Spice Market

This was my third trip to Spice Market.

First trip was a winner. Second trip was a loser. This trip was really good.

We ordered the tasting menu because sometimes I like to let the chef feed me (plus I liked what was on the tasting menu). Overall, the heart of the food isn't fantastic (the chicken, the snapper, the beef skewers, the somosas) but the sauces and flavors that adorn them are. The ginger fried rice, shaved tuna tapioca, and chicken with kumquats were my favorites.

I also had a ginger margarita which was interesting.

403 W 13th St
(between 9th Ave & Washington St)
New York, NY 10014

Shaved Tuna, Chili Tapioca, Asian Pear and Lime

Avocado and Radish Salad, Chinese Mustard, Tempura Onions

Spiced Chicken Somosa

Charred Chili Rubbed Beef Skewer

Steamed Red Snapper, Shiitake Mushrooms, ginger, Scallion, Tarragon

Char Grilled Chicken, Kumquat Lemongrass Dressing

Ginger Fried Rice

Ovaltine Kulfi, Carmalized Banana, Spiced Milk Chocolate Sauce

Sundaes and Cones

Any place that makes it's own ice cream is usually pretty darn good. This place is definitely good.

They have some interesting flavors. I went with peppermint because I love Christmas.

95 E 10th St
New York, NY 10003

peppermint, in a cup (I was being lame and it was pre-dinner)

Jean Georges

Thank you Red Sox.

My co-worker is a Yankees fan so when the Red Sox played the Yankees we bet lunch on who would win the series. After the Yankees were swept, the two teams played again two weeks later so we went double or nothing. The Yankees were swept again. I decided that double mean lunch at Jean Georges.

We suited up and hopped in a cab to Columbus circle where we entered through the doors of one the nine million buildings owned by Donald Trump (nine million might be an exaggeration). This building, however, is special because its ground floor hosts a killer restaurant called Jean Georges.

I don't think i've ever felt so out of place. Guys wore suits that could wipe out a bank account. Women were adorned with jewelry that were worth more than a house. People were having power lunches. We talked about ad networks. What silly peasants we.

The food was fantastic.

We both ordered three dishes. Tuna ribbons, goat cheese gnocchi, foie gras brulee, asparagus salad, roasted veal, and the beef tenderloin.

The tuna ribbons were delicious long strands of tuna, almost like noodles. The foie gras brulee consisted of a piece of brioche, covered with foie gras, covered with a creme brulee-esque caramalized topping. The veal was pretty good too.

Awesome.

1 Central Park W
New York, NY 10023

The Amuse

Tuna Ribbons, Avocado, Spicy Radish, Ginger Marinade

Pineapple-Meyer Lemon Jam (accompanies the foie gras)

Foie Gras Brulee

inside the foie gras

Roasted Veal

Toasted Sesame Cake, Green Apple Sorbet, Yuzu
Fall Fruit Fricasse, Creme Fraiche, Caramelized Phyllo

Phyllo up close

other part up close

marshmallows, chocolates, and macaroons

(my co-workers reflection is in this picture)

Cafe Fiorello

Chef Fiorello is crazy. I ordered his lasagna (aptly named Chef Fiorello's Lasagna) and was given a dish larger than my torso. The lasagna is served open face with a meat ragu, mozzarella, Parmigiano Reggiano & meatballs. It's ridiculously huge. I ate part of it and then wrapped the rest around myself and wore it as a coat.

1900 Broadway
New York, NY 10023

yikes

Brick Lane Curry House

Brick Lane Curry House was featured on man vs. food. They have a curry dish called Phaal, which they describe as follows: An excruciatingly hot curry, more pain and sweat than flavor, for our customers who do this on a dare, we will require you to state a verbal disclaimer not holding us liable for any physical or emotional damage after eating this curry. If you do manage to finish your serving of curry, a bottle of beer is on us.

Who the heck makes something that doesn't taste good on purpose?

Obviously Brick Lane Curry House.

Unfortunately, I'm a sucker and can't pass something like this up. So we each ordered our own dish and an order of phaal to share (it seemed like a waste to order phaal as your main dish as it doesn't even taste good).

I ordered lamb saag because I like lamb and I like spinach and I have slightly large forearms so it satisfies my need to make sure i'm not Popeye. I'm not. Every time.

The phaal is terrible. It tastes like spicy. Or to quote Ralph Wiggum; "It tastes like burning." Ralph had a lit candle in his mouth but I don't think this tasted much worse. You basically took a bite of the phaal and then your mouth burned for ten minutes. We took turns taking larger and larger bites. Then we left to get ice cream from Sundaes and Cones.

306-308 E 6th St
New York, NY 10003

phaal

Donut Plant

Donut Plant has delicious donuts. Really, really delicious. Dunkin donuts sucks royally compared to Donut Plant.

Their claim to fame is their creme de leche donut. It's quite good and has a subtle leche filling, not at all like a creme donut.

They also have anywhere from 4 to 8 different flavors depending on when you arrive. I've had the aforementioned creme de leche, the strawberry, cashew, and creme brulee. The creme brulee donut is like a creme donut but so much better.

Now I have to buy some more.

These pictures are really bad because I forgot my camera and the one on my phone is pretty darn crappy.

379 Grand St
New York, NY 10002

creme brulee donut

cashew donut (strawberry donut to the left)

Brooklyn Diner

I've found that fat guys write good blogs about food. One of those blogs recommended Brooklyn Diner as the place to go in midtown Manhattan for a hamburger. I'm glad I found his blog because I otherwise would not have ever gone to the Brooklyn diner. I don't like things that are named incorrectly. I don't go to Pizzeria Uno Chicago Grill unless I'm in Chicago (and probably not then either).

The burger is $15 but it is delicious. $15 might sound outrageous but in New York it's not that bad. The burger came with cheese, tons of grilled onions and bacon. Quite good.

212 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019

El Reydel Sabor - Taco Cart

I miss mexican food. It's simply not very good here in New York. Barrio Chino is pretty good but i haven't found anything else. One of the MySpace VPs recommended a taco cart on 49th and 3rd and my Mexican deprived self decided to tag along.

El Reydel Sabor is a cart on the side of the road. I do not like eating out of cart on the side of the road. Ovens were not mean to have wheels and food should not be cooked outside in New York City. However, I miss Mexican food.

I bought two carne tacos and a chicken burrito. The tacos were okay but they used too much tortilla. The chicken burrito was also just okay. Overall not bad, and pretty good for New York, but nothing compared to the West Coast.

I quietly weep.

Taco Cart
49th between 3rd and Lexington

Marco Polo Cafe

Does dumplavoli sound like something you'd want to eat?

Dumplavoli are dumplings and ravioli mixed together because as everyone knows, Marco is an Italian first name and Polo is Chinese. Well, at least he visited there.

I actually don't remember which dumplavoli I ordered but it wasn't really that great. The pan-seared dumplings were also just okay, but neither of these were why I went to the Marco Polo Cafe.

The aforementioned cafe touts their signature pan-seared shanghai buns as the most delicious buns in town. I can't speak to that but I do know that they are pretty darn good. I would have liked a little less dough but the pork inside was very tasty. Well worth a visit to dumplavoli land.

102 St Marks Pl
New York, NY 10009

These pictures stink:

pan-seared shanghai buns

dumplings

dumplavoli

Spice Cove

Spice Cove is pretty good. I ordered the spicy okra appetizer and the lamb saag and then mixed them together. I think it went pretty well.

326 E 6th St
New York, NY 10003

lamb sagh

okra

Blue Nine Burger

People here say that Blue Nine Burger is the In N Out of the East Coast. I agree for two reasons. First, they both use wax paper to serve their burgers and second because they both serve burgers that are tiny and inadequate by themselves. Other than that they have nothing in common.

What makes Blue Nine interesting, besides that you can order candy and beer while you're there, is that the burgers can come one of three additional ways:

Mango Infusion - Lettuce, tomato, mango chili sauce on bun. Available with or without onions.
Medieval - Infused mustard, grilled onions, extra lettuce, pickles, sauce on both sides of the bun.
Firecracker - Lettuce, tomato with hot sauce. Available with or without onions.

The order they are listed is the order I like them in. Firecrack is just plain okay and just doesn't seem right. Medieval is good and mango is yummy.

Their fries stink but their milkshakes are pretty good as the mint chip shake actually had pieces of chocolate in it.


92 3rd Avenue
(between 12th St & 13th St)
New York, NY 10003

firecracker

mango

Philly's Cheese Steak

I have a rule about not going to restaurants that are named after places that aren't where the place is located. For example, I won't ever go to the Time Square deli on 32nd and Madison (Time square starts at 42nd and Broadway). However, I don't think Philly's Cheese Steak violates that rule because Philly Cheese steak is a kind of food and I don't want to have to go to France to eat french fries or go to Boston to have a boston creme donut. I also, probably, don't want to tell people I went to Philly's Cheese Steak.

It really just wasn't that good.



191 E Houston St
New York, NY 10002

Ashiya

Pork gyoza, shrimp shumai, and nabiyaki udon (wheat noodles with crab stick, chicken, raw egg, shrimp tempura fresh cake & vegetable in a hot pot).

Just okay. Gyoza were the best of the three.

167 1st Ave
New York, NY 10003

Urban Lobster

New England in New York City! What a great slogan! I'm from New England. And I'm in New York City. They must be talking about me.

Turns out they were talking about lobster, and not just any lobster, Urban Lobster. Most lobsters grow up in the ocean and enjoy a pretty good life, but the urban lobster was raised on the mean streets of Flatbush avenue and had to learn at an early age that justice is blind and nothing is free.

Well, you tell me what an Urban Lobster is. A lobster who likes rap music? A New Yorker with a bad sunburn?

Regardless, an Urban Lobster is a mediocre lobster at best. The lobster roll wasn't even as good as the ones my friends and I purchased at a baseball game in Houston. How that's even possible is beyond me.

The side dishes were pretty good if you're standard for good is at the level of what you would get if you went to the grocery store, bought the ingredients and dumped them in a bowl.

So sad.

240 East Houston Street
New York

Lobster in buttery hot dog bun

artichoke and sun-dried tomato salad

tomato and feta cheese salad

Zaitzeff

The Zaitzeff near Wall Street is apparently popular enough that they were able to open a second location in the East Village. Judging by the popularity of the East Village location, either the prior sentence is a lie or a big mistake.

Zaitzeff specializes in burgers. Sirloin burgers and Kobe burgers. Their burgers are served with lettuce, tomato and sautéed onions on a Portuguese muffin. A Portuguese muffin is just like an English muffin except instead of an English accent it talks like someone from Brazil. Or at least it would.

You'll see from the pictures that Zaitzeff is a little too liberal with the ketchup. The burgers were definitely much closer to medium rare than they were to medium (as ordered) but they were tasty. The Portuguese muffin is pretty cool because it has a high tolerance for the burger juices so it doesn't really get soggy. Overall the burgers are pretty good. If you order the hot peppers, they're not messing around.

18 Avenue B
New York, NY 10009

Sirloin burger

Kobe burger

S'Mac

Yay Mac & Cheese. That's all this place serves and it's freakin' awesome. You can even build your own with two choices of cheese and 3 toppings allowed before they start hitting you with additional charges.

I went with pre-made selections, going for the cheeseburger (cheddar, american, and ground beef) and the cajun (cheddar, pepper jack, andouille sausage, green pepper, onions, celery and garlic). They were both good but could have been a little cheesier. I'll add more cheese next time.

There was an unplanned delay in between the receiving of the food and the picture taking, so the cheese had a head start on its insatiable goal of congealing. I wish cheese would stop doing that.

345 East 12th Street,
New York, NY 10003

hamburger

cajun

AJ Maxwell's Steakhouse

3 people walk into a fancy steakhouse for lunch. One of them is treating. No one orders steak.

I don't know where the punchline is.

I ordered salmon. It was ok. The bread was pretty good and the steamed spinach was good too. The restaurant itself is very fancy and very pricey. The waitstaff was really attentive and did such a good job that i felt ashamed for not ordering steak and running up a larger bill.

horseradish encrusted salmon