nyc
How Asian coeds mark their territory
Taken after a meal at an Indian restaurant.
I’m really a very, very messy eater (and messy person). I need to leave a little breadcrumb/rice grain trail so I can find my way back home, after all.
Here’s some more food porn.
Zuchinni-orange-hazelnut miniloaf at Crema Cafe – pretty tasty.
A wise fortune cookie.
Sometimes Harvardians take a break from their academic madness and do silly things like have guacamole competitions. Above, the creation of the winning entry – a wonderfully summery, chunky guac with mango and red bell peppers.
The Best Pizza in New York?
So this slice here from Bleecker Street Pizza is supposed to be the best pizza in New York, as declared by the Food Network, New York Post, and a whole bunch of other places. I didn’t go here on purpose. I was just wandering around the downtown area and passed by the sign, so I knew I had try it out. (Despite not being hungry at all.)
The pros: the employees were incredibly sweet. I’m not sure if this had to do with me being a girl, but hey, I often get shitty service too. But the pizza definitely had that reheated texture, where the crust has gotten a bit gummy and the cheese just lacks that magical just-melted quality. Still a tasty slice, but wish I could have had it fresh out of the oven.
I really liked this place called California Pizza (not sure why its named that) which is in downtown NYC, around Union Square. I see that Yelp doesn’t agree with me though. :(
Magnolia’s Bakery
Having reported on cupcakes in Cambridge, I decided it was time to visit the mother of cupcakes, the mythical home of tender crumb and corrugated wrapper, where this entire craze over portable sweets began: Magnolia’s Bakery in NYC.
I arrived in the city with literally no idea of what I was going to do that day. I went into a Hallmark shop and bought a map, before suddenly remembering that I was in the city that birthed Magnolia’s. I asked the cashier, who referred to a Zagat guide, pointing me to the west side of Central Park.
bethesda terrace
So I wandered through Central Park for an hour, trying to make my way from the east to the west. Along the way, I discovered the incredibly beautiful and seren Bethesda Terrace, where a musician happened to be playing harpsichord. (Or maybe some other instrument, I’m not sure.)
After a good deal of window shopping and more wandering, I eventually found Magnolia’s. Painted in pale pinks and blues and cream, it gave off a old-world charm matched by the smiling, cheerful employees. It was such a nice change from the sullen, cranky service I got at Kickass Cupcakes, where the cashier literally rolled his eyes at me.
I decided to for a red velvet cupcake, followed with a chocolate chip cookie. Two classics, but unlike their awesome service, I wasn’t too impressed by the goods. I like my cupcakes moist, and their red velvet rendition was very dry and didn’t transcend supermarket versions. The frosting wasn’t a knockout either, and failed to redeem the dry cake.
The chocolate chip cookie, similarly, was nothing too special. Just your run of the mill cookie. I struggled to find a distinguishing quality, good or bad, and failed. So… Sex and the City has overhyped this place a bit much. But the inside smells really, really good, like angel kisses and gurgling babies and sunshine. And this cute old grandma chatted with me.
If only their cupcakes were good.
Flushing, Queens
So each time I go home, I cannot resist the dirty siren call of Flushing, Queens, where the streets are stickier and the sauce spicier, where the tiny, steaming kitchens are filled with slurping patrons and the rhythmic slap, slap of hand-pulled noodles.
“Wouldn’t it be great,” I asked my dad, “if you could just eat all day? And never be full? And never get fat?”
“No,” he said. “It would be expensive.”
But that’s the thing – here, a giant bowl of noodles costs you around a fiver and kebabs a mere dollar. You can sample baked goods for even less than that. At my favorite sorta-ghetto clothing shop, Pretty Girl, which sells women’s clothing and accessories at wholesale prices (t-shirts for $3, dresses for $8-15, jackets $10) I picked up a surprisingly ladylike ruffled, floral print shirtdress. I imagined myself walking through Harvard Yard, oversized sunglasses, pneumatic of lip and balancing on 4 inch high espadrilles, coursebooks swaying at my hip. $13. Yes.
So it was off to the Flushing Mall again, which was featured in an earlier post for their shaved ice and takoyaki. I have to say, I enjoyed the shaved ice at JoJo Taipei in Allston more since the ice was more finely grated and my waitress had been kind enough to do an everything-but-the-kitchen sink piling of toppings. This time around, you can see the szechuan dumplings ($3.95) (the Chinese name for them is “red oil dumplings”) with a healthy dose of garlic and dan dan noodles ($3.95) (my mother criticized them as inauthentic – the noodles were flat, not round). Sadly, neither of these were spicy in the leastest. And I even ordered in Chinese, so not sure what the problem was there.
Later, I ran across some adorable cakes, which I obviously had to photograph. I am always a sucker for food shaped like animals. And tiramisu. This version, $3, was had at Yee Mei Fong Bakery. The thick layer of cocoa powder on top made it a bit messy to eat. It was just prepared just as Chinese like their desserts – mostly a light cream, a suggestion of cake, not much else.
Shopsin’s on Essex St
This sounds like the most fantastic kind of restaurant ever. Over 500 menu items, charmingly foul-mouthed service, and arbitrary rules galore. I’ll definitely be making a trek over spring break.
You should definitely read this New Yorker article if you haven’t already.