New York eats

Ok I went to the City that never sleeps in Dec 2013. So why do I only blog about it now?

Erm because 2014 is better than 2015? 

Well... I always like to get to the bottom of what people eat when I go overseas. What defines New York cuisine? I don't think there is any food that could represent New York alone. You could satisfy that craving for Korean food in Koreatown and the next day, as-authentic-as-it-can-get Italy food in Little Italy. And the best part, finding delicious food in the Big Apple is easier than taking the NYC Subway (ok I over-exaggerated. I think Tokyo's subway is crazy). 

And I learnt that Singaporeans are not the only ones that queue for food.

Just a list of things I ate.. In random order..

1) Mad for Chicken Turntable

There are some places that I fall in love immediately when I see them. Take for example Mad for Chicken Turntable. It was snowing lightly outside and I was inside this place that had golden christmas lights that lit up the place. And how could anyone not like this - an illuminated colorful bar.

And bonus points for a Korean hunk that served us ;)

Only complaint was the service was kinda slow. It was 3pm and there were only two groups of customers. But I swore I probably finished listening the Christmas jazz playlist before my food arrived.

Soy garlic & spicy fried chicken (US$17.95 for 8 wings) - We chose a mix of the two types available. Chicken was crispy on the outside and when I cracked the skin, tender soft meat waited on the inside. Personally I preferred the soy garlic. The spicy version was too hot and spicy for me.

Kimchi fried rice (US$11.95) - Moist and every grain was coated with kimchi flavor. Lotsa hot-kicking kimchi bits too. We finished every grain.

2) Penelope

I had great expectations of this place just because:

- it's highly recommended by my wise colleague from work

- it's so popular. We had to wait like 45 minutes. (They don't take reservations)

- its yelp rating was 4/5

- while waiting for our food, the table next to ours was super pleased with their food and were like, "this is so good..."

- it's website is so dainty and cute

I'm not saying the food is not nice. But the Nutella French Toast with bananas which was generously coated in Nutella and chocolate and topped with sugar icing, was overly sweet for me. On the other hand, the Salmon wrapped poached eggs was too salty.

Salmon poached eggs

Nutella French Toast - Sweetest French Toast in my life

So if there was any lesson that I learnt from visiting Penelope, it would be "the only opinion that matters is mine." Haha. 

3) Shake Shack 

If there was only one thing I can eat in NYC, it would be Shake Shack's Shack burger (US$4.75). Just thinking of the juicy Angus beef patty that's enveloped in cheese and secret Shack sauce is enough to make me want to fly there again. And the cheesy criss-cut fries topped with cheddar cheese plus milkshake - they take the sinful meal closer to heaven. The Shroom Burger (US$6.85), which has a fried portobello mushroom chunk and accompanied by cheese and the same secret Shack sauce, was as good as the Shack burger.

If you don't believe what I said, believe your eyes by checking out the never-ending queues via their uber cool live "Shack cam" on the website. 

Nuff said... Must-eat!

Cos queueing is a waste of life

4) Traif 

We took the J train to Brooklyn where Traif was located. Somehow I am scared of Brooklyn.  Too hippy and dark for me. Nevertheless, I love barbecue meats and was determined to find the best. Based on Yelp, Traif happens to be one of the top in the category. 

Yelp didn't lie. The pork belly (US$12) was amazingly tender and sweet, and all it did was melt in my mouth. I didn't even do much chewing. Same could be described of the pork sliders (US$14). The broccoli  (US$14) - let's just say Traif specializes in meat.

If only the portions were bigger.

Broccoli with toast

Pork sliders

Pork belly

Can u spot the pig?

5) Wafels and Dinghes

What does a poor girl do when she visits an expensive city?

Meets a rich man. Surf Groupon for cheap deals!

The Wafels in the name refer to Waffles. But I have no idea what the Dinghes refer to. A quick google defines dinghes to be discoloration due to dirtiness? Anyway what's in a name. Wafels and Dinghes started out as a mobile food truck. I guess they were doing great hence they started their first brick and mortar sit-down-to-eat cafe in East Village. Thanks to my laser-sharp observant eyes and quick-thinking brain, we got to have two savoury waffles and one dessert for $15. Not bad right.

It was my first encounter with savoury waffles and sadly, it was weird. The BBQ pulled pork and salmon waffles we had were probably not something our taste buds liked. There were red onions in the garnishing too and I don't take onions unless its onion soup. Our dessert was the Belgium waffle with ice-cream. It was much better. But I think I prefer my waffles to be crispy on the outside, airy on the inside. The Belgium style was chewy style.

Pulled pork waffle

Salmon waffle

Belgian Liege waffle

6) Balthazar

Balthazar is located my favorite part of NYC - the charming classy SOHO neighborhood. I am kind of a freak when it comes to planning. So when I read that it is impossible to get a seat at the overly famous French brasserie unless I call and reserve (nope they don't do online reservations), I called two weeks before my grand arrival and got a slot for two for brunch.  

This was supposedly a place for celebrity spotting but we didn't see any that morning. 

The scrambled eggs (US$16) came with potatoes that were soft and delicious although a little oily.  My brioche french toast (US$20) with bacon was sprinkled with cinnamon. The bacon was very delicious and crisp. French toast was soft. Life is great. 

Scrambled eggs with potato and toast

Brioche french toast

Service was attentive and they always ensure there are people to serve our table. My waiter informed me he was going away for a while and introduced us to the next waitress who would be in charge of serving us. So professional!

7) Totto Ramen

To me, ramen = tonkotsu (pork-based). 

So it was intriguing how chicken-based soup broth ramen can taste so good, in fact I think better than some tonkotsu based ramen. The chicken broth was thick, flavorful, and packs a punch of umami. I swear I will never look down on chicken-based ramen again.

Spicy ramen (US$11)

Signature chicken ramen (US$9.75)

Meltz!

And instead of the usual thin-sliced char siew, we found chunky slabs of braised pork in our ramen. I loved braised pork. The ratio of lean to fatty sweet portions was perfect and just melts in the mouth. I googled and found this:

Torching of the pork - This explains why it's so good?

OMG OMG! My saliva touched the keyboard already. Someone should invent a teleport machine that can make me appear right in front of Totto Ramen shop now. 

My Gloating Moment - Insane queue outside while I stay warm inside with my piping hot ramen

8) Clinton St Baking Company

We went to Clinton St baking Company for brunch. The 1 hour wait was like insane and to make things worse, we can only wait outside the restaurant as it was very small. It would be ok on any other day, except that it was only 5 Degree Celsius and windy outside on that day. Brrr...

The grilled chicken, avocado, beef tomato, bacon chicken sandwich in chipotle sauce. How do I remember all the ingredients? My memory never fails to amaze me. Just kidding. I went back to the website. But I could remember the food - skin of the bread was so crispy, similar to Peking duck. The fries were nice but sprinkled or rather covered with too much salt.

Grilled chicken

The pancakes were the reason why the name was called baking company. I went for the banana and walnuts. They were really fluffy, although a bit dry. Maybe I should have gone for wet blueberry pancakes..

Pancakes with banana and walnuts

Can I make friends with you?

9) Joe Shanghai

This was recommended by the same wise colleague (see no. 2 above). In a corner of Chinatown, we found the biggest Xiao Long Bao (US$5.95 for 8) ever. The skin is a little thicker than Din Tai Fung's legendary XLB which in my opinion has the best skin. However, the piping hot soup and delicious meat filling makes up for it. The rice cake (US$8.95) was equally good!

10) Eileen's Cheesecake

I was surprised we didn't end up in the emergency ward of some NYC hospital. 

All the sinful things we eat were probably burnt to keep us warm in the freezer-like winter. 

No visit to NYC is complete without having the New York style cheesecake. We did our research and went to Eileen's cheesecake with high hopes.

Hmmm though it was creamy and smooth, the blueberry cheesecake (US$3.50) didn't really have an intense cheese flavor. It was lighter than what we hoped for. One of the customers kept telling us it was the best cheesecake ever. I guess this place attracts its own cult following.

11) Junior's Cheesecake

Junior's Cheesecake is certainly no junior when it comes to the art of cheesecake making. Creamy and consistent, every bite of the cheesecake was a burst of rich cheese flavor. Yes! This was what we were looking for.

The buffalo wings were smoky and flavorful with the blue cheese dipping.

Since I started this post with a city view from the top of Empire State Building, I shall end this post with a video of it. Can't teleport back to NYC now. But a video is definitely better than nothing!

Addresses:
Mad for Chicken turntable - 314 5th Ave 2nd Fl New York, NY 10001
Penelope - 159 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10016
Shake Shack - 691 8th Avenue (8th Ave & 44th St)
Traif - 229 S 4th St, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Wafel and Dinghes - 209 E 2nd St New York, NY 10009
Balthazar - 80 Spring St, New York, NY 10012
Totto Ramen - 366 W 52nd Street (Bet. 8th & 9th Ave) New York, NY 10019
Clinton St Baking Company - 4 Clinton Street (btw. East Houston & Stanton) New York, NY 10002
Joe Shanghai - 9 Pell Street New York 10013
Eileen's cheesecake - 17 Cleveland Pl, New York, NY 10012
Junior's cheesecake - West 45th St. between Broadway and 8th Ave

Smoulder Softcore Bakers

I think Smoulder has the biggest variety of lava cakes I've ever seen. Apart from the standard chocolate lava cake, they have pistachio, Black Forest, milk chocolate banana, raspberry, matcha. *blink blink blink at the matcha!!* Full menu available at their website here.

The lava cakes are bite-sized versions so that one doesn't get sick from eating it.  Or is it Smoulder's strategy to let one feel less guilty eating more than one lava cake?

Baby Lava Cakes

These small sinful cakes are meant to be consumed at room temperature. I reheated them as I ate them the next day. Reheating instructions are available on the box or on their website too. I think I reheat for too long. My raspberry lava cake erupted in my toaster oven. Boo..

Dark Chocolate: 
The signature dark chocolate was amazing. One of the best chocolate lava cakes I've ever eaten. The warm molten chocolate oozed out of the soft moist spongy crust, and the rich and robust chocolate was like doing a dance in the mouth. Although it's name is dark chocolate, it's not bitter at all. 

At that moment, I regretted I only bought one. 4.75/5

White Chocolate Matcha:

Being seriously biased towards all things matcha, the white chocolate matcha was no doubt my most favorite. This is the first time I come across a matcha lava cake. The intense slight bitterness of the matcha was unmistakable and when matched with sweetness of the white chocolate, it was pure heaven! If there was ever a matcha volcano, I would gladly live in it. 5/5 (warning: Non matcha lovers should take note this rating could be biased.)

White Chocolate Raspberry:

A pity the raspberry cake "erupted" in my oven. There was still some molten raspberry in it though. The raspberry lava is strictly for the sweet and sour tooth. With raspberry fruity bits in the lava, one can't help but feel blissful devouring it. 4/5

Verdict: 
At $2.80 per piece, I find it ridiculously expensive for its small size. But if quality is what you are looking for, look no further. Smoulder has some of the best lava cakes I've ever eaten. They also take special orders for parties or baby showers too. Maybe it might be cheaper if buy in bulk.

Trivia: 
NYC 3 Star Michelin chef Jean Georges is the inventor of the molten chocolate cake in 1987, but French chef Jacques Torres disputed that the dessert already existed in France. Jacques Torres supposedly took out a cake which was not fully baked from his oven and found that the centre was runny. Regardless of who invented the lava cake, I am the biggest winner Mwahhahaha... So blessed to be born in this century to eat it!

Outlets:

Raffles City B1-68 

Takashimaya Basement Food Hall

Oriole Coffee Roasters

I didn't know that this place was owned by a former National barista champion until after I visited it and was trying to research about it. 

Hmmm on second thoughts, I should have ordered the coffee instead of the the fizzy Bandung then. But then my friends ordered the cappuccino and latte which were ok.. No wows from them. My fizzy Bandung was pretty to see, sweet and refreshing to drink. It's like drinking sparkling water plus Bandung. 3/5

The food menu doesn't seem to offer a lot of choices. We all went for Pandan Kaya Butter Toast. I am very particular about my bread. I don't eat dry bread and hence I appreciated the moisture contributed by the layers of Pandan kaya and butter that were spread in between the lightly toasted bread. It was average and ok, nothing to shout about and pretty nice for a tea break.  3.5/5

We were there on a Saturday afternoon and the small place (probably can accommodate only 20 people?) was kinda filled up. We shared the common table with another group of people. It can get a bit rowdy. I love the nostalgic vibe that this place gives, from the old chinese shophouse setting to the intrinsic details such as the tingkat decorations. Service was not exactly memorable. One of the staff kept banging the poor coffee machine until everybody were shocked and kept quiet. 

Address: 10/10A Jiak Chuan Road Singapore 089264

Bacchanalia

We had trekked to Bacchanalia in our tired-looking flats from City Hall MRT station. When we saw the luxurious cars (an Audi, a Merc, and a BMW) parked outside Bacchanalia, we were like, "Oops are we under-dressed?" Luckily the Maître d, who was a white lady, smiled sweetly at us with a "welcome" and granted us access. 

Upon entering, we were greeted by a posh setting. The place was dim and had a soft-light ambience. The chairs looked so comfortable to lounge in. And I loved those bubble lights that gave the place an out-of-the-world feel. 

They are not ghosts. It's the lousy camera's fault.

We were here for the Restaurant Week dinner menu, comprising of a starter, main and dessert at $55++. 

The bread was tasty and served as a great appetizer and answer to our hunger pangs and while anticipating for the food. We heard great stories about Bacchanalia.

Starter

Cauliflower gratin (below) - deep fried cauliflower florets, white truffle and cheese foam, gremolata

Fans of Bacchanolia would not be unfamiliar with this signature dish. I never thought cauliflowers would taste that good! Deep fried, its texture was that of minced meat balls that were crunchy. The cauliflower balls were enveloped in the creamy broth which was bursting with the fragrance of pungent truffles. I don't usually like truffles but this dish amazingly made truffles taste so good. The cauliflowers brought out the best in truffles. A very unique dish that was the highlight of the night for me. 4.5/5

Our friendly waiter informed us that the chef was feeling great that day and hence decided to give us a complimentary French onion soup (below). According to the server, the onion soup was prepared by caramelizing onions for 3 days. Until every drop of the broth was infused with the sweet essence of onion. And the crispy cheddar nuggets and rye bread of which their existence served to soak up the broth and made this dish an unforgettable one. 4.5/5

Mains
We were given a choice to choose between two mains available - chicken risotto or Tahitian vanilla confit salmon.

Chicken risotto (below) - Confit leg of chicken, keluak nut, aged carnaroli rice, rum raisins, pickled lemon & cranberries

My friend had the chicken risotto which she loved it more than the salmon. Hmmm unfortunately none of the ingredients were exactly my favorite. I took a try and didn't feel any love. A classic example of love cannot be forced?

Tahitian vanilla confit salmon (below) - Lightly cooked sashimi grade salmon, roasted garlic puree, shaved fennel, honey emulsion

Our waiter came with a surprise - complimentary caviar to accompany the salmon! The answer to a perfect way to start the weekend. I think something good happened to the chef that day. Or that it was a Friday night so happiness indexes are usually higher. The smooth salmon was so soft that it melted in the mouth. Coupled with the sweet honey emulsion and caviar, the experience was augmented. And the accompanying aromatic shaved fennel balanced the flavors and textures of this dish. 4.5/5

Desserts
Caramel poached apple, white chocolate cinnamon ganache, vanilla ice cream

Save room for the dessert. The succulent poached apple, topped by pieces of white chocolate cinnamon ganache, served as a simple good end to a great meal. Loved the refreshing vanilla ice-cream. 3.5/5

Overall, I think it was a great idea to go to Bacchanalia for Restaurant Week. I went to peek at the menu online and the cauliflower gratin already costs $17, the onion soup costs $20, Tahitian salmon with caviar supplement costs like $50. And we paid just $55++ for this meal! Like oh my goodness?! Totally worth it. And a generous chef and friendly waiters made the whole experience even more satisfying. The waiters were knowledgeable about the food and attentive to our wants. Given its cosy and posh decor, this is definitely a place to be seen at. 

Address:
23A Coleman St, 179806