Food Update

Hiroko's Place 

write-up on NY Mag (spring and thompson)
order the omelette rice curry and ice coffee. place feels like going over to a friend's home for afternoon tea. so comfy and cute! Next time would like to try some of the pasta dishes.

Taco Shop

http://www.thetacoshopnyc.com/ (near Wash. Sq)
order the pork belly and fish tacos. don't miss this place. it's in the basement.

Empire Szechuan Chinese 

http://www.empiretogo.com/Welcome.tpl (UWS)
order the bok choy and string beans (both vegetarian friendly and bound to wow people who love simple veggies done right). The prawns and pork Szechuan style are tasty too.

Magnolia's Cupcakes

http://www.magnoliabakery.com/ (UWS location, multiple locations)
my regular: chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting. Don't ask me how long I was in line. I don't get these cupcakes at ___ location unless the line is fewer than 5 people. This particular time I went to the UWS location. Most times I'm usually at the GCT one which is usually not too crazy. I know people will have endless debates over what's the best cupcake places in town and I've tried several (Billy's, Georgetown, Butterlane, Crumbs, Melissa, etc). I still like Magnolia's chocolate chocolate cupcake for the best tasting chocolate frosting. My other favorite is the Bloomingdale's location which has a Bloomingdale special cupcake. Otherwise I'm not too adventurous with my flavors.

Hide-Chan Ramen

Yelp entry (Midtown East)
everything here is good but I like to order regular style (less pork fat than traditional), soft noodle (instead of hard), and with bamboo shoots if not already in the ramen. I'm sure people who are ramen fanatics may rave about the right way to order and eat ramen but really, just pick your style and go with it.

Güllüoglu Baklava Cafe

Yelp entry (across the street from Hide-Chan, midtown east)
I like the extra pistachio baklava but there are plenty of other options to pick from.

El Aguila Mexican 

http://elaguilanewyorkrestaurant.com/web_eng/menu.html (103th st location, multiple locations)
order the tacos (any filling you like, I tried goat which was good), don't forget the sauce bar near the door. I think one of the sauces is tomatillo and another is jalapeno or habanero which is more spicy. I don't think I usually see pineapple pieces as an option. pretty cool. Also get some agua fresca if you want a refreshment. There are two large tubs of hibiscus tea and horchata (cinnamon and sugar iced milk, I'm hooked on this stuff). Next time I would like to try to tortas.

Kati Roll Company

http://www.thekatirollcompany.com/ (near Wash Sq. multiple locations)
Even though I've blogged about them before, I actually haven't been to this place in a while. I ordered the egg one (without other meats) and found it to be tasty too. May see if I can get it without onions in the future.

Pasticceria Bruno

http://www.pasticceriabruno.com/ (near Wash Sq. previous write-up)
Got the chocolate canoli and latte this time. My friend J. actually recommended another Italian place http://www.littleitalynyc.com/labellaferrara/ that I need to try at a future date.

Pepe Rosso Social

http://www.peperossosocial.com/ (little italy)
Order the polpettine (meatballs) and artichoke dip as starters. Then get the papardelle oxtail ragu. I got the shrimp risotto which was also delicious. V. found this with the help of Yelp before we went to see Pain of Being Pure in Heart at Bowery Ballroom.

Adrienne's Pizza

Write up in NY Mag (Stone St. Financial District)
There are many great places on Stone St on any given weekday/weekend. Get the old fashioned pizza (rectangle shaped) and try different toppings. I like basil, tomato, eggplant, pepperoni, mushrooms etc etc. Great place for a group of 4. If you're hungry, 2 people may be able to polish off most of the rectangle.

Sakagura

http://www.sakagura.com/ (Midtown East)
Can't remember the sake choice but it was recommended by the waiter and I enjoyed it.
Ordered the fresh tuna with natto, eggplant with three miso sauces (highly recommended for eggplant lovers. two sweet, one savory), cold udon with ume plum sauce/shiso, and grilled riceballs with mackeral (not sure if I want to order this again). J. had his usual cold soba with fried chicken. Mostly we go for lunch specials (which ends up being tuna + soba most times since I don't always like the special) so I don't write about those. Noting this only for reference for the dinner menu. Funny to compare notes and what we ordered previously [dinner blog entry].

Cool Haus Ice Cream

NY truck location via twitter @coolhausny
Maker's Manhattan ice cream sandwiches between chocolate cookies makes an awesome dessert. Personally my preference for ice cream to cookie ratio is a lot of ice cream to a little bit of cookie. So I'll probably just order ice cream only in the future or may split a cookie with a friend. J. tried the chocolate with salt which tasted good too. Other flavors include some strange ones with bacon or fried chicken.

Flushing Hotpot

Mapo Szechuan 陈麻婆
37-04 Prince Street, Flushing, NY

I’ve been to many hoptpot places in Flushing and found this “newish” place to be the best. Although they have other food, we always go here for hotpot so my review is all hotpot related.

Drinks
If you go, you should get a pitcher of draft to start with. They carry Sam Adams regular and seasonal, and some others on tap. Decent selection of bottled beers, too. Finally, you don’t have to settle for Tsingtao and/or Coors Light!

Soup base
I like both the chicken herbal soup base and the spicy soup base. Recently also tried a kelp based soup which was much lighter (for those of you not crazy about herbal soups and can’t take the spicy one)

Sauce/dip
Since the soup base is quite good to begin with, you don’t necessarily need to dip your food in the sauce. However, they do have a sauce/dip station in case you want it. I always end up getting the same:
sesame paste, chive paste, ginger, chilies, scallion, and a ton of cilantro.

Meats
Since I can’t seem to find the menu, I’ll just say that this place has a good variety of beef (more so than most hotpot places). Tripe is also delicious but easy to lose in the mix. Their lamb is great. I don’t usually get pork but someone actually ordered pork belly once and I found it rather yummy. Must be all the fat surrounding it…Not sure about chicken, but I don’t like chicken much anyway. We’ve also gotten the seafood platter which is ok but too much work to shell the shrimp. I rather get seafood elsewhere in a good seafood restaurant.

Veggies
They have a veggie platter that comes with pieces of Chinese cabbage, regular cabbage, and rice noodles. Tofu is decent too. There’s this fried breadstick thing that goes well in the spicy soup.

Cathay 22

124 Rt. 22 West
Springfield, NJ 07801
973.467.8688
website

I've been to this restaurant so many times that I never thought to blog it. After a recent visit J. really liked the Peking Duck so urged me to mention it in the blog. Why not right? Give props to NJ.

Note that I refer to the Chinese menu because I haven't looked at the English menu that much. It also combines various visits I've made to the place.

Appetizer
//Hot&Sour Soup: Definitely one of the best hot&sour soups I've had.
//Cold Appetizers: I couldn't find the menu but I do remember liking the celery, beef tripe, and jellyfish.

Entree
//Peking Duck: I don't claim to be an expert of Peking Duck, especially because I have not tried every Peking Duck joint in Beijing proper. However, I'm rating it based on my experience with Peking Duck dishes I've had. This one had good crispy duck skin and meaty pieces with tableside service where they prepare the pancakes for you. Each pancake holding a good amount of duck with a small spread of sweet sauce and shredded scallions. J definitely gave it a thumbs up and surprised me by ingesting a good amount of duck skin without being snobby about it. (previously I've had too many bad experience with people hating on duck skin...saying it's too fatty etc.)
//Water Boiled Beef: I never know how it's called in English. I've made it before (see blog entry). It's my favorite Sichuan style dish and Cathay 22 makes it really well, even better than Spicy & Tasty (related entry)
//Western Sichuan Lamb: Very tender lamb with enough spices to make your head spin. I'm not sure if it has cumin (probably not).

Vegetable Sides
//Asparagus: Yes, they manage to cook asparagus with peppers and make it a bit spicy too. My parents are huge fans of this asparagus dish
//Tiger Peppers: I believe this is deep fried until it starts to have some dark stripes on it. Very spicy peppers. Beware! Of course, you may get one of two that's not too bad so it's a lottery pretty much.