1 Week in Amsterdam 9/15-9/22/2018 Part 2 3-4 Forks

Kantjil and de Tijger    Spuistraat 291-293, 1012 VS Amsterdam                                               3 Forks

One thing I didn't really realize about Amsterdam before I started going for work was the plethora of Indonesian restaurants.  It's not the type of SE Asian cuisine that you see a lot of globally - it's usually more Thai or Vietnamese.  But since it used to be a Dutch colony it all makes sense now.  I haven't really eaten Indonesian food since I was in Bali but there's only so much Dutch food I can take.

I hadn't seen Vik in a really long time and through the power of social media I found out he was in Amsterdam at the same time.  We picked a local Indonesian place that was near my office and met up for lunch.  We split the lunch Rijsttafel - which is basically a sampling of a bunch of different small dishes for 2 people (17 euros each).  It's a great deal and it allows you to sample a little bit of everything.  It included white rice, chicken satay with peanut sauce, beef cooked in a "spicy" coconut sauce, green beans in black sauce, steamed vegetables with "spicy" peanut sauce and shrimp crackers.  I put the word spicy in quotations because none of it was spicy at all.  Most of the food was simple but tasty but we both commented on how it could have used more flavoring and heat to it.  I wasn't sure if they dumbed it down for us or if it was not spicy in general but it was definitely missing something to it.

While there wasn't anything specifically to complain about the food, it reminded me of why Indonesian food isn't the most popular.   It just doesn't pack the same flavor punch as the other SE Asian cuisines but if you're tired of meat and fries, it's worth checking out while you're in Amsterdam.

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Restaurant de Utrechtsedwarstafel   Utrechtsedwarsstraat 107-109 1017 WD Amsterdam      3.5 Forks

Yes, that is quite the Dutch restaurant name.  I feel kind of bad that all my reviews lately have been pretty lukewarm but that's kind of the way things have been in Amsterdam food-wise this 2nd go round.  While I love the city and think it has a lot to offer, only on very rare instances have I been absolutely blown away by the food here.  Most of my experiences on this 2nd trip were honestly adequate at best. 

We came here for a partner dinner and we pretty much took up the entire space.  It's quite cozy and seemed like it was family run - the owner clearly took a lot of pride in the food and wine. 

It was a pre-fixe meal given how many people there were, so I didn't get to choose my meal but most of dishes that came out were dishes that I probably would have ordered anyways:  duck rillette (quite good and the best part of the meal),  sliced tuna steak with beefsteak tomatoes (well balanced) and veal cheeks with kale (cheeks were too thinly sliced).   The food itself wasn't bad but what was not great and brought the rating down was the wine.   I felt so bad because the owner was clearly super proud of his collection and brought out this one red that was just so funky that none of us could put it down. My client, who isn't shy about things, made a clear icky face while drinking it.  They ended the meal with a meringue dessert that was a good palate cleanser but also not anything super creative.

This place is definitely a bit more local and off the beaten path, which I totally appreciate.  Maybe it's all these pre-fix meals I've been having with large groups that skews the experience but it's still didn't feel up to the level of food I am normally used to in NYC.

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Tujuh Maret  Utrechtsestraat 73, 1017 VJ Amsterdam                                                                 4 Forks

This isn't a normal place I would give 4 forks too but I feel like I've been super harsh lately and needed to give some love.  Comparing this place to the other Indonesian restaurant, I definitely enjoyed this meal more.   

We walked in right at noon and the place was just being set up for the lunch hour.  There was literally one man doing everything - and when I say everything I mean everything.  From taking the chairs down, to taking our order, cooking the food and then finally serving us.  It was kind of crazy and as much as we complained about the slow service, it was very understandable.  A few people actually did walk out because they couldn't take it.  But once we finally ordered, the food came out relatively quickly.  I got a hard boiled egg in a sweet soy sauce as an appetizer, split the shrimp skewers that came with the same sweet sauce and then got as my entree chicken in a coconut sauce with green beans and fried noodles.  Similar to the other Indonesian restaurant, the dish was too mild but it still had better flavor to it, which is why I'm not going to ding it as much.  It honestly felt like I was eating in someone's living room (in a good way) and it was just nice to eat some white rice and Asian food for a change.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Shalom Japan Visited 8/18/2018 3 Forks

Shalom Japan  310 S 4th St., Brooklyn, NY 11211

My friend Nathalie and I were finally going to meet up after randomly meeting up in Sweden a few months ago.  She told me she has never really been to Brooklyn before....what?!?  I felt like I had to show her around Williamsburg (plus she's super into real estate, so we wanted to walk around the 'hood) so  I'm super bummed that we ended up here because I feel like it didn't really do the neighborhood justice. 

The theme here is exactly what you would imagine - Japanese and Jewish food.  It's definitely not something you see anywhere but Nathalie Jewish and I'm Asian, so ha, it was worth a shot.  They have a very limited brunch menu, so definitely read up on the menu ahead of time to decide if there's anything you want to eat.  The brunch menu is 7 items that quite frankly aren't too brunch-y:  egg and cheese sandwich, matzoh ball ramen, lox bowl, burger and french toast.  So if you aren't feeling any of those things, you're SOL.  I got the egg and cheese sandwich, which don't get me wrong, I love a good egg and cheese but it feels kind of lame to get in a sit-down restaurant.  The sandwich was totally if fine, it not a bit uninspiring.  The bread was pretty dry but I will give it props for a beautiful presentation.  Nathalie got the lox bowl which was basically lox, rice, avocado, and cucumber - it looks fine but I'm not sure she left feeling super full or satisfied.  The food was by no means bad, it was just "fine" which doesn't quite meet the high standards of the other places in Brooklyn.

I appreciate the creativity of what they are trying to do here but the execution just wasn't there for me.  I heard that the ramen there is pretty good, so maybe that's the thing to try there.  Sadly, it's definitely not the place you want to bring someone who has never been to Brooklyn before either!  Total bill: $17/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

1 Week in Sweden - Part 2 - Visited 6/30/2018 - 7/8/2018 3 - 3.5 Forks

Sandhamns Värdshus AB  Sandhamn 101, 130 39 Sandhamn, Sweden                                   3.5 Forks

One of the must-dos while you're in Sweden (especially during the summer months) is to take a boat ride out to the archipelago - there are hundreds of tiny islands within a few short hours from Stockholm.  Apparently this is where most Swedes spend their summer time, it's like their version of the Hudson Valley or something like that.

We decided to check out the more populated island of Sandhamn - it's the furtherest island to the east and is about 2 hours away.  I envisioned adorable small red farm houses, local bakeries, lots of greenery but with a twist of Girl with a Dragon Tattoo edge.  Unfortunately, the day we went it was pretty cold and rainy, so it made for kind of a bummer of a trip but it did have cute small houses, local bakeries and a scary empty forrest.   

By the time we got off the boat, we were starving.  You dock basically at the most populated part of the island and there are maybe 4 restaurants tops on the entire island.  We went for the one that most people seem headed to and that had a nice outdoor view even though it was drizzling. 

This cute restaurant is attached to a small hotel if you want to stay there overnight.  The menu is very traditional Swedish food - shrimp sandwiches, herring, fish stew, etc.  I opted to get a small shrimp sandwich as well as the fried herring dish.  They both felt like very traditional dishes I had to get while in Sweden.  The shrimp sandwich was delightful.  It was an open face sandwich with small peeled shrimp, egg, dill, thinly sliced cucumbers, lettuce and some micro greens.  I knew after tasting 1 bite that I should have gotten the large one instead.  But I still had a full plate of herring with mashed potatoes and lingonberries coming up.    While I love fish, I don't love fish bones even though I have no problems pulling them out while I eat.  Unfortunately these bones were so small, it was impossible to pull out and every time I swallowed one, I just felt gross.  The flip side is that the mashed potatoes and lingonberries were delicious.  Even though I didn't love the fish, it's herring and you can't come to Sweden without trying it.  Now I can cross it off my list.   

Even though we left the island pretty quickly, it was still worth a visit.  Just cross your fingers for sun when you're there.  Total bill:  $48/pp with tax and tip

Surfers  Regeringsgatan 8, 111 39 Stockholm, Sweden                                                             3.5 Forks

After over 2 weeks in Europe, I was craving some Asian food.  Not that the food I had been having  in Amsterdam and Stockholm were bad, but I was in need of flavor.   Surfers is a hipster Asian food chain and that was packed with people when we got there but we were willing to wait it out.   It's not really in a real brick and mortar space but more like an open pop-up tent which was kind of weird.  I wonder what they do in the winter time?

They have some pretty tasty cocktails to sip on while you wait which is nice since it ended up being quite a wait.   We finally sit down and our waiter is ridiculously attractive - he could have been another Hemsworth brother.  Obviously everyone in Sweden is gorgeous, so it should have come as no surprise when everywhere you turn,  you are surrounded by beautiful people. 

The menu is kind of like a "best of" Asian food, small plate style where everything is 98 SEK ($10 USD).  We got the eggplant with cumin, dan dan noodles, fried tofu and I got the bang bang chicken.  Let's be honest, it's Asian food in Sweden, so it wasn't authentic or traditional but it got the job done for the most part.  The dan dan noodles were drenched in red chili oil which was a bit of a turn off.  We left room for dessert and got the mango mouse dessert which was actually pretty tasty and a nice palate cleanser to the oil and spice of the food.  We also got these small cute chocolate truffles which paired well with the mango.  

It was a nice reprieve to finally eat something with spice and flavor to it.  The vibe was pretty cool - full of young, hip, locals - so for that reason I would say it's a fun place to go.  But it's not a major culinary destination if you're looking for a foodie restaurant.  Total bill: $94 for 2 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Rutabaga 

Södra Blasieholmshamnen 6 

111 48 Stockholm, 

Sweden                                            3 Forks

Rutabaga was our one fancy pants meal of the trip.  It's by famed Swedish chef 

Mathias Dahlgren who has won the Bocuse D'Or and has several Michelin stars to his name.  So we were obviously very excited for our meal.  

You can tell when you walk in that it'll be a very elevated dining experience.  The one "catch" to eating here is that it's 100% vegetarian.  It was shockingly easy for Lav to get around Sweden food wise but we hadn't yet been to a place that was 100% veggie friendly. 

The menu here is broken down into 2 pre-fixe options:  small or large.  The small is $55 USD with 4 dishes and a small snack while the large is $89 USD with 6 dishes, also with a small snack.  We figured we came all the way here, might as well go big.  They don't really have an extensive wine (the wine pairing was an additional $70-$129 USD) and their virgin drinks were $12 USD, so we didn't really have the full-on experience of a food and wine here. 

The "snacks" were plentiful and could have easily been a full meal on its own - we got yummy bread with yogurt, steamed cucumbers, fried beans wrapped in a thin pancake, and tomato consume.  This was all before the actual meal which was carrots, tartar of beefsteak tomatoes, truffle pizza, 63 degree egg in yuzu broth, cherry sorbet and rhubarb with vanilla ice cream.  Despite the fact that everything was vegetarian, I didn't really miss meat.  But the whole meal did kind of taste like it was forged out of a Scandinavian forrest in this very hipster manner.  While I appreciated the artistry of everything and it was very clean tasting, it felt like it was missing some heat or flavor to it.  I felt like this was something Goop would recommend but not Anthony Bourdain (RIP).  In any case, it's a beautiful setting and a very thoughtful meal but I wasn't fell a bit short to me.  Plus I didn't think the value was really there - spending over $100 but with only 1 glass of wine.  Total price:  $112/pp with tax and tip

Win Son Visited 5/25/2018 3 Forks

Win Son 159 Graham Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11206

While many people know and love Chinese food, there is a difference between Chinese food and Taiwanese food.  There isn't a huge difference but there are certain dishes that are unique to Taiwan, so it was interesting to see this place pop up where it was all about Taiwanese food.  Plus it was on my street (although it's much closer to the edge of Bushwick) so I felt I had to check it out.  My mom was in town so I figured she was a good judge of whether or not this place was good.

We went after checking out an open house near by on a Friday and the place was jammed packed....with tons of young hipsters.  Not that I am surprised but it was a bit disappointing to see that is wasn't the type of place that had more Asians in it given the uniqueness of the food.  The menu has the "best of" Taiwanese food on there like O-a jian (oyster pancake), stinky tofu, zhajian mian (my favorite Chinse noodle dish), so we were pretty excited to try a bunch of stuff.  Unfortunately, it's been a while since I visited,  so I'm a little fuzzy all the dishes we got but I remember getting the o-a jian ($12), pea shoot tops ($11), clams and basil ($14) and the zhajian mian ($16).  These are all dishes that I normally love and while they weren't terrible here they just felt, well too hipster for me.  It didn't taste traditional or authentic - it's like they were prettied up for the audience.  I've had the o-a jian in a night market in Taiwan and it's delicious and the one here was fine but it just didn't wow me in any way.  We had the same sentiment for all the other dishes.  I'm sure I'm being super judge-y and harsh because it's not in some dingy basement of a mall in Flushing or Chinatown but my mom and I walked out feeling kind of meh about it.  But I will say that if this encourages others to check out and see Taiwanese food as a separate and different cuisine as Chinese food, I'm all for it.   All in all, the pricing is affordable and the crowd is young and fun so if you're looking for a different cuisine in East Williamsburg, I'd still recommend it but I personally am not running back to it asap. 

Photo Credit: Yelp

24 hours in New Rochelle Visited 5/5/2018 3 - 3.5 Forks

North End Tavern  1301 N Ave., New Rochelle, NY 10804                                                     3.5 Forks

While I still love NYC, every now and then it's nice to get out of the city and visit the 'burbs.  Two of Aarti and Will's friends, who later became my friends too, moved to New Rochelle a few years ago and we try to have get togethers out there every one in a while. 

We stopped by North End Tavern for lunch on a nice Saturday afternoon - the inside was closed for a private party and they said we had to wait for a table outside even though there was a free table.  After a bit of back and forth, we finally got seated but it really didn't have to be so difficult.  The menu is your standard bar/pub food.  Lots of sandwiches, salads, and bar appetizers.  After a bunch of hemming and hawing if I should be healthy and get a kale salad or say fuck it, I opted to get the French dip ($12) with a side of sweet potato fries.   The sandwich was pretty huge sandwich - it came with a hefty serving of thinly sliced roast beef on soft but toasted french bread, onion rings, melted gouda and served with a side of au jus.  I gotta say it was a pretty decent sandwich and the sweet potato fries were nice and crispy.  I was incredibly full and happy afterwards - I can see why people in the area come here if they are looking for solid casual bar food.   I wouldn't go as far to say it's was an amazing meal but it hit the spot and prevented me from being extremely hangry which was key.  Total bill:  $21/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Kumo Japanese Restaurant    77 White Plains Rd., Scarsdale, NY 10583                                   3 Forks

One of my biggest food pet peeves is the invention of Asian fusion food - especially places that serve you every since Asian cuisine under the sun.  I mean a place can't be that good if they are serving you Japanese, Chinese and Thai food all at the same time.  That is a luxury you have in NYC, where you have 100's of great options for each of those categories - there is no need for 1 place to jam them all together.   But I guess when you live in the 'burbs and there aren't many choices,  they best to kind of lump them all together.  I'm also weary of places that have a 100 page menu a la the Cheesecake Factory.  So when Nat and Kinney suggested we go here, I was a bit skeptical.  I'll say it wasn't all that bad and I probably could have ordered better as some of the stuff on the menu did look/sound better good. 

While the menu isn't 100 pages, it is legitimately 20 pages long.  It has a mix of sushi, ramen, hibachi, stir fry, and anything else you can think of - you name it, they probably have it.  The prices of the sushi platters were surprisingly expensive - a sushi/sashimi combo was $32.  Instead of doing that, I decided to go with a sashimi bento dinner box which came with shrimp shumai, shrimp and veggie tempura, california roll, rice, and miso soup for $28.  The Asian in me thought it seemed like a more economical option.  In the end I should have stuck with my initial choice of something more sushi focused as the majority of the bento box was just ok.  There wasn't anything really creative or exciting about this dish.  While I wouldn't say that it missed the mark completely, it was just meh.  The sashimi itself was cut super thin so the point where I didn't really feel like I was eating sushi.  The same meh-ness can be said of our Yummy Asparagus appetizer ($6) - it was literally steamed asparagus with some kind of mustard sauce on it, how is that creative at all?

I will say that while I dislike places that mix and match ethnic cuisines, it does help when you have a large party of people with differing tastes.  While I got sushi, Aarti got stir fry, Kinney got ramen, Nat got some kind of teriyaki and unfortunately I can't remember what Will got but it was also something different from the rest of us.   I don't mean to crap all over this place as I could see that if I lived in the area coming here if there aren't any other good Asian places around - next time I'm here I would probably stick to a bunch of rolls or a sushi platter instead of trying to be cheap.  Total bill:  $34 with tax and tip (clearly we split the bill unevenly but I'm not really sure why!)

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill Visited 4/21/2018 4.5 Forks

Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill 55 Water St., Brooklyn, NY 11201

When I first read about Sugarcane Raw Bar, it sounded like some douchey Miami transplant.  Afterall, there was one location in Miami and another in Vegas so I assumed it was some big party/club restaurant.   I guess this is what I get for judging a book by its cover because I had a shockingly great time there with Allison before heading to a show at St. Ann's.  It's perfectly located right on Water Street in DUMBO with great water front views.  I should caveat that I was only there for happy hour so I can't speak to what it's like for an actual sit down meal or after hours. 

Happy hour is at the bar area only and it's from 4-7pm but be warned you should get there as early as possible.  Allison and I got there around 5:30pm on a Friday thinking it was still early but it was jam packed at the bar (the actual restaurant was empty).  We managed to squeeze ourselves into a corner spot which ended up being fine but if you're looking for a nice open spot on the couches, go early.  The happy hour cocktail menu is extremely extensive and incredibly reasonably priced - the drinks range from a strawberry balsamic cocktail to caiprinha to 3 different prosecco cocktails and all for $7.  Plus they have wine and beer for $5-7 too.  Very dangerous.  As for the food, they have a decent seafood line up of oysters and sushi as well as grilled chicken, goat cheese croquettes, brussels sprouts, and edamame.  Nothing on the food menu was more than $6-7.  You can easily make a filling meal from the menu.  If you order these dishes on the regular dinner menu, they are easily twice the price. 

Allison and I ordered almost everything on the menu since we had a lot of time to kill and I had 3 different cocktails.  You'd think that for this price the sushi would be meh but it was shockingly fresh and good.  The oysters were also shucked well - unfortunately I can't remember if they were East Coast or West Coast ones but I remember thinking to myself that it was not bad.  If I had to pick something that was eh, it would be the grilled chicken.  It was basically a grilled chicken skewer with some glaze on it but if you need something with a bit more protein, it's not a bad nibble.  The cocktails were fun and refreshing, if not a bit on the sweeter side. 

The biggest downside is that it's so crowded that the service is a bit hard to flag down.  I feel for them given how many people they have to deal with and they were apologetic about some of the mis-steps (i.e. we didn't get one of our dishes and the bartender was super nice about chasing them down).    If I worked in DUMBO, am going to a show in the area or just wanted to take a field trip to DUMBO during happy hour, I would happily return here in a heartbeat.  Total bill:  $57/pp with tax and tip 

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Hazel Visited 12/22/2017 3 Forks

Hazel  808 V St NW, Washington, DC 20001

Whenever I meet up with Dan in DC, he tries to find a fun trendy place in the city, which I appreciate.  We both agreed that we didn't really get all the hype around this one and it was a bit of #fail, although he seemed to dislike it more than I did.  The setting of the restaurant was totally fine - it was a bit dark but they had a nice outdoor space that looked like it would have been a lot of fun if it wasn't 20 degrees outside.

The menu here is kind of a mish mosh of a bunch of random small plates as well as a duck special for 2-3 people that I would have totally indulged in if I were with my friends Jen and Kevin.  Instead, Dan and I opted for the zucchini bread ($15), steak tartare ($15), roasted sunchokes ($13) and the gnocchi ($16).  The zucchini bread came out quite quickly (almost too quickly) and was served with a side of foie gras mousse topped with chamomile gelee and bee pollen.  The bread itself was nice, warm and slightly sweet from an overdose of butter on it.  The foie gras was kind of a weird pairing with it - it just felt odd to spread foie gras on a sweet buttered piece of zucchini  bread.  I'm also not a huge fan of gelee either.  Dan and I kept saying that we only liked the bread yet couldn't stop putting foie gras on each piece.   Oh well - who wants to waste foie gras?  Next was the steak tartare and I was on my own for this dish  since Dan wouldn't eat it and it honestly was the best dish of the night.  It was a nice helping of chopped up tartare served with a yolk on the side - the pros of this dish was that it came with a side of tater tots which I thought was a genius way to serve it up, the con was that it also came with a weird topping of onion dip.  I like my steak tartare really clean tasting and a creamy dip on top it didn't work for me.  But I loved the combination of the tater tots with it - yes, it seems a bit childish but I will eat tater tots in any format.  Next came the roasted sunchokes, which we got mostly because the table next to us got it and it looked healthy and green.  It was more like a salad with kale, sunchokes and pieces of fried tofu.  Unfortunately it was majorly overdressed - like to the point where the kale was soaking in dressing.  Total buzzkill.  I liked the idea of the dish but it wasn't executed really well.  Last came the gnocchi which came with a pork kimchi ragu and smoked pecorino.  The gnocchi itself was nice and soft and the pork kimchi ragu was a creative topping.  It was a totally fine dish but it could have used a bit more flavor or heat to it given that it had kimchi.

Overall, the meal was totally fine and enjoyable enough.  But neither Dan nor I felt like it would be a place that we would run back to and we didn't really get what all the buzz was about.  I would definitely come back for the steak tartare and ask them to hold the onion dip and pile on extra tater tots.  Maybe the duck dinner is the way to go but I guess I'll never know.  Total bill:  $57/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit: Yelp

Rice and Gold Visited 11/20/2017 3 Forks

Rice and Gold  50 Bowery, New York, NY 10013

One of the very few perks of my job is that sometimes get invited to hotel parties and openings as they are trying to win my client's corporate business.  I had been to the 50 Bowery Hotel before and it's actually a really cool and funky hotel in the heart of Chinatown.  It's got a fantastic rooftop bar but the last time I was there, the restaurant hadn't opened yet.  When it did open, the hotel's GM invited me and my team for a private dinner there. 

I didn't know at the time but the restaurant is run by Dale Talde and unfortunately I just haven't had any good luck with any of his previous restaurants before.  There was just something off about all of them and while this was one better than both of them, I'm not sure I would come screaming back here again.  Part of it was probably because our hotel partners really ordered way too much food and I was so full before the main dishes arrived that it kind of ruined the entire experience. 

Our hotel partners kindly created a custom menu just for us - it turned out to be an 12 course meal.  Most of it were dishes I probably would have wanted to try to so I can't complain about the choices - it was just the quantity of food.  Since there were 11 of us they brought out 3 of everything on the menu, so that was 33 dishes that came past our table.  Way too much food.  As with every other Dale Talde restaurant, the menu here is Asian fusion (you know my feeling about Asian fusion).   The menu started with candied pork buns, lobster and shrimp hargow and pho soup dumplings.  For entrees, we had the crispy papaya salad, octopus skewer, thai fried chicken rice, whole smoke branzino and pork sisig.  For sides, they brought out fried Brussels sprouts and charred eggplant.  On paper they all sounded delicious and if I wasn't a picky eater about Asian food, I probably would have really enjoyed everything.  But for me, I believe you should stick with the traditional ways for some of these dishes - like the hargow.  No need for the lobster and the soup dumplings plus pho soup base didn't really go together in my opinion.  They weren't necessarily bad dishes but I just prefer the traditional versions of each.  The pork buns were more like the char siu bao type and not the pork belly type that I was envisioning in my head.  They were tasty and small, so it was really easy to pop like 3 or 4 in your mouth easily.

The crispy papaya salad would have been good if it didn't have all the fried component to it.  The octopus skewer was nice and tender but not particularly Asian for me.  But this point I was so full and nothing I really ate after this point tasted good because my stomach was so full.  The fried rice was eh - I mean, it was a chicken fried rice so there wasn't much that was super impressive about it.  I did regret not having more room for the branzino.  I love a whole fish and the few bites I had of this were pretty tasty with the caper ginger relish and citrus ponzu.  I didn't try the pork sisig but unfortunately not many of us did.  It came on a bed of broad noodles but since no one really touched it, the noodles ended up all sticking together.   I didn't try any of the sides but apparently they were a huge hit with everyone else.   For dessert they brought out some kind of citrus dish and ice cream - it was a nice way to cleanse the palate from an otherwise very heavy meal.

Overall, it wasn't a terrible experience but just very overwhelming with the sheer amount of food put in front of us.  We ended up having a ton of leftovers and Susanne took some home but she mentioned that it smelled really bad the next day, so she ended up throwing it all out, which is a shame.  I will say that the space and design is really funky and cool - it matches the aesthetic of the rest of the hotel.  Given that this hotel is in the heart of Chinatown, it would be a mistake to come here to eat Asian food when you're literally surrounded by tons of more authentic options.  True, they may look a bit more sketchy but food wise, you would be getting a more traditional meal for a lot less money too.  I would come here for a few cocktails and appetizers and definitely hit the rooftop bar before heading out into the city for a real meal. 

Photo Credit:  Yelp

48 Hours in Durham, North Carolina - Part 2 Visited 9/8-10/2017 3.5 -4 Forks

Foster's Market  2694 Durham Chapel Hill Blvd., Durham, NC 27707                                    3.5 Forks

I was excited for Foster's because everyone kept raving about the grits bowl there and how amazing it was, so I was eagerly awaiting my chance to try it.  It's a super cute country market/cafe type place - you can walk around and buy all sort of adorable Southern focused food items and then they have a entire prepared foods section where you can order food to-go or to stay.  They have a lovely outdoor patio where you can sit and enjoy your food. 

I was all set to order the grits bowl when the guy at the counter said it would take over 45 mins for it to be ready.  I was super bummed because the bowl sounded amazing - stone ground yellow cheddar grits, two fried eggs, black beans and salsa.   Even though I wasn't in a huge hurry to go anywhere, it seemed a bit ridiculous to wait that long for food.  He said that we wanted something faster we could either order the farm plate or breakfast biscuit and those still came with a side of grits.  I'm not sure how they works where we could still get a side of grits but couldn't get an entire bowl of it.  Isn't it the same thing except the bowl is bigger and had more ingredients mixed in?  In any case, I wasn't going to argue with him and got the farm plate ($10) which came with 2 scrambled eggs, choice of meat (I got the country sausage), herb cheddar biscuit, fresh fruit and a side of cheese grits.  

You order at the counter, you seat yourself anywhere and then they come and find you.  Normally places will give you a number on a stick so that they can find you easily but here instead they take your name and then just scream it across the whole restaurant while they walk around with your food. There has got to be a better way for them to do it because most of the time you're trying to eat our food but the waiters are just running around screaming "Jenny! Is there a Jenny?".  In any case, my food came relatively quickly and in true Southern fashion it was hearty and great - for the most part. The biscuit was fluffy and you could tell that the sausage patty was home made.  It was easy enough to make your own biscuit sandwich with the eggs and sausage.  The Rise sandwich was better but this one was also really satisfying as well.  Ironically enough the thing that wasn't good about this dish was the grits.  They were actually really plain and flavorless.  I'm normally not someone who puts hot sauce on anything for flavor but for this, I dumped a bunch of hot sauce to give it some kind of flavor profile.  I was shocked at how bland it was and this was the whole reason we came here.  Aarti commented how it must have been a bad batch because it was normally much better than this.  It's too bad that I didn't have enough time to come back for another try.  Total bill:  $29 for 2 with tax, tip and coffees

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Rose's Meat Market and Sweet Shop 121 N Gregson St., Durham, NC 27701                           4 Forks

Even though Aarti and I were pretty full from our breakfast at Foster's, we had to stop by Rose's Meats and Sweets because Will and Aarti's friend is the pastry chef there and they were insistent that we stop by for a bite before we left for NYC.   When I walked in, this place reminded me of a place that you would easily find in Brooklyn.  It had a super hipster feel complete with heavily tattooed chefs and waiters, but I'm not saying this is a bad thing at all - in fact, it was nice to something that was very non-Southern.  Even the name has an artisanal feel to it, doesn't it?

Another surprising element was that the menu is actually Asian and not a BBQ focused place, which is what I would have thought with a place that had "meat market" in it.  The menu changes daily but they had things like steamed buns, silken tofu, smashed cucumber and ramen and then the dessert portion was more Southern focused with pies, ice cream, ice cream sandwiches, cookies and tarts. When we sat down the waitress told us there was only 1 ramen ($13) left, so of course without even knowing what was in it, I had to have it.  It was barely 1:30pm and they were already out of it, so I guess it must be good!  Plus everyone around us was inquiring about it so I figured I didn't have any time to waste.

I was pleasantly surprised by how tasty it was given that this wasn't a ramen shop.  It was a fairly traditional ramen with a salty flavorful pork broth, chashu, egg and greens in it.  The noodles were soft, the pork sliced thin and the egg was poached well so what's not to love??  It would have been nice to have some seaweed but overall I was impressed with the dish.

I was stuffed to the gills but of course we had to have dessert and the flavored ice cream sandwiches were awesome.  They are huge and the cookie is more like a soft gingerbread consistency and the ice cream is hard but not too hard that you can't bite into it.  We had a few samples the night before and trust me, they can be very addictive.  Unfortunately we had to run to the airport so we couldn't stay long but it was a lovely glimpse of a funky cool restaurant that caught me by surprise in what is otherwise a cute Southern town.  Total bill:  $35 for 3 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Parachute Visited 9/2/2017 3.5 Forks

Parachute 3500 N Elston Ave., Chicago, IL 60618

I don't often get excited about new places in Chicago, not because it's not a city full of amazing restaurants but I've been there so many times before in my life that I know that I'll usually get an opportunity to cross many of them off my list at some point.  But Parachute had continued to allude me for almost a year.  It's been one of the most buzzed about restaurants in the city for a while and it was even awarded a Michelin Star recently.  Deanna and I had tried to go several times but it either never seemed to work out or there wasn't a reservation available. 

This time we were determined to go and made a 6pm reservation.  Eating this early usually doesn't bother me but this time around it kind of backfired on us.  We got a late start on lunch and it was so filling that by the time 6pm rolled around we were so not hungry.  We tried to move it but it wasn't possible so we decided to power through it anyways.  

You wouldn't have guessed it but the cuisine here is Korean fusion.  It's definitely not your mom and pop Korean place but it's got strong elements of Korean food complete with banchan.  It was our mistake to come here on a full stomach so I would say if you come and check it out, come on an empty stomach and get the tasting menu for $68.  The couple next to us got it and it looked awesome. We tried to order a few dishes to make it worth our while here.  We got the bing bread (half order $7), vegetable tempura ($6), broccoli ($15) and a vegetable bi bim bop ($22).  There were tons of other things on the menu that sounded great - but they also had meat in it so it was hard for me to order 5 plates to eat on my own (not that I haven't done that before).

They are famous for their bing bread and I can see why.  It's warm baked potato bread with bits of bacon in it and it's delicious.  Since it had bacon it it, I had to eat the entire half portion myself (I took some home later) which was A-ok by me.  The vegetable tempura was also great - not greasy and served with a mayo dipping sauce.  The only issue is that the mayo had some kind of fish sauce in it, so Deanna asked for some other kind of dipping sauce - something basic like soy would be ok but they were like "we don't have anything else".  How does an Asian restaurant NOT have soy sauce or some kind of other dipping sauce?!?  It was so weird.  Next came the broccoli which was super finely chopped up broccoli with pistachios and dates.  It was basically broccoli rice, which was good but it wasn't something that I felt was very Asian or super interesting.  Next came the vegetable bi bim bop - I'll be honest, I don't remember much about this dish since it was over a month ago at this point but that can't really be a good sign right?

Two other things of note.  One, the majority of the space is taken up by a long communal table.  I've never been a huge fan of communal tables and this place reminded me why.  I could hear every single word of every conversation around us - so clearly they could hear us.  It was just too close for comfort for me.  Two, the soundtrack in there is AWESOME.  It's all old-school hip hop and it did make up for the slightly annoying set-up.

Overall, I wished I had come here under better circumstances and able to order more food.  I really didn't take took full advantage of my time there and would definitely be open to going back. Total bill:  $35/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Talde Visited 8/30/2017 2.5 Forks

Talde  8 Erie St., Jersey City,  NJ 07302

There's been a lot of buzz around Jersey City as the new place to live and eat given how expensive everything else in Manhattan and Brooklyn have become.  Talde's original location is in Park Slope and I remember given it a scathing review but I had to actually go back and re-read to job my memory on why I hated it so much.  Yikes, I did not like it at all.  But when my VP was in town and suggested Talde in Jersey City, I was trying to keep an open mind that maybe it would be different at this location, plus I've never really eaten in Jersey City so I wanted to see what all the buzz was about. 

Umm, not to sound like an elitist but if this is one of the better restaurants in JC, I don't have a ton of high hopes for the area.  It is located on a bustling cute street in the neighborhood which seemed to be lots of fun.  The restaurant itself was open and spacious and nicely designed.  We got there on a Thursday night and they had a live band in front that was so loud that I could barely hear or understand the person standing 2 inches from me.  That was one of my first problems with this place - you're not a bar so why do you have deafening music playing?  We were a fairly large party (about 15 people) so we were seated at this long concrete slab in the middle of the restaurant.  Our waiter was very nice but when you have this big of a party, the waiter should try to take control of the situation otherwise it becomes chaos with ordering, which is what happened.  Everyone was confused, no one knew who was order for who and in the end we split up into 3 sections and had people from each part of the table ordered for their little area.  The menu overall isn't huge, it has about 5 noodle dishes and 5 entrees and a handful of appetizers and sides.  We asked the waiter how we should order and he said something crazy like 4 appetizers, 1 noodle, 1 entree and a side PER PERSON (turns out he wasn't entirely wrong).  We all thought that sounded crazy to order 6-7 dishes for person, so we ordered 4 total appetizers and 4 total noodle + entree + sides for our little corner of 5 people.  We got yuzu guacamole, edamame bao, pretzel pork and chive dumplings, spring rolls, chow fun, whole branzino, hanger steak, and blue crab fried rice. 

The waiter did warn us that the food will come out as it's ready but with this big of a group that's a huge mistake.  They should course it out otherwise only certain parts of the table will get food while others will be waiting around.  And that's exactly what happened.  We waited FOREVER for even just the appetizers to come out and they were so small for a group of 5 that we were splitting them into tiny pieces so that everybody could have something and not starve to death.  The descriptions of everything on the menu seemed a little off than what they were.  For example, the yuzu guacamole was really more crispy rice with some avocado spread on top.  Granted the menu did mention crispy rice, but the headline was guacamole and that's not how people expect to see guacamole.  The edamame bao was weird and again it did say on the menu that it was a falafel format but that was buried in the description.  When most people see edamame, I don't think they assume it's chopped up into a falafel.  As someone who loves chow fun, this one was not good.  First, it comes out all rolled up which is such a mistake because it gets sticky and dried out really quickly if it's not soaking in moisture.  I immediately tried to break it apart and drown it in the pork and mustard green base but it still ended up being really dry and hard to eat - good chow fun should be slippery and moist (that sounds kind of gross).  Where the food did redeem itself was with the branzino and blue crab fried rice.  The branzino was wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed with turmeric and tomato - nothing more delicious and Asian to me than steamed whole fish.  The fried rice was a good addition and not too greasy or salty and it had a nice generous helping of blue crab meat in it.  The other parts of the table ordered a bunch of other things like the chicken, short ribs and pork that got passed down and weren't too bad.  By the time everyone got their food and we ate it, we had probably been at the restaurant for almost 3+ hours.   It was an incredibly exhausting meal. 

While the last few courses did redeem this place a bit, the insane amount of time we had to wait for our food and the obnoxiously loud music made it really hard for me to like this place.  After re-reading my previous review, it doesn't look like too much has changed from my last experience. While I'm still interested in seeing what JC has to offer, I'm not sure if this is really the best first impression.

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Where to Eat in the British Virgin Islands - Visited 5/18-5/22 3.5 - 4.5 Forks

CocoMaya   Spanishtown,  Virgin Gorda                                                                               4 Forks

After our dinner debacle at our hotel, we decided we need to venture off the island for our next meal. We asked our lovely concierge where we should go and she said that the best restaurant in all of the BVI was on Virgin Gorda.  The only caveat is that due to the timing of the multiple ferries we had to take, we had to eat early (like 5 or 5:30pm) so that we could eat, relax and then catch the last ferry home.  So this meant, taking a 3:30pm ferry from Scrub Island to Tortola, and then catching the 4:30pm to Virgin Gorda, which would get us to Virgin Gorda around 5pm and then it's a 5 mins taxi ride to the restaurant.  The ferry ride from Tortola to Virgin Gorda is $30 RT, so technically you are spending an extra $30 to eat here but it's worth it.

Since we got there super early, we decided to sit at the bar and have a drink and relax first.  The restaurant is right on the beach and it's beautiful.  It reminded me a lot of Potato Head and the other beach side restaurants in Bali.  They've got a a few couches to lounge on right by the water and a fire pit as well as a swing by the bar.  We got there right at happy hour and the bartender was super nice and funny.  We nibbled on black bean dip and root chips at the bar which was addictive and very filling.  As the bar started to fill up, we decided to take a seat at our table but we could have easily sat at the bar all night.

The menu here is Asian Latin - which is something you definitely don't see in the Caribbean at all.  I was excited and skeptical to see sushi and other Asian food on the menu but it was worth a shot.  The waitress said that most things on the menu were tapas/share size with a few large plates being entree sized.  We were so excited to see so much variety that we totally over ordered.  We got the truffle fries ($8), vegetable empanadas ($9), fried rice w/out pork belly ($12), misa rasta sushi roll ($13), ceviche tacos ($16) and tuna sashimi ($18).  If the waitress hadn't stopped us, I would have tried to order the pad thai or korean rice cakes too.

The truffle fries were plentiful and very thick and crispy and not overpowering with the truffle oil. They were so filling and it felt like every time I ate a fry, they kept multiplying.  The waitress even commented how we didn't eat any of them, but I felt like we were constantly eating it!  The vegetable empanadas were ok - a bit bland and we probably wouldn't have ordered it again.  The fried rice was nice and albeit a smidge greasy (but when is fried rice not?!) and served with sriracha and a fried egg over it.  Yummy - flavor!! The ceviche tacos was 3 small hard shell tacos - one filled with salmon, one filled with snapper and another with tuna.  I forget that I really don't like hard shell tacos as I usually find them to be dry and overpower the rest of the dish.  It was the same thing here and the filling wasn't as much ceviche as it was raw fish with some guac and ponzu sauce.  But I would take that over a piece of boring grilled fish any day.  The tuna sashimi was pleasantly good - basic clean slices of tuna sashimi.  It felt so refreshing to eat healthy like this because resort food is so fried or greasy so this was a nice change of pace.   I didn't try the mista rasta roll which was basically a vegetarian roll with tofu, radish, cucumber, green onion and sesame seeds but it was nice that it was a viable option after the sad vegetarian experience from the other night.

While the concierge said that this was considered one of the best restaurants in the world, I wouldn't go as far as to say that but I will say that it was definitely a highlight to the trip.  It made me wish I was staying on Virgin Gorda so that I could hang out there longer, but alas we had to catch the 8pm ferry back to Tortola, but we did spent a good 2 1/2 hours there which was nice.  I would highly recommend this place no matter where you are staying in the BVIs for the atmosphere alone but the fact that it's Asian food makes it even better.  Total bill:  $71/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Cocomayarestaurant.com 

De Loose Mongoose   Trellis Bay, Tortola                                                                                3.5 Forks

Since the Scrub Island ferry lets you off at Trellis Bay, it's easy enough to hop into one of the nearby beach bars/restaurants for a bite to eat.  Apparently all the locals eat here so it was worth checking out.  Whereas Cocomaya was more bougie and catered to the rich British tourists, De Loose Mongoose was definitely more casual and laid back.  There was a good mix of locals and tourists which was nice.

It located all the way at the end of the bay to the left of the ferries but it's only a 10 min walk.  I liked the rasta-like vibe they had here and I could see it being a nice place to chill out during the day with a few beers or rum punches.  The menu is a mix of resort food like burgers and fish sandwiches but they also had other dishes like ribs, rotisserie chicken, and best of all Caribbean roti.  I was tempted to get roti since it's a local dish but I opted for another local dish of pan seared cracked conch ($21) and Aarti got the vegetarian roti ($10).  Unfortunately, the place also has 2 cats running around and Aarti was having a particularly bad allergic reaction to them that night so that kind of put a damper on things.

We tried to get our food to go but it was taking a while.  By the time the food came out, she was feeling better so we decided to quickly eat our food so that we could catch the next ferry home.  If you haven't had conch before it's kind of like escargot in terms of consistency and texture - these were dripping in a garlic oil and served with mashed potatoes (they called it chef's potatoes which I actually thought was going to be potato salad).  I could have done without so much oil to the pan seared-ness of the conch but it was good local dish that you definitely can't get outside of the Caribbean.  I had a few bites of Aarti's roti which was pretty good because of the curry kick to it and the actual roti was soft and chewy.

As with most places in the Caribbean, the service was a bit slow but I had a direct view of the kitchen and it was literally one man in the back making everything so I had to cut him some slack.  Also, don't order the wine here.  As if you didn't need to be reminded of that in the Caribbean but definitely stick with beer or cocktails here because Aarti's white wine was undrinkable.  This was a nice low key dinner and given how close it is to the ferry, I could see this being a go-to option for those staying at Scrub Island who need to get out of the resort for either lunch or dinner.  It's nothing mind blowing but it's close, easy and local - what else could you ask for?  Total bill:  $35/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Bare Boats BVI

The Last Resort    Bellamy Cay, Trellis Bay                                                                            4.5 Forks

I really love this place.  It might be a bit hippie or cheesy but I loved that our trip ended here.  We had originally wanted to go on Saturday night but they were having a charity event and it was a $75 cover.  No thanks!  So we went on Sunday night instead and I'm so glad we made it - I would have been really sad if we missed out on this experience. 

First, it's on this tiny tiny island in between Scrub Island and Tortola.  We kept seeing it on our way back and forth the two island but couldn't figure out what it was.  Finally we were told it's like an eco-friendly island with its own bar,  restaurant, and "museum".  The fun part is that you have to take another small speed boat from Trellis Bay to this island - when you get to the ferry docks, you call them on this funky walkie talkie at the docks and then they come get you in a speed boat.  But our ferry captain was so nice and called ahead for us, so that by the time we got to the docks, the guy was already waiting for us with the boat. Stepping off into the island, it reminded me a bit of Ruschmeyer's in the Hamptons but in a totally non-douchy way.  It had this large open air restaurant with a backyard/garden that has a giant life sized Connect 4 and Jenga to play with.  Plus it's got swings, couches and corn hole - all surrounded by the beautiful waters of the BVI.  

Unfortunately when we got there it was already dark, so we couldn't really play around in the garden but we did have some really nice fancy cocktails while we walked around.  The staff there are all adorable Brits who seemed to have quite the hippie life - they live on this tiny island where there isn't any tap water (they purify their own water) and the guy who picked us up on the speed boat was telling us how he works there in the summer and then travels around the world surfing during the other times of the year.  Seriously, what am I doing wrong with my life?!?  What's also nice about this place is that they have a live music section and normally I hate that shit but this was kind of nice to enjoy some music while sipping a cocktail in an outdoor restaurant - it was a cute 20-something kid playing the guitar, so it wasn't some loud crazy bar music but really chill and mellow.  I heard they have a no Margaritaville/Jimmy Buffet policy which I love and respect. 

The menu here was also surprisingly eclectic.  The website calls it West Indian, North Africa, Spain, South Pacific, and South America focused food.  Ok - I can see that.  Everything here sounded great and I ended up getting the Swordfish and Aarti got a hodgepodge of veggie side dishes from sweet potato mash, curried coconut polenta, and Mexican corn (see Caravela - you can have decent veggie side dishes and not have it be a plate of steamed vegetables).  Our waiter could not have been any nicer and sweeter and gave us the low down on the history and background of this place while we waited for our food.  

The swordfish was delicious and lovely - it came with Mexican street corn made into a risotto like consistency, pickled red onion, tomato salad, and Spanish red pepper romesco sauce.  Swordfish is a tricky fish to cook since it's thicker and firmer than most fishes but it was cooked just right here and with the romesco and corn mixture it wasn't dried out at all.  It was really satisfying dish.  Since it was our last night here, we wanted to go all out and saw another table with a fat piece of chocolate cake and ice cream.  The waiter was like "umm, the ice cream is for special occasions" - which I'm assuming he meant engagements or honeymoons but he relented and brought out a huge piece of cake with a big scoop of ice cream on top of it.  He kind of made it sound like he stole the ice cream out of their own personal food stash -which is possible since it sounds like everyone here lives in a hippie/commune like place.  The only bummer was that he charged us for 2 desserts here at $10 each! If I had known that, I would have nixed the ice cream. 

Luckily the night we were there is was super quiet and chill but I could see it getting rowdy during the day with some of the yachting crowd.  But it was a great way to end our vacation and I was sad that we hadn't discovered it earlier so that we could hang out in the garden some more.  It's definitely a unique place and I hope that it sticks around some more even with all these new luxury resorts popping up and stealing its thunder.  Total bill:  $68/pp with tax and ti

Photo Credit:  Lastresortbvi.com 

Little Tong Visited 4/8/2017 3 Forks

Little Tong  177 1st Ave., New York, NY 10003

Little Tong has been getting a lot of buzz since it's from a WD-50 alum and there's been a huge noodle trend in the city for the last few years.  The food here is from the Yunnan province which is the southwest region of China bordering Tibet, Burma, Laos and Vietnam.  Yunnan food hasn't really gotten quite the hype that Sichuan food has these days but I guess Little Tong is trying to change it. 

Aarti and I actually randomly stumbled upon this place as we were walking around the city on a gorgeous Saturday.  There was a bit of a line but since we weren't starving we were more than ok to put our name down and wait the 45 minutes they told us it would be.  They have a very very small "bar" in the back if you want to wait.  I use the term bar loosely because it's literally a communal counter top in the back and the wait staff pours either wine or beer for you.  I would recommend you go somewhere else because it's a bit claustrophobic back there.  But the waitstaff was super nice so it made sticking around not so bad.  The place is rather small and there is only 1 large table in the front that seats groups of 4, so I would definitely recommend that you come in smaller groups. 

The menu here is fairly basic:  a handful of appetizers and 6 different kinds of noodles to choose from.  We opted for the soy beans ($6), cucumbers ($4) and the ghost chicken ($7) to start and I got the little pot mixian ($16) and Aarti got the vegetarian version ($14).  For some reason when I read the word soy bean, I didn't compute that it was basically just edamame, so when basically a bowl of edamame came out I was stupidly surprised.  So you've been warned.  The edamame was fine, it was covered in a fermented black bean paste which gave it a bit of a different taste to the kind you would normally get at a sushi restaurant.  Next the cucumber dish was like a traditional chilled smashed chili cucumber dish with some heat to it and this one some had mint to it, which was a bit different. The ghost chicken was cold shredded chicken with pickled red onions and fresh herbs.  It was a nice meaty cold dish to start the meal. 

I had been torn on what kind of noodle to get but lots of people seemed to have gotten the little pot because it came in a copper pot filled with broth, so I went for it, but looking back I wonder if I should have gotten the dan dan noodles instead.  Mixian noodles are basically spaghetti shaped rice noodles - they're softer and more slippery than your traditional noodles.  The little pot was served with pork broth, minced pork belly, shittake mushrooms, garlic, chives, pickled mustard stems, pea shoots and a mustard vinaigrette.  So in theory, it sounds like a really hearty noodle soup dish.  Only it wasn't.  It felt really thin and lacking in substance and needed more flavor and heat to the dish.  It just felt like a very average noodle soup dish that wasn't super filling.  Aarti's vegetarian version was similarly lacking and while we had been enamored with the service earlier, we had to flag down 3 different waitresses to get a side of fermented chili just to give her dish some flavor.

Overall, the meal wasn't terrible, just underwhelming.  Maybe it was because I had just been to the Mala Project where the Sichuan heat and flavors hit you hard in the face but this meal felt a bit too delicate.  Despite the staff being a slow with the chili, the service in general was excellent - very nice and pleasant people who worked there.  With all the other great and cheaper noodle options in the city, I'm not sure I would run back to this place but if someone did want to try it out, perhaps I would try a the grandma's noodle or the dan dan noodle and give it another fair shake.  Total bill:  $34/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp