Great Find: Ippudo's Unforgettable Pork Belly

Last night, Book Babe and I went to Ippudo, the Japanese ramen chain that opened a while back on 4th Ave and 10th St. In the past, the long lines snaking around the side of the entrance deterred me, but last night, at 6 pm, we were able to get in without a wait. Check out this bar made out of ramen noodles. What a hoot!

First off, I have to say I had a minor celebrity sighting -- Govind Armstrong, celebrity chef and owner of Table 8 - walked past me - he's hard to miss with his streaming dreadlocks- and if he's eating there, you know it's got to be good.

Okay, so the decor wasn't quite what I expected. Ippudo's stylish, but it's doesn't feel very minimalist or natural, the way you expect Japanese restaurants to be. It's loud and crazy and kinda rock and roll.We were sat at this sort of fake-fire-pit-bar thing, at the back of which was mirrored glass, which I was facing straight on. It was quite distracting. Here's a photo:The noise in the place also gets a bit crazy, with all the ramen guys shouting "Irashaiiii!!" every time someone enters the dining room and a pretty large dining room full of chatter, but the service is fast and friendly, and most importantly the food is good.

We started with the Hirata Buns, slabs of succulent melt-in-your mouth pork belly and some lettuce and sweet sauce that complements the salty pork perfectly, all slipped into a mantou bun.

Now for the ramen. As far as ramen places go, Ippudo's difference is their tonkastsu broth, made by slowly boiling pork bones, giving it a rich, almost nutty texture. Their handmade ramen noodles are thin and light, not like the greasy, plump curly kind you get freeze-dried in the supermarket. It takes a moment to get used to, but once you're a few bites in, your taste buds are doing a happy dance.

I had the classic choice - the Shiromaru, and Book Babe had the Akamaru Modern. Both come with a couple slices of that wonderful pork belly that was also in the buns. I had half a boiled egg and some pickled ginger in mine. The Modern had some cabbage, I think, but the main difference between the two is the Modern has a squirt of "special sauce" - maybe the same special sauce in the buns? - and some oil and miso paste, giving it a richer flavor and creamier texture. But the Shiromaru was perfect for me that night, as I wanted something lighter.

But that pork - boy, I couldn't get it off my mind. I'm definitely going back.

On My Mind: Stuff I Did This Month

It's funny how one's blog becomes a document of one's life, and when one doesn't blog, not only do one's readers get the impression one has been sitting at home watching TV (poor shut-in!) but a length of time later, one looks back and realizes she doesn't remember what she did the first two weeks of May 2009 because she didn't write about it.

So here I am, sitting at my desk on a beautiful--blue skies and 70 degrees--spring day in Manhattan, catching you up on highlights from the last month or so. Let's see how well memory serves me..

Saturday, April 18
My first trip to the legendary den of literature and Soviet-era styling. Having heard about the KGB Bar since before my move to NYC, I expect a commanding venue, worthy of the Kremlin or a Constructivist factory. Instead, I find a space the size of my apartment. 50 or so people crowd into the room to hear two very fine readers, both debut novelists. I beg a stranger to share butt space with me on a bench near the wall. On second thought, think maybe small is better when it comes to literary readings, as they can't always count on being well attended.
Friday, April 24
City Guy and I take a walk along Hudson River and stumble into a crowd of hundreds assembled in front of the World Financial Center for the Tribeca Film Festival's Drive-in (i.e., hundreds of folding chairs facing a projector screen). The film being shown: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Snapple is the sponsor. People are dressed as characters I don't recognize (is that supposed to be George Bush?).

Previous night's film was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Neither film screams "sit and watch!" to me. But it may just be I'm over the very NY "movie in the park" dealio--there's always someone talking through the movie, so if you're there to socialize or make out, cool; if you're there to actually watch the movie, you might want to Netflix it. Beautiful sunset though...Tuesday, April 28
Miss Fashion and I play hooky and meet up in the afternoon for coffee at Joe The Art of Coffee on Waverly in the West Village. Filled with cute gay boys scoping each other out. Happy that Miss Fashion has introduced me to another good place to meet friends for coffee in the city. Later, I drag her to a real estate appointment and afterwards we get tea and dessert at Cha-an, my favorite Japanese tea house.

Thursday, April 30
On my way to meet Book Babe and to my delight, I see Panda coming towards me! I fumble to get out my camera and catch him as he shuffles dejectedly away. See the downward slope of his shoulders and his plastic shopping bag. Love him! He's so damn cute I can't stop smiling.Arrive at subway and find this poem stuck to a post. Apparently it's Poem In Your Pocket Day. It reads:

Circa 1995 by D. Vollaro
It slipped in with them,
Candy-coated azure gem.
The blue M&M.

What a lovely occasion and what a lovely poem...I do love M&M's!

The evening already off to a great start, I meet Book Babe at an NYU Creative Writing Program Reading Series event: a conversation about writing between Zadie Smith and Jonathan Safran Foer. Zadie Smith? Beautiful, articulate, funny, insightful, bold--in short, I want to be Zadie Smith. JSF? Smart, great interviewer, quotes liberally from email correspondence with friend Zadie. Note to self: write wittier, more thoughtful emails.

After reading, head to Gwyneth Paltrow's newest GOOP recommendation, Sweetiepie for a late dinner/dessert. Delighted by the balloons, mirrored ceiling, gilded cage, and oversized fuschia banquettes, but then again, I am unabashedly girly. Chopped salad and berry cream dessert not bad either. The next day, Book Babe alerts me to fact that Yelpers have been trashing the place. I write my very first Yelp review to share my more positive experience. Then again, maybe we just got lucky.
Friday, May 8
Book Babe and I go to a fashion fundraiser her friend has organized. The organization, Fashion For All, takes clothing donations so low-income women can "shop" for clothes for free. The event is held in the showroom of MINT Jodi Arnold and the women attending are all beautifully dressed in this season's fashions--colorful, feminine, flirty, flowy. There's a bar, cupcakes, snacks and an opportunity to buy MINT Jodi Arnold at sample sale prices. We show up with bags of old clothing and get a lovely goodie bag (recycled newspaper tote from Raw Bags) filled with cosmetics, reading material, accessories as a thank you . What a score!

Afterwards, a short walk to dinner in K-town and dessert at Koryodong--drinks are overpriced, but it's THE after dinner spot on 32nd St.

Saturday, May 9
City Guy and I go on a double date! Fun times. Meet up with friends at Freeman's only be told there's a 2-hour wait for 4 people...at 6:30! Craziness. The food can't be that good. I suggest Kampuchea, which is just blocks away. At 6:45, no wait, but the place fills up in the next couple hours. The Num Pang sandwiches are still to die for, but they're still stingy on the oxtail stew (can you call it a stew when it's just two pieces of oxtail and a few carrots?). After dinner, City Guy and I catch a late screening of Star Trek. My inner trekkie is unleashed! Monday, May 11
Almost forgot about this. I have been called for jury duty for the first time since moving to NYC. I show up at 100 Court St at 8:45 am. The guy says anyone who can't serve at this juncture needs to go to 60 Court St to plead their case. I get up and go because City Guy and I have a vacation planned and I won't be able to serve if I am placed on a jury. The people at the postponement place are very nice. I'm free and clear by 9:30! Jury duty postponed until August.

Tuesday, May 12
Running low on groceries. My list is getting very long. Decide that instead of schlepping to Whole Foods, I'll try Fresh Direct this week. It's been a while. I feel disloyal to my beloved WF, but my grocery cart broke....that's a story for another post.

Wednesday, May 13
So those were the highlights...in between were sprinkled other commitments, work, miserably cold and wet weather...but this is not a diary, it's a blog, right? Until next time...hopefully that's sooner than later.

Neighborhoods: Brooklyn Flea Market and Other Fort Greene Adventures

When I think of flea markets, I think of a stadium parking lot filled with rows and rows of vendors, like the flea markets of my childhood. So I wasn't expecting the entire Brooklyn Flea Market to fit into the confines of a high school track field. But that made it more neighborhood-y and intimate, I guess. It's definitely worth the trip out, with a nice variety of craft and food vendors, vintage clothing and jewelry dealers and people just cleaning out their attics. I'd say it took us about 40 minutes to walk through the whole thing, and we were mostly just browsing.

I'd never been to Fort Greene before, or at least not intentionally. The market is about a 15 minute walk from the 4/5 Atlantic St. Stop, and I confess I used my Google Maps app on my Blackberry to guide me. I always feel I'm on the verge of getting lost when in the BK. Getting off the subway, I swear I was hit up for money at least a few times in the first few blocks of what I assume is Downtown Brooklyn. It's funny how the neighborhood changes as you walk further north and east. Less scuzzy.

My first impressions of the market: hipster central. Having decided against my straw fedora and ironic tee at home, I felt a little out of place in my girly sundress, but it was cool. Being uninitiated into this flea market business, I haven't mastered the art of finding treasure amidst clutter, but I did buy a pair of earrings (made not by the vendor, it turns out, but by someone in Bali - $30 - not cheap!) and a peanut butter and chocolate whoopie pie (the ones at One Girl Cookies were better). I was glad to find a couple rows of food booths--nice to see locally produced foods. For those who are famished, they can also buy drinks, corn on the cob, sausage and other stuff and sit and eat on the bleachers with the rest of the hipsters.

Here are some photos from our day...vintage kitchen set:

Charlie Brown and Linus - except what's wrong with their coloring?:
Vinyl dealers:
Wow - maybe if you had this sectional and nothing else in your very white living room:
Kinda cool:Pots and pans:
Vintage toys:
Sweets!!
Carved right off a pig's leg, for your culinary pleasure:
Tasty gherkins and other pickled products:
More mini cupcakes?
More baked goods:
$70? Seriously?Food and drink!!
Pretty mirrors:
Nice little banquette:
Later, we walked to De Kalb Ave (some strangers told us that's where we'd find the restaurants) and ate at a French cafe called Lou Lou. Cute little garden out back. The kitchen was really backed up that day because it took at least an hour for our food to come out. Food was okay, not great.


Garden view:View from the hatch:

Great Find: Momofuku Milk Bar

Let me just say Momofuku Milk Bar isn't technically a "find" - every foodie in town knows about it, and well, it' s been on my list since it opened, but on this blog, if I try it and I like it, it's filed under "Great Find." So you already know how I feel about the place. Went there last night with Book Babe. Whenever she and I get together, we talk writing, books, Gossip Girl, our dysfunctional families...and we eat, dinner and dessert always, in separate places.

Last night, we concentrated our efforts in the village. Dinner at Soba-ya--I had the kitsune soba, my go-to dish, which comes with a side of two inari sushi. Not mind-blowing soba, but tasty nonetheless and friendly, fast service. Our entire dinner took a record 45 minutes. I always enjoy my meals there.

Afterwards, we took a stroll in the cold up to 2nd Ave and 13th to go to David Chang's sweet heaven. First impressions--good vibe. The entrance is actually around the corner on 13th, not on 2nd, but you can see everything going on in the place b/c of the floor-to-ceiling windows. Last night, the crowd was downtown couples, hipsters, Asian foodies, and Momofuku Ssam reservation holders (the ones wearing the ties) standing around, eating out of cardboard containers.(where the neon "milk" sign is is a hallway that links the bakery to ssam--don't even have to go outside; very clever)
Between the two of us, we had:

• Pork Buns: slices of pork belly cradled in Chinese buns; very tasty, although the roast pork at Big Wong's still can't be beat (2 for $9)
  
• Cereal milk: let cornflakes sit in milk until soggy; strain and serve in soda cup, and you have a hit on your hands; I admire the creative effort, but this was just too weird for me; then again, I'm not crazy about cereal, unlike the people standing nearby, who seem to be enjoying the cones of cereal milk frozen yogurt, one fruit loop flavored ($4/cup)
  
• Composte cookie: this chocolate chip cookie supposedly contains potato chips, pretzels and other stuff in it; the cookie retains the crunch of the chips - I had thought they were cornflakes, but cornflakes were on the brain, b/c of the above; good texture, crispy on the edges with a chewy center peak, just how I liked my cookies, but very rich ($1.75 each)
• Candy Bar pie: this thing called to Book Babe from the display case - topped with chocolate covered pretzels, in the cut view, you can see the chocolate crust, peanut butter filling, caramel oozing out the sides and topped with a layer of hard chocolate; what a Reeses would be if it grew up and moved to NYC ($5/slice)
  
• Key Lime cake: the surprise winner of the night; took a slice home for City Guy, who likes fruity desserts. With competition from all the above, I have a feeling the key lime cake gets overlooked here. The girl who packed it up for me hadn't even tried it. But I tried a bite when City Guy was enjoying it later and wow - this is amazing cake - the cake layer is flavorful, but not too fluffy or dense; sour cream frosting and a surprising layer of crispy graham crumbs and a base of graham crackers ($5/slice)

Really fun little spot and I definitely want to go back. Glad to say for once, the food has lived up to the hype. What looked good for next time: crack pie, dulce de leche cake, cinnamon bun pie and blueberry cream cookie.

NYC Birthday: Daniel

City Guy took me to dinner at Daniel Boulud's four star restaurant, Daniel, on my birthday. So did you guess right? The restaurant was recently renovated and is really stunning inside. I felt a little cheezy snapping shots of my food on my birthday and at such an upscale establishment, but I did sneak in a shot of the beautiful light fixtures with my cell phone camera:
We had the six course tasting menu. We figured, hey, let's splurge - don't know when and if we'll ever be back. And boy were we stuffed by night's end. City Guy and I ordered different things so we could try everything, and I'd have to say my favorites were:

• Maine Peekytoe Crab with really yummy hearts of palm
• Beaufort Ravioli with peppercorn, black trumpet and ham
• Black sea bass with syrah reduction

They showered us with desserts at the end of the meal, including a special birthday cake with a candle in it, the tasting menu desserts, fresh baked madeleines and petit fours.

All in all a really enjoyable night. How did it compare to Le Bernardin (last year's b-day spot)? Well, I'm a seafood lover, so I think I'll have to give the edge to Le Bernardin. But the ambiance at Daniel is truly stunning - one of the most lavish and romantic in the city - so what can I say? I love that we have an embarassment of riches when it comes to food in this city.

NYC Birthday: This Was Dessert

After my kalbi lunch, I decided to treat myself to a birthday dessert and sought out the Crumbs Cupcake Shop I knew had opened recently in the Financial District (I always get excited when new food destinations open in the FiDi). I have to confess that I was late to the party on the Crumbs Cupcake thing. I know it's been a "thing" in NYC for years now, but this was my first time. And boy was it hard to find!

On Google Maps, the address was listed as 67 Wall, but the shop entrance is actually on a less trafficked part of Beaver St, right around the corner, so I kept missing it. I had to ask a couple people before finding it. See how small the storefront is? Easy to miss. Inside, my mind spun with the vast selection of sugary sweets. I was a good girl and bought a single Oreo cupcake, though in retrospect the Hostess (which looks like a giant Hostess cupcake) or the chocolatey Blackout might have been better picks. I took my giant cupcake home and stuck a candle in it and made a birthday wish. Then I ate the whole thing. I'm an Oreo lover, so I was expecting an Oreo taste explosion, but not so much. The Oreo cupcake is just a chocolate cupcake with Oreo frosting and two Oreo stuck in the top, as pictured above. It wasn't as good as I had hoped, and I probably won't have it again. Also, the cupcake was so big! I'm not sure how I feel about that much cupcake in one sitting.

But I feel trying a new dessert place in NYC is never a lost cause, no matter how underwhelming the product. Maybe I didn't pick the right flavor. In any case, it was nice to have a moment to myself to wish myself a happy year ahead. Thanks again to all of you who left birthday wishes for me! They really made me feel less alone and happy on my birthday.

NYC Birthday: Kalbi Lunch Box at Seh Ja Meh

Seh Ja Meh is my neighborhood Korean restaurant, right next to Trinity Boxing on Greenwich St, just north of Rector St and west of Wall St. Filled with bankers at lunch time. Wait staff is not the friendliest. But the kalbi is really really good. It was what I was craving today, so I treated myself.

Great Find: BLT Market

On a whim, City Guy and I went to lunch at Laurent Tourendel's "barnyard-fresh" restaurant BLT Market today. We had stopped at this office in midtown and thought, "hey, let's treat ourselves to lunch." Having eaten at BLT Fish before without being too impressed, we were unsure of what to expect, but we had a really great lunch. A bit pricey for $100 for the two of us (sans alcohol), but very tasty, and I like the idea of eating seasonally and locally.

The restaurant has a homey feel to it--beautifully paintings of produce on the walls, rustic furniture and table settings (a pot of rosemary on each table) and a layout that's open to the street view on 6th Avenue near Central Park South--conducive on a day like today to watching bundled tourists trundling by. The meal starts with the chef's version of pigs in a blanket - tasty little hot dog treat - and piping hot garlic bread with parsley butter. Yum. We started by sharing the chestnut, apple and celery root soup with wild mushroom toast and a foie gras topping and bacon. A perfectly creamy blend of sweet and savory, this was definitely the highlight of our meal.

For main courses, I had the rock shrimp risotto with cauliflower, topped with black truffle. The risotto was perfectly cooked, and the cauliflower pieces were lovely little treats buried in the rice. City Guy had the burger with blue cheese and rosemary fries--he liked the burger very much (you have to love blue cheese) and I couldn't keep my hands out of the fry cup. :) Dessert was the chocolate feuilletine rocky road with coffee cointreau cream glace. Not the most exciting dessert, but tasty enough. Good texture, although it wasn't very "rocky road"-y, as there were no marshmallows.

I love that every once in a while, we can treat ourselves to a really good meal for no reason at all. Love that about this city. There's never an end to the good food.

Great Find: La Maison Du Chocolat Opens On Wall Street

A while back, I had heard La Maison du Chocolat, my favorite Parisian chocolatier in NYC, was opening a shop at 63 Wall Street...i.e., in my neighborhood and in the building of my former residence no less, but it was only during my snowstorm jaunt on Friday that I discovered that the glorious event had already happened! A month ago, I was told. It's a nice sized store, smaller than the location on the Upper West Side, but comparable and perhaps slightly bigger than the Rock Center location. I noticed a small seating area in the back of the store for anyone who wants to mange in-store. In any case, I picked up my favorite Caramel macarons to celebrate...and they were as luscious as ever. I hope this store stays afloat during the economic downturn, as it's nice to have good chocolate in walking distance.