New York City: King 5 Noodle, William Greenberg Jr. Desserts

The heat wave thankfully broke on Wednesday, but it was still pretty warm for our trip out to Flushing. We decided that we had to have some Chinese food in Flushing, so we took the 7 train from end-to-end.

To start, the view from our hotel room:

The obligatory shot of Times Square, just before we arrived at the subway station:

On Chowhound, I read that King 5 Noodle has a good Taiwanese breakfast.

It's been ages since I've had a proper Taiwanese breakfast of fried crullers (you tiao), sweet soy milk, and these lovely bundles of rice (fan tuan) filled with dried shredded pork, the aforementioned cruller, and little pieces of pickles.

And the cruller:

In addition, D. had a bowl of niu rou mien or beef noodle soup. J.L. and I ordered scallion pancakes on top of the breakfast feast.

We were too stuffed to eat any more, which proved to be a tactical error. On Chowhound, there is a revered food court at 41-28 Main Street. For one thing, I didn't realize the food court was in the basement. The other thing was that it was tiny. I don't know why, but I expected something more expansive. Imagine a short and low-ceilinged hallway lined with 8 food stalls. We were way too full to stop for food, but it was a shame we didn't. The last stall we saw had a woman rolling out dough for dumpling wrappers.

Yum... that's definitely a stop the next time we're in New York.

Heading back to Manhattan, we decided to visit Central Park and stopped at William Greenberg Jr. Desserts for black-and-white cookies. Wow, these were the best b-n-w cookies I'd ever had. The cookie was moist and almost cakey, topped with a rich chocolate and sweet white icing. I was in heaven. D. had the delightful idea of buying two cookies and saving one for our flight from Philly to Pittsburgh, which was a great way to extend the fabulousness that was this cookie.

After walking through the park, we headed to Penn Station to catch our bus back to Philly.

Next up: One of our best meals in Philly.

King 5 Noodle
3907 Prince St., Suite 1G
Flushing, NY 11354

William Greenberg Jr. Desserts
1100 Madison Ave.
New York, NY 10028

New York City: Amy's Bread, Babbo, Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

After 1 1/2 days in Philly, D., J.L., and I boarded a bus and headed to New York City. On the agenda: eating well and trying not to die in the sweltering heat. When we arrived in NYC, it was in the high 90's, but with tons of concrete and humidity, it felt a lot hotter. After settling into our hotel in Hell's Kitchen, we decided to head to Amy's Bread for a quick lunch.

Amy's has three locations in the city and it's a charming little bakery with a small sitting area and a powerful air conditioner. We bought small sandwiches (mine had brie and tomato) along with some desserts. D.'s yellow cake with fudge frosting was very good and my red velvet cupcake was yummy. One thing that was lacking in the cupcake, however, was cream cheese frosting. It was topped with regular buttercream instead.

We had a few hours to kill before our reservation at Babbo, so we headed to the New York Public Library for a tour. This is definitely a gem in sightseeing terms. For one thing, the library is incredibly lovely, with a variety of detailed ceilings in many rooms. In addition to the books/reference part of the library, there were several exhibits. We saw the first Gutenberg Bible to arrive at the United States, the tattered stuffed animals that inspired the characters of Winnie the Pooh, and an intriguing photography exhibition called "Eminent Domain," featuring photo essays on the city and its changes.

Afterwards, we spiffied up and headed to Greenwich Village for our long-awaited reservation at Babbo. Since they take reservations one month ahead, with respect to calendar day, starting at 10am, I woke up at 7am on May 10 in San Diego to call. It took almost half an hour to get through, but I was able to secure a 6pm reservation.

We arrived and noticed that there isn't a lot of room to wait. It was hot as Hades outside, so no one wanted to wait out there. The bar area was already packed with walk-in diners and those of us waiting. After 20 minutes of waiting around (we arrived a little early), they seated us. Unfortunately, that's when they dropped the bomb.

The air conditioner was broken.

In all honesty, we might have considered leaving if that little tidbit was dropped when we checked-in. However, we were there, they were about to seat us, and it's Babbo, for goodness' sake.

Y'all, I kid you not, it was 90-ish degrees up there. Maybe more than that. The lovely upstairs dining area was filled with skylights and big windows. The radiant energy shining into the room might have increased the temperature. Plus, with no air circulation whatsoever, the room was humid. Still, it was packed with diners and most seemed to be enjoying their meals. We were literally dripping sweat, so we started with a cold white wine and pondered our meal.

The amuse bouche, crostini topped with a lovely chickpea bruschetta:

We decided to go with one antipasti, two primi, and each person ordering a secondi. In retrospect, we thought we should have ordered more primis, which are typically pasta dishes, because we liked the pastas more.

Our antipasti, the Babbo salumi platter with "cipolle modenese," a deliciously sweet pile of caramelized onions or shallots (in the middle, topped by olives and pickled fennel):

Clockwise from top, pork loin, salami, tongue, lardo (the white strips and my favorite part), and prosciutto. Everything was delicate and paper-thin with lots of flavor. However, we felt that it was a smidge too pricey ($15), despite the various cured parts.

The pasta was universally enjoyed, with the black spaghetti split into three servings. I could have eaten a full plate of it and not feel the least bit full, even though it was pasta topped with rock shrimp, salami calabrese, and green chiles.

D. liked the pasta special, a fettuccine topped with crisped pancetta and asparagus.

My secondi was the fennel-dusted sweetbreads. This dish received unanimous rave reviews all over the interweb and I figure it was worth a try. Plus, I'd never had sweetbreads before, so why not have the first time be one of the best preparations I can find?

The fennel, the crispy orange rind, and the duck bacon were amazing touches. The vinegar broth had a couple of wilted scallion stalks in it and the fritters were drizzed with a lovely orange sauce. It's a very rich dish with a slightly unusual texture, but it was incredible. Despite the three small fritters, I was stuffed after this dish.

D. and J.L. weren't too pleased with their entrees. J.L.'s spicy two-minute calamari was basically a spicy soup and nothing special. D.'s skirt steak arrived sliced and on a bed of their salsa verde. Our server described it as pureed Italian parsley with capers and anchovies. I'll be honest and say that I'm not sure where they're going with this, but it tasted like grass. Italian parsley is incredibly overpowering and there was a hint of saltiness from the capers/anchovies, but it tasted the way freshly-mowed grass smells.

The sweltering room definitely marred our experience and we were ready to leave after the secondis. With our check, they brought a small cookie platter, consisting of almond baci, hazelnut biscotti, and chocolate baci. The baci were fluffy and delicate. I have Dolce Italiano, Babbo's dessert cookbook, so I plan on trying the baci recipe one of these days.

D. feels that something should have been offered to those sitting in the blazing upper dining area, whether it was dessert on the house or a break on the check. Once we walked downstairs, we realized the diners on the first floor were sitting in relative comfort. It was dark and fairly cool, which I admit to resenting slightly. Ok, more than slightly.

Service was brisk and efficient, which is worth applauding, considering the conditions. I enjoyed the food, but I'd focus more on the pastas. All in all, I'd say I was "whelmed". Neither overwhelmed nor underwhelmed... I was in a pretty neutral position after our meal. I wouldn't rush back nor would I refuse to return.

To cool off, we headed to Chinatown to the Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. I finally tried the dan tat, or egg custard tart, ice cream, which was a beautiful eggy custard cream.

Day two in NYC: a trip to Flushing and the best black and white cookie ever!

Amy's Bread (Hell's Kitchen location)
672 9th Ave.
New York, NY 10036

Babbo Ristorante
110 Waverly Pl.
New York, NY 10011

Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory
65 Bayard St.
New York, NY 10013

Pam's Real Thai Food, Junior's (Friday, Oct. 26)

The last entry for our trip, despite the fact that we've been back for almost three weeks. Sorry, all. I've just been lazy about sitting down and cranking out these entries.

We spent Friday morning wandering around Central Park, then used the trusty Zagat guide to locate some Thai food. Our first choice was absolutely packed, so we crossed Manhattan to Pam Real Thai in Hell's Kitchen. For some bizarre reason, they have two locations exactly two blocks from each other. We went to the 47th St. location.

D. had his usual pad see ew and I had my usual panang curry. It was very good... definitely on the better end of all the Thai food I've had. There were no downsides to the food, but there were a couple of nitpicky things on the restaurant/service. For one thing, the restaurant reeked of bleach-based cleanser to the point where it was mildly nauseating. The other thing was the service. We received perfectly good service, but it was obvious our waitress were serving other tables way better than ours. For one thing, she spent the majority of her time talking to the other customers. She was constantly checking up on them and refilling drinks. The kitchen runner brought all of our food and refilled our drinks. We saw the waitress less than the runner. I think it sucks when you see that the server is very obviously treating other customers better and others cover for them. The restaurant was nearly empty and while she seated the other two groups near the window, we were told to sit away from the window on the other side of the restaurant. Maybe they were regulars... who knew? It was such a huge difference that it affected the gratuity. Since she probably tips out the runner, we couldn't go lower than 15%, but I was seriously tempted to give the tip directly to the runner.



That evening, we met up with D.A., N.M., and N.'s boyfriend D. for dinner at Junior's in Times Square. It's a diner, albeit a very expensive diner. The food was awesome, though. D. and I were rather incensed, however, when they told us that there were no refills for sodas. Why was that not on the menu?! It was over two dollars for a mostly-ice-filled soda! Grr...

They bring out pickles (which sat on pickled cabbage... yum) and beets for snacks and as accompaniments to burgers and sandwiches.



I had the grilled cheese sandwich and as N.'s boyfriend D. said, "That looks like the best grilled cheese ever." It was. Hot and gooey on fresh challah. The cheese was a good cheddar that didn't become oily when it melted. The challah was fresh (i.e. really fluffy) and thick, so the grilling didn't over-crisp it.



We had their famous cheesecake for dessert. D. (my D... this whole initial thing does get confusing, I admit...) had the strawberry cheese pie:



And I had the strawberry shortcake cheesecake, which is a two layers of cake with a layer of cheesecake sandwich between them. If that sounds gross, it kind of was.



Nothing was wrong with it except for the gut-busting richness of the dessert. Well, that and the cheesecake being way too dense. It was basically a block of cream cheese and strawberry syrup. Not something I'd experience again.

It was great to see D.A. and N. and to meet N.'s D. They helped wrap up an excellent trip.

Cloisters, Bouchon Bakery, Grand Sichuan (Thursday, Oct. 25)

We began our first full day in New York with a trip up to the Cloisters, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art up in Fort Tryon Park. It's in Upper Manhattan and it's a rather long subway ride there. It's a collection of medieval art housed in a gorgeous building that looks a bit like a castle. The gardens are lovely and the walk up to the museum is rather scenic, especially on this rainy Thursday.

From the walk up to the musuem:



That would be the George Washington Bridge crossing the Hudson River. All in all, it was a lovely walk through a wooded area. At the top of the hill was the museum.



The museum has a few cloistered gardens, which are very lovely. They're recreated to look somewhat like medieval gardens, so they have a slightly overgrown, wild look to them.



The art was very interesting. It's organized in chronological order, so the earlier stuff was almost pagan in its style. Then it progresses to pre-renaissance stuff (I'm not sure if that's correct... I'll have to check with T. for dates).

After the museum, we headed to Columbus Circle for a quick lunch at Bouchon Bakery, which J. recommended. I also wanted to head to a mall-like place so I can pick up a restaurant guide for NY. Thank goodness Columbus Circle had both Borders and lunch. Bouchon Bakery is by Thomas Keller of French Laundry and Per Se (among others). Cool tidbit: Pixar animators studied the kitchen of French Laundry and had Keller's input for the really adorable Ratatouille. Shocking tidbit: Dinner at the French Laundry is a $240 pre fixe meal. Holy cow.

D. had a croissant sandwich, while I chose a slice of focaccia. It was topped with pesto, eggplant, roasted red peppers, and red onion. There was cheese, but I wasn't sure what it was. Something like parmesan that isn't too runny and had a nice sharp flavor.



For dessert, a chocolate chip cookie and a peanut butter cookie (the picture show half of each, which is how we divided them). Very good cookies. The peanut butter cookie had peanut butter filling sandwiched between two thin and crispy cookies. Yum.



Afterwards, we wandered around Manhattan some more, then headed back to our hotel with a copy of the Zagat guide. We found Grand Sichuan in the East 50's (2nd Ave. and 56th St.). It was pretty good. Not outrageously fabulous, but decent Chinese food.

We ordered the scallion pancakes, which were deep-fried instead of pan-fried. That was weird, but it still tasted good. D. ordered his usual kung pao chicken. Since they had an "American-Chinese" side of the menu and "Sichuan Cooking," I felt the need to order from the Sichuan side. I picked the dried and sauteed shredded beef from the chef's specialties. It's salt-and-pepper crusted and no sauce. That's kind of annoying, as the coating does well with rice, but the flavors were strong and spicy overall.

Onward to NYC! (Wednesday, Oct. 24)

Our transition from Philly to New York started with lunch near the Wharton School of Business at UPenn. J. has a book of reviews from Craig LaBan, the food critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and in it was this review. It's a Chinese food truck next to the UPenn campus and we were very intrigued by it. So, we stopped by for lunch before departing on a train to NYC.

I thought it was great. I had shrimp stir-fried with snowpeas and remember marveling at how crisp the snowpeas were. The article cleverly mentions that they do "typical Americanized choices" poorly; perhaps to keep too many newbies from approaching the truck. That is true, as the egg roll D. purchased was pretty bad. It was a good meal and hellaciously cheap. We walked through the halls of Wharton looking for a place to eat and ended up huddling at the end of a hallway on the fourth floor.

It was a much better deal (in both price and quality) than the bad Chinese meal we had in Manhattan that evening.

Afterwards, we parted ways with J. at 30th Street Station (pictured below). We took Amtrak to Penn Station in NYC.



I have to say I lost my cool a little once we walked outside of Penn Station, with tons of people and a malfunctioning internal compass. I was a little turned-around, too embarrassed to pull out a map, and frustrated at having to navigate very crowded sidewalks with luggage. We finally made our way to a subway train out to Queens, where we were staying in Long Island City Quality Inn.

Very nice hotel! A tad small and the neighborhood is a bit sketchy, but it was new and clean. That's all that mattered. Location-wise, we probably should have stayed in Manhattan, because we kept coming back to the hotel and not going back out to the city.

For dinner, we took the train out to Chinatown and decided to try the "stop at whereever looks good" method of food-searching. As Dr. Cox says on Scrubs, "Bi-ig mistake!" Yeah. Bad Chinese food equals me in a very bad mood. Canal Street Seafood, y'all... right off the subway station (N train's station... there are several on Canal St. that serve different lines). Don't go. It was an inauspicious start to the NY segment of the trip.

To soothe the disappointment, we headed to The Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.



Very good ice cream and interesting Chinese flavors like lychee and durian (ick). I saw a sign for egg custard ice cream, but it wasn't in circulation. The rather sassy young man behind the counter said it might come back in a week, but that's too late for us. I had the mango ice cream, which was awesome.