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In continuation to my last post, here’s a few more places that we tried. Other than these ones we also tried sushi in New York (no, not Mr. Robato). It was awful, maybe because the fish quality in British Columbia is much higher, not sure. Also tried this supposedly “Vietnamese” restaurant, but for some reason it had a strange variety of items on their menu including various Chinese, Thai, and other dishes. Will not bother to review those thoroughly.

The one and only serious street food we did try during our visit was the Halal Guys. This was located about a block away from the Moma Museum (definitely worth checking out, not just because I was a visual arts student) and had a huge line up. When we first walked by the stand to go to the museum, my mouth started salivating at the scent of the food. I couldn’t wait to try it.

Serious street food goodness.

The menu was simple, each option came with a bit of a lettuce salad, rice, and the choices were either chicken, lamb, or chicken AND lamb. We picked chicken AND lamb. The entire box of food was only $6 (I can see why people are getting bigger now..) and we shared it between us, which actually kept us full for a good 4-6 hours.

We did what everyone else did, squirt a good amount of tzatziki sauce all over. The chicken was a little dry, but had some amazing spices on there, making it a little smoky. I don’t eat lamb, but my friend said it was way better than the chicken. The salad was just lettuce, so nothing much there. The rice was delicious, but so incredibly fatty and greasy. I think they used some type of long grain rice, with the same sort of texture as basmalti rice – I could be wrong though, so don’t quote me on that. That was probably one of the most satisfying meals I had in New York, sitting on the edge of a ledge in the midst of a block full of skyscrapers.

So delicious but will probably end up killing me if I eat this more than once a week.

Because of the amount of shopping we did and during the hurricane, we actually spent many nights at this little deli/store called Bread and Butter. Who would have known we would end up buying groceries and stuff during our vacation? I think we came in like 5 consecutive nights after being exhausted from shopping and just wanting to go home and eat.

Hahaha, don't you just love their slogan? We made it a habit to go almost every other night.

We tried their tuna melt sandwich, soooo delicious. It was served on flatbread, with your usual mix of tuna (including mayo and celery), onions, cheddar cheese, lettuce. So good. Might have finally found some competition to my favourite tuna sandwich from Melville Market (in Vancouver). That tuna melt, maybe with a cup of cream of broccoli soup snuggled up with a book on the couch during a winter day, that’s how life should be.

Sammich time!

Also found my favourite spread there, lox spread. To dip, use some thin multigrain Triscuits or better yet, Blue Diamond’s Nut Thin Almond crackers. Holy Toledo, best snack time ever. The lox spread they have there, you can actually find bits and pieces of salmon lox throughout the spread. It actually TASTES like salmon, not like the mass produced Philadelphia stuff. I mean, the one they sell at Siegel’s in Vancouver is good, but it’s got nothing on the lox spread from here.

Mmm. Lox.

Momofuku was probably the only restaurant where we actually planned to go to, everywhere else we went to was just on the way. We went to the noodle bar, as Momofuku has multiple locations for different cuisine styles. The noodle bar specializes in ramen, and also has other items on their menu including their buns.

Simplistic designs make for a hard to find restaurant sometimes.

To be honest, ramen is definitely not my specialty or one of my favourite things as I often find the soups too salty for my liking. And as usual, I had the same problem at Momofuku. But then again, the soups are meant to be salty so I’m probably completely off with this review. The noodles are made in the store I believe, and has a very chewy texture – sort of like the complete opposite of wonton noodles. It was simple, with a few pieces of nori, some pork slices, and an egg.

Noodles noodles yum yum yum. Got to get some in my tum.

We also ordered their buns, which was like a modern take of your typical Chinese bun. Instead of having the white bun enclosing the filling, it’s formed as a round patty and folded in half like a taco. The bun had some shredded cabbage, a fried oyster, and chipotle mayo. We should have gotten the beef brisket one, it looked much better than this. The oyster one was good though, a little plain for my liking as I don’t think the oyster really contributed in taste or texture overall.

So cute, but should've gotten the beef brisket one like my instinct was telling me..

After going to Momofuku’s noodle bar, we also walked past some of their other locations. So we shared some ice cream at their Milk Bar location. It’s like one of those places you could easily walk by, but if you notice it at first hand you’ll probably be curious about it and walk in. Their Milk Bar is essentially the location that specializes in ice cream. We ordered their plain vanilla one I think, and it’s not quite what I was expecting.

Your typical neon sign, your typical hipsters from Williamsburg.

The ice cream had more of a sorbet texture, so it wasn’t creamy at all. It didn’t taste anything like ice cream either, more like a cross between frozen yogurt and the bottled Calpis drinks (those ridiculously expensive sweetened drinks you find at Asian grocery markets). It was strange, but a good strange. Unfortunately, I got sick of it pretty fast and couldn’t finish the tiny cup even though I was sharing it with my friend.

Looks like one of those troll toys.

Last but not least, we went to Little Italy. Loads of servers and hosts spilling onto the streets, sweet talking to ladies to lure them into restaurants. No, it’s not a joke.

The beginnings of Little Italy.

We were talked into going to Da Gennaro. The restaurant was fairly crowded before we went, good indication that it was popular and hopefully that the food was well made. Unfortunately, at one point during the meal, the manager was yelling at a server in front of the guests which dampened the mood, but did not stop me from enjoying my meal.

Took a picture after we left the restaurant.

We had a sampler plate of their appetizers, which was all coated with a tomato sauce. The picture looks sort of disgusting, but the food was amazing. Most of them were veggies, but the seafood on there wasn’t top quality – maybe I’ve been spoiled with the fresh seafood from Vancouver. The prawns were overcooked and was probably from a frozen bag, while the mussels and clams had a strong fishy scent to it; however, the rest of the dish was wonderful. My favourites were the eggplant and the red peppers, both stuffed with a vegetable/cheese filling. It had a very mushy texture overall but still enjoyable.

Our appies!

We shared both our main and appy, as we weren’t that hungry. As some of you may know, I’m a sucker for cream based foods. So of course I had to try their creamy carbonara pasta. God, I don’t think I’ve ever had such a rich and creamy pasta before, especially not with actual pancetta – usually restaurants just dumped in regular smoked bacon. So yes, I was on cloud nine for the short time I was having my pasta.

Match made in heaven.

Anyways, I will end my extremely long post here. Apologies for my inconsistent posts, school has me drowning in homework, weekdays, weekends, and holidays. Will hopefully have another post up soon, but until then, happy eating guys!

Merry belated Christmas to everyone and a wonderful start to the new year!