Tag: crab

Categories
fast food

Nathan’s Original Coney Island vs Nathan’s Satellite

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.

Categories
seafood

Ben Sargent’s new book: The Catch

Dang, Ben just put out a new book, The Catch. Looks really slick. He had a book signing yesterday at Powerhouse Arena in Dumbo. Then took the party to Red Hook at Bait and Tackle, where he had a seafood boil cooking on the sidewalk. So much food. There was a whole nother trough of shrimp and crab legs after everyone in the bar was so stuffed. Amazing. …Man, I wish I had some that right now.

Categories
seafood travel

Hot N Juicy Crawfish (Orlando)

It’s funny. When I did a search of nearby restaurants on Yelp at my parents’ home in Orlando, all the restaurants were in Universal Studios or Disney World. I did see a restaurant in the strip mall close by called Hot N Juicy Crawfish. Dang. I’m there.

Apparently it’s a chain restaurant with restaurants spread all over the country –Las Vegas, California, D.C. and here in Orlando. Man vs Food TV show did a thing there —http://youtu.be/VbeCuujOvX0

We ordered The Drool bucket (1lb of Crawfish, 1lb of Shrimp, dozen slices of Andouille Sausages, 2 corn, 2 potatoes, 1/2lb of Snow Crab Legs and Calamari appetizer $37.99). They ran out of Snow Crab, so they gave us King Crab Legs. We also got the Etouffee ($6.99) and Fried Catfish Basket with Sweet Potato Fries ($11.99)

The waiter says the crawfish is flown in daily. Dang. That’s a lot of work. They were really juicy and flavorful …and kind of spicy. We got the lowest level of spice (Baby Spice) and that was still kind of spicy. It was the right amount of spiciness. But maybe the “Hot n Juicy Special” seasoning we ordered it with added to that heat. Really flavorful head sucking. I even sucked the heads of the shrimps.

The best deal is the all-day Happy Hour Monday through Thursdays $1 bottled beers! That’s any bottle beer, whether it’s Heineken or Blue Moon. Three per person, but still such a good deal.

Man, I wish there was a Hot N Juicy Crawfish in Brooklyn. But only if they can give me fresh crawfish at $10/lb and $1 beers. Dreamboarding it.

Hot N Juicy Crawfish - 7572 W Sand Lake Rd. Orlando, FL 32836

Categories
seafood

All You Can Eat Crabs at Fish Restaurant

Oh man, this is a good NYC deal –All You Can Eat Steamed Maryland-style Blue Crabs for $21.95 in the West Village. That’s everyday 12-4pm. Dang, that’s a prime time lunch deal, even on weekends.

I came by myself and thought they were going to start me off with a couple of crabs and see how I do, but no… They brought me a whole tray load and dumped them on me. It took up almost the whole table. I think there were around 11-12 crabs. Dang.

They were decent size and good lumps of meat in there. I worked on them slowly and methodically, getting better disassembling each crab as I went along. My back was hurting by the end. Got stuffed and left five crabs on the table.

I like this deal. I gotta bring Rusty there. $2.50 draft PBR and $4 Stella. That’s cheap, especially for the location. I’ll remember to put on the bib next time.

Fish Restaurant - 280 Bleecker St (btwn Jones & Commerce St) New York, NY 10014

Afterwards, I watched some guys play b-ball in the Cage at the West Fourth Street Courts. Thirty percent of the time, they were just arguing. I thought someone was going to pull out a gun a couple times.

Categories
chinese

My Birthday Dinner at Yee Li

I wasn’t planning on doing anything for my birthday, but woke up and decided I wanted to try a dungeness crab. So my friends took me to Chinatown. Hsin Wong was packed and we went to Yee Li a few doors down. I ordered too much food. The dishes here are bigger than they appear in the photos if you’re referencing the scale to the spoon. Those spoons are giant serving spoons.

My favorite was the Fish Fillet with Minced Pork. The waiter insisted we get that instead of the whole fish we wanted, which was $20/lb. So figure that would be around $55. Good call.

The dungeness crab was good. Pretty much like a big crab.

Also ordered my favorites –Bitter Melon with Black Bean Sauce and Roast Pig. Crispy and fatty skin!

Dan took this amazing shot on his phone. I didn’t know I was a cartoon.

Afterwards, we hit up Winnie’s Bar for some karaoke. It was packed full of white kids like us. I let some wasted chick take pictures with my nice camera, but I don’t think she could figure it out. I don’t see any on my memory card. I asked her how the popcorn was that she was eating from our table. She gave me the stink eye and walked away.

I didn’t know they had a small menu at Winnie’s. Marcellus got some spring rolls. We left a ton of Yee Li leftovers behind the bar. We forgot. I hope they find it.

Yee Li – 1 Elizabeth St (@ Bayard St) New York, NY 10013

The dungeness crabs and lobsters live from the outside of the restaurant. Before I shot this, one of the crabs swam under the jet bubbles and started dancing. I like how they have the two super tiny pinchers from their mouths. Little do they know I’m about to eat them.

Categories
chinese

Shanghai Gourmet NYC Restaurant

I came across some positive Yelp reviews for this new Chinese Restaurant on Pell Street. All this talk about juicy buns and eel really gave me the craving. They have a couple of Grand Opening deals right now –Free Juicy Buns (aka Soup Buns or Xiaolongbao) with an order over $20 and Lobster $12.95 (that they were out of). The Juicy Buns were awesome! Just the right amount of broth to squirt in my mouth.

The Sauteed Eel with Chives were a bit different than what I was craving. I suppose I thinking more of a Japanese style Unadon eel rice bowl. This was like eating anchovies with Chinese dark sauce. The eel slices were the size of long worms. Yasmin’s first bite was like slurping up spaghetti.

We also got the Crab Casserole with Vermicelli. That was pretty good. I like how Chinese crab dishes usually have the orange egg stuff in it. That’s my favorite part.

When I came out of the restroom, I saw a bunch of amazing dishes on other people’s tables. There was this big tasty looking brick of meat next to us. I thought it was beef, but maybe it was the Pork Shoulder with Honey ($13.95)? It looked really tender. …Now that I think about it, it was probably Beef Short Ribs (like this from Spice Market). I just don’t see short ribs on their Menupages.

The waiter was super nice.

Shanghai Gourmet – 23 Pell St (btwn Mott & Doyers) New York, NY 10038

Afterwards, we passed by Lucky Bloop Inc. bakery on East Broadway. Yasmin got a peanut squishy bloop thing. I should have food blogged it. It blooped down my mouth.

Categories
seafood

Fried Soft Shell Crab from Grand Seafood & Fish Market

I found this lonely fried soft shell crab for only $3 at Grand Seafood & Fish Market (formerly An’s Seafood). He was a weak little guy, but I imagine that’s why he was picked last. I also saw giant fried fillets of Blue Fish for $3.

Grand Seafood & Fish Market – 98 Bushwick Ave (@ Grand St) Brooklyn, NY 11206

Categories
lunch restauranting travel

Franky and Johnny’s Boiled Crawfish!

Met up with our dear friend Jay at Franky & Johnny’s to revisit the boiled crawfish we had a couple years back. Last time, we had 1lb each and I was stuffed. That was my first stab at the little mudbugs and learned how to suck their heads. Down them all and I’m even allergic to shellfish (or at least I think I am).

This time we had 2lbs each for only $8.99. I couldn’t believe it. I was thinking that was the price per pound. Turns out my friends say that is actually on the high side for New Orleans. Dang, this would go for $30 in New York.

We also had Fried Gator Nuggets and Fried Soft Shell Crab, which was frickin awesome. That was the best soft shell crab I’ve ever had. With this and all the tasty crawfish critters, I’m sure in love with Franky and Johnny’s. I hope that doesn’t make me gay.

Franky & Johnny’s – 321 Arabella Street. New Orleans, LA 70115