NYC: Milk Bar

If you read my Momofuku posting, Noodle Bar was just okay.  Good, but I don't think I'll be dying for another trip here anytime soon.  Another David Chang joint we tried is Milk Bar.  We ordered the cereal milk shake, and cereal milk soft serve ice cream which tasted just like the leftover milk from a bowl of cereal - if only I could think of the cereal it tasted like.  It was really good.  I think I'd order the soft serve  ice cream again.

We also tried the Crack Pie and Compost Cookie.  The Crack Pie wasn't as addictive as I thought it would be, but it was good and tasted like a butter pie.  The Compost Cookie was great, it really was just a mixture of just about anything you can think of.  It was as if a little kid just came up with the recipe and couldn't make up their mind about what to make so they just mixed everything together.

The it primary ingredients (in case you can't see the detail from the photo) is sugar, brown sugar, cream, egg yolks, whole oats, unbleached wheat flour, and whole eggs.

Milk Bar (map)
207 2nd Ave
New York, NY 10003

NYC: Momofuku Noodle Bar...Why the Hype?

I've made it pretty clear that my favorite ramen noodle joint in NYC is Ippudo.  The biggest contender in the city seems to be Momofuku Noodle Bar, but with all the hype, I've been resistent to go check it out.

I ate at Momofuku Ssam Bar over a year ago (pre-blog) and with much anticipation. I was sadly disappointed - probably the reason why I didn't feel the urgent need to try another David Chang restaurant.  At Ssam Bar, we tried their pork buns but they just didn't hold up to Ippudo's.  I do like that David Chang uses thinly sliced cucumber in his buns which makes it a bit lighter and refreshing along with extra thick cut pork belly. Still, I prefer Ippudo's with its spicy mayo flavor.

I guess I came to Momofuku ready to be disappointed, but I was in some ways hoping to be pleasantly surprised.  Let me start off by saying that I was really impressed that David Chang orders so much (if not all) his ingredients from local farmers.  One of the chalk menus on the wall included a pretty long list of the local farms - kuddos to him on that front.

While we were waiting for Yumi, Ethan and I tried their frozen soju cocktails. They had four flavors: flor de jamaica, yuzu palmer, lychee, and limeade and we tried all four of them.  My favorites were flor de jamaica (mild and floral) and limeade (very strong and it'll make your mouth pucker up).

Frozen Flor de Jamaica Soju

Frozen Yuzu Palmer

Frozen Lychee Soju

Frozen Limeade Soju (with a mint sprig)

Appetizers:  Yumi and I ordered the pork buns (2 per order) and Ethan ordered the tamale trio (chicken mole, pork kimchi, jalepeno queso).  Let me start with the pork buns.  They looked gorgeous and just looking at the photos again makes me salivate and want to stuff my face... but then again it wasn't that great the first time around. It wasn't bad, I just think when up against Ippudo, I'd rather have an Ippudo pork bun.  I wasn't that excited about the tamales either.  They all tasted very similar for some reason and  were a bit dry.

The Noodles:  The three of us ordered the same momofuku ramen (pork belly, pork shoulder, poached egg).  I'm not saying it was bad, it was fine, but even after the first couple bites, I knew Ippudo remains #1.  I did like the big fatty chunks of pork belly but the broth didn't seem as complex in flavor as Ippudo's and the consistency of the noodles was more al dente than I care for.

Conclusion:  I don't think I'll be coming back, but I'm glad I tried it.

Momofuku Noodle Bar (map)
171 1st Avenue (between 10th & 11th)
New York, NY 10003

NYC: Han Bat Korean Restaurant

This is my favorite Korean go-to restaurant in all of Manhattan.  It might've been my cousin Ester who introduced me to this restaurant years ago when I first moved to New York City, and what a find.  My two favorite dishes here are Pajun (seafood pancake) and Gop Dol Bi Bim Bap.  I always leave here painfully full.  It's just too hard to stop eating even when you think your last bite will be your last...it never is.

Here's why these are my favorite dishes...the Pajun is perfectly crispy on the outside and chock full of seafood and scallions on the inside without being greasy.  What a wonderful combination of flavors and textures.  The Gop Dol Bi Bim Bap is the BEST in all of New York.  Bi Bim Bap is a bowl of rice, assorted vegetables, beef and a fried egg on top.  You mix in some guchujang (hot chili paste) and  you mix it all up.  Gop Dol or Dol Sot, is a stone bowl used to serve your bi bim bap extra hot.  This is my favorite Korean dish, and since it's something you can't really replicate at home unless you have a stone bowl, this is the place where I go when I have this special craving.  No other Korean restaurant makes their stone bowl as hot as Hanbat.  The best part of this dish is scrapping the bottom to get the crunchy burnt rice.  After eating here a few dozen times, I've finally mastered the mixing technique to maximize the surface of burnt rice in my bowl...my mouth is watering right now just thinking about eating here again.

Ban chan

Pajun

Bul Go Gi

Gop Dol Bi Bim Bap

All mixed up

Han Bat (map)

53 W. 35th Street (near 6th Avenue)

New York, NY 10018

My Old Place

Best to ask a Mandarin speaker to help you make a reservation here: English is definitely the second language and reservations are recommended.

The 'street' name of My Old Place is Lao Di Fang which when translated means "eat lots of Northern Chinese food for cheap but don't tell the foreigners about this place". In fact, I would not have posted this 'find' if it weren't for a fact that only Nellie reads this blog.

The green beans and chili chicken with numbing Sichuan spice are must haves; the ribs are so-so.

88 Middlesex Street, London E1

+44 207 247 2200