Food blogger since 2008. Hair model since 2003.
Check out my friend that you may have seen on Me So Hungry –Ben Sargent (who is a cooking celebrity –Cooking Channel, Food Network). He has a new Kickstarter. There’s only 4 days left. So pledge now. Sorry I should have posted this sooner. I was drunk.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1506371446/the-hunt-for-dr-klaw-take-back-the-underground
Okay, we were drunk last night after seeing Guided By Voices at the South Street Seaport. Saw a sign for Burger King’s new Mac n’ Cheetos. Went in ordered that and a Grilled Hot Dog we never tried. YOLO!
First the Grilled Classic Dog… decent dog for what it is at $2.29. No complaints, but not mind blowing.
Now the Mac n’ Cheetos… It’s deep-fried mac n cheese with the some Cheetos seasoning on the crust and made shaped like a Cheeto. This was pretty good. The crust was crunchy. The insides gooey with cheese. There were real bits of macaroni in there. Not so much of a mush that I thought it would be. Overall, pretty good.
I also found a Pokemon in Burger King.
Then later last night, Todd sent me a link to this video review:
So I’ve been to Nathan’s Original in Coney Island on Surf Ave. I’ve been to the one on the boardwalk at Coney Island. I’ve been to the one at MCU baseball park in Coney Island. I think I’ve been to one at some rest stop before. They should all be the same, right? It’s the same hot dog. You just heat it up and put it on a bun. Well, my friend Todd was like, “any other satellite Nathan’s is like eating a mall hot dog.” I was in Coney Island at MCU Park for the Burger Beach Bash music festival. Let’s put this to the test.
I started off with a hot dog at MCU Park in Coney Island …a short walk from the OG –Nathan’s Original on Surf Ave. It was basically $5 after tax and the change for tip. It was a small hot dog on a crusty broken bun. It was too salty and sucked. I guess it’s all uphill from here.
I realized that one of the MCU stands only had the small hot dogs. At another stand, I could buy a foot long for more.
I got some krinkled fries since they didn’t have the knish I wanted to buy. But it was pretty good. Although, there was barely anymore ketchup. I fought a cute girl for the last bits of it. We both took a packet of BBQ sauce to make up.
At the end of the night, I walked back to the subway and decided to try the Original on Surf Ave. I said I wanted a hot dog. I think there’s only one choice and it’s the foot long and it’s the same price as the small dog at MCU Park. I noticed they are cooking on a flat top grill, whereas MCU Park was on those rolling hot dog grills that you used to see at the mall and roller skating rinks in the 80’s. The hot dog at the OG was totally different. Well, it was still salty, but better snap and better bun. Just cooked a lot better.
My friend was right. The satellite Nathan’s sucks vs the OG. Fuck him.
I also got a Soft Shell Crab Sandwich ($7.19 plus tax). I would have never thought they had a soft shell crab sandwich …and seems like a pretty good price for one. It was pretty good. Tasted like the BK Whaler …or what they call now the “Big Fish Sandwich” for the last 14 years or so. But it had a little bit of shellfish taste to it. I liked it more than the hot dogs.
Sam brought these in for Taste Tuesdays. Looks like a box of a bottle of sake. Inside is filled with Kit Kat minis.
They were white chocolate Kit Kats with a hint of sake smell and flavor. It actually has 0.8% alcoholic content.
I wonder how many you have to eat before you get a buzz. I’m sure there is some math that could figure it out. I should ask Sam. He’s Asian.
Everyone is wondering if Burger King’s new red bun burger will change the color of your poop, like their Halloween Black Bun Whopper did. I took it to the test. Let me know what color your poop is in the comments below!
MealPass just launched in NYC. You pay a monthly fee ($99 for the initial launch month, $119 thereafter) and you get to pick a weekday lunch from participating restaurants in the Flatiron, Chelsea, Union Square, Murray Hill area (as of now). Luckily, I work right dab in the center of it all. That comes out to 20 lunches/month, $5/meal for the first month.
I got to try it out for the first two days. They have a lot of participating restaurants. Some I think are pretty good, some I go to often already, and some I’ve always wanted to try. Restaurants like Inday, Jimmy’s House, Dos Caminos, Choza Taqueria, Chop Shop II.
 
 
 
Each participating restaurant has one item available each weekday. It changes daily. I would say they do range from around $5-10ish in value. From 2 pepperoni slices and a drink at 2 Brothers Pizza (Note that they are known for $1 cheese slices. I feel like this is a bum deal. It almost seems like you lose money in this case.) …to other options like Chicken Schnitzel or noodles or salad from nicer places that could be worth $10ish. I also see smoothies that are probably worth $7-8.
The menu opens up at 7pm the night before the weekday. You have until 9:30am of the weekday to make your decision. I can tell you that will be a problem for me. I’m going to be drunk and forget and hungover the next morning. I know I’m going to forget to pick my meals some days. I’ve had trouble remembering to pick my NFL Fantasy Pick ’em and Survival Leagues. Those you only had to make a choice once a week. And I have to know what time I can pick up my lunch. How do I know how busy I’ll be at work? And how do I know what I want to eat tomorrow. It takes me a half hour to decide on a toothpaste at CVS. Also, you’d have to check the weather forecast before you pick your lunch. What if it’s going to storm? You’d want to pick a place close-by.
Plus you don’t really know what’s available until you sign up, pay the monthly charge, and wait until 7pm to see the menu. I couldn’t show my co-workers the menu because of this. There’s no menu online between 9:30am-7pm. My co-workers were interested, but waited to see how it played out for me since they couldn’t see a menu.
But… I think if you are on top of it, it really works out as a good deal. And you get to try new places you’d never try otherwise. Also you get to skip the line to pick up your meal.
The meals I’ve gotten so far: Unagi Don (Eel Rice Bowl) at Burp Bowl Cafe and Chicken Schnitzel at Cafe Prague. They were pretty good. It was their normal portion. No skimping as I could tell. I’m not sure I would have tried them otherwise. Glad I got a chance.
Now… I’m wondering if I will sign up for MealPass or not. I’m definitely considering it. My issues: I have a particular diet these days. I try to cut back on carbs and dairy. So this limits my options, but maybe I can do a month of cheat days. Another thing, if you cancel your account and want to rejoin later, there is a $79 re-activation fee or a $19/month On-Hold fee (say if you’re going on vacation or just need a break). Seems like a weird fee, but I guess it’s part of how they make their money.
I don’t know. I’ve had fun the past couple of days with MealPass. But I feel like this is like the early days of Netflix physical DVD subscriptions. You have be on top of it. You have to watch that stupid DVD immediately that you thought you wanted to watch a week ago, so you can return it and get another stupid DVD. I remember I had to get at least 3 DVDs a month to make it a better deal than renting at Blockbusters. A lot of hassle to make it worth the value.
I don’t know …I think I will try MealPass at least for a full month. YOLO.
Last week, I was invited to a food blogger dinner at Bagatelle in the Meatpacking District. I haven’t been invited to a food blog event in a while. I kind of felt that food blogs had been on their way out for a while, so no hard feelings.
When I showed up, everyone else was an Instagrammer. I was surprised, but it makes sense. Instagram is very social and photos are easy to be discovered through tags and hashtags. It was my first dinner with Instagrammers. I think half of the photos I took were of them taking pictures with their phones. I’m not sure they liked that.
Anyway, about the restaurant… I rarely went to food blog dinners when I was asked back in the day. But I checked out Bagatelle’s Yelp page and it looked crazy. Many of the Yelp pics were people dancing on tables or the waiters in costume bringing out bottles with sparklers and riding on another one’s shoulders. I really wanted to see this.
Unfortunately for me, it was more about the food at this dinner. The party is usually during brunch apparently. Apparently they are trying to highlight the new chef and menu.
The food was fancy and pretty good. And now that I look at the menu, that was a really expensive dinner we ate. I’m like whoa. Here’s what we ate below. I remember liking the cod. I didn’t realize there was truffles on the pizza or the chicken. Didn’t notice it. But one of the Instagrammers really liked the chicken. I wonder if she knew there was truffle in there.
· 1 ceviche king crab
· tuna tartar
· beef tartar
· 1 gnocchi
· 1 octopus
· 1 ravioli
· 1 pizza truffle
· 1 linguine spiny lobster
· 1 whole chicken and black truffle
· 1 duck special
· 1 cod special
· 2 chocolate mousse
· 1 pavlova
· 1 choux choux
· 2 special eclair
· 1 tart lemon
· 1 Sundae
There was one crazy thing. We had this gigantic sundae at the end with sparklers. And maybe I saw some flashing lights in the corner of the dining room. I think it was someone’s birthday. Or maybe I had too much to drink.
Follow me on Instagram @chinolam
Bagatelle – 1 Little W 12th St. New York, NY 10014
Their Trip Advisor page – link
I work really close to indikitch and it’s been open for about two years now. This is the first time I’ve been. I just figured if I want Indian food, I’d walk over to Murray Hill and partake in an AYCE buffet. But today they had a $2 deal for food and beer to celebrate Holi (Spring festival of colours). Long lines which I never do, but I just happened to walk by when the line was relatively short.
It’s pretty much like a Chipotle in the way it’s set up and the way it kind of looks, but with Indian food. I’m sure if you Google this place or look at Yelp reviews, a lot of people mention Chipotle.
You pick the Style (Feast, Biryani, Dosa, or Salad), then you pick your Main (Chicken Tikka, Pulled Pork Vindaloo, Goan Fish, Paneer Tika, Mushroom Kadai, Saag Paneer). All of these are priced similarity to Chipotle’s menu. And the feast is a lot of food. Kind of like getting a Burrito Bowl with a tortilla on the side.
The food is actually pretty good. I think it’s just as tasty as some of the Indian restaurants in Murray (Curry) Hill. Now I know. So if I don’t feel like walking too far, I could either go to indikitch …or Chipotle.
indikitch – 25 W 23rd St (b/t 6th & Broadway) New York, NY 10010
