I tried the pad Thai and that was good. It's not bad food. I didn't find it too spicy. Also tried Tom yum shrimp soup. Some other dishes from my friend.
Hateraid I'm down.
KevinNYC I went to a place called Sripapahi or something. In queens section. Other suggestions are always welcomed. Ill be in NY next weekend as well. Did little Italy today and this grandmom had the coolest accent. I damn near took a photo with get haha
Wow. Didn't know you were going to Queens. Sripaphai is one the best Thai restaurants in the country. There's a Thai temple over there, so the area is filled with Thai restaurants aimed at Thai customers, you get good authentic stuff. (In one of the smaller ones, the waiter would not let order it spicy, even after I tried to explain to him that I had eaten in a lot of other places in that neighborhood and I knew what "Thai spicy" meant. [btw, that's how you order, if you don't want to tame it down.] He wouldn't believe me and told me he would make it "Manhattan style.")
Ironically, however, I don't think the noodles are Sripraphai's strong suit. Their pork dishes are incredible. The pickled pork appetizer alone is worth making a return trip. My rule of thumb is if the place has pork on the menu, it's probably more of a Northern Thai place and thus get the pork and stay away from the noodles. Bangkok-style Thai places tend to be stronger on the noodles and seafood. (Fish sauce is the special ingredient that makes Pad Thai taste so good.) If a place has pork on the menu, I usually get the larb which is minced pork with lime juice, chiles, mint and herbs. So good. Green Papaya salad is another good Thai dish to try.
On that same block is a tiny Mom and Pop place that is also great. (I'm also in love the waitress there.)
Other recommendations I would make are
Chinese soup dumplings at Joe's Shanghai.
They have an midtown place and a Chinatown place. Steamed dumplings that when you bite into them have this rich pork broth inside. They give you big flat spoon and the way to eat them is to bite the dumpling and let the broth fill up the spoon and then slurp that before eating the dumpling part.
Spicy lamb dishes at http://www.xianfoods.com/menu.php
Super, super cheap take-out place featured food from a place in China near Russian. The handpulled noodles and the lamb "burger" are both must tries. Good place to go if you want to save money for dinner. If you're feeling adventurous, you can try the Spicy & Tingly Lamb Face Cold Salad which I've never had, but it's a good story to tell when you get back home.
Coal oven pizza It's much, much better than regular gas oven pizza. The coal cooks at about 900 degrees Farenheit, so the crust gets really good flavor. You can go to Lombari's in Little Italy which is the oldest pizzeria in the US, so they have history on their side and they still turn out a good pie or you can go to Luzzo's in the East Village which is fairly new. They are my favorite pizza in the city. Both places are pie-only no slices.
Japanese Ramen.
NYC is undergoing a bit of a Ramen explosion. I recommend momofuku in the East Village.
Jewish appetizing and deli. Russ and Daughters for a bagel and lox sandwiches. You may want to pick up stuff here to bring home. I really like this sandwich
Quote:
SUPER HEEBSTER
Whitefish & Baked Salmon Salad with Horseradish Dill Cream Cheese and Wasabi Flying Fish Roe on a Bagel:
Down the Street is Katz's deli which has the best pastrami sandwiches in NY. They are crazy overstuffed and one sandwich easily feeds two.
Texas Barbecue.
NY has been getting some pretty good Austin style barbecue lately. This is barbecue with
A. no sauce
B sold meat-market style. The price is per pound and you go up to a counter and order it.
Hill Country in Chelsea is really good. The beef ribs are insane. There's also live music in the basement at night. Usually no cover charge.
If you want to be super up to the minute, you can go to Briskettown in South Williamsburg. Just opened a couple of weeks ago. Small place and they have sold out within 3 hours almost every night.
Also NYC has a gigantic food blogging contingent, so if you have a smart phone, you can fight the right place to eat anywhere you are.
Wow. Didn't know you were going to Queens. Sripaphai is one the best Thai restaurants in the country. There's a Thai temple over there, so the area is filled with Thai restaurants aimed at Thai customers, you get good authentic stuff. (In one of the smaller ones, the waiter would not let order it spicy, even after I tried to explain to him that I had eaten in a lot of other places in that neighborhood and I knew what "Thai spicy" meant. [btw, that's how you order, if you don't want to tame it down.] He wouldn't believe me and told me he would make it "Manhattan style.")
Ironically, however, I don't think the noodles are Sripraphai's strong suit. Their pork dishes are incredible. The pickled pork appetizer alone is worth making a return trip. My rule of thumb is if the place has pork on the menu, it's probably more of a Northern Thai place and thus get the pork and stay away from the noodles. Bangkok-style Thai places tend to be stronger on the noodles and seafood. (Fish sauce is the special ingredient that makes Pad Thai taste so good.) If a place has pork on the menu, I usually get the larb which is minced pork with lime juice, chiles, mint and herbs. So good. Green Papaya salad is another good Thai dish to try.
On that same block is a tiny Mom and Pop place that is also great. (I'm also in love the waitress there.)
Other recommendations I would make are
Chinese soup dumplings at Joe's Shanghai.
They have an midtown place and a Chinatown place. Steamed dumplings that when you bite into them have this rich pork broth inside. They give you big flat spoon and the way to eat them is to bite the dumpling and let the broth fill up the spoon and then slurp that before eating the dumpling part.
Spicy lamb dishes at http://www.xianfoods.com/menu.php
Super, super cheap take-out place featured food from a place in China near Russian. The handpulled noodles and the lamb "burger" are both must tries. Good place to go if you want to save money for dinner. If you're feeling adventurous, you can try the Spicy & Tingly Lamb Face Cold Salad which I've never had, but it's a good story to tell when you get back home.
Coal oven pizza It's much, much better than regular gas oven pizza. The coal cooks at about 900 degrees Farenheit, so the crust gets really good flavor. You can go to Lombari's in Little Italy which is the oldest pizzeria in the US, so they have history on their side and they still turn out a good pie or you can go to Luzzo's in the East Village which is fairly new. They are my favorite pizza in the city. Both places are pie-only no slices.
Japanese Ramen.
NYC is undergoing a bit of a Ramen explosion. I recommend momofuku in the East Village.
Jewish appetizing and deli. Russ and Daughters for a bagel and lox sandwhiches. You may want to pick up stuff here to bring home. I really like this sandwich
Down the Street is Katz's deli which has the best pastrami sandwiches in NY. They are crazy overstuffed and one sandwich easily feeds two.
Texas Barbecue.
NY has been getting some pretty good Austin style barbecue lately. This is barbecue with
A. no sauce
B sold meat-market style. The price is per pound and you go up to a counter and order it.
Hill Country in Chelsea is really good. The beef ribs are insane. There's also live music in the basement at night. Usually no cover charge.
If you want to be super up to the minute, you can go to Briskettown in South Williamsburg. Just opened a couple of weeks ago. Small place and they have sold out within 3 hours almost every night.
Also NYC has a gigantic food blogging contingent, so if you have a smart phone, you can fight the right place to eat anywhere you are.
I don't really go out to eat much in NYC because of the price. I usually stay in Jersey City /Hoboken/Newark. But when I do go out in NYC I just do junk food unless it is a special occasion.
-smith and wollensky - good steakhouse chain with a nice feel.
-houstons - has a really nice atmosphere as well. good for a date.
Places I like really like to go to are:
- Rice to Riches.
- Shake Shack
-Minamoto Kitchoan - really good Japenese pastry shop. If you are in the area definately try this.
- Bleeker Street Pizza or John's
As far as bbq...virgils is very overrated. someone talked me into going twice and I was far from impressed.
As far as bbq...virgils is very overrated. someone talked me into going twice and I was far from impressed.
Virgil's is not even on the list for barbecue in NY for me. Like if you were to ask me to name BBQ places in NYC, I might forget about that one.
The real barbecue in NY thing started with Blue Smoke about 10 years ago by the guy who created Shake Shake and a bunch of other great restaurants, Danny Meyer.
He had to solve a few problems to do this.
One he needed a real pitmaster. He sent his chef across the country for like a year to learn how to do barbecue.
(I was once in a bbq place in Texas right by the train tracks. I found the place on a local's suggestion that Virgil's was the place to go for sausage and that the other place, I was about to go: You're gonna want to throw rocks at that place after you been to Virgil's. While at Virgil's watching two generations of Mexicans argue with each other across the bar [very entertaining by the way] and listening to nortena music, we see this old guy come in with WWII veteran hat on and shirt that said Virgil. So we start talking to him and sure enough after he got the Army in 1946, he opened this place up and has been there ever since. When he found out we were from NYC, he said, "You know that Blue Smoke? I taught that Kenny boy how to cook."
Two. He needed to find a place for pit in cramped NYC. There's 15 stories of apartments above Blue Smoke, so he to find a way to vent his pit smoke through the buidling without disturbing the tenants and without creating too much updraft in the pit which would raise the temperatures too high and thus kill the meat.
Three. He had to get NYC diners to get into barbecue. He had enough credibility with his customers from his other restaurants that he was able to bring in a high end crowd. I remember when I opened all the executives where I worked were asking each other if they had been there yet.
Blue Smoke is where I would go for BBQ in NY if it was a big family, dress-up gathering. It's a bit more refined (and thus less authentic) than Hill Country. If it was all about the food, I would gladly go to Hill Country.
The other thing about Blue Smoke is that it is deliberately not a single regional style. They have Texas salt and pepper beef ribs with no sauce (which are fantastic and that was the first place I tried them.), Memphis baby back ribs and Kansas City Spareribs. They do North Carolina pulled pork. They do some things great and some not so great.
Danny Meyer also created a the Big Apple Barbecue event that brings real pit masters to Madison Square Park for a weekend in July which is usually crazy hot, crazy overcrowded with crazy long lines and crazy worth it. Best sampling of different styles of smoked meat on the planet
So all of a sudden, you have new yorkers who can tell you why whole hog is different from straight pulled pork.
Prior to Blue Smoke, ever one was all excited about a bbq place that used to serve out of a sports bar in Queens, that looking back on it, probably never measured up to the real stuff anyway.
Looking at Serious Eats, I forget to mention another NYC meal you might not be able to find elsewhere, the Vietnamese bahn mi sandwich. They are so freaking good. French bread, mayo, cold cuts, pate, or other meats, fresh cumcumber, carrots, cilantro. Great mix of French and Asian (Vietnam was a French colony for years.) I like this place Baoguette, but especially if you are in Chinatown you can find others.
Also Rufus if you are visting during the week, the best, best way to eat at some of the best restaurants is to go for lunch. You will need reservations for these.
Looking at Serious Eats, I forget to mention another NYC meal you might not be able to find elsewhere, the Vietnamese bahn mi sandwich. They are so freaking good. French bread, mayo, cold cuts, pate, or other meats, fresh cumcumber, carrots, cilantro. Great mix of French and Asian (Vietnam was a French colony for years.) I like this place Baoguette, but especially if you are in Chinatown you can find others.
Also Rufus if you are visting during the week, the best, best way to eat at some of the best restaurants is to go for lunch. You will need reservations for these.
NYC food suggestions
That's awesome. Of course down here we've got it in our DNA.
