Posts tagged midtown

cityhouse New York Tasting Menu

I was hesitant to get a free meal after last time, but this invite sounded too fancy with words like “exclusive dinner,” “sleek new contemporary steakhouse” and “Executive Chef Fabio.” I figured fuck it. I’m selling out. Let me enjoy the good life. So I met Carolyn at this Midtown restaurant located in the Park Central Hotel for their free tasting.

Interestingly, the menu included items I’ve been wanting to eat that day. Seared foie gras that I’ve been dreaming of since I’ve seen Japanese Iron Chefs slice thick cuts of it on TV, and rack of lamb which was staring at only a few hours before at Trader Joe’s. The foie gras was everything I dreamed of –buttery melt in my mouth liver. The lamb wasn’t as good as Carolyn’s Thai inspired Braised Short Ribs over Potato Au Gratin …that was awesome. The Chocolate Lava Cake was good too, even though it was like a microwaved Hines cake.

Maybe it’s because of the Midtown location, the nature of having so many good restaurants in New York and the nature of who I am, but I’m not sure I’d ever eat at cityhouse unless I was staying at that hotel …I’m a Brooklyn hipster. However they do have a very affordable prix fixe –$15 for lunch and $35 dinner w/ a complimentary glass of wine (5-7pm).

I’m happy this free meal turned out well. I have no regrets this time, considering my internal conflict with food blogging ethics. I was trying to be all high and mighty before, but I suppose this is not really any different than going to a media event and getting a free pizza burger. Maybe it’s just time to be like T.I. and live my life.

cityhouse New York – 870 Seventh Avenue (@ 56th Street) Park Central Hotel, New York 10019

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Burger King Whopper Bar’s NY Pizza Burger

Burger King sat me down today to eat four Whoppers and a New York Pizza Burger. I’m glad I realized I didn’t have to finish each one.

09 NY Pizza Burger BK Whopper Bar Burger King Whopper Bars NY Pizza Burger

They invited me to the new flagship Whopper Bar in Times Square to meet one on one with BK’s Chef “J” Jason Sullivan and Vice President of Global Product Marketing and Innovation John Schaufelberger. I was little nervous to come meet them by myself …if I was being suckered into something, like how police capture criminals by telling them they won a boat and to come pick it up. I know what I’ve said about their fries and their hash browns.

They were cool though. Besides letting me try Whopper Bar exclusives –Meat Beast Whopper, California Whopper and BK Black & Bleu Steakhouse XT, they let me create my own. I went for spicy –jalapeños, Cajun sauce, angry fries, pepper bacon, cheddar and lettuce and tomato. It was neat to create my own, but it really didn’t stand up against their pre-tested creations.

In retrospect, the BK Black & Bleu XT tasted the best for the first few bites, but became overwhelming with the bleu cheese …or at least I should’ve finished it while it was warm. I think I’d enjoy finishing the Meat Beast Whopper with its bacon and pepperoni. It was surprisingly good for the couple of bites compared to restaurant burgers I’ve had as of late.

The visual highlight was the New York Pizza Burger. I expected a small burger with tomato paste, but this was a huge burger the size of a small pizza. “…four flame-broiled WHOPPER® patties topped with pizza-lovers’ favorites – pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, marinara sauce and Tuscan pesto sauce – all on a 9 ½-inch sesame seed bun.” It’s not bad. Tastes kinda like pizza, but also like a burger. The pesto herb sauce gives it a nice flavor. They should think of adding that sauce to the Whopper menu. Don’t know if it’ll work on a regular burger, but it’s sure tasty.

The sharable NY Pizza Burger ($12.95) is a New York Whopper Bar exclusive and doesn’t come out until September. It looks to be an attraction not only for tourists, but also for the locals that are into crazy ideas like donut burgers and Double Downs. It’s not quite as wacky, but still fun …I just don’t know how they lay four Whopper patties on it, cut it into 6 slices without noticeable meatless gaps?

I did ask the head chef as I was walking out “How do you get all the onion rings the same size?” He said something about it either being pieced together or cut short. I’m not sure I buy that. I really want to think they take out the very one sized ring and throw the rest away.

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Totto Ramen

Met up with Yoshie, Sam and Rob at the new Totto Ramen a few weeks ago in Midtown. It’s a tiny little place and therefore long waits. Yoshie gave up our table a few times because we were late. Then as I got an important food blog related phone call when our table was ready. I ran out to talk and several minutes later Sam runs out to say we have to order or they’ll kick us out. Okay, I’ll have the chicken one! They have several chicken ones! Oh, get me the creamy one! I don’t know what the creamy one is! Dang, get me shio miso! …I thought I probably sounded food smart by saying “shio miso” over the phone, but turns out that “shio miso” is two different things.

They ordered me the creamy chicken one. It was alright. Better to read Yoshie’s review.

Totto Ramen – 366 W 52nd St (btwn 8th & 9th Ave) Manhattan, NY 10019

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Midtownlunch.com: Bann Next Door

I got to try all this food with Amy Blogs Chow for her Midtownlunch review at Bann Next Door. I liked the fatty part of the rib the best. White sauce flew all over her feet. Don’t you know can’t take me anywhere?

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Oyster Bar Take-out Window

I joined the Midtown Lunch team to try everything under $10 from the Oyster Bar take-out window. Yummy meal and a good value for the quality. It was my first lunch ever in Grand Central Station. That’s one fancy food court. Next time, I’m going to stake out one of those fancy looking hard brown chairs. –read Brownie’s review on Midtownlunch

ML Oyster Bar takeout lunch Oyster Bar Take out Window

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Sakagura – The Hidden Japanese Restaurant & Secret Menu

Had a late dinner with Marcellus, who is making these great illustrated letters to his nieces & nephew. It’s weird how I often seek Marcellus’ knowledge on Asian culture in New York, even though I’m the one who’s Asian. So here we are at this hidden Japanese restaurant downstairs in the basement of a Midtown office building. They have a lot of small dishes on the menu, similar to tapas.

The young waiter stopped me when I was taking a photo of the menu. We were confused. He said it was customary at most places that you can’t take a photo of the menu, because it’s private. From what we got is that they don’t want people stealing their menu. I confirmed this social faux pas with Yoshie, who said it was common in Japan with menus and food. Weird, since I always assumed the food photo-taking culture came from teenage girls from Asia. Perhaps it’s mainly the older expensive restaurants. The waiter didn’t seem to have a problem when I was taking twenty photos of each dish though, just the menu.

Marcellus and I shared a few small dishes. My favorite by far was the Gindara Yuan Yak (grilled cod). One of the two pieces was cooked perfectly. Just fell apart so nice. Everything else wasn’t as memorable. I should have tried a couple more, but they were relatively expensive for the size.

In their restroom, there was a bidet seat on the toilet. I’ve never used one and was really tempted. I didn’t have to go, but did press the buttons to see what it would do. Nothing happened, but maybe you have to sit on it first. And maybe that was good, because it would have just squirted my face.

BTW, you can check out their secret menu on Menupages and even on their own website.

Sakagura – 211 E 43rd St #B1 (btwn 2nd & 3rd Ave) New York 10017

Here’s Marcellus’ latest Letters From Uncle Marce –full series here
Marcellus%20Hall%20 %20Letters%20From%20Uncle%20Marce%203 2010 Sakagura The Hidden Japanese Restaurant & Secret Menu

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Schnipper’s & Swagapalooza

I got an invite to this new event Swagapalooza, where they get a bunch of bloggers/twitterers together and give them free swag while people pitch their products …hoping for some PR out of it. The lady serving the wine was hooking me up. Where’s the food though? Why am I here? I see some cupcakes from Sweet Revenge, but with all this drinking during dinner time, it will not suffice. Maybe that’s the point …get us drunk and take advantage of us.

I’ve never seen so many people stuck to their phones in an audience. Twittering in full force. There was a guy pitching a bruise cream/patch and mentioned how his wife uses it for her eyes (…later explaining it works on the bags under the eyes). I couldn’t tell if it was a joke, but someone from the audience called him out for wife beating on the Twitter display behind him.

The most interesting idea (but poor pitch) was from Surprise Industries. You tell them a day and they send you to some location where something surprising will happen (someone’s marriage proposal, some crazy food experiment, etc). They hosted the after-party where they gave out the Miracle Fruit pills with lemons. More on that later.

I headed out of Swagapalooza with a big bag of swag, starving and looking for food. I kept walking into restaurants and walking out, drunk and indecisive. Chicken Bar, the place that houses Nathan’s, Church’s, Subway, Arthur Treacher’s, etc …Now that’s a mindfuck when you can’t make a decision already. I was pleading in my mind for Zach/Midtownlunch to help me out. Please Zach, help a drunk guy carrying a big bag of crap. Show me a sign! Then I saw this huge ass empty restaurant with big signs –Schnipper’s. I asked for the most popular item on the menu, the burger. The cashier asked me how I wanted it cooked. Medium Rare. Then I proceeded to the restroom where there was a wasted rich looking uptown lady maybe in her late 50′s. She walked into one restroom, saw the clogged up toilet and ran back out. Then someone came out of the next restroom and she let me cut. That was pretty nice, but I was thinking she was planning on doing her own damage and didn’t want me to suffer or at least know it was her.

I came back out for my burger and noticed the quality to be similar to fast food. It reminded me of machine pressed frozen patties. Not sure if it was, but it tasted of that quality. I didn’t feel good at all ordering it medium rare. Imagine going to Burger King and asking that your Whopper have a little pink on the inside. Schnipper’s takes “having it your way” a little too far.

After the fill me up and walking 14 or so blocks carrying a bag of swag, I ended up at the after-party, which was a bunch of booths with more vendors trying to sell their ware. But this group was mostly of the new age market. A lady with a bowl of blue balls and a sign that said “Protection from Psychic Vampires.” I was about to eat one before she stopped me and told me it was to put in water. It absorbs my stress or something and then I throw out the water. I preferred trying to eat it.

Surprise Industries was there giving out those Miracle Fruit pills. It was neat. You let it dissolve on your tongue and somehow it does something with your receptors and taste buds that make sour things taste sweet. It made the lemon taste like an orange …for the first few bites. I wished it lasted longer. I wonder what that blue psychic vampire propeller would taste like after the Miracle Fruit.

Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen – 620 8th Ave (btw 40th St & 41st St) New York, NY 10018

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Biryani Cart’s Kati Rolls

Jeff suggested this book he just read, “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles Biryani Carts Kati Rolls” – about Chinese Food culture across the world. Sounds interesting to me, since I grew up in my family’s Chinese restaurants from sit-down to fast food. Lately I’ve been having questions relating to what I remember as a kid, such as why Chow Mein is different on the East coast (bean sprouts with thick white sauce; aka Chop Suey) than on the West Coast (stir fried noodles; aka Lo Mein). Well took me hours on Chowhound to figure it out and I was still confused hours after, but basically Cantonese style Chow Mein is like the Chop Suey. Chow Mein (non-Canton style) is like Lo Mein, which makes more sense since Chow Mein translates to “Fried Noodles” and the Canton style I grew up on isn’t noodle based, but does have those crispy fried noodle snacks to top it off.

Now I don’t know if this book tackles issues like my Chow Mein conundrum, but it sounds like a good read. So I went online to apply for a NY Library card and tried to have the book sent to the closest branch, which was the Library for the Blind. Well, the site told me I was an error and to speak to a librarian. Instead I just went to the library in midtown that carried the book. Good reason to finally try the famous Vendy Award winner Biryani cart for their kati rolls. They were delicious. It was wrapped in a roti pancake similar to Kung Fu Bing, but with Halal style chicken or lamb in them. Two for $6.

So back to getting the book. I went into the library and it was an interesting scene. As I was standing in one of the three lines to get a card, it was funny seeing people checking out the hugest stack of DVDs and books and people unknowingly cutting in line and people trying to not let them cut. I don’t remember the last time I was in a library. Must’ve been at least 9 years. I almost forgot you can borrow books, music & movies. Amazon usually first comes to mind.

Got the card and stood in a long line to check out the book. Then one of the library employees came straight to me and asked if I had a library card. He didn’t ask anyone else. I felt like I was singled out. Do I really look like I didn’t belong there? Did I look like I didn’t know how to read? Then a few minutes later a different employee came up to me and asked me the same thing. Literacy Profiling?

Biryani Cart – 46th St and 6th Ave New York, NY 10036
01 Kati Rolls from Biryani Cart NY

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