Chinatown

Bassanova – Some Ramen are Better than Others

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Ziggy

Bassanova YuzuApril 12th, 2015 Update:

I have mixed feelings about reblogging this one.  On one hand I have an important update on Bassanova (Important to me at least.  To roughly 89% of yous this is as important as the news that Bruce Jenner is now wearing a bra).  But on the other hand, after reading the original post below, I have no clue what the hell I’m talking about there.  I suppose I can just rewrite the entire thing, but that would not be keeping it real.  You are with me folks, with the good and the bad, and the terrible.  And the “He must be high on kasha or something”.

I’ll make this one quick and painless, without any Morrissey references.  Its painful enough for me to even spell Morisseey.  But I really do wish everyday was like this Sunday.  A nice day of eating with the misses where I introduced her to more of my favorites, and in return she made let me try on 17 pairs of jeans in Soho.  I’m so lucky to have her.

Adding the Yuzu Wadashi Ramen to the equation.  The Yuzu is cleaner, with a profound citrusy flavor in both the stock and noodles (Yuzu is an Asian Citrus fruit that looks like a cross between a grapefruit and a lemon).  Cleaner than the Green Curry that is, which still rocks with its complexity and chewy wavy noodles.  Its a fairly busy plate with okra, shrimp, and shaved dried chili, and almost mazemen-like with its thick broth.  Still enjoyed it, but I give a slight nod to the lighter Yuzu at this point.  We also loved the long flat sizzling hot Iron-Pan Stick Dumplings.  They are hot alright, and quite delicious with pork, chives, chinese cabbage, garlic, and scallion.  Get it!

I’m not complaining, but this is one of those places that puzzle me why there are no lines out the door like you see in Totto and Ippudo.

Bassanova Green Curry Bassanova Dumplings

May 21st, 2014 post:

The likely title if the great Morrissey would have written this one for me.  “Some Girls are Bigger than Others” by Morrissey and the Smiths always pops into my head when I go to one of those school events like I did today.  And you know what?  He’s right!  Some girls are indeed bigger than others, and not only that but “Some girls mothers are bigger than other girls mothers” (listen to the song).  You can say a lot about Morrissey, but you cant say he’s unobservant.  Today at my 12 year old Honor Society Ceremony I just couldn’t help but notice how tiny some kids are compared to others.  Some look like 16, while others look like 6.

BTW (switching to “Big mouth” as the soundtrack for this post) did you ever wonder why people put those “My child is in an honor student” bumper stickers on their cars.  Is this something you need to announce to total strangers driving behind you?  And do you honestly think that anyone would actually care and go “oh look honey, her son is an honor student, well isn’t that special”  Why not announce it to total strangers at other venues, like when entering a subway train “LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, can I have your attention please..”.  It never made sense to me. (Switching gears to “How Soon is Now”…)

Bassanova Ramen

Anyway, some Ramen are in fact better than others, and Bassanova’s Green Curry Ramen is moving up the NYC rankings.  Rankings that include heavyweights like the Akamaru Modern by Ippudo, Spicy Ramen by Totto, and Ivan Ramen’s array of Ramen and Mazemen.  The awards and various list mentions are proudly displayed on the sign in a very unique way.  But to my and the Hummus Whisperer’s shock, no mention of the “Battle of the Soups” discovery by the Hummus Whisperer back in November”.  While we didn’t expect the Bassanova founder to put the bumper sticker “I was mentioned on Eating With Ziggy” we sent him, we did expect something next to the NYT top 10.

The Green Curry Ramen is peppery, intense, and features wavy thicker al-dente noodles which I haven’t seen before in a Ramen bowl.  The added okra, shrimp and of course the porky goodness adds to the joy.  The pork stock with hints of fish was rich, complex and simply Marvelous.  Another unique Ramen to us but an increasingly common one in Tokyo is the Lemon Pepper featuring thinner more basic noodles.  The waitress grinds fresh pepper on top of the lemon slices coating the entire dish.  Check out Bassanova everyone

Bassanova Ramen
76 Mott St
$$
Recommended Dishes:  Get the Green Curry

Bassanova - Green Curry Ramen Bassanova Lemon Pepper Ramen Bassanova

Categories: Chinatown, New York City | Tags: , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Dude, You Are Researching NYC Food All Wrong

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Ziggy

002Dear Tourist,

So you’ve decided finally to go on a “Holiday” to New York City.  Mazal Tov!  You probably read by now in your guide books that NYC is the greatest food city in the world.  And you are probably waking up every morning thanking god for the gift that keeps on giving, the TripAdvisor Rankings.  Between the rankings, the guidebooks, and all the great recommendations by your neighbor’s house sitter Betty (you must go to bubba gump you must) who eloped to NYC last year with 75 of her closest friends, you are all set.  Right?  Not exactly.  Lets take a moment and examine what is wrong with the above plan, and come up with a new one.

Whats wrong with the TA rankings:  Everything, and nothing.  Its just totally meaningless, especially in NYC.  TA is a great traveling tool, but pretty much totally useless in NYC as far as restaurants are concerned.  The main reason for its uselessness is that there are much better research tools in NYC. (more on that later).  But lets discuss the rankings for a second shall we.  They are so flawed and so out of tune with reality that’s not even funny.  The top 50 at the moment is a bizarre mishmash of classics and places I never even heard of.  First of all the TA algorithm puts some major weight on the number of reviews.  So older establishments may be higher than better reviewed younger ones.  And then there are those that have 27 remarkably high reviews that made it all the way to the top 20.  And not to mention that 25 of them may be coming from all their employees and families.  I always recall this one particular place in Milan where the owner single-handedly put his place #1 with a bunch of obvious fake reviews.  At some point he mistakenly gave himself one star, and that followed with 4 quick glorious reviews with a similar language.  And once real reviews started coming in, he found himself arguing with every reviewer

But fake reviews don’t have much of a bearing on the busy NYC listings.  Tourists do.  TripAdvisor is predominately used by tourists, and its especially true in NYC.  While you may see locals contribute in other towns and countries where there’s not much of a choice other than TA, in NYC locals use other sites like Yelp.  Now, couple the tourist factor with the high volume factor I mentioned above and you can see why something like Basso56 will be near the top as its heavily reviewed by tourists thanks to its location near Times Square.  Besides Basso, at the top of the Italian chain on TA at the moment you can find other Italian behemoths like Rafele, Piccola Cucina, Via Della Pace – places I never even heard of.  But if you need more convincing than “Ziggy never heard of”, why not just go to Chowhound where all the NY foodies hang out and pull threads that discuss the best Italian in town.  You will not find any of those places mentioned.  What you will see mentioned are places like Maialino (#95), Babbo (#602), Marea (#194), Lincoln (#882), or even Ziggy fave Costata (#2605).  TA numbers are all over the place as you can see, well outside of the top range for the unsuspecting tourist.  So while you are eating a Carbonara with cream and bacon at a high ranked theater district place near you, locals out there enjoy the real thing with Guanciale and egg at Maialino.

Same applies to using the rankings everywhere else in the world.  My favorite restaurant in our adapted home of Turks and Caicos is Caicos Cafe, rated #20 at the moment, pretty low in T&C standards.

Now, its time to ditch the guide book.  Ok, wait.. pick it up.. its actually quite useful for many things.  But not so much for food.  Yes, you will get some good tips on some NY icons like Katz’s and Russ and Daughters that I recommend.  But then you have something like pizza (namely Grimaldi’s) and bagels that NYC is so famous for.  While you will not easily find better pastrami than Katz’s, you will easily find better pizza than Grimaldi’s.  Actually, all you need to do while standing on line at Grimaldi’s with the rest of the tourists is look to you left at Juliana’s window to see where the real Grimaldi is doing his thing nowadays.  But you dont even have to leave your neighborhood in Manhattan to get great pizza that is arguably better than Grimaldi’s.

Besides pizza, your guide book will mislead you in other areas.  E.g.  Hell’s Kitchen is not a safe area, the place for Italian is Little Italy, and Times Square is a foodie paradise.  Your guide book may be up to date as far as facts are concerned (MoMA hours) but not concepts.  Little Italy is now a block inside Chinatown riding one of those concepts.  There are no Italians living there.  Another thing to keep in mind is that the food contributors to the guides may not be necessarily “foodies”.  Rick Steves for example does not strike me a foodie, and to follow his advice in Italy or anywhere else is Europe in this day and age is pretty silly.  Eating at guidebook recommended establishments and high ranked TA spots also means eating with other tourists who are doing exactly the same thing.  Some may find comfort with that, but if you are reading this blog chances are you want to eat where the locals eat.

And as for your neighbor Betty recommendations go, treat them like meeting your dentist at the supermarket.  Smile, and move on.  Unless Betty, is an avid Eating With Ziggy reader and/or does any of the following…

Read Chowhound – as I mentioned, this is where many of the NYC foodies hang out, and where I get many ideas.  Chowhound is probably my wallet’s single worst offender.

Read Yelp Reviews instead of TA reviews.  I already touched on this, and its fairly simple.  Locals use Yelp, tourists use TA.

Read or Subscribe to Grub Street – You can get all sorts of interesting ideas there, especially from the power rankings.  Same idea applies to Eater, or Serious Eats.

Hang out in the TripAdvisor NYC Forum.  You dont even have to participate.  Its amazing how much knowledge you can get just by reading the forum for a month or two.  There are plenty of locals who contribute on a daily basis, and you can also find many discussions on dining by using the search feature

And the most important tip…

Read EatingWithZiggy.  Whats so funny.  Where do you think I derive my ideas from.

Happy eating, and happy planning!

Categories: Brooklyn, Chelsea, Chinatown, East Village, Gramercy, Flatiron, Lower East Side, Midtown East, Midtown West, New York City, SoHo, NoHo, Nolita, Staten Island, TriBeCa, West Village | Tags: , , , , | 6 Comments

NYC – Top 10 dishes of 2013

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Ziggy

NoMad breadAnother year, another amazing eating year in the city of New York.  Keeping up with all the new and excitement here is like keeping up with the Kardashians.  But 2013 proved to be one heck of a year, probably the best ever.  And if there’s ever a post on EWZ that could be helpful to visitors or locals seeking great chow in NYC, this is IT!

Ma Peche – Fried Chicken (with a side of the Brussels Sprouts).  I’ll start with the last great dish.  Haute Fried Chicken doesnt get any better than this.  Habanero, coriander, black pepper and other spices used to create this fried pieces of awesomeness.  Its a large shareable whole chicken at $48, but for lunch you can get half for $24 which can still feed an Armanian village, or 2 Americans.  And the amazing Brussels Sprouts dish are worthy of their own spot here.

photo (4)

Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop– Smoked Whitefish Donburi.  With salmon roe, sweet soy dashi, cucumber, scallion over rice.  Need I say more?  I probably should.  Tell me if you heard this story before.  A Jewish man from Long Island opens a Ramen shop in Tokyo which becomes critically acclaimed, then comes back to NYC to open a Ramen shop in the New Gotham West Market in Hell’s Kitchen.  Sounds familiar? The Donburi is a nice clash of the 2 cultures (Japan meets Jew)

196

Momofuku Ssam Bar – Spicy Sausages & Rice Cakes.  Second Momofuku mention already (Ma Peche is the first)   This dish is insane.  Plenty of heat and plenty of joy.  Its a beautiful medley of ground sausage, Chinese broccoli, Sichuan peppercorn, and the awesome rice cakes which were essentially Korean Gnocchi made from rice flour.  Puts the Mssion Chinese rice cakes to shame.  Photo courtesy of Never Too Sweet

Betony – Short Ribs.  A revelation!  Tender, full of flavor goodness.  It takes 3 days to make them we were told.  We told the waitress that we cant stay that long, but we quickly understood the meaning.

Betony - short ribs

Maialino – Tonnarelli Cacio e Pepe.  Its so simple, it shouldnt be here.  But along with the carbonara perhaps my favorite dish at one of my favorite Italian spots in the city.  Perfectly creamy, peppery, and addictive.  Having it sit there among the other pastas on the table is like visiting the bunny ranch after trying out all the bunnies, and constantly picking your favorite.

Maialino - Cacio e pepe

The NoMad – The Chicken.  This is a no brainer, and a top dish nominee even before it reached our table.  Once you get over the facts that a) is costs $78 (for 2) and b) its freakin chicken, you will enjoy this one no doubt.  Perfectly crispy skin, moist juicy white meat, along with some foie gras and black truffles (all cooked) nicely tucked beneath the skin.  Each bite of that combination together was a Tour de Force.  But that’s not all.  Add a glorious plate of the dark meat with garlic espuma (foamy light garlic goodness) in the middle to share.

NoMad Chicken

Ippudo – Akamaru Modern (with egg).  “Welcom”, “Goodbye”, “Aim Well”? I have no idea what they are screaming in Japanese at Ippudo every time someone arrives or goes to the bathroom.  All I know is that this is my favorite dish here.  Rich, complex pork broth, along with hefty pieces of pork belly.  Add the egg and spicy miso paste for even richer flavors

Ippudo - Akamaru

Costata – The Costata.  Perhaps the dish of the year.  A mammoth 44oz $120 very shareable Tomahawk Ribeye cooked to perfection.  Basted ever so beautifully with a rosemary brush, this beast was a feast for all senses.  Add some Black truffle butter, fries and asparagus, but good luck remembering the sides in between bites of perhaps the best steak in town

Costata - Ribeye

Nish Nush – Falafel.  I know Falafel.  I grew up with falafel.  My car runs on falafel (its the trade-in period while waiting for the new car so dont want to use the real thing).  This is good falafel.  Fresh pita from the oven, and free (great) hummus can only help

Nish Nush - Falafel

Kashkar Cafe – Geiro Lagman.  Little Asia in little Odessa (Brighton Beach) and perhaps the only Uyghur spot in town.  I’ve had this dish 3 times in the last 8 months.  Nice and chewy hand pulled noodles with lamb, veggies, cumin, garlic, other spices and herbs make up this highly palatable dish.

Kashkar lagman

Special mentions:

Malai Marke – Chicken Xacuti (and Bindi Sasuralwali)
Sakagura – Maguro Tartar
Pure Thai – Wok Curry Paste with Pork
Mercato – Trenette
Jungsik – The rice dish that comes for free for b-day boy 😉
Louro – Octopus Bolognese (tie with monkfish)
Mission Chinese – Kung Pao Pastrami

Categories: Brooklyn, Chelsea, Chinatown, East Village, Gramercy, Flatiron, Lower East Side, Midtown East, Midtown West, New York City, SoHo, NoHo, Nolita, TriBeCa, West Village | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Eating Without Ziggy – Buddha Bodai, Gluten Free in Chinatown

Posted on November 24, 2013 by Ziggy

More eating adventures from the Hummus Whisperer…

I told you I’m gluten sensitive!  Did you or one of your family members ever say that?  By now we all know gluten is a more common irritant/allergen than most people think.  Some people’s intestines think gluten is evil and cause Montezuma’s revenge or worse.  This is awful to know because if you live or visit America finding gluten-free food can be depressing while you sit there watch others eat cakes and cookies.  Well, not so fast I say.  You can still enjoy yourself worry free in places like Buddha Bodai in Chinatown.

Buddha Bodai DumplingsBuddha Bodai is a kosher, vegetarian Chinese restaurant on Mott Street.  Come here if you are kosher, vegetarian, gluten-free, or all of the above.  If you are neither, you may still like it.  This is the only place in Chinatown where you may share a table with a(nother) Chinese grandma, Hasidic Jew, Buddhist monk or a European tourist (An avid EWZ reader).  This is the kind of place you slowly fall in love with.  Unfortunately, the menu is heavy on the faux meat dishes.  I personally never go for the mock meat because its just does not taste the same as the real thing, but I do enjoy veggie dishes here.  I ordered $10 worth of various dumplings.  There are some nice looking lunch special dishes, not all are gluten-free but still the largest GF selection in Chinatown.  There are no carts going down the aisle as you would expect in other places in the neighborhood.  There’s a sign upfront that this is a kosher place so that means no outside food or drink.  So don’t bring in the pork rinds.

First up, two kind mushroom Congee.  Then bamboo pith dumplings and steamed watercress dumplings.

This was my first time ever eating Congee.  While the name and texture (similar to oatmeal) are not appealing, the taste is simply delicious.  Mushrooms, some veggies and ginger – delicious!  A Congee is simply a rice porridge with a different name in every country in Asia.  Many Asians, non-Asians, and now hummus whisperers consume Congee during the day.  Bamboo pith dumplings – more awesomeness.
Bottom line is, there may be some better tasting options around Chinatown, but if you make it to Buddha Bodai you will not be disappointed and will be happy you ate healthy, gluten-free food.
 
Buddha Bodai
5 Mott St
 
Buddha Bodai Buddha Bodai
 
 
Categories: Chinatown, New York City | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Eating Without Ziggy – Battle of the Soups, Chinatown

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Ziggy

Chronicles of the Hummus Whisperer…

Believe it or not, sometimes I eat without my foodie-call Ziggy. While its never the same as eating with my dear companion or with my dear wife the Hummus Punisher, I’ll resume coverage of my independent food experiences with this column.

Japan:
With winter just around the corner,  wannabe foodies and pepperazzis (obsessive food photo snappers) indulge in tomato soup at hale & hearty soups.  But I started the week with a $6.50 lunch special veggie Ramen at Ajisen Noodle on Mott Street and it’s  just what the doctor ordered.  It originated in Kumamoto of Kyushu, Japan in 1968.  Their ramen is chewy, straight and thin coupled with the secret recipe of a tonkotsu soup base (white soup base from which bones, meat, vegetables and other fine ingredients are cooked for many hours producing a milky white broth).
image
Did I mention that I usually hate soups? this post is a great way to offend my mother and mother-in-law as they have been given countless head shakes when offering soup.

China:
I decided to pass on the typical American-Chinese soups that you can find just about anywhere in America.  Xi’an famous foods (cash only)  is certainly not a typical Chinese establishment, with one other location in flushing Queens.  Western Chinese cuisine of the ancient city of Xi’an is served here.  The spicy cumin lamb soups is a fusion of Chinese and middle eastern cuisines at its finest.  The soup had a pleasant aroma from the lamb-bone broth with one delicious extra long flat hand-pulled noodle.  Noodle quality is superb for $8. This father and son run place seats about 20 ppl so get here early as it packs up fast with a long line outside.  Looking around at the plates at the two communal tables, this place is giving Mission Chinese a run for its money in terms of quality and price.  This is definitely my favorite of the group, more to come on this place.
image (1)
Japan:
 For a hip, minimalist atmosphere,  stop by Bassanova (cash only).  With the original location in Japan, this newcomer opened in July 2013 in a convenient spot around the corner from canal street.  In addition to other platters, they serve only three Ramen soups in ceramic bowls imported from the original’s hometown of Setagaya.  I enjoyed the Tondaku green curry ramen while sitting at the steamy bar with a boom box playing hip-hop.  Despite a disappointingly steep dollar to Ramen  ratio for any ecconoisseur, the soup displayed colorful ingredients such as moist grilled Berkshire pork, mixed  greens, shrimp, okra, and red bell pepper, and a secret base with a good hint of green curry.  I attacked this soup with brutal force. Who knew Ramen soup would taste so good while listening to “gangsta’s paradise” and enjoying  the “Prado” wallet you just bought on Canal street for your girlfriend.
image (2)
Categories: Chinatown, New York City | Tags: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Blog at WordPress.com.