Tasteblazer

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

Most restaurants and take-outs in New York barely live through their first year.  Consider, then, the strength of an ice cream shop that has survived 26. 

Philip Seid and his four brothers opened the shop on Bayard St. in 1978, and to this day, members of his family still man the counters.  On a given day, the new generation of Seids scoop scoops for neighborhood residents and tourists alike.  Despite the tiny narrow storefront, all the ice cream is made on premise, using fresh fruits and ingredients.

Sure, there are stand-bys like vanilla, chocolate, and mint chip, but the real draws are exotic flavors such as  lychee, sesame, and taro.  Ice cream and sorbets can be bought by the gallon.  And should you want a birthday cake made with green tea, lychee, and red bean ice cream, this is the place.

P.S. If you're lucky, sometimes they whip up a batch of durian ice cream.  Bet they won't start serving that at Baskin' Robbins anytime soon.

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory
65 Bayard St.
212-608-4170

Dumpling Man

If you live north of Houston, sometimes Chinatown is a little too far to walk when the dumpling craving hits.  Lucas Lin opened Dumpling Man in the East Village after a year of researching the wrapper technique and training with masters in Chinatown.  At his shop, women clad in white robes and caps work behind plexiglass in assembly-line form, rolling the dough and shaping the dumplings with the intense concentration of lab technicians.  There is a lot of science behind that cheap little morsel you plop in your mouth.

These are dumplings gone high-brow.  Lin offers four varieties (chicken, pork, shrimp, veggie), all listed on the menu with descriptions like those on a chef's tasting menu.  He infuses the fillings with herbal juice for flavor and softness.  He adds boiling water to his flour instead of eggs and butter, for a thinner wrap.  The dumplings are either steamed or "seared," otherwise known as fried. 

Novelty doesn't come cheap.  Six dumplings will costs you $4 to $5, compared with five for $1 at most Chinatown places.  But Lin's creations are good, especially the pork and veggie.  And where else can you eat your dumpling to the blaring sounds of Sleater-Kinney?  Eschew the soy sauce for fiery Red Monster or Marco Polo basilica sauce?  Buy a t-shirt, tank top, or thong with the Dumpling Man logo?  Get a fluffy snow ice for dessert, hand cranked from a vintage ice machine? 

All the dumplings are made to order, so waiting times can be up to ten minutes.  But all the more time to contemplate whether you really want that thong.

Dumpling Man
100 St. Mark's Pl. (btwn 1st Ave. & Ave. A)
212-505-2121
Dumplings:  $4-$6 for 6, $6-$8 for 10

Tsampa

Woe to would-be Buddhists who think that you must become vegetarian to reach a higher spiritual plane.  Tibet, home of the Dalai, relies on its pastures and farms as much as the next unindustrialized area.  That means a culture that uses meat, and uses meat proudly.  Take that, Richard Gere.

At Tsampa in the East Village, you won't find yak or mutton, but chicken and fish are New York resources that are great substitutes.  The momos, or Tibetan dumplings, can be ordered with chicken or vegetables, are musts.  Other appetizers include chilled spicy potatoes on fresh greens and shiitake pancakes. 

The menu proudly states that all the chicken used is organic.  The Tibetan chicken, a curry dish, is marinated in herbs and served with potatoes and rice.  The sauce was thick and bland, with none of the subtle pokes of flavor found in Indian or Thai curries.  A better option for the lay-person (to Tibetan cuisine) are the noodle dishes.  The Tse Gyathuk Ngopa is a baked noodle dish (but more reminiscent of pan-fried noodles than lasagne) that came with a heaping amount of vegetables.  The noodles were cooked to the desired crispness, never soggy, and the texture was just right for soaking up the garlic-ginger sauce.  Desserts include basmati rice with yogurt and raisins, Tibetan ground barley with yogurt and honey, and green tea ice cream. 

A cup of traditional butter and salt tea is a good way to end the night, as you relax to the prayer-like music on continuous play.  The two low-lit dining rooms are minimalist, with images of the Dalai hanging all over.  Sip your tea and thank him for this state of transcendence you're in as you digest. 

Tsampa
212 9th St. (btwn 2nd & 3rd)
212-614-3226
Appetizers: $3-$5, Entrees: $9-$16

Jewel Bako Makimono

Nobu has Next Door Nobu, Masa has Bar Masa, and Jewel Bako in the East Village has Jewel Bako Makimono.  When speaking of sushi, cheapness is relative, so Jewel Bako Makimono is a bargain compared to the mothership. 

Tucked into a tiny space on Second Ave., the oblong restaurant's size and shape is reminiscent of an East Village railroad apartment, but decorated with minimalist elegance.  A large paper lantern hanging from the ceiling never stops swaying, powered by either air vents or by Zen.  The 20-seat front dining room is separated from the back sushi bar by beaded curtains.  There is no more than two feet from one table to the next, but the dining room never felt crowded, even during the height of evening rush.

The appetizer menu carefully pared down, with standards such as hijiki salad with tuna sashimi and quail egg, trio of blue fin, salmon, and yellowtail tartares, and white miso soup with dumpling.  Sushi rolls, like the simple unagi with scallions and the fancier scallops with avocado and chive oil, were good, but not outstanding.  What the restaurant is known for is the freshness of the sashimi, and one bite of the otoro will make you a confirmed believer.  Other sashimi selections include tai (Japanese red snapper), snow crab, Spanish mackerel, Jack mackerel, hamachi, kanpachi, and basically, whatever's fresh that the waiter recommends.  This is a restaurant that knows its fish.

Omakase options begin at $30, which is almost unheard of.  Better bargains can be found elsewhere for fresh sushi, but for high quality eating with atmosphere to boot, Jewel Bako Makimono is a great option.  Unless your wallet is desperate to rid itself of Lincolns. 

Jewel Bako Makimono
101 2nd Ave. (btwn 5th & 6th)
212-253-7848
Appetizers- $4-$18, Sushi a la carte- $4-$12, Rolls- $5-$16,

A Midtown Feast

I had thought that I arrived in New York too late to participate in Restaurant Week.  Then, flipping through an issue of TimeOut New York, I came across a two page ad spread telling me that no, I wasn't too late, that 85 restaurants were continuing their promotions through Labor Day.  There is a god.

When I read Shar the list of participating restaurants at which we can get $35 prix fixe dinners, I heard a gasp from her end of the phone.  "Manhattan Ocean Club.  Oh my god," she exclaimed.  "The last time we went, the five of us racked up a $900 bill.  Not including tip."  She paused.  "We're going!"

I did some quick research on the chef.  Craig Koketsu was a Bay area native who helped Jeremiah Tower open the renowned Stars in Palo Alto.  After, he moved to New York because of the belief that living here was "crucial" for a training chef.  (Sounds familiar.)  He became chef de partie at Lespinasse, then sous chef.  After the restaurant closed, he was hired as executive chef at Manhattan Ocean Club, where he developed a menu of incredibly fresh seafood entrees with hints of Asian influence.

Reserving a table at Manhattan Ocean Club for a Friday night was simple, since it's not one of the trendy restaurants that are all over the NYC newspapers and magazines, because of its celebrity chef or new take on new cuisine.  Rather, it falls in the category of restaurants that produces consistent, reliable food, akin to Gramercy Tavern but without the legendary prestige. 

With all the menu options, half of us decided to forgo the prix fixe.  Either way, the meal was a worthwhile one.

The appetizers were surely a great start.  Despite the name of the restaurant, the house clam chowder bares no resemblence to standard Manhattan clam chowder, which, to a Massachusetts native, is just a thin broth with totato soup.  This is thick, hearty, New England clam chowder that made the Bostonian in me smile widely.  The crab cakes were large, succulent, and perfectly crisp on the outside.  Other options included spicy sake steamed mussels, and hamachi (yellowtail) sashimi with green papaya.

For the main courses, there is the option of daily fresh fish cooked a la plancha.  Norwegian salmon, yellow fin tuna, halibut, grouper, pink snapper, diver scallops, black sea bass, or Guatamalan shrimp.  Any of those can be cooked with sauce vierge, chili garlic sauce, 5 herb aioli, ginger scallion hollandaise, pineapple tamarind, lemon soy brown butter, spicy lime and cucumber vinaigrette, or extra-virgin olive oil with balsamic, fig, or banyuls vinegar?  My yellow fin tuna in sauce vierge (basically a light tomato sauce with lemon juice, evoo, and capers) was cooked with well, with the light sauce allowing the freshness of the fish to shine through.  The spicy garlic sauce, when cooked with salmon, was great, but could be too heavy if paired with any of the lighter fish.  There are also seafood options that aren't a la plancha, including dover sole and lobster roll.  For the landlubbers, there are lamb chops, roast chicken breast, and filet mignon, but then again, to me, it is a cardinal sin to order anything but seafood in a seafood restaurant. 

Side dishes are served family style.  Sauteed spinach seemed a bit oily for my taste, but jumbo sticks of potato croquettes are as crisp as the crab cakes and more than filling.

Looking around the restaurant, the whole lobster appears to be one of the most popular menu options.  The soaring seafood tower appetizer, filled with lobster, shrimp, mussels, clams, and everything else you could possibly want, is a show stopper.  It should be, as a $150 appetizer.

On the sweeter side of things, desserts were a mixed bag.  One of the options was a large plate of cookies served with vanilla ice cream, which would be good if you were a ten-year-old child with a fondness of milk chocolate.  The chocolate and peanut butter tart was so hard that one had a hard time poking the fork through, and an equally hard time chewing.  There was a blueberry cobbler that was overly sweet.  But those aforementioned desserts were massive servings, and when all were served at once, made my tiny lemon chiffon cake look like a weakling among giants.  I received a few "haha, guess you picked the wrong dessert," comments.  Well, while everyone else was prodding their hulking masses of sugar, I was savoring the delicate balance between sweet and tart in mine, and finished every last bit.

It was a delicious evening, and thanks to the blessed Restaurant Week on-goings, the bill came nowhere close to $900.

Manhattan Ocean Club - 57 W. 58th St., Midtown West

Chinatown Dim Sum

For many, going to dim sum can be a formidable experience.  Cart after cart of interesting-looking items go by, and for the uninitiated, trial and error is often the way to go.  Even for me, though I've been dim summing ever since I could chew, it is still a not-so-comfortable experience since I'm not completely fluent in Cantonese and often forget not only the words for certain foods but also what is in that incredibly good looking fried thing.  Thus, I also have to resort to pointing once in a while.

Golden Unicorn, which I've heard from many sources as the place to go for dim sum in Chinatown, takes care of the awkwardness.  In front of every cart are pictures and English descriptions for the dishes, so you know exactly what you're getting.  Also, the matronly ladies pushing the carts speak English pretty well, if a bit hurriedly. 

We sampled the standards.  Har gow, or shrimp dumplings, were round and delectable and not soggy like a lot of the ones in Boston's Chinatown.  (They also did not emit the same incredibly fresh shrimp and outer skin smell like they do Hong Kong and China, but that's forgiveable.)  Wu gok, or taro balls filled with vegetables and coated with a flaky fried shell, were very good as well.  The pork buns were fluffy and not overloaded with sweet pork.  Even the congee was good, and I'm not usually a big fan of congee.  Fried wontons were nice and crisp, but I would have prefered the sauce on the side and not drenching the wontons, which made them soggy after about two minutes.  My favorite was the siu mai, which is usually served with beef but here served with seafood. 

The only thing that makes Golden Unicorn a good instead of great is the temperature at which things are served.  Dumplings and buns at a truly great dim sum restaurants should be served piping hot, almost but not quite to the point of burning your mouth.  Everything was so lukewarm that one wonders how long they've been out of the kitchen, and maybe they should do something about the temperature control inside those carts.  And the traditionally piping hot towels handed out at the end?  Cold as ice. 

Golden Unicorn - 18 E. Broadway, Chinatown                                                                                                                                                                                      

A Good Omen

Among Japanese restaurants in Manhattan, Omen is not typical.  It is not the celeb-studded, salary-draining, highly publicized empire akin to Nobu or Megu.  It is not a prized sushi gem like Blue Ribbon or Jewel Bako.  And, god forbid, it is far from the cookie-cutter sushi joints that have popped up everywhere in the tri-state area in the past five years.  In fact, Omen barely serves any sushi at all.

What it does serve is authentic Japanese cuisine in the Kyoto style.  While sushi has taken the U.S. by storm, in Japan it is hardly served in restaurants.  Instead, there is steamed acord squash with tofu, tuna steak with ginger, cold broiled chicken, and those all-important big fat soba noodles. 

From the outside, the Soho restaurant appeared to be tiny.  The interior, however, is spacious in that it stretches far back, possibly to the other side of the street.  The very Zen interior is complete with high-hanging bulbous paper lamps.

We sat at the bar and were quickly given steaming hot hand towels.  The menu, printed book-style with hand-written English and Japanese, includes four different tasting menus (seasonal, steak, sashmi, and deluxe sashmi) as well as a la carte choices.  The tasting menus are very similar, all composing for 7 or 8 small to medium sized courses, with the difference lying in the main entree. 

I opted for the regular sashimi menu and it was more than enough food.  The first courses, or light appetizers, included little squres of daikon, strips of very fresh red snapper, and a small shrimp salad and seaweed salad.  Next came cold broiled eggplant, melon, and chicken in a light soy sauce.  The chicken, though just slightly cooked and season, was incredibly flavorful.  A dish of broiled eel followed.  Though described on the menu as simply "broiled eel," it turned out to be a large square eveloping steamed tofu and bits of seaweed, like a pouch.  For someone who has rarely had eel without soy sauce and not accompanying rice, this was definately a real treat. 

The main course consisted of the freshest tuna, yellowtail, and I have ever tasted.   Three pieces of each of the fish, plus all the courses before, was very filling at this point.  But there were still the noodles to go.  The miso soup for the noodles were presented first, in a bowl.  Next, a box of sesame seeds to add into the soup yourself.  Then a box of warm noodles bathing in their own clear broth.  And finally a separate box with scallions, spinach, and slivers of garlic and onion.  With these ingredients you fix the noodles to your liking.

For dessert, we got the full menu to choose from.  The "mango and blueberries with purple syrup from the Aso National Forest" sounded exotic and tempting, but I opted for mochi balls wrapped in a thick layer of azuki bean paste.  A better dessert was the grean tea ice cream with Azuki syrup, complete with the beans.  You know how most green tea ice cream served in Asian restaurants is just Americanized ice cream with tea flavoring?  The dessert at Omen is made from tea leaves, rendering it almost brown in color with a very earthy taste.  It was wonderful.

Omen

113 Thompson Street (btwn Prince and Spring), Soho

Ahh, convenience...

At the corner of 2nd Ave. and 7th St. sits a bistro-type cafe where one can sit, eat, and peruse her TimeOut New York without interruption.  I decided to supper here mainly because of the outdoor seating and ample people-watching opportunities.  And the food?  Not bad at all. 

The service is friendly and very prompt.  The menu leaned toward French staples like steak frites and salad nicoise but also included things like hummus plates, grilled salmon, and fritatas.  I ordered a croque monsieur oozing with gruyere and bechamal, and the requisite fresh-cut frites.  Dessert was a generous three scoops of homemade raspberry sorbet.

The best part about Virage?  It's in my neighborhood and it's open 24 hours.  So if, for example, I have a 2am craving for another oozing croque monsieur, I'll know where to go. 

Virage
118 2nd Ave. (at corner of 7th St.), East Village

Hot child in the city

One East 6th St., you can stuff yourself silly on very little money.  Indian restaurant after Indian restaurant will vie for your business, and as we all know, in a capitalist society competition drives down cost.  I didn't want just any cheap meal, but I had heard that Sonali was one of the better ones on the block.  The interior was lowlit and charming, so I decided why not.  The $7.95 dinner special did sound tempting.

So what does one get for $7.95?  For starters there's a vegetable samosa and a vegetable pakora (fritter fried in chickpea batter).  Then there's a big bowl of mullitagawny soup.  Then the choice of any chicken, beef, lamb, salmon, or vegetable dish.  Then rice pudding for dessert.  And finally, coffee or tea. 

Some of you may remember one of my previous posts about Rani Indian Bistro, and how a "very spicy" on a Boston menu can translate into mild at best.  New York, as I learned, is a whole different game.  I ordered the chicken vindaloo, described on the menu as "mild."  At first, I thought, okay, this is a little spicy.  Halfway through, I realized I had a few tears coming out, and I am someone who can handle very very spicy food. 

The food wasn't spectacular, but you get what you pay for.  The samosa, pakora, and chicken seemed dry.  But now I've learned that in terms of spiciness, ethnic joints here mean business.  Thank god for water.

Sonali Indian Restaurant
326 E. 6th Street (btwen 1st and 2nd Ave.), East Village

A late bistro lunch

Window-shopping in Soho works up an appetite.  After a few hours of walking around, I needed a place that served a substantial late lunch rather than tiny bites.  Balthazar seemed like a good stop.

Even at 3pm, the dining room was till bustling.  Like sister restaurants Odeon and Pastis, Balthazar's interior is designed to evoke an early 1900s Parisian bistro.  The enormous slanted wall mirrors allow diners to watch themselves eat surrounded by the beautiful Art Deco decor.  Everything old is new again.

The bread served comes from the inhouse bakery, and even though many restaurants in New York serve Balthazar bread (and reveal the source proudly), there is something to be said about eating it at the namesake restaurant.  The chicken liver moose appetizer came with grilled country bread and a delicious red onion compote. 

One of my favorite brasserie dishes is steak frites, but for some reason I was in more of a fish mood.  The grilled brook trout, served over a warm spinach salad with lentils, was served with skin on and turned out to be more substantial than I had thought. 

Some day I'll have to come back late at night, because apparently that's when the restaurant really gets bustling.  Delicious hearty bistro food any time of the day...I may not be in Paris, but at Balthazar, it sure feels like I am.

Balthazar
80 Spring Street (btwn Broadway and Crosby), Soho