ING or Rabo? Or ABN? I used to do a lot of work with some of the large Dutch pension plans in another life.
Is that a whole duck for $105?
The few times I have eaten chicken ( free-range? ) in New York, prepared in the Chinese way. I always find the meat more flavourful ( tastes more like chicken! ) than those here in Toronto?!
Nope. Faulty memory. $115 for a whole duck. But it was plenty for 4.
Fodder for a new (mayoral) scandal: did any of you nyc folks know there’s something called a Pizza Knife?
Took pics and started to write up but then forgot to hit reply.
Remember the Flushing Uyghur Gosh Naan?
Went back, bought it, ate it. Delicious. Also got a bunch of samsas - more portable, but proportionally less meat inside.
I preferred the flavor of the lamb, but it’s chewier than the beef.
The diced noodles were saucier than before but still delicious. Next time I’m going to ask them to skip the celery, though.
And now I want their pretty skewers even though I don’t have a bbq to put them on.
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my wife it out of town which presented an opportunity to eat at hole in the walls. First stop was International Wing Factory on the UES for their inflation special, 4 wings and a small order of fries for $9. the fries were hand cut and pretty good, the wings expertly fried but the medium hot buffalo sauce while good was not anywhere near buffalo standards. thinking next time I’ll go for the tandoori masala or soul purifier, god knows I need my soul purified by some wings. followed up the wings with a pork bahn mi from viet thai (91st and 3rd), not bad but c’mon, source vietnamese rolls instead of bad hoagie rolls.
back to the wing well last night at chicken insider, 95th and 2nd ave. The draw was Korean fried chicken, double fried wings worthy of a tik tok video. unfortunately doused in what I’d call an amped up general tso’s sauce; think double the glop, double the sweet and double the spice. the place was very busy, I guess they’ve accurately plumbed the UES palate.
today stopped at tasty dumpling in chinatown, 4 decent fried pork and chive dumplings for $2. if we all agree with my wife’s 1 star rating for the ambience of mariscos submarino , tasty dumpling falls on the order of .01 stars. I noticed they removed their good chili oil from their unwashed tables in favor of a thin, communal chili oil found in a plastic container on their unwashed counter.
followed tasty dumpling with my first visit to Tonii’s Fresh Rice Noodle. $6 buys three huge, beautiful, perfect rice rolls stuffed with unidentifiable meat products that they called pork and chicken, tiny dried shrimp brought a strong fishy taste to the whole affair. And if Tasty Dumplings is .01 ambience stars, Tonii’s is about .00000001 stars. I will say the people working the counter are terrific and friendly but, maybe for the first time in my life, I don’t think I can head back there without a blindfold.
Finished the day with a fantastic, warm, flaky portugese tart from tai pan. I’ve always thought they had the best dan tat in flushing, pretty sure these are the best portugese tarts in manhattan’s chinatown (and maybe manhattan) but I’d like to be proven wrong.
best,
ps A basic rule of riding the nyc subway is that if someone is deranged in your car, you move away to the other end of the car and change cars the next stop (as opposed to obtaining a chokehold and strangling the person to death). Today I came up with a corollary to that rule, two 16 yo or so teenagers were riding the subway together, the guy had a “beaches of hawaii” tee shirt, a large beaded retaining strap for his glasses and an expensive camera hanging from his neck. The girl was similarly dressed, with a pocketbook where I could see a row of credit cards and money.
the corollary to the rule is to treat them the same way as a yelling, deranged person, move to the end of car and change cars asap. Cause dollar to donuts, if someone is going to attract criminals, it’s people dressed like this. I saw them leave the train at the times square stop, I wonder what became of them.
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I wonder if “my wife it was out of town” was a Freudian slip or a simple typo.
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I figured it was about time I had my first omakase, so I went for lunch at Sushi Ikumi (recommended by someone whose sushi opinions I trust). It was a relative bargain at $150 - dinner is $220, and this was PLENTY of food: An appetizer (fried fish with peas and onion), followed by 12 pieces of nigiri, miso soup, housemade soba, and housemade strawberry ice cream. I was very impressed with the fish, and the chef’s knife skills were pretty awe-inspiring. But I found the rice a little too loose and too warm. Obviously I’m not going to do this often, since I may want to retire one day, but I’m really glad I went. Reservations should be a cinch to get - I was half the customers.
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beautiful photos!
Thanks! Hard to take a bad one - the lighting is great in there, and the fish was so beautiful!
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Guess I should think about lunch; your pictures have given me an appetite! Wondering, how warm was the rice?
A little warmer than body temperature. I don’t like the rice too cold, but it holds together better when it’s cooler, and (since I was picking up the nigiri with my hands) I kept worrying I would drop grains all over the place.
Wow!! New York pricing sure is steep!! USD 150 for ONLY one Otsumami and 8 Nigiris!
Comparable Sushi-ya here in Toronto, run by a Japanese master sushi chef ( one of his disciples just received a Michelin 1* for his spin-off restaurant ) offers a luncheon special for ONLY CAD 75!!
5 Otsumami including Lobster Chawamushi. Shrimp Tempura, simmered fish dish…etc. Neta for the nigiri include Toro, Ikura, Uni, Shima-aji, Botan Ebi…etc.
Come on up! Pay this northern neighbour a visit!! 
Yes, I’m sure few will be surprised to learn that New York City, and even more so Manhattan, and even more so Soho, is expensive. Ikumi’s chef also has a Michelin star.
My lunch was 12 nigiri, as noted in my description. There were a few I couldn’t photograph because they were handed to me, “nori taco” style, like the Hokkaido uni and the sardine. All of the fish you listed were included except for ikura (which was available as a supplement to the soba). But of course I’d be happy to try sushi in…Toronto? Is that where you are? I don’t doubt that the whole city is a lot cheaper than mine.
OIC! My bad! Makes a lot of difference then!!
Yes, a 30% difference! To be honest, I couldn’t have eaten much more than I did. More appetizers would have cut into my enjoyment of the nigiri, although I do love chawanmushi. A lot!
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, what a delectable racket
n.b. a sushi fan no doubt, I just chortle over the fact that half of what composes modern sushi is a common starch + vinegar, and the other half a piece of raw fish.
But It’s all about the presentation, right? Whereas El Bulli and WD~50 were the occidental culinary world’s analogs to hands-on art museums, sushiya fit the bill for the east.
I’ll say that dining at wd -50 was one the most costly, yet also one of the most memorable meals I’ve had in the city. Annisa comes in second, and an extensive lunch at Yasuda while the man was still around third. The nigiri were absolutely perfect.
