Ho Foods Visited 8/19/2018 4 Forks

Ho Foods  110 E 7th St., New York, NY 10009

The big trend these days in New York is the boom of Chinese noodle shops - specifically the Taiwanese beef noodle soup variety.  I've has this multiple times in Taiwan and when it's done right, it's spicy, flavorful and all kinds of deliciousness.  I met up with my friend Lily on a random Sunday night and the place was jammed.  Granted there are only 8 seats in the entire place but I always expect Sundays to be a slow night.  I guess this is what happens when you live in New York, there is never a slow night.  The wait was almost an hour, which is a bit annoying when you factor in that they pretty much only sell 1 dish, so it should be a pretty easy decision for most people. 

We finally sit down at 8:30pm (which is not super late) and they have already run out of the pork belly side dish and apple cider drink.  That's kind of annoying - clearly they need to plan their inventory a bit better.  As I mentioned, the place pretty much only has beef noodle soup on the menu - you can add the level of spiciness to it, extra meat or tendon for extra.  I got it with the wide noodle and rich and spicy broth ($14.50 + $2.50 for the rich and spicy).  They did still have the soft tofu side dish ($8) left which was fabulous - it was super rich, creamy and covered in bonito flakes and a century egg.  As for the noodle dish, it was pretty damn authentic.  The cuts of beef were tender and the broth was super flavorful and pretty spot on.  It's a classic comfort food dish.

My only complaint about this experience would be that it's a bit overpriced ($17 for a bowl of noodle soup) and that they ran out of the pork belly side and only drink option pretty early on in the evening.  That being said, I would still come back and it's definitely the kind of place where you can come alone on rainy night and feel wrapped in its comforting essence.  Total bill:  $27/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

72 Hours in Seattle/Bellevue Part 1, Visited 8/9-8/12/2018 3.5-4 Forks

Sushi Kudasai  10900 NE 4th St., Ste 270, Bellevue, WA 98004                                             3.5 Forks

I was excited to spend some time in the Pacific Northwest - I was in the Seattle/Bellevue area for work to visit the West team and then I tacked on a few extra days to hang out with Neera.  Shockingly, I had never been to Seattle before and I had heard the food scene it pretty good there, so I was excited to see what it was all about. 

I took the first flight out and needed some lunch before heading to the office.  I figured the fish and hence sushi should be pretty good, I looked for a place that was near the office/hotel I was staying at.  This place popped up as a 5 min walk from my hotel and it looked to be a popular lunch time spot for the Bellevue crowd.  It's a walk-up counter sushi place, so it's very informal and casual.  You order and pick up your food and then take it to a table.  They got a a pretty extensive line up of rolls and poke bowls.  I decided to try out the ichi roll  ($7) and a creamy poke bowl ($14).  The ichi roll was a tuna, spicy tuna, avocado and cucumber roll.  It was huge and way to big to eat in one bite.  The tuna was also too mashed up so I kind of left like I was eating bad tuna - even though it tasted totally fine.  The poke bowl was pretty tasty and had all of my favorite things to put in a poke bowl - tuna, salmon, crabmeat, seaweed salad, cucumber, avocado, scallion, ginger and masago.  The "creamy" sauce was ponzu sauce, spicy mayo and sesame oil, but it was a bit too heavy on the mayo part for my taste.  It was on a bed of salad and rice.  

Looking back, I would have been fine without the roll for lunch but I felt like I had to try it out.  It was definitely full by lunch time - there were people from Expedia, Microsoft and other tech companies in the area.  It definitely felt like a mini-SF scene with everyone looking like they walked off the set of "Silicon Valley".   Total bill:  $21 with tip and tax

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Elliott's Oyster House 1201 Alaskan Way Ste 100, Seattle, WA 98101                                       4 Forks

Everyone has been asking me how I like my new job so far and the answer is that I like it!  One of the reasons is because of the great people there.  It's always fun to be surrounded by like-minded folks who share your interests and luckily the one thing we all love is food!  The West team took me out to the Pier in Seattle and we all gorged on pretty delicious seafood (I mean, when in Rome right?).  

We started with a bunch of fantastic West Coast oysters and the celebration platter (chilled dungeness crab, more oysters, snow crab claws, and a variety of sauce - $90) while I got the white clam chowder ($5)  to start as well.  I got suckered into also getting the crab cakes because it was made with dungeness crab ($18) but to be honest, it wasn't that great as it had too much filler (when will I learn?!?!).  For my main, I had the seafood salad ($26) which I know is a bit unusual for me but I remember last time I was at a team dinner in NYC and I really wanted the seafood salad but got a lame steak sandwich instead and I really regretted that decision.  I figured if I was going to get seafood salad anywhere, it should be Seattle.  And you know what?  It was pretty damn good.  It was a huge portion, so I definitely felt full and it was full of shrimp, scallop, crab corn relish, avocado, heirloom tomatoes, cucumber, mixed greens and a dijon-shallot vinaigrette sauce.  Not only did I enjoy it but it was pretty healthy too. 

The one negative to our meal was that the service was beyond painful.  It was so slow and we had to wave people down constantly.  I know it's a busy restaurant in a pretty touristy spot, but it really was ridiculous.  Someone else picked up the bill so I'm not sure how much the total bill was but I thought the prices were fairly reasonable for the quality and amount of seafood.  

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Din Tai Fung 700 Bellevue Way NE #280, Bellevue, WA 98004                                                4 Forks

Din Tai Fung has a pretty huge cult following and I know that in the past I kind of poo-poo'd it when I was in Taiwan but the truth is that it's pretty damn good.  I'm not sure it deserves the insane devotion that most people give it but if you're looking for a consistently solid, tasty Chinese food place, this is a winner.  Luckily for the Bellevue team, there is a location right across the street from them and it gets super packed at lunch time. 

We had to lie and say we had a smaller group of people just so we could get a booth and squeeze in about 8 people into it.  We pretty much ordered the entire menu:  every kind of soup dumpling, delicious green beans (I know it sounds lame to love green beans but there were amazing), spinach, shrimp shu mai, fried rice with pork, spicy wontons, and steam buns.  It looked like we had never eaten before judging by the amount of food we ordered.  But we devoured all of it.  The best part of the whole meal is that nothing is really that expensive - I think the most expensive thing on the menu is $12 or $13.  The joys of Chinese food. 

I'll admit that I really love the meal and wished that there was one in NYC but I can only imagine the shitshow it would be if there was one.  There aren't that many locations in the US and they are all on the West Coast, so for that reason alone, it's definitely worth a visit unless you'll be in Asia anytime soon. 

Photo Credit: Yelp

Chinese Club Visited 8/5/2018 2 Forks

Chinese Club  208 Grand St., Brooklyn, NY 11211

Aarti and I both independently sent each other texts messages about this place because it's Indo-Chinese, which is totally us!  There are a few locations but we went to the one in Williamsburg and when we stepped in, I had visions of us being there before when it was some other SE Asian restaurant and remember it being bad.  So that was kind of a bad omen (Note:  this restaurant has since closed, so I guess my gut was right).  I've been to Indo-Chinese places before in the city (Chinese Mirch) and loved the combination, so I was excited to try this place out. 

Unfortunately, it just wasn't very good.  We split the bhel salad ($9),  I got the banana leaf fish ($25) and Aarti got the dry hakka chili with tofu ($14).  The bhel salad was bhel mix, chutney, avocado, chili, onion, cilantro, and cucumber.  Bhel is an Indian snack that's kind of like a rice puff snack with lots of spices and flavor.  The salad was waay to spicy and too sweet at the same time.  Neither of us enjoyed it very much.  Sadly the same can be said for our main entrees.  My fish dish was fairly expensive for what it was - white fish, steamed inside of a banana leaf with okra and onion.  The fish was covered in spices but not in a good way.  If it's possible, it tasted like an unhealthy fish dish.  The waiter had sold Aarti on the dry chili hakka dish saying it was a classic and really good.  All it was was stir fry with fried tofu - very meh too. 

Sadly, I'm not surprised this place closed down.   It had a lot of potential and Indo-Chinese isn't something that you see very often but it just wasn't executed very well here.  Total price: $31/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit: Yelp

Hwa Yuan Visited 8/4/2018 4.5 Forks

Hwa Yuan  42 E Broadway, New York, NY 10002

I'm usually not a huge fan of "nice" Chinese restaurants - I've always had a soft spot of the mom and pop places where they scream at you and there is like a bed in the bathroom.  But I'll admit, that sometimes they are kind of dirty and can gross me out.  So when I read about this luxurious Chinatown legend making a comeback earlier this year, I had to try it out. 

When you step in, you can automatically tell that it's different from most of the Chinatown places.  First, it's super clean, quiet and has fancy white tablecloths.  It's got a very elegant Western feel to it with a few Asian influences injected in the decor.  The crowd was mostly non-Asians and the GM is an older white guy, so you know it's fancy.  All of that made me a bit nervous that the food wasn't going to be great or that it was going to be Americanized and with the exception of one dish, the food was outstanding.   We started with a whole Peking Duck ($65), sautéed pea shoots ($18), jellyfish ($18), baked black cod ($38) and soup dumplings ($10).  As you can tell from the prices, it's definitely much more expensive than your typical Chinatown joint but the quality and cleanliness is so much higher.

The duck was delicious and they carve it at your table.  They bring the whole duck (head on) to show you, which is honestly a bit much, even for me.  It looked a bit skinny when they first brought it out but it was lean with the right amount of fat to it and the skin was really good.  The best part of the meal was actually when my dad asked if they could turn the bones and left overs into a soup.  They just combined it with some broth, veggie and tofu but it was really fantastic.  The sautéed pea shoots and soup dumplings were both tasty and delicious - standard Chinese fare but so damn good.  But the star of the night for me was the jellyfish dish.  It was so good - fresh with the right amount of crunch and tang of vinegar.   I could have ordered 3 more of them and eaten it on my own.  Sadly the one let down of the night was the black cod.  Usually I get a whole fish when I'm at Chinese restaurants (and with people who would eat it with me) but we decided to go cod filet and it was such bad dish, especially for the price.  It was like a total Westernized dish - a small piece of cod fillet marinated in soy and mirin.  It was overcooked and under-marinated - terrible combination. 

Overall, it was such a pleasant surprise and definitely reminded me that you don't have to settle for gross restaurants to get good authentic food - but you will have to pay up for it.  The staff was super nice and I know I kind of gave crap about it being a bit stuffy but it was a nice change of pace.  I wouldn't say I would come here everyday because of the prices but I can definitely seem myself taking my parents here when they are in town. 

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Amazing 66 Visited 5/27/2018 3 Forks

Amazing 66  66 Mott St., New York, NY 10013

I've got to learn to stop coming to Chinatown and expecting great Chinese food - it's just so easy and trekking to Flushing is such a pain in my butt.  It's not to say all the food in Chinatown is bad, it's really a crapshoot on what you'll get.   Again, the decor here is typical of a place in Chinatown, which means there is none but at least it was slightly cleaner than Joy Luck Palace.  

My mom and I came to Chinatown in search of whole steamed fish - I love it but it's hard to find friends who will eat it with me because the head kind of freaks people out and it's not something I would order on my own (although, let's be honest, I probably could eat the whole thing myself).  When my mom is in town, she goes off menu and just asks the waiters in Chinese what's good.  They told us the usual fish we like (tilapia) wasn't good here and instead recommended the steamed flounder.  I haven't had this dish in years and it's usually pretty good but the only downside is that it's not as meaty as other fishes.  What's nice about this fish is that the bones are very easily removed but again the meat isn't as tender.  There's also no real meat around the head area which is disappointing because anyone who is a seasoned eater knows that the fish's head is the the best part.  If you've seen this fish in the wild, it's essentially a very skinny flat fish and that's exactly what you get texture wise.  But the meat that you do get is tasty, just don't expect to get full off of it.  

We also ordered jellyfish with sliced pig knuckles and sautéed Chinese greens (I don't know what it is in English but it's one of my favorite greens that I rarely see anymore).  The jelly fish was great - if you haven't had it before, if it's done right, it's cold, crunchy and tangy and I love it.  It's usually paired with braised sliced pig knuckle which I used to have reservations about eating it as it reminds me of eating headcheese, but once you get over that, it's actually quite good.  

Unfortunately, my favorite greens were the most disappointing part of the meal.  They were clearly not in season and the best part are the leaves but instead they served it up with a ton of stem.  The stem is much tougher and not as tasty and the whole thing was this sad light green color instead of a dark green.  Even with a ton of garlic, the dish still couldn't really be salvaged.  

Overall the meal was satisfying and very filling but the bad greens and not being able to get a whole steamed tilapia kind of bummed me out.  The other bummer was that most of the restaurant was filled with tourists eating giant plates of pan fried noodles.  Now don't get me wrong, I freaking love pan fried noodles and frankly they looked pretty good here but it was a bit unsettling to not see another Asian person there besides the waitstaff - it made me feel like I was in a tourist trap.  Oh well, they can't all be winners, next time I'll come here and just eat a plate of freaking noodles instead.  Total bill:  $71 for 2 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Joy Luck Palace Visited 5/27/2018 2 Forks

Joy Luck Palace  

98 Mott St., 

New York, NY 10013

As much as I love dim sum, there are few really consistently solid places in the city that I love.  When my mom was in town, I was willing to try some place that was different than my usual place (Golden Unicorn).  I'm not gonna lie, part of me was also drawn to this place based on their cute pig baos - I mean who can resist such an adorable thing?  Only thing is that I forgot that I actually don't like baos and schtick like this usually means that the food isn't that great.  I should have listened to myself. 

The space is typical of a dim sum place in Chinatown:  it's enormous, it's loud and the waiting process is painful.  When we finally sit down, I was less than underwhelmed.  I've shared tables in Chinese places before and I've turned a blind eye to some of the cleanliness issues but I couldn't get over either here.  The tablecloths were pretty dirty and it just felt like the place hadn't been cleaned in a while. 

Usually in places like this, I can get over stuff like that if the food is good, but it just wasn't here.  The carts were slow and I felt like the variety wasn't as great as other dim sum places I've been to.  As I mentioned I don't really like baos, so we didn't get the cute pig buns but I did see a few people get them.  Everything was super unmemorable, unimpressive and I left feeling that it was a wasted meal.  Even though places like Golden Unicorn can be hit or miss, they're generally a hit and there are so many other options in Chinatown than here.  Unfortunately I can't remember the total bill but either way, not really worth it unless you want an Instagram pix of the pig bun which is why I'm giving it 2 forks for their marketing effort. 

Photo Credit:  Yelp

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

Hometown Hotpot and BBQ Visited 4/4/2018 3.5 Forks

Hometown Hotpot & BBQ  194 Grand St., New York, NY 10013

There's nothing I love more than a good hotpot.  I've tried the All You Can Eat and the more fancy a la carte places and I've found that generally they are pretty much the same experience.  Yes the fancy places do generally have better quality products but it's not really by much.  

I had passed Hometown Hotpot a few times and it always seemed crowded so I figured it had to be worth a try.  It's one of the AYCE places and they don't take reservations for small parties - so I would recommend that you get there early.  Even though I got there at 6:30, I was told a bit snootily that we had to share a table, which honestly was fine.  The only thing that wasn't fine was that the burner that was assigned to me was broken so I had to sit at a diagonal to Janet, which was annoying.  As with any other hotpot places, you pick a broth and then you go to town and pick all your ingredients.  I got the Chinese herbal broth and then we picked our usual line up of beef, fish balls, fish tofu, bok choy, clear noodles, enoki mushrooms, corn and fish fillet.   Like every other place, they have a sauce station with all the appropriate sauces and toppings.   

The overall quality was fine, although Janet was not a fan of the beef and felt that it was too frozen for her taste.  I could see her point, although I generally feel like at most of these AYCE places the meat is always frozen and then defrosted.  But I've definitely had fresh beef before at other places. The veggies and noodles were good, plentiful and pretty par for the course. 

While the waiters were nice enough, we did have to chase them down a few times for more water for the broth.  It was an totally fine experience overall, but the combination of a slightly rude hostess, having to share a table (when you don't have to do that at many other hotpot places) and having a broken burner, put this place a notch below the other hotpot places I've been to.  I would say if you do come here, you're better off coming with a large group so that you can have a table to yourself.  The plus side of this place is that it was very affordable, so for that I would definitely come again.  Total bill:  $36/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

East Harbor Seafood Palace Visited 2/17/2018 3 Forks

East Harbor Seafood Palace  714 65th St., Brooklyn, NY 11220

Dim sum is one of my favorite foods so when it came time to celebrate Chinese New Year, Mabel and I thought it was only right to have some dim sum together.  We usually go to Golden Unicorn but we thought we'd be adventurous and try something new and different.  So we decided to haul our butt to Sunset Park in Brooklyn to give it a go.  Along with Flushing in Queens, Sunset Park has one of the largest population of Chinese people around NYC and you could really live here and never have to speak English if you want.  It's really a whole different world.  The only annoying thing is that it's far and a pain the ass to get to from the city.  It took Mabel and I over an hour to get there on the subway.

When we finally got to the restaurant it was complete mayhem, which I usually expect at most Chinese restaurants but this one took it to a whole other level.  We knew we came at a bad time (close to noon) so it was wall to wall of people and it was so confusing what was going on.  We ended up waiting over an hour to get seated and by that point we were about to pass out.  This place is a huge banquet type restaurant and it seems that you'll have better luck getting seated in larger parties instead of small parties.  When we finally sat down we were ready to order everything that came around.  While the carts were plentiful, many of them seemed to have the same things.  Like some dim sum places you've got to be aggressive and really flag them down if you want something.  Some of the wait staff was really nice but some were down right rude - even when we spoke to them in Chinese.  As for the food, it was totally fine and we were pretty much able to get all our favorite dishes.  As expected, some dishes better than others.  The dumplings were generally fresh and warm but others like the turnip cake was cold and unimpressive.

Overall it was like any other dim sum place that I've been to before and while the food was filling, it wasn't necessarily worth the hour long trek and hour long wait.  Maybe if I lived in the area and I could get there really early, I could see myself going there but for me, I'll stick with the usual suspects in Chinatown because at least I know it won't take 2 hours to have a meal there.  The one upside though is that the prices are cheaper here, which made the pain only slightly better.  Total bill:  $16.35/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

DaDong Visited 2/11/2018 2.5 Forks

DaDong  3 Bryant Park, New York, NY 10036

Ok, I'll get straight to the point on this one.  It was a pretty big bummer.  After reading all the reviews, I kind of knew what to expect and it was exactly what everyone else wrote back.  Get the duck but skip everything else.  DaDong is a famous peking duck chain in China so when it opened here in NYC, Jen, Kevin and I had to try it as part of our duck club. 

The location should have been the first tip off that it would be a bit underwhelming - I mean it's in Bryant Park which isn't really known as a culinary wonderland.  It's pretty fancy pants which is fine but it was much more fine dining than I expected.  To me, the best Chinese food will always be more of a mom and pop hole in the wall kind of place.  I knew it was going to be expensive but the sticker shock of some of the prices was still pretty real - the whole duck was $98 and most of the larger entrees were in the $30+ range.  All of us had read the reviews before and knew that the non-duck dishes weren't anything to write home about but we still felt like we should try some of them so we got the mashed eggplant ($8), sea salt and lime seared waygu beef ($34), cold avocado noodles ($12), sauteed pea shoots ($16) and of course the whole duck. 

The mashed eggplant was super underwhelming - it was just eggplant puree on a wafer.  I've never seen this in any other Chinese restaurant and the portion was super tiny - like 1 bite person.  The waygu beef, while tender and melt in your mouth was offensively small for something over $30.  We could cut it into maybe 5 small pieces total.  I mean one person could have eaten the whole thing and still be hungry.  The cold noodles were bland and not memorable at all.  Luckily the pea shoots, as usual,  were delicious but it was a very small portion considering how much more you usually get at other Chinese restaurants.  Finally came the main attraction - the whole duck.  They don't carve it table side instead someone is carving it in the middle of the restaurant and they bring it over to you.  They give you all the usual accoutrements to eat the duck:  thin pancakes, sliced scallion, hoisin sauce, and sliced cucumber.  They even give you something different here with sugar, sliced cantaloupe, and these puffy buns to stuff them in.  They give you lots of skin, meat and the legs.  Was the duck good?  Yes it was pretty damn tasty and all the things they give you also make it work - for example, the pancake skin was nice and thin but not too thin that it can't hold everything in it.  Was it the best duck I've ever had? Probably not.  The duck here was very very lean, which I guess is good for you health wise but the best part of the duck is some of the fat that goes with it.  It wasn't dry but it was missing an element of moistness/slight greasy-ness that you come to expect and love when you eat duck. 

Since the food wasn't very filling, we left room for dessert and that was kind of eh too.  Nothing really spoke to us but we got the Chocolate Frost ($12) which was shattered pieces of chocolate leaves with some cherries but it turned out there were only 2 cherries on it.  I should have known not to order dessert because frankly Asians are not very well known or good at desserts.

Despite the overall disappointment, I'm glad I can say I went, crossed it off my list and will likely noy come again.  While the duck was tasty, it just wasn't worth the money and there are way cheaper, more authentic and better options in NYC.  I am curious how different the chains are in China as Kevin said they were quite good there so I'm curious if they will make tweaks to this as the resounding response by the culinary world has been pretty meh.  Total bill:  $119/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp 

Auntie Guan's Kitchen 108 Visited 10/16/2017 3.5 Forks

Auntie Guan's Kitchen 108 108 W 14th St., New York, NY 10011

I usually don't get Chinese food out of Chinatown or Queens but Aarti and I were in the New School/Union Square area and had just seen Ai Wei Wei speak, so we figured we'd keep with the Chinese theme going.  We were scrolling what was nearby and this place got decent reviews and was in walking distance - how I haven't noticed it before is so beyond me.  From the outside (and frankly inside), it's totally non-descript and it could fit in with any run of the mill Chinese place in Chinatown.  It was complete with a bunch of Chinese waiters and waitress who ignored you and could care less about you (I say this with total love and affection). 

Similar to a restaurant in Chinatown, the menu is about 10 pages long, has a bunch of pictures and has some questionable English translation.  They apparently specialize in Northern Chinese food and dumplings but you can pretty much find anything and everything on this menu.  Usually when Aarti and I come to a place like this we have our usual suspects:  vegetarian mao pao tofu ($10.99), sauteed pea shoot tops (an offensively priced $19.99) and a cold noodle dish, usually dan dan noodles ($9.99).  This is exactly what we got this time.  It's really hard to go wrong with sauteed pea shoots - all you do is throw a bucket of veggies with garlic and olive oil and you're done.  This is the first time I felt like this dish was missing something - this one actually needed more salt to it.  The dan dan noodles were also just ok but I felt like the noodles could have been chewier and now that I'm thinking about it, we probably should have gotten something like the cold sesame noodle instead.  As for the mao pao tofu, it's a classic comfort staple food and it hit the spot here.  There's just something about soft tofu in a spicy mix with white rice that's so delicious.  The menu had a bunch of other classic traditional Chinese dishes that I would have loved to try, but when food like this is served family style, it's really hard to go to crazy with two people.  

The service was pretty non existent - the food does come out super fast, you just never see your waiter again, despite the fact there was only 1 other couple dining the restaurant.  We had to flag our waiter down at every turn and they weren't the friendliest of the bunch, so I tried to whip out some Chinese every now and then.  This was definitely not the worst Chinese I've had nor was it the best.  Honestly, if I lived in the neighborhood, I could actually see myself coming here because it's a notch above those scary looking Chinese places on the street corner but it's not  Mr. Chow fancy - it's comforting and hits the spot if you've got a take out craving - just don't expect your mind to be blown.  Total bill:  $26/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Decoy Visited 8/13/2017 4 Forks

Decoy  529 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014

I've always loved Peking Duck but it's definitely not something you eat everyday.  I've only always had it in traditional Chinese restaurants but when I saw pictures of the whole duck prixe fixe situation at Decoy, I felt like I had to try it out.  Decoy is part of the Red Farm empire and is located downstairs in a small basement space.  You must make a reservation in advance if you want to guarantee yourself a whole duck but you can roll in and try your luck if you want (especially if you want to eat things besides duck).

With the whole duck prixe fixe, you get your choice of an assortment of appetizers, sides and another main course - for $69/pp.  For our assortment of extras,  we got the shrimp and snow pea dumplings, oxtail dumplings, sautéed snow peas, vegetable fried rice, and the sautéed dice lamb.  Yes, all of that food along with an entire whole duck - obviously you'll be taking a lot of food home afterwards.  The dumplings were great - steamed and fresh although the oxtail one was a bit heavy for me.  We got the snow peas because we felt like we needed a green and as usual, it was fantastic.  Like most greens in a Chinese restaurant, it's got a ton of garlic and oil which makes it delicious.  The fried rice was a nice carb supplement - it wasn't super greasy like the kind of fried rice you would get in take out joint but in the end it is just a basic rice dish.  The star of the show is obviously the duck which comes with 10 pancakes and 3 different sauces.  Before you get into the duck, you are served a shot of duck consomme to get you primed for the whole experience.  The skin was perfectly crispy and the meat was juicy with the right amount of fat on it - combined with the scallion and sauces it's a heavenly bite.  There really is nothing like a perfect Peking Duck bite wrapped in a thin pancake.  Then after all this food, they served the lamb dish.  It was complete overkill but we had to try it.  It was served with Chinese broccoli and pickled shallots and I was kind of expecting it to be like a spicy cumin lamb dish but it wasn't really like it at all.  It didn't have the heat or spice level to it but combined with a bite of fried rice and snow peas, it was pretty damn tasty too.

Despite our best efforts, we couldn't finish all the food.  The wait staff was nice enough to split all the food equally into take home bags for us and it made for a decent lunch the next day - the lamb was better than the duck since the crispiness of the skin doesn't hold up at all overnight.  Overall, it was a great experience and the amount of food is crazy.  While I really enjoyed the quality and taste of all the food, I wished they offered a prixe fixe that was smaller and cheaper.  Let's be honest, you can get a whole duck in Chinatown for half the price and it'll be just as good.  If you order a la carte, it's way more expensive ($85 for just the duck and main dishes are $32+) so technically you are getting a great deal - it's just unnecessary.  If they offered a prixe fixe "light" version,  I could definitely see myself coming here more but at the current price point, I probably won't come back often unless someone is visiting from out of town because it is quite the experience.  Total bill with lots of wine:  $133/pp with tax and tip

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot Visited 6/27/2017 4.5 Forks

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot  105 Bowery, New York, NY 10002

Hot pot is one of my favorite things to eat - even in 90 degree heat.  Janet and I usually go to 99 Favor Taste on our birthdays because you get to eat free there on your birthday but we decided to try out a new place for our joint birthday - even if it wasn't free.

Little Sheep is actually a large chain with locations in China, Japan, Canada and the US but there is only one location in the city (although there is one in Flushing, Queens).  My first impression of this place is that it was super clean and fairly quiet - although this was at 6:30pm on a Tuesday and by the time we left at 8:30pm the place was packed with a fairly long line.  Similar to every other hot pot place, you pick your broth and then pick your ingredients.  Unlike 99 Favor Taste, it is NOT an all you can eat situation, so don't go too crazy with the ordering.  Luckily, if you come Monday-Thursday, for $15 you have the option of an all-you-can-eat meat special (choice of 4 different quality meats ranging from beef to lamb to pork).  You make you order on a check list and hand it to your waiter.  Our waiter was really nice and looked at our list and immediately told us we ordered way too much food - especially since we were getting the all-you-can-eat meat option.  He recommended 2-3 veggies and maybe a noodle, which we had pared down from the 8 veggie options we had checked off.  I guess old habits are hard to break since we were so accustomed to just ordering everything from the menu in an all-you-can-eat place and we still ended up ordering 4 veggies and a noodle.

For our broth, we chose the the regular non-spicy version, although you can get a split pot with different broths.  My only complaint here is that I didn't love the broth as much as I love the pig bone broth at 99 Favor Taste.  This one was good but it was just missing that salty bone flavor.  As for the ingredients, we were so happy we listened to the waiter because the size of the orders here were quite large, especially the meat options.  I definitely left at the end feeling like we overdid it with the ordering.  The plus here is that the ingredients were noticeably fresher with most of them seemingly to be non-frozen unlike other hot pot places.  The meat was especially high quality - it had a great bright red color which any fresh meat should.  They are famous for their lamb, which was exellent, but I still preferred the fatty beef slices more.  The vegetables and noodles were also great - fresh and prepared and cut well.

We tried really really hard to finish everything we ordered and we did a fairly good job of it but we definitely had some left overs.  Luckily, they aren't super strict here and didn't charge us extra for it. We were a bit nervous at first that by ordering per ingredient it was going to end up being really expensive but it actually turned out to be the exact same price as the all-you-can eat experience at 99 Favor Taste but with way better quality and a calmer, less crazed vibe.  While there will always a place in my heart for the loud crazy all-you-can-eat places, Little Sheep is definitely going to be my new go-to hot pot place.  They don't take reservations for parties less than 6, so definitely go early and go on a weekday to take advantage of the meat special!  Total bill:  $30/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Birds of a Feather Visited 6/10/2017 4 Forks

Birds of a Feather  191 Grand St., Brooklyn, NY 11211

If you've been to China Cafe or China Blue, you'll recognize the owners and food at Birds of a Feather as they are one in the same, so you know at the very least you're going to be getting a solid, if not great sichuan meal.  I had walked past this place right as it was opening and was instantly intrigued as there is a complete dearth of quality Chinese food in Williamsburg - I'm talking the nice sit down kind, not the greasy ass delivery kind.  So it was thrilling to see a legit place open up that had no a trace of a poo poo platter or Beef and Broccoli. 

The decor is sleek and modern with a giant communal table in the middle.  I'm not a huge fan of communal tables but we were in a hurry to see a movie afterwards, so we didn't really have a choice of where to sit but I would ask for a regular table next time.  There were two huge parties flanking either side of us, which was kind of annoying but I guess that's what happens at a communal table. The only good thing was that we could see what they were ordering first and tailor our decision.  The menu is long and a bit overwhelming.  I've always known this but it is usually better to come to places like this with a large group of people because everything sounds delicious and is served family style.  So Aarti and I had our work cut out for us.  There is a lot of authentic and non-Americanized Chinese food on here, so that was a real positive.  Our waiter convinced us to get the thousand year old egg and tofu rolls ($8), which is really out of character for me since I've usually shied away from the thousand year old egg whenever my mom offered it to me.  But since it was vegetarian and I was with Aarti, I was willing to give it a try. We also ordered the sichuan cold noodles ($7), pork dumplings in chili oil ($8) which was my one meat dish, snow pea shoot ($17), and the fried eggplant accordions ($12).  We were considering ordering a fried rice dish as well but I'm so glad we didn't because there would have been no way we could have given come close to finishing all that food.  If I were here with a larger party, I would have definitely gotten the steamed whole fish, ma po tofu, or spicy cumin lamb. 

As a kid I was anti-thousand year old egg mostly because of the way it looked - it's a black preserved egg with a gelatinous outside, but after having this dish, it was actually ok.  It really didn't taste like anything and mixed with the egg and tofu, it was actually a light dish.  Next I tried the pork dumplings in chili oil and this was the biggest disappointment of the night.  The pork dumplings weren't very plumb or stuffed fully and they were just drowning in chili oil with not a ton of flavor beyond it.  I would recommend you skip it and save room for something else. And that something else could be a giant plate of pea shoots.  It's nothing that you can't get in Chinatown and clearly nothing fancy but it's so damn good because it's dripping in garlic.  There is really nothing like a plate of fresh pea shoots and garlic - the best.  The sichuan cold noodle was a mix of chili oil, peppercorns, peanut paste and sesame and you could definitely feel the heat.   Maybe I'm just getting better at spicy food but despite all the spicy elements to this dish, I didn't find it numbing or inedible as some really spicy sichuan dishes can be.  I also really enjoyed the fried eggplant accordions - it was was huge dish that looked like it was possible made up of 2 huge eggplants.  But it was crispy and lightly fried and smothered in a sweet and sour sauce.  While it wasn't anything super innovative or crazy, I really enjoyed this dish when mixed with the noodles and a bit of pea shoot - sweet, salty and garlic-y. 

Overall, this is a very welcomed addition to the neighborhood.  While it's not like what you would find in Chinatown or Flushing (I mean it's still Williamsburg afterall, so the waitstaff is very hipster and trendy), it's a much needed option that I would be happy to return to - especially if you're going to the movies afterwards, as Williamsburg Cinema is literally right around the corner.  Gratuity is included in the bill which is nice.  Total bill:  $27/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Very Fresh Noodles Visited 3/23/2017 3.5 Forks

Very Fresh Noodles  425 W 15th St., New York, NY 10011

I have long been a sucker for hand pulled noodles and with the exception of Chinatown there are few places in the city that do it well - but then Xian Famous Foods opened up several years ago and it was a game changer.  They serve amazing authentic hand pulled noodles with a pleasantly spicy kick at the same time.   To be totally transparent, I gave them 3.5 forks at first too but I've subsequently gone back many many time afterwards and would probably now revise my review to at least 4 forks. They're also famous for their spicy lamb cumin dish which my friend Neel loves, so when a similar type of food stall opened up in Chelsea Market, Neel and I were super eager to try it and compare. 

Very Fresh Noodles place is tucked away in the back of the market all the way inside a cluster of other food stalls. It's small with no place to really stand or sit, so be prepared to fight for table space outside in the larger food hall.  The menu here is pretty limited:  you can choose from tingly lamb cumin noodles, tingly cumin beef noodles, vegan mock duck noodles, or Taiwanese beef noodle - all either in dry or soup version.  I got the Taiwanese beef noodle soup spicy ($12), Neel got the tingly lamb cumin noodle dry ($12) and we split a side of the smashed cucumbers ($5).  Once we battled through a sea of tourists and got a table, we were ready to dig in.  My first reaction was that it was a bit oily but I can over look that if the rest of the dish is spot on.  The noodles were definitely soft and chewy as they were supposed to be, so that was a positive.  The beef shanks were tasty but it felt like there wasn't enough of it but my biggest issue was that the dish wasn't spicy!  I used to be a total spice wuss and I've definitely gotten better in the past year but my palate isn't that sophisticated that I'm immune to high levels of spice - so it was a bit of a disappointment to dive into this dish and not find it spicy at all.  The flavors of the soup base were nice and aromatic so overall it was a solid dish but wasn't quite on the same level as the kind I've had in Taiwan.  Neel also felt the same way about his dish - it wasn't spicy enough and he felt like the lamb didn't have the same quality and characteristics of the lamb at Xian that make it delicious.  The meat here was more braised vs. a dry rubbed, salty variety and his dish wasn't very spicy either.   The spiciest dish was actually the smashed cucumbers - they were delicious although they could have cut the pieces into smaller pieces but the combination of chili, garlic and sesame vinaigrette was fantastic.  

As we both commented, we're very spoiled by living in NYC and to even have any option of authentic tasty handle pulled noodles is generally unheard of in most cities.  So in any other circumstance, this place would have been a true winner and to be honest, if I worked in the Chelsea Market, I would have this on my lunch rotation.  But the truth of the matter is, I've had better (and slightly cheaper) in the city and combined with the insanity of not having anywhere to sit, leads me to give this place just under 4 forks but I would still recommend it to anyone who has a love for hand pulled noodles to give it a try at least once.  Total bill:  $19/pp 

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Mala Project Visited 3/10/2017 4.5 Forks

Mala Project  22 1st Ave., New York, NY 10009

I used to be a total puss about spicy food (I know, I'm a terrible Asian) but I've definitely gotten better in the last couple of years.  So I was super excited to try this place with Laura last week since it was supposed to be authentic Sichuan food in dry pot format.  We went at 7pm on a Friday and was informed by the hipster hostess that it would be a 2 hour wait.  Grrrr.  We decided to give our name and call them on their bluff while we got wine next door.   Lo and behold, they called us 45 minutes later! Patience does pay off!

The menu here is the same concept as regular hot pot except there's no broth - so let's be honest, it's basically spicy stir fry.  Like hot pot, you get a whole long list of ingredients to choose from ranging from meat, chicken, seafood, veggie, tofu and noodles.  They also have a nice list of appetizers to choose from too which is a nice change from the traditional hot pot places where you're stuffing your face with just hot pot.  We started with the turnip and jelly fish salad ($8) and then each ordered our own bowl (although you can also share bowls too) - they recommend that 1 person order 3-6 ingredients or if you're two people 8-10 ingredients.  I was starving and wanted to order 10 ingredients on my own but tried to reign it in - I got the eye of round ($5), fish ball ($4), enoki mushroom ($4), tofu skin ($4) and fish cake ($6).  If I could, I would have ordered more mushrooms, bok choy, glass noodle, pork belly, and much much more.  The difference between here and regular hot pot is that it's not all you can eat, which was something I had to adjust to.  I got my mild spicy - I struggled if I wanted it spicy but I figured I didn't want to push my luck.  Laura got hers spicy and we're not sure if they toned it down because they didn't want to cause complaints but her spice level wasn't really that far off from my bowl.  Bummer. 

But in general, the food was excellent and at least for me, the right amount of spiciness.  Sichuan spice is not like Indian spice or Thai spice - it's like a numbing painful spice that can really get to you if you don't know your tolerance level well. They give you a side of rice which was nice to mix it all in and it helps to fill you up since you can't slurp up the soup like in hot pot. 

The jelly fish appetizer was also excellent.  I haven't had that dish in a long time and it's not found in a lot of Chinese places outside of Chinatown but it was perfectly crunchy and tangy from the vinegar in it.  I just wished the portions were bigger for $8.  And that's my overall problem with this place - while I am giving it 4.5 forks because I truly enjoyed my meal, the price I paid for it was definitely overpriced, especially when you think about how other places in Chinatown offer similar soup based meals at a cheaper all-you-can-eat price (granted, I will give you that their ingredients here are probably fresher and better quality).   That being said, I will definitely go back anytime and order it spicy next time!  Total bill:  $61/pp with tax, tip and a bottle of wine

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Hot Pot Central Visited 1/12/2017 3 Forks

Hot Pot Central  188 2nd Ave., New York, NY 10003

One of my all time favorite Chinese "cuisines" is hot pot.  It's comforting, easy and so delicious. Most of the places in Chinatown like 99 Favor Taste are the All You Can Eat variety and while the quality of the food isn't bad, it's also not 5 star either.  But it's always satisfying and filling.  Janet and I decided to check out a new place that was in the East Village on one of the hottest days (in the 60's) in January.  Hot pot is best when it's nice and chilly outside but oh well.

It was completely empty when we got there at 6:30 on a Thursday but it slowly started to fill up afterwards.  We were surprised when we opened the menu to learn that this was NOT all-you-can-eat and you had to order each individual ingredient which can add up when you were expecting to go-to town with the ordering.  Plus they charge you separately for the broth.  WTF - how can you eat hot pot without broth??  They have a few combinations that seemed reasonable so we got the beef combo with came with 2 types of meat, cabbage, enoki mushrooms, tofu, spinach, your choice of dumplings and a salad.  We also got a side of fish balls ($8) and rice noodles because it's impossible to eat hot pot without them. 

For some reason when they said dumplings, I thought that they would be cooked already but they were hand made raw dumplings that you put in the hot pot - cute but unexpected and frankly I would have preferred to not had the dumplings or salad and had choice of two other ingredients.  The salad that came with the combo was totally unnecessary and really just random because most Asians don't really eat salad.  The ingredients were definitely of high quality - especially the beef.  It was nice and red and you can tell not the usual frozen kind that they just throw at you in an AYCE situation.  The fish balls were also not frozen and definitely fresh and hand made.  Since they weren't frozen, it had a different texture than the usual kind we're used to - I didn't mind it but Janet wasn't a huge fan of it. While we were disappointed that we couldn't keep ordering, we were actually pretty full by the time we finished everything and probably wouldn't have ended up ordering much more anyways.  The best part of the entire meal was the broth at the end after it's had all the veggies and meat soaking in there for a while.  I could have drank it by the bowl full. 

Overall, it was a totally fine experience and I can see why they charge a bit more because the quality and freshness of the ingredients are a bit better.  But it wasn't that much better or mind blowing that I would stop going to Favor Taste or any of the other AYCE places.  The whole point of hot pot is to over-indulge and enjoy yourself and it's kind of hard to do when you're paying a higher price or an experience that you know you can get for cheaper 15 minutes away.   Plus I don't know if it's because it's not in Chinatown and didn't have that slightly seedy Chinatown flare to it, but it seemed to cater more to non-Asians in a way that made it not so authentic.  Total bill:  $45/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Hao Noodle and Tea by Madam Zhu's Kitchen Visited 1/7/2017 2.5 Forks

Hao Noodle and Tea by Madam Zhu's Kitchen   401 6th Ave., New York, NY 10014

This was my first great disappointment of 2017.  I had read a lot about this place and the menu looked incredible online but I left feeling so underwhelmed by my experience there.  It's a shame because the space itself is quite beautiful - it looks like a high end flower shop or Anthropologie - definitely not what you would think of in a Chinese restaurant. 

Despite it being a super snowy day, it was still really hard to get a reservation but there was a cancellation at 8:30 that I was able to snag on a Saturday.  As I mentioned, the space is lovely but very un-traditional.  The menu borders on authentic vs. super non-authentic.  It's got dishes like wood ear mushrooms, dan dan noodles and soup buns which are very traditional but then it's got other dishes like sweet and sour meatballs, sake marinated foie gras, and organic cauliflower with smoked ham that's very fusion-esque.  We opted to start with roasted vegetable with avocado ($16), the eight spice crispy tofu ($10), the dan dan noodles ($8), the mixed mushroom with black pepper noodles ($18) and I got the claypot dumplings ($12) based on the very enthusiastic recommendation of our waiter.  We also got a pot of tea because I mean it's a noodle and tea house and we already got the noodles, how could we not get tea too? 

The roasted vegetables and avocado and crispy tofu came out first.  It was basically a plate of roasted sweet potato and other root vegetables with slices of avocado and cilantro.  It was a perfectly fine dish but it was in no way Chinese at all.  I don't think Chinese people ever really use avocado in traditional cooking.  It felt like a dish I could get at any local farm to table place.  The crispy tofu was bits of soft tofu cubes lightly fried and tossed with five spice.  It was honestly a bit underwhelming - while it was easy enough to pop a bunch of these in your mouth at once, there wasn't anything super satisfying about them. 

Next came the clay pot dumplings that the waiter was really excited by.  Unfortunately since it had pork in it, I had to eat the whole dish myself which I normally wouldn't mind but this was actually a pretty hefty dish to eat on my own because there were so many dumplings and then a heap of noodles underneath.  I assumed that they would be regular dumplings with a nice thin wrapper but this was wrapped in a heavy egg crepe (which to be fair, was called out in the menu, I just didn't notice) that I honestly wasn't down with.  It felt like I was eating 5 mini omelets on my own.  I will say that the noodles and broth was delicious and the best part for the dish - I would have rather had just that without the dumplings.

Next came the dan dan noodles and holy shit was it spicy.  I know this dish is supposed to be spicy but this was to the point it was inedible.  We had to order a side of white rice to counter balance the insane chili oil spice that was covering the noodles.  I'm definitely not a puss when it comes to spicy food but this was just not doing it for me.  The noodles themselves were also not super impressive - they were thin and dry.  When eating dan dan or any kind of dry noodle dish, I prefer them to be thick and chewy.  Luckily the mushroom noodles that came next were not spicy at all, so we ended up mixing the two noodles together which made the dan dan much easier to digest.  But similar to the dan dan, the noodles for the mushroom noodles were thin and dry and not really tasty.  The mushroom mix was a combination of porcini, white and white beech mushrooms - none of which are particularly Chinese except for the last one.   Aarti was a fan of the mushroom mix but I wasn't really, it just didn't really wow me. 

The last thing I should note was the tea.  It was served in what must have been the world's smallest tea pot.  Seriously the waiter must have re-filled it about 10 times for us because it was so damn small.  In a legit Chinese place, you should get a giant tea pot that should last you several cups.  This may have held 1/2 a cup at most.  Well, at least the tea was good.

Overall, I was super bummed about this place.  It's physically beautiful and the menu has a lot of promise but it wasn't executed in a way that really impressed me.  If you're going to be traditional, then be traditional but don't try to mix it with what was essentially New American food.  If you want good Chinese comfort food, I'd recommend you skip out on this place and head over to Grand Sichuan.  Total bill:  $47/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp