From Serious Eats: New York

[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, unless otherwise noted]

Another year of The Vegan Experience has come and gone, and to be honest, it always leaves me a little bittersweet. On the one hand, it's great to be able to not have to explain myself when I order vegetables for dinner or abstain from hitting that new burger joint. On the other, it's admittedly a bit of a relief to be able to give into that pizza craving now and then. And even though I don't actually eat much of the end-results, it's undeniably fun to cook with meat, and man, do I love the smell of a house filled with the aromas of a pot of stock slowly simmering away on the back burner.

This year I focussed almost exclusively on developing new recipes, and I'm proud of the new batch of 25, particularly this roasted chickpea salad, my vegan nachos, a hearty mushroom bolognese, and these mushroom "bacon" bits. It did mean that I had very few opportunities to go out and eat, but I tried to make the best of it when I did.

Here's where I did so, my ten favorite vegan bites and restaurants in Manhattan. For more vegan eating out advice, be sure to check our full guide.

The Curry Mixed Vegetable Casserole in Clay Pot From Nyonya

At $12.95, the Mixed Vegetable Curry at Nyonya may seem a little pricey compared to their under-$10 lunch specials, but it's huge—easily big enough to feed two or three with a side of rice. It arrives at your table in a big clay pot, chunks of tender eggplant, broccoli, and cabbage poking up through the rich and aromatic coconut-based curry broth. Poke around in there and you'll find other vegetables hidden underneath the surface—carrots, bok choy, chunks of fried tofu, and tender nuggets of taro root.

The Vegetarian Shoyu Ramen From Ivan Ramen

[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

The Vegetarian Shoyu Ramen ($13) at Ivan Ramen makes as good a case as any that ramen doesn't have to be packed with pork to be soul-satisfyingly delicious. The buckwheat noodles come in a strong stock flavored with mushroom and seaweed along with a slick of what chef Mike Bergemann calls "vegetable fat,"—oil flavored with their house soffrito and seaweed.

The Mushroom Larb from Somtum Der

[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

All of the spicy larb salads at Somtum Der are mighty tasty, but the tastiest of the lot happens to also be available vegan. The Mushroom Larb ($8) comes packed with slices of king oyster mushroom, toasted puffed rice, and peppermint in a fiery dressing.

Anything from Dirt Candy

[Photograph: Alice Gao]

Ok, so ti's not easy to get into Dirt Candy, chef Amanda Cohen's hole-in-the-wall East Village vegetarian restaurant, but if you're lucky to nab a seat, you're in for a treat. She works wonders with vegetables that still haunt my dreams, and the best part? Everything on the menu can be made 100% vegan.

The Monday Night Vegan Menu at Dovetail

[Photograph: Maggie Hoffman]

Who knew that hiding behind the small door next to the Upper West Side Shake Shack is one of the most elegant little restaurants in the city? All of the food at Dovetail is top-notch, but hit it on a Monday night and you're in for a special treat, as the mostly vegetarian chef John Fraser puts together a mostly vegetarian prix-fixe menu packed with vegan options like a Brussels sprout and roasted squash salad with puffed wild rice and sunflower seeds, or smoked, seared, and puréed cauliflower. It's easily one of the best vegetarian meals I've had in the city. If you've been extra good, go for the wine pairing and prepare to be both surprised and delighted.

The Vegan Square from Prince Street Pizza

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

Ok, so chances are nobody is going to ever order the Tomato Square Pie from Prince Street Pizza, no matter how good it is. Why? Because it's available only by the whole pie, and it costs a whopping $40—that's $5 a slice; Di Fara-level pricing.

But let me tell you: for a vegan with a pizza craving, it's worth every penny. No cheese on this guy, just piles and piles of excellent whole tomato marinara with more than a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, garlic, and basil, all on their crispy-on-the-bottom, pillowy, thick square pizza crust.

Vegan Soba and Fresh Tofu from Cocoron

With over a half dozen vegan noodle options on their menu made with seaweed broth, perfect buckwheat noodles, and a variety of toppings, Cocoron should be the first stop for vegetarian noodle lovers. But here's a secret: the homemade silken tofu is even better than the noodles. Smooth, creamy, and fresh, it comes simply with grated ginger, scallions, nori, and a touch of soy. You'll never look at tofu the same way again.

Falafel Sandwich from Taïm

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

I'm not sure what I can say about Taïm other than to reiterate what we've said before: they make the best falafel sandwich in the city. Made with fried-to-order balls of falafel in your choice of three flavors (go for the harissa), the balls are stuffed into a warm, charred pita filled with cabbage, Israeli salad, tahini, pickles, and—if you ask for it—s'rug, their fiery herbal hot sauce. You'd be a fool not to ask for it.

Zucchini Bruschetta with Cashew Cheese from The Butcher's Daughter

I've always been a little intimidated to go into The Butcher's Daughter. It's sort of like walking into a biker bar, except instead of burly bearded bikers, you've got skinny, fashionable, pretty-folk who are served less in a meal than I typically eat in a bite. But a meal here can be quite satisfying if you order right. The best things are their soups, their a-little-too-dry vegan burger, and their roasted zucchini bruschetta with cashew ricotta that was so rich and creamy I swore they got it from one of the Little Italy dairies down the street.

The Tasting Manu at Kajitsu

Want to impress your date/mother/in-laws/meat-loving brother/[INSERT ANYONE HERE]? Take them for a tasting menu experience at Kajitsu. Yes, it used to be better when it was at its old East Village location, but even at the new midtown digs, it ranks as one of the best restaurant experiences I've had in New York period, vegan or not. Every detail from the exquisite serviceware to the found-in-nature decorations ooze Japanese-ness, and it's one of the few restaurants in the city serving vegan cuisine that has a centuries-old cultural heritage.

About the author: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is the Chief Creative Officer of Serious Eats where he likes to explore the science of home cooking in his weekly column The Food Lab. You can follow him at @thefoodlab on Twitter, or at The Food Lab on Facebook.

Like a ray of sunshine, this Can Of Hope appeared in our Instagram feed on this cold winter day. Cam Crockford of Del's NYC captioned the image, which has been getting passed around amongst Del's fans, "Yes, this is real life." But is it? The original photo was captioned: "not an actual can," so as our hearts dropped we contacted Narragansett for some clarity. [ more › ]

Vito DiTomaso opened the original Luca Lounge on Avenue B back in 1997. The venue closed sometime in the spring of 2012. (Luca Bar remains open on St. Mark's Place.)

Turns out that DiTomaso is making a return engagement to 222 Avenue B with The Roost, a coffee shop-bar hybrid that held a friends-family gathering on Saturday night.

Here's the description via The Roost Facebook page

The Roost is a hideout that pays homage to iconic spaces of the past where high and low can find common ground and drink, eat, laugh and carouse together.

They'll be serving coffee (Brooklyn Roasting Co.) … as well as beer… and we're not sure what else exactly at the moment.

The Roost Facebook page includes a few photos of the interior…





There's also a fireplace.

You've probably already read this or have at least been urged to read it, but this New Yorker piece by Roger Angell about growing old is lovely, moving, and insightful. Set aside 15 minutes of your day to read it; it's worth it.

"Most of the people my age is dead. You could look it up" was the way Casey Stengel put it. He was seventy-five at the time, and contemporary social scientists might prefer Casey's line delivered at eighty-five now, for accuracy, but the point remains. We geezers carry about a bulging directory of dead husbands or wives, children, parents, lovers, brothers and sisters, dentists and shrinks, office sidekicks, summer neighbors, classmates, and bosses, all once entirely familiar to us and seen as part of the safe landscape of the day. It's no wonder we're a bit bent.

Angell is part of the New Yorker's Great Span: his mother Katharine White worked at the magazine almost from the beginning in 1925, so did his stepfather E.B. White, and Angell himself wrote and edited for every single editor-in-chief the New Yorker has ever had, from founder Harold Ross to current chief David Remnick.

Tags: New Yorker   Roger Angell

From Serious Eats: New York

[Illustration: Robyn Lee]

Editor's note: Here to answer your questions is senior managing editor, former SENY editor, and frequent author of our NYC restaurant reviews Carey Jones. We'll take a few of your questions each week and give you the New York restaurant advice you're looking for. Email carey@seriouseats.com with the subject line Ask the Critic to submit your question!

This week on Ask the Critic: Getting to know Alphabet City.

Avenue B and Beyond

Dear Ask the Critic, My girlfriend just moved to Alphabet City (Avenue C). I know the East Village pretty well but haven't spent much time on the eastern edges of it because it's such a trek from the subway. I've heard that there are a lot of good bars and restaurants in the area but am not familiar with any of them. What are the must-visits?

Isn't Manhattan geography funny? We're happy to transfer subways or sit on a slow local train, but get more than a few long blocks off the grid and you're in uncharted territory.

I'm a fan of Alphabet City precisely because it's a bit isolated. Neighborhood spots feel like, well, neighborhood spots—welcoming and often not too crowded and not too pricey either—especially when compared to, say, the West Village. A few weeks ago, I sat at Ninth Street Espresso just east of Avenue C and marveled at how peaceful it felt. The room was well-lit and spacious. No one hovering by the walls, waiting to poach a table. Two friends lingered for an hour as their three-year-olds played with dolls on the floor, and no one looked askance. It was friendly, relaxed, and distinctly un-Manhattan. I mean that in the best of ways.

Khachapuri at Oda House. [Photograph: Max Falkowitz]

Ninth Street is a great place to start, if your days start with coffee, and there are two locations right in Alphabet City. The unusual sandwiches at Sunny & Annie's Deli would be the envy of many other neighborhoods. Bobwhite Lunch & Supper Counter is a place to know at all hours, with excellent fried chicken, pimento cheese sandwiches, bread pudding—you name it. While we're talking comfort food, check out cevapi and clotted cream sandwiches at the Serbian Kafana. Or just go for khachapuri, a genius Georgian invention that's something like a bread boat filled with melted cheese and egg, at Oda House on Avenue B; or goulash at the Hungarian Korzo Haus.

Big board at Maiden Lane. [Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

Looking for something a little more refined? Consider wine bar Maiden Lane, which has an enticing seafood menu, much of it high-end Spanish canned seafood (don't knock it 'til you've tried it). Back Forty is one of the city's original farm-to-table restaurants, and still very much worth a visit. Edi & The Wolf is your destination for modern Austrian fare, and its sister bar The Third Man a good bet for cocktails. For cutting-edge mixology, Pouring Ribbons is one of the most talked-about bars of the last year or two. But in this neck of the woods, I'm partial to the more laid-back drinking venues: 11th Street Bar with a great selection of affordable beers on tap, or the spacious, games-stocked Mona's, or The Wayland for bar eats and cocktails, or, my favorite, Evelyn. It's spacious enough to bring a group, but intimate enough to make friends; it's got cocktails the caliber of much better-known places, but for dollars less; it's easy to love, easy to drink at, and easy to end up spending a whole night.

I'd always thought Alphabet City a little too off-the-grid for my tastes; but now I'm realizing that once you're there, you never really have to leave.

Ask Us!

Email carey@seriouseats.com with the subject line Ask the Critic to submit your question. All questions will be read, though unfortunately not all can be answered.

About the author: Carey Jones is the former managing editor of Serious Eats. Follow her on Twitter (@careyjones).

A baby anteater was born at the Staten Island Zoo last month, and it, along with its lolling pink baby anteater tongue, is the most endearing event to have occurred on Staten Island since that bangin' Vanilla Ice dance party. [ more › ]

I once read that if you ask a guy what his favorite item of clothing is, he would pick the oldest thing he owns — some t-shirt he’s had since high school or nearly threadbare sweats. And if you ask a woman, she usually picks the last thing she bought. [Nobody mentioned four year-olds but obviously: fireman hat.] Gender stereotyping copy aside,* when it comes to recipes, this has me down to a T: my favorite thing to cook is usually the last thing I made. Because of this, I fail 100% of the time at “content-planning strategies” [or as it sounds in my head when I read phrases like this: blargle-blargle blargle] because while I’m supposed to be telling you about this great dish I made last week for Valentine’s, I only want to talk about what I made for dinner on Tuesday night. Because it’s my new favorite everything.

When I first read about stuck-pot rice many years ago, I guffawed a bit, because who needs a recipe for that? I come from a long line of cooks that cannot make rice without burning it; any night where rice is on the stove ends with a gunked-up pot soaking overnight in the sink. It’s tradition; one day I will teach this guy too!

... Read the rest of stuck-pot rice with lentils and yogurt on smittenkitchen.com

---

© smitten kitchen 2006-2012. | permalink to stuck-pot rice with lentils and yogurt | 219 comments to date | see more: Beans, Budget, Gluten-Free, Grain/Rice, Middle Eastern, Photo, Vegetarian

Construction for the Manhattan Bridge started in 1901, and the structure officially opened to traffic on December 31st, 1909... but between the beginning and the end it was necessary for workers to reach certain areas and heights. Enter: these terrifying footpaths. In a 1908 issue of Good Roads magazine they were described as such: [ more › ]

A few weeks ago, the Times brought the news that the longtime home-studio of the late Walter De Maria was ready to hit the real-estate market for $25 million. The artist, who died last summer at age 77, had lived/worked here since 1980.

The listing arrived on Streeteasy yesterday. Here's the pitch:

421 East 6th Street is a 4-story, 16,402 square foot loft-style building featuring soaring ceilings, original 1920s interior fixtures and spectacular views, ideal for an ultra-luxury single-family. Since 1980, the building has been the home and residence of the renowned artist Walter De Maria.

Constructed in 1920 as a Con Edison substation, 421 East 6th Street maintains many of its original 1920s industrial finishes and features including exceptional slab-to-slab ceiling heights ranging from 14-3 to 32-3. Other remnants of its classical design include dramatic multistory warehouse windows, an old-fashioned through-floor pulley system and exposed brick and ceilings.

The building is one of the tallest in the immediate vicinity providing spectacular views of the surrounding area and New York City skyline. Constructed on a through-block lot, the Property has a driveway entering the rear of the building from East 7th Street. The building is also afforded light and air on three sides.

And some photos…









… and the view from the roof…



The sale also includes the empty lot next door at 419 E. Sixth St.

To date, we are still waiting for someone to randomly lend us, or better, give us, $25 million.

Seriously, though: Any thoughts/predictions on what might happen with this building? Converted to condos? Kept as a single-family home? Turned into an art gallery/museum? (Heh.)

Previously on EV Grieve:
About that "giant-robot laboratory" on East Sixth Street

RIP Walter De Maria

What is your East Village dream home?

Walter De Maria's 'giant-robot laboratory' going for $25 million; inside is amazing as you'd expect

From Serious Eats: New York

The ramen you aren't eating. [Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

It was nearly ten years ago that Momofuku Noodle Bar opened in New York, but it already feels like longer, as iconic an institution as any of the high-low, smart-fusion, upscale-casual restaurant archetypes that have redefined how we eat. A decade later, the crowds are still there, and while you can certainly stroll in some times and grab a seat at the bar, busy nights still bring long waits.

What are some easy-to-get-into, low-key alternatives nearby? Read on to find out.

Other Noodles

Ramen at Minca. [Photograph: Robyn Lee]

If Momofuku's wait hasn't deterred your craving for ramen, you have plenty of options. One of New York's best, Ippudo, is a short walk away, but lines there can stretch even longer than Momofuku's. Less good, but good in a pinch, are the bowls of ramen at Minca (go for the garlic) and Setagaya, where the broth is lighter and cleaner than your average ramen.

Yuji's ramen. [Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

If you're willing to walk down to Houston Street you can find some excellent ramen in an unlikely place—the second floor of Whole Foods, where Yuji Ramen does creative spins on ramen well worth trying. Yuji Haraguchi is to New York's ramen culture today what Chang started doing ten years ago.

Nothing beats cumin lamb noodles. [Photograph: Max Falkowitz]

It's not ramen, and not as fancy as Momofuku, but Xi'an Famous Foods makes some of the best noodles in the East Village. Hop in, get some cumin lamb hand-pulled noodles, and hop on out.

More Good Food Nearby

Get the pork at Hanjoo. [Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

How would you describe the food at Noodle Bar? Korean? Japanese? The Momofuku crew used to refer to it as American, as good a single-word descriptor as you'll find. Or call it Chang-style food—whatever—the point is there's little exactly like Momofuku, but you can find good places nearby that hit similar flavor profiles.

Korean barbecue spot Hanjoo is rarely busy, and if you stick to their icy-cold naengmyeon (cold noodles) and crystal-grilled pork barbecue, you can have a great meal. For something lighter, consider Sao Mai, one of our favorite Vietnamese restaurants in town for stand-out pho, papaya salad, and banh mi (pork buns be damned).

Wings at Ducks Eatery. [Photograph: Max Falkowitz]

For spicier food there's Somtum Der, an Isan Thai joint best for its spicy chopped meat salads (larb), papaya salad (som tum), and fried chicken. Or try out Ducks Eatery, a small restaurant that combines smoky American barbecue with southeast Asian cooking for dishes like smoky lime chicken wings and crispy pig's ear lettuce wraps.

Where to Drink While You're Waiting

11th Street Bar. [Photograph: Ben Fishner]

Decided to wait out your Momofuku table instead? There's no shortage of good bars in the East Village where you can bide your time, but here are some of our favorites. 11th Street may be the quintessential neighborhood bar—not too fancy, not a dive—with a solid beer selection and a reasonable prices.

Wine and beer bar Terroir draws legions of fans, but there's usually room for a few more at the long communal table, and I don't mind squeezing in for a glass of wine, beer, cider, sherry, or hey!, mead. But my go-to pre-dinner bar in the East Village is actually the small one at the entrance of Hearth—same drink list as Terroir plus cocktails and a quieter, more civilized vibe.

Now that's what I call a spread. [Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

If you need a bite before your meal, Terroir should do you well, but so can Maiden Lane, an Alphabet City wine bar that's all about premium canned seafood. How good can canned mussels be? Really, really good. Or you can belly up to the bar at nearby Alder for a cocktail (available in half-pours, too) and a bite of Wylie Dufresne's updated bar food (Chinese sausage pigs in blankets, anyone?).

What Else?

What are your go-tos and Plan Bs in the East Village? Let us know in the comments.

About the author: Max Falkowitz is the New York editor and ice cream maker in residence at Serious Eats. You can follow him on Twitter at @maxfalkowitz.

From Serious Eats: New York

A strong emphasis on freshness and lightness distinguishes Bunna's all-vegan fare from the other Ethiopian served around town. [Photographs: Lauren Rothman]

We have a long history, Bunna Café and I. Way back in November, when it was just a pop-up operating out of the bar it has now taken over, Mama Joy's, I trekked up one evening only to discover that Bunna only served lunch (I wrote about nearby Il Passatore instead).

Then, one frigid day in early January, I gave it a second go, only to be met with the sight of a totally gutted, and shuttered, space (I wrote about Falansai, just down the street, instead). But at least I was on the right track: turns out Bunna was renovating its space on Flushing Avenue in East Williamsburg in preparation for becoming a full-service restaurant, and I was confident that the next time I returned I would finally be able to eat a meal there—and tell you all about it.

You know that old chestnut, "It was worth the wait?" I can't think of a better phrase to apply to the soulful, vibrant, surprising vegan Ethiopian fare served at Bunna. If you've eaten your fair share of Ethiopian food in the city and you enjoy and find it all kind of tastes the same, then you'll be delighted by Bunna's takes on standard dishes such as misir wot, or spicy red lentils, and tibs, highly seasoned and seared chunks of meat that at Bunna take the form of smoky caramelized mushrooms.

There's a pronounced emphasis on freshness in Bunna's stews and salads: raw vegetables are mixed with cooked, bringing lightness to the meal, and sharp notes of garlic, ginger and onion punctuate the softer flavors of curry powder and sunflower-seed milk.

Bunna has a focused menu of three appetizers and nine mains. In the Feast for Two ($28), you can sample all nine mains arranged on one heaping platter lined with injera, that spongy teff-flour flatbread that acts as your serving utensil throughout the meal. Bunna's version is soft, nicely seasoned and tangy but not too tangy, a flavor that can sometimes turn people off of injera.

At the center of the plate, Duba Wat, or sweet pumpkin cubes, is perfectly tender, the sweetness toned down by a thick, subtly spicy sauce laced with berbere, a spice blend prevalent throughout Ethiopian cuisine containing chili peppers, garlic, ginger, nigella seeds and fenugreek, among other flavorings.

Pictured at twelve o'clock are two types of lentils: the aforementioned Misir Wot, or red lentils, fully cooked but still slightly toothsome and also flavored with berbere; and Yater Kik Alicha, split yellow lentils that are softer and creamier in texture and bold in their flavors of fresh ginger and garlic and earthy turmeric.

Pictured at 1 o'clock are two of the standout dishes of the night: at left, Kedija Salata, or kale and avocado salad, and the aforementioned Enguday Tibs, seared mushrooms flavored with berbere and rosemary. The slight bitterness of the raw kale is a perfect match for the buttery creaminess of mashed avocado, and both flavors are lightened by plenty of fresh lime juice and raw garlic; and the meaty grilled mushrooms bring texture and heft to the plate.

At 3 o'clock are two more great dishes: Gomen, or steamed kale, and Keysir Salata, or beet, potato and carrot salad. As to the gomen, although the menu lists it as kale, I'm nearly positive it was collard greens: dark, moist and mineral-ly, these greens aren't cooked to death as collards often are. Instead they retain some chew and come with a scattering of tender cooked carrots. The root vegetable salad, slicked with a bright lime dressing, alternates between bites of soft, sweet cooked beets and bright, crunchy raw beets, along with earthy chunks of carrot and starchy sweet potato.

Finally, pictured at 5 o'clock is one of Bunna's more unusual dishes, Yesuf Fitfit, or shredded injera, tomatoes and hot peppers stewed in roasted sunflower-seed milk (as I write this, I realize that I was not served the ninth dish on the menu, ground stewed chickpeas). The starchy injera, when soaked in the incredibly creamy, toasty, nutty sunflower-seed milk, takes on the texture of a porridge: but, as it's served cold, it acta almost like a yogurt raita in Indian cooking, bringing a dairy-like coolness to the fiery flavors across the rest of the plate.

A note on portion size: the incredibly reasonably-priced feast for two was just barely enough food for two hungry people at dinner; for a more filling meal, I'd advise ordering a couple of appetizers, or upgrading to the $39 feast for three. The food here is so good you'll want to make sure to have plenty of it.

About the author: Lauren Rothman once interned at Serious Eats and recently graduated from journalism school. Try the original recipes on her blog, For the Love of Food, and check out her (many) food photos on Instagram.

From Serious Eats: New York

[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, Robyn Lee, and Alice Gao]

A couple weeks back, my wife gave me a challenge: entertain her two friends visiting from Colombia with a food tour of Little Italy and Chinatown that lived up to my own standards of good food, catered to their tourist desires for a bit of history and a unique-to-New York feel, and clocked in at under $20 per person.

Luckily, with our office located right at the Chinatown/Little Italy border, great cheap meals are something everyone at Serious Eats is an expert in. I planned out our itinerary in full, even calculating total costs (which, for the record, came up to around $12 a person after splitting everything four ways). We only managed to make it about half way through the tour before the weak-stomached cried uncle, but here's the itinerary in its entirety. There's a mix of the best of Little Italy and Chinatown, sweet and savory, food and drink, and old and new.

Stop 1: Prince Street Pizza

[Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

When Ralph Cuomo, owner of the very first Ray's Pizza in New York* passed away in 2008, there was worry that the original Prince Street location would either drop in quality or close entirely. Luckily, the new owners have not just kept up the tradition, they've improved on it, turning the newly re-branded Prince Street Pizza into one of the best slice shops in the city.

* Read more about the obscure history of all of the Ray's here.

What to Order: The standard slices are fine, but what you really want is the Spicy Spring ($3.75), a Sicilian-style slice topped with a spicy tomato sauce, house-made fresh mozzarella, and natural casing pepperoni, the kind that curls up into crisp grease chalices.

Once you've had your slice, walk south down Mott street one block to take a quick look at the lines outside of Lombardi's, the oldest pizzeria in the U.S., and note that oldest doesn't necessarily mean best.

Stop 2: Taïm

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

A block west of Lombardi's you'll find Taïm, the second brick-and-mortar location of what started as a truck serving falafel and french fries—falafel that handily won our Best Falafel in New York Taste Test, that is. Israeli native Einat Admony has a way with chickpeas that leaves us weak in the knees.

What to Order: You can order a whole Falafel Sandwich for $6.25 and split it with a group (we've got a lot of stops left!), or if you just want a taste, a falafel sampler plate with six balls of falafel and a tub of tahini is just $4. I'm partial to their harissa-flavored falafel, but their green (with parsley, cilantro, and mint) and their red (with roasted red peppers) are also fantastic.

Stop 3: Mulberry Street Bar

A couple blocks south on Mulberry street from Taïm is Mulberry Street Bar, a dive bar lover's dive bar, complete with inappropriately-positioned tattoos, old men with oxygen tanks nursing beers, and the occasional roaming biker crew. It's also the set of dozens of gangster movies and shows ranging from The Sopranos to Donnie Brasco to The Godfather III. Come by on a Friday or Saturday night and you'll catch some pro circuit-level karaoke.

What to Order: A beer. The whole pizzas and the burger are good, but not worth the stomach space for now, we've got some more eating to do.

Stop 4: DiPalo's Fine Foods

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

Keep walking down Mulberry street towards Grand, where you'll find Alleva dairy on the corner (on some days you'll get a whiff of smoke—that's their smoker fired up to make smoked mozzarella). If you love ricotta, you'll want to step in and ask for a half pint with a spoon. But if mozzarella's more up your alley, walk over to the corner of Mott and Grand (right across the street from the Serious Eats office!) to DiPalo's Fine Foods, makers of the finest mozzarella in New York.

First things first: take a ticket from the roll hanging by the door as you walk in, or you'll find yourself waiting for a very long time to get served. To be honest, you'll wait a long time anyway. The folks at DiPalo—both the employees and the customers—are never in a rush.

What to Order: Fresh salted mozzarella, to be consumed with your bare hands on the street. If you're lucky, there'll be fresh porchetta for sale by the slice. It comes out of the oven around 1 p.m. on most—but not all—days.

Stop 5: Golden Steamer

[Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

Golden Steamer has an unfortunate name, but that doesn't change how delicious—and inexpensive—their product is. The small pastry shop on Mott just south of Grand serves a few baked goods, but their mainstay is giant Chinese-style steamed buns with an array of fillings, all priced at 80¢ and under.

What to Order: The Steamed Pumpking Buns and Salted Egg Buns are the most uniquely delicious menu items, though the Pork and Vegetable or Barbecue Pork Buns might be the biggest crowd-pleasers.

Stop 6: New York Mart

[Photograph: Alice Gao]

One of the most impressive supermarkets in New York is located just across the street from Golden Steamer. New York Mart combines a full-service meat counter, a crazy-large produce section, a full wet market (with live fish, shellfish, bivalves, and amphibians of all kinds), a hot food bar (with whole-roasted pigs and peking ducks), and a full selection of imported Asian sauces, condiments, snacks, noodles, spices, and soft drink all under one roof. It's worth a walk through, even if you don't buy any food. Just be careful: the brigades of old ladies wielding fold-up shopping carts have no compunction about ramming you if you linger too long in front of the live frog display.

Stop 7: Shanghai Cafe

[Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

Another block down Mott street and you'll hit Shanghai Cafe, the winner of our Best Soup Dumpling in Chinatown Taste Test. The decor still looks like an airport from the 70's, and the dumplings continue to reign supreme in the thin-and-strechy-dough-pouch-filled-with-savory-broth-and-meat category.

What to Order: the Juicy Pork Buns (a.k.a. xiao long bao or soup dumplings, $4.95 for six) are superior to the crab and pork version. Unfortunately Shanghai Cafe has $4.50/person minimum order for sit-in, so you'll have to order your dumplings to go unless you plan on a full order per person (not a bad plan, if you have the space).

Stop 8: Tai Pan Bakery

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

There are so many damn bakeries in Chinatown that it's tough to know where to start. Luckily, we we've been to all of them and scoped the out for you. The best in the vicinity? Tai Pan on Canal between Mott and Mulberry.

What to Order: Tai Pan's Egg Custard Tart ($1.10) placed in the top three in our Best Egg Custard Tart in Chinatown taste test. The crust is a little too crumbly for our tastes, but the filling is light, eggy, and just sweet enough.

Stop 9: Prosperity Dumpling

[Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

If all that eating's left you feeling a little weighed down, now's the time for a quick bit of exercise. Your next stop is a whole five blocks away. Take a stroll east down Canal until you hit Eldridge, then half a block north to Prosperity Dumpling, one of the top seeds for Best Fried Dumplings in Chinatown. There are dozens of five-to-a-buck dumpling shops in the neighborhood, but Prosperity's got some of the best.

What to Order: The Fried Pork and Chive Dumplings (5 for $1) are plump and juicy with delicately crisped skins.

Stop 10: Vanessa's Dumpling House

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

Vanessa's, a few blocks north up Eldridge makes some pretty swell dumplings as well, but what you want here is the sesame pancakes. Wide, sesame-speckled discs of dough are shallow-fried until golden, crisp, and puffy in a specialized wide cast-iron pan. The pancakes are then slit in half horizontally, stuffed with shredded carrots, cucumber, scallions, and a choice of meat and sauce, then cut into triangles, like a stuffed pizza.

What to Order: The Peking Duck Pancakes ($2.25) or probably the best deal on duck in town.

Stop 11: Coffee and Pastry From Caffe Roma

Truth be told, the Italian tourist traps pastry shops in Little Italy are not exactly the best places to get pastry or coffee, but they are an experience a visitor might want to check out. You can take a look at the display case at Ferrara on Grand between Mott and Mulberry, but you'll find better atmosphere, better pastry, and a better time at Caffe Roma, a few blocks west of Vanessa's down Broome Street, on the corner of Mulberry.

What to Order: espresso, cappuccino, or an Italian soda, with a pastry.

About the author: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is the Chief Creative Officer of Serious Eats where he likes to explore the science of home cooking in his weekly column The Food Lab. You can follow him at @thefoodlab on Twitter, or at The Food Lab on Facebook.

From Serious Eats: New York

[Photographs: Robyn Lee, unless otherwise noted]

We've gone on record time and again about the solid Mexican food to be found at El Tenampa, a Mexican grocery and taqueria just past the northern reaches of Sunset Park. Add in swift service, a hanging garden of pinatas for sale, and an unlimited condiment bar (free guac!), and you get one of the more satisfying places to get a quick taco—not quite a destination, but a place I wish would set down roots in my neighborhood.

Look, we know our limitations: New York isn't San Francisco or Los Angeles or Mexico City, and by any reasonable standard our Mexican food is comparatively not all that. But that doesn't mean we can't appreciate what we have. So in a fit of curiosity to see just how much El Tenampa could do, we stopped by and ordered most of the menu.

The results were mixed, from the surprisingly good to the inedibly bad with a wide range in between. Part of that problem, I suspect, comes from the hazards of asking a kitchen to make over a dozen different types of tacos at once; the rush to do so may explain the relative absence of patient charring that I normally find on my tortillas there. But it doesn't explain why those tortillas were a little stale to begin with, or why some of the meaty fillings came out overcooked and underseasoned.

Here's our rundown on the menu to make the most of your visit.

The Great

[Photograph: Max Falkowitz]

Our favorite dishes at El Tenampa have nothing to do with tacos at all. First up is Costillas en Salsa Verde ($12) an enormous portion of pork ribs stewed in a spicy tomatillo sauce that combines the best of lipsmacking braised meat with a fresh green salsa. This is meat that falls off the bone with a gentle tug, and though it's stewed seemingly forever, it doesn't lose its porky character. Pinto beans on the side are no slouch, either.

[Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

Another pleasant surprise: soups ($10), of which El Tenampa serves a few. A briny seafood soup is mostly head- and shell-on shrimp, though some tender mussels come along for the ride. The base is a seafood stock that tastes more complex and concentrated than you'd suspect at first glance, and it stays with you long after the soup is gone.

[Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

By contrast, a tripe soup is gentle and sweet, the stomach's organ funk tamed by a dose of red chili and long simmering. If you're not sure whether tripe is the offal for you, this makes a fine introduction.

Sopes ($3.50 to $4.50), fat discs of masa cooked in fat until their edges crisp up, are usually an afterthought at New York taquerias, but at El Tenampa they're awesome: just doughy in the center but well-toasted on their exteriors, dressed simply with your choice of salsa, some cheese, and chopped lettuce.

Don't overlook El Tenampa's sauces, offered for free from a serve-yourself cart next to the counter. The red and green as well as a minimalist smooth guacamole are all bright, crisp, and clean. Scoop some up and don't leave a taco without them.

The Mixed Bag

After a number a visits we've come to prefer El Tenampa's sandwiches ($7 to $8) to their tacos. The cooks sometimes overcook and underseason their meat, and on a tortilla there's nowhere for lackluster proteins to hide. On the tortas and cemitas, fat hunks of always-ripe avocado, tangy crema, and (in the cemitas' case) a smoky chipotle sauce offer contrast and flavor of their own. These are messy, unwieldy sandwiches, big even by torta standards. Are they the most balanced, expertly assembled things? No, and some of our table didn't love them, but they're surely hefty and satisfying gut-bombs.

Most of our tacos ($1.75 for a small, $3 for a large) were left half-eaten on plates, but if you just have to have some, opt for harder-to-screw-up meats like suadero (veal flank) and carnitas. El Tenampa also has a way with cooking tongue, too.

The Ugly

Beyond the tacos there are some items you should avoid, like bland, mushy tamales with overcooked fillings, a burrito that's 70% rice by volume, and meats that dry out and overcook easily, such as steak, pork al pastor, and chicken. El Tenampa's chorizo is also unfortunately pedestrian—skip it. And pass on the horchata, too, which is overly sweet and grainy.

How Does it Compare to Sunset Park?

The grocery section.

So why go to El Tenampa when just 20 blocks south you'll find yourself in Sunset Park's Mexican food hub? For starters, gems like goat stew in a Greek coffee cup aside, we've encountered plenty of bad with the good in the neighborhood. As a one-stop shop, El Tenampa offers a tempting mix of filling sandwiches and tripe soup with all the Mexican groceries and snacks (Takis included) that you could hope for.

Did I mention the pinatas? Because pinatas do in fact count for something.

Does El Tenampa serve the homey Mexican food of our dreams? No, but as a cheap eats spot it's just the thing—if you order right.

About the author: Max Falkowitz is the New York editor and ice cream maker in residence at Serious Eats. You can follow him on Twitter at @maxfalkowitz.

Streets are closed and buses re-routed this morning after a stolen box truck crashed into a bus at Seventh Avenue and West 14th Street, sending it careening into a building and killing the driver. Four passengers were injured, two critically, as well as the driver of the truck, the New ... More »

New York State is poised to be the first in the country to ban microbeads, those tiny plastic pebbles found in facial scrubs, balms, and gels, that contaminate our water supply and end up in the Great Lakes. [ more › ]

Eric Holthaus, who has vowed never to fly again so as to reduce his carbon footprint, took a bus from Wisconsin to Georgia in order to attend a conference. Why he thinks buses are the way to go:

From both a climate and financial standpoint, there’s a clear case to take the bus. From a butt-numbness standard, the bus isn’t quite there yet in the United States. However, the rise of limited-stop intercity operators like Megabus is helping the United States to quickly catch up to the rest of the world in terms of frequency and comfort on long-haul bus rides. In Chile, a spread-out country that has embraced long-distance buses, you can easily and cheaply snag a first-class quality experience with meals, Internet, live TV, and a lay-flat bed in every seat.

Buses are the most climate-friendly mode of transportation per passenger mile next to walking or riding a bike. This makes sense: There’s no need to accelerate hundreds of tons of aluminum to nearly the speed of sound, or to push thousands of tons of steel along 19th-century rail routes. Even a Prius is dragging along lots of extra weight just to move you down the road, especially if you’re solo, as most car trips are.

Last night, without any warning, HBO aired a juicy, 15-minute preview of Game of Thrones Season 4. Today, it was released online. Commence the freaking out.

Ice and Fire: A Foreshadowing, is loaded with brand-new footage, charming cast interviews, and a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into shooting one of the most expansive (and costly) television shows of all time.

The main takeaway from all the talking heads (including the now ubiquitous GoT showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss) is that in the upcoming season, the stakes have been raised. While it feels like that's something we're told about every new season of every show ever, we can't help but buy into it here. Especially when Peter Dinklage tells us that they've topped The Red Wedding "in many ways," words that are at once exciting and terrifying.

In the featurette, we also get our first glimpses of Khaleesi's new throne room, Jon Snow's new reality, and what figures to be one of the main centerpieces of the season: the royal wedding. While last night's bonkers episode of True Detective still has us reeling, this teaser has helped remind us that no one does event television quite like Game of Thrones. April 6 can't come soon enough. (Time)



Photo: Courtesy of HBO.

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Nathan Yau pulled data from a running app to map common routes:

If there’s one quick (and expected) takeaway, it’s that people like to run by the water and in parks, probably to get away from cars and the scenery. In the smaller inland cities, there seem to be a few high-traffic roads with less running elsewhere.

The map for London is above. Other major cities here.

Da Mao had some fun in the snow at the Toronto Zoo earlier this week.

Meet Da Mao, a panda at the Toronto Zoo. He falls in the snow sometimes, like we all do:

But, he gets right back up, and continues on his way:

Until — on no! — a tumble:

It's pretty much a perfect tumble, though, tbh.

At which point Da Mao sits and ponders his situation for a few seconds:

---

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While some individuals who reside outside The Big Island have spent many a late night pleading with a cabbie to ferry them across the East River, one woman managed to get a taxi to take her all the way to a Boston suburb. Turns out, though, that a 200 mile cab trip is pretty expensive, and she's been arrested for allegedly stiffing the driver on $980. Thanks for ruining it for the rest of us, now we'll never get a ride to Bed-Stuy. [ more › ]

I love this sort of thing: visualizations of Olympic venues plopped into Manhattan to provide a sense of scale. My favorite is the bobsled run in Times Square:

My son and I were just talking about this and when he asked me, I had no idea how big the track actually was. Can't wait to show him this when I get home tonight.

In other news, the news media has arrived in Sochi and the town doesn't seem to be ready for the Games. Oopsie!

Tags: 2014 Winter Olympics   infoviz   NYC   Olympic Games   sports

From Serious Eats: New York

If you haven't been to Chuko recently—or you've never been able to get in, period—try visiting at lunch. You'll be rewarded with thoughtful, highly flavored food—without the wait. [Photographs: Lauren Rothman]

Chuko opened in 2011 and continues to draw enough of a dinner crowd that evening waits for a table can stretch perilously close to one hour. But the idea of ramen on a bitingly cold day is too good to pass up, and for the vegetarian noodle-lover, there's good news: Chuko does a great bowl of meat-free ramen.

You can best avoid a wait at Chuko by going for lunch, and hey, midday ramen is a beautiful thing. But let's get to the ramen later. First there are some "bites" (appetizers) worth exploring. Crispy Brussels ($8), deep-fried sprouts showered with chopped peanuts, are normally prepared with fish sauce, but you can request them without it, and even in its absence, the dish delivers powerful savory flavor with a punch of garlic and a not-too-greasy crunch. Briny house-pickled red and green jalapeños bring some much-need acidity to the rich sprouts.

Hey, what do you know—like seemingly every other restaurant in this city, Chuko offers a Kale Salad ($8). But I can assure you its singularly delicious take on ol' green is unlike any other you'll find: here, tender raw curly kale is slicked with just the right amount of bright-tasting ginger-miso dressing (a nod, perhaps, to that thick orange stuff you find at Japanese takeout spots around town); you pick up a leaf in your chopsticks and notice that a healthy mound of tempura-battered kale lurks beneath the fresh green surface of the salad. These crisp, airy, greaseless fritters are the kind of gutsy vegetarian cooking we'd like to see more of, and along with tender golden raisins and a few curls of crunchy sweet potato chips, they make a unique and addictive kale salad that trumps any other I've tried recently.

And then there's Chuko's Vegetarian Ramen ($13), which demonstrates way more care than pretty much any meat-free Asian-style soup I've eaten in New York. Its deeply flavored seawood-white miso broth is as rich as many meat-based versions, and inside it, a variety of perfectly-cooked vegetables shine: soft cubes of sweet kabocha squash; tender, mellow leaves of green cabbage; and thick, jammy strands of roasted onion. The curly noodles here are toothsome and springy, and raw chopped scallion and baby arugula bring a fresh, peppery kick. For two bucks, I added a boiled egg, and I was glad I did—it was textbook-perfect, its white firm but its yolk soft and custardy.

So if you haven't been to Chuko recently—or you've never been able to get in, period—I highly recommend that you visit between the hours of 12 and 2. You'll be rewarded with thoughtful, highly flavored food—without the wait.

Illustrated by Ly Ngo. Carrie Bradshaw once freaked out when Aiden signed on to AOL and, shocker(!), wondered out loud whether or not he could see her. A valid question for 2001 — even though webcams weren't really a thing yet. Always ahead of the trend, Carrie.

We digress. Had Carrie and Aiden been together today and happened to, say, open Skype, they'd be able to see each other. (Yes, there's the whole Mr. Big situation, but that's another story for another day.) Skype has actually proved itself to be quite the relationship saver since its 2003 launch. A recent study of its users conducted by the Idea Lab for Microsoft revealed that 96% of Skype users in long distance relationships believe it has strengthened their connection.

Almost half of those polled credit the service for saving their relationships. 20% have even gone on "Skype dates." We're not too sure what that entails, but intrigued we are. Most calls last around seven minutes, which would make for a mighty short first impression. Unless, of course, these "dates" are really "naughty calls" (by which we mean cybersex). Seven minutes in heaven, anyone? If so, we know of a perfect companion to the amp up the fun: the vibrating underwear. It's real, remote-controlled, and the perfect Skype-mate.

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From Sweets

VIEW SLIDESHOW: A Tour of Aji Ichiban, an Asian Snack Paradise in New York

[Photographs: Ben Jay]

Candy stores are always special places, and ones that fill a specific niche are endlessly interesting and fun to explore. For many of us, that beloved niche is Asian candy, and if you need to get your Eastern sugar fix on, look no further than Aji Ichiban.

Despite the Japanese name, Aji Ichiban was founded in Hong Kong in 1993. It's the Special Administrative Region's leading confectioner, with over 100 shops in the city. According to their website, there are also 150 other franchised locations throughout Asia (my first visit was in Shanghai at age 15), in addition to shops in the United States.

Expansion into the US began in 2000 and, for a while, many of the shops were popular stops for visiting Chinese officials. Most of them have now closed, but a handful remain in New York, Chicago, and suburban Los Angeles.

Aji Ichiban sells a healthy mix of Western and East Asian confections and salty snacks, but their biggest strength might be their dried goods: fruits, nuts, ginger, jerky, seafood, and so much more, much of it tied to traditional Eastern remedies. Items are sold by weight, and sampling is strongly encouraged, with small bowls of dried snacks dotting nearly every surface of the store.

We recently visited the New York location in Chinatown—which is welcomingly billed as the "Munchies Paradise"—armed with a camera and a sweet tooth. We emerged with candy and photos, all of which can be found, for your viewing pleasure, in the slideshow above.

About the author: Ben Jay is a Serious Eats contributor, photographer, carnivore, beer and whisky drinker, and music nerd. 巧克力是老外的糖果. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Walked through Tompkins Square Park early this morning... it was icy ... but plowed. Mostly!





(One Park watcher said the place was only plowed for crews to shoot scenes for the Jim Gaffigan TV pilot ... have no idea if the plow part is true... crews are there today to film, though ...)

Anyway, apparently things haven't gotten much better as the day progresses...

@evgrieve Tompkins looks & feels like the Yukon right now, ice EVERYWHERE. Only dog sleds & ice skates should be allowed

— introspectivenarwhal (@bonatron9000) February 6, 2014

Not that this is the first time the Park has been an ice rink...

Careful out there...

Today's winter storm is just a prelude to another snow storm expected on Sunday, which itself is no doubt just a prelude to an endless series of snow preludes forever and ever until the relentlessly expanding slush puddles finally drown us all in their brackish embrace. In short, you better have some waterproof boots in your possession because it's the only way to prolong the inevitable. [ more › ]

From Sweets

[Photographs: Carrie Vasios Mullins]

One of my favorite winter indulgences is a good Mexican hot chocolate. The way that the melted dark chocolate mingles with the heat from chile peppers is irresistible, yet I've turned that flavor combination into sweets only once before. That was when I made chocolate cookies with ancho chile powder for a Cinco de Mayo party. It was high time I merged these flavors again, and though I love those cookies, this time was an even bigger success.

I knew I wanted to go the fudgy, not cakey route for the brownies. I knew that I wanted to use a mixture of unsweetened and bittersweet chocolates in order to dial back the sweetness while still maintaining a dark chocolate flavor. I also knew that I wanted to add some texture, but no distractions from the chocolate flavor, so I added dark chocolate chips. And finally, I wanted to round out the smokey flavor of ancho chile powder. But with what?

The magical combination was a mixture of ancho chile powder, plus cinnamon for earthiness and sweetness and cayenne pepper for heat. The final brownies are everything I wanted: moist and fudgy with a lightly crackled top. Eaten warm, you'll encounter pockets of melted dark chocolate chips. The chocolate flavor is intense, and the spices meld to provide the perfect warm, smokey, earthy heat. The flavor intensifies overnight, making them even better the next day.

About the author: Carrie Vasios Mullins is the editor of Serious Eats: Sweets. She likes to peruse her large collection of cookbooks while eating jam from the jar. You can follow her on Twitter @carrievasios

Get the Recipe!

[From Sunday, in case you were wondering about the lack of snow]

As you probably know, Brooklyn Piggies, the hand-rolled pigs-in-a-blanket shop, opened last Thursday at 195 Avenue A. At the same time, though, Spin Hair Salon has left the space next door…




No word just yet if stylist Eddie J. Williams has moved to a new location or closed. (There aren't any signs up indicating either scenario.) He moved here from Stanton Street last January.

Previously, both storefronts housed Furry Land Pet Supply, which closed in January 2012…

[January 2012]

The Post is touting this "exclusive" …

Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman scored his smack like a common junkie, schlepping to an East Village apartment to feed his heroin fix, law-enforcement sources told The Post.

A witness has come forward to tell cops that several months ago, he personally eyeballed Hoffman buying the drugs himself, making the transaction at the same apartment where the witness was being supplied.

Based on this tip, the NYPD set up surveillance on the apartment on the unnamed street/Avenue Monday night. Police arrested one man emerging from the apartment, but, as the Post notes, he was not carrying the drugs branded "Ace of Spades," the logo that appeared on the heroin reportedly found in Hoffman's West Village apartment.