No. 7 Subs

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Anything done General Tso's style will most likely taste great.

 I can't explain this. I only minored in Art History because I liked looking at pictures 

Walking into the Ace Hotel I felt like I was stepping into an episode of Gossip Girl…and I just realized I just openly admitted to watching Gossip Girl before. The lobby of the hotel is filled with no one above the age of 30 and just people hanging out and probably tweeting about their bbf Jill.

 Grade Pending? Oh the Suspense

Sorry for the rant but back on topic, as if I needed a reason to go visit the Ace Hotel which is home to The Spotted Pig and the John Dory it also has a great sub shop, No. 7 Sub. Sister shop of the No. 7 restaurant in Brooklyn, the No. 7 Sub is not the average turkey and cheese sandwich shop. They start of with general gourmet fillings like short ribs, eggplant parm and cilantro chicken fare that would not raise an eyebrow, but then they take you on a psychedelic acid trip and making combination like the Brussel Sprouts Reuben with swiss cheese, Russian Dressing, potato chips or the Brie with pickled blueberries, pistachios, chervil. It is like the sub shop equivalent of that weird dream in the Big Lebowski where you basically have no idea what is going on but you like it. No. 7 Subs is redefining the space between bread. 

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/

Robicelli's Cupcakes at OpenHouse

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Nothing wrong with eating cupcakes for lunch by yourself in a AstroTurf fake park 

I guess it has been a cupcake kind of weekend....

After two weeks of searching and no hope from anyone at all, I found what I have been looking for: Robicelli’s Cupcake Chicken n’ Waffles. Last night before going to New York City  the Arctic Tundra, I randomly went to the Robicelli’s Cupcake site to find that they would be at the Park Here at OpenHouseNYC. It is basically a weird indoor astrotruf park that people can hang in. Now that I think about it, not so weird given the snowy Nordic conditions that the East Coast has suddenly become. OpenHouse allows vendors such as Robicelli’s and others to showcase their products.

Robicelli’s only had a few that I regret to not record but I went above and beyond stomach capacity (I did not really eat lunch and trekked through Williamsburg fending off hipsters beforehand) and chowed down on four of their unique cupcakes. Although seemingly unhealthy for a lunch, the composition of the cupcakes technically made it for a balance meal. Take that Michelle Obama’s Anti-Obesity Campaign! **Note I do not endorse replacing meals with cupcakes**

 

Hot Josh top left and El Guapo bottom right

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

Mast Brothers Chocolate

Straight up Amish Beards. Picture via SeriousEats

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Having a chocolate box is normal.

I did not actually use a razor and shave until the tender age of 23. I am currently 24 years old. I am quite envious of people that can grow glorious beards and mustaches; I AM TALKING TO YOU TOM SELLECK. I am envious of people such as the Mast Brothers that have the ability to grow insane facial hair and make tasty, quality food. Besides the ability to grow Amish-like beards, they produce high quality chocolate bars. Boasting to be American Craft Chocolate, Mast Brothers Chocolate is based out of Brooklyn and are making and packaging their chocolates by hand ensuring the high quality chocolate. I recently was able to try two of their chocolate bars: the Dominican Republic and Hazelnut. 

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