Shake Shake and Momofuku Milk Bar - Part... God I've lost count

So I had a couple of people visiting NY this weekend (Hi Embert!) and as when any tourists are in town, us NYers feel compelled to pretend we actually walk instead of taking cabs everywhere. What was supposed to be a where's where of the city, ending up being somewhat of a "Eat Your Way Downtown" or "Tourists Eat Manhattan" situation.

We started out with Shake Shack - I've eaten at Shack Shake a dozen times but never without a line. I checked the Shack Cam to make sure the line was short and we walked our way over to Madison Sq. Park. Mind you, this was supposed to be a pre-dinner "snack" which by our definition meant splitting our food instead of eating it all ourselves. I ended up with fries, a Shake Shack Burger (which is essentially just a burger with a special "Shack Sauce"), and a diet coke. I gotta say, it's as good as I remember. The patty was juicy and the pun was toasted but still soft. Yummers. It's on the smaller side which is good when you are obese and putting yourself on a diet like me. The fries are the skinny shoe string kind - since I'm a fan of the crispy fry this really works to my advantage. The only thing that sucked was it was so frigid and the heat lamps weren't working. Nuts! Here is a pic of me, Embert, and his gf Janice:














Next stop.. uhhh.. more food? I had to walk them to the east village to visit Momofuku Milk Bar again. I know. Again. Apparently I have more of a sweet tooth than I thought I did. Also, we were supposed to eat dinner in like an hour. Oh, and walking off our burgers at Shake Shack. Oops.

Anyway, we got the crack pie (which I've had before but was a little too cracktastic for me) and I tried the Chocolate Chip and Passion Fruit Cake. At first glance it reminded me of the Carrot Cake that I literally fantasize about. It was actually super delicious -it had this cream cheesey frosting that had a hint of passion fruit tanginess to it. The rest of it was a typical cake - nice and fluffy and covered in chocolate chips. Oh and it was ginormous:


















On that note, apologies for being absent lately. Let's just say I haven't been doing much cooking or eating - I've been a liquid diet.

I'm getting back in the kitchen this week so stay tuned - plus, look for my Top Chef recap tomorrow evening. SO EXCITED.

Padma acts like a See You Next Tuesday

I am as you know, obsessed with all things Top Chef. However, my friend Melissa just told me about an "incident" with Padma Lakshmi that makes my face do a frowney.

The "incident"(as told by Melissa) goes as follows:

(At Chelsea Handler show)
(Melissa watches as random girl goes up to Padma to take a picture with her *pose, smile, click*)
(Melissa approaches)
Melissa: Hi, do you mind if I take a picture with you?
Padma: No I'm sorry, I'm with all my friends
Melissa: Sorry I don't mean to be a bother but I'm just such a huge fan
Padma's disgusting bf: It IS a bother

Yikes. Makes me not like her - I mean, who do you think you are? Pack your knives and go Padma...

In other news, Melissa also saw Tom Colicchio out and about - if I ever meet him I am going to give a giant hug.

Anyway, I'm not asking anyone to change their behavior, I'm just asking everyone to secretly hate Padma in their minds for a week or two.

Disgusting BF Pic below:











































Thanks!

OVER IT :: Asian-Fusion doesn't do it for me anymore (Shang NYC Restaurant Review)

Last week (Inauguration Night Holler) we took some clients down to the Lower East Side to a new restaurant called Shang. That neighborhood in general has changed quite a bit - from a gritty cafe infested neighborhood to some pretty trendy-meatpacking-eque joins (i.e. Stanton Social).

Shang is no exception to the new revolution of restaurants popping up down there - it's Asian fusion (fused with what, I still don't really know) and well, I was a little let down. The food was decent but honestly, that category is overdone and quite frankly, I think is hard to get right.

Those who know me personally know that I'm not very Asian on a day-to-day basis (don't ask me what that means) but I do take dirty Chinese street food very seriously. I prefer a $5 Roast Duck and BBQ Pork dish in a semi-health-code-violated restaurant in Chinatown to an upscale Chinese place like Chinatown Brasserie. Not to mention that I don't believe in upscale Chinese.. to me that is an oxymoron.. and not a good one.

ANYWAY, we walked up a flight of stairs and one thing I can say is that the space was beautiful. It had that whole dimly lit thing that NY Restaurant-du-jours are crazy about and it was a lot bigger than I expected:























We started out with drinks which were pretty decent but the fact that I can't remember what it was I drank leads me to believe it was nothing out of the ordinary. Since we were dining in a group of 6 and the resto was family-style, we got to try a lot of stuff (schmorg style as I like to call it). The group looked to me to order a couple of things, none of which were real standouts with the exception of Shang's Signature dish - a slow cooked Berkshire Pork Belly. I'm a huge fan of Pork Belly in general but this was really delish - the meat was super tender and the glaze was perfect. I can see why they chose to tout this dish.

We also tried the Singapore Slaw which was really flavorful and the textures were pretty good. It was just the right of amount of crispy for it to be a above and beyond just a normal asian slaw.

The last dish that I thought was pretty good was the Duck Breast - it was cooked perfectly and had a really great chilli-honey glaze that gave it that sweet/sour taste. Pretty good as far as high-end duck dishes go.

Now to the bad news... everything else we ordered tasted amateur - the flavors felt like they had been done 100 times before which normally isn't a problem for me but they weren't done well. It's like on American Idol when Simon tells the contestants not to do Whitney or Mariah.. there is probably no way to sound better than them so you might as well try something new.

With Chef's like Jean-Georges, David Chang, and Anthony Bourdain, why would you even go that route?

The one dish that made me throw up in my mouth was a "Fried Rice" that was wrapped in an egg-crepe. Conceptually it's a wonderful idea. In my mouth, it was a horrible mistake.

Overall Shang is a good place to go and experience the atmosphere... maybe a good dinner spot before going out since you wont leave too full and it's conveniently located at Orchard and Stanton.

Recession Special Dining

Having to entertain clients on a weekly basis, and also from being a cheap bastard, I found an amazing article in NY Mag about "Recession Special" Restaurants in the city.

Don't let the title fool you - these are some of the best restaurants in the city, just with slashed prices! What do you know, everyone wins!

Here is a link to the list - I've copied and pasted some of the highlights below:

Artisanal: $24.50 three-course dinner from 5 to 6:30 p.m; grilled-cheese bar at lunch.

Chanterelle: Three-course lunch for $42, which includes tea or coffee and a tray of chocolate truffles.

Craft: "Frugal Fridays" feature a menu of market-driven dishes for $10 or under at the bar. Categories range from meat on a stick to offal.

Del Posto Nine-course "grand tasting menu" reduced to $125 from $175.

L'Ecole at The French Culinary Institute: The nightly $42 five-course dinner features standout dishes like grilled rib steak and fluke carpaccio.

Wafels & Dinges: The price of the WMD (the Waffle of Mass Deliciousness, which includes unlimited toppings) has dropped to $6.

Also, a big WOOT WOOT! for Restaurant Week - I'm doing my 2nd Restaurant Week at Mercer Kitchen. I'm a big fan of Jean-Georges, so I can't help myself. I'll do a review when I get a minute...