Guelaguetza Deli

Om Nomz Hero note to Self: I have become quite proficient in random bits of meat Identification

Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan is considered to be a dead zone for food, but not many would expect there to be great Mexican in that area. Though I will easily travel to Roosevelt Avenue for tacos, the tacos in Hell’s Kitchen are just as good. These Mexican places is what I call Bodega Mexican, in which from the street, looks like a regular ethnic bodega, but enter and venture to the back, there is a small window and kitchen making great tacos and Mexican eats. Also a TV that has Univision marks a sign of great Mexican eating to come. Across the street from Sullivan Street Bakery is one such place called Guelaguetza Deli. The awning says La Rosita but I think they just did not care and why replace a perfectly good awning? It is tiny and in the back there are about maybe 3 tables, not really a place for a group outing. However, they have a kitchen that is pumping out tasty treats. I came here because I heard they had sangrita, a mixture of goat meat and onions, thickened with goat blood, however, I was kindly informed that the goat did not come in today and no sangrita. Such bad luck! However, I ordered the lengua, carnitas and he suggested I try the panchita which he said was similar to tripe, but it was a different cow stomach. Sold. They also had Sidral Mundet which is like apple soda, similar tasting to my Asian Apple Sidra but mellower. 

Tacos came out with just some radishes on top, and the double tortilla base. The filling is generous and meaty spillage will occur, but is that a bad thing? The panchita was great, nice and tender and spicy, the lengua tender, the carnitas was a bit dry but easily resolved with a liberal usage of the red and green salsas. Both were nice and spicy. I looked on Yelp that people complained that they were serving their tacos and such from paper plates and Styrofoam containers. Are you kidding? What were you expecting? Plates from the Orient and silverware stolen from Hitler? This is a bodega and you are eating tacos and just solidify my hate for Yelp.

Guelaguetza Deli

526 West 47th Street

New York, NY 10036

Don Antonio

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Fried dough salad is the anti-Atkins

Like the food nerd I am, I was excited with the opening of Don Antonio’s. A master Neapolitan pizza maker opening up their own place here in New York would make anyone that likes pizza perk up. However, the only catch is that it is located in Hell’s Kitchen. I rarely am in Hell’s Kitchen and it is a notorious dead zone for food. If I am in the area, it is usually, tacos or Sullivan St. bread. However, friend lives in the area so I do make the venture there and finally I made a stop here at Don Antonio. 

Angiolette- not just a tomato salad

The place is a bit hard to find sandwiched in between tall office buildings. I came in on a Saturday afternoon and the place had a few people but not horribly busy. The restaurant is actually somewhat small, but looks big because it is an alley-like design and the bar is quite big. The menu has a lot of pies and has the trendy Montanara pie on it. I decided to start off with the Arancini and the Fritattatine- basically similar to an Arancini but instead of risotto, its pasta. 

Arancini

Apparently, they somehow forgot to put in my order of the Arancini and the Fritattatine and took about a good half hour for it to finally show. Being nice, I gave them a good 15 minutes before I said something and realizing their mistake they gave me the Angiolette for free and as the waiter insisted, “I must eat something”.

The Angiolette is a salad of baby tomatoes, fried pizza dough strips and baby arugula. The pizza strips are under there…somewhere under the mountain of tomatoes. Apparently baby tomatoes are like Zimbabwe dollars and they were like giving that stuff away. This was the heaviest salad I ever had that did not contain meat. It was basically a deconstructed pie. The dough strips were light and crispy and came out piping hot. However I cannot really say the same for my Arancini or Fritattatine. They came out warm, but you could tell they were fried, and left in the window for a bit and cooling off too much. Both the Arancini and Fritattatine were donned with a cheesy, carbonara-like sauce. The outer shells of both were nice and crisp but they were just warm in the middle. The pasta in the Fritattatine was borderline raw and al dente and both were just heavy and cried for some kind of sauce. Also they were just sadly thrown onto the plate like a Jean Claude Van Dame movie in a bargain bin.

Fried noodle thing

 After a messy start, I was hoping for the pie to be a saving grace, I decided to go with the Griella, which is a mozzarella roulade of parma cotto and arugula and topped with more, surprise cherry tomatoes. The pie came out hot and it was good overall. The mix of tart tomatoes balanced the richness of the mozzarella. They were easy on the char here and the pie had a good enough chew, but I was expecting a bit more puff and airiness to the pie. The dough was a bit mono toned from the taste to construction. I thought the fried dough from the comped salad tasted better and had a lot more flavor. 

Griella

I think I may have overhyped this place in my head. Don Antonio’s I felt after eating here, is not a place that I would be going out of my way to go back to again. It unfortunately did not leave me wanting and craving more. The mix of the service hiccups and less than stellar appetizers rubbed me the wrong way. The pie was good enough, but it did not blow my mind and currently I am not rushing back to try it again. Or according to Eater, I cannot do that anyway because it is closed. Maybe after their DOH reopening, service as well as the pie will be stepped up. 

Upskirt

Don Antonio

309 West 50th Street

New York NY 10019

Tehuitzingo Deli Grocery: Tacos in HK

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Old wood paneled TV blaring Charo enhances any dining experience

Hell’s Kitchen, the neighborhood not the show that Ramsay has people make endless risottos and called people stupid cows is an area that I often overlook for good food because of its proximity to Time Square and Port Authority which I always try to avoid. However, just a block away from the commuter hub and throngs of tourists is a different neighborhood that has good food. For one, Sullivan Street Bakery, which I can never get enough of is there and there is also, one of my favorite taco places there, Tehuitzingo Deli Grocery. 
 

First off, I cannot pronounce the name of this place for the life of me and I just call it that bodega in Hell’s Kitchen that has legit tacos. You will walk past it. This place stands out just as much as a Korean deli in the Village or another bodega in Queens. This is a place that if you were thirsty or edging for a pack of smokes, you would probably walk a block further for a more welcoming looking place. To avoid this place would be a mistake for any eater. Stepping into this narrow grocery, the walls and shelves are filled with stacks of tortillas, Mexican spices and can goods and snacks featuring flamboyant characters, no doubt of Latin descent.

 However, walk back a little further; past the cooler of Bodega popular beers, sodas and Mexican coke (not costing 5 bucks a bottle) you are suddenly transported to space in a jungle green glow and realize that they serve food here. A counter wrap the wall lined with swivel stools along with mirrors (just in case you wanted to check yourself out while downing posole) and at the end of the Grocery is a window that separates a kitchen, that is smaller than some walk-in closets I have seen and delicious tacos and food that you will find in this area. Tacos after the jump!

Fried Dough Goodness: Sullivan St. and DessertTruck Works

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Pizza Bianca + Bombolini = Viva la Roma hangover breakfast?

My fried dough quest led me to places that you would not think to have doughnuts and if they do, they would probably taste bad. Thankfully this was not the case when I ventured out to Hell’s Kitchen to Sullivan Street Bakery. Sullivan Street Bakery is not on Sullivan Street, more like 97th. 

The bakery is owned by Jim Lahey, most notably known for his no-knead bread technique which truly does work and produces great bread. Sullivan Street bakery is a bread bakery, and does not go for the whole, cupcakes and brownies and the cavity inducing sweets, but one of the few sweet breads that is being made there are the bombolinis. They sit there innocently enough on the counter and are outcast to the side, away from the savory breads and pizzas. To not try this would be a mistake on your part. The bombolini do not have a variety of fillings, it is either jam or cream filling. Given I just ate one of the potato pizza slice, which is the ultimate hangover morning food I realized, I just went with the cream filled bombolini. 

 

Bombolini at Sullivan

 

The Bombolini is different from others that I have sampled in which it was noticeably a lot less greasy and did not leave a translucent grease stain on the paper. The bombolini is a lot doughier and lacks the crisp lightness that the ones at Falai had. However, this bombolini is delectable and I actually prefer this one. Though it lacks crispness, it has a doughy and pillow like texture to it and the vanilla cream is thick and on the heavy side, but works well with the bombolini. This is a good donut that is a hidden treat in a bread focused bakery.

 

Donuts at DessertTruck Works 

 

First look (taste) of Donna Bell's Bake Shop

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Paula Deen = What I think everyone in the South is like

I needed my bread fix and decided to make the trek out to Hell’s Kitchen and get me some Pizza Bianca from Sullivan Street Bakery, that is no longer located on Sullivan Street and now one 47^th. Noshing on some fresh Pizza Bianca, I came across Donna Bell’s Bake Shop. Donna Bell’s Bake Shop opened up about a week ago and was very new. The place is small but loaded with lots of goodies and it is all about Southern baked goods. I sometimes secretly wish that I was from the South, well at least romanticized Southern. I imagine a childhood where I grew up eating homemade cobblers and pies from my Mom from recipes passed from generation to generation rather than sweet mung bean soup.

Big Cookies, everything is bigger in the South, or Texas...eh, close enough

Although this shop is new, walking in I was greeted warmly with a big, “Hey Y’All!” First off, awesome way to greet someone, I mean I do not think it is possible to not smile and not be cheerful when saying “Hey Y’all!” Hell, if Putin was working the counter and was all like, “Hey Y’All” I would be like, what a friendly, non-scary man. The shop is small and not much for sitting in and more from a grab and go and what they lack in space they make up for…stacking a heck of a lot of food on the counter. The counter is filled with biscuits, cookies and bars and a display case of cakes. For a small space, they most certainly fill it up. Although the bars and cookies and cupcakes (I mean, its New York, it’s a prerequisite nowadays that if you open a bakery, you need cupcakes) but I was in the savory mood so I got myself a Pimento, Cheddar Cheese and Chive Drop Biscuit and spotted some cornbread that they so happened to just put out and got that too.

Biscuit Mounds

 

            The biscuit is huge, like size of a fist huge. The first thing that came to mind was that it sure looks like a Red Lobster biscuit, but it was much better than that. The biscuit was tender and lacked dryness and the bits of pimento were a nice touch. It reminded me of eating Pimento cheese but refined and no Dukes Mayonnaise (what up Southern people, I know what Dukes is). 

Pimento, Cheddar and Chive Biscuit. Red Lobster biscuits orbit this biscuit

The cornbread I later found out is what they call Yankee (should we take offense to that?) Cornbread that is composed of whole wheat and jalapeno. I could not tell that there was whole wheat in it but I guess that makes you feel less guilty about eating a good hunk of cornbread. The cornbread had actual corn in it (a plus) and did not have any grit in it. The jalapeño was a welcomed addition that worked well with the subtle sweetness of the cornbread. The cornbread is very crumby which is a texture I look for personally in cornbread but it is probably best to eat this at a stationary position and not wearing black because you will get crumbs all over you and birds may or may not attack you like a Hitchcock movie. 

Yankee Cornbread, if this is Yankee cornbread why is it not white and blue pinstriped?

I only got a quick sample of the stuff they were offering but I was impressed and want to comeback to try more. Not only do they have the basic bake goods, they also have breakfast and lunch sandwiches as well as bread pudding one of them being a hummingbird cake bread pudding which I am looking forward to trying. They are also in the works of getting out some soups and now that I think about it, soup and cornbread would be a great lunch time fix. Those working around here are in for a new place to chow down at and with a drink menu that has Southern Sweet tea and Arnold Palmers, how do you not want to come here? Also, there is no Paula Deen-like lady working here, I know, I was totally disappointed.

Donna Bell’s Bake Shop

301 West 49^th Street

New York, NY 10019

www.donnabellsbakeshop.com