Sometimes life just doesn’t go quite the way you planned – so it was one December Friday when TC and I headed to Philly and instead wound up at Daisy May’s in Hell’s Kitchen.  As you can see from that post I linked, we both went earlier in the year and found it lacking.  However, this time around, with our creamed spinach, mac&cheese, cheesy corn, collard greens, sweet & sticky ribs and dry rub… we were both really pleased.  I really enjoyed my cheesy corn, collard greens, and sweet & sticky ribs, while TC liked his dishes as well.  The mac & cheese was also very good – pasta cooked properly and enough cheese taste in the sauce without being overwhelming. 

We had a nice chat with one of the fellows working there too – by the name of Junior – who told us that the sides can be hit or miss depending on how long they’ve been sitting out, which makes total sense.  I still enjoy the food there, and will definitely continue to patronize Daisy May’s – and you should definitely try to make a trip there to check it out! 

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ribs

With the proliferation of deal websites out there, I have come to the realization that these deals can end up being the proverbial albatross around my neck. It seems most of the deals I purchase, I end up using close to their expiration date. It has gotten to the point where I have pretty much stopped buying these deals. (Not to mention that it’s usually for some pretty unhealthy foods that I am trying to avoid.)

Regardless with only a couple weeks left to use the deal, CT and I decided to go for lunch one day over the holiday break.

Neither of us were in a drinking mood, so we had to over-order on the food in order to get up to $40 worth. Although the deal was for dine-in only, it didn’t say that we couldn’t take home leftovers. SCORE!

First up was an order of fried calamari ($10). It was seasoned with black pepper, garlic and parmesan. These were quite heavily breaded and reminded me of onion rings. It was very tasty and I enjoyed eating it, but the calamari was completely lost in the breading.

Next was an order of bulgogi tacos/wraps ($11). The menu calls them tacos, which they are not. I tried these on a previous visit when they were only opened for a few weeks and they have improved these tenfold. The meat was juicy and sweet while the sauce was creamy and spicy. The lettuce helped to cut some of the greasiness of the meat. Fortunately the flour tortillas were warmed before being wrapped which improved their flavor too. I would be quite happy just ordering this for lunch next time.

To get over the $40 threshold, we had to get a large order of fried chicken too. We got half & half mixed ($22). It had half spicy, half soy garlic and a mix of drums and legs. The waitress probably thought I was crazy when I ordered this for the two of us on top of the other food we already got, but I knew that we would be taking 99% of this home. The chicken was good as always with the same great crunchy exterior. The spicy was no joke, so be prepared if you haven’t had it before. The chicken heated up pretty well later too.

Those drumsticks are Jurassic Park sized!

All in all, it was a nice gluttonous lunch at Bon Chon. I had never been for lunch before and glad the food was just as good as later in the day. The things I do to try to save a couple bucks…

© TT for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: in bundles, korean fried chicken

My darling KC, one of my very favorite people in the world, had only one birthday request: “I want pizza.”  Easy enough, I gave her a list from which to pick, and Rubirosa came up the winner.  The menu tantalized her for weeks beforehand; every other day I received a new message with another suggestion for something she wanted to eat there, and I agreed – the menu looked like it was tailored entirely to the things she likes to eat.  I was excited. 

Since we were a group of six, and the small pies came with 6 slices each, it was quickly decided we’d order two pizzas to start for sharing, and then our own dishes.  First up was the mushroom pie, with prosciutto, peas and pecorino.  The peas added a nice brightness to the rich pie, but I loved the soft prosciutto melting on top.  And while I’d seen pies being delivered to the tables around us, I’d nervously wondered at the thinness of the crust – I’m pretty against cracker crusts, that’s not pizza, that’s flatbread – but I was happy to note that though the crust was impossibly thin… it was not cracker-like.  It had give to it, while still being super thin.  I have NO idea how they do that! 

The other pie was pesto, with fresh mozzarella and a scattering of cherry tomatoes.  I LOVED this pie; though it was a somewhat warm December evening, the brightness just was so intense, and the pop of the sweet cherry tomatoes with the creamy mozzarella… perfect.  My only complaint would be that I wanted a few more tomatoes – I noticed some slices didn’t have them, or only had one while others had 2 or 3 – but I know they were way out of season.  In any case, I would not hesitate to order this pie again – it was so freaking good.  SO good. 

A few people ordered bruschettas – duck, shrimp & chiles, and meatball.  I heard no complaints about the bruschettas, though I didn’t try any.  Someone said the meatballs were fantastic, and I know people enjoyed the duck one as well. 

Since I love brussels sprouts so much, I added on this side, but unfortunately, they were slightly mushy and overcooked.  It tasted like they were drowning in butter, which is about the last thing I want from my vegetables (no, really; there have been a few times when I cooked all my veggies in butter and it just makes me get very, very sick).  We didn’t finish this. 

CT ordered the veal milanese and based on the moans coming from her side of the table, I would say it did her very well, thanks.  Hahaha.  I don’t know why I didn’t try a bite…

The birthday girl ordered the brick pressed chicken.  I tried some of this and thought it was very tasty, though we both remarked on it being served a bit cold, which put me off.  Tasty, juicy, but… cold. 

TC ordered the black & white tagliatelle – I know he’ll pipe up with his thoughts!  (Thanks!) 

CheeeeEEEEse ordered the pappardelle – which I totally would have ordered, as I LOVE pappardelle, but I had my eye on something else.  I almost regret not getting it because he cleaned his plate – I’m not sure if he licked it clean, because I was at the other end of the table from him, but he held the plate aloft for me to see, completely clean, hahaha.  It must have been goooooood. 

Earlier that day, I’d talked to Noah, who told me that the meatballs were fantastic at Rubirosa.  He mentioned this at least 5 times, so I decided to get spaghetti and meatballs – sounds fabulous! – but unfortunately, my meatballs were cold, and as a result, a bit hard.  Actually, the one I started eating was cold, but when I shared one with someone else later, they said that meatball was fine temperature wise, so I ate that one and it was slightly better.  The pasta itself… well, I don’t like thin noodles, so I was a little disappointed that the pasta wasn’t thick the way I like.  Overall, though, the dish was perfectly tasty- I just wish my meatballs were served hot.  That would have made a world of difference…

Hungry ordered two entrees, FBM represent! – tripe first.  I’m sure she’ll share her opinion – either in comments or a link to her own post?

Her second entree was short rib ravioli.  I tried one and thought it was OK, but everyone else who tried it said it was really good.  Maybe I just have a different set of standards for this… I wanted some more oomph from it. 

Dessert time!  A trio of sorbets for the bday girl, apple, pomegranate and lemon.  We all raved about the apple – it tasted literally like an apple had been blended down, then frozen.  It tasted just like an apple, but super cold.  I really loved that apple sorbet and could totally eat an entire bowl of it.  So refreshing! 

I ordered the trio of gelato – pistachio, mascarpone and salted caramel.  I liked the pistachio best – it tasted like pistachios, bits of them interspersed throughout.  Creamy… the other two flavors were all right but nothing that stood out or made me giggle with glee. 

The last dessert, zeppole with nutella, powdered pillows of warm donut goodness… I thought they were very good, if messy.  I think everyone enjoyed them… we had fun taking turns dipping them and eating them with gelato and sorbet, anyway. 

Our service was great, and the place was casual, fun, and had a good vibe.  Do note that we sat in the back room, away from the crowds out front, because as we exited, all happy and commenting what a great place and great meal we’d just had, I suddenly noted “oh goodness, all the [expletive] hipsters are out front, how annoying” – which could definitely hurt your enjoyment if you have to sit at a table near the bar where they’re all jostling into you…

Yvo says: All of us were very happy and satisfied with our meal, and I am sure I will be back.  Return visits are already being planned by KC and myself, because there are so many other dishes on the menu that we want to try – so good, and a fun place to go with friends for a laidback meal.  While some of the dishes were cold, overall, the food was great, the prices pretty reasonable, and we had a great time.  Yum!
recommended

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: gelato, Pasta, pesto

After arriving, the first thing you see is the very small bar area up front and the tiny open kitchen. It is pretty amazing how chefs manage to work in the notoriously small kitchens that are all too common in the East Village.

We started off with a special cocktail crafted for the night called a “Year of the Dragon.” It had Batavia-Arrack, Calamansi, Lime and Salt. The friendly bartender informed us that Batavia-Arrack was basically Singaporean rum. It was created when the Dutch controlled Singapore. It was super tart from the calamansi, but quite refreshing. Unfortunately, the rim of the glass was salted a bit too much for me. My fault for not asking for no salt.

I quickly moved on to Tiger Beer. They also had a white and red wine on offer.

To whet our appetites, they put out bowls of arrowroot chips with sea salt. These were quite delicious and addictive. Super crunchy, yet not greasy from frying. I think Terra Chips have arrowroot in them? Yvo informed me they were gluten-free, if that’s your thing.

After we sat down to dinner, Chef/Owner Larry Reutens came over to talk to us for a minute. He informed us that Masak is a Singapore-influenced restaurant, so not all of the dishes were 100% authentic. As for the special Chinese New Year menu, he also took some liberties and mixed up some traditional dishes, family recipes and his own. It is always a good sign, when the Chef truly makes the menu his own. I guess it can’t hurt when you are the owner also?

Since the restaurant and kitchen was so small, everything was served family style. (Thanks to Yvo for taking all of the pictures, even if some were slightly askew. )

Yvo says: Yeah… I have no sense of horizon, my pictures are often crooked.

Yue Sang Salad- artic char, carrot, radish, pomelo, peanuts, sesame seeds, blood orange, papaya. I was not expecting a raw fish salad (since I don’t read Chinese), but was pleasantly surprised by this. Yvo told me this was a super traditional dish shared with your family, except hers haha. Fresh fish and citrus, what’s not to like? The veggies were lightly dressed and worked well with the crunchy peanuts. I liked this a lot.

Yvo says: I’ve read in the past about Chinese families that celebrate the Lunar New Year with ‘yue sang’ (literally, fish raw). The plate is meant to be served as a huge platter with layers upon layers of the ingredients, and then everyone sticks their (clean) chopsticks in and helps toss it around to create some sort of beautiful tossed together dish. I first read about this on an Australian-Chinese girl’s food blog years and years ago (when I first started reading food blogs, a lot of them were written by Australian-Chinese girls for some reason).  I was like WAHHH I want to do that! and my mother told me that it’s specific to certain regions of China/Asia (I imagine the coastal ones), and even if we were from that area, since she doesn’t like or eat raw fish, we wouldn’t have been brought up eating that. Boo on you, FeistyMom!  In any case, I really enjoyed my share of this dish – light, refreshing, and a nice start.

Bamboo Mushroom & Crab Soup. Yvo had way more crab in her bowl than mine, but one of our table mates didn’t get any soup. Apparently they didn’t prepare the right amount, strange considering they knew the exact number of attendees. Apart from the sweet crab, the soup itself was pretty flavorless. Yvo and I both picked out some shell bits too, which wasn’t very appetizing.

Yvo says: I found the soup to be sufficiently tasty, but fairly bland, like someone pressed the mute button. Looking at the photo now, I wouldn’t have found it odd to have some red vinegar added, but I suppose in Asian cultures, since everything you do during the 15-day New Year is meant to have some symbolism and indicate what you’ll do for the rest of the year, vinegar – with its sour taste – would be forbidden.

Nantucket Bay Scallops with Chinese leeks, roasted hen-of-the-woods mushrooms and garlic chive. This was one of the prettiest dishes of the evening, but the flavors weren’t really up my alley. The scallops were quite sweet, while the garlic chive sauce was quite powerful. The mushrooms were good, but nowhere near as good as the ones I had at Maialino a while back. Everyone else seemed to really enjoy this dish.

Yvo says: I’m only recently discovering how much I enjoy scallops – when they’re cooked properly.  No complaints here on the cooking – the scallops were tender, with the centers just barely cooked. Not chewy at all!  I’m extremely familiar with garlic chives, as they are a staple of Chinese cuisine, and love their garlic taste, though I think TT was not expecting such a pungent punch!  I didn’t find them overwhelming but instead I thought they complemented the sweet scallops nicely.  And the mushrooms were meaty, wonderful swiped through the puree.  Mmm.

Roasted Quail with salted duck yolk, lotus seed, pea greens, glutinous rice, five spice jus. The quail was actually stuffed with the yolk and rice, which was quite nice. It was a nice dish, but the flavors were pretty muddled. Nothing really stood out for me. With Asian cooking, I look for strong flavors, but that was not the case with this dish.

Yvo says: All I can say here is that I really wanted more sticky rice.  Quails are too small to be properly stuffed with a good amount of sticky rice.  Where is my sticky rice?

Grandma’s Chicken Curry with fingerling potatoes. This curry looked a lot better than it tasted. The flavors were on the bland side. While coconut curries tend not to be as spicy as others, they usually still have a big wallop of flavor. It tasted as if the curry was quickly made, not allowed to simmer for hours on end for all of the flavors to develop. However, the chicken and potatoes were cooked perfectly.

Yvo says: I am no expert on curry, particularly not those made with coconut milk (I’m allergic). Actually, I make a mean Japanese curry, but that’s completely different.  Anyway, I was really hungry still – eating lots of small portions confuses my stomach and makes me want to eat more and more and more until I scream from pain – so I actually ate some of this.  And then ate some more.  Yes, I knowingly ingested coconut, and my tongue swelled up painfully to the point where I couldn’t really taste the heat anymore.  I thought it was spicy but TT knows I’m a spice wuss…

Unfortunately, our table mates had to leave early, but that meant we got dessert all to ourselves!

Carrot Cake with kaya ice cream, condensed milk, gingersnap and cashews. Carrot cake happens to be one of my favorite desserts when I am in the mood for dessert. This was a good Asian interpretation of it. The ice cream was nice and creamy, no ice crystals whatsoever. The gingersnap and cashews were a nice topping for some added crunch.

Yvo says: I would normally just leave this area blank but I’m sure someone will ask me why I didn’t comment. I had like half a bite because I am not a carrot cake person. It tasted OK, but I was way more focused on the other dessert.

Tang Yeng dumplings with roasted peanut, chocolate ginger ice cream and cocoa nib crumble. The Chef came over before dessert and had a nice conversation with Yvo about Tang Yeng. He basically explained how he makes it and serves it in an untraditional manner. Basically they were a Chinese version of mochi. I enjoyed it since it had just the right amount of chew. It played well off the chocolate crumble.

Yvo says: Dude, the Chinese invented everything. Including mochi. Ahem. In any case, I’ve actually been on a weeks-long search for ‘tong yuan’ – which you’ll read about in a few weeks (I post chronologically) – and was super excited to see this on the menu. Unfortunately, TONG in TONG YUAN means ‘soup’ and as you can see, there is no soup here.  Chef explained that he serves it dry, and I joked about asking for a bowl of the ‘soup’ on the side (it’s really a ginger sugar syrup that the dumplings are boiled in) but none came. Sadface… I wasn’t really joking.  In any case, these were way smaller than I am used to, and I prefer mine to be filled with black sesame while these were peanut, BUT. taking these as a dessert on their own – served still slightly warm, with a nice chew to them and a teeny peanutty filling? – well, I enjoyed it just fine.  The crumble on the bottom stuck to each piece, and the textural contrast was very nice.  I would prefer these not be called tong yuan – lest they get my or other people’s hopes up – but they were quite tasty.  (And TT consented to me eating the lion’s share – yay!)

All in all, it was a nice meal to celebrate Chinese New Year. Of course, some dishes were better than others, but that can be said at most restaurants. I didn’t have a chance to ask, but I have a feeling the Chef toned down some of the flavors to appease the American palate. If that’s the case, that’s a shame because I think we can handle it! These dishes are available through Sunday February 5th so head on down the Masak to try it yourself. Thank you again to our hosts for having us.

Please note that everything was courtesy of Masak Restaurant. I received no monetary compensation for this review, nor was I obliged in any way to post about the food and drink, positively or otherwise. This is my own opinion and I feel it was unbiased; you are free to take from this what you will.

© TT for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chinese New Year, Singaporean

There was no wait at ChaPa’s, and we both ordered drinks – lychee juice on the left for me, Thai iced tea for DLS on the right.  I liked my juice – light and refreshing, slightly sweet.  I didn’t try the Thai iced tea but I imagine it was just fine. 

We started off with cha gio, Vietnamese spring rolls.  While the flavor was good, the exterior was slightly soggy and not quite as crispy as I’m used to.  The interior was very juicy, though, to the point where I bit into it, and it exploded onto my plate in a splatter of hot oily juices. 

I wanted something different, so I added on the Vietnamese chicken wings.  While these were tasty – slightly sweet, sticky, slightly savory – I didn’t think they were special or good enough to warrant ordering again.  I didn’t regret getting them, though, because while I usually feel super full after pho… well, you’ll see. 

DLS chose the special pho, which he thought was OK. 

We each received our own plate of accompaniments with our bowls of pho. 

Since it was my first time at ChaPa’s, I ordered the beef pho, plain and simple.  I was surprised when it arrived at how small the bowl was – or rather, how little there was to it.  I know it’s in midtown and being able to get pho in midtown is already pretty awesome, but $8.50 for a bowl that looked like it would hardly fill me up is pretty weak.  I was glad we’d ordered two appetizers, that’s for sure.  As for the broth, it was extremely murky – which doesn’t bother me – but the overwhelming smell of star anise with each sip really bothered me.  I’m not the biggest fan of star anise in the first place, and to smell it each and every time I tried to take a slurp of soup… wasn’t pleasant to me.  Of course, another person who likes or even loves star anise might feel the complete opposite as me!  Taste-wise, though, it didn’t come through as strongly, which worked fine for me.  The noodles were also on the thinner side than I prefer or am used to… and I wished there were more of them! 

Yvo says: I thought overall, it satisfied the pho craving, but by no means would I seek this out again.  On a cold, rainy day, I think I’d be better off going for ramen at Tabata (which is also so much closer to DLS’s place that we won’t get completely soaked at least- I hope!), since I crave noodles in soup on rainy days.  However, there are other items on the menu that I might like to try, so I wouldn’t be vehemently opposed to returning… I just won’t be the one to suggest it. 
middle of the road; if you really want pho and you’re stuck in midtown, it suffices

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: pho