corsino

hudson (horatio/ gansevoort)

website

derek and i had grand plans for our rare weekday evening off of work. we were really excited about the malaysian street food festival being held in the meatpacking district. derek has always wanted nyc to have a hawker center like the ones we saw in singapore. unfortunately, when we got there - it was packed! i've never seen so many asians in nyc in one place and here, they were all squeezed onto a tiny traffic triangle in the middle of a busy street. too hungry to squeeze through the crowds and wait in line, we decided to continue the malaysian theme, but head to a restaurant instead - fatty crab. apparently many others had the same idea as that place was also packed. we kept walking down the road and saw corsino. italian? no wait? sure!

turns out it's the sister restaurant of one our favorites, 'inoteca. started with crostini - pieces of toast with various garnishes. my favorite was the ricotta and orange honey - light, creamy, with a hint of sweetness. pictured is derek's pasta with pork ragu. pretty good, but nothing to write home about. overall - while the food was tasty, the atmosphere was crowded and hurried, and the prices were unreasonably high. it's decent, but the quality of food just can't compare to fatty crab with their amazing pork buns, chili crab, pork belly, and coconut rum cocktails. next time, we just need to have patience and wait for a table to open up at fatty crab.

blind tiger

bleecker/jones

website

our night on the town that ended at big daddy's started at blind tiger. we had a large group of people, all there to say farewell to vanita and hubby before they move to the left coast. luckily, we managed to snag enough bar stools and tables to seat and feed everyone.

blind tiger has an impressive beer menu, but my focus was on food. we ordered olive tapenade (too salty), hummus (alright), deviled eggs (not as good as spotted pig), beet salad (hard to share), a blt sandwich (eh), and various grilled cheese sandwiches. the grilled cheese was definitely the winner - gooey, filled with onions and tomatoes. one word of caution though, there was a surprise jalapeno in one bite of the grilled cheese sandwich. no one else tasted any jalapeno, it was apparently only in my piece of the sandwich, but i swear it was there. beware.

five guys

laguardia (houston/ bleecker)

website

i've had a lot of great "fast-food" burgers, but five guys is not one of them. maybe it was an off day, maybe it was a bad location. i don't know. all i can tell you is that derek was happy with his double cheeseburger with mushrooms, but i couldn't even finish my hamburger.

five guys is a very popular chain that started in DC and has a couple of branches in new york city. the patty was fine, but not great. what was terrible about this burger was the bun - it was stale and overpowered the rest of the ingredients. the fries weren't great either. maybe others have had better experiences than i have, but with so many awesome burger places in the city, i'm going to stick with what i know.

otto

8th st (5th ave/university)

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to continue our tour of batali, we checked out otto near NYU. it was late on a quiet sunday evening - hardly anyone on the streets when we walked down past washington square park. but otto was packed, loud and raucous. that's where everyone was. reasonably priced batali food, who can resist? a co-worker recommended the cheese plate, but i forgot to order it - so i'll have to go back, of course.

what we did end up ordering was an arugula salad (excellent) and the pane frattau pizza - a thin crust pizza with tomato and pecorino, topped with a perfectly cooked egg sunny-side. poke the egg and the runny yolk runs all over the pizza like a rich sauce. the pecorino was a little too strong for derek, but i loved it. especially when you put the arugula salad on top. dinner for 2 under $25? that's a bargain for batali.

spotted pig

new york, ny

website

our walking tour of manhattan continued after the high line through the meatpacking district and into the west village (where we managed to hit all 5 marc by marc jacobs shops). when it was snack time, i decided to lead christine and val to the spotted pig, which started the whole "gastropub" trend in nyc. as far as i can tell, "gastropub" means that a restaurant has uncomfortable seating, an impressive beer selection, and excellent food (often inspired by british pub food).

val ordered a beer, the ladies had grapefruit juice (very good) and we ordered a round of bar snacks for the table. although famous for their deviled eggs, they must have been having an off day because ours were too vinegary. the fries, however, were amazing! extremely thin and crispy, they were covered with sprigs of rosemary and thyme. christine was brave enough to order the "roll mops" - which are pickled herring topped with creme fraiche - it was surprisingly tasty. spotted pig has figured out how to make british pub food gourmet and appealing.

blt burger

new york, ny

website

this might be my new second-favorite burger! nothing is going to top the shake shack in madison square park, but blt burger is a real restaurant, with a full bar and dining room. the atmosphere is interesting - there are big screen TVs everywhere showing sports and food is served in baskets with paper lining like a fast food joint. but at the same time - it's a BLT restaurant, which is a chain of fancy restaurants including BLT fish, BLT steak, BLT prime and BLT market. it definitely has a split personality. i was impressed that they had fried pickles on the menu, so i had to order those. they weren't as good as fried pickles that i've had in east texas, but i guess that shouldn't be a surprise.

the classic burger, however, was quite a surprise. the sesame seed bun is buttered and toasted. the meat is flavorful and perfectly salted. the toppings include iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, and pickles. in fact, it's all the same ingredients as the burger king whopper, which was my favorite burger when i was a kid. i suppose the BLT burger is the grown-up version with a grown-up price ($9). derek was less impressed - the little owl burger remains his second-favorite. for me, the combination of childhood nostalgia and quality ingredients makes the BLT burger my new second-favorite burger. definitely looking forward to going again.

little owl

new york, ny

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yet another restaurant with a lot of buzz but very little space. i think the latest trend in nyc is to have a tiny restaurant that everyone wants to eat at but can't get into. jenny has been trying to get me to go with her to little owl for a few months now, but we've never been able to find time to wait in line. finally, jenny figured out that little owl was going to be open on new year's day for brunch. we resolved to meet there at 11 am (as soon as it opened) to wait in what we assumed would be a reasonable line.

turns out - there was no line at all! the three of us - derek, myself and jenny - might have looked slightly stalker-ish as we peered through the windows at 10:55 am. they sat us immediately and after our server explained that "we're known for our burger," derek and jenny ordered the famed little owl burger. it came with american cheese, so i ended up ordering the meatball sliders. wrong choice - the burger was amazing. a thick peppery and juicy patty, a buttery brioche bun that absorbed all of the juices from the meat, and crispy bacon hidden under the melted cheese. derek has declared it "the best burger i've ever had." high praise indeed.

mary's fish camp

new york, ny

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i have to thank jenny for introducing me to lobster rolls. i'm not normally a huge fan of lobster, but when it's coated in a lemony mayonnaise and served on a toasted and buttered roll, it's heaven on a plate. at mfc, there are other entrees on the menu. various seafood dishes. apparently people order those as well. i don't really understand, but i'm not going to complain as long as they don't run out of lobster. i think jenny and i ordered appetizers while we were there, but i've completely forgotten what they were. the desserts were not great - the hot fudge sundae had cold fudge and weird peanut brittle in it and the gingerbread was just okay. but the lobster roll ... divine.

mary's fish camp is a very popular spot and there's always a long wait. jenny and i sometimes worry that they're going to be out of lobster rolls before we manage to get a seat. but so far we've been lucky. honestly, the only time i'm going to find out what other entrees they serve is when they run out of lobster and we're too lazy to go down to pearl oyster bar instead.

magnolia bakery

new york, ny

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after i made a small purchase in wevill, the saleswoman presented me with two coupons for free magnolia cupcakes! although excited by the prospect of free food (everything tastes better when its free), derek and i were hesitant. usually, there's a line outside magnolia that wraps around the corner and down the street, filled with tourists and satc fans (apparently carrie once ate a cupcake from here?). but with the possibility of free cupcakes, we had to check it out. if the line was too long, we would just give our coupons to two lucky tourists.

fortunately for us, there happened to be a very short line to get into the surprisingly small shop. once inside, you have two options. to the left is a self-service section where you can grab a cute cupcake carrier and choose two cupcakes. on the right, there's a line where you can ask for other dessert items (note - it is not the line to pay, you can actually go straight to the register). we went the self-service route. derek chose a mint-chocolate cupcake and i chose my standard yellow with chocolate frosting. we took our cupcakes to a nearby park where several women (and one man in a wig) wearing hot pink dresses were dancing an ode to cupcakes. the cupcakes themselves were tasty and indeed ode-worthy. maybe too much overly sweet frosting, but i'm just being picky - they were free, after all.

alta

new york, ny

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the problem with this picture is that there's too much whitespace on my plate - it fails to capture the overwhelming quantity of amazing food that was consumed tonight. we had: beef rib, octopus, pork belly, chicken wings x 3, crispy brussel sprouts x 2, lamb meatballs, lamb skewers, roasted eggplant, fried goat cheese, deviled eggs, cheesy flatbread, beet salad, and pulled pork empanadas. oh - and two bottles of red wine. every plate was delicious. every plate.

i love the small-plates/tapas craze that's spreading through nyc. it's like a high-end buffet. thanks to puri for the excellent restaurant recommendation and excellent wine selection and to puri/vanita/jenny/derek/babyk for the excellent company.

fatty crab

new york, ny

website

the best meal of the weekend. started with a rum + coconut water cocktail that was served in a coconut with a piece of sugar cane to chew on and a spoon to scoop out the flesh. yum. next came better-than-momofuku pork buns (imho). then a "salad" made up of fatty pork pieces on top of watermelon cubes. more yum. a duck dish which derek and his parents loved. the main course was the crab in spicy sauce. seriously finger-lickin' good. they don't have a dessert menu, but they serve complimentary coconut mochi cake slices - which derek doesn't like so i get an extra. yum yum yum.

it's quite pricey and the whole atmosphere screams "we're so cool and hip" which can be annoying, but the food is worth it. as a side note, it's a short walk to the new high line park where you can walk off some of the fattiness.