Tag: ramen and friends

Taste Good Malaysian Cuisine

Post author By Jason Lam
Post date Mar 7, 2010
6 Comments on Taste Good Malaysian Cuisine

Went out with Ramen and Friends to Elmhurst, Queens to eat Malaysian food at Taste Good …and it tasted really good. One of the best group meals I’ve ever had. We ordered a lot of food and it was only $12 each after tip. Luckily it was BYOB …beers next door at Hong Kong Supermarket. My favorite dish was the one Joe ordered, Indian Rojak Mee, which is described on the menu as “a ‘mamak’ hawker’s special.” The sauce was nice and sweet. The Singapore Kari Laksa was delicious too –one of New York Magazine’s recent Fifty of the City’s Tastiest Soups.

Taste Good Maylasian Cuisine – 8218 45th Ave. Elmhurst, NY 11373
Ramen and Friends’ cross post

Tags elmhurst, malaysian, queens, ramen and friends

restauranting

Purple Yam – Filipino Pan Asian

Post author By Jason Lam
Post date Jan 20, 2010
No Comments on Purple Yam – Filipino Pan Asian

Went out with Ramen and Friends to Purple Yam out in Ditmas Park. They’ve been getting good reviews (i.e. NY Times & Time Out). Even the table next to us was filled with people from New York Magazine and was in on the action. I got to try a number of items. I enjoyed the Chicken Adobo, Tocino Pork Slider, Oxtail Kare Kare and Buco Pie.

The bad: That was the first time I’ve seen Goat Curry without bones, so it confused me. The Lumpia (spring roll) is $7 for one …it’s supposed to be one big fat non-fried one, but still. I’m not sure you can order fried lumpias outside of brunch. Yoshie’s Laksa Noodle Soup was very bland and disappointing, especially since I love coconut curry broth. I sorta didn’t understand the Halo Halo dessert. It’s eating crushed ice with ice cream, but I hear it’s traditional Filipino …Whereas I didn’t find the dishes very traditional like my Filipino friends’ mothers would make. It’s more contemporary and the portions are smaller than I expected.

Overall, the good beats the bad. Purple Yam is a nice restaurant and I’m glad I got to try it. If it was closer, I’d try it again. I just wish Elvie’s Turo-Turo was still around. You don’t realize you miss something until it’s gone. Any of my Filipino friends want to invite me to their parents home? …It worked the last time I asked and I got to be in a Roots music video!

Purple Yam – 1314 Cortelyou Rd (btw Argyle & Rugby Rd) Brooklyn, NY 11226

Tags ditmas park, filipino, ramen and friends, review

restauranting

Matsukado NYC

Tried this new ramen spot with Yoshie of Ramen and Friends. She had the Udon (with tempura flakes, sweetened deep-fried tofu pockets, spinach) –which I thought was pretty good. I got the Ramen Matsukado that had a little bit of everything (pork, shrimp, squid, thick gravy over soy based broth). The gravy mixed up with the broth and it sorta turned into a big bowl of lo-mein noodles with lo-mein sauce. It tasted Chinese.

The grand opening special of the sho-yu ramen $5.95 and miso shio ramen $6.95 sounds like a good deal. I think I should have gotten one of those. But I was already so indecisive. The waitress came over at least five times to take my order.

Matsukado – 104 Second Ave (btw E. 7th & 6th St) New York, NY 10003
Ramen and Friends’ cross post review

Tags japanese, noodles, ramen and friends, review

chinese

Xi’an Famous Foods Manhattan

Post author By Jason Lam
Post date Dec 27, 2009
17 Comments on Xi’an Famous Foods Manhattan

I saw the Roboppy/Serious Eats post about a Xi’an now opening in Manhattan’s Chinatown. This is the famous place in Flushing’s Golden Mall everyone keeps talking about. Even more so after Bourdain went to it on his No Reservations show. I still need to check that show out. Not to brag or be clueless (depending on how you look at it), but I still haven’t really seen the Bourdain show outside of a few mins while eating a taco in LA. My point is that it’s just surprising for a food blogger and someone who likes ethnic food and weird shit. I’m also surprised I don’t have an iPhone yet.

I did once try to find Xi’an in Flushing one time, but I didn’t know where it was except that it was in some mall. This would have been a good time to have one of those iPhones. So I was so glad to see this place opening an outpost so close. The shop is really small. Not really a dine-in restaurant. It has a tiny counter that maybe three people might be able to stand/squeeze in on. That’s what Yoshie, Rob and I were able to do on this rainy day. It really got tight when four other people were trying to order. There were photos of Anthony Bourdain on the wall. A sign that says they must give you a receipt or you’ll get your food for free. Another sign that says the bathroom is in the basement of the plaza/mall, toilet paper available on request. What happens if you forget to ask?

I got the popular Cumin Lamb Burger ($2.50). It was pretty good. Well seasoned lamb meat in a bread pocket, kind of similar to pita or English Muffin without the nooks and crannies. Yoshie and Rob noodle dishes (Mount Qi hand-pulled noodles & Cumin Lamb Noodle Soup – $5 each). The noodles are hand pulled in front of you at the counter. The way they pull it, it is a much broader noodle than of the Lan Zhou hand-pulled variety. Yoshie and Rob really enjoyed their food. It’s a good deal. I want to try the noodles next time. Maybe some day they’ll put up a photo of me on their bathroom wall.

Xi’an Famous Foods – 88 East Broadway #106 (but really on Forsyth at the corner of E. Broadway) New York, NY 10002
Ramen and Friends – for Yoshie & Rob’s thoughts

Tags chinatown, chinese, lamb, noodles, ramen and friends, review, Xi'an Famous Foods

chinese restauranting

Famous Sichuan / Quickly / Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

Post author By Jason Lam
Post date Dec 6, 2009
2 Comments on Famous Sichuan / Quickly / Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

A Yoshie/Ramen & Friends get-together at Famous Sichuan, the place across the street from the people waiting outside to get into Joe’s Shanghai. We did it up family style. I got to eat the tail from the Camphor Tea Smoked Duck. It was fatty and delicious. Melted in my mouth. Duck Tails – A Whoo Hoo!

Later in the meal, I saw one of the girls wearing the very mustache I was looking for all day. “Hey, that’s the mustache I was looking today!” “Why were you looking for a mustache?’ “For a Spinal Tap Sing-along I’m hosting. Why do you have that mustache?” “I’m going to a mustache fundraiser party.” She gave me the mustache. Bless her heart. Four people have asked me if I used the Secret to get this mustache. I can’t really say …it’s a secret.

I was planning on going to the mustache party that Matt was also going to. But somehow we all got lost in the shuffle, when Rob and I snuck off across the street to Quickly for a bag of Fried Squid Balls. They were spicy, spongy, delicious snacks.

We met back up with the rest of the crew that were still around and headed off for dessert at Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. I wanted to try Durian flavored ice cream, just like at the time I was in Sunset Park at No.1 Ice Cream. But like them, they didn’t have any. I wonder if they run out or they just don’t make too much of it. Adam says Durian smells like garbage, but it’s good because of the texture. I ended up with Zen Butter (toasted sesame seeds with peanut butter) and it was heavenly. I did get a taste of what Durian might be like as we walked past a garbage truck on our way to the subway station.

Famous Sichuan – 10 Pell St (btw Bowery & Doyers St) New York, NY 10013
Quickly – 11 Pell St. (btw Bowery & Doyers St) New York, NY 10013
Chinatown Ice Cream Factory – 65 Bayard St (btw Elizabeth & Mott St) New York, NY 10013
Ramen and Friends cross post review

Tags chinatown, chinese, ramen and friends, review, treats

restauranting

Ramen and Friends: Cafe Sim-Sim

Post author By Jason Lam
Post date Nov 12, 2009
4 Comments on Ramen and Friends: Cafe Sim-Sim

A Ramen and Friends event in Kensington, Brooklyn at Cafe Sim-Sim (Azerbaijani food). Yoshie set up a set menu with the owner/chef at $30 a head. It was originally $50/pp, but she got it knocked down for a smaller menu. Good thing she did, because there was so much food. I actually thought the first course was all the food we were eating. But they kept bringing out more dishes.

My favorites were the Potato Salad, the Panfried Potatoes with Chanterelle Mushrooms (a pile of deliciously greasy homefries and the mushrooms were great), the Kutabi crepe (thin and filled with lamb meat), the buttery meat dumplings (throw a dash on salt on it and it’s perfect).

By the time the kebab platter came out, I was so stuffed. The platter was filled with chicken, lamb, ribs and fries. My favorite was the ground lamb wrapped in an tortilla.

The place is BYOB, but I think they might have some beer available. It was such a good deal and great food. I’d recommend getting a group together and setting up a dinner event. Great job, Yoshie. A day later, I’m still full and drunk.

Tags ditmas park, ramen and friends, review

restauranting

New Malaysia

Dinner at New Malaysia with Rob and Yoshie. Always start out with roti canai. I love that chicken curry sauce. Then happened to get more of it in my Nasi Lemak (coconut flavored rice with belacan anchovy, chicken, hard boiled egg & peanuts). I figure next time I’ll just get a big bowl of that stuff by ordering the Curry Chicken.

Then we went to the CMJ party lounge to check out Lavalier. It was supposed to be a pizza party, but I didn’t see any pizza …just PureVolume cellphone skins. I was successful acting really retarded with the cellphone skin girls and they just kept giving me more of them. That happens a lot.

Afterward, we went to my housewarming party that I was supposed to be at. Now after three years, we were finally having a housewarming. Then we surprised Rob with a surprise birthday party. It worked out well. I was even surprised.

New Malaysia – 46-48 Bowery Chinatown Arcade # 28, (btw Bayard & Canal St) New York 10013