Category: restauranting

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restauranting

Latin Beet Kitchen Fall Preview

Latin Beet Kitchen is the newish restaurant connected to the front of Raymi, the fancy Peruvian restaurant on 24th Street. I’ve been wondering what this place was. I’ve seen a few people eat out in the front outdoor seating. But was it counter service, table service, do they serve alcohol? I was able to get some answers when I went to their Media Fall Preview, tasting some of the new menu and cocktail items coming soon.

So it turns out it’s from the same owners of Raymi. I’ve been there for a Ceviche vs Tiradito event in 2014. They wanted to open up a casual place to serve breakfast and lunch, while Raymi was closed. But they are going to start serving dinner at some point.

They do have beer during the day. I’ve seen people drink it outside. I’ve been tempted to drink out there for a lunch break on a nice day.

They are going to start serving weekend brunch cocktails: Bloody Tiger, Spiked Latte, Gin and Juice and Clear Michelada. I liked the Gin and Juice best. Snoop D-O-Double-G.

They’ll start serving these cocktails at night when they expand to dinner service.

Also tried some of their arepas and bowl samples. The arepas were a lot different than what I think of arepas. I usually think of arepas as lighter and having a pocket to stuff meat into. These were more dense and more like a cracker. I wonder if it’s because of the nature of having the smaller sample, than a full size arepa. Or maybe this is the difference between a Venezuelan vs a Colombian arepa.

The Tuna Nikkei Ceviche Bowl is promising. But surprisingly, I liked the Antina (Lentil Stew) Bowl the best. I’m a heavy meat eater and this was really tasty for having no meat in it. I’m feeling very conflicted inside.

Latin Beet Kitchen – 43 W 24th St (b/t Broadway & S Park Ave) New York, NY 10010

Categories
restauranting

Bagatelle and the Rise of the Instagrammers

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.

17 Instagrammers food blogging

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

Categories
restauranting

SoCo’s Buttermilk Fried Chicken & Red Velvet Waffle

I’m a fan of Chicken and Waffles. I remember the first time I’ve ever heard of Chicken and Waffles, I was in Atlanta as a teenager with my mom and sister in the early 90’s. We kept driving past Gladys Knight’s Chicken & Waffles restaurant. I was like what? So my mom let me out to go in to get an order. It turned out to be an upscale restaurant with mostly an African American clientele. So it probably seemed really weird for a young Asian boy to walk in with shorts and a t-shirt. I bet they thought I was lost.

Anyway, I wanted to try this Fried Chicken and Red Velvet Waffle ($20) that looks so good at SoCo in Clinton Hill. It’s an interesting take, because of the Red Velvet Waffle. Pretty good overall. It works. I guess it’s slightly sweeter than regular waffles. But I’m going to put syrup on it anyway. So it’s going to be sweet.

The Mardi Gras cocktail reminded me of those sweet bottled Looza fruit juices.

SoCo – 509 Myrtle Ave (b/t Ryerson St & Grand Ave) Brooklyn, NY 11205

Categories
restauranting sandwich

Fuku Spicy Chicken Sandwich

I finally got to try David Chang’s Spicy Fried Chicken Sandwich at Fuku in the East Village.

The line and wait wasn’t that bad around 7pm on a Friday. The line initially looks bad leading out the door, but it’s actually short. The person taking the order is only a few feet from the door. And they are quick. The menu is small (Spicy Chicken Sandwich $8, fries $3, a daily salad, a daily Milk Bar dessert and drinks –one beer choice, Tecate $5). Also they only take credit cards, so it’s quick. Also no gratuity option when you sign.

I got my Chicken Sandwich with pickled daikon ($1 extra). I thought that made it taste better, but possibly made half of my sandwich soggy. Half of it was great, but that soggy half wasn’t so much. The seasoning on the chicken is good.

I didn’t think the Ssam sauce they have in bottles on the counters helped the sandwich. I don’t think it was the right flavor for it. We saw a couple next to us that couldn’t wait to try their sandwich, but they doused it all over with ketchup and the Ssam sauce. They should have tasted it plain first, but I couldn’t say anything in time. They gave a face that didn’t look like they really enjoyed it, but were trying to be polite while inside the restaurant.

It’s a good chicken sandwich. A good deal at $8 for it’s size, particularly for NY prices and coming from such a popular chef. A lot of chicken. They use dark meat, rather than the breast.

I would say it’s more in the vein of Chick-fil-A –Seasoned Fried Chicken with pickles on a bun. Simple assembly. But I’m more of a lettuce and mayo type of chicken sandwich guy though. I’d eat this Fuku Chicken Sandwich again though.

Fuku – 163 1st Ave (between East 11th St & 10th St) New York, NY 10003 East Village

Fuku Chicken Sandwich - NYC

Categories
restauranting

Chimu Peruvian Restaurant

I’m a big fan of Chimu’s Tallarin Verde con Skirt Steak (steak with green basil spaghetti and fried potatoes $19). The thing that makes it great is when you add the green sauce they give you with the corn nuts when you first sit down. Put all that green sauce over the steak and the green basil spaghetti. Make everything green.

I say this time and time again… More restaurants should have green sauce.

Chimu – 482 Union Ave (between Conselyea and Meeker in Williamsubrg) Brooklyn, NY 11211

Categories
restauranting

Queen of Sheba Ethiopian Restaurant

Ooh man, Queen of Sheba is so good. I got the Taste of Sheba combination platter (tibs wot (9) menchet abesh wot (10), menchet alecha (11), gomen besega (15), bozena shiro (16), wot (1), and yebeg alecha (2)) for $24. I don’t know what all those numbers mean on the menu and I don’t know what those dishes are. Too much work to search for each description. Anyway Sheba tastes delicious!

But one thing! I know you traditionally eat Ethiopian food with your hands at a Ethiopian restaurant. But I’m thinking it could be just as good with utensils …and your fingers won’t be smelling like Ethiopian food the next couple of days …which isn’t a horrible thing. But what if you or your friend just took a dump and wiped their butt? I don’t care how good we just washed our hands. I kind of don’t want us to be eating with our hands on the same platter.

Queen of Sheba – 650 10th Ave (b/t 45th St & 46th St ) New York, NY 10036

Categories
restauranting

Arrogant Swine BBQ

Finally tried the newish barbecue joint in East Williamsburg/Bushwick, Arrogant Swine. I’ve heard mixed reviews about this place from friends, but I thought it was pretty good.

Got the Outside Brown (chunks of Western North Carolina Outside Brown Shoulder $11) and East Carolina Whole Hog (think pulled pork with cracklings on top $12). Both really good with the different BBQ sauces they have.

Their bar has lots of craft beer. The outdoor seating has some nice picnic benches.

Only thing that sucks is that seems far from the train …or at least it’s pretty far out in a very industrial area.

Arrogant Swine – 173 Morgan Ave (b/t Scholes St & Meserole St) Brooklyn, NY 11237

Categories
restauranting

Faro (Bushwick)

There’s a new restaurant in Jefftown from a former chef from Northeast Kingdom. It’s a pasta restaurant. But I don’t eat much carbs. So I got the Mallard Duck Breast. The duck was good. I don’t know what else to say. I give up.

Faro – 436 Jefferson St (b/t Wyckoff Ave & Scott Ave) Brooklyn, NY 11237

Mallard Duck Breast - Faro Brooklyn