now-a-days, i have a regular happy hour tradition with BlackSesame and Kiddo on friday nights. however, if i think back, the tradition really started with Kiddo and me. due to the close proximity of our job locations, we would randomly ask each other to meet up for drinks or dinner, our schedules permitting.
on 1 such particular night, Kiddo asked me to meet him for drinks and dinner. suffering from a particularly nasty hangover that day, i had initially wanted to decline. however, Kiddo pressed me to attend, and something in the way he said, "i just need to drink tonight" convinced me to acquiesce, although i suggested a ramen restaurant for dinner in the hopes that the broth would soothe my stomach (there's just something so home-y about ramen and noodle soups. its the asian equivalent of the American chicken noodle soup).
my stomach was still acting up by the time i arrived at St. Marks to meet Kiddo. being the earlier party for once (it's very rare), i stopped into Spot Dessert Bar for some Condensed Milk Ice Cream, figuring the dairy would help to line my stomach for the alcohol i intended to put into it. when Kiddo arrived, he recommended we go to Soba-Ya for noodles instead of my ramen suggestion. soba sounded like a nice, gentle option for my tummy and was close to our current location, so we headed over.
holy jabroni what a good decision. Soba-Ya is a decently sized restaurant (not too big, not too small), but due to the popularity of it there's always a wait. ours wasn't that bad, about 20-30 mins.
since Kiddo's primary objective was to imbibe alcohol, he was very generous with the menu and allowed me to pick what we ate. we started with 2 special appetizers: uni with yuzu-ponzu gelee and fresh wasabi. being a big fan of uni, i was curious about this dish. the uni was very fresh and creamy and the gelee added a nice acidity/sweetness to the dish, with the wasabi rounding out the flavors with a slight kick. my only complaint would be that the dish is a little difficult to eat as the gelee melts extremely quick and the proportion of gelee to uni is very unbalanced leaving you with a dish of gelee at the end.
our other appetizer was ankimo (monkfish liver). this was the best rendition of this dish i've tasted to date. it's served cold and the texture is akin to pate, with an equally game-y, complex flavor. dressed with a little bit of ponzu sauce, this was my favorite dish of the night.
for entrees,Kiddo and i differed slightly for our preferences. since my tummy was still a little sensitive, i preferred to get a hot soba whereas Kiddo preferred a cold one. so in the end we ordered a large order of the Kamo Seiro ($16): sliced duck and tokyo negi in a hot dipping sauce and a large order of the Mori ($9.50). while the Kamo Seiro was very good, it was a little salty and distracted from the natural flavor of the soba. in the end, i preferred Kiddo's order of Mori, so it was lucky for me that we shared both entrees.
although i was happily satiated food-wise, i was intrigued by their offering of honey-wasabi ice cream and, with Kiddo's encouragement, ended up ordering a trio of ice creams for dessert. and i can't recommend the flavor enough! it's sweet with a little wasabi-mustard kick that isn't unpleasant!
by the end of the meal, i had discovered a restaurant i really loved, and Kiddo had managed to drink approximately 70-80% of a very large bottle of sake. as we exited the restaurant, Kiddo (a little intoxicated) convinced me to go check out Japadog, as he could "still eat," and he knew the restaurant was on my list.
which was how we found ourselves at Japadog. i ordered the Croquette (japanese croquette and arabiki sausage) while Kiddo ordered the recommended Terimayo (teriyaki sauce, mayo, and seaweed). while the Croquette had a little too much going on for a hotdog, i liked the Terimayo which was savory and sweet at the same time. next time, i would order the Oroshi. Kiddo wasn't as impressed.
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| The Terimayo |
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| The Croquette |
inquiring about what else was on my list, we found ourselves around the corner at Pommes Frites for my first time eating these crunchy french fries. at this point, i have no idea how i managed to fit any more food in my stomach and i can't recall exactly what sauces we chose although i remember there being 2. i do remember the weather was nice enough that we sat outside while we munched away and the french fries were salty and delicious and the dipping sauces were perfect.
oooo, just thinking about this night reminds me of why i'm such a fatty now.
there's always something daunting about going into a new place for the first time. there's something even more daunting about doing it during midtown lunch. the hustle-and-bustle of a midtown lunch spot can be intimidating when you're the newbie. if you don't understand the ordering methodology or dawdle too long about what to order from the menu, you inevitably feel the death glares from all the regulars standing behind you as well as from the person standing behind the counter taking your order.::shiver:: NYC can be a harsh place when it comes to food. luckily for me, i tried El Papasito on the day the snow storm started, so no one was really venturing outside to get food. i was slightly hungover from the previous night out at Go. i'd planned to meet Kiddo there for drinks and then head over to meet She and Egg for dinner at Klong. however, as always in the legal profession, work caused me to change my plans. i ended up being 30 mins late (not counting that at the last minute i rescheduled for another 30 mins, so in total it was an hour) but luckily for me Kiddo was also running late, not to mention Egg was over an hour late after that (but he works at a big-time law firm so he's forgiven because we expect that). needless to say, by the time i got to Go i was in dire need of a drink. Egg and i have decided we're going to give Go a shot as our new go-to spot (no pun intended, honestly). they have a great drink deal of sake and 16 oz. beer for only $6.50. the price has risen significantly tho since the 1st time i was there (which was probably a year ago). the drink deal used to be $5.00. if Go keeps raising it's price i'll have to stop going (again, no pun intended). by the time Egg and She showed up, i was 2 orders into the drink deal. we decided to forego Klong (although i will go one day-i promise you that. who can resist delicious affordable Thai food and $16 bottles of wine?) and just eat at Go. being economically aware that i wanted to spend most of my money on drinks, i only ordered 2 items: a yellowtail and scallion roll ($5) and deep-fried tomato wrapped in bacon on mashed potatoes ($5). O-M-G. completely unhealthy but totally amazing. there's only 2 pieces per serving but it is so good. the outside's all crispy bacon and then the inside's the soft tomato, which is also hot. YUMMY. because it was so good i offered the other serving to Egg to try and in exchange he offered me 1 of his salmon skin rolls. so not an equal trade. the salmon skin roll was salty, which i guess is good when paired with beer, but definitely not the equivalent of my deep-fried-bacon-tomato-yumminess. it's the one that got away... ::forlorn::afterwards we headed over to Spot Dessert Bar because i've been reading about this place for a while and it was conveniently located almost directly across the street. i kept going on about how the chef for Spot is very well-known for his desserts but i couldn't remember his name and just kept randomly spewing out famous chef names, and still getting them wrong. but now i know: Pichet Ong. rolling into Spot at around 11ish doesn't bode well for them having everything on the menu. by the time we got there they were sold out of a few things, but we made do. compared to the meal and drinks we had at Go, Spot doesn't seem as good a deal. things on the menu ranged from $4-8, but since they only serve dessert, it does seem a bit pricey. She ended up ordering the Vanilla Almond Coconut cupcake with a side of Coconut Sorbet. together they had a coconut-y flavor, but i thought the cupcake just tasted like out-of-the-box vanilla cupcake. and it was smaller than i expected, but that may just be because NY creates this assumption of a ginormous cupcake so when you get one that's regular-sized you're always underwhelmed. Kiddo ordered a Ginger Oatmeal Raisin Cookie which was bigger than expected and pretty delicious with a strong ginger kick. i ordered something like a Chocolate Banana Mouse-Pudding thing (i can't remember exactly what is was and it's not on the menu on-line. i DO know i did not order anything that had poached honey pear. or at least i'm pretty sure it didn't. and i distinctly remember bananas being there. but then again, i was drunk). either way, i thought my dessert, whatever it was, was just ok. it also ended up being the most expensive out of everything we ordered, maxing out at $8.00. Egg ordered the Thai Coffee Float and specially requested they add boba to it, which, after checking, they were willing to do for an additional 75 cents. Egg referred to the concoction as "perfection".the next day, i woke up and found myself trudging to work as the snow storm officially arrived in NY. not fun. on top of that, a sake+beer headache started to creep up on me as the day progressed so i decided i needed to eat a hearty lunch with lots of starch/carbs to counteract the way i was feeling. i was gonna hit the 53rd Street Halal Cart since it's right across the street from my office but my co-worker suggested El Papasito instead. i was enticed by the concept of a $6 lunch special and was convinced after i read about the place on Midtown Lunch's site. i ordered the Stewed Beef on Rice and Beans which is served with a side of bread. i could only eat half of it before i started feeling sleepy from such a heavy lunch. the beef was good, not super tender, but better than most. and the rice and beans were also yummy. it's a good deal for $6 but i wouldn't call it the best food ever. but that might just be because i was feeling all crappy from my hangover.
