Danny Meyer conveniently decided to open up a new Shake Shack near our apartment last month that I obviously felt obligated to check out.  Paul and I took a walk there last Saturday after a quick trip to the gym (we went out of order) hoping that there wouldn’t be a long line in the late afternoon.  Just FYI for anyone thinking of going to this location – I have NEVER seen it where there has not been a line.  Our wait ended up being about 25 minutes, which I guess is not that bad for Shake Shack.

My standard order is the Shake Stack (cheeseburger and ’shroom burger topped with lettuce, tomato, and shacksauce), fries, and a black & white shake.  I decided to skip on the black & white shake last Saturday though, as I planned on going to the Pink Berry on 9th Ave after we finished.  Paul and I concluded that there was nothing special about this particular Shake Shack, aside from it being close to our apartment, but it’s a solid place for a relatively cheap meal ($14 dollars).

Question – What is the longest you’ve ever waited at Shake Shack?

(if you care, the longest for me is a bit over an hour)

Shake Shack in Theater District on 44th and 8th

Shake stack, fries, and coke at Shake Shack in NYC

Shack Stack - cheeseburger and 'shroom burger topped with lettuce, tomato, and shacksauce

fries at Shake Stack in Theater District

baby shirt for sale at Shake Shake

Shake Shack
‪691 8th Avenue‬
‪New York, NY 10036‬
‪(646) 435-0135‬

Anyway, as you can see below, I ended up trying out both the burgers and shakes at Island Burgers & Shakes.  The black and white milkshake was just a little bit above average in taste so it was nothing special.  As for the burgers, it’s fair to say that this place has a fairly ridiculous list of burgers to choose from.  I asked the waitress what she recommended and what was the most popular, which helped me decide on the Tijuana burger.  Tijuana burger = bacon, jack, guacamole, and onions.  The burger itself was like the milkshake – good but not great.  I suppose my biggest complaint is that the medium rare comes out cooked medium.

If you’re on 9th Avenue and want a burger, I think you’re better off walking a few more blocks south to go to 5 Napkin Burger.

Island Burgers & Shakes at 51st & 9th in NYC

black and white shake at Island Burgers & Shakes in New York City

Tijuana burger at Island Burgers & Shakes in NYC

Island Burgers & Shakes
766 9th Avenue
New York, NY 10019-6323
(212) 307-7934

Anyway, here we go:

• Instead of just being the judges, Paul and Stephan decided to join us in the sushi eating contest that Anne and I had planned for the night.
• The rules were as follows:
  • Everyone can pick out whatever sushi, rolls, or sashimi that they’d like, but they must grab enough for the other eaters (so in the beginning, everyone has to take 4 pieces).
  • The sushi is then divided to everyone equally.
  • When the first person finishes, that person will hit a timer that will count down from 5 minutes.
  • Anyone who does not finish within that 5 minute window is out.
• It appeared that Stephan’s tactic in the beginning was to be the absolute slowest eater and to try to take advantage of the 5 minute gap between plates.
• Stephan made it half-way through his plate in round 3 and called it quits.  He would later come to regret coming in last (see bottom picture).
• Anne made a respectable attempt to stay in the game towards the end of round 4 (watch the video), but she unfortunately couldn’t eat the last two pieces.
• The fifth round was just as Paul described it in his blog this morning – brutal.  Paul and I both ended up gagging a bit because of the stupid sea squirt, which is important to note since only one of us was actually able to swallow it.
• Paul put up a good fight but gave up with 4 pieces left.  That was a shame because I could have gone another 3 rounds.
• I’m sorry, I just lied to you.  I wanted to die after that fifth plate.
• About 60 pieces of sushi and 14 hours later, I’m still full.

IchiUmi in NYC

round 1 seemed so promising

Paul is a happy guy at the start

Round 2

Round 3 - everyone say goodbye to Stephan

Stephan about to throw in the towel in Round 3

and then he was out and got his L

Round 4 - the end of Anne

this doesn't look so good

and she's out.

round 5 - notice the sea squirt

almost fail

Even as he quits, Paul is still a happy guy at the end

and the winners are...

we kicked the loser to the curb with the trash

Here’s how it played out:

• Tangerines are not in season.
• I called up all of the Whole Foods in the City semi close to our work, but the only thing that they had in stock that were similar were clementines.
• We agreed that clementines were an acceptable substitute.
• We both started with one bag each (21 clementines) and then opened up a 3rd bag in the middle of the floor in case we finished our initial batch.
• Paul was the judge, jury and executioner (picture below shows Anne right before the execution).
• It was a timed eating competition.  The winner was the one who could eat the most within 2 full episodes of Mad Men (season 1).
• We ate samgaetang before going back to my apartment to start (both a dumb and delicious idea).
• Anne finished 21.
• I finished 23.
• As you can see in the last picture, the clementines got the last laugh and I ended up dying as well.
• Anne and I having an another eating contest tonight.
• We will be eating a lot of sushi at Ichi Umi.
• It will take me a couple days to blog it and Mica will yell at me.

My initial pile of clementines

Anne's first set of clementines

Paul was very happy

the look of shame and defeat

i celebrate by eating orange peels. don't judge.

in the end, i died.

Just an FYI – I will be flying out of JFK tomorrow for Korea, so my blog updates will be a little delayed.

Brinkley's Pub & Kitchen on Broome Street in NYC

North Koreans drink for free!

grass fed hamburger at Brinkley's in New York City

Brinkley’s Pub & Kitchen
406 Broome Street
New York, NY 10003
212.680.5600

Should you go here?  Probably.  It’s not the greatest (or most authentic) Vietnamese food in the world, but Bun SoHo should be considered when looking for a good, quick lunch.  While the couch in front of the restaurant is a bit uhh strange, the inside of the restaurant is clean and the service is attentive.

Bun SoHo on Grand Street in NYC

SoHo Shrimp at Bun Soho in New York City

beef salad at Bun SoHo New York

King Crab Roll, Baby Lamp, Pork Rib, Nem of Lamb

bun mekong from Bun SoHo in SoHo, New York

Bun SoHo
143 Grand Street
New York, NY 10013
212.431.7999

It’s almost 5PM on Friday, so I’m going to keep this post short.  Enjoy your weekend!

Florio's Restaurant in Little Italy, NYC

bread at Florio's Restaurant in NYC

Chicken cacciatore from Florio's Restaurant in New York City

192 Grand Street
New York, NY 10013
212.226.7610

Where to begin… well, Parigot is the first place that I’ve been to in the area where I now regret the fact that I said I was going to try to eat at a different restaurant every day.  Even though it was a little more expensive than usual for lunch, the steak frites off of the prix fixe menu was well worth it.  Don’t let the terrible picture of the soup below fool you, it was really good stuff, especially when dipping their bread into it.  At first I thought the hanger steak was going to be a bit heavy because of all of the sauce, but it turned out to be just the right amount.  If you’re in this area for lunch and want some quality French food, you should check out Parigot.

Question – Where are all of you who are in NYC watching the World Cup games?

Parigot restaurant on Grand Street in NYC

the soup of the day was Tomato at Parigot

hanger steak with melted shallots, red wine sauce

Parigot
155 Grand Street
New York, NY 10013
212.274.8859

Old Shanghai Deluxe Inc on Bayard Street

scallion pancakes from Old Shanghai Deluxe inc. in NYC

soup dumplings from Old Shanghai Deluxe in New York

soup dumpling at Old Shanghai Deluxe

Old Shanghai Deluxe Inc.
65 Bayard Street
New York, NY 10013
212.566.4884

To celebrate our accomplishment, Paul and I went to the noodle restaurant on the corner of our new intersection called MEE Noodle Shop.  One of the newspaper clippings on the wall said that MEE is a restaurant where “you can eat like a king but pay like a peasant,” which turned out to be quite a true statement.  The ten dollar price tag I put in the title of this post is after tax and tip.

The food itself was better than I expected.  My duck came out a bit after Paul’s food, but it was well worth the wait (especially for $5.75).  Obviously there are a lot of restaurants in the area that we’ll have to try, however, I’m seeing a high number of late night meals at MEE Noodle Shop in my near future.

MEE Noodle Shop on 9th Ave in NYC

egg drop soup at MEE Noodle Shop

Roast duck over rice from MEE Noodle Shop in New York

MEE Noodle Shop
795 9th Ave
New York, NY 10019
212.765.2929