Posted by Ed Levine, August 26, 2008 at 12:00 PM
When Dirty Bird To Go first opened I ruffled quite a few feathers with a less than laudatory write-up on my old Ed Levine Eats blog. Co-owner Allison Vines Rushing took me to task in an e-mail exchange for reviewing her fried chicken joint prematurely, before she had time to get the kinks (or should I say pluck all the feathers) out.
I've gone back a few times in the last couple of years and noted some improvement, but a visit the other day has me convinced that finally the fried chicken at Dirty Bird is up to Vine-Rushing's standards.
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Posted by Zach Brooks, August 12, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Billy's Bakery admits that their Hello Dolly Bars are "baked with everything but the kitchen sink," but that still isn't enough to prepare you for this monstrosity. Chocolate and butterscotch chips, graham cracker crumbs, coconut, pecans, and for some unknown reason, sweetened condensed milk. Some here at Serious Eats HQ complained it was too sweet (imagine that!) but for me this sugar bomb was just right. Diabetics beware.
Billy's Bakery
184 9th Avenue, New York NY 10011 (nr. 22st Street; map)
212.647.9956
billysbakerynyc.com/
Posted by Ed Levine, July 29, 2008 at 11:00 PM
Photographs by Robyn Lee
Amy's Bread
Location Visited: 75 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY 10011 (Between 15th & 16th Streets); 212-462-4338; amysbread.com.
Additional locations at 672 Ninth Avenue, New York NY 10036 (Hell's Kitchen) and 250 Bleecker Street, New York NY 10014 (West Village)
Service: Friendly, accommodating, and quick (except when you order a pressed sandwich)
Setting: Bakery counter with some tables and chairs. Look to the left and you can watch bread being made.
Compare It To: Balthazar, Sullivan Street Bakery, Mangia
Must-Haves: Ham and cheese biscuit, grilled cheese and tomato sandwich, Cuban sandwich, cherry cream scone, butterscotch cashew bar, lemonade, lemon mouseline cake.
Cost: $10-15 for a sandwich, cookie, and drink.
Grade: B+
Here at Serious Eats world headquarters we work in what can only be called a sandwich, bread, and baked goods-challenged neighborhood. For sandwiches we have Salumeria Biellese, but it limits itself to big, meat-centric sandwiches on unsatisfactory bread (they still haven't taken me up on my suggestion to carry Sullivan Street Bakery stirato). The bread and baked goods situation is even more dire. Basically, we've got nothing unless we're willing to brave the line at Whole Foods.
Over the past few months while going down to Chelsea Market for various meetings, I rediscovered Amy's Bread. To the people who live near or work in Chelsea Market, Amy's Bread is a godsend. And to those people I say, do not take Amy's Bread for granted. Proximity should breed support, not contempt.
Almost everything Amy Scherber and her hardworking crew make—from bread to cake, from cookies to sandwiches, from pizza to focaccia—is damned tasty, with a few items reaching the level of serious deliciousness. Scherber brings a taste, know-how, and pride to everything she sells here, and the result is an eatery I would kill to have in my neighborhood. She has proven herself to be a dough wizard; the breads, cookies, and cakes all have a chance for greatness. And even though all the sandwiches at Amy's Bread are premade, usually a sandwich no-no as far as I'm concerned, she manages to transcend the limitations of that tired genre.
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 15, 2008 at 11:00 PM
Photographs by Robyn Lee
La Nacional
239 West 14th Street, New York NY 10011 (b/n Seventh and Eighth avenues; map); 212-243-9308; lanacionaltapas.com
Service: Casual but attentive
Setting: Dining room is a little piece of Spain
Compare It To: Nowhere, really, but Tia Pol and Casa Mono if you must
Must-Haves: Paella, black rice, fideua, tosta choricera, almond cake
Cost: $45, including three courses, a glass of sangria, tax, and tip
Grade: A-
The only reason I discovered La Nacional is that Alex Raij, the founding chef of Tia Pol and El Quinto Pino, dialed my cell phone by accident. She thought she was dialing her husband, Edda, whose number is right next to mine in her cell phone contacts.
Once we got our wires uncrossed Alex started telling me about this restaurant, La Nacional, that she uses as her de facto office. She said, "I think it's the best, most authentic Spanish restaurant in New York." Coming from as accomplished a Spanish chef as Alex Raij, that was quite a statement. We agreed to meet at La Nacional for a little predinner dinner. "Look for the flags on West 14th Street. The restaurant is in the basement of the the Spanish Benevolent Society, founded in 1868 as a home away from home.
I spotted the flags. I walked down a couple of stairs and through a semilit hallway. A sign on the door told me where we were in no uncertain terms:
Don't let this sign dissuade you from visiting. Membership is free and readily available, and that is an understatement.
When you walk through the door you're in a windowless bar with tables and a couple of old television sets tuned to sports. A dining room with brown, ageless walls looks and feels like many a dining room in Spain.
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 10, 2008 at 8:15 AM
There are already geeks waiting in line to get the iPhone 3G in Manhattan. Here, Serious Eats mastermouth Ed Levine checks in with his picks for serious eats near the three locations in the Big, er, Apple.
Apple Store, Fifth Avenue
Carts on Sixth Avenue: There are several food vendors who line the sidewalks from 55th Street down to 51st (map), and many are open late. Most serious eaters get the chicken, white sauce, and a little hot sauce, over salad.
Prime Burger: This quirky joint won a James Beard Regional Classic Award and has excellent burgers, pie, and onion rings. 5 East 51st Street, New York NY 10022 (map)
Angelo's Pizza: Call ahead for a pie here, and have one of your line-waiting buddies go on a pizza run. It's a more-than-decent coal-fired brick-oven pie with fresh mozzarella. 117 W 57th Street, New York NY 10019 (map); 212-333-4333
Brooklyn Diner: Excellent and humongous (though expensive) hot dogs and hamburgers that come with estimable onion rings and fries. 212 West 57th Street, New York NY 10019 (map)
Le Pain Quotidien: This is your breakfast option. I love the macaroons and the meringues here. They've got a formerly excellent baguette that's still worth eating. 922 Seventh Avenue, New York NY 10019 (map)
Apple Store, Chelsea
La Taza D'Oro: The rice and beans here will sustain you for a long time. 96 Eighth Avenue, New York NY 10011 (map)
Amy's Bread in Chelsea Market: Here's your breakfast option near the Chelsea store. Get the cheddar biscuit with ham and cheese. 75th Ninth Avenue, New York NY 10011 (map)
Ronnybrook Farm Dairy's Ice Cream: Also in Chelsea Market. You've been waiting a long time. Treat yourself to a shake or malt at the Manhattan outpost of this Upstate dairy farm. 75th Ninth Avenue, New York NY 10011 (map)
Pop Burger: These mini burgers are little, tasty, and come in boxes of two. 58-60 Ninth Avenue, New York NY 10011 (map)
Pinkberry Yogurt: It's a phenomenon. What can I tell you? 170 Eighth Avenue, New York NY 10011 (map)
Apple Store, Soho
Soho Park: Solid burgers and hot dogs. And some good sides, too. 62 Prince Street, New York NY 10012 (map)
La Esquina: Decent tacos, great grilled corn. Inexpensive. 106 Kenmare Street, New York NY 10012 (map)
Lombardi's: One of the few coal-oven pizzerias that delivers. I'd imaging they'd deliver to you in line. Just make sure nobody else waiting tries to masquerade as you when the order shows up. Try the very fine white pie. 32 Spring Street, New York NY 10012 (map)
Ray's Pizza: It actually is the original Ray's. Decent slices. 27 Prince Street, New York NY 10012 (map)
Balthazar Bakery: Here's your Soho breakfast option. Well-constructed sandwiches and excellent baked goods. 80 Spring Street, New York NY 10012 (map)
More iPhone Eats in ...
Philadelphia
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Serious Eats Mobile
Now's a good time to mention that you can view this guide on Serious Eats Mobile: m.seriouseats.com. And because Serious Eats Mobile supports commenting, you can supply live eats intel from the field, from whatever device you're about to upgrade out of. It's as easy as thumb-thumb-thumb-Post a comment!
Posted by Adam Kuban, July 8, 2008 at 11:00 AM
You don't often find a perfectly balanced sandwich in New York. Too many delis have the notion that this lunchtime staple should be X-many inches high, I suspect in a misguided attempt to justify high prices—especially in Manhattan. I've had BLTs with half a head of lettuce piled on or ham sandwiches that must have taken an entire pig's ass to construct. Add to that a jar's worth of mayo or a slick of mustard, and you'll quickly find your meal's innards shimmying out the back door as you smush the thing enough to fit into your mouth.
That's why I have to give props to places like Brooklyn Bagel & Coffee Company. They understand the notion that less is more.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, July 2, 2008 at 6:00 PM
A debate regarding patriotism has us puzzled here at Serious Eats Headquarters. Is it un-American to eat a flag? Destruction it may be, but we're not dragging the cookie through the dirt or anything. Just nibblin' on the stripes. Mmm, America.
Amy's Bread will be closed on the 4th, so grab these today or tomorrow. Flags are $3, big stars $2.75, small stars $1 and those flip-flops with the adorable "toe polish," $2. By the 5th, they'll likely just be crumbs, but Amy's Bread should have patriotic cupcakes all weekend. Amy's Bread has three locations in Manhattan.
Posted by Ed Levine, May 20, 2008 at 11:30 PM
(Photographs by Robyn Lee)
Salumeria Biellese
376-378 Eighth Avenue, New York NY 10001 (at 29th; map)
212-736-7376; Website
Must-Haves: Mixed cold-cut sandwich, meatball hero, roast turkey or pork with mozzarella and brown gravy—on Sullivan Street stirata bread
What You'll Spend: $6.75, including the cost of the stirata (which is big enough for two large sandwiches) and the top-shelf cold cuts
Grade: A+ for the above-mentioned sandwiches on stirato, B for the same sandwiches on Biellese's regular bread
In my capacity as the official reviewer for Serious Eats New York, I feel it's perfectly within my rights to invent a new category of Italian sandwich emporium: the BYOB deli. The B in this case stands for "bread," not "bottle." That's right, I'm advocating—in fact I'm telling you flat out—that if you would like to eat the finest mixed Italian cold-cut hero to be found in New York, you need to bring your own bread to Salumeria Biellese, which from the outside looks like the most nondescript, generic steam-table Italian deli you can imagine. It's even a little nondescript on the inside, too.
Get over how ordinary the place looks and bring your bread, which, if you can swing it is a stirato from the Sullivan Street Bakery or its offshoot Grandaisy. The stirato is, simply put, the most heroic hero bread in the land. It is just chewy and crusty enough to generate a slight noise when you bite into it, but its interior has lovely hole structure and tenderness. For the purposes of this review I bought my stirato at the Whole Foods on Seventh Avenue and 24th Street, a mere five blocks from Salumeria Biellese.
When it is your turn to order, tell one of the countermen you would like a mixed Italian cold-cut hero with the housemade Genoa salami, soppressata (your choice of hot or sweet), capicola, and provolone, made on the bread you are giving him.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, May 20, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Clockwise from top left: Exterior of Kofoo, eel dup bop, assorted kimbap, duk bok gi.
The Serious Eats office isn't located in the most depressing of culinary wastelands, but there's little in the way of gastronomic delight to be had in this part of Chelsea, which I think would make a good candidate for the title of "The Butt of New York City." However, we do have one shining star just around the corner from our building: Kofoo, a cheap, fresh, fast, and reliable Korean take-out that is easily the place I've eaten at the most in all of New York City.
What's Good?
Spicy tuna kimbap and barbecue chicken kimbap with brown rice.
Having eaten most of the items on the menu, I'd say everything is good, depending on what you're craving. Bibimbap, bulbogi, japchae, and more; they've got most of your favorite basic Korean dishes.
My favorite is the spicy tuna kimbap—like sushi on steroids, filled with dangerously mouth-tinglingly spicy canned tuna—although if I'm hungrier, I'll go for an assortment of kimbap that includes one piece of each of their ten types.
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Posted by Ed Levine, October 19, 2007 at 6:43 PM
At El Quinto Pino chef-owner Alex Raij is making a room-temperature tomato soup that goes way beyond gazpacho. It's called salmorejo, hails from the city of Cordoba, and is as simple as simple can be: farm-stand tomatoes, salt, olive oil, and bread. She then puts a dollop of hardboiled egg and a little Serrano ham in the center of the bowl.
To make sure we get every last drop of the soup, she serves some toast points on the side to dip. Once you taste this soup you might never be able to go back to gazpacho again. Get to El Quinto Pino soon, because once the tomatoes stop coming to the Greenmarket in Union Square, there will be no salmorejo until next year.
El Quinto Pino
Address: 401 West 24th Street, New York NY 10011 (at Ninth Ave.)
Phone: 212-206-6900
Posted by Ed Levine, October 4, 2007 at 12:00 PM
Before I set foot in the BBQ Chicken that just opened near Serious Eats world headquarters, I was as confused as anyone. A Korean company called BBQ Chicken with 3,500 locations in 37 countries was opening a fried chicken joint in New York?
Well, it turns out that BBQ stands for "Best of the Best Quality Chicken." Now you know, and after you finish reading this post, you will know something else: Based on my initial foray, BBQ Chicken serves some mighty fine fried chicken. All those millions of folks in 37 countries eating at BBQ's 3,500 locations, like Elvis fans, can't be wrong. They have been eating better quick service restaurant (QSR) fried chicken than we have.
And, if the company realizes its goal of opening 50,000 locations worldwide by 2020, I'd imagine that BBQ Chicken will be available nationwide here in the U.S. and that even more Serious Eaters will be able to try it and see if they agree with me. (McDonald's, by comparison, has a little more than 30,000 locations worldwide.)
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 28, 2006 at 11:05 AM
In theory, the turkey club sandwich is a great idea. Turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and toast; what's not to like? Yet every element of a club sandwich, except perhaps the mayo, is fraught with peril. Dry turkey or turkey roll, rigormortis-ridden bacon that was cooked and left for dead hours before it makes it into your sandwich, iceberg lettuce browned to a not-very-crisp, and woody, cardboard tomatoes that taste more like potatoes than tomatoes, often lead to a turkey club sandwich gone horribly wrong.
That's why I am thrilled to report that there's finally a great turkey club sandwich in NY, at Cookshop. There chef Joel Hough constructs his club sandwich with gently house-smoked turkey, smokey and just sweet enough Hatfield Farms bacon from New Hampshire, ripe avocados, baby lettuces, housemade mayo, and Balthazar toasted potato batard. Each bite of this sandwich gives you smokey, sweet, creamy, tender, crisp, fresh-tasting pleasure. And isn't that what we're all looking for?
The Times take on Cookshop.
NYM's take by Hal Rubenstein.
Cookshop is at 156 10th Avenue (20th St.) 212-924-4440
Posted by Ed Levine, June 13, 2006 at 8:24 AM
Wandering home from the office yesterday trying to recover my eating equilibrium after 48 hours of dawn to dusk barbecue eating at the BABBP, I decided to flush my system with an order of six ($4.95) pork and chive dumplings at the Rickshaw Dumpling Bar. To please the nutrition gods I was going to order an entree salad with the dumplings, but somehow I forgot. But because my order took longer than usual the friendly counterman at RDB threw in an order of edamame. Take that, nutrition police! The edamame were good (especially after I discovered the little dish in the salt in the edamame box), but the dumplings rocked. Thin, crisp, delicate dumpling wrappers surrounded a flavorful porky filling that could have been a little juicier. I know the romantic dumpling mavens around town think five bucks is too much to pay for six dumplings, but these dumplings are far superior to the leaden, greasy hand grenades that too often pass for dumplings, even in Chinatown. 61 W. 23rd Street (between fifth and sixth avenues). 212-924-9220.
Serious dumpling rating: 92
Other great dumpling spots (non-soup dumplings):
- Sweet-n-Tart Restaurant: {20 Mott Street, NY, NY}
- Chinese American: {106 W. 32nd St., NY, NY}
What are your favorite dumpling spots? Steamed, Boiled or Fried (your choice)
Posted by Ed Levine, May 22, 2006 at 2:56 PM
I had a friend, Stuie Bleckner, who died fifteen years ago. Stuie was a good soul, depressed and confused about a lot of things, but crystal clear on many others. He was one of those cabbie philosophers who could engage just about any fare in a highly personal but unintrusive conversation. He did the same thing with his friends, of which I was one of many.
Like many cabbies, Stuie loved to eat, and had incredible eatar (eating radar) He turned me on to more great food in unlikely places than anyone else I've ever known. On Friday I was meeting my friend Bob for lunch. Bob, who was in fact much closer to Stuie than I was, suggested a Stuie dumpling spot called Chinese American (yes, that's the name). Stuie must have been holding out on me, because I had in fact never been there .
Chinese American turned out to be a totally nondescript joint on West 32nd St. that was clearly a Greek coffee shop in a former life. There was a small counter as you walk in with a window into the kitchen, and a small counter next to the window where the Chinese cooks left the food for the waitresses to pick up. Ugly acoustical tile and bad flourescent lighting completed what would have been a classic picture except for the fact that the joint serves Chinese food.
And pretty damned good Chinese food at that. Anyone who walks through the door here has to have the fried dumplings, which have beautiful brown crispy exterior, surprisingly thin dough casing, and juicy, tasty pork filling.
The rice noodles with chicken were pretty boring, but the fried pork with scallions was good enough to have me already thinking about a return visit.
In fact, the dumplings are good enough that I might make Chinese American a daily stop on my way to work.
So, my late great friend Stuie, you held out on me. I don't really mind. It gave Bob and me a chance to raise our glasses of Diet Coke and our used chopsticks to you one more time. We miss you, Stuie. Your memory lives on in places like Chinese American, 106 W. 32nd St. (between 6th and 7th avenues) 212-564-4597.
Posted by Ed Levine, April 23, 2006 at 1:07 PM
Generic Japanese restaurants are ubiquitous in Manhattan, so when I discover one that is not generic and has a very fine $10 lunch it's worth mentioning.
Momoya (185 Seventh Avenue, at 21st St., 212-989-4466) has a ten dollar chicken teriyaki lunch that is a steal. It's served with the usual soup or salad, but the soup is a better than average miso soup, and the salad is comprised of greens that are not wilted or brown. The chicken teriyaki itself has crisp skin, moist chicken meat (even the white meat) and a clearly housemade, not excessively sweet, teriyaki sauce. For two bucks more you can get salmon teriyaki instead or for five bucks more you can get rib eye teriyaki.
For a more extensive review of Momoya check out Bruni's NY Times review.
Posted by Ed Levine, March 23, 2006 at 12:45 PM
I had a great lunch at Keen's Chophouse today, and I was reminded what a cool place it is. It's a zillion years old, it's all old wood and glass, there are thousands of pipes hanging from the ceiling, and the food is really quite good if you stick to the basics. I had the sliced steak, which had the minerally tang of good prime dry-aged beef. It was just the right amount of red meat for lunch, it came with a salad with tangy Neals Yard Stilton crumbled over it (I special-ordered the cheese from out friendly waiter), and the iced tea refills were free. And burger freaks should note that Keen's bar serves a terrific hamburger with fresh french fries that would be perfect if they were saltier and fried a little longer so they would be golden brown instead of off-white. You can't get the burger in the main room at the restaurant. The sliced steak was only $22, and I wasn't paying anyway, so I would describe the prices at Keens as being quite reasonable. Keens is a perfect place to eat before an event at the Madison Square Garden. It's a five to seven minute walk from the The World's Greatest Arena.
Posted by Ed Levine, February 24, 2006 at 1:01 PM
Three months in the slurping, my chicken soup piece came out Wednesday in the NYTimes. For those of you who don't read the Times, I am going to list my ten favorite chicken soups (I sampled a hundred) here, along with a few others I really liked that just failed to crack the top ten:
- Blue Ribbon Bakery 33 Downing Street (Bedford Street), (212) 337-0404. Matzo ball soup, $7.75.
- Cubana Café 110 Thompson Street (Prince Street), (212) 966-5366. Chicken soup with avocado, tomato, cilantro and yuca (cassava), $5.
- Fred's at Barneys New York 660 Madison Avenue (60th Street), ninth floor, (212) 833-2200.
- Estelle's chicken soup $8.
- Grand Sichuan International 229 Ninth Avenue (24th Street), (212) 620-5200. Chicken and pea shoots, $8.95; chicken with pickled cabbage, $7.95.
- Hearth 403 East 12th Street (First Avenue), (646) 602-1300. Chicken soup with escarole, chicken dumplings and pastina, $12.
- Momofuku Noodle Bar 163 First Avenue (10th Street), (212) 475-7899. Chicken noodle soup with Shanghai thick noodles, onions and scallions, $11.
- New Chao Chow Restaurant 111 Mott Street (between Canal and Hester Streets), (212) 226-2590. Chao Chow wonton soup, $3.50.
- Perry St. 176 Perry Street (West Street), (212) 352-1900. Chicken soup with vegetables, avocado and dill, $13.50.
- Pio Maya 40 West Eighth Street (Avenue of the Americas), (212) 254-2277. Chicken soup, $3.25.
- Sripraphai 64-13 39th Avenue, Woodside, Queens, (718) 899-9599. Chicken soup with mushrooms, coconut milk and galangal; Cornish hen in hot and sour soup (tom-zap), both $7.
A few others I really enjoyed:
- Akdeniz 19 W. 46th Street (bet. Fifth and Sixth Aves.) 212-575-2307; Slightly creamy chicken soup that comes to life with a squeeze of the lemon they serve it with.
- Al Bustan 827 Third Avenue (bet. 50th and 51st Sts.) 212-759-5933 Lebanese Chicken soup enlivened with the same lemon squeeze and, surprisingly, a touch of cinnamon.
- Azuri Cafe 465 W.51st (between 9th and 10th Aves.) 212-265-2920; I was lovin' the chicken soup here until I put the first piece of matzo ball in my mouth. It was ice cold. So I cut up the matzo balls into little pieces and let them sit in the soup for a minute or two to heat them up. Brilliant!
- Brooklyn Diner USA: 212 W. 57th Street (between Broadway and Seventh Ave.) 212-977-2280; Fine classic chicken soup with moist chicken and a toothsome broth.
- Teresa's 103 First Avenue (between 6th and 7th Sts.) 212-228-0604; If the noodles were al dente at this Polish coffee shop, this bargain chicken soup ($2.75) would have cracked the top ten.
Posted by Ed Levine, January 24, 2006 at 1:22 PM
I got on the scale with a fair amount of trepidation this morning. Last night I went to a party Gourmet threw for its 65th birthday at the new Morimoto at Tenth Avenue and 16th Street.
The place is completely over the top, with white gauze-like ceilings and all kinds of nutty design touches that I'll get into in another post. But great food was flowing like bottled water at one of those restaurants where they keep opening and pouring the designer H2O to get your check up;
Duck three ways on a foie gras croissant, tuna tartare laid out like a painting on a canvass, tons of sushi, kobe beef teriyaki. You get the picture. I had decided to eat dinner at this party and I tried to keep a lid on my eating. I thought I had succeeded pretty well, but I wasn't sure. It's hard to really know what you have consumed when it's all flying by you when you're standing and socializing.
So when I got on the scale and it had me down four pounds from last week I didn't believe it.
So I got off my digital scale, cleared the display, and weighed myself again. Same result!
I have now lost 17 pounds, and my goal was to lose at least 16 pounds by my birthday, which is Friday the 27th of January.
I feel particularly gratified because I have managed to lose weight during Thanksgiving and the holiday season, and while I have been doing my foodie thing judging two Iron Chef shows, writing a story for the Times which requires me to eat a fair amount of food.
I only hope my weight this morning wasn't one of those cruel aberrations you experience when you are on a diet, where you lose a lot of weight one week only to put it back on the next time you weigh yourself.
