Featured Eateries

Friday night fun in Chinatown, Manhattan! I love how the streets in the oldest part of the city just wind around with no real plan. You can easily lose yourself, passing unending windows with crispy rotisserie duck on display or sporting hand-pulled noodle advertisements. On one of these windy streets you will find Joe’s Shanghai Restaurant (9 Pell Street).

Joe’s Shanghai restaurant is a real old-time Chinatown spot.  The wait is long, but the service is unmatched.  Food runners and greeters are numerous, with the intention of sitting you down and putting boxes of steamed dumplings in front of you as fast as possible.

Crab soup dumplings! These are some of the best dumplings I’ve ever tasted.  They burst with flavor (and soup) and the shells are fluffy and light.  The technique is to use a spoon so that none of the juice dribbles out. You can watch the instructional video here.

The dumplings are steamed on a bed of cabbage in a bamboo container.  I definitely recommend using the cabbage to sop up any soup that may have leaked onto your plate.

Pan-fried noodles Hong Kong style. Crispy and delicious, and with beef and broccoli, a classic and delicious combination.

Spicy double-cooked pork.  My girlfriend has never tried double-cooked pork before, so it was kind of a must.  What’s not to like?

We ended the night walking on yet another windy downtown street, 65 Bayard, to  enjoy pistachio iced cream at the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.   Fantastic ice cream with great flavor and texture.  Yum!

Saravana Bhavan is an all-vegetarian restaurant serving South Indian-style cuisine. It is actually an international chain, which is based out of India and has a spot in Gramercy in Manhattan as well as locations in India, Europe and the Middle East. I must say, if vegetarian food was always this delicous and varied, I think I could prescribe to this way of eating.

Above is an appetizer of curd vada which are crispy lentil doughnuts in fresh yogurt garnished with grated carrots & cilantro. Yup you heard me! A doughnut appetizer. It was very visually appealing, but a tad to sweet for me.

This was my Bhati, I love having the options of tasting EVERYTHING. Pickles, curries, potatoes, hot peppers, sweet chutneys. All served with naan bread and basmati rice. It’s a universe of flavors served in an aluminum tray.

Below was a deep-fried dosa with curried chickpeas. Dosa is a South-Indian staple. A crepe made from rice batter and lentils. It dominates the menu at Saravanaas. I loved the fried dosa’s sponginess and flavor.

Below is the thicker, pancake-like uthappam, a rice and lentil crepe stuffed with tomato, onion and some screamingly hot green chilis. OUCH! After the initial burn, it dawned on me that the side chutney and yogurt dips would cool down the crepe enough to make it much less painful!

And finally, the Dosa de Resistance!

This enormous cone was the paper masala dosa. A thin length rice & lentil crepe filled with mildly spiced mashed potatoes and onions. It was super fun to eat and doubled as a prop telescope! Judging by their expressions, I don’t think our neighbors were impressed with our antics.

81 Lexington Ave (between 26th St & 27th St) New York, NY 10016

Yum! Sunday brunch, shrimp grits from Peels in Noho.

How long does it take to cook grits? Here’s Joe Pesci’s synopsis:

Check out my lamb burger with cucumber mint yogurt, lettuce, cucumber, tomato and apple smoked onions from Bareburger, a crunchy all-organic, locally sourced, grass-fed burger place in Astoria and a few other locations around NYC.

I have got to hand it to this place, they make a decent burger AND are trying, it seems, to run a reasonable and sustainable restaurant. Their burger options range from beef, turkey, veggie, portabella mushroom, free-range chicken, lamb wild boar, elk, and ostrich. I LOVE Ostrich (the other red meat as I call it) and also I have been wanting to try elk for a very long time so I definitely will be back soon.

Also, for a pickle fiend like myself, they offered a delectable pickle plate (pictured above) with sweet, hot and kosher sliced pickled cucumbers. Proof!

The un-paralleled Hellenistic destination for seafood in Astoria is Taverna Kyclades! This authentic Greek taverna is located in the most fantastic Greek neighborhood outside of Attica. Just take the N train to the end of the line (Ditmars Boulevard in Queens), and head down the well-lit streets for some perfectly prepared Pesca!

A simple Greek peasant salad with BRICKS of feta.

Various spreads including skordalia a delicious potato puree, tzatziki, the classic cucumber, garlic yogurt sauce, and taramosalata which is a potato spread made with fish roe.

This is the best grilled octopus you’ll ever have. Period.

After recently reading A Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine, I’ve had a hankering for grilled squabs… Grilled quail satisfied this craving completely. These bite-sized birds were perfectly cooked and scrumptious. Pub proprietors would do well to offer quail for Monday Night football snack specials instead of boring ole’ buffalo wings.

The highlight of the evening had to be the perfectly cooked sea bass. De-boned by the waiter and spectacularly tender and flavorful… Just squeeze some lemon and dive on in! Proof. 3307 Ditmars Blvd Astoria, NY 11105

The midwestern burger chain Steak n’ Shake appears to be opening up in Midtown, Manhattan right next to the Ed Sullivan theater, where they film a TV show or something.

Should we as New Yorkers be excited? I don’t know. It seems like Manhattan is turning into a Midwestern strip mall. There’s a TGI Friday’s in Union Square now of all things. I’ve always wanted to try a Steak Burger, but there’s something about the fact that you needed to fly to St. Louis, Missouri that added to the appeal. Similar to the joy of picking up an In N Out burger when you get off the plane in California. Negative proof.

Happy Monday Proof-Readers!

This weekend I investigated White Manna in Hackensack, New Jersey. This minute lunch counter has become a ubiquitous stop on every food show on television. It has been covered by the Food Network and the Travel Channel as well as food blogs such as A Hamburger Today to name a few.

The question is, should you believe the hype?

Not taking into account the burgers, I had a really great time here yesterday. The place was PACKED including a hockey team from Philly that stopped in on their way home from the turnpike. It was quite a scene! The wait was long, but everyone was really friendly, nice, happy, and having a great time… Bound together by a mutual love of greasy burgers.

As you can probably tell in the photos, these small belly-bombs are grilled on a flat top and smashed down onto a bed of onions. The only topping options are pickles onions and American cheese.

The texture of these burgers was amazing. Imagine a super cheesy, messy, little meatball on a pleasingly soft dough-ball of a potato bun. However, I think something might be missing. Let’s call it seasoning. A little salt? A little pepper? Something needs to spice up this rather bland sandwich besides the onions. The ingredients are quality, but I really didn’t see what all the fuss was about. I honestly think they could be done better.

Having said that, I had a fun experience here that was very unique. It was fun crowding around the lunch counter, joking around and socializing with strangers on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The burgers were nice… A HUGE step up from White Castle, and you don’t feel guilty eating them. They are cheap, super cheap; and rather substantial. I could only do 4 regulars with cheese fries on the side. I think it must be those potato rolls! Proof positive.

White Manna 358 River St Hackensack, NJ 07601