Yum Yum Sae What?

If the US lacks culture, it makes up for it with the most diverse set of self-proclaimed new age 'fusion' restaurants, fusing all sorts of different types of dishes. Some restaurants end up losing any type of identity, whereas others veer very little away from their original culinary roots. Zutto, which calls itself a Japanese American Pub was more asian than American (C suspects the American pub aspect just comes from the fact that it's located in Tribeca) but was an interesting experience nonetheless. We began with the  Kobe beef steamed buns (steamed buns, by the way, are all the rage in these types of fusion restaurants thanks to Momofuku which if credited with anything, should be credited with elevating steamed buns through its signature pork belly buns):

The bun was quite substantial and had strips of seaweed salad (which I appreciated), a bit of red onion and spicy mayo. I kind of wished there was more spicy mayo or something because the beef was a bit dry and sort of reminded me of the beef in a mcdonald's cheeseburger (sorry Zutto-chef, you must be aghast if you read this). Next up was my favorite dish of the night: the most randomly named maki roll called the Yum Yum Sae Woo which was stuffed with tempura shrimp, crab, and spicy sauce in a lettuce wrap instead of the typical rice and seaweed. I was a bit unsure of this choice as it sounded pseudo-thai, but it ended up being a winner, with the lettuce pieces chosen carefully so that the skin was dry and tough enough to hold the chunky pieces of shrimp and crab inside. I liked the smear of spicy red bean sauce on the side which added a kick to the lighter roll. Yum yum indeed! J, bonus points to you if you can figure out where the name of this dish came from.

Last up was the seafood ramen which had healthy chunks of shrimp and clams. My favorite was the juicy clams inside. The broth was a bit on the salty side, but otherwise pretty tasty. I can't figure out whether I'm just not a big ramen fan because I haven't really been blown away by any ramen I've had so far. Overall, more Japanese than American, but appreciated the twist, thought the ambience was really nice and would like to try more yum yum yummy rolls again.

Too many dumplings!

Since i finally had a meal without my family, i decided to spoil myself with a dumplings feast at Din Tai Fung, a famous soup dumpling chain all over Asia. Apparently, C's home in Taipei is next to the original store, but we'll see how much better they can be because the ones here are pretty deeeeelish!

I usually have a standard menu when i eat here alone, the string beans with ground meat, 6 xiao long bao (soup dumplings) and a zha jiang mian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zha_jiang_mian)... but today i felt like dumplings so i had the following!

6 Xiao Long Bao

No commentary needed on these babies! delish. I usually bite a hole in the top then directly pour vinegar into the dumpling... i know, I'm like a pregnant woman -_-

6 Fish Dumplings (forget what kind of fish ><)

I was very curious about these and they were actually pretty good! Very light (100% fish chunk with some ginger strings) and there was a surprisingly tasty broth in each dumpling. Not a salt bomb like most dumplings and no extra vinegar needed (though of course i added some)

6 Shrimp and Pork Dumplings

This is a pretty standard dumpling at Chinese restaurants but DTF really elevated these... skin perfect as usual but the difference was the broth in each dumpling. i don't know how they do it, but the broth is a shrimpy/porky mix and it is DEEELISH.

And since i'm me, I had a giant plate of spinach too.

Spinach with garlic is spinach with garlic. Tastes like you'd imagine. Ate the whole plate -_-

Total bill was like 55 MYR which is >USD20... Not so cheap now that i think about it haha... but YUM! My type of comfort food! Don't worry C, I still had space for dessert ^^ which was ALSO taiwanese! Green Tea and grass jelly mmmm

(Not Kentucky) Fried Chicken and Waffles

While J romps around SouthEast Asia eating the likes of pad thai and tandoori chicken, I have been in the US, happily stuffing my face with good old American classics, such as fried chicken and waffles! Yes, although not as common as the hamburger, this Southern dish is quintessentially American and no doubt only found in this country. How fitting it was, then, that I dined at a restaurant in the nation's capital, aptly named the Founding Farmers, a restaurant that embraces the farm-to-table concept (and as a side note, always brings the 'we are farmers, bum ba da bum bum bum bum!' song in the insurance commercial to my mind when I hear the name). For brunch, I debated extensively with myself whether to order the signature Fried Chicken and Waffles dish since I don't fundamentally like fried chicken all that much to be completely honest with myself, but my sister convinced me to do it and I was quickly persuaded. The dish ended up being a complete winner! We asked for the eggs to come scrambled, and a thick piece of crisply battered fried chicken with thick, moist white meat inside sat on top of a thick waffle that was perfectly crunchy on the outside and light, yet substantial inside. Coated with a layer of syrup, the chicken, egg and waffle together provided a sweet and savory bite, resembling a more sophisticated version of the McGriddle. J, this was better than what we had at Buttermilk Channel!

New Apt but Old Pad (Thai) Photos!

Oh boy, after weeks of cleaning my apt is finally done! internet set up finally so i can start posting again! i'll take some pics of the apt soon, but today i wanna share some old food pics from BKK!

One of the clients took us to this insanely packed Pad Thai place... somewhere in BKK... i couldn't even tell you. Apparently it's very famous and i can see why. I've been wondering for years what real Pad Thai tastes like because the stuff I've had in NY and Canada have been sweet sloppy messes that cannot possibly be close to the real thing. and they're not, i'm happy to report!

So this is the place if you ever wanna go...

Sorry can't help with the name or location, but ask someone Thai! It's pretty famous.

Check out the ingredients, they use, no pre-made sweet sauce here... The stuff in the metal pots is freshly prepared shrimp oil! amazing flavor.

They are cooking non-stop for hours... legit endurance.

The trademark drink at this place is a Coconut Frosty which is some kind of shaved ice, coconut water/meat concoction. I will say that although i usually love coconut stuffs, this one had a wonky aftertaste i didn't enjoy so much. But, given how hot the place is, it really should be the perfect drink...

And here is the main event! The one of the left is pre-mixing.

So we had the slightly more complicated/premium version so ours came with from 10:00 going clockwise, green mango, REAL crabmeat, shrimps and some of nutty, crunchy leaf bits... In my opinion it was a little too much, and I kinda wanted to try the basic version... but the client wanted to spoil us so what could i say??

Anyway, needless to say it was delicious, and the extra ingredients actually worked together quite well. Of course the real point of contention are the noodles and the basic sauce themselves... and it's completely different from what i've had before. The sauce is only slightly sweet and quite savory, while still somehow remaining kind of subtle. A big surprise given the shrimp oil? But it's stupid to try and over-analyze something like Pad Thai. You know when it's right, and that's all you need to know. This stuff was right.

Bkk gets crazy points from me. You just need a guide!

Japanese in Jersey

Who would have thunk? The best chirashi I've had so far is in Collingswood, New Jersey. The restaurant is called Sagami and it's located next to a lonely stretch of highway with a hidden sign and is surprisingly always packed with people who know about this neighborhood gem. 


Pauline and I shared a scallop salad to start ($7). Great value for the amount of fresh scallops!

We sat at the bar, so could watch the chefs prepare our dish. It was great that we had such fresh fish and a great variety as well, but it literally took more than half an hour for the chefs to meticulously assemble the bowl (it was like a work of art). The business school person in me kept wondering whether this was the most efficient process. HOWEVER, the chirashi was as fresh and delicious as I remembered, with thickly sliced, plump pieces of juicy sashimi with a healthy dose of fish roe, pinch of wasabi, and one of the tastiest tamago preparations I remember (it tastes very home cooked with just the right balance of sweet and saltiness). All of this was for $25. Only in NJ? Perhaps...

Sagami Restaurant
http://www.yelp.com/biz/sagami-japanese-restaurant-collingswood


Food: 4.5/5
Value: 4.5/5

Bangkok Awesome!

Zomg so I have been in BKK for a week now for work and I can't believe how much i like it here... cheaper than Kuala Lumpur and infinitely more interesting. the food is great, and public transportation is oodles better. The only thing is the language which i SUPPOSE is a big deal.

Anyway, here are some sweet pics of the bar/restaurant from the Hangover II! it's as amazing as it looks. It's a super swanky rooftop bar with a crazy view of the city... the restaurant is posh but prices are not insane for a place like this, like USD100-150 a meal (without drinks) but the bar is insanely pricey. I saw a champagne COCKTAIL for USD60 which is bonkers... a bottle of some of the best champagne in the world only runs ~USD70. Nuts! Normal cocktails were resonable though, not a bad martini at that.

More entries of crazy BKK to come!

The cupcake edition

There's something about cupcakes that makes me impulsively want to pick one (usually two) up. Maybe it's their portable size or their deceptively yummy descriptions, but it's been a temptation i've been unable to control particularly since J hasn't been around to remind me to "walk away..." So I thought I'd give a low down on all the cupcakes I've had in NY over the past few weeks and show something for all the taste-testing I've done.


Molly's Cupcakes: This might be my favorite so far. Molly's does fancy cupcakes in that they are usually stuffed with some kind of filling, which makes eating them more interesting and closer to a dessert than a cupcake. The one on the left is the birthday cake, with bits of birthday cake batter in the center, and the one on the right is the creme brulee, which has a slightly crispy burnt sugar top and is filled with custard. The birthday cake's frosting was too creamy (I would have preferred something more sugary) but the creme brulee cupcake was really unique and light, but satisfying at the same time with the custard providing a pudding-like texture to the cake. The one thing I didn't like was that the packaging didn't hold the cupcakes upright very well and the frosting got kind of all over the place. Overall score: 4/5

Crumbs Cupcakes: Crumbs has become prevalent throughout New York, and it's not uncommon to see one every several blocks in Midtown. Unfortunately, this means I get to walk past Crumbs every single day on my way to work, and apparently their strategy of using repeated reinforcement to attract customers worked on me, because I wandered after months of restraint and picked out an apple cobbler cupcake. According to the website, this is described as: Apple cinnamon cake with apple preserves filling topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting and covered in streusel crumbs. Sounds delicious right? Well no, it was kind of a disappointment. The icing was too blandish and the cake was enormous, so it kind of went limp and fell apart after I cut through and scooped up the apple filling, which was arguably the best part after the streusel topping. Must avoid from now on. Overall: 2.5/5

Two Little Red Hens: I had heard about these cupcakes as one of the originals way back when I first moved to NY, but never thought about trying since it's all the way on the upper east side. However, when I realized they were being sold at Dean and Deluca, I knew I had to try. Unfortunately, I didn't know they came in mini-sizes in the original store (Dean and Deluca only carried the bigger ones that day), so I left the store with a box that literally weighed half a pound with the red velvet and Brooklyn Blackout, two flavors that are being raved about constantly on yelp. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of XL cupcakes, and the Brooklyn Blackout (while insanely indulgent), was way too intense for me to finish more than a few bites. The red velvet also was mediocre with an interesting, somewhat tangy and creamy cream cheese frosting.The packaging also left much to be desired and resulted in a messed up Brooklyn Blackout (although this might just be how Dean and Deluca packs it). Needless to say, I will not be making a trip up to the UES for these anytime soon. Overall: 3/5

Sprinkles: My first encounter with these was at the Dylan's Candy pop-up store near Bryant Park where they also were selling Spinkles cupcakes on the side. I wasn't too impressed with the red velvet (left), but the chocolate marshmallow was surprisingly light and unique with a fluffy marshmallow icing topped with chocolate ganache coating:

This past weekend, I ventured over to Sprinkles again because my buy 1 get 1 free coupon was expiring and decided to try the seasonal flavors: chocolate chip cake with raspberry frosting and caramel cake with salted caramel frosting. I liked how Sprinkles did a good job with the packaging so they wouldn't fall over in my bag. I also like how the frosting they use is sugary enough so that the frosting doesn't smear:

The verdict? I really liked the raspberry cupcake because the frosting had a sharp, tangy berry taste which made it stand out from the typical sugary sweet frosting. I also liked the chunks of chocolate chip inside the cake batter. The salted caramel one was good too, with a hint of sea salt that paired nicely with the caramel, but I thought it was a tad too sweet. The cake for both was moist and reminded me of birthday parties when I was little where moms would bring cupcakes in to celebrate. Overall: 4/5

J, I think I need a recording of you telling me to walk away...