Pok Pok Ny

12 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by dark locks in allium, Brooklyn, bucket list, meat, New York, seafood, snacks, spicy, Thai

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Roses and thorns about Pok Pok Ny? I like to start with the thorns. There is only one tiny toilet for the entire restaurant and the wait is typically 7-8 people long. The part that bothered me is that when the employees at Pok Pok have to use the bathroom they cut in line and say to everyone, “I just need to check to make sure the bathroom is clean for you!” In line last night one employee did this and as he was walking out he was adjusting his fly, clearly having just urinated. Moments later another employee cut in front of everyone again saying, “I just need to check to make sure the bathroom is clean for you!” My friend told her, “Somebody just did that 30 seconds ago.” The employee looked embarrassed, as it was apparent that we had caught on to their system. Pok Pok: rent some Porta-Johns.

The food was good but nothing was so memorable that I would actually go to Redhook again for it. In fact there was one “Vietnamese” style catfish over vermicelli dish that was covered in dill (I wonder if it was really pak chee lao) and it reminded me of a foul Slavic dish of carp with dill.

The papaya salad with salted black crab could have been a little spicier.

I felt kind of swindled after my Singha slushy arrived. The server omitted the part about it basically being a bottle of beer that was left in a freezer for too long. She pointed to a fanciful battery-operated wooden barrel that twists back and forth, mixing ice and salt around the bottles to lower the temperature and turn the beer into slush.

The wings and the papaya salad with salted black crab are also available at Pok Pok Wing in the Lower East Side — so you won’t have to go all the way to Redhook to try those menu items.

Did I forget the roses? I think I’m just focusing on the thorns because I’m so sad I live in Queens, so far away from this amazing restaurant. It really is a special place with herbs and ingredients hard (impossible?) to find elsewhere in the city. I suppose it’s a case of sour grapes because I know I won’t be able to return for a while and taste their awesome food! PS: the staff is super friendly even though they tend to exude a certain Portlandia vibe.

Pok Pok Ny
127 Columbia St
Brooklyn NY

New Ladurée Macaron Flavors in New York

11 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by dark locks in bucket list, French, fruit, macarons, New York, sweets

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Ladurée, macarons, NYC

I went to Ladurée yesterday for the first time in weeks. I had been so upset about the discontinuation of the muguet (lily of the valley) flavor that I couldn’t bare even to pass by the storefront.

Overwhelmed with curiosity about the new summer flavors, I found myself in line once again trying to decide which of the new boxes I was going to buy for my collection. I chose this one in honor of the “Queen’s Diamond Jubilee”.

New flavors include basil & lime, strawberry & poppy (not poppyseed, but poppy petals), and the latest “incroyable” strawberry, with a guimauve (marshmallow) filling and a bit of sugar sprinkled on top.

Wax Apples

28 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by dark locks in fruit, New York

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Champoo, Taiwan, wax apple, wax jambu

Two vendors were selling wax apples in Chinatown on Sunday. They were $5 per pound or $1 per piece. My friends (who had tasted them in Taiwan) told me they tasted like “water” or “nothing”. I thought they tasted like parsley.

The wax apples have little hairs at the bottom that remind me of pubic hair.

Yakitori Totto

23 Saturday Jun 2012

Posted by dark locks in bucket list, Japanese, meat, New York, seafood, snacks

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affogato, chicken hearts, Japanese, Yakitori

Yakitori Totto fries up tiny ice fish and serves them with a little green tea salt like French fries. The shirauo kara-age is only $6.

The green tea affogato was mochi, ice cream, and pon gashi drowned in matcha.

I want to go back again tonight for more delicious meat skewers. They had hatsu (chicken heart) and bonjiri (chicken tail), my favorite yakitori items.

Yakitori Totto
255 W 55th Street
New York NY 10019

Café Kashkar in Brighton Beach

18 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by dark locks in Brooklyn, halal, New York

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Brighton Beach, Uyghur, Xinjiang

Manty (манты) are served stuffed with seasoned lamb and onions at Café Kashkar, a Uyghur restaurant in Brighton Beach just off the eastern end of the boardwalk. Freshly chopped celery leaves and dill are sprinkled on top of each dumpling.

You will find a little cruet of infused vinegar at each table.

This lagman (لەڭمەن) dish included stewed lamb and vegetables. It was so delicious I almost ordered a second plate.

If you get a chance, you will love this place. The new owners have updated the menu with pictures. The only downside is that the hot guys who used to work there no longer do… and there is a mechanical bird that chirps from time to time that drove me crazy.

Café Kashkar
1141 Brighton Beach Avenue
Brooklyn NY 11235

Ayada’s Raw Shrimp Salad

17 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by dark locks in allium, bucket list, Japanese, New York, Queens, seafood, spicy, Thai

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Elmhurst, Japanese, queens, Raw Shrimp Salad, shrimp, Thai

Elmhurst’s Ayada restaurant is really proud of their raw shrimp salad. Their front window is wallpapered with New York Times articles that ranked it as one of the top 100 New York snacks. It is served with raw bitter melon slices, raw garlic, and a raw carrot salad in the middle.

I thought it was nice and spicy with a great brininess, but the sweetness was missing. No balance. I wonder if the chili and lime concoction that was covering each shrimp could have benefited from a little bit of jaggery.

I will probably never order it again and I give it 6 out of 10.

Ayada
77-08 Woodside Ave
Elmhurst NY 11373
(718) 424-0844

Upi Jaya Indonesian Cuisine

15 Friday Jun 2012

Posted by dark locks in bucket list, Indonesian, meat, New York, Queens

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Indonesian, petai, rendang, sator nut, stink bean, Upi Jaya

CNN asked their readers to vote for the most delicious food in the world and the Indonesian dish rendang won. Upi Jaya in Elmhurst serves chunks of this caramelized beef curry for $7.00 per piece. For $7.50 you can get the meal deal.

This shrimp curry had petai nuts (sator nuts) in it. The amino acids make your urine smell really odd after you eat them. They kind of tasted like lima beans that were soaked in methane.

I can’t wait to go back and try the djenkol beans!

Upi Jaya
76-04 Woodside Ave
Elmhurst NY 11373
(718) 458-1807

Bull Penis and Turkey Testicles at Kenka

13 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by dark locks in allium, celebrations, Japanese, New York, snacks

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Bull penis, East Village, Japanese, Kenka, turkey testicles

Kenka in the East Village has a special menu featuring raw tuna bones, bull penis, turkey testicles, a “cheap” okonomiyaki, and many other wonderful things. We ordered the bull penis and turkey testicles last night to celebrate a special homecoming.

We also got the deep fried garlic off the regular menu. It came with a delicious dipping sauce that reminded me of something I used to eat as a child at my grandma’s house. It was only $3.50!

My favorite was the turkey testicles. They had a wonderful flavor and texture. The first thing I thought of was a White Hot Snappy Griller, a pork hotdog that is sold in upstate New York. The testicles weren’t chewy or tough — they were tender and had a nice outer casing to them that broke easily between my teeth. I wish I had gotten a take out order of them for breakfast this morning!