Minetta Tavern- We are not worthy of the burger

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: If the Black Label burger had an entrance song, it would be Jay’s Public Service Announcement.

I joke about foods that are game changers, but the black label burger at Minetta Tavern is the epitome of a game changer, like Steve Jobs, wrapping things in bacon or Koreans playing StarCraft. This is the kind of burgers that ruin other burgers for you for you, and all other burgers seem pedestrian, I know some will disagree with me on this, but I guarantee this is a burger that you will not be forgetting. For my birthday this year, I decided to go and see if the Black Label Burger at Minetta Tavern is truly the best burger in New York and in not, the world.

tl:dr- Yes, yes it is.

One thing that McNally restaurants has going for them, is that they are able to transform a space into some place entirely different like Balthazar is a French Bistro, Minetta Tavern takes you back in time to a speakeasy Americana joint that you would expect Sinatra and Ratpack Co. would be eating well into the night. The place is constantly busy and thankfully, I snagged an impossible reservation and allowed me to forgo the 45 minute wait time at 6pm, an hour after they opened for dinner service. More burger and then some after the jump!

The Spotted Pig

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Spotted Pig is not only a gastropub, but an art gallery for meat and pork centric art

I have never been to an April Bloomfield restaurant until this past weekend. I feel a bit ashamed given that the food at The Breslin, the John Dory and The Spotted Pig is everything that I like, which is fat and pork and in the case of the Dory, fat, pork and seafood. So for my birthday I decided to do brunch up at The Spotted Pig, where it all started. Located in the West Village the Spotted Pig is the original OG when it comes to the gastropub. They were doing the whole gastropub before it was like, cool. The Spotted Pig is still frequented by locals and tourists alike and on a Saturday at noon, there is still a sizable wait for a table. Onward Food!

Molly's Cupcakes: Chi-Town Sweets in Nyc

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Do not judge me old lady for eating cupcakes at 11:30am when you are chowing down on a Faccio's Italian Hoagie (though I would not mind eating that either)

Anybody that says that the cupcakes trend is dying is a liar and eats a lot less sugar than I do. With the opening of Sprinkles a couple months ago and according to reports is doing great business from my sister’s frequents visits, it opened up the door for other cupcake operations to see if they go Sinatra and make it in New York. Enter Molly’s Cupcakes, which I found out later is no Molly, but there is a Johnny. 

Molly’s Cupcakes is from Chicago and just opened up recently on Bleeker Street. I can hear the groans from people, another cupcake place? Sigh. The amount of bakeries opening up, if there is ever a ban on sugar, the GDP of New York will drop like a rock within a day.

There are so many places that are established, Molly’s Cupcakes needs to bring their “A” game and if it is like AJ Burnett’s pitching, they are screwed, they need like, a Cliff Lee kind of a game to stand out and yes, I am purposely making sports references in order to pretend I know a good amount of sports and to make me seem manlier when talking about sugary and colorful confections. Cavity Induced Sweets after the Jump

Great box design, cubby holes for cupcake

Buvette: Francophiles and Italianos in Harmony

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: I still hate communal dining tables

The vintage looking bike is the only indications that you really have that you are at Buvette. That was all I knew about the place when I went to seek it out Saturday night, look for the quirk, vintage looking bike filled with corkscrews. Thankfully, I did not make myself look like a complete idiot stopping in from of every bike on Grove Street, seeing if there was a restaurant around there. Buvette is a fairly new place opened up by Jody Williams and it is best described as a Franco-Italian Tapas bar. 

Wine Board

DIY Bar Snacks of Walnuts

Walking into Buvette, it is cramping, tight and cozy. You will be getting to know your neighbors pretty well so discussing top government state secrets is out when coming here. The décor of the place can easily carry a conversation with its clutter walls of decorative plates, a blackboard mapping out their wine origins and in the backroom where we sat, a quirky chandler that looked like it is composed of Christmas lights, pitchers, and silverware. It is the kind of place that I can imagine a real life Pippy Longstockings would run and was into Dada art. However, I have concluded like Hello Kitty merchandise, it will make any girl coo and constantly remind you how “cute” everything is. We were seated in the back on a communal dining table which fits into the overall feel of the place but I unfortunately do not really like. My issue with communal tables is the privacy issue and like it or not, you are going to get cozy with strangers and hear their conversations and hear the lady next to you complain about how the majority of dishes have cheese and wrongfully tell her nonchalant husband erroneous facts about pasteurized cheeses in the US. (Lady, you are in a French and Italian restaurant, of course there is going to be cheese!)

Dada art or ambient lighting?

 Food, onward!!

Imperial Woodpeck Snoballs and Love Gelato

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Southern accents make shaved ice taste better

Love Gelato

I need to move to the West Village as soon as possible. Actually, scratch that, I need to stay away from the West Village because if I moved to the West Village, I would end up looking like Jabba the Hut or the first dude from Seven because of all the gelato and frozen confections shops there. The beginning of the summer means that it is time to trade in the hot chocolate for cones of ice cream and frosty treats and two new comers on the scene are Love Gelato and the branding new, Imperial Woodpecker Snoballs.

I was able to duck into Love Gelato which is one of the new comers to the gelato party. Love Gelato is a nicely spaced shop that is one of the more spacious gelatos places. Not only are they doing gelatos, they are churning out some sandwiches and even crepes. I decided to see how they do with the usual classic flavors, for control-like purposes. I do pretend to sometimes not be a bottomless pit and shove everything into my mouth and pretend to eat all serious and stuff. 

Pistachio and the Stracciatella

I went with the Pistachio and the Stracciatella (vanilla with chocolate pieces). The gelato although texturally it was smooth, it was light and lacked creaminess. I like the denseness and intense flavors of gelato which unfortunately was lacking. I still prefer L’arte del Gelato but like always, I am willing to give Love Gelato another shot in the future and having actual seating is a plus side. 

Imperial Woodpecker after the jump!

L'Arte del Gelato: Getting a real Ice Cream Sandwich

On Nomz Hero Note to Self: Contrary to popular belief, not everyone screams for ice cream, I think Italians, pleasant announce a desire for gelato 

Memorial Day weekend was a busy one with me making food and stuff like it was nobody’s business but I am back, no vengeance, more like food-ventures.

I love ice cream. My first paycheck from my first real world job, I could have went with the typical purchase of a playstation (already had), car, a stereo, but like a true playboy I bought myself a ice cream maker. It was the coolest kitchen appliance I have bought to date and I remember I spent a whole night trying to figure out how I was going to christen the new maker (peanut butter ice cream). I was that fat kid when summer rolled around, would save pocket change and wait for the Siren call of the ice cream truck. I of course never had money ready or never realized it was around and ended up chasing the ice cream truck down a block or two. In retrospect I think the dude knew I was chasing the truck but did not stop for a while to get a good laugh out of watching a out of shape, pudgy 10 year old huffing and puffing. When I finally caught up with the truck and my breathe I would spend my savings of $1.25 (a lot of money for a 10 year old in the 90s)on the Double Play ice cream bar, which was in the shape of a glove, bubblegum flavor and always had a gumball in the middle (which was always stale). If I was lucky, they would have candy cigarettes because pretend smoking was cool.

Although the days of eating Double Plays are over, (I have not seen a box of those in at the freezer section anywhere) the majority of my body fat can still be attributed to ice cream and gelato. Disclaimer: I am not one of those weird people that are not Italian, and did not grow up in Italy that say “gelato” with an Italian flair. You are from Bucks County, not from North Umbria, chill out. If I see someone like you, I may or may not try and trip you.

Gelato is not just a fancy word for ice cream; there is an actual difference and not another word to call ice cream to show your date that you are worldly. The main differences are gelato contains less fat because it is generally made with whole milk. Ice cream has about 10% and gelato is about half of that so I guess it is healthier? It is something you can tell yourself when you are debating if you should kill that whole pint when you are wearing your fat pants and watching Conan. Gelato is churned at a slower speed, hence incorporating less air making it denser and intensifying the flavors. Now we got the food nerd part out, time for the eating. 

Gelato After the Jump!

Kin Shop: Omg, the dude from Top Chef opened another place

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Just because you are eating Asian food, does not mean you need chopsticks

“Just give me a pair of chopsticks and I will be ready to go!”

This is what a middle aged Caucasian lady (cough, yuppie, cough) uttered when I was about to leave Kin Shop. I think she even glanced over to our table as if to see if I concurred with her statement and validated that apparently, eating food from the Asiatic region requires the usage of chopsticks in order to enjoy it. It is like eating Mexican food I need a stack of tortillas in order to get the full Mexican experience. That is the end of my miniature rant; I just thought it was amusing.

For Mother’s Day, I decided to go with the family to Kin Shop, the newly opened Thai restaurant by Harold Dieterle, the winner of the first Top Chef and already successful restaurant Perilla. Thai food is often all too synonymous with Pad Thai, sour soup, watery curries both ranging from the flavorless to colon-burning spice and the enemy cuisine of anyone with a serious peanut allergy. Since I do not have a peanut allergy and I enjoy a good amount of spice, Kin Shop seemed perfect. Also they had reservations open for lunch the past weekend. 

Thai Ice Tea

The food is meant to be served family style, which is great for me because it just opens the doors to let me try everything. Also I do not know if this is a constant, but there is also a pre fixe lunch menu option in which you get a choice of an appetizer, main and dessert for 20 bucks. It is a great deal, the portions are not skimped and something to keep in mind for the future. I thankfully have been blessed with a food-loving family so we ended up get 4 appetizers and 4 entrees and got a good feel for the menu. One the table was two condiments, one was a vinegar chili sauce and the other was a chili powder mix. The vinegar chili sauce was not spicy to me at least and offered a nice zing and the chili powder was a potent mix that should be used sparingly those sensitive to heat. Or liberally for those like me that love abuse chilies. 

Condiments, Chili Vinegar and Chili spice mix

The start we went straight Chinese style and started off with soups. First up was the Steamed Pork Meatball Soup with crispy garlic, bok choy shoots and black soy sauce. Dieterle, knows his balls, sorry I had to go there. However, Dieterle at Perilla already is known for the duck meatballs there, the pork meatballs had a lot to live up too. The pork meatballs did not disappoint, the meatballs were soft, tender and had a bit of spiciness to them which was balanced out by a savory broth. The broth was soothing, and would be perfect on a cold winter day, or in my case a nice warm afternoon. Food After the Jump!

Steamed Pork Meatball Soup

The other soup that we got was Garam Masala and Tomato Soup. In it was tofu, mung beans and holy basil. I am not too familiar with holy basil and do not know how it differs in taste from Italain sweet or Thai basil but the soup again was quite successful. The soup was simply a tomato soup that was brought a whole other level. I am not like tomato soup that much because versions I have had of it are usually, too sweet or acidic and taste like watered down ketchup. However, this soup restores my faith in tomato soup and straight up “clowns” Campbells tomato soup. The garam masala plays a pivotal role in this soup, giving it an earthy, floral essence that compliments the tomato flavor that is wonderfully balanced. The tofu offers a bit of a textural contrast as well as the addition of the mung beans. Give me a grilled cheese sandwich and that would have been lunch for me. 

Garam Masala Tomato Soup

 I knew that the Fried Pork and Crispy Oyster Salad was a must order. The first two words of the name are automatic food trigger words for me. I could have eaten a Vegas buffet, belt loosed, swollen gut and I see the words “Fried Pork” I am thinking, “Yeah, I got room for a bite…or more”. The addition of the crispy oysters I was sold. The salad came out just as expected, the fried pork, with the kicker that it was pork belly as well was tender and the oysters were fried perfectly and were still, “wet” inside. The fried goodness was blanketed by celery, peanuts, red onions dressed in a chili-lime vinaigrette which added a nice balance in flavor but I could have done without it, but I guess the greens were needed to classify this as a salad. 

Fried Pork and Crispy Oyster Salad- yeah its under there...somewhere

Finally for appetizers we got the Spicy Duck Laab Salad, which had toasted rice, ground chili, chopped strings beans served in romaine heart cups. They put an emphasis that this is a spicy dish with asterisk and warning from our server and he was right. This dish is what I call Thai spicy, the kind where if you eat a lot of it, everything starts to look like a Pink Floyd video. So for a chili head like me, this was perfect. Once you get past the spiciness of the dish, the dish is very tasty and the spice combination and ground duck works nicely. A fyi, if the dish is spicy, do not drink water to cool it down, it only makes it worse, try a Thai ice tea, it is refreshing and they make a pretty good one here. The appetizers all hit their marks and a good sign of things to come. 

Duck Laab Salad- muy caliente

I did not realize this when ordering but I realized that of the four dishes ordered, three of them were noodles making it a carb heavy meal. I guess that was why I had such an awesome run time the next morning when I ran. First up was the Stir Fried Wide Wonton Noodles. It was fried with a chicken sausage, Thai broccoli rabe and in an oyster sauce. This was my least favorite dish of everything we sampled. Although the noodles were cooked well and the sausage and rabe was tasty, it did not have interplay of spices or stimulated the palate and was a monotonous. It was just okay and felt like getting the vanilla ice cream at a Baskin Robbins. 

Stir Fried Wide Wonton Noodles

However the Stir fried Rice Flakes with Rock shrimp, Cauliflower was delicious. Upon looking on the menu again it also had sawtooth herb and fried garlic, I love garlic but I have no clue what a sawtooth herb is. It just sounds utterly badass and given that I liked this dish, tasty. Rice flakes are just another type of noodle which is similar to the wide wonton noodles but softer and not as wide. The rock shrimp flavored the whole dish and impregnated the briny, seafood flavors into everything. The cauliflower was still crispy; offering a textural contrast to the dish and the fried garlic was not overpowering and was subtle in the dish working out perfectly. 

Stir fried Rice Flakes with Rock Shrimp, Cauliflower

The Egg Noodle and Maitake Mushroom Broth with duck egg, green onions and spinach was a beautifully subtle dish. The egg noodles were cooked nicely, although did not have the Asian “Q”/chewiness to it and was closer to al dente. The broth was not heavily spiced, but it was a concentrate of maitake mushroom flavor. Although the only real protein component of this dish was the poached duck egg, the broth itself provided an intense, mushroom meatiness to the whole dish. The dish was not heavily spiced but showed restraint which added its own complexity and showing less is more. 

Egg Noodle and Maitake Mushroom Broth

Massaman Braised Goat

On the opposite end of the spectrum was the Massaman Braised Goat. The dish had fried shallots, purple yams, mustard greens and toasted coconut. This dish had a lot of flavors and components going on but it eventually all came together. The purple yams by the way I suspect are just taro, but I guess purple yam sounds less scary and threatening than taro. Everything came together is a slurry and the coconut provides an underlying sweetness that integrates nicely with the goat. The goat was tender, succulent and although I am a barbarian and like gaminess, the goat did not have that at all. We got an order of roti which came out fresh and finger burning hot. The roti was flaky, supple and lightly sweetened, could have been eaten on its own but worked well as a sponge for soaking up all that gravy from the braised goat. Originally it was suppose to be an order of roti and jasmine rice, but the rice apparently did not turn out right so they comped us a extra roti which worked out fine.

Roti- Pancake sauce sponge

Finally ending the meal was a scoop of mango sorbet and a scoop of Thai-Coffee chocolate ice cream, not mixed together. The mango was clean and crisp and had chunks of mangos in it which is always a plus. The Thai-Coffee chocolate was borderline chalky tasting and the coffee flavors were very subtle. Overall, Kin Shop dished out some great dishes and they were of adequate size and were not “elf food” in anyway. Many question the authenticity of the food well mainly because Harold is white and not Thai/Asian. I am not going to beat around the bush and pretend that is not what everyone is thinking. However the thing is he is not claiming that it is authentic Thai and the argument of authenticity food is something that can be debated until Two and a Half Men is back on the air (or check the chowhound board for the thread of authentic food). The point is that the food at Kin Shop is without a question Thai. He pays great respect to Thai and Southeast Asian cuisine and produces great food and whether or not this is the food that you will be eating in a dank street in Bangkok is up to you but at Kin Shop, the flavors of Thailand are there and they are good. 

Mango Sorbet and Thai-Coffee Chocolate Ice Cream

Kin Shop

469 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10011

Sockerbit: Swedes with Gummies, Yah?

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Anything can be made into a Gummy Candy

BIN CANDY!!

We associate the Swedes with many things, blonde hair blue eyes, IKEA and Swedish meatballs from IKEA. And there is of course, ABBA, one of the greatest evils that have ever descended upon man. Yet, rarely do we associate them with candy, specifically gummy candy. For the country that created ABBA, what can you really expect from a Swedish candy store? That is what I went to go find out on a nice Saturday afternoon.

Sockerbit is a candy store that recently opened up in the West Village and which houses a wide selection of candies that they have. My previous knowledge of gummy candy either came in bear, fish, worms and children from sour patches did not prepare me of what to expect from Sockerbit. All I knew was that Gummy bears were apparently a German creation, something that I learned in elementary school when the German teacher was trying to get people to take German. He used gummy bears to entice kids into learning German which in retrospect…is kind of messed up. However, going to Sockerbit, I realized how wrong I was and how many variations of gummy candies you can have. 

The first thing that comes to mind when stepping into the store is sterile. It is completely white, the staff is dressed in white and it had felt as if you walked into a clean room or a very pro-Aryan space. The store is lofty and the main focus is the gummy candies are stacked against the wall. The store is self explanatory, it is about 5.99 a pound and you grab a bag, grab a scooper and have at it. I stood there in awe and laughing like an Asian Schoolgirl while trying to decide on the candies I wanted. Unless you are already a gummy candy connoisseur you are reading the descriptions of each candy like going throw stacks of books in a library, it is just a catalog of candies, all hailing from the Swedes. There are your basic gummies that are in every mammal and object such as a gummy key. I do not know what the candy makers were thinking as their target marketing group when they decided that a gummy key was a great idea to shape something sweet into.

Swedish Star- like Swedish fish but...a star

Not only did they have gummy candy, they also had licorice, taffies, fudge and marshmallows, all hailing from the state of Sweden. Far warning, all the candy in this store requires some chewing. The marshmallows, the fudges were all gummy-like and chewy. Also it is fun to go and scoop candy out of bins. I have noticed that it is rare for places to do this now and you get a hit of nostalgia. Sockerbit is an interesting store to hit up and has redeemed the Swedes a bit for bring ABBA. There is no assembly required in coming here or getting the candy, so do not have to worry about left over pieces. 

Marshmallow and Fudge- chewy.

Worm, Bottle and Rooster- Rooster Obviously 1# choice!

 Sockerbit

89 Christopher St
Manhattan, NY 10014

www.sockerbit.com

Sweet Revenge Cupcakes

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Bathrooms that look like you stepped into someone's apartment kind of freak me out

Booze and Cupcakes together...as well as soup too according to the board.

I hate these credit card commercials because apparently, according to them no one carries cash. Seriously, start carrying some cash people! Chase has the small business card commercial and one featured the bar/bakery Sweet Revenge. Sure they have gained popularity for the “omgzyourontv” factor but that will only get you so far. Sweet Revenge, located in the West Village is a bit of everything. The core of Sweet Revenge is that is a bar that serves food but has a big sweets menu and mainly known for their cupcakes.

 The Bar at Sweet Revenge

One of the interesting things that Sweet Revenge does is that they are somewhat elevating there sweets by pairing them with drinks, which is a cool concept. If Jean Georges has a wine pairing for the molten chocolate cake, why can’t the strawberry cupcake get a booze pairing? Unfortunately, given that I already had a good amount of booze that morning I decided to forgo the booze pairings for another time and see how their sweets stacked up. I mean if your place is called Sweet Revenge, does not matter how well you pair your booze with cupcakes if your cupcakes are not up to par.

Keste Pizzeria

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Eating pizza like this, you never leave the crust. It is a sin.

 This is where real magic happens. Harry Potter ain't got shit on this Oven

One of my favorite television characters is from the old and still great Dave Chappelle Show where he has a character called Tyrone Biggums, who is a crackhead. He would do ridiculous things like through a 80,000 dollar crack party and did crazy stuff and always said, “I want the crack baby”! I laugh because he has the crackhead shakes, rubbing his gums, and doing anything for crack. Naively, I sit back and laugh, because I could never stoop to this level over something.
I realize I am Tyrone Biggums when I am walking down Bleecker on a cold Saturday night. I have the same signs when I am craving a Neapolitan pizza. I thinking about eating it, salivate like a Pavlovan dog, maybe I even get the shakes too but I can not help it. I even want to break into a car and steal the radio because I know a radio is at least worth a pie or 2. No regular slice can compare to a steaming, lightly charred, chewy pie with creamy mozzarella with specks of bright red tomatoes. It is like when they remade Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, you can not compare to the original and it is not the same.

 Thankfully, unlike a crackhead, I have dignity and assets and did not need to sell stolen car radios or my body to get Neapolitan pizza. New York now has multiple places where I can get my fix but one of the standbys and the best Neapolitan pizza places is Keste Pizza. When it is a cold day, like frozen runny nose cold and people are waiting outside at 6pm on Bleecker Street, this place is worth going to. Especially on Bleecker Street and the surrounding area, it is like trying to find a Hippie at Burning Man: you do not have to look far to find one.

Pizza Pronz after the jump