I’ve been trying to keep vegetarian (mostly) during the week, but once the weekend comes around, I kinda go nuts…
Friday night dinner at Kanoyama with some friends:
Kanoyama – Duck with miso sauce cooked on a persimmon leaf
Kanoyama – Baby Conch with lemon and sea salt
Kanoyama – Corn Tempura
Kanoyama – Sashimi Omakase
Kanoyama is my favorite casual sushi place in the city. Very good quality and selection, you can end up spending A LOT here for a superb experience or you can scale back and still eat really well on a relative budget. I think one of the best deals to be had here is the Sashimi Omakase, a selection of 9 different types of sashimi, about 2-3 pieces of each – all for $40 (includes soup/salad and ice cream). They usually offer a pretty varied selection, on Friday, I had scallop, kanpachi, trout, tuna, toro, fluke, red snapper, and two kinds of mackerel.
Saturday late lunch with Kevin at Rubirosa:
Rubirosa – Vodka Pizza with mushroom and garlic
Rubirosa serves a Staten Island style, super thin (almost cracker like) crust pizza. The vodka pizza has the thinnest layer of delicious vodka sauce with blobs of fresh mozzarella distributed across the entire pie. I added mushrooms and roasted garlic. I love Rubirosa’s pizza for a light lunch, the crust is very light and crispy, no extra dough to weigh you down for the rest of the day… so you have room in your stomach for…
A perfect kouign amann from Dominique Ansel:
Dominique Ansel – Kouign Amann
A short stroll from Rubirosa over to the west side of Soho leads us to Dominique Ansel bakery, the only places that I know of in the city that makes kouign amann. If anyone knows of another place to get this delicious treat, please let me know! For those who have not yet tried this sinfully rich baked good, I suggest you RUN to Dominique Ansel to get it. The best way I know of to describe this is: it is like a really rich, buttery, dense, sweet, caramelized crossiant – only BETTER! Check out some of the other offerings: here and here.
Capped off Saturday night with a late dinner at Momofuku Noodle Bar:
Momofuku Noodle Bar – Grilled corn with Benton’s bacon, lime and cotija
Momofuku Noodle Bar – Grilled octopus with piperade, radish and pistachio
Momofuku Noodle Bar – Ginger scallion noodles with pickled shitake, cucumber and cabbage
I really enjoy going to Momofuku Noodle Bar for late dinners. Although you still have to wait, it is a much shorter wait compared to during the ‘prime hours’ and while you wait, you can enjoy one of their refreshing alcoholic slushies. I had the creamsicle slushie made with soju, orange and cream. I don’t like orange or cream separately but when you put them together I just cannot stop thinking… Oooooohhhh ORANGE JULIUS!!!!! When it is summer time, I see corn on the menu and I HAVE to order it. Over the years, Momofuku Noodle Bar has done great things with corn, but I love this season’s incarnation – their rift on the Mexican elote. Momofuku’s version adds a great smokey flavor with Benton’s bacon and it is served off the cob, I could eat this all day without having to worry about kernels getting stuck between my teeth. Momofuku does a great job with the grilled octopus, super tender and very tasty, it is a great dish if you want octopus in a pinch but I don’t think it compares to other octopus preparations I’ve been having recently, here and here. Ginger and scallion noodle is my tried and true favorite here – complete comfort food when you want something lighter than Momofuku’s ramen, which is delicious, but very very rich with the pork-y broth and pork belly pieces.
Ended up in Queens for a late lunch on Sunday and decided to have some Korean BBQ at Hahm Ji Bach:
Hahm Ji Bach – assortment of banchan
Hahm Ji Bach – haemool pajeon
Hahm Ji Bach – marinated kalbi
Hahm Ji Bach – bibim naengmyun
My first time here and I liked it a lot… Their haemool pajeon is really good, not too thick, not too thin, the best part is their choice of ingredients. Most restaurants should really call their haemool pajeon (seafood pancake), squid and tons of scallion pancake, but Hahm Ji Bach does it right and includes baby squid, scallops, shrimps and mussels in their version, soooo good! I will be back to try their samgyupsal, which is apparently what they are known for.
- Kanoyama – 175 2nd Ave (at 11th street)
- Rubirosa – 235 Mulberry Street (between Prince and Spring)
- Dominique Ansel – 189 Spring Street
- Momofuku Noodle Bar – 171 1st Ave
- Hahm Ji Bach – 41-08 149th Place (Flushing, NY)
must love jamon 