Wednesday, 15 January 2014 – Dinner

 

What did I eat? Lasagna, bread, pizza, tiramisu

Where from? La Pizza & La Pasta at Eataly

How much did it cost? ~$25

How was it?
I went to Eataly to celebrate a friend’s birthday. There are multiple restaurants in Eataly and fortunately, the powers to be picked the pizza/pasta restaurant instead of the vegetarian restaurant (thank God!).  The wait was long though; I believe we had a good half an hour of wait even though the hostess said it’d be around 15 minutes.

We ordered a pizza (shown above), lasagne (my order), casarecce with short rib ragu and linguine with seafood. The pizza was acceptable. I’m not a fan of these “real” Italian pizzas and their thin crusts. I feel like I’m eating naan with some toppings; give me my Pizza Hut, Dominos or UNO deep dishes! My lasagna was the perfect portion; I was starving by the time the food came but I think the lasagna had just about enough to satisfy my hunger. I wasn’t stuff but nowadays, I don’t want to stuff myself either.

HH had the casarecce and I tried a bit of it. What is casarecce? Think of it as small tubes of noodles which have been cut in halves and then reattached. The ragu is very similar to the wild boar ragu at Basso56. The pasta was a tad bit hard but the server informed us ahead of time that it’ll be “al dente”; maybe casarecce should be served a bit softer.

Lastly, we shared a tiramisu which was bought from the bakery at Eataly; this was a stand-in for a birthday cake. An interesting note is that although we bought it from the bakery in the same store, apparently, you can’t have it served at one of the restaurants since it’s considered food from “outside”. Fortunately, there were seating outside the restaurants where we can sit and wait so we just opened it up and ate it. I rate it the 2nd best tiramisu in town after the one which my colleague makes.

Happy birthday “old man” and may the 49ers win the Super Bowl, as a belated birthday gift to you! And also a GT-R for me.

Rate it!
8/10 for the lasagne, 7/10 for the casarecce, 6/10 for the pizza and 8/10 for the tiramisu

Saturday, 11 January 2014 – Dinner

    

What did I eat? BBQ spare ribs, brisket, burnt end baked beans, Coca Cola. Chocolate souffle with raspberry sauce.

Where from? Mighty Quinn’s Barbeque and Cha-An Tea House

How much did it cost? $24 and $12

How was it?
I’m on a journey to try out every barbeque restaurant in NYC. My favorite placed, RUB, closed down last year and I’ve been trying to find suitable replacements. So far, there have been plenty worthy competitors.

I came across Mighty Quinn’s via Immaculate Infatuation; the restaurant was rated one of the site’s favorites for 2013 so I decided to give it a shot. I decided to venture out with a buddy of mine who never fails to join me in my quest for the best BBQ in NYC. Plus, being a wet Saturday night, I figured the crowd wouldn’t be so bad.

I ordered ribs as usual and was contemplating about getting burnt ends, but instead, went with an order of brisket. As in all BBQ joints, my trusty side order is always baked beans. The burnt ends looked very different from what I was envisioning; they looked more like pulled beef, as opposed to chunks of meat. The brisket was super tender, in fact, it was too fragile in my opinion. The ribs were fantastic though. I normally don’t like the ribs already covered in sauce but I was OK with these being sauced. The baked beans were GREAT! Massive chunks of burnt ends, tossed together with beans; it could be improved by adding a tad bit more sweetness. Oh and everything pairs very well with a glass of Coca Cola.

After dinner, we decided to hit up my regular East Village dessert spot – Cha-An Japanese Tea House. I had my usual fare of chocolate souffle with raspberry sauce. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo before I dived in so you can see the remainder. I’m not a fan of the raspberry sauce since I find it too sour and messes with my chocolate flavor. However, if you get some green tea ice cream, douse the ice cream with that sauce!

Rate it!
8/10 for the ribs and beans, 7/10 for the brisket, 7/10 for the dessert

Friday, 10 January 2014 – Lunch

What did I eat? Dumplings, fried spare ribs, pork stew, Singapore mei fun and hot and sour soup

Where from? Shih Lee

How much did it cost? $9.00

How was it?
Relax, I didn’t eat all of the food. Htike Htike and I split this regular lunch combo. Previously, I would have finished all of it myself but in light of recent efforts to reduce a bit of weight, I’m splitting my lunches with the wife.

The regular combo of noodles with 2 sides come out to $8 but I added an extra side of dumplings for $1 (I think) more. HH picked out the mei fun; I’m not a fan of curry flavored noodles. I just don’t think masala and noodles mix well. The pork stew at Shih Lee has been going downhill over the past year but it was surprisingly good this time. My current favorite is the fried spare ribs. They’re fantastic! Similar to what you get from some hawkers in Bangkok. These would go well with a sauce of tamarind, chilli and fish sauce, and a bit of sticky rice. I did not have the hot and sour soup but from past experience, it tastes like any other hot and sour soup.

Rate it!
5/10