Day 3 in New York - Dat White Sauce

Day 3.

Halal Guys.

A little hungover from the previous day's festivities, I had one thing on my mind.  Halal guys.  A quick subway trip to midtown and we were there.  There were at least 3 carts, all serving the same delicious food, so just pick the one with the shortest line, but be careful as there are many imitators.  Just look for the dudes in the yellow jackets and you'll know you're in the right spot.

Accept no imitators.

For under $8, you'll be hard pressed to find a better, more filling meal in this city.  It is just so so good.  I ordered the combo rice plate and Amy ordered the chicken rice plate.  To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of lamb, but the lamb at halal guys was exquisite, not gamey at all.  Once topped with their legendary white sauce and mixed together, you're left with spoonful after spoonful of heaven.  Fluffy rice seasoned perfectly with their spice blend, chicken bits that are so crusty yet moist and best of all, that red sauce.

I'm always searching for sauces that can satisfy my spice craving and this one checks all the boxes.  Extremely spicy but still flavorful, unlike some of the ghost pepper offerings I've had.  Under the heat you can taste the sweetness of the peppers and the other spices mixed in.  I slathered mine.

The perfect meal.

There's no seating at the cart we went to, but that's ok.  You'll want to be near by so you can keep adding more sauce.   I can't wait until the Berkeley location opens, I'm going to be there everyday.

Joe's Shanghai

After a trip to MoMA and seeing some of my favorite paintings ever, we hit up Joe's.  This was touted having better xiao long bao than the venerable Din Tai Fung.  It was nat.

Steaming basket of disappointment

Let's start with the skin.  XLBs at DTF are TAF. Translation - xiao long bao at Din Tai Fung are Thin as Fuck.  So thin yet strong enough to contain all the juicy goodness.  Not so at Joe's.  Thick skin that still somehow managed to rip when you picked up the dumplings, spilling all their juices into the steamer and not into your mouth.  When I was able to roll the dumpling onto a spoon, I was met with a cloudy broth, tainted with pork blood, at least it tasted ok.

We ordered the crab XLB as well, and I guess they must have never heard of a dungeness, because the crab flavor was so weak, it probably doesn't even squat bro.  

Baohaus

A few hours later, it was dinner time and we headed to Baohaus, Eddie Huang's spot.  I so wanted to love it, because I love Eddie Huang's work.  His videos on Munchies, his writing and his TV show, all were consumed with gusto.  But I didn't love it, I didn't even like liked it.  It was good, but not great.  The chicken that was in the bao was really good, and if you can only get one, get the Birdhaus. The pork belly was just ok, and the tofu was pretty tasty.  If you've had Chairman Bao in SF, you've had better.  

Coffin bao on the left, Uncle Jesse (center top) The Chariman (middle) The Birdhaus (center bottom) and sweet Bao Fries

The vibe was really cool though, with hip hop blasting and lots of pictures and articles about the man himself on the wall.  It's worth a visit if you're in the area.  The bao's are only a few bucks each and small enough that they won't fill you up, leaving room for more food.

Special WTF Section.

WTF is with all the garbage bags everywhere?!?! Does no one recycle?!

Tourist Stuff

Oh yeah, we did some tourist stuff too.  MoMA was great, highly recommended.  We also went to the top of Rockefeller Center, a $25 ticket to ride on an elevator, but it was cool to see the New York city skyline from that high up.

Starry Night. Such a beautiful painting.

Melted clocks.

View from Top of the Rock.

New York! Day 2

Day 2, our first full day in New York!  We had originally planned to wake up at 9am to start our day, but jet lag shot that plan to hell.  So, 11am rolls by and we're finally out of bed and ready to get going.

With breakfast now out of the picture, we decided to skip straight to lunch.

Katz's Delicatessen

World famous for their massive sandwiches, Katz's deli was a mandatory stop on the trip.  6000 reviews on Yelp can't be wrong right?

First things first,  this spot hit every check box on the New Yorker stereotype list.  Probably "Ay!" and "Fuggetaboutit" 10 times before I even stepped in the door.  

You walk in and are handed a ticket, this is your ticket to order, pay and get out. Don't lose it or you'll be charged a $30 fee when you leave... or you could attempt to tackle the huge security guard standing at the door.

The guys behind the line are yelling at customers, and you gotta be quick with your order.  But, from the moment you walk in the door, you're hit with the most amazing aroma of spiced meat, and you don't give a shit about all their rules.

We ordered a combo sandwich - half pastrami and half corned beef.  Came out to about $25 after tax and tip.  $25 for a sandwich?! One SANDWICH?! Yes.  But damn if it wasn't worth every penny.

The sandwich that has ruined all other sandwiches

Piled high with meat, and nothing else.  Put mustard on if you'd like.  Meat heaven and nirvana all in one.  The corned beef was great, well seasoned, but the pastrami, oh good god the pastrami.  If there was a pleasure town, one bite would take you there on the fastest Hyperloop ever built.  

You're kinda fucked though if you eat here, as no sandwich will ever be good enough for you ever again.  Everything will be compared to this sandwich and you will never find anything even close to adequate. This is the Flowers For Algernon sandwich.

Peter Luger's Steak House

A few hours later after finally digesting the sandwich, we cross the bridge into Brooklyn for dinner.  Peter Luger's is old school New York, with rough around the edges waiters and stiff cocktails, and what is considered by many the best steak in the world; dry aged for weeks, and seared under the eternal flame of manhood.

Meh.

I'll get into the steak in a bit, but first apps.

On the recommendation of a coworker, we ordered the tomatoes and bacon.  Super thick 1/2 inch bacon charred on the grill, served with hearty steak tomatoes and the house steak sauce.  This was probably the best bacon I've ever eaten in my life.  None of that millionaire's bacon bullshit like in SF, covered in sugar and molasses, this was just bacon and smoke.  The house sauce tasted like a sweeter cocktail sauce, and worked really well with the tomatoes and bacon.  

Best thing at a steak house are the tomatoes and bacon

After the preliminaries, we got into the main event.  We ordered the $100 Porterhouse for 2, hash browns and creamed spinach.  When I say main event, I mean it. The steak came out still sizzling as our waiter spooned hot melted butter over the slices and served us each a few pieces.  Hot and drenching with butter, that first belt was a revelation.  How could meat taste so good? The aging process gave the beef a funky hyper-umami'd flavor that was unparalleled.  Then I ate the second bite.

Meh.

Where's the salt? I mean, the best steak house in the world can't properly season their beef? Come on!   Salt isn't just to make something salty, it helps bring out the flavors of anything you're eating.  No wonder they give you such a huge boat of steak sauce, you need it to get any flavor out of this $100 slab of meat, but damn it I wanted prime grade steak not steak drenched in cocktail sauce.  Disappointing bite after disappointing bite, I came to the realization that steak is like a hand job, it's pretty good, but you can probably do it better yourself.

The sides were also rans, nothing notable, skip the hash browns.

Did run into Eddie Huang of BaoHaus and Fresh Off The Boat fame though! Totally fanboyed over seeing him, but he was cool when I asked for a picture.

No Asian peace signs for Eddie

Oh yeah, and we went to the 9/11 Memorial museum and met up with some friends too... but this a food blog so I'll spare you the details.  Here's a few pictures:

The last pillar

Always Remember.

A Table for Tu and A Table for Bryan

New York!

Wow, I have definitely been slacking with this blog, but I promise to get things going again.  I'll start things off with something different, not a recipe but definitely food porn worthy.

A few weeks ago, Amy and I took our first trip to New York City.   We were super excited as neither of us had ever been, even though we've both had tons of friends that have lived and worked in the Big Apple.

5 days jam packed with sights, culture, friends and most importantly food!  In this post and the ones to follow, I'll be running through some of the things we did, but definitely focus on the restaurants.  I hope this will serve as a guide to any of you that are looking to visit the amazing city of New York!

Day 1.

We landed around 7pm EST and after checking into the hotel, we headed straight out to explore the city.  It was a wet and cold day, so we made ramen our first stop.

Totto Ramen

This tiny ramen spot was recommended by a ton of friends, whom said it was the best ramen outside of Japan.  The wait was pretty long (45 minutes) and wet (it started sprinkling while we waited outside), but everything was super efficient.  The waitress takes your order while you're waiting so as soon as you sit down you're served your food, minimizing any additional waiting.  Excellent, since by then we were starving.  We sat down at the counter and the chef turned up the Calvin Harris on his iPad.  The music in this place is loud, but perfect for the mood.

Chefs prepare your bowl to the beat of Calvin Harris

I ordered their standard chicken ramen and Amy ordered the mega ramen with wavy noodles.  Sad to say, I wasn't a fan.  The broth tasted ok, but chicken fat doesn't hold a candle to the pork fat I'm used to in West Coast ramen.  Their "hot sauce" was loaded with black pepper and once mixed in, pepper was all I could taste. Oh, and onions. A fist full of green onions.  Like, more onions than you would ever think to put in a bowl of ramen.

Onions with a side of ramen

Price wasn't too bad if you're used to SF prices, about $11-12 a bowl, but the bowls were significantly smaller.  In hindsight, that turned out to be a good thing since it left room for more food later on in the night.

Momofuku Milk Bar and Fuku+

After ramen, we decided to get some dessert before we hit up Time Square.  A couple of really really long blocks later (why are the blocks so long in New York?), we ended up at Milk Bar.  Luckily, this location also held Chef David Chang's casual fine dining concept, Ma Peche, and gastropub, Fuku+.

We ordered the cereal milk ice cream with corn flake sprinkles.  Who knew leftover cereal milk would be so good? A hint of salt really brought out the sweetness of the ice cream. Not sure which cereal they used, but tasted like Captain Crunch to me.

We would later come back to try their cookies, which also made for great souvenirs for our friends back home.

Amy and her ice cream

While Amy was waiting for her ice cream, I headed to the back of the building to Fuku+.  I had heard a lot of great things about the chicken sandwich and definitely had to try it out.  It was pretty empty inside, but I can definitely see it being packed after work on Fridays.  Really cool vibe.

I ordered the mini chicken sandwich ($6) and a michelada to wash it down.  The chicken was bomb, so moist and well seasoned.  They have bottles of Chef Chang's ssam sauce and I doused the sandwich in it.  The michelada was a little strange, a can of tecate with ssam sauce squirted inside, but it complemented the sandwich well.  

Mini Chicken Sandwich and Tecate michelada

From there, we got our tourist on, and hit up Time Square and the World Trade Center.

Check back soon for the rest of the trip!

No flex zone. No carb zone. Chicken Kebabs with Cauliflower "couscous"

A month ago, I bought 4 soccer jerseys after a very good run of betting wins.  Thank you Champions League for providing so much joy.  Turns out, there was a reason these jerseys cost $15 and came from who knows where in China.  The sizes were all wrong and these larges made me look like a stuffed sausage.  Unfortunately, the trouble of returning them was too much and I decided that I'll set a goal for myself and try to fit in them by the end of the year.

On my quest to fitting into some $15 soccer jerseys, I've been going to the gym more often.  But I guess fitness starts in the kitchen, so I have to eat healthier too.  Carbs are probably the hardest thing for me to cut out, especially rice.  However, over the course of a year or so, I discovered cauliflower can pretty much be a substitute for anything.  Mashed potatoes? Mashed cauliflower.  Rice? Cauliflower rice.  Couscous? You get the idea.  It's so simple to make, very low in carbs and calories.  Gosh, I sound like one of those health nuts.

Of course, you need the protein too, so I whipped up these Middle Eastern flavored chicken kebabs to go with the couscous, and blanched some fresh spring veggies as a side.  I'll be fitting into that Neymar jersey in no time!

I do hope you give this a try!

Chicken Kebabs with Cauliflower Couscous
Serves 4

Chicken
2 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breast, diced into large chunks, about 1.5 inches.
150g of low fat or non fat plain greek yogurt
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp curry powder
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp zhoug spice blend (found this at Trader Joe's)
2 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
2 tsp olive oil
Juice and zest from 1/2 a lemon

Couscous
1 head of cauliflower
2 tsp olive oil
2 minced garlic cloves
2 tsp salt or to taste

Chicken
1. In a large ziplock bag, add everything but the chicken.  Mix until thoroughly combined, then add the chicken.  Shake or mush the bag so that every piece of chicken is evenly coated with marinade.  Allow to marinade for 1 hour or overnight.

2. Place chicken on a foil lined baking sheet, and pop them into a preheated 350 degree oven until they reach 155F internal temperature, about 15 minutes.

3.  Turn on the broiler to high, or take a torch and sear the chicken for a nice char.  Let chicken rest for 5 minutes.

3a.  Alternatively, you can cook the chicken over a grill for additional smokey goodness.

 Couscous
1.  Cut cauliflower into manageable chunks.  Blitz in a food processor until you get 1-2mm crumbles.

2.  In a skillet over medium high heat, add the olive oil and garlic.  Fry until fragrant (about 30 seconds) then add the cauliflower.  Use a spatula to evenly coat the cauliflower with the oil.  Fry for 4-5 minutes then add salt to taste.   Plate up with some chicken and blanched veggies, and get down with your bad self.