Sure, but I don’t know why I’d be going to Curry Hill for Trader Joe’s when there’s one five blocks from my house. Let me get back to my fighting weight after the gluttony in Brighton Beach and what’s sure to be an over-eating Memorial Day weekend.
There also a TJ’s across from the original location of AAB on 58 & 1st if you’re looking to combine visits.
I’ve been thinking that I need to try some of the newer dosa places – for eg Madras Dosa Co has several locations now. No rava dosa there, but meat filling options (chicken, lamb, beef), plus pesarattu (dosa made with green moong beans), and mini uttapams that can be stuffed like tacos.
Speaking of meat fillings, Hampton Chutney has also reopened, but they overferment their batter so the dosas are usually way more sour than they should be.
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Had a breakfast meeting at the strangely named Electric Lemon in the Equinox hotel. Speaking of omelets, had one. Very simple with egg and cheese and quite good. Maybe my perception of value has been warped but breakfast for two where we had more food than we could finish was $75. I thought that was reasonable especially for the quality and the setting.
This intrigued me, so I went. Probably not the best day for it, but plans are plans! I supplemented the vegan Shojin ramen with an ohitashi of Hokkaido scallop, smoked ikura and broccoli. Everything was excellent, and I give a particular shout-out to the maitake mushrooms, which were ethereal.
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Was the ramen worth the hype?
I think so. It was very well balanced - it’s hard to keep sesame and miso and hot oil from trampling all over everything and each other, but this broth did a decent job. The noodles were exceptional, and I’ve already waxed rhapsodic over the mushrooms. Here’s more about it, if you’re interested: https://www.instagram.com/p/DYfHxOGjTPP/?img_index=1
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ANIXI (VEGAN)
Friend back in town picked this for dinner, and we do what we need to do for our friends.
The menu doesn’t read vegan, with tuna, yellowtail, beef, lamb, ricotta, and more used freely throughout. We spent a bunch of time asking what all those things actually were, and then ordered mostly vegetables and no fake protein substitutes (except for the fake egg on the khachapuri, which the visiting friend was very interested in trying).
Drinks were tasty. Breads were delicious. I asked for hot sauce, which resulted in 3 different kinds of harissa of varying textures and heat levels, all delicious.
The dips were mediocre (and came in tiny portions), which was surprising given that Muhammara and Ful Medames are naturally vegan and usually delicious. The third one we got was whipped “ricotta” made from cashews, which was oddly sweet.
Hot mezze were a mixed bag. Crispy Cauliflower was mostly batter and barely tasted of cauliflower, also doused in a heavy sauce. We all love cauliflower, but it was mostly undetectable. Scorched Broccolini was the best of everything other than the bread, though not “scorched”.
The khachapuri was better than I expected, despite the fake egg (which was actually quite eggy – kala namak / Indian black salt with besan / gram flour for the yolk). The negative there was the fake mozarella, which had an unpleasant oily flavor).
Perhaps the most disappointing thing on the table was the side of Mujadara, which was just blah. Also a naturally vegan dish, so no reason for it not to shine. Barely any onions, and none of them caramelized.
We ended with a medjool date cake which was pretty dry for a date cake, but doused with plenty of chocolate sauce to remedy that. The vanilla “ice cream” on the side was more of a sorbet.
Service was simultaneously too much and terrible. Our server and the person he was training were very nice, but we didn’t need water refilled by someone leaning over and across the table to interrupt conversation every time someone took a sip. The second half of our food didn’t show up for 45 mins despite asking about it several times, after which the server informed us that the kitchen had lost the ticket. No remedy for that ridiculousness, though he was “definitely going to take care” of us (I figured that meant a comped dessert, but no).
The restaurant was completely full, however, so someone must like it.
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I gotta steal that.
I sincerely hope you don’t encounter a situation where you have to.
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