Shopsins: The Castles

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: First time I have been to Shopsins, and finally saw Kenny cooking in the kitchen. It was a good day.

Thankfully growing up in New Jersey, I never was deprived of sliders with legendary spots like the White Mamma and White Rose system to just knowing that White Castle exists. One of my favorite places that make sliders is Shopsins. Say what you want about them, but when it comes to a burger or sliders, they make a damn good one. Better yet, they have found a way to make sliders an acceptable breakfast treat by simply adding eggs and that is why on their insanely long menu, the castles is worth ordering, eventually because the amount of times I have been there, still have not been able to try everything that I have wanted on there. For some reason, the name the Castles makes me think of Castle Grey Skull from He-Man and eating this makes me feel awesome and makes me ride on top of a tiger…with a hell of a lot more clothes on than He-Man, its fall and it’s kind of cold.

The Castles is an order of their sliders, and fluffy eggs and a glutton amount of cheese is piled on top of it. This is the meal, well for a big eater like me, a snack of champions. For a few bucks more, you can add some hatch chilies on it but not necessary in my opinion because when you got their hot sauce (it’s a proprietary “housemade” blend for you Brooklynites!) that basically makes everything taste good. If you want tasty sliders for breakfast and make it look socially acceptable, get at the Castles at Shopsins.

Also, screw everybody, I think it is a requirement to get a milkshake or an egg cream with an order of sliders or just anytime i you come here. I noticed that the slutty cakes is now in milkshake form so you can get a tasty peanut butter and pumpkin milkshake at 9am, how is this not awesome?

Shopsins

Essex St Market
120 Essex St
New York, NY 10002

Motorino: Italian for scooter or something but they got pizza!

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Those that have not eaten a Neapolitan pie have been doing a disservice to themselves

I admit, I rave and coo about Neapolitan pies way too much. The obsession is only comparable to a Korean teenager discovering StarCraft (Zerg fo life!). I never really realized that I had a problem or weird obsession with it until I had an afternoon to myself and I was really craving for a nicely charred and chewy Neapolitan pie. So much so that I travelled all the way to the original Motorino location in Brooklyn and proceeded to eat a pie and meatballs on my own. And then, still feeling peckish, I went to Forcella a couple blocks away and ate another pie. The point that I realized I really like Neapolitan pies and is probably one of my favorites foods after pork is that the next day, I kind of wanted a Neapolitan style pie…something light like a Margherita. I am pretty sure that this is the reason that I am single; I mean, no one of the opposite sex should find this an attractive quality, at all. If you do however, call me.

I have sampled the pizza at the Motorino East Village location and given I had a nice afternoon; I decided to make a trek to Brooklyn, to the original location of Motorino. Motorino opening in 2008 is part of the second wave of the revamp of New York Pizza opening after Franny’s and the grails of all, Una Pizza Neapoletana (RIP). Motorino is now a member of the pantheon of pizza greats in New York in which many New Yorkers use as a catalyst of a quality Neapolitan pie. Food After the Jump!

Maialino

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Pork is awesome in any language, especially a dead language

Finally got to do brunch at Maialino, which serves Roman style food is located in the Gramercy Park Hotel Maialino are one of the newest restaurants in the Danny Meyer’s stable and certainly one that should not be overlooked. The word Maialino apparently means “Pig” and anything that is named after such a magnificent and tasty animal, I am there.The Romans were known for a lot of things like creating a functional government and giving Russell Crowe a movie career; they had really good food.

One thing that I like about Maialino is that most places stick to the brunch and will pretty much have eggs benny, some kind of pancakes, French toast or waffles and some kind of burger. Maialino of course has the brunch staples but does a good job changing it up and also do fresh pastas as well.

Macaron Parlour via OpenHouse NYC

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Have restraint, don't try and eat macarons on the NJ Transit train, weird Indian girl will stare at you for the whole ride. 


The same day that I encountered the craziness that is the Hot Josh, I also encountered Macaron Parlour at the OpenHouse NYC. Another place that do not have an actual store front, their base of operations is located in the Lower East Side and mainly do orders. They are a regular at the Hester Street Fair and although they have the traditional flavored macarons, they have some interesting combination such as the Thai chili and S’more flavored macarons. Although any French pastry chef would scoff and be applauded by these kinds of flavors, I for one am interested and support people that are stepping out of the conventional and trying out new flavor combination.

 Rainbow of sugar French Cookie Awesomeness

With the macarons, I went with six of them: the Candied Bacon with Maple Cream Cheese, the Peanut Butter Cup, the S’more, Red Velvet, the Earl Grey and the Nutella.

Macarons.

Overall, they were good macarons. The macarons were light and chewy, mushy meringue with a thin outer shell. Yet, their flavor combinations were all solid. As great as bacon is, it has unfortunately become a cliché. It seems like every place needs to throw bacon on for the hell of it and will unfortunately get “bastardized” in dessert dishes. I was hesitant trying their candied bacon however after my first bite; I knew this was no cliché. The bacon was nestled in a thick, creamy pillow of maple cream cheese and achieved salty sweet Zen. The bacon was still crisp melded perfectly with the light and mushy interior.  Another flavor that stood out was the S’ more, which tasted as advertised and the exterior even had a bit of that graham cracker taste to it as well. The Peanut butter I originally had low expectations for because of the preconception that the peanut butter filling would just be well, Skippy’s but it was a smooth whipped buttercream that was not overtly sweet and executed well. The owners of Macaron Parlour Christina and Simon who I was able to talk to a bit, are passionate about their craft and are always happy to talk and answer any questions about their macarons. They are able to instill a creative American touch on a classical sophisticated French cookie and do it well. I will be on the look out for these macarons in the future at the Hester Street Fair and other places. Also, like all macarons, they do the whole fancy box thing again, emasculating me every time I buy macarons. 

Nothing says I am a tough guy eating a box of macarons with a ribbon around it

 Macaron Parlour

http://macaronparlour.com/
Check website for locations

Shopsins: Mo' Jemima

Im Nomz Hero Note to Self: Nothing wrong having a milkshake at 10am. Screw you hipster dude at the next table


On an epic quest on all things food, I sometimes have to go solo. Okay fine, I go solo a lot of the times. I just did not want to seem like a complete loser. Although awkward at first, going solo to places is not so bad, the only downside that I have ever experienced and one that I am constantly plagued with is lack of stomach space. One place that I have no problem eating at alone and I already wrote about is Shopsins. I mean, technically, although I am dining by myself, I have the shoppers of Essex Market and of course, Kenny ranting, I am not really by myself. Sorry, went a bit philosophical on everyone but nonetheless, even without company, you are entertained and you eat well which is the point. 

 The Mo'Jemima: This is what Zeus ate for Breakfast

There has not been anything that I ate at Shopsins that I did not like and every time I go, I like to try something new. However, this might change now that I tried the Mo’ Jemima. The Mo ‘Jemima is a stack of Bacon Mac and Cheese pancakes, topped with three poached eggs. Writing it just makes my mouth water and makes me crave and salivate for it like a starved rabid wolf in a pediatric ward. The pancakes are just the perfect marriage of salty and sweet with the bacon cooked into the pancake. The pancake is light and fluffy and with a crispy exterior that comes from a thin coat of crispy cheese. I am a sucker for crispy cheese. I go for the corner pieces of any cheese laden casserole like dish from lasagna to oven baked Mac and Cheese so I can get the hard slight carbonated cheese. I will over-stuff a grill cheese just so it will ooze out of the sandwich onto the pan so I will get a hard cement cheese border. To make the dish even better, is the poached eggs have a runny center which just oozes out and coats the pancake in rich goodness. Shopsins is smart in that cut out a hole in the center of the pancake stack, to allow any of the running egg goodness from escaping. The best way is to utilize the man-made hole is to allow the runny eggs yolks, maple syrup and hot sauce to meld thus; creating a sink hole of euphoria that will soak the pancake from the inside out. This dish makes my heart whimper with joy cholesterol bomb, but it was tuned out by the sugary and salty ecstasy of the Mo’ Jemima. Shopsins. Get at it. 

Shopsins
Essex St Market
120 Essex St
Stall 16
New York, NY 10002
www.shopsins.com 

 

Jacque Torres and Oro Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Eating chocolate chip cookie, walking and texting is true multi-tasking

I am always on the look out for a good chocolate chip cookie and this week I was able to try a cookie from Oro Bakery in Little Italy and Jacque Torres in the Meatpacking District/Chelsea Market. Reputable sources such as the internet, swear that each of these bakeries make a damn good chocolate chip cookies and I had to check it out. I mean, when has the internet ever lied to me? Oh by the way, if anybody talks to that disposed Nigerian Prince that randomly emailed me and needed some cash, can you see how he is doing? I hope he and my sure investment is doing ok.

Jacque Torres is a straight up badass chocolatier. Dude gets to rock a special collar on his chef collar that only the French President can give you. Not something that they give away to just anybody and very few have this honor of rocking this collar. I assume they also get some kind of decoder ring as well but that is for another time.

Jacque Torres Cookie, thumb not included

The cookie is hefty and it is nice that they will heat up the cookie for you if you want, just enough to get a bit of that chocolate to soften and melt a bit. The cookie itself is buttery and is very much like a shortbread cookie. The cookie is like a hybrid of a pastry and a shortbread cookie. The cookie has layers in it and is buttery like a pastry but has a crumb texture and firm consistency of shortbread.  He also uses chocolate disks that are layered in-between the layers. Like if the cookie was the earth, it the chocolate would be like tectonic plates…tasty tectonic plates.

Oro Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookie

Next up was Oro bakery up in Little Italy. It is a bar/café and has a small selection of bake goods and mainly known for their Frenchy pastries such as their croissants and madeleines. However, off to the side and should be displayed more promiently are their cookie jars, filled with cookies and one of them being the chocolate chip cookie. The cookie has a firm yet it is able to soft at the same time. The cookie was littered with thick chopped chocolate chunks but did not give you a sugar high and balanced just right with the hint of salt that hits you after you taste the chocolate.

A good chocolate chip cookie is hard to come by when it is the minority in a city full of mediocre and complete crap cookies. Both these places not only have good chocolate chip cookies but other great products as well that you can shove into your gullet without feeling like it was complete waste of caloric intake.

Jacque Torres Chocolate
Various locations in NYC
www.mrchocolate.com/


Oro Bakery and Bar
375 Broome Street
New York, NY 10013
http://www.orobakerybar.com/

Dickson's Farmstand Meats

 

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Sandwiches should always be bought in pairs

Like so many others in this great country, my family is the first generation of immigrants. My parents came to the US in the 80s and I was a 90s kid. That meant GI Joe, POGs and supermarket foods. Unfortunately, many of my generation and the generation of my parents have grown up in the supermarket age where food is prepackaged and unfortunately for many children that grew up in suburbia in the 90s, it meant that meat came broken down in a plastic package and Captain Crunch destroys the roof of your mouth. However, thankfully with the help of such places as Dickson’s Farmstand. Meats I can have that 1950s nostolgic butchershop experience and pick up some great meat.

Pretty Meat

Everything Frosted Cupcakes

Everything Frosted 

 Signage outside

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: When tea shop/jewelry store/internet cafe clearly says no outside food allowed, ignore it. 

The address of this place is 105 ½ Mosco Street in Chinatown and I immediately thought that this was some weird Harry Potter book and I got to walk through a wall to get to this place. In my quest for food awesomeness, after a pleasant dim sum meal at 27 Sunshine, me and my culinary companions (or extra stomachs) walked over to Everything Frosted, new to the cupcake and bakery scene opening up late 2010. Everything Frosted sets itself apart by using Asian influenced flavors, such as black sesame or taro and an ever changing combination cakes and frosting offerings. This dessert roulette can produce anything from a hazelnut cupcake with a red bean frosting, to a red velvet cupcake with a cookies and cream frosting and completely different offerings the next day. If you are bad at making decisions your options are:

A)    Look up their various cakes and frosting offering and compile a pre determined list of cupcake/frosting combinations you like. I believe the only prerequisite for determining the amount of combinations is at least Algebra, probably a B- or better

B)     Roulette style, just point and grunt and choose at random.

C)    Go with 2 or more people so you can choose multiple ones and try a little bit of each

Meatball Shop Beard House Luncheon

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Not everyone, especially at the Beard House want to hear about Chef from South Park Chocolate Salty Balls.

Friday was a day off so I braved the cold and went to the James Beard House for a luncheon show casing Dan Holzman and Michael Chernow of The Meatball Shop where they prepared hors d’oeuvres and a tasting. Who does not love meat in ball form?

One thing that I learned from this and will forever take with me is: NEVER, EVER, EVER be late to a James Beard House event. You end up missing the hors d'oeuvres and hors d’oeuvres are awesome. It is like a classy buffet where they bring you stuff and mingle with other people. Due to circumstances out of my control I did not get there till before the main tasting and ended up missing the onb slaught of hors d’oeuvres. The hors d’oeuvres line up was: Miniature Maryland Crabmeat and Potato Chip Meatballs with Old Bay dipping sauce, Mini Buffalo Chicken Meatballs with Blue Cheese dipping sauce and Reuben Meatball sliders with Sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing with all the Prosecco you can drink (socially acceptable to drink).

 Miniature Maryland Crabmeat and Potato Chip Meatballs with Old Bay Dipping Sauce. 

**Due to Social Grace/Etiquette I did not sit there and shove all of them in my mouth and down the dipping sauce like a Big Gulp.

Robicelli's Cupcakes

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Nothing wrong with having a cupcake at 9:30 in the morning

I like cupcakes, but I never really got onto the whole cupcake craze, a cupcake is just a pre-portioned slice of cake. I much prefer to have a slice of cake given a choice between the two. However, I do appreciate a good cupcake that does not taste like airy cardboard and bring ones that back memories of elementary school birthday pass outs. My Mom never cared enough to bake cupcakes for the class, we just Munkin-ed it up from Dunkin Donuts.

I have my favorite cupcakes like Sugar Sweet Sunshine and Two Little Red Hens but I have to add another to that list: Robicelli’s Cupcakes. Hitting the top for People Choice via Midtown Lunch and SeriousEats, I knew I had to hurry up and get my grubby mitts on these and try one.

Robicelli’s is different not only in there seasonal and non traditional cupcakes such as their PB& Grape J (Vanilla cake, grape jelly, peanut butter buttercream, chopped peanuts) and their Chicken n’Waffles (Vanilla “waffle” cake, vanilla buttercream, buttermilk soaked fried chicken dunked in pure Vermont maple syrup, this one just makes my heart skip a couple of beats, if anyone can point me in the direction of this said cupcake I will give you 1 WHOLE DOLLAR) but they also do not have an actual brick and motar store front. They basically make a lot of cupcakes and then bring them to various places to sell them, one of them being Cake Shop in the LES. Cake Shop a coffee/record/bake goods/music shop that has a very Kurt Kobain-esque vibe to it. However, they do make a descent cup of coffee (I am pretty sure that because it is a bar as well you can Irish it up which is always a plus) and have various bake goods, such as Robicelli’s Cupcakes.

 Pecan Potato Chip upper left and bottom right the Car Bomb

In order to not feel like a complete Fatty McFatterson, and to save room (I also was going to do a meatball tasting at the Beard House) I got two cupcakes, the Pecan Potato Chip and the Car Bomb. I went for the Car Bomb first which is a Chocolate Guinness stout cake, Jameson whiskey butter cream, Bailey’s butter cream. This cupcake is to worth the calories and is a clear example why Robicelli’s Cupcakes is worth searching out. Here is the breakdown: the cake is moist and dense and the chocolate hits you right away. Although the cupcake is dense, it has good crumb structure meaning that it isn’t flaking all over the place but you are not eating a piece of fudge. The frosting is one that really stands out to me is that it was a true butter cream and used all butter. I do not like shortening base frosting because my philosophy is: if I am going to clog my arteries with sweet goodness I want smooth, creamy dairy fat to line my arterial wall. The frosting was generously topped on and because it was so rich, imparted a smooth silkily texture that was almost like eating frozen custard. The other one, the Pecan Potato chip, a Pecan & potato chip butter cake, vanilla butter cream, roasted pecans, crushed potato chips, salted butterscotch. The cake was lighter compared to the Car Bomb but still held its own in the moist department. The cupcake had a great salty sweet going on even though I could barely taste the potato chip part. Unfortunately due to stomach capacity I was not able to try anymore cupcakes but I will now make it a point to be on the constant look out for these cupcakes.

Since they do not have an actual store, you are going to have to do a bit of searching in order to find these cupcakes but it is well worth it. 

Robicelli's Cupcakes 

Various Locations

Bisous Ciao Macarons

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Bring manly looking bag to disguise feminine macron bag 
 
Real men watch the Jets game and eat macarons. At least that is what I am telling myself while sitting here watching the Jets game…and eating macarons. But if it was a choice between Pringles and Frenchy macarons, I choose the macarons.

Bisous Ciao opened in the summer of 2010 in the Lower East Side and is a minimalist store. It is just a chilled case of macarons and a cash register. There is a very small counter towards the window front that I think you can maybe eat the macarons in the store, but it is basically a takeout kind of a place.

This is pretty much it to the store.

The store goes right to the point and sells macarons. Bisous Ciao makes 16 varieties, and currently have 4 seasonal macarons which are the peppermint chocolate, the masala spiced chai, the pecan caramel and the cranberry. All of these macarons were bursting with intense flavor especially the masala spiced chai, tasted like Slumdog Millionare. Each spice in the macaron from the subtle cloves to the touch of ginger explodes immediately after biting into it. Aside from the seasonal flavors I picked up their salted caramel (their signature) and the gianduja. All the macarons had a delicate thin crust and soft, chewy meringue which a rich and intense filling. Eating a good macaron such as this, like in the movie, Next Friday "makes you wanna slap yo Momma". Please do not hit your mother or women, I do not advocate domestic abuse. 

 Left to Right: Salted Caramel, Pecan Caramel, Cranberry, Peppermint Chocolate, Masala Chai and the Gianduja.

Although the macarons are pricey, clocking in at 2.25 a piece this is something that everyone should selfishly indulge in or guilt trip a loved one into purchasing for you. One thing about the French is that they do not skimp on packaging. The macarons come in a fashionable box and sleek bag. Its one of those bags that you keep, even though you may never use it but you keep it because it would be such a waste to throw out, I mean look at it! It has a bow on it! I’m serious, real men eat macarons. Excuse me while I go do some ultra manly stuff like eating glass and fighting lions. Brb.

Seriously, look at the box they give it to you in and bag. Frenchies knows how to do up presentation.

 Bisous Ciao Macarons
101 Stanton St.
NYC 10002
http://www.bisousciao.com/

Shopsins

The Bird may or may not be included in service. 

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Hot Sauce + Pancakes = good.

You either like Shopsins or you hate Shopsins or don't know what the hell it is. Shopsins is not for everyone. If you are expecting your needs to be constantly catered to and having a michy star experience dont come. Just don’t. save yourself the trouble, hell go write a bad review on Yelp. I personally don’t care because that means I should be able to get a table at Shopsins quicker.

If you do decide to come here, come prepared. Learn their unwritten rules that are written by someone on Yelp and look up the menu before you come here. If you think the menu at I don’t know, the Cheesecake Factory is overwhelming then this menu will most likely give you an aneurysm. My friend Conway, being smart let me, a food nerd/loser that already studied the menu (horary for work time productivity) and let me do all the ordering. I came prepared and like a good food nerd, briefed my dining compatriots on the rules and after a short wait we were seated. After we were seated and I placed our order, I felt pretty comfortable. Mind you, I was actually quiet nervous, actually the most nervous I have ever been to eat at a place. Reading reviews on yelp and countless posts on Chow, I did not want to get kicked out.