Posted by Joe DiStefano, September 5, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Sakura-ya in Forest Hills is one of my favorite Japanese groceries in New York City. And not just because it’s closer to home than the East Village. The selection isn’t as vast as in Manhattan, but there’s still a good variety ranging from dry goods to premade sashimi and the occasional bento box. I’m particularly fond of their uni, which is reasonably priced and fresh. Last week I didn’t see any on the shelf, so I grabbed a small container of seasoned scallop instead.
I popped the top off the ornate plastic tray expecting to see something vaguely scallopy. My preconceived notions were shattered as I gawked at ribbons of flesh that resembled pan-fried noodles. The tangled heap was shot through with tiny sesame seeds, slices of red chili, shards of ginger, and just a touch of garlic. The crunchy strands had a decidedly more oceanic flavor than scallops. A slightly sweet sauce pulled it all together making for a delicious snack. As much as I enjoyed it those brown edges of flesh, along with the strong flavor, raised a nagging question: Had I just eaten seasoned scallops or a Japanese version of scungilli?
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Posted by Zach Brooks, August 27, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Not everyone at Serious Eats HQ was on board with this treat, but I was all about the "honey toast" from the newly opened Cafe Zest by Zaiya in Midtown. Essentially a 2 inch slab cut from a pullman loaf of white bread, the inside gets squared before honey and sugar is dropped into the cracks. The inside is fluffy and sweet enough from the little waves of sugar and honey (but not overly so). You would think the outer crust would be dry and hard, but it ended up being much tastier than it looked. Not the sweetest of sugar rushes, but I can't imagine a more perfect piece of toast to enjoy with a morning cup of tea. Cafe Zest is owned and operated by Cafe Zaiya (on 41st Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues), and you can get the honey toast there as well.
Cafe Zest by Zaiya
148 East 47th, New York NY 10017 (nr. Third Avenue; map)
212-319-9378
Posted by Ed Levine, August 26, 2008 at 11:30 PM
Photographs by Robyn Lee
Sushi Azabu
428 Greenwich Street, New York NY 10013 (between Vestry and Laight streets; map); 212-274-0428
Service: Very attentive, if you're one of the only people at the sushi bar
Compare It To: Blue Ribbon Sushi, Sushisay
Must-Haves: Red snapper collar, medium fatty tuna
Cost: A minimum of $75, if you want the best-quality fish
Grade: B
In New York, the search for the perfect sushi meal—not too expensive, the highest-quality fish, perfect sushi rice—is like the search for the Holy Grail. That's because sushi restaurants and experiences tend to fall into two distinct boxes, moderately priced sushi palaces like Tomoe Sushi, and high-end orgasm-inducing sushi establishments like Kuruma Zushi, Sushi Yasuda, and, of course, Masa.
So when I started reading a lot of internet chatter about, yes, another "secret, under-the-radar" sushi joint with no sign frequented by Japanese business people, I must admit it piqued my interest. Blog posts touting Sushi Azabu had the sushi chef at the highly regarded 15 East sending his customers to Sushi Azabu.
A tip from a highly skilled sushi chef was all I needed to hear.
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Posted by Jenn Sit, August 25, 2008 at 4:30 PM
Like all of you serious eaters out there, not only do I love food, I love reading about food. So it's not always easy to read reviews of restaurants way out of my price range; places that fall on the side of aspirational, rather than attainable. NYC Restaurant Week seems to be a way to help out those more frugal, yet it still gets mixed reviews on the whole. For me, shelling out at least $25 for lunch feels like a stretch, but at the same time special occasions call for special measures. It seemed a little too fortuitous that my boyfriend was visiting me for the same two weeks of this summer's Restaurant Week. We could have blown our budget, but careful planning makes timed splurges possible: we ended up eating two RW meals—one at Cafe Boulud and the other at Zenkichi, which could very well be the best date place in the city.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, July 29, 2008 at 12:30 PM
"I don't taste much garlic in this," said Amy. I stared at my friend in disbelief as we dug into our bowls of ramen at Minca. She said...what? The pork-based broth of our basic ramens was completely saturated with garlic, maybe so much that my friend's taste buds had been shocked out of its ability to taste garlic. But I could taste it fine. And it was delicious.
Minca is my favorite ramen shop. That doesn't necessarily mean it's the best, but it caters to my desire for a gut busting mass of springy noodles bathed in a thick, salty broth. Thick like, 'I think this would solidify into a giant blob if I refrigerated it." The noodles are accompanied by bamboo shoots, black mushrooms, half of a hard boiled egg, a square of nori, chopped scallions, and the best part—slices of fatty pork that melt in your mouth like butter. I can finish off a whole bowl, despite the fact that it's probably larger than the average human stomach. Then again maybe my stomach is larger than average.
Minca
536 East 5th Street, New York NY 10009 (b/n Avenue A and Avenue B; map)
212-505-8001
Posted by Emily Koh, July 16, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Last week we read a great post on the site New York Daily Photo about Sunrise Mart, a relatively hidden Japanese grocery store above St. Mark's Bookshop in the East Village. NYDP called it "the real deal" and it got us thinking about some of the other great Asian markets in the area where you can get boxes of Japanese curry or satisfy that strawberry Pocky addiction.
JAS Mart
Tucked away between the countless, cramped Japanese izakaya on St. Marks, JAS Mart boasts the Italian Tomato café on the first floor (there's nothing Italian about it, though), complete with small cakes, pastries and the standard Asian bakery offerings. There are also sandwiches, sushi, and hot food in the back, which you can microwave to your heart's content. But downstairs is where the real fun starts, with aisles of everything from rice, relatively cheap produce, Japanese snacks, and frozen food, to noodles, rice cookers, and even beauty products.
Good For: A quick bite or lunch, as there's seating in the café. Precooked frozen fish packages that I haven't seen in the other marts (check the far right aisle downstairs). Deals on snacks, rice and condiments from time to time.
Not So Good For: The quality of the meat is hit or miss. Premade food runs out fast. There's almost nothing left if you come here around early evening.
35 St. Marks Place, New York NY 10003; (nr. 2nd Avenue; map); 212-420-6370
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Posted by Robyn Lee, July 15, 2008 at 2:30 PM
A friend had recommended visiting Fukumatsu for ramen, but I was skeptical because the restaurant specializes in sushi and only has one ramen dish buried within its dinner menu; the Fukumatsu ramen, with a choice between salt or miso as the soup base. Then again, what's wrong with having one choice when it delivers everything you want?
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Posted by Kathy YL Chan, July 7, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Delicate tea based nibbles and drinks with a Japanese flair are the staples at Tafu in Midtown. Chocolate-miso cakes, matcha lattes, mochi creams with sweet beans, and financiers all please the tongue, but if you are going to choose only one, dive for the nutty and just a tad sweet Genmaicha Cheesecake. $4.50 doesn't stretch too far for the long and narrow cheesecake sweet, infused with a blend of green tea and roasted brown rice... but shouldn't you be going for quality over quantity anyways?
Tafu
569 Lexington Avenue, New York NY 10022 (on 51st Street; map)
212-980-1310
tafuny.com
Posted by Zach Brooks, July 3, 2008 at 5:30 PM
At first glance this may look like your standard chocolate/vanilla swirled soft serve, but it most definitely is not. It's the latest offering from Kyotofu, the Japanese dessert restaurant/bakery/tofu shrine in Hell's Kitchen. Added to the menu at the beginning of June, the soft serve is made entirely from soy milk, and the flavors change every Tuesday. This week you can choose between, or swirl, chocolate black soybean and white sesame, and for $3.85 you get a small cup plus one of six toppings, which include two kinds of mochi, Kuromitsu whipped cream, compote, fresh fruit, or Mugi-choco, a chocolate covered puffed barley (which you can tell from the photo above, won out.)
Casual soft serve fans may not see what the big deal is, but ice cream thrillseekers will appreciate the beaniness of the chocolate, and the slightly-grainy-in-a-good-way nuttiness of the white sesame. If the thought of another cone at Mister Softee bores you to tears, Kyotofu has your new favorite summertime treat.
Kyotofu
705 Ninth Avenue, New York NY 10019; (nr. 48th Street; map)
212-974-6012
kyotofu-nyc.com
Posted by Jenn Sit, July 1, 2008 at 3:00 PM
This weekend, I was on the prowl around the neighborhood in Williamsburg looking for delicious late night eats. The idea of late night dining may conjure up the sights and smells of greasy pizza, hot dogs, Halal trucks, and kebabs, but sometimes even a piglet like me needs to class it up a bit. A few too many indulgences at Artichoke the night before had left me wanting to decrease the grease for once. I ended up at Bozu, a Japanese tapas lounge inconspicuously hidden behind sleek wooden slats amid Williamsburg's otherwise abandoned-factory-turned-hipster-apartment landscape.
I took a seat at the bar, passed on the drink menu, which included a wide range of cocktails, shochu, and sake—from Wabi-sake (wasabi, sake, and vodka) to kumquat shochu—and went straight for the dinner menu, which was lined with cocktail napkin drawings by past patrons. The menu featured what you might find at other Japanese joints, but with a Bozu twist— the tuna tataki is topped with grape and plum sorbet, while the tuna tartar gets lemon-infused shochu sorbet.
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Posted by Jenn Sit, June 23, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Ever since I tried okonomiyaki in San Francisco's Japantown two years ago, I've been looking for something in New York that tasted as good. If you've never had okonomiyaki, it's often described as a Japanese pizza—a thick pancake filled with lots of precious goodies like cabbage, scallions, and seafood, then topped with a riot of condiments: sweet brown okonomi sauce, aonori (green seaweed), Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise, and dried bonito flakes. Of course, there are lots of variations on ingredients and even regional styles (Osaka-style has the cabbage cooked inside, while Hiroshima-style often is topped with the cabbage and yakisoba noodles).
I ended up at Otafuku in the East Village, where not only could I indulge in Osaka-style okonomiyaki, I could also get a combo that included takoyaki, another delicious and gooey Japanese treat. Takoyaki are fried octopus balls made in a special cast iron grill pan filled with hemispherical molds that reminded me of the hot cake pans in Chinatown, but much bigger. A little oil is heated in the hot molds, then the batter—a generous nugget of octopus, a bit of cabbage, scallion, and pickled ginger—are added. The oil fries the outside, while the inside remains mostly gooey.
I watched as the expert takoyaki makers at Otafuku prodded and turned the balls with a skewer, making sure its curved sides were crisp and golden brown. Like the okonomiyaki, these molten balls of delicious are topped with okonomi sauce, bonito, kewpie, and aonori.
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Posted by BrianYarvin, June 20, 2008 at 12:00 PM
When I made the forty mile drive from my home to Mitsuwa, I had a plan; I was going to sample the hot dog at the vendor called "Italian Tomato," considered by many to be one of the Garden States´ most unusual. This tube steak, said to be presented with all the elegance of a kaiseki service, is felt by some to be the most perfect expression of Japanese aesthetics in America. I was going to order it - except that I couldn´t.
Yes, I´d seen the dog once before, years ago, when I had to entertain the son of a friend who was a manga fanatic but only ate hot dogs. I kind of vaguely remembered it and I wanted to get another just to make sure. It was a great plan until I started walking through the Mitsuwa food court... Italian Tomato itself offered "Spicy Cod Roe Spaghetti" and the bakery next door had beautiful layer cakes out on display. Soon I was noticing green tea soft-serve, a Japanese/Chinese stall, ramen, katsu, soba, and fancy coffee drinks, and had completely forgotten the states´ most legendary food.
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Posted by Joe DiStefano, June 5, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Sake Bar Hagi has received so much media attention, including a New York Times review and a segment on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations that it's often impossible to get into. Nevertheless it remains one of my favorite izakaya in Manhattan, due in part to the sheer incongruousness of its Times Square location. Add to that a fairly priced selection of sakes and some interesting specials and I’m one happy gaijin.
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Posted by Joe DiStefano, May 21, 2008 at 1:00 PM
Editor's note: Yesterday, Grub Street posted about Emperor Japanese Tapas Shabu Restaurant in Chinatown, remarking that it had "somehow completely eluded reviewers and bloggers." Well it just so happens that our man Joe DiStefano ate there last week and filed this report. —Zach
It's easy to sell me on foods with exotic packaging and strange names. Over the years, I’ve bought all manner of items, like Big Squid, a 2-foot long sheet of dehydrated cuttlefish seasoned with Thai spices that’s been hanging on my wall uneaten for months. I’m slightly more discriminating when it comes to restaurants; usually I won't select a place to eat based solely upon its name. Unless it happens to have a moniker as outlandish as Emperor Japanese Tapas Shabu Restaurant. When I first saw this new place on Bowery several weeks ago I was fascinated. After all, I love Japanese food, and I love tapas. Not that I necessarily expected to find either at this strange hybrid restaurant, especially with a menu that offers a lunch special of Spaghetti Bolognaise (sic).
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Posted by Ed Levine, April 8, 2008 at 8:30 AM
Ippudo's Karaka-men, from Cocktailian on Flickr
For some serious eaters both here and especially in Japan, ramen noodles are a religion. They worship at the altar of firm noodles made in-house, intensely flavorful broth, and the porkiest of pork slices. I, on the other hand, am a ramen noodle agnostic. At least until now. Until this weekend, my favorite ramen noodles in New York have been the mighty tasty made-in-Chinatown noodles served with tender, delicious pork and wonderful broth at Momofuku. Ramen purists have scoffed at Momofuku's noodle preparations because the restaurant's chef-owner, David Chang, did not train as a legitimate ramen chef (though he did work briefly in a ramen shop in Tokyo).
Because I know it's not politically or culinarily correct to anoint ramen noodles not made in the restaurant they're served in, I decided to go ramen-hunting this weekend. What I found was surprising and delightful. I finally found ramen noodles made in-house served with killer broth and fantastically porky pork. In other words, I found ramen noodles worthy of worship and worth waiting for.
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Online food magazine Cravings is having a shochu tasting event at Kyotofu. Shochu is a distilled liquor popular in Japan—often weaker than whisky but stronger than sake. The respective staffs of Cravings and Kyotofu will match different types of sochu with a dinner menu prepared by Kyotofu's chef, Magdalena Wong.
Details: November 19, 8 to 10:30 p.m.; $100 a person, all inclusive; RSVP at Cravings. Kyotofu is located at 705 Ninth Avenue, b/n 48th and 49th streets.
Posted by Ed Levine, June 8, 2006 at 7:12 AM
I know no one is going to believe me, but the Ruby Foo's on 77th and Broadway has become what is desperately needed in any neighborhood, a good, reasonably priced restaurant that you can walk into and get a table without waiting. Immediately upon opening ten? years ago, Ruby Foo's became an unpleasant "scene" restaurant that neighborhood residents had almost no shot of walking in and being seated in under an hour.
But I've had three meals there in the last week that were spontaneous evenings out with family and friends, and we were able to walk in each time between seven and eight o clock and be seated immediately.
We sampled twenty dishes during those three meals. The food ranged from excellent to more than acceptable, with only two dishes that I wouldn't order again, an overbreaded fried calamari and a flavorless Asian slaw.
The highlights:
Great Malaysian chicken potstickers, some of the best I've had.
Sesame Crusted Tuna with wok seared spinach and shitake mushrooms
Wok-seared sizzling filet of beef with asparagus, spinach and spicy ponzu sauce
Meaty spare ribs served with the awful Asian slaw noted above
Shockingly tasty Kung Pao Chicken with Cilantro and Peanuts
A solid tuna, smoked salmon and avocado hand roll.
Crispy yellowtail roll
Spicy tuna roll
Ruby Foo's is a huge multi-level restaurant (I believe it has 300 seats), so that may be the reason we were able to walk in and get a table each time at a prime hour. The Rockwell-designed restaurant still looks great and now you can get a good meal there without a reservation. That's big news. Ruby Foo's uptown is at 2182 Broadway (between 77th and 78th Streets). The phone number is 212-724-6700, but I don't think you'll need it.
Has anyone ever eaten at the Ruby Foo's in Times Square? Better yet, has anyone eaten there recently?
Posted by Ed Levine, May 3, 2006 at 7:27 AM
It was a week of memorable bites:
The prosciutto balls at Joe's Superette on Smith Street in Carroll Gardens. There's still very little else on the shelves in the store, but those creamy, tangy, peppery, crunchy prosciutto balls rock. And the best thing: They're 50 cents each. I buy 'em by the dozen. Photo courtesy of iheartbacon
The Kobe Beef appetizer at Morimoto. It's one of the first preparations of Kobe Beef that makes me understand what all the fuss it about, and why it may actually be worth the money. At Morimoto it's carpaccio thin and every little slice is decadently rich, meaty and fatty at the same time. I also have to say that this was the first time I ate in the main dining room at Morimoto, and it was a lot of fun: fun to look at, fun to eat in, and fun to be able to actually talk to my tablemates without screaming. They have these great fiiberglass sheets between the tables that really do soundproof the place.
The cayenne cheese sticks at Murray's Cheese Shop. I have had a ton of cheese sticks in my time, but the Murray's cheesesticks were buttery, tangy and had just the right amount of kick to them.
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Posted by Ed Levine, April 23, 2006 at 1:07 PM
Generic Japanese restaurants are ubiquitous in Manhattan, so when I discover one that is not generic and has a very fine $10 lunch it's worth mentioning.
Momoya (185 Seventh Avenue, at 21st St., 212-989-4466) has a ten dollar chicken teriyaki lunch that is a steal. It's served with the usual soup or salad, but the soup is a better than average miso soup, and the salad is comprised of greens that are not wilted or brown. The chicken teriyaki itself has crisp skin, moist chicken meat (even the white meat) and a clearly housemade, not excessively sweet, teriyaki sauce. For two bucks more you can get salmon teriyaki instead or for five bucks more you can get rib eye teriyaki.
For a more extensive review of Momoya check out Bruni's NY Times review.
Posted by Ed Levine, January 24, 2006 at 1:22 PM
I got on the scale with a fair amount of trepidation this morning. Last night I went to a party Gourmet threw for its 65th birthday at the new Morimoto at Tenth Avenue and 16th Street.
The place is completely over the top, with white gauze-like ceilings and all kinds of nutty design touches that I'll get into in another post. But great food was flowing like bottled water at one of those restaurants where they keep opening and pouring the designer H2O to get your check up;
Duck three ways on a foie gras croissant, tuna tartare laid out like a painting on a canvass, tons of sushi, kobe beef teriyaki. You get the picture. I had decided to eat dinner at this party and I tried to keep a lid on my eating. I thought I had succeeded pretty well, but I wasn't sure. It's hard to really know what you have consumed when it's all flying by you when you're standing and socializing.
So when I got on the scale and it had me down four pounds from last week I didn't believe it.
So I got off my digital scale, cleared the display, and weighed myself again. Same result!
I have now lost 17 pounds, and my goal was to lose at least 16 pounds by my birthday, which is Friday the 27th of January.
I feel particularly gratified because I have managed to lose weight during Thanksgiving and the holiday season, and while I have been doing my foodie thing judging two Iron Chef shows, writing a story for the Times which requires me to eat a fair amount of food.
I only hope my weight this morning wasn't one of those cruel aberrations you experience when you are on a diet, where you lose a lot of weight one week only to put it back on the next time you weigh yourself.
Posted by Ed Levine, October 20, 2005 at 2:10 PM
Have you ever noticed how many generic Japanese restaurants there are?
Where I live, in NYC, there are hundreds of Japanese joints serving dry as dust chicken teriyaki, california rolls made with 3 year-old crab stick (you have to figure that something called crabstick is not going to be good), and watery miso soup.
That's why it was such a thrill to find Momoya, a very fine neighborhood Japanese restaurant in NY's Chelsea section. Here the chicken teriyaki was made with moist chicken thigh topped by properly seared skin, housemade teriyaki sauce, and somewhat improbably, carrots and new potatoes. If only the miso soup was warm, there would be nothing to complain about.
Momoya 187 Seventh Avenue at 21st St. 212-989-4466.
