New York Redux: Part 2

So, we're still talking late March 2011 and NYC. I know, I'm SO behind!

We started Day 2 with brunch hopping.

We met up with my cousin, Nathan, and his girlfriend, Sandy, at The Little Owl. They were operating on NY weekend time (late!), so we were all very hungry by the time we sat down to eat. The Little Owl is a tiny little place. Since we were hitting another place right after, we just shared some of their more famous dishes: the meatball sliders and the beignets with nutella and raspberry sauce. It was all beautiful and delicious, but in the haze of hunger, I forgot to take pictures! No worries, I'll definitely be back!

Next, we hit Blue Ribbon Bakery, and enjoyed the following dishes:

poached egg on top of chorizo hash

ham and brie baguette sandwich

chocolate chip bread pudding with ice cream and hot fudge

Blue Ribbon's baguette sandwich was very different from La Baguette's sandwiches back home, but still it was good. Their famous chocolate chip bread pudding was sticky sweet and very rich!

We did a little walking around SoHo and NoLita afterward, and I stopped into Bliss for a polish change (I wanted a pedicure, but they couldn't fit me in). After some R&R, we were back to food.

On our way to Yakitori Totto, we saw a SoupMan stand, and since we had to wait a little for yakitori, we decided to try the soup! I think we got a seafood or crab chowder.

It really was delicious, especially in the cold! This was the smallest size. We saw people picking up large tubs of soup to bring home for their dinner, and could imagine ourselves doing the same if we didn't already have dinner plans.

After whetting our appetite with tasty soup, we sat down to some yakitori. The pork cheek was one of our favorite skewers (although generally we like it at every yakitori restaurant).

ochazuke!

It was goooooood.

A few hours later, it was time for our real dinner at Gramercy Tavern. Would it be as good as the last time, and the time before? Yes, my friends. Yes it would be.

potato souffle stuffed with olive tapenade

duck fettucine with cippollini and brussel sprouts

cauliflower custard with sunchoke & hazelnut

heirloom carrots

sea bass with swiss chard, pine nuts, lemon caper sauce

Piedmontese beef with kale, squash, caramelized shallot and carrot

Mandarin jelly with meringue

cappuccino

sticky toffee fig cake with coffee ice cream

chocolate bread pudding with cocoa nib ice cream

mignardises

We really enjoyed it all, every last dish. The fettucine topped with brussel sprout leaves was absolutely amazing. The cauliflower custard topped with hazelnuts also was amazing. It was all amazing. Even the morning-after muffin:

Perfection.

New York Redux: Part 1

In 2009, I had an epic NYC foodie vacation planned, and I ended up leaving half of the itinerary on the page. In late March 2011, I returned to NYC to take care of some unfinished business.

We caught an early morning non-stop Virgin America flight, arriving late afternoon local time. We had just discovered the iPhone game Tiny Wings, and spent nearly the entire flight perfecting our swooping technique. I couldn't go eight hours without eating, so had brunch on the plane:

turkey sandwich (comes with mini-Toblerone chocolate!)

The sandwich was okay, as you can see. Mark ate nothing on the plane, so he was pretty hungry by the time we got to NYC.

We checked into the W Times Square, which held sentimental value for us because that is where we stayed our first time in NYC together almost a decade ago. It was starting to show some age, but was still stylish with nice views. I particularly liked the sink/faucet fixtures:

faucet = shelf

You stop up the sink by pulling up that little silver knob on the table!

Mark was focused on food, even though our Jean-Georges reservations were only a few hours away. The casual food venue on my list closest to our hotel was Totto Ramen, and a bowl of hot noodle soup sounded ideal, so that's where we went for our "snack."

At 5:45pm, there was already an hour wait!


We finally sat down an hour later. Totto specializes in Paitan chicken broth, which was almost as rich as the best tonkotsu broth I've had, and yet makes you feel good the way only chicken broth can. The noodles are thick and firm, which I enjoyed. Despite the chicken broth, the clear star of the bowl was the pork char siu! Their secret: blow torches!

The star: char siu

The blow torch essentially caramelizes the fat on the pork. Our dining experience from sitting down at the bar, to ordering, to eating and paying, lasted 20 minutes.

Less than an hour later, we left our hotel room dressed for dinner at Jean-Georges. You didn't think we were going to skip Jean-Georges just because we each had a bowl of ramen an hour earlier, did ya? Here were the highlights:

egg caviar

citrus gelee, caviar, creme fraiche

sea scallops, caramelized cauliflower

frog legs

lobster

chocolate dessert tasting

spring dessert tasting

We were unimpressed with the rest of the menu, including the fish and meat courses. It started well and ended well, but the in between was pretty forgettable. Again, we think Michelin has gotten it wrong. We did see Chef Vongerichten himself being very attentive to a table just outside of our booth ...

That was day 1. More to come soon.

Taiwan: More xiao chi

I've saved the best for last: breakfast, night markets, and the best of the rest (miscellaneous places we stumbled across).

Hands down my favorite meal in Taiwan is breakfast. There are so many options for a quick, hot, (mostly) savory breakfast, which I find I'm always at a loss for in the U.S. (the land of donut, cereal, and muffin-breakfasts).

Our flight arrived around 5am local time, so our first meal was breakfast. Mark's cousin brought us sesame xao bing with you tiao (literally "oil-fried stick"; basically, the Taiwanese version of a long donut, but not really sweet).

This isn't my favorite Taiwanese breakfast, but the fresh-factor really sold it. Like almost all the food I had in Taiwan, it was SO fresh. Or maybe I was just really hungry. Or both.

Also in these goody bags was a sesame pastry filled with a sticky, sugary pastry that was divine. It was almost as if they took Taiwanese unrefined sugar and caramelized it, sorta.

We later found out it came from a corner vendor less than two blocks from our home base (where, as you can see below, an awesome shirtless old fella hung out every morning).

THE BEST breakfast we had was in Kaohsiung around the corner from 5th Aunt's building: Go Go Breakfast Bar.

They do wonders with xao bing (sesame pastry) and dan bing (egg pancake). Here's the lady making my delicate dan bing.

Something you'll never find in the U.S. - a dan bing filled with fresh veggies (lettuce and sprouts).

It was super refreshing, not to mention perfectly seasoned and scrumptious. I missed it so much when I got back that I made my own version with flour tortillas, egg, iceberg lettuce and sprouts, which was also delicious, but lacked the delicate perfection of Go Go's dan bing.

Then, there was the piece de resistance: the xao bing sandwich with egg, lettuce, and the absolute finest pork sung (aka "meat wool"; aka "pork floss") I've ever tasted.

*drool*

Washed down with some soy milk and milk coffee.

Back in Taipei, we had great breakfast options also just a block away: Yong Ho doe jon (ignore the sign, which according to Mark has nothing to do with the breakfast place).

Good thing Mark got in line while I was taking pictures because a substantial line started forming right after he stepped in. In addition to the doe jon (soy milk) and the you tiao, they made the best version of fan tuan (rice roll) I've ever had, filled with pork sung and a super crispy you tiao. Deep fried goodness rolled into steamy goodness!

Just around the corner from there is this underground food court that appears to prepare primarily lunch fare, but has steamed buns ready for breakfast.

Apparently, the Australian chef Curtis Stone visited the exact stand I bought my pork bun from! (I didn't see the picture until after I bought the pork bun, and I wasn't sure whether that was a good or bad thing.)

In any case, it was yummy.

My final morning in Taipei, I finally made time to try one of the two chain coffee shops I saw all over Taipei - Ikari Coffee and Dante Coffee - both usually filled with people enjoying coffee drinks and some light fare.

The most fascinating item on the menu was this french toast sandwich. It tastes exactly like it sounds, and is satisfying as long as your expectations aren't too high. Tastes even better washed down with a cup of coffee or tea. But really not impressive compared to everything that came before.

Onto night markets: our first was Shilin in Taipei. And that was sort of a good thing because, being the largest and probably the best known night market in Taipei, everything there was 2x or 3x more expensive than at other night markets. That being said, it was still relatively cheap food. We stuffed ourselves for about $10USD/person.

We were guided by our knowledgeable friends, Lois, Charles and Jason.
I'm told this was a slow night. Apparently on a busy night, I would never have been able to step back to take these pictures.

First stop: Da Da Ji Pai (Big Big Fried Chicken). It was big, hot, fresh, juicy, flavorful, basically as good as advertised.

I made sure to try the hu jiao bing (white pepper savory pastry) because a number of Taiwan food posts and blogs raved about it. Can you tell I liked it?

By the time we got to this soup and steamed sticky rice stand, I was full.

Those in the know, however, knew to save room for this.

Then there was wonton soup.

The Taiwanese celery really makes the broth THAT much better. I wish I could find celery with this much flavor in the U.S.

Then the boys tried to work off some of the food with this baseball tossing game.

They didn't do well - I think you needed to punch through seven or more different numbers to get a prize, and this is how well they did after a dozen tosses.

Nice try, boys.

In Kaohsiung, Mark's dad took us to Liouhe (Sixth St.) night market. It was a much more seafood-oriented market. Look on a map and you'll see why.

First we tried a fried fish stew. It was a good start.

Then we got some duck blood cake on a stick from one of the stands specializing in food on sticks. For me. Mark and his dad weren't very interested and it probably sounds unappetizing to most people, but this is a childhood memory-thing for me.

Then there was the oyster fry. I don't like cooked oysters, but I love everything else (the pancake, white cabbage, egg, sauce), so I ate around the oysters.

Then there was the infamous gua bao found all over Taiwan that David Chang (of Momofuku fame in NYC) sorta ripped off.

Pickled veg and sweet ground peanut really takes this finger food to the next level.

Mark's dad tried to help some Australian tourists understand the food being sold, while the lady running the stand was clearing tables. She returned to find him standing behind the stand as if he worked there. This is her kicking him out.

And to round out the evening, seafood porridge.

The broth was great, and it was full of fresh seafood.

On our tour of the Northern coast of Taiwan, we encountered even more fresh seafood. Like this fresh squid (quick boiled), ink sac and all. I highly recommend using chopsticks or toothpicks to eat it, because it is a pain to try and get the ink stains off your fingers (think black ink in your nailbeds).

fish balls

fish ball soup

Yes, there's that awesome Taiwanese celery again in the broth. As we would say in Taiwanese, pang pang or jook pang!

Also somewhere along the North coast is a touristy little alley called Jiu Fen. There is a vendor there that serves an amazing novelty food item I've never seen anywhere else. The elements are all familiar - shaved peanut brittle, milk ice cream, and thin crepe pancake -but I've never seen them put together.

Genius. This is how the magic happens. I called it "peanut brittle," but as you can see, really it's a giant block of peanuts suspended in hard, dark sugar.

Yummm. And there was more. A lot more. Jiu Fen was where I got my first taste of the pink-fleshed papaya (see previous post), and also where I found freshly-made "egg rolls" - the sweet, crumbly, rolled, sweet pastry that used to come in tins. This is a childhood memory I could bring back to the States to share with my sisters.

Finally, other notable xiao chi, included:

Fresh tsua bing (Yong Kang St. in Taipei)

Similar to roti prata

Wonton soup (Hualien)

milk fish belly (Kaohsiung)

stewed pork+pork over rice (Kaohsiung)

And on our last morning in Taipei:

stewed pork over rice

It was. So simple. So good. The perfect last taste of Taiwan. And the memory that will draw us to return again.