Archives for 2010

Best Things I Ate in 2010

I just looked back at my 2010 posts. I can’t believe all the shit I ate. Here are some of the best.

Best Lunch Sandwich: Johny’s Melissa Munchie. All sandwiches should have onion rings and/or french fries stuffed in it.
06 Melissa Munchie Johnys Best Things I Ate in 2010

Best Fried Chicken: There was a lot of new fried chicken this year (Hill Country Chicken, the new Pies N Thighs). All super good, but the Commodore edges them out just a bit for their super flaky skin and honey butter/hot sauce to dip with. Also they have the Hot Fish Sandwich you can eat on the side.
05 Fried Chicken and biscuits The Commodore Best Things I Ate in 2010

Best Food Cart: Veronica’s Kitchen in the Financial District. If only this cart was in my work-hood. The best and spiciest Jerk Chicken and Goat Roti. The hot sauce on the side is awesome.
04 Jerk Chicken Veronicas Kitchen Best Things I Ate in 2010

Best Mexican: Plaza Mexico Dona Zita’s Pork Torta Sandwich at Coney Island’s Midway. This thing is so big and topped with tender roast pork pernil, avocados, and Oaxaca Cheese. Now I’m not sure if this place still exists or it’s fate (with all the Coney Island drama these past years.) Here’s hoping for another summer Torta.
08 My Pork Torta on the Griddle Best Things I Ate in 2010
Honorable Mention: Zaragoza Deli Tacos. Tongue Tacos!

Best Punjabi Food: Punjabi Deli. Cheap, quick, opens late!
11 Small Bowl with 2 Veggies Punjabi Deli Best Things I Ate in 2010

Best Seafood: I loved the boiled crawfish at Franky & Johnny’s, but these Charbroiled Oysters at Drago’s are some next level shit. Tastes like a good steak. There’s so much awesome food in New Orleans. The Popeye’s is really good there.
08 Charbroiled Oysters Dragos Best Things I Ate in 2010

Best Burger: Heartland Brewery’s HB Burger. So juicy and flavorful. Matt likes his meat raw and they made it just right.
04 HB Burger rare Best Things I Ate in 2010

Best Deal: Wah Fung No. 1 Fast Food’s Roast pork over Rice. Only $2.50 for this mound round of rebound.
05 Roast Pork with Rice Wah Fung No 1 Fast Food Best Things I Ate in 2010
Honorable Mention: 2 Bros Pizza Plus’ $2 Jerk Chicken (leg+thigh) and $1 pizzas …I ate so many Jerk Chicken and Veggie Rice lunches ($3) this year.

Best Offal: Cheng Du Tian Fu’s Beef Tripe with Hot Pepper Sauce in the Flushing Golden Mall Food Stalls. I never imagined tripe could taste so good. It was a much different experience from the one I had from the Grand & Bowery Chinese cart.
11 Beef Tripe with Hot Pepper Sauce Cheng Du Tian Fu Best Things I Ate in 2010

Best Buffet: DhaBa’s Indian Lunch Buffet. Great meat and veggie selection and definitely one of the better tasting spots in Curry Hill.
02 Indian buffet at DhaBa Best Things I Ate in 2010

Best Pizza: Best Pizza’s Grandma Slice. Yes. The best pizza is served at a place called Best Pizza. I did have Di Fara’s only a few days before this. Sure, Di Fara’s has the best traditional Brooklyn slice.  But Best Pizza takes slices to the 21st century.
03 Garlic and Onions Grandma slice Best Pizza Best Things I Ate in 2010

Best Ramen & Friends Dinner: Taste Good Malaysian Cuisine in Elmhurst, Queens. Thank you Yoshie for taking us here.
08 Braised Superior Fish Head Casserole Taste Good Elmhurst Best Things I Ate in 2010

Best Homemade Cooking: Rusty’s Turkey Bacon Turtle Burger! More for show than taste.
06 Cooked Turtle Burgers Best Things I Ate in 2010

Best Chinese: Lan Zhou’s Pork Bone Handpulled Noodle Soup. The guy hand-pulls your noodles out in the open. Dinner and a show.
01 Pork Bone Handpulled Noodle Soup Lan Zhou Best Things I Ate in 2010

Best Drunk Food: Carmine’s Philly Cheesesteak Pizza. Makes you feel as bad as waking up to a bunch of White Castle boxes next to your bed.
01 Carmines Philly Cheesesteak Pizza Best Things I Ate in 2010

Best Vegetarian: Meskerem’s Ethiopian Vegetarian Combo. So good, you won’t notice there’s no meat.
05 Darren Hanlon at Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant Best Things I Ate in 2010
Honorable Mention: 4 Course Vegan Underground Brooklyn Dinner. I really liked how spicy the food was.

Best New RestaurantM. Wells in Long Island City, Queens. A lot of eccentric food made fancy in an old-style diner. Sweatbreads Sandwich and Escargots & Bone Marrow. Yes, please.
05 Sweetbreads Sandwich M Wells Best Things I Ate in 2010

Best Overall Thing I Ate: Grand Bo Ky’s Beef Belly Noodle Soup. Booyah!
02 Beef Belly Noodle Soup Grand Bo Ky Best Things I Ate in 2010

Thank you for reading my food blog. Let’s do more next year!

King of Kong Arcade – Orlando Airport

Not food related, but I came across this King of Kong arcade at the Orlando International Airport. It features the documentary’s stars Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell on the store front signs. The small arcade opened recently on December 9th, sorta out of the way of foot traffic. No one was in there except one employee. I think he was wearing a referee shirt like that weird guy in the film. Interestingly, they didn’t have Donkey Kong.

King of Kong Arcade Orlando Airport King of Kong Arcade   Orlando Airport

Dim Sum at Golden Lotus (Orlando)

My parents took me out for dim sum at Golden Lotus, located in the Wal-Mart Super Center at John Young Parkway. It was their first time there. I ordered the usual.

The food took a long time. But everything was decent except for the rice noodle rolls (rice paste) which looked pretty bad and cold. Perhaps our’s were bum. I saw someone else’s noodle rolls and it looked much better. The duck was lean. Remember when lean was preferred? Orlando doesn’t know fatty duck is in?

When did I become so critical of dim sum? Anyway, it’s good to see a new Chinese/Chinese-American restaurant doing dim sum, especially in Orlando. I don’ t think there’s many.

When we were leaving, we saw Shaquille O’Neal walk into Sally’s Beauty Supplies a few doors down. I waved and his lady friend laughed. Then only ten minutes later, they passed us on the highway. Shit. Shaq, that was quick!

Golden Lotus – 8365 S John Young Pkwy. Orlando, FL 32819

Christmas Buffet at the Islands Dining Room at Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Studios

This Christmas dinner buffet was heavy duty. King Crab legs, Roast Pork Ham with cracklings, Turkey legs, Chorizo stuffing, Oysters, Hula dancers, Santa Claus and Scooby Doo. I believe it was around $46/person with unlimited champagne. Definitely one of the better buffets I’ve had. But I guess you get what you pay for. There’s a $6 dinner buffet at the Sizzler and $4 breakfast buffet at Ponderosa. There’s sure lot of buffets in Orlando.

My only problem with buffets like this is that I know I should be stuffing my face with the King Crab Legs. But I really do love me Mashed Potatoes. If they were of the same value, it’s no contest. Potatoes all the way. What is a person like me supposed to do? I guess eat both.

Islands Dining Room at Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Studios – 6300 Hollywood Way, Orlando, FL

It’s funny looking at my brother-in-law’s face looking at me looking at the hula dancer.

Scary Pepper

I just got back from Orlando, visiting my family for Christmas. I asked my dad to make me one of my favorite dishes he used to cook for me –Mongolian Beef (video forthcoming). This is a photo of the bell pepper he used. I added the raisins. It’s horrifying.

Scary Pepper Scary Pepper

My Birthday Dinner at Yee Li

I wasn’t planning on doing anything for my birthday, but woke up and decided I wanted to try a dungeness crab. So my friends took me to Chinatown. Hsin Wong was packed and we went to Yee Li a few doors down. I ordered too much food. The dishes here are bigger than they appear in the photos if you’re referencing the scale to the spoon. Those spoons are giant serving spoons.

My favorite was the Fish Fillet with Minced Pork. The waiter insisted we get that instead of the whole fish we wanted, which was $20/lb. So figure that would be around $55. Good call.

The dungeness crab was good. Pretty much like a big crab.

Also ordered my favorites –Bitter Melon with Black Bean Sauce and Roast Pig. Crispy and fatty skin!

Dan took this amazing shot on his phone. I didn’t know I was a cartoon.
Jason%20Lam%20blowing%20out%20birthday%20cake My Birthday Dinner at Yee Li

Afterwards, we hit up Winnie’s Bar for some karaoke. It was packed full of white kids like us. I let some wasted chick take pictures with my nice camera, but I don’t think she could figure it out. I don’t see any on my memory card. I asked her how the popcorn was that she was eating from our table. She gave me the stink eye and walked away.

I didn’t know they had a small menu at Winnie’s. Marcellus got some spring rolls. We left a ton of Yee Li leftovers behind the bar. We forgot. I hope they find it.

Yee Li – 1 Elizabeth St (@ Bayard St) New York, NY 10013

The dungeness crabs and lobsters live from the outside of the restaurant. Before I shot this, one of the crabs swam under the jet bubbles and started dancing. I like how they have the two super tiny pinchers from their mouths. Little do they know I’m about to eat them.

Christina’s Polish Restaurant

I just had lunch today at Christina’s Polish Restaurant in Greenpoint. It was so festive. The coolest mix of Christmas music. I had the Hungarian Pie and beets ($9). The food seems different than most of the Polish places I’ve had in the area. More like what I expect from a diner in Florida. The Hungarian Pie was stuffed with chicken and green peppers (unlike the beef goulash at Happy End). It wasn’t too bad. I love fried potato pancakes, so I ate it all up. I just think the filling is something more like what my friend’s parents would eat …where I like things that are non-chicken breast-y. Thumbs up for the Christmas Tree!

Christina’s Restaurant – 853 Manhattan Ave (btwn Milton & Noble St) Brooklyn, NY 11222

Shanghai Gourmet NYC Restaurant

I came across some positive Yelp reviews for this new Chinese Restaurant on Pell Street. All this talk about juicy buns and eel really gave me the craving. They have a couple of Grand Opening deals right now –Free Juicy Buns (aka Soup Buns or Xiaolongbao) with an order over $20 and Lobster $12.95 (that they were out of). The Juicy Buns were awesome! Just the right amount of broth to squirt in my mouth.

The Sauteed Eel with Chives were a bit different than what I was craving. I suppose I thinking more of a Japanese style Unadon eel rice bowl. This was like eating anchovies with Chinese dark sauce. The eel slices were the size of long worms. Yasmin’s first bite was like slurping up spaghetti.

We also got the Crab Casserole with Vermicelli. That was pretty good. I like how Chinese crab dishes usually have the orange egg stuff in it. That’s my favorite part.

When I came out of the restroom, I saw a bunch of amazing dishes on other people’s tables. There was this big tasty looking brick of meat next to us. I thought it was beef, but maybe it was the Pork Shoulder with Honey ($13.95)? It looked really tender. …Now that I think about it, it was probably Beef Short Ribs (like this from Spice Market). I just don’t see short ribs on their Menupages.

The waiter was super nice.

Shanghai Gourmet – 23 Pell St (btwn Mott & Doyers) New York, NY 10038

Afterwards, we passed by Lucky Bloop Inc. bakery on East Broadway. Yasmin got a peanut squishy bloop thing. I should have food blogged it. It blooped down my mouth.