Hot days, soba nights

I love soba in the summer and had been fortunate enough to have gone to Soba-ya near Astor Place two times so far. 

http://www.sobaya-nyc.com/wp/

229 East 9th St. New York, NY 10003 t: 212. 533.6966

Seasonal soba special: okra, mushrooms, bonito, mashed mountain yams

this is what my friend got. some kind of roe...

this is what I had for dessert. black sesame ice cream, mochi, berries, and some kind of jelly.

Udon West

150 E 46th St (btw Lex and 3rd Ave)

New York, NY 10017

212.922.9677

(other locations include St. Marks and Flushing)

appetizer

//fried tofu: tender and soft on the inside, slightly crispy on the outside, topped off with chopped scallions and sauce. I would definitely recommend this dish to anyone looking for something light and tasty to get started.

//pickled plum riceball: just the right size for me. simple, tasty, other than Go (at St. Marks), this is my fav pickled plum riceball in town (out of the restaurants I've had).

food

//Beef Bowl combo: beef and onion stir fry on top of rice AND a bowl of udon noodles. yes, you can have a rice bowl and noodles all in one meal. needless to say, it's very filling and I ended up taking half of the rice to go.

//grilled pike: T. ordered this and I'm glad she did. crispy to the bones, an exciting fish that is just big enough to share. fun side dish. oh, for all of you people who don't eat fish skin, this pike's skin is so crispy and tasty. try it!

dessert

//black sesame ice cream: black sesame is a quite popular flavor in China (and probably Asia too), almost as popular as red bean (azuki bean) and green bean (mung bean). you can get black sesame milk tea, black sesame filled pastries, and so on. I haven't seen much black sesame ice cream in restaurants so I had to try it. just as good as I remembered.

//green tea ice cream: not as sweet as the usual green tea I get. quite refreshing after dinner.

location/atmosphere/etc

//I'm always in St. Marks for cozy Japanese food (non-sushi kind) so I didn't think I'd find much in midtown (well, Sakagura is slightly pricey for dinner....although yummy). In our search for food, J. recommended us to a place on 44th st (unfortunately was closed when we got there). The sign on the closed restaurant pointed to two restaurants, one of them was Udon West. B. and T. had both gone to Japan before, so I'm glad they approve of the food. The good thing about restaurants not in the downtown area is that they offer a lot more space and you can usually hear your party's conversations. Very friendly staff. Not too far from Grand Central. I wonder if we can order take out from here when we go to Karaoke Duet (east side location)

Flushing Pho

I find it amusing that my Bright Eyes entry comes up if you search for "azulet" in Google Blog Search. You can always use the upper left corner search box to search within this blog as well.

Anyhow, about the Phở place across the street from the Flushing Library. What is phở?

阿宏 (Hoàng)
Everbest Restaurant
Vietnamese Cuisine & BBQ
41-01 Kissena Blvd.
Flushing, NY 11355
(718) 762-6151

I've include all the names of the restaurant on the takeout menu I've collected. Of course, the big sign is actually 越南牛肉河粉 in red letters. You can't miss it if you are standing at the doors to the Flushing library.

Apparently the place offers authentic Vietnamese cuisine and Cantonese style BBQ. All the items have Chinese, Vietnamese, and English descriptions. Some photos of the dishes are also on the menu, in case if you're not sure what you're ordering.

I ordered #7 on the Phở list: 生牛腩筋百叶河粉. The English description is as follows:
Combination Rice Noodles Beef Soup with Fresh Eye of Round Navel and Omosa.
I have no idea what any of the English means. But let me translate the Chinese bit.
生-raw, rare, fresh. I think in this case it meant I was getting rare (med. rare) instead of well done beef.
牛腩-fatty belly beef
筋-beef tendon
百叶-beef tripe
The bowl of boiling soup will heat the seemingly rare beef. At first I was shocked by the red meat that came with my noodle soup but after a min. they all cooked quickly and are amazingly tender. Thin slices of belly beef cooked quickly anyway. The tripe was a bit tough which saddened me to no end. The tendon was nice.

I was a bit disappointed with the fresh veggies that accompanied the order. Only green bean sprouts, some basil leaves, and a lemon wedge. The soup already has scallion and cilantro (no leaves, only stalks). The fresh veggies add nice texture to the noodle soup experience. Gotta love basil too.

Clearly, I forgot to order the spicy one. Luckily, there were two bottles of different hot sauce on the table so I helped myself to them. Much better. One apparently was Sriracha (rooster brand) while the other one seemed to be generic red chili pepper sauce with seeds included. I liked both.

I wonder whether there's an extra-large option for the noodles. Most of them are listed in two sizes, small ($4.50) and large ($5.50). The #1 on the menu is only in extra large ($5.50) and it features even more beef parts. Maybe I'll try it next time. I also demand more beef.

Unless you can't eat noodles, get the large. Don't let the waitress embarrass you out of it. She was skeptical when I wanted a large but clearly I finished all of it.

The other menu items looked tasty, too. Maybe I'll try it with a group for lunch/dinner someday.

Quick noodles

Over the Chinese New Year weekend, I had originally wanted to make noodles from scratch. But once I found noodles from China Block, I decided to skip the idea all together.

Here's a simple and quick soup noodle recipe. You can use any kind of noodle for this, just follow the cooking instructions on your noodle package to avoid over/under cooking noodles. I had used a thin noodle so it didn't take very long.

Ingredients:

• noodle
• chicken broth (as many cans as needed)
• water (optional, I used this to dillute the real salty broth)
• ginger (fresh or powder)
• scallion (chopped up to small bits)
• garlic (optional)
• cilantro (cut into small sections)
• seseme oil

Directions:

1. Cook the noodle, drain out the water, set aside.
2. Make the soup in a pot, adding broth, water, and all the fresh herbs and spices into it. Do not add scallion or cilantro until you have a boiling soup, since those ingredients tend to overcook.
3. Serve soup in bowls, adding a bit of noodle and seseme oil in each.
4. sprinkle chopped scallion and cilantro for effect and freshness. Or you can put the chopped scallion and cilantro pieces in a small serving dish for your guests to add on their own.
5. Enjoy the food!