New York City Eats

I really enjoyed my week's holiday in New York, and as one might expect the food played a large part in that. Rather than do loads of blog posts (I really can't be arsed nowadays) here's a round-up of some of my favourite eats in the Big Apple.

The dimly-lit dining room at Minetta Tavern, while terrible for food photography, is one of the most buzzy, atmospheric ones I've eaten in. And I've eaten in a lot. I kicked off with a generous portion of roasted bone marrow served with shallot confit and baguette soldiers while my friend went with roast baby beets. Both got the thumbs up. For mains, we both ordered the legendary Black Label burger. Made with prime cuts of dry-aged beef, topped with caramelized onions and served in a sesame-topped brioche bun, this was without doubt the best burger I've ever eaten. Oh, and the big mountain of fries were bloody amazing, too. Overall, Minetta Tavern was probably my favourite out of all the restaurants I visited in New York. This begs the question whether Keith McNally opened the wrong restaurant in London.



Minetta Tavern, 113 MacDougal St (btwn Bleecker & 3rd St), Greenwich Village, New York, NY 10012
(Tel: +1-212-475-3850)

Kesté Pizza & Vino serves pizza the Neapolitan way with a wood-fired brick oven taking pride of place at the back of the shop. My diavola pizza was pretty much perfect with its blistered chewy crust and quality toppings of homemade mozzarella, spicy soppressata and fresh basil. My friend enjoyed his pistacchio a salsiccia pizza with its subtle pistachio pesto topping and moreish sausage meat. As the name of the restaurant suggests wine is of equal importance to the pizza and this is reflected by the excellent wine list. Along with Biang! and the Minetta Tavern, this small pizzeria is on my A-list of New York eateries.



Kesté Pizza & Vino, 271 Bleecker St (btwn Cornelia & Jones St), West Village, New York, NY 10014
(Tel: +1-212-243-1500)

Choosing where to eat in Manhattan's Chinatown is a risky business. One false move and you could end up in a tourist trap. So I was thankful that I had some local knowledge to fall back on in the form of coolcookstyle's recommendation of Shanghai Café Deluxe. Being a caff specialising in Shanghainese food, both 小籠包 xiao long bao (soup-filled pork dumplings) as well as the less well known 生煎包 sheng jian bao (pan-fried soup-filled pork buns) were ordered. Of the two I preferred the latter; I think this might be to do with the fact that sheng jian bao, with their juicy pork filling and crispy bottoms, are nigh on impossible to find in London. Incidentally, these two dishes are listed on the English language-menu as steamed tiny buns with pork and fried tiny buns with pork.



Shanghai Café Deluxe, 100 Mott St (btwn Canal & Hester St), Chinatown, New York, NY 10013
(Tel: +1-212-966-3988)

Fette Sau may not be the best barbecue joint in New York (the twitterverse told me as much) but it is ideally located to kick off an afternoon out in Williamsburg. I know sod-all about proper American barbecue and have precious little experience of it. So for what it's worth, I thought the pulled pork shoulder, beef short rib and beef brisket were decent enough but that the pork ribs and pork sausages were better. I liked the casual fun vibe of this converted auto repair shop so it was a shame that our lunch was slightly spoiled by rude and inattentive bar service (by the way, the food counter service was just fine).



Fette Sau, 354 Metropolitan Ave (btwn Havemeyer & Roebling), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211
(Tel: +1-718-963-3404)

I'm pleased to report that there were no such service fails at the excellent Black Brick. Some haters may dwell on the overtly hipster interior design, but quite frankly who cares when the coffee is so damn good. The barista's attention-to-detail was a sight to behold and he also found time to have a friendly chat whilst making my brew. This coffee shop is an ideal pit-stop when strolling along Bedford Avenue, the main drag in Williamsburg. All power to hipsters!



Black Brick, 300 Bedford Ave (btwn Grand & S 1st St), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211
(Tel: +1-718-384-0075)

Tribeca Grill may no longer be the place to be seen, but I enjoyed my Sunday brunch at this glamorous restaurant famous for being part-owned by Robert De Niro (I had a good look around but Bobby was nowhere to be seen). I adored my jumbo lump crab cake, which as promised had jumbo lumps of sweet white crabmeat. This was perfectly paired with chipotle roasted corn and cilantro avocado mousse. My mate enjoyed his scrambled eggs, country gravy & buttermilk biscuit so much, he didn't offer me any. And do remember to order the basket of bread & pastries if only for the amazing banana bread. This was a fine last meal before heading off to the airport.



Tribeca Grill, 375 Greenwich St (btwn Franklin & North Moore St), Tribeca, New York, NY 10013
(Tel: +1-212-941-3900)

To conclude my round-up, here are a few places where I enjoyed drinks and snacks. Eataly, Mario Batali's gastro-shrine to all things Italian, has no less than seven restaurants. Being a sunny day I popped up to the rooftop beer garden, Birreria, and enjoyed a fine platter of salumi. To top-up my Britisher points I spent an enjoyable Friday night at April Bloomfield's gastropub, The Spotted Pig. Next time I'll save some space to eat more than just my share of pork rillette and some shoestring fries. Happy Hour is a great time of the day to take a breather from sightseeing whilst plotting where to go out at night. I found this was best done over drinks, some truffle fries and half a dozen littleneck clams from the raw bar at McCoy in Greenwich Village.



Birreria @ Eataly, 200 5th Ave (btwn 23rd & 24th St), Flatiron District, New York, NY 10010
(Tel: +1-212-937-8910)



The Spotted Pig, 314 W 11th St (at Greenwich St), West Village, New York, NY 10014
(Tel: +1-212-620-0393)



McCoy, 89 MacDougal St (at Bleecker St), Greenwich Village, New York, NY 10012
(Tel: +1-212-460-0900)

[NYC Postscript – updated August 2013] After having a great holiday in New York in May, it was a pleasant surprise to return so soon after for a business trip. This, of course, meant more eats and here's a quick round-up of some more places worth checking out.

There are two very good reasons to visit the Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking district even if you're not a guest: the Standard Biergarten and the Standard Grill. Enjoy German beer in the former before going to the latter to tuck into seafood from the raw bar followed by treats such as seared scallops. A short distance from the Standard Hotel is Fatty Crab in the West Village. I'm not entirely sure what my Malaysian friends might think about this take on their cuisine, but I was a big fan of the signature chilli crab as well as snacks such as coconutty chicken wings and seasonal salad.

Taiwanese-style gua bao seem to be taking over the world at the moment and New York is no exception. Of the bao I tried I liked the belly pork-filled Chairman Bao at Baohaus but preferred the pork buns over at Momofuku Noodle Bar, although they were so amply-filled with pork belly it left little room for the slightly-lacklustre Momofuku ramen. My last tip is an example of what the Big Apple does best: ambience. I have no doubt there is better Japanese food in New York but for a good time vibe, there's no beating the Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya.

Biang! A Gem In New York's Other Chinatown

Strictly speaking, Flushing in Queens isn't New York's other Chinatown, as the Big Apple boasts no less than seven Chinatowns. That said, those-in-the-know consider Flushing to be the one with the best food. Which is why we headed out there to try Biang!, the first proper sit-down restaurant from the highly regarded Xi'an Famous Foods stable.

Being a contrary sod, my first impressions were that the restaurant was too trendy; you know what I mean, exposed brickwork and filament lamps. It felt a bit out of place alongside the more utilitarian feel of Flushing Main St. However, this inverted snobbery soon evaporated when I saw the menu, which majors in the cuisine of Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province in northwest China. This style of food, whilst undeniably Chinese, has Middle Eastern influences given the city's location on the Silk Road.

The main calling card of Biang! is biang-biang noodles from which the restaurant takes its name (biang being the sound made when the noodle dough is thwacked against the work surface). These broad hand-torn noodles are served with a number of toppings at this restaurant. We went for the stewed oxtail biang-biang noodles (腊汁牛尾biang-biang面 $7.50) and spicy & tingly beef biang-biang noodles (麻辣牛肉biang-biang面 $7.00). Soup noodle versions of most biang-biang dishes are also available but we stuck with the dry versions given the scorching weather and greater difficulty in sharing soup noodles.

Both bowls of noodles were superb, as the gravy from the stew clung on to the chewy broad hand-torn noodles. My favourite was the oxtail with its warming flavours from star anise, cloves, cassia bark and dried citrus peel. In contrast, my friend preferred the beef with its punch from the Sichuan peppercorns and chilli.

Another famous Shaanxi dish is roujiamo (肉夹馍), which can be found on the menu in English as stewed pork burgers (腊汁猪肉夹白吉馍 $5.00/2pcs). These flatbread sandwiches with stewed belly pork filling were very moreish. I was particularly impressed with the quality of the flatbread that I thought superior to the ones I've tried in China.

We also ordered spicy cumin lamb skewers (孜然羊肉串 $4.50/3 pcs with extra skewers for $1.50 each). These were swiftly eaten when despatched from the charcoal grill. I liked the juicy lamb skewers but I thought the chilli somewhat overshadowed the cumin. But really, that's not a big deal. There are other skewers on offer including esoteric body parts and organs as well as more prosaic offerings such as chicken.

A quick mention, too, for the drinks list; my beer-loving friend was impressed that it included some American craft beers in addition to better known Chinese and international branded beers. Incidentally, wine is not served but you can bring-your-own for corkage of $8/bottle. Overall the bill for the two of us came to a bargainous $45 including a round of beers and a generous tip for our cheery and exceedingly helpful server.

Biang! is a restaurant I would certainly return to if I ever went back to New York. Its menu is really interesting and ideally I would've corralled a bigger group to give it a good going over. Some might be put off by its location in Flushing, but the No. 7 subway train only takes half an hour from Grand Central Terminal, which is no time at all to travel for great food. But if you can't be bothered to go to Flushing then there are three branches of Biang's sister operation Xi'an Famous Foods in Manhattan, which serves a similar menu albeit in less comfortable surroundings.



Biang! 41-10 Main St, Flushing, Queens, NY 11355 (Tel: +1-718-888-7713)
Nearest station: Flushing Main St

PS: Click here to read about the Shaanxi food I ate in Beijing and here about where to find it in London. And this post by Hollow Legs may be of interest if you fancy having a crack at making biang-biang noodles.

Neptune Oyster - Boston's Finest

I was going to do a round-up of the eats on my recent visit to Boston, but in the end I couldn't be arsed. It's not that the places where I ate were bad; in fact they were pretty decent. It's just that they weren't Neptune Oyster. This intimate seafood joint is a truly special place that really captures the essence of Boston.

We kicked off with the steamed Wellfleet littlenecks, an Iberian-inspired dish and one of the best things I have eaten in a long, long time. A perfect marriage between juicy littleneck clams, freshly caught off Cape Cod, and a sharp, tangy Albarino-based broth full of flavour from chorizo and roasted garlic finished off with parsley and lemon. A side order of bread is obligatory to mop up the broth. This dish was so good we ordered a second helping!

Our other appetizer was Neptunes on Piggyback - crispy fried oysters on top of pulled Berkshire pork with golden raisin confiture and pistachio aioli on toast. It sounds a bit ambitious but all the components worked well together. In addition to a second helping of littlenecks, we ordered Cioppino, an Italian-American fish stew served with saffron rice for our mains (or entrees as the Americans weirdly insist on calling main courses). This was good but it seemed a little monochrome when compared to the technicolor littlenecks.

As American portion sizes are that much bigger, we were full after sharing three starters and a main between two. In fact, I think the way to go at Neptune is to order a spread of starters and maybe something from the raw bar as opposed to the traditional starter-main combo. For those weirdos that dislike seafood, I spied burger and steak on the menu but if you're a veggie then you're pretty much screwed.

One last thing, Neptune Oyster is a tiny, no reservations joint. That said, you can put your name on a list at the door and they'll give you a time to return. There's a nearby pub called Goody Glovers where you can savour a couple of pints while waiting.



Neptune Oyster, 63 Salem St, Boston, MA 02113, USA
(Tel : +1 617-742-3474) Nearest station: Haymarket

PS: OK then, you've twisted my arm, here are a couple of other tips for Boston. For lobster, try Atlantic Fish and for steak, try Abe & Louie's. Neither is particularly cutting edge, but they're both comfortable and serve good quality food and wine. Sometimes that's all you need when you're far from home and knackered after a hard day at work.

Dim Sum @ Hei La Moon 囍臨門

'Chineser points' is a kind of game played by people, like myself, of Chinese-descent. There are no rules, but points are awarded or deducted for behaviour worthy or unworthy of being Chinese. To be honest, I'm not a great Chineser; I probably have a net points tally in the negative. However, as I get older I reckon I'm becoming better at accruing Chineser points.

Take, for example, my recent visit to Boston, where I bagged a monster haul of points by visiting one of the most Chinese restaurants I have ever come across. Hei La Moon 囍臨門 might be located in New England, but it is very much Old China. This dai jau lau 大酒樓 – the kind of place that serves multi-course banquets by night, and dim sum by day – ticks all the Chineser-boxes (and more) with its gaudy red and gold interior; trolley-service dim sum; fish tanks at the entrance; multi-generation Chinese clientele and, last but not least, a super-auspicious address at 88 Beach St.

Wu gok

However, just because a restaurant looks the part doesn't necessarily mean the food delivers. At Hei La Moon, it does. Highlights included ginormous wu gok 芋角 (these taro croquettes were so big that the trolley auntie cut them in half with scissors) and steamed chive dumplings (gow choi gau 韭菜餃) chock full of herby prawn goodness.

Chive dumplings

Cha siu bao

The other dishes were pretty decent, too; classics (including cha siu bao 叉燒飽, siu mai 燒賣 and cheung fun 腸粉) were generous of portion and full of flavour. The only blot on the landscape was the har gau 蝦餃 that suffered from thick pastry syndrome, but this was partially redeemed by the tasty prawn filling that included slithers of bamboo shoots.

Har gau

Sadly, as there were only two of us, we merely scratched the surface of the dim sum selection at Hei La Moon. For instance, we missed out on the delights from the dessert trolley, congee trolley, and a trolley where the auntie finished off pan-frying dishes such as loh bak gao (turnip cake 蘿蔔糕). At US$35 for eight dishes, tea and a tip, our meal was amazing value. In truth, we over-ordered and we packed the leftovers in one of those iconic American takeaway containers.

Service was above par; the trolley aunties were friendly and efficient, and I was impressed by the manager who sent a waiter to fetch some dumplings from a trolley stranded at the other end of the dining room. But the real draw of this restaurant is its atmosphere; there's something particularly joyful about trolley-service dim sum in a dining room full of chattering punters. I adore restaurants like Hei La Moon, and while it may be a bit rough around the edges, its enduring old school charm is a winner.

One last thing, in common with virtually all restaurants that serve quality dim sum, Hei La Moon gets really busy on a Sunday. As it serves dim sum from 8.30am to 3.00pm, my advice is to get there early. We went just before 11am, and the dining room on the lower level, where we were seated, was already nearly full. By the time we left, around an hour later, both floors of the restaurant were full and there was a queue outside.



Hei La Moon, 88 Beach Street, Boston MA02111, USA
(Tel:+1-617-338-8813) Nearest station: Chinatown

PS: Happy as I was at bagging a bonus haul of Chineser points, I felt a bit bad having deprived my colleague (of Italian ancestry) of crucial punti italiani. The thing is there could only be one first proper meal in Boston, and I coerced gently persuaded him into going for Sunday brunch in Chinatown rather than at one of the numerous trattoria in the city's North End.