Tag Archives: cannibal

Grand Opening: Gotham West Market

23 Nov

Our neighborhood just keeps getting better and better. First Brooklyn Fare opens last month,  and now Gotham West Market has opened on 11th Avenue and 44th Street.

Gotham West Market is billing itself as “a first-of-its-kind retail and dining destination in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.”  It features some great foodie destination dining, including a new outpost of Cannibal and a permanent location for Ivan Ramen, an infamous ramen maker that has been opening pop-ups randomly throughout the city, but hasn’t had a storefront until now.  It is also home to the newest NYC location of Blue Bottle Coffee. Others on their restaurant/shop list include The Brooklyn Kitchen (great kitchen supply store), NYC Velo (a bicycle shop), Little Chef (from the same chef as Saltie, serving farm-to-table sandwiches, soups, and salads), El Colmado (tapas and wine from Chef Seamus Mullen), Genuine Roadside (classic “roadside” food including burgers and shakes), and Court Street Grocers (sandwich shop).

We stopped by today to check it out.

First of all, it’s far.  11th avenue is even west for me, and I’m a west side girl.  But it’s in perfect proximity to the Jacob Javits Convention Center, the Intrepid Museum, and all the new westside apartment complexes and hotels opening up recently.

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But once you make the haul there, it’s a fun (if not very expensive) escape into foodie heaven.

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This was their first weekend open.

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We ducked into The Brooklyn Kitchen and looked around their artisanal food selections and nice kitchen supply.

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And I really enjoyed their tag line.

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They have some great supplies and fun food items for those who love to cook and bake.

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And in the back they have cooking classes, including this knife skills class that was going on when we were there. (The clerk said classes are around $65-$85). They even have a pizza making class with Roberta’s.

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Out in the main part of the market, each restaurant has a nook and there are tables scattered about where you can take any of the food.

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When we were there, it was pretty full but not crowded. (I’m sure that is temporary!)

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The entire place is designed with a distinctive industrial aesthetic. And I was especially amused by their advertisement of “Clean” restrooms (and yes… they were).

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The Cannibal’s menu was actually quite consistent with the one in their main restaurant. They also had some brunch additions.

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And you can get some beer and booze as well.

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They have the case of meat, as they do in their main restaurant.

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Even down to the pig’s head.

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And the big case of craft beers.

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Just begging to be taken home.

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Little Kitchen had a fun menu

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And I really wanted to try each of these little snacks.

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El Comado had a lot of wines to offer.

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And I loved the display of Iberico Ham that they were shaving fresh.

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At Genuine Roadside, they had a big menu of comfort foods.

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But we decided to have our first Gotham Market meal at Ivan Ramen. (“Slurp Shop”)

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Their menu features a few different types of ramen.

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And an assembly line of ramen artists putting each combination together at a bar for all to see.

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We went with the Classic Shio (sea salt, chicken + dashi double soup, pork chashu, rye noodle) and Roasted Garlic Mazemen (nori, chicken + dashi double soup, pork chashu, rye noodle) and added an egg to each.

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The Roasted Garlic was more like noodles in a (very) garlicky sauce.  I loved the garlic flavor, but Mike was hoping for more broth.

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The Shio broth was very flavorful, and I especially loved the piece of pork that was cooked just right.  The egg was great, but not quite the flavor of the tea eggs I love.  The noodles also had a nice texture and I enjoyed the rye flavor.

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The ramen was quite good, but it was certainly not Ippudo (not even close) and even fell a bit short of our local favorite Crispy Rard Nah from Zoob Zib.  I’m glad we tried it, but I won’t be running back to try it again (especially with so many other things to try there!)  But slurp we certainly did!

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We also ended our meal at Blue Bottle Coffee.

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I really like the flavor of their coffees. They are quite rich and deep.

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And I also got a snickerdoodle (which was served, amusingly, in a coffee filter).  This snickerdoodle wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I read that it was made with saffron, but I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so savory.  One thing I love about snickerdoodles is the cinnamon on top, and this was lacking. Overall good, but not what I would consider a snickerdoodle.

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But that coffee… oh that coffee.  They take special pride in their foam art and the taste was great, as always.

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Gotham West Market is an awesome addition to the neighborhood and I can’t wait to try more of their restaurants soon!

 

Broadway Bites: Pop-up Restaurants in Herald Square

15 Nov

Broadway Bites opened earlier this month, with pop-up restaurants in Greeley Square, right near Herald Square/Macy’s and the Manhattan Mall).  It’s just like Madison Square Eats (which just closed down a few weeks ago) and from the same team at UrbanSpace.

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There are a lot of vendors (full list here), and we went with some friends to try a few and I went back on a few days (since it’s so close to my office… dangerous).

I first went with Red Hook Lobster Pound and tried the Lobster Roll “Maine Style.”  Maine Style to them meant with a lemon mayo (though it also had some paprika or Old Bay on it, which was an issue for me since I’m allergic, but I scraped it off and made it work).  This was just okay. The lobster wasn’t as flavorful as I would have liked, but I AM super spoiled.

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I also tried the lobster macaroni and cheese from there, which was very good. The lobster was more flavorful in there and the pasta was nice and cheesy without being soupy. They took a torch to crisp up the top, but it felt more for show than for taste.  It was barely scorched when I opened it up, and I would have preferred much more, but it was still quite tasty.

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Mike went with a brisket sandwich from Mayhem & Stout.  He said it was tasty but it was served a bit cold.

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One of our friends stopped at Mrs Dorsey’s Kitchen for a smoked gouda grilled cheese sandwich. She enjoyed it, but I was surprised to see that the cheese was hardly melted at all.   A grilled cheese sandwich is not merely cheese on toasted bread. It must be melty!

Her take: “Tasty ingredients in the grilled cheese (good cheese, good crispy bread), but it wasn’t melty at all. All in all, just an average grilled cheese, I’d say…”

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And our other friend went with the veggie meatballs from Mighty Balls.  His feedback: “I’d say the balls themselves could have used a bit more taste and crust.  The bread made up for the crunch, but it was a bit too mushy in texture.  A bit more spring in the bite would have been welcomed.  The jalapeño jelly though was delicious.  Would like to try it separately.  I believe they sell it in jars.  Could see it being great on other sandwiches, and even lamb.”

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I don’t know if any of us were overly impressed, and there seemed to be a heating problem across the board.  But it’s a nice way to try some restaurants without having to travel too far and it’s great to go as a group so there is something for everyone. We happened to go on a very warm November day, so most of the hot food was not overly appealing to me.  I went back a few days later when it was quite chilly and I was more in the mood for hot food.

I chose a butternut squash and pine nut arancini (fried rice ball) from Arancini Bros.

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It had a great crisp and wasn’t at all greasy (a problem I sometimes have with arnacini).  The rice was perfectly al dente and there was a mild cheesiness in combination with the squash and pine nut flavors. A really great dish, and could probably be a meal in itself.

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But I also went in search of vegetables.  You know… to be healthy.  I didn’t find much. But I did find a zucchini and mozz sandwich from Cannibal (where I previously had a great pig’s head). Zucchini counts as a vegetable right? Even when on toasted bread with cheese?  Say yes…

Good.

Thanks.

Back to the sandwich.  I unwrapped it and was immediately displeased. I like the idea of wrapping in brown paper, but it always shows just how greasy it is.  And I was trying to tell myself that this was healthy!

DAMN!

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I opened it up and noticed that while the pesto and mozzarella looked good, I was surprised at the skimpy amount of zucchini. Two thin slices on the entire thing? Lame!

But holy hell. This was DELICIOUS.  Super duper ooper delicious.

Yes… ooper.

The bread and cheese and pesto and zucchini mixed together into something that didn’t seem feasible by the sum of its parts.  I guess this was the power of damn good ingredients.

Ooper.

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I would definitely stop by before it closes up at the end of November.  It was also lovely that there were very short lines across the board every time I went!

 

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Top Noms of 2012

26 Dec NOM NEW YEARS

2012 was an amazing year. We went to some incredibly restaurants this year, so narrowing it down to 10 will be very tough.  It was also an amazing year personally, since Mr. and Ms. Nom Nom got engaged in Maine (where we had quite a few of our Top Noms this year!)

For the Top Noms of years past, check out the posts from 2011, 2010, and 2009.

The Top Noms really comes down to the meals that we found most memorable and enjoyable when we reflect on the past year. It’s hard to compare brunch to dinner in a ranking, but I always think about this as what I would recommend to my friends when they ask me the best places we ate this year, overall.

Away we go:

#10 – Gabrielle Hamilton’s Prune was an awesome brunch.  I was dying to go after reading her book, and it lived up to all the expectations and hype (and totally worth the wait). We really need to get back there for dinner.

#9 – Gramercy Tavern was a really great experience. It is known as a top place in New York and it did not disappoint. It didn’t have a dish that really wowed me, but it was a totally solid and great meal.

#8 – Our meal at Sublime in Gladstone, NJ was incredibly surprising.  The apple crisp was out of this world.

#7 – Hugo’s in Portland, Maine was an awesome meal. The tasting menu with the wine pairings really made for a special birthday treat.

#6 – We had a great meal at Boulud Sud while trying to make our way through the Platt 101 of top restaurants in NYC. Everything was memorable, but I can’t stop thinking about the grapefruit dessert that was unlike anything else I have ever had.

#5– While we can’t remember every detail of our meal at Girl & the Goat, it made enough of an impression on us that we had to include it. That Pig Face alone was Top 10 material, maybe of all time!

#4 – Arrows in Ogunquit, Maine was an amazing dining experience. We went because we enjoyed watching the two chefs cook on Top Chef Masters and wound up thoroughly enjoying our meal.  We were impressed with the creative dishes and great flavors.

#3– Anita Lo’s Annisa was a long anticipated meal that lived up to everything we hoped it would be. The dishes tasted so rich and were made with such love, it was hard not to enjoy every single bite.

#2 – Michael White’s Ai Fiori was our first Valentine’s Day stop this year. The pasta was out of this world, and can you really top scallops and bone marrow? Two of my favorite things in one dish.

#1 – Our meal at Eleven Madison Park (Part 1 and Part 2!) was the best one we have ever had ever! It was an adventure, a journey, an experience, and one delicious meal. I can’t imagine anything better. And it got the one and only 10 out of 10 Nom Points in NYC Nom Nom history.

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Special mentions go out to Cannibal for the awesome Pig’s Head, Smush for a great take on dessert, the pasta with the roast drippings (Tajarin with Sugo d’Arrosto) from Manzo, Eventide in Portland Maine for the awesome new take on the lobster roll, and the Tap Room at Colicchio and Sons for continuing to impress everyone we bring there. We also had quite an amazing time at our “secret” Chef’s Table at SD26, since we got to watch them cook while having a chef’s selected meal. I went back with coworkers a few months later, and it managed to impress the hell out of them, too.

What a year!