My niece, nephew, and their two friends were in from Florida. My niece spent a couple of years in China, and since her town back home doesn’t have a whisper of authentic Chinese food, she was excited to sample our UES options. On a previous trip she loved Mala Project but timing kept us on the UES.
First stop was Xi’an. She gave it a 7/10, probably amended upward since she knows it’s one of my favorites. Two in the group couldn’t eat spicy, so we had to go mild across the board, but she thought the noodle texture was off.
Next stop was Hui. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to her hopes. Two dishes were lost to my nephew’s SO who, despite gentle persuasion, insisted on shrimp lo mein and some sort of rib dish. Sigh. We did try a spicy eggplant (just okay), a lotus root dish I really liked, and their beef dry pot which I thought excellent, though she felt lacked authentic flavor. My guess is they toned the spice down for us, since on other visits dishes there was plenty of heat.
On the plus side, my wife and I are on the hunt for 3–4 Hui dishes to order, I’ve added dry pot and lotus root. and now know a few we won’t order again.
I am still on garden leave. As I’ve been back home for a bit, I have tried to get to places I normally would not be able to for lunch. Went to DeFonte’s today. Stood in line with a bunch of construction workers. The Nicky’s Special. Fried eggplant, a bunch of different Italian cold cuts, cheese, house made gardinera. An outstanding sandwich. This was a small.
Pre-Shakespeare in da Park dinner at Song e Napule on the UWS, a place I’ve been meaning to try for years. And it was…fine? Nothing wrong with it all, but it was no better than, say, Una Pizza Napoletana, or even Lil Frankie’s.
not a response re Song e Napule but these pastas - the Genovese and Nerano at least - are great choices at L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele as well. Thanks for the reminder will be back there on Monday night and maybe i will even pick up some zukes at the farmers market today to make my own nerano .
when you say fine, you mean about on the same level as the pizza place voted best in the world?
the pizza in your first photo is the modern Canotto-style neopolitan pizza, canotto means inflatable boat in Italian and refers to the huge, airy cornicione. The pizza in your second photo is a more traditional take on the style. Both places are very careful about their sourcing. In terms of quality, I’d agree there’s not much to seperate them but it’s nice to have access to naples level pizza without the cost of airfare.
I haven’t been to lil frankies so can’t comment but I’d guess they are not as fanatical around sourcing ingredients.
I wasn’t blown away by Una Pizza Napoletana either, for the record. This might be a case of even very good pizza being, at the end of the day, just pizza. Like all the raves about Clinton Street Baking Company’s pancakes. Or, as you say
I’m just gonna blow past your snark and say that I draw a distinction between the raw materials in pizza vs sushi, as well as the skill level required to produce each, and that makes me respect and appreciate excellent sushi more than excellent pizza (although I like both, obviously).
I think high quality fish is “worth” more than, say, high quality flour or high quality mozzarella, not least because I believe there is more skill in cutting fish than there is in mixing dough or shredding cheese. Both take practice, of course, but if you’ve seen Jiro Dreams of Sushi, as I assume you have, you know how long sushi chefs have to train just to learn to make rice.
The idea that you think I was being snarky simply points out the difference in the way we look at pizza. Pizza Napoletana is arguably the best pizza in the world, your lack of understanding about what makes it and song e’ napule great doesn’t mean it’s easy to make world class pizza. You’re mistaken If you think someone can spend a couple or years making dough/slinging pizza and turn out pizza at that level.
