After our trip to Hawaii, my wife and I were in dire need of a shave ice fix. Luckily we got wind of a joint out in Babylon, near where we used to live. We were out there for the weekend anyway, since I was running in the inaugural Suffolk County Marathon. This was the perfect way to cut my nerves the day before the race. Check out the flavors:
Look at the size of this medium!
Overall it was a pretty legit experience. The ice seemed correct to me, but my wife thought that maybe they weren’t using distilled water (she said the ice was harder or chunkier than in Hawaii). The flavors were right on though. Very similar to what we tasted over there in the islands. The prices were the same too.
FIRE ISLAND SHAVE ICE
450 Fire Island Ave.
Babylon, NY 11702
My wife and I were invited to another awesome Tabelog event – this time at a new gelato parlor on 18th & 8th called Amorino.
This place is known for its beautifully crafted cones that look like flowers, and their unique flavors like pistachio and biscotti.
If you see this fellow, be nice! He’s the owner, Federico:
Our task was to rate a bunch of flavors on a scale of 1-5 using this nifty score card:
The flavors came around in little sample cups like this:
And we were permitted to ask for pretty much anything else that we wanted to try. Check out this wild mix:
My favorites were pistachio, yogurt and biscotti.
At the end of the tasting, there was a little blind taste test going on:
I got 3 out of 4 correct, with my one mistake being a tech-fault. I wanted to write raspberry but since it wasn’t passed around as a sample earlier, I just didn’t think it existed. So I wrote strawberry instead. Lesson: Always trust your taste buds! I was right, but I was wrong. Oh well.
Afterward, they passed around some of their awesome gelato-filled macarons:
These were really good! I definitely recommend hitting this place for a tasty and unique treat.
The story behind Minton’s jazz club is pretty great. The way it worked, back in the day, was this: Musicians would be given a free meal of soul food if they played. They were allowed to solo, as long as they could keep up with the house band. At the time, that house band was run by the great Thelonious Monk. His style was tough to keep up with for most musicians, but guys like Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Charlie Parker were able to hang with him when they came in to play and eat.
The joint closed in 1974, reopened in 2006, then closed again in 2010, and reopened again in late 2013. The neighborhood has undergone some dramatic changes in real estate values, demographic, businesses that operate there, etc. If I had to guess, I’d say that tho splice is not going to close again anytime soon. The music and food are just too good.
First, let’s get your appetites brewing with a little bit of battle jazz:
Now, I’ll tell you about the delicious food we ate. My wife picked up a Living Social deal for the amazing price of about $90, which included two apps, two entrees, a shared dessert, two cocktails and a jazz album to take home, on top of the great music that you get to watch and listen to while you’re there.
The first thing to come out where a pair of balls: hush puppies for an amuse. These were tasty: crunchy on the outside, pillowy on the inside.
I started with the fried green tomatoes. Two thick, tangy slices of tomato were fried to a golden crisp and topped with hot smoked arctic char and dandelion greens, which were deftly dressed with a creole dressing. I’ve only had fried green tomatoes a few times in my life, but he addition of smoked fish on top was really incredible. It added substance, flash and style to an otherwise ordinary dish. I loved it.
My wife had the deviled crab cake, which tasted exactly how it sounds. It was meaty and spiced, and came with some black eyed peas and celery leaves for texture and herbiness. A really nice southern take on a northeast classic.
The music roared as we mowed through our apps…
We sipped on a pair of delicious cocktails while enjoying the band. I had something called a prima, which consisted of sage infused rye, sorrel syrup, lemon juice, aromatic butters and agave honey. My wife had the satchmo, which was made with smoky is lay scotch, bourbon, bale syrup and bitters.
…And soon enough the entrees were served.
I ordered the venison burger, which was topped with farm cheese, blackberry onion jam and country ham, with a side of yucca fries (I think that’s what they were).
The burger was smoky from the country ham, and the melty cheese was thick and sharp, Everything was cut nicely by the sweet blackberry onion jam, which I think they can bottle and sell as a gourmet BBQ sauce. Really tasty. The venison wasn’t gamey or funky: It was tender and packed with robust flavor, and it was cooked to a perfect medium rare:
Those fries though… WOW. Nice and crispy with a crunchier texture than potato. They had a good snap to them, and they were perfectly fried and seasoned.
My wife had the buttermilk fried guinea hen. This was served with a bourbon peach tea glaze, black eyed peas and pickled collared stems for a bit more crunch and punch. The meat itself was perfectly cooked. It was nice and juicy, with tons of flavor coming at you from every angle. There was even a hint of maple syrup for that chicken and waffles type of flavor.
For dessert we had the lemon tart with blueberry sorbet and shaved fruit leather. This was nice and tangy, and the shell around the lemon curd was super light and airy. A light and refreshing way to end a great meal:
MINTON’S JAZZ CLUB
206 W. 118th St.
New York, NY 10026
While I really can’t give a full-blown review of this place because I got my doughnut from Whole Foods, I can tell you that I absolutely loved the frosted blueberry doughnut. It was absolutely perfect. Soft, moist, flavorful, cake and delicious. Can’t wait to eat more of these fucks now that I know Whole Foods stocks them on site.
Side note: the PB&J doughnut is intensely good. Essentially it is a glazed donut that’s filled with jelly and then topped with chunky peanut butter. Why hasn’t this ever been done before?!?? And the coconut cream doughnut was amazing too.
This little crepe spot just opened around the corner from my place, on 7th Avenue at 58th Street. They serve both sweet and savory crepes, with stuff that’s suitable for everything from breakfast to lunch to dessert.
My wife and I came for the dessert varietals. I got a butter and sugar crepe with bananas, and my wife got dolce de leche with strawberries and raspberries.
Pretty great! Light batter, airy and crisp. I have to come back and try the savory offerings.
City Kitchen is a small second floor food hall that has some pretty decent proprietors in it. All of the food sold within is pretty much meant for take-out as opposed to dine-in, though there are a few tables available and bar seating along with windows.
I’ve decided to lump all of my reviews for each place within into this one post for easy access.
First is Kuro Obi, the ramen joint at the far end.
This is an offshoot of Ippudo. They offer the karaka-men spicy pork and chicken broth ramen. It was good. The noodles were the wavy egg style, and all the ingredients within were great. I just wish for $13 I got more than two thin slices of the pork belly.
Next up was Whitman’s for a burger and fries.
The burger was great – cooked nicely to medium, good pickles, mayo coverage, lettuce and tomato. Excellent bun (potato) as well.
The fries were lackluster. Maybe I should have upgraded to blue cheese fries. They were just a little greasy and not crispy enough.
For dessert get some “shaved snow,” An ice-cream textural spin on shave ice.
We had the banana cream, finished with some coconut shavings and condensed milk (and Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal).
Nab some donuts from Dough on your way out. But if you see the famous hibiscus flavored ones, get as many as you can. They sell out quick.
We tried lemon poppy and chocolate this time. Both were amazing, doughy, big, soft, and flavorful even if not fresh out of the oven/fryer. But I was bummed that the hibiscus was all gone by time we finished our ramen and burger. Ahh what the hell… I’ll throw in some shots of the hibiscus donut from way back when I first tried them at another location:
CITY KITCHEN
Row NYC
700 8th Ave.
New York, NY 10036
La Frite is a little french fry joint on Macdougal just above Bleecker. They have a great $8 special that gets you two sliders and an order of fries. Not too bad.
But my wife and I actually liked the veggie slider (the actual veggie one, not the black bean one) better than the beef slider! Go figure.
For the fries, you can cheese regular or thin cut, and you can also get them “signature” style, with bacon crisps on top, or truffle fries (sprinkled with parmesan cheese and fried with truffle oil involved in the process). We tried thin truffle fries, and regular classic cut fries. We liked the thin cut truffle fries better, though we didn’t try any of the special dipping sauces (just mayo and ketchup).
I don’t know that I’d go out of my way for these fries. There are better around the city, but I like the idea of a french fries only type of place.
Smith & Mills is a tiny little joint in Tribeca that’s known for serving up great cocktails. They use herbs, fire, egg whites, spices, the whole nine. But what is less known is that they serve up some really great food as well. My wife and I came here and we sampled some of the stuff.
Mussels. Packed with flavor, delicious broth for dipping the bread too. Sop that shit up.
Burrata. Absolutely perfect. Soft, savory, sweet, tomatoes were juicy and flavorful, and the bread was again fantastic.
Plus, if you can get one of their pull-back toy cars to ride across the entire length of the bar, you get a free drink! Beware of the Corvette though. Getting it to generate enough speed is difficult, and it likes to pull to the right.
My buddy and I came in here after our first intended place for a burger ended up being closed for the day. It turns out that we were better off at this spot, as this ended up being one of the best burgers I’ve had in NYC to date.
I ordered the classic cheeseburger, which came in double patty format with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and Ruby’s sauce, which you can see oozing down the side in the above photo. Check the cut shot below:
The burgers were cooked to a perfect medium, and the bun was a strong yet soft potato style jammy. This shit was so good I almost ordered a second/came in my pants.
My buddy got the Bronte burger, which came on grilled/pressed bread with a sweet chili sauce. Very nice as well, but that burger above was the big winner.
Worth noting: the fries here are spectacular as well. They are shoestring style, but fried to a perfect crisp and served with an herb mayo on the side. Awesome. I’ll be back here again for sure.
Jeepney is a Flip joint downtown on 1st Avenue that has been getting popular for its large format feast known as “Kamayan Night,” which they host only on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Essentially they cover the table with banana leaves, cover the banana leaves with rice, and then cover the rice with all sorts of delicious food.
The one caveat: you eat with your hands. It gets pretty messy, but if you’re careful like I was, you won’t slobber up your $4000 camera rig.
The drinks at this place are all very tropical island-inspired, which is fun. They have a Flip version of a pina colada, which is made for two to share:
And smoothies made with a sweet bean ice cream:
There’s also a variety of Flip beers to sample as well:
So what the fuck are people eating at Kamayan Night? There’s lamb stew, rice cakes, baby bok choy, banana ketchup ribs, stewed pork belly, sweet sausage links, spring rolls, pickled cukes and onions, and a fried whole red snapper. Everything was delicious – seriously; not one item on the table was lacking in flavor and tasty, exotic island goodness.
The lamb stew, although it felt like a winter dish and a bit out of place from the other items, was really packed with spicy curry flavors. It came across more like a mountain dish to me, as opposed to an island dish. It was surrounded by sweet rice cakes which ate like a bread.
The baby bok choy was refreshing and sweet, as was the array of pickled cukes and onions. They much needed green pop and crunch to the meal.
The sausage links were sweet and meaty. The skin casing was a bit thick and rubbery for my liking (I like char grilled casings that snap and crunch); I assume they were boiled as opposed to grilled.
The stewed pork belly was hiding under the bok choy. This was really great. Soft, flavorful, and super porky.
The spring rolls were a nice texture change up as well: crisp and light.
The banana ketchup ribs were amazing. I tasted the banana but not so much the ketchup, which I suppose is a good thing. There was a mild heat to them as well. Really nicely done.
I think the star of the meal, for me, was the fried whole red snapper.
It was so fucking crispy on the outside, yet tender and light on the inside. It was easy to pull apart and avoid bones as well.
I even dug into the cheek at some point, which was nice.
For dessert, I thought this dish was a bit small for four people to share, but it was really good and refreshing. It was sweet bean ice cream on top of coconut flavored shaved ice and garnished with flan, some small cubes of minty jelly, and then topped with Rice Krispies.
Same thing from a second visit (ube ice cream):
A couple of things I noticed:
1) Apparently not every Kamayan feast is the same. The table being set up next to us had shrimp as well as a clam stew of some kind for ravaging:
2) The walls are adorned with some hot naked broads. Enjoy:
If you’re feeling courageous, try Balut – a fertilized duck egg. Half duck, half egg. A fetus, basically. Sometimes crunchy with fowl parts.
