. i thought it went well with the meal.

what i really like about ssäm is the clever combination of flavors and ingredients. i love food that surprises you with contrasts in tastes and textures. you can see witty references to korean food but this is not your typical ajumma’s cooking. the uber-casual vibe in the restaurant is a bonus for people like me who dread formal dining settings. i think i may have to sneak another trip back to ssäm before i leave town.

one-year-plus vietnamese sandwich deprivation is over

vietnamese sandwich, originally uploaded by suddenly.

i had a snack attack in chinatown and had this bbq pork sandwich at saigon banh mi. while it’s not the best vietnamese sandwich i’ve ever had (that would be the steak sandwich i had in hanoi last year), it’s still pretty good. and at $3.75 for a twelve-incher, it’s a better deal than subway’s $5-foot long. i also find it funny that saigon banh mi is in the back of a jewelry store.

coming up schwarz

me at FAO schwartz, originally uploaded by suddenly.

so we go to FAO schwarz to look for a fancy scrabble set for a friend. i figured that the poshest toy store in the world and home of $900-stuffed giraffes would have a scrabble set that is somewhere in between “scrabble deluxe” and their $1400-”exquisite scrabble.“ but get this: FAO schwarz DOES NOT SELL ANY SCRABBLE in their store! how is this possible? we asked a salesgirl where one might find a souped up scrabble set in the city and she suggested toys R us in times square. excuse me? toys R us? that’s like ferragamo telling a customer to look for violet python boots at payless.

we schlepped it over to toys R us and needless to say, they didn’t even have the scrabble deluxe.

apparently, you can go home again

thanks to this blog, i reunited with my long lost bestest friend from high school. the LLBFFHS suggested we take our guys to our old ‘hood in brooklyn which started with lunch at totonno’s pizza (the original location).

totonno's pizza

if you’re from brooklyn, this is how you like your pizza; thin crisp crust with a tender chewiness and good char on the bottom. the unparalleled water in brooklyn really makes the crust special. if you were raised in the midwest and weaned on that gawdawful chicago-style pizza…i’m really sorry.

wonder wheel

after we polished off two pies, we strolled over to the coney island boardwalk and walked all the way down to brighton beach where my family lived for several years. the neighborhood is still heavily russian with signs in cyrillic everywhere. the LLBFFHS and i let out loud gasps when we saw the starbucks on brighton beach avenue. the evil coffee empire has managed to invade “little odessa.” for shame. we walked by my old apartment on brighton 5th st. this is where i had sleepovers with the LLBFFHS and my parents were amazed by her kimchi-eating prowess. ha! she stilled remembered the huge jar of dwenjang my mom used to keep on the window sill.

sad clown

oh, but wait. we forgot to get our hot dogs at nathan’s so we walked back to coney island and worked up an appetite playing skeetball in the arcade then got our frankfurters on.

nathan's

and then we rolled ourselves back on the subway.

more photos here.

brooklyn bridge

brooklyn bridge, originally uploaded by suddenly.

this is a view  of the brooklyn bridge from south street seaport. i got the art waterfall in the shot as a bonus.

singing in the city

went out with my nyc korean-american girlz posse last night. we hit k-town where we chowed down on korean-chinese food then sang for 3 hours in two different noraebangs. it was like a typical night out in seoul but big apple style; i loved the tang su yuk and shrimp kam poong gi at hyo dong gak. i loved even more that you can hop over next door to karaoke duet, secure a huge-ass room and have the cute japanese staff bring you mixed drinks while you belt out one of their 12,000 english pop songs. (12,000! i was in noraebang heaven.)

when i got home, i caught the latest episode of project runway on repeat. could the night have been any more perfect?

a l’il bit of salt and a whole lotta yumminess

chocolate cupcake with salt at royale cafe + pastry, originally uploaded by suddenly.

met with a dear old friend for lunch at ditch plains where we each had their signature lobster roll. 6 ounces of lobster meat on a hot dog bun. the lobster was good. my burnt bun, not so much.

the dear old friend is a dessert afficionado and in our post-lunch forage for something sweet, we came across the adorably pink royale cafe + pastry on 6th avenue. first of all, i was very impressed that when we asked if they had decaf iced coffee, the barista said it’d be a decaf americano. then she proceeded to make them with bottled water. needless to say, the iced americano was excellent.

the dessert afficionado chose her dessert well and i had a bad case of food envy over her chocolate cupcake with salt on the gooey icing. (my whoopi pie wasn’t bad but it didn’t have the salty-sweet combo that i drool over.) it’s easily one of the best cupcakes i’ve ever tasted; extremely moist and not too sweet. i think i need to go back and have that chocolate cupcake all to myself next time–with a decaf iced americano, of course.

a nyc institution: katz’s deli

katz’s deli – corned beef on rye, originally uploaded by suddenly.

we were walking around the lower east side and even though we’d just had a big lunch, the S.O.’s eyes lit up when he saw the sign for katz’s deli. (what is it with men and big slabs of meat?) you might be surprised by the prices at katz’s. this corned beef on rye will set you back $14.95 but that sandwich could easily feed two people–or one super gluttonous person. but hey, you’re paying for quality (and the labor of a troop of men to hand carve the meats). the S.O.’s original plan was to take half of the sandwich home but once he tasted it, there was no turning back. he devoured the entire behemoth in no time flat. i was the kind beneficiary of the little flaps that fell off the bread. i also got to enjoy one of my favorite sodas, dr. brown’s black cherry.

a real gem on swanky fifth avenue…

swanky fifth avenue, originally uploaded by suddenly.

i’ve been showing the S.O. around town, pointing out my old haunts and doing my best to give the insider’s tour. but walking around new york with a tourist also makes me notice things i never did before. i must’ve walked up and down the stretch of fifth avenue from bergdorf’s to rock center a million times. of course, it’s easy to gawk at the splashy bling stores (van cleef & arpel, tiffany’s, harry winston) and the fabulous couture shops (LV, prada, gucci) but i totally overlooked the little churches along the way.

the S.O. suggested we go into st. thomas church on fifth ave. and 53rd st. it’s a quiet refuge sheltered from the gross consumerism surrounding it. we saw just a few older people in the pews having their religious moments. it was nice to see.

taking a bite out of the big apple: momofuku noodle bar

bibim guksu – momofuku noodle bar, originally uploaded by suddenly.

i’ve been reading about david chang, nyc’s latest enfant terrible chef, in practically every medium including the in-flight magazine on british airways. i heard about the near impossibility of snagging a table at his 3-star restaurant momofuku ko and the line-ups at chang’s other joints that don’t take reservations at all. i even tried to help a friend get an online reservation at ‘ko by clicking away on my mouse every day as the clock approached 10 a.m. eastern standard time from spain and morocco. (after 3 months of clicking, we’ve yet to get a reservation.)

i had to see what all this hype was about. i mean, jesus christ, what’s so f-ing special about his steamed pork buns? so i had lunch with a friend at chang’s first restaurant, momofuku noodle bar. we grabbed a couple of seats at the communal dining table before the place got too crowded. ordering the steamed pork buns was a no-brainer after so many writers have spilled so much ink praising them. (for god sakes, frank bruni sounds like a tween with a crush the way he gushes over them.) it was too hot to eat ramen so i decided to have their bibim guksu instead.

the verdict: all right. maybe frank bruni wasn’t exaggerating. the steamed pork buns were pretty fantastic. the bun dough had the right amount of chewiness and the pork was divine. chang uses thick slabs of pork belly that are so juicy and flavorful, they must be from a genetically superior species of pig. the cucumbers and scallions provide crunch and texture while the hoisin adds a pleasant sweetness. i added a few dabs of srirachi just to keep things a l’il spicy. $9 gets you two buns which i split with my friend.

the bibim guksu is a more refined, lady portion of what my mom would make. don’t get me wrong, i love my mom’s cooking but after a dinner at her house, i’m tasting (and breathing out!) garlic into the next day’s lunch. i liked the sauce on the momofuku version. it was still spicy but well-balanced with sweetness. i loved the runny yolk on the fried egg. my one gripe is that the noodles were a tad gloppy as if the cook didn’t rinse out enough of the starch from the somen. other than that, i’d have this dish again and not have to reach for the listerine right away. the bibim guksu will set you back $14 which is on par with any noodle dish you’d have in manhattan’s korea town. alas, no free banchan at the momofuku’s.

i’m still working on the reservation for momofuku ko. sigh.

my quote in the gray lady

i’m back in NYC and i got interviewed by the new york times about the metrocard machine meltdown. see my quote in today’s paper in revenge of the metrocard machines, part II. (scroll down to the 9th paragraph.)

i know, it’s no big whoop but it’s been a while since i’ve seen my name on the printed page.