Hou Yi Hot Pot Visited/ 10/14/2016 3.5 Forks

Hou Yi Hot Pot  92 Hester St., New York, NY 10002

One of my favorite Chinese foods is hot pot - I guess it's not really a food but a form of cooking but regardless, it's got a soft spot in my heart.  Janet and I usually go to 99 Favor Taste in Chinatown but for some reason they had no openings on a random Friday night, so we tried a new place in the East Village. 

The concept is the same, all you can eat hot pot for 2 hours with a same kind of ingredients and sauces.  The one difference here is that you share pots but it is split into 2 so that you can try different broths but I kind of like having my own to dip and cook with.  We got the herb beef and herb pork which was fine but the pork bone broth at 99 Favor Taste is much better.  We got the usually suspect of ingredients:  sliced beef, sliced pork, enoki mushrooms, fish tofu, fish balls, napa cabbage, shrimp, corn, and rice noodles.  The portions are a bit smaller than 99 Favor Taste but since it's all you can eat, it doesn't really matter all that much but we did have to re-order a bunch of things several times which the wait staff seemed a bit annoyed by.  It's easy to go over zealous with the food here, which we easily did here but that's part of the fun with hot pot. 

They are a bit aggressive with the dish clearing, coming by every so often trying to clear our plates away but judging by the wait the place had, I can see why they are always hustling.  They don't give you plastic bags here to protect your jacket and bags, so be prepared to just have everything on or near you smell like hot pot.  Overall,  it was a filling experience but I would still recommend 99 Favor Taste if you 're looking for better broth and slightly more ingredients (plus they do Korean BBQ there too but it's just always way too much food to do both).  Total bill:  $75 with tax and tip for 2 people

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Freek's Mill Visited 10/12/2016 4 Forks

Freek's Mill  285 Nevins street, Gowanus, NY 11217

Freek's Mill is in smack in the middle of Gowanus or the part of Brooklyn that is surrounded by a Super Fund.  You can see that as being kind of cool or kind of gross - I'll take the former because it's still a part of Brooklyn that's still a bit untouched but it's got glimmers of hipster-ness.  Enter Freek's Mill.   It's a cute and much more refined restaurant than I was expecting for that part of town but it's still got a casual vibe to it. 

It's tapas style and if you've read my blog, you know how I feel about small plates.  I like the concept but I HATE how places still feel like they can charge entree prices for them.  The waiter here recommend 2-3 dishes per person (which I agree with) but the prices of these small plates averaged around $15-20 or more, which is a bit ridiculous for me.  But the good news is that at least the food was delicious here.  We got the scallop crudo, octopus, pumpkin, fettuccine, Arctic Char, duck and pork jowl.  

The scallop crudo came highly recommended by the waitress and while I love scallop, I wasn't a huge fan of the fact that it was cut into cubes.  For me, the glory of scallop comes when you keep it intact. But it was a sweet clean flavor that was wonderful none the less.  Next I tried the pumpkin dish and with fall pretty much here, it was a warm comforting dish.  It was sweet and served with a sweet riccotta like cheese to it.  It was basically fall in a plate.   Next was the octopus and unlike the one at Thursday Kitchen, this was a long meaty tentacle charred and served with fingerling potatoes.  Solid dish and cooked the way octopus should be.  Next was the fettuccine which had ham and a sunny side egg on it.   While it wasn't a pasta dish that brought me back to my days in Italy, it was a very comforting dish with a nice homemade taste to it.  Next was the Arctic Char which was cooked with the skin on.  It was pan seared and cooked to the right texture but in general Arctic Char isn't my favorite fish - give me a piece of salmon over Char any day of the week but if are looking for a fish dish here, this one will get the job done.  Lastly came the 2 meat dishes - these were definitely the winners of the night although I'm not sure if we really needed both as they were both on the fatty side but in a good way (at least for me).  The pork jowl was melt in your mouth delicious but I can't stress again how fatty it was but that's where all the flavor is!  I can see how it might turn some people off but not me.  The duck was also cooked very rare with the fatty skin on.  While I'm a gal who loves her meat as rare as possible, this one could have actually been cooked just a smidge longer as it did have a tough consistency and I almost chocked on a piece that I couldn't chew all the way through but flavor wise, I wouldn't change a thing. 

Of course, we left room for dessert and we got a chocolate bread pudding and another dish that I can't remember the name of but it was like a baby dutch pancake.  I was a bit tipsy at this point and full from the fatty meat that I didn't really indulge all that much in the dessert.  From the few bites I had they actually weren't all that sweet and wouldn't really be the kind of dessert that I would go ga-ga for. 

Overall, it was still a lovely dinner experience despite some of my issues.  As Neel and I discussed, the meal was good and the food done well but but with so many stealler NYC restaurants, it's really hard to compete.  But if you live in the neighborhood and/or want to try something out in this part of industrial Brooklyn, I would recommend giving it a try.  Just a note, they used to be gratuity free but they recently switched back to not including it in the bill.  Total bill:  ~$300 for 3 people with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Thursday Kitchen Visited 10/7/2016 4 Forks

Thursday Kitchen  424 E 9th St., New York, NY 10009

I'll be honest, I was drawn to Thursday Kitchen because of the promise of glow-in-the-dark drinks in a Capri sun bag.  Yes, this is how they serve their cocktails.  Fascinating right?  How can you not want to check it out? 

Holly and I met there early on a Friday night and by 6:15pm and they were pretty packed already. Although neither of us were starving, but we felt like if we didn't grab a table now, we would be waiting a long time.  We were hoping to maybe leisurely start with drinks and then transition over to food but that didn't really happen.  As soon as we sat down, multiple people were asking us if we were ready to order which was kind of annoying.  I will say that by the time we left at 8:30pm, there was a really long line outside, so I guess it was kind of warranted for them to churn as many tables as possible.  The first good sign of this place was that it was packed full of Asians - it is a Korean tapas place but it it's in the East Village so I was expecting more artist/hipsters than anything else.

They don't have a liquor license but they do have soju cocktails which is what comes in the glow in the dark bags.  The one I got had smashed up strawberries and was good but it didn't really taste very strong.  Holly got one that had a bunch of herbs in it and she wasn't a huge fan as the basil was way too overpowering.   But they are fun drinks to try out none the less.

The menu is tapas style and they recommended 2 plates per person but I honestly felt like you could get 3 or more if you're really hungry.  We opted for the ugly potato ($8), the octopus ($9), truffle mac and cheese ($9) and the kimchi paella ($12).  The octopus was very very small thin slices served with a mango salsa type garnish.  It was a bit underwhelming because usually octopus dishes have nice thick hearty pieces to it and this was too delicate for me.  Next was the truffle mac and cheese and it was as advertised, super cheesy and delicious.  The twist to this dish was that it had manila clams in it, which I know sounds kind of gross but it actually really worked.  My only gripe was that I wish this dish was larger as it was really like 3-4 bites max per person.  Next came the kimchi paella which wasn't really a paella but more like a really creamy risotto.  It came with green New Zealand mussels (my favorite), shrimp and kimchi in it.  The waiter kept telling us before that it was cheesey and we thought he was talking about the mac and cheese but I can see how one would describe this dish as cheesey too.   Lastly we had the ugly potato which was crispy potato with melted cheese and BBQ sauce on it.  The parts of the potato that weren't super brunt were great but there was probably more burnt ends than I would have liked in there.  I really wanted to try the matcha bread pudding but we were both full from so much cheesey foods that we couldn't do it but it sounded delicious.

I'll give this place kudos for being incredibly unique and creative, which is something that's been missing from a lot of places I've been to lately.  You can definitely taste the Korean flavors in the food and it was great to see them honor those elements with a slight twist to it.  Again, my usual gripe with tapas is that when you like a dish (i.e. the truffle mac and cheese) you just wish you had more of it vs. such a small portion. Definitely get here early if you don't want to wait around.  Total bill:  $43/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Miso Visited 10/1/2016 3 Forks

Miso  40 Main St., Brooklyn, NY 11201

Allison and I were in DUMBO to catch the Taylor Mac show at St. Ann's Warehouse and wanted to grab a bite to eat before the 3+ hour show.  In the past we've gone to Atrium but this time they had a private party and could only seat us at 6:30 which was too late for the 7pm show.  Normally I rave and gush about DUMBO because it is my favorite neighborhood in Brooklyn from an aesthetic perspective however, from a culinary perspective it is lacking a bit.  Luckily, Allison recommended Miso which was less than a 5 min walk from the theater and sushi always works for me, so I was in. 

The place is your standard mom and pop neighborhood sushi joint - nothing more nothing less.  It's one of those places that just gets the job done and isn't looking to do anything that is too fancy.  I got a sashimi salad and Allison and I split a bunch of rolls which right now I honestly can't remember but it was a combination of regular rolls (think spicy scallop) and fancy rolls (Tribeca roll that had a mix of fish on top).  The sashimi salad was definitely more salad than sashimi which was a bit disappointing but not entirely unexpected.  The fish, while fresh, wasn't some melt in your mouth, mind blowing experience but it wasn't bodga level sushi either.  The rolls were surprisingly large and filling and the rice was much better quality than the crap I had a Nantori. 

While this place isn't a destination restaurant by any stretch, if you're trying to see a show and Atrium is full or you just want something that isn't quite as fancy, Miso is more than an acceptable enough substitute.  I would also say that if I lived around here (I wish!!), I could see this place being high on a take out list on a cold rainy night.  Total bill:  $30/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Ladybird Visited 9/24/2016 3.5 Forks

Ladybird  127 Macdougal St., New York, NY 10012

This year has had a boon of veggie friendly/veggie forward restaurants from Nix to By Chloe.  You can now add Ladybird to that list.  It's a "globally inspired vegetable tapas bar" from the owner of Avant Garden in the old Bourgeois Pig space in the West Village. 

First off, the space is gorgeous.  It's got a French elegance feel to it and it's very glamorous yet approachable.  The only issue I had was that all the seats were high tops, so you're sitting on stools the entire time, which was kind of annoying and as I get older, just hurts my back.  The menu is actually not just vegetarian but vegan as well.  It's broken up into the front half with amuse bouches and cold plates and then the back half of warm plates.  They're all tapas style so definitely order 2-3 dishes per person because they are not very big in size.  We ordered the fried olives ($7), cauliflower ($6), saganaki ($9), coconut croqueta ($9), seared peach caprese ($12), artichoke hearts ($12) and the charred eggplant ($11).  I'm not a huge fan of olives so I didn't try it but it looked exactly like what you would think fried olives would look like.  The cauliflower was served on a bruschetta like bread with chive pesto, lemon ricotta, and chia.  It was a bit difficult to eat a hunk of cauliflower on a piece of bread and frankly, the dish probably would have been better without it sitting on it.  Flavor wise, it was nice and light and could have used a pinch more salt to it. 

I was intrigued as to how they would serve saganaki since the restaurant is vegan and the answer is soy cheese.  This dish was flamed "mozzarella" with smoked carrots and carrot green pesto.  While I respect and get the whole focus on not having any dairy, I gotta say that soy cheese just isn't an adequate substitute for real cheese - especially if you're going to light it on fire.  The next dish was the coconut croqueta which had bell pepper bechamel, orange romesco and jalapeño to it.  It was small enough to be just a quick bite but I really enjoyed this dish - it was creative with all the complex flavors but still worked.  Next was the seared peach "caprese" (again soy cheese) and burning sage. Again, I would like it a lot more if it was real cheese because something was just missing texture and taste wise.  The 2 favorite dishes of the night were the artichoke hearts and eggplant - two really hearty dishes.  The artichoke was sprinkled with sea salt and served with creme fraiche - simple yet delicious way to eat artichokes.  As for the eggplant, it was charred and served with sweet potato crisp, feta, apricot jalapeno, and sherry vinegar.  To me, it's hard to mess up charred eggplant because it soaks up so much flavor and yet still maintains the heartiness of the actual eggplant. 

Since it was Lav's birthday, we had to get dessert and the chocolate fondue ($24) won out.  It's kind of pricey for a chocolate dessert however, it's a huge serving, enough for 3 or 4 people.  They give you all kinds of sliced fruit, slices of cake and fried mochi to dip into the chocolate.  Luckily it was more of a dark chocolate and not an overly icky sweet milk chocolate, so it made it much more bearable for me.  

Ladybird is a beautiful restaurant and would be great on a date because it's got a really romantic feel. I'd come here for some wine, a few nibbles and dessert but probably not for a full blown dinner. While I enjoyed my experience here, I can't say I felt particularly full at the end of it which was kind of annoying.  Total bill:  ~$120 for 3 people with tax, tip and wine

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Where to Eat When You're on Jury Duty in BK - Part 2 Visited 9/26-9/30/2016 2.5 - 4 Forks

Week 2 of grand jury duty!  Unlike trial jury duty, for grand jury duty, they pretty much assign you a block of time and then put as many cases in front of you during your timeframe.  The minimum you can get away with is 2 weeks but people can get put on 3 month, 8 month and sometimes even 1 year long commitments!

So by week 2, I knew most of the places I wanted to go that I hadn't gone to yet and there were a few I re-visited.

Shake Shack  - Let's be honest, no visit to Downtown Brooklyn would be complete if you didn't have Shake Shack at least once.  I had been avoiding it because it's not really the healthiest thing and I've been to it a million times before.  But sometimes it just calls your name.  It really is delicious and I stand by that themushroom burger is better than the hamburger.  However, recently they've introduced the chicken sandwich and it's pretty freaking delicious too.  It's a crispy chicken breast with lettuce, tomato, pickles with buttermilk herb mayo on a potato roll.  Genius.  While I was there, I helped myself to some yummy crinkle fries as well.  It's not a lunch time meal I recommend on a frequent basis but having been stuck in a jury room with 22 other annoying people, I felt like I deserved this meal.    4 Forks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Pinto Thai - Sometimes during jury duty you luck out and get an extended lunch break.  Tuesday was one of those days where we got over an hour, so I took a leisurely stroll down Montague Street which is a lovely but busy street in the heart of Brooklyn Heights.  I randomly stumbled upon Pinto - I've actually been to the one in the West Village before with Aarti many times before and really liked it, so I was pleased to find it here.  It's a lovely setting and of course they have a nice lunch special menu.  For $9, you can get an appetizer and entree which is quite a steal!  I got the fried tofu appetizer and the chicken pad thai (duh) and since I was on an extended break, I thought I'd treat myself to a thai iced tea too.  The fried tofu was great - not too greasy or oily and really soft on the inside.  It was served with a spicy mayo which is not what I would have expected from a Thai place but it was delicious non the less.  The pad thai was solid - it's what you expect from a neighborhood thai place.   My meal would have been great had it not been for the Thai iced tea.  Don't get me wrong, it was delicious and super unique in that the ice cubes were made from frozen thai iced tea and they serve you everything in a deconstructed way - separate glass of condensed milk, separate glass of iced tea and a little glass of simple syrup.  Adorable right? Except when the bill came it was $6.  WTF?  It was almost as much as my entire lunch - so much for a steal.  I told the waitress that I was shocked by this price and she apologized but didn't do anything about it.  In no world should a freaking drink that does not have alcohol in it cost this much.  For this, I had to knock my review down to 3.5 forks.  Stick with the $9 lunch special and you'll be fine.

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Hanco - I came back to Hanco, but this time to try their pho ($9.75).  I wasn't feeling too well and the weather was starting to get chilly so I thought some pho would solve the trick.  I actually came in with zero expectations for their pho because well frankly, it's run by Chinese people and not Vietnamese people.  However, I was actually fairly impressed by it (I guess this is what happens when you have no expectations).  It still wasn't as good as Pho 75 back home but the broth was great and there was a shockingly good amount of beef slices in the dish served rare which is my favorite.  I am kicking myself for having wasted other lunch meals when I could have gotten a really solid bowl of pho here.  If you have more than an hour for lunch and you're serving jury duty in the winter, definitely come here for the pho.  4 Forks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Nanatori - Ugh, this was my least favorite meal of the entire 2 weeks.  I am usually a sucker for sushi lunch specials but since I usually only had an hour, I didn't feel like I really had enough time for it. Luckily, I had another extended lunch day and thought I would give this place a try since it looked crowded from the outside.  They serve your standard sushi lunch specials - I opted for the 3 roll combo ($11.95) with spicy tuna, spicy salmon and eel/avocado.  It comes with a miso soup and salad - nothing to write home about here.  The 3 rolls came out and they just looked sad.  The rice was falling off most of them and there was just way too much of it in general.  I ended up pretty much removing almost a full cup of rice from the rolls.  The rice was most definitely not high quality (not that I was expecting much but I expected it to at least not suck) and the spicy tuna and salmon was the pre-mixed/chopped up kind.  It was just an overall disappointing waste of a lunch special, you're much better off at Hanco across the street.  2.5 Forks

 Photo Credit:  Yelp

Where To Eat If You're On Jury Duty in Brooklyn Visited 9/19-9/23/2016 3 - 4.5 Forks

My first listsicle!  Instead of individually reviewing a bunch of places, I’m going to give you a list of the good/bad/ugly of places to eat if you have to serve jury duty in Brooklyn.

I’ve had the “honor” of serving grand jury duty for the past 2 weeks in BK.  It’s actually quite an eye-opening and frankly, scary view into how fucked up our judicial system is.  But this is a food blog and not a political blog, so I will stop here.  But being stuck in jury duty for 2 weeks means 2 weeks of finding lunch options in the depressing downtown Brooklyn neighborhood.   At first glance, there aren’t a lot of great options as the immediate area of Fulton Street Mall is packed with fast food places like Burger King and cheap pizza joints.  But there are a few gems and if you are willing to take a 10 minute walk.

Potbelly – Yes, it’s fast food but it’s one of the better sandwich places around and it’s fast and very cheap (you can get a sandwich for <$10).  It’s a definite go-to if you’re looking for something that isn’t burger and fries.  My go-to is the Roast Beef and there's just something about the toasted bread that makes it tastes that much better.  They also have killer cookies and milkshakes if you need a sugar high in between cases.  4 Forks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Juice Shop – This is right next door to Potbelly and it was a healthy lunch life saver.  This isn’t Tribeca or Soho where you can find a bougie salad place every 10 feet, so it's slim pickings out here.  The only place I saw within a 10-15 minute walk that served real salads (I’m not talking about the kind at Hill Country Chicken where you can basically put fried chicken in your salad), was The Juice Shop.  They only have kale salads and they have a variety of combinations but the one that I got (Baja Verde) which amazing.  Topped with kale, quinoa, corn, beans and an addictive verde dressing, I definitely became hooked on this place.  Everything tasted fresh and healthy and it was actually really filling.  I came back two more times and and now actively looking for other locations in the city so that I can get my free freaking salad (only 7 more to go!)  4.5 Forks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Yaso Tangbao – I was shocked to find this place in the middle of downtown Brooklyn.   It bills itself as Chinese street food but it’s a very clean and well run joint.  It has a very similar vibe to Xian Famous Foods but the focus on the food is less on spicy noodles but more on soup dumplings and other noodle dishes.  I got the beef noodle soup which is a dish that I remember loving in Taiwan.  This one was ok – it was a simple beef broth with sliced braised beef, nappa cabbage, bok choy and these pickled Chinese greens.  But what makes this dish is the broth and this one needed more salt and flavor to it, it was just kind of bland.  It could have also had more sliced beef but at the very least it was a nice change in a world of sandwiches and salads.  3 Forks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Hanco – When I lived in Park Slope, this was a favorite go-to place because they made a solid Banh Mi sandwich.  It’s a 10 minute walk towards Brooklyn Heights but the food is quick so even if you have an hour, you can still make it.  I got the classic sandwich and summer roll.  The summer roll was nicely done with shrimp, lettuce, rice vermicelli wrapped in rice paper and served with oh so delicious peanut sauce ($5.25).  The classic sandwich comes with ground pork, Vietnamese ham, pate, mayo, butter, cucumber, pickled carrot, daikon radish and cilantro on a soft and toasted French baguette ($6.75).   It’s a delicious sandwich although it is super messy with the ground pork falling out every time I took a bite to eat.   It’s a cheap and delicious and makes me sad that I no longer have one in my neighborhood.   3.5 Forks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Sophie’s – Ahh Sophie’s.  I have been going to Sophie’s (not this location) since I first came to NYC and worked at Goldman Sachs downtown.  It’s straight up Cuban comfort food and it is seriously addictive.  I always get the exact same thing:  baked chicken with yellow rice and beans.  It’s a chicken thigh/leg served on the bone, which is why it’s so moist and delicious.   But the absolute best part of the dish is actually the green sauce that they give you in a bottle at the table.  It is seriously the most addictive sauce I’ve ever had – it’s got a hint of spice but it mainly tastes like a cilantro sauce (they won’t tell you what’s in it or sell it by the bottle).  I seriously go through half a bottle when I eat there and if I do take out, I will pay extra for more of it (they only give you 2 small servings of it).  I slather it on everything, the chicken, the rice, the beans.  Honestly, the rice and beans are just a vehicle for me to get to the sauce.  The food here is heavy and every time I eat here for lunch, I want to take a long nap afterwards, but it is so worth it.    4 Forks

Photo Credit:  Yelp