Schnitzel!

This is currently my favorite thing to eat for lunch in the wasteland that is Midtown. It comes from a truck called Schnitzel & Things. They recently won the Vendy award for Rookie of the Year. Congrats, guys!

Here we have a pork schnitzel platter with a beet and feta salad and Austrian potato salad. A couple lemon wedges and a pesto mayo round out the meal. The cost? $8. This is a great deal. Most delis around here charge you $8 for a pre-made sandwich that's been sitting around for 6 hours. The schnitzel is the size of a small country. The pizza places around here charge over $3 for a slice so I repeat, this is a GREAT DEAL.

If you time your visit to get to the truck right when they've parked and set up, there's not much of a wait. Don't bother dealing with a knife and fork; the best way to attack the cutlet is to pick it up with two hands and chomp away. Sometimes the meat can get a little tough (a by-product of a very thinly pounded cutlet), but the crust is always delectably crisp. I've also tried the veal but pork is my go-to. For my sides, it's hard to stray from the beets and feta but I rotate in the potato salad and sauerkraut. I strayed from a mayo as my condiment once and paid for it big time! The ginger, scallion and garlic relish was an oily, flavorless bust. Mayo is the way!

Lunch at the HBistrO

What a crappy, rainy New York Day. At least I didn't have to walk far to meet up with Lindsey for lunch at the HBO commissary. This place rules! It was Indian day, so I mostly loaded up on that. On my main plate I've got a piece of tandoori chicken (unfortunately super dry, yuck), carrot and onion salad, spicy cucumber salad, basmati rice pilaf, yellow peas, roasted cauliflower with a tomato sauce and a handful of mini papadums. There are also some roasted beets and a mozzarella, pesto and sun-dried tomato pinwheel. I also got some fruit - red grapes, cantaloupe, honeydew and oranges - and a solid tasting chocolate chip cookie. Today they also had a mac and cheese station which was especially tempting after I saw a big bowl of bacon bits.

Oh wait, how could I forgot, I also had three mini samosas! I think they got buried under the beets.

i think liquid nitrogen is burning a hole in my stomach

Top Chef 4's Richard Blais, he of faux-hawk and "banana scallops" fame, was at the Garrett Popcorn store by my work to make some frozen popcornsicles. These were formed with Garrett's delicious and oddball combination of caramel and cheese popcorn and then dunked in liquid nitrogen to harden. It was great to see the sweet and salty balls emerge from the container of nitrogen. I thought I was at a Rush concert. The texture of the popcornsicle was weird - hard and cold like a sno-cone, but also a little crumbly like a granola bar or a brick of dry oasis. I would have liked a little more cheese popcorn in the mix. I enjoyed it, but three hours later, I have a bit of a tummy ache. Thanks to Balgavy for the head's up and Joe for letting me use his photos since I didn't have my camera on me.

The worst egg sandwich ever. I'm looking right at you Europa Cafe

Seriously, you're going to fuck up a ham, egg and cheese and then charge me $3.74 for the honor? I am not a fan of Europa Cafe, but out of desperation and for lack of time, I hit them up this morning. My sandwich was cold by the time it got to my desk (my office is a block away). The ham has the texture of rubber and why on earth is half the ham in one piece and the rest in little bits? Did they run out of a normal slice of ham? And I need to mention again that this sandwich cost me $3.74. GTLO!!!!

Dinner at Yakitori Torys

I'm in San Francisco without the cable to connect my camera to the computer, so here are some photos from a dinner at Yakitori Torys I recently had with the CLC.


Outside signage. Throughout the evening, I was reminded of Gonpachi - the menu, color scheme, etc...


Blistered shishito peppers with a dab of mild Japanese-style kkochujang.


Age-dashi tofu. We were served a cube each of soft and firm. I preferred the soft.


Another shot of the peppers, with a skewer of garlic to the left. The grilling softens up and mellows out the garlic, basically making it even more delicious.


Little stackable dishes of black pepper and salt. I just like anything mini.


Chicken meatballs! I ordered the one on the left, which was mixed with shiso leaf and plum.


Kuro buta negi pon - organic pork with ponzu and scallions, so yummy!

We also ordered a couple skewers of chicken oyster, part of the "chicken limited" menu. Luckily we were dining early in the evening and Torys had not sold out yet. I just noticed that the above pork skewer is listed in the "chicken limited" part too! Beth got an order of "pork gut" which was one of the specials of the day.

Lunch at tHe BistrO (aka the HBO cafeteria)

A friend of mine recently started working at HBO and invited me over for lunch at their employee cafeteria. Despite its silly name, I was psyched.


Sensing my arrival, the featured cuisine was Korean! Thanks, guys. By the way, $0.30 an ounce is not a typo.


Even though I didn't like they way they spelled kimchi, I thought it was very bold of the HBO cafeteria workers to serve it for lunch. As much as I love to eat the food of my people, it makes me paranoid as hell. It's so pungent and the smells really freak people out. Even though Korean food is I guess a bit trendy these days, I am scarred for life from all the times that people made fun of me or made a big stink (no pun intended).

I had a little bit of both kinds: cucumber and carrots to the left, cabbage and of all things, water chestnuts on the right. Both were tasty! I'm going to guess they had a ringer on hand or imported the goods from a Korean market.


For the main portion of my lunch, I opted for the hanger steak special.


A very generous portion of steak, potato wedges and roasted cauliflower for $5.99! I had enough left over for lunch the next day. You know what $5.99 gets you in midtown? Not much! I'll scoop some beets onto my plate at Dishes and it's going to cost me $5.99! $5.99 barely gets you a medium soup at Hale & Hearty. THe BistrO is a dream come true. I also had a huge rice krispie treat and a Tea's Tea that, ironically, cost almost as much as my entree!


Lindsey had the salmon burger as a platter, with a trio of salads. One was jicama and some other stuff. I think it cost fifty-five cents. I wonder if Omar's eaten here.

Lunch at Katsuhama

Katsuhama, the only tonkatsu restaurant in New York, is three blocks from my work! There is little section up front that offers bento boxes, onigiri and made-to-order udon, but behind a sliding door is a sit-down restaurant. Similar to its sister restaurant, Menkui-tei, seating is available at tables or the long bar.

I ordered the pork cutlet lunch special. Pickles, miso soup, rice and a mound of paper thin shredded cabbage accompanied the duo of deep fried pork pieces.



The dish of pickles came out first. On this day, there was spicy and non spicy cabbage and a pickled plum. I was also presented with sesame seeds in a grooved bowl. Using a pestle, I ground up the seeds to mix with the restaurant's homemade katsu sauce.



My pork cutlets arrived on a plate with the cabbage and a squirt of hot mustard. The panko breading was enjoyably crunchy, not to mention non-greasy and the pork moist. The Waiters walked by with tongs offering up even more cabbage. The sesame salad dressing they have at Katsu Hama is addictive. I'd have no problem eating an entire head of in a single sitting, in addition to everything else!

Soup and Sandwich at Wichcraft

Potato cheddar soup with parsley oil and half a chicken salad with walnuts, roasted tomatoes, pickled red onions and frisée on multigrain bread studded with lots and lots of seeds from 'Wichcraft on 46th St between 5th and Madison.

I can't help but feel really healthy when I eat multigrain bread.

Meatballs at Scandanavia House

Lunch two days ago was half a dozen golf ball sized meatballs bathed in a cream gravy with pickled cucumbers, lingonberry sauce and a generous portion of dense, rich, buttery potatoes topped with a sprinkling of chopped chives. To drink, a bottle of Kristal lingonberry soda. Yummy.

Today's Lunch: Grand Central Oyster Bar

Today I had lunch with my boss Rob at the Grand Central Oyster Bar, which is in Grand Central Station, perhaps my favorite building in the city. We sat at one of the rickety U-shaped counters and were each immediately greeted with a plate of everything-flavored flatbread as well as a crumbly sweet biscuit-like roll. These flatbreads are so good. There's just the right amount of each seasoning portioned out, unlike everything bagels which taste like salt licks half the time.

Having ingested a large quantity of fried food (chicken hands, mozzarella sticks, wings, etc...) yesterday at an off-site work outing, I tried to steer away from anything cooked in hot oil. I only sort of succeeded by ordering the crab cake sandwich - pan fried is different, right? The sandwich was served with a side of marinara sauce but I also ordered a dish of cole slaw to top the cake with. Rob got the tuna burger, rare of course, which everyone else at our counter seemed to order, and we also shared a half dozen oysters. Although Rob asked for medium to small sized oysters, we wound up with two Belon-whatsitorother from the West Coast on our plate whose shells were the size of a City Bakery Cookie. There were also two each of Tomahawk (MA) and Kumamto (OR). Oysters are so fucking delicious. Why did I have to be a moron and never eat these before the age of 20 or 21? I lost out on a lot of oysters in my life. My father would come home with a big bag of fresh clams and oysters which he would shuck with speed and precision in our backyard for family gatherings. A dash of Tabasco sauce was the only adornment. I'm sure I was whining about how I wanted cheeseburgers or Callahan's. Haha.

Getting stuffed at Scandanavia House

I'm stuffed! I just returned from lunch with the CLC at the Scandanavia
House, which is a stone's throw from my work! Turns out Aquavit runs a small cafe here and I would have never discovered the delights of this place had it not been for my boss who hipped me to it last week.

We both ordered the exact same meal, a pear Kristall drink and the Smorgasbord platter, which was 3 types or herring, 2 types of salmon, a single Swedish meatball bathed in gravy and lingonberry sauce, a wedge of Jarlsberg, a lone potato and some shrimp salad in dill sauce. In the center of the plate was some mustard with a bulls-eye of espresso. A piece of dark sourdough-esque bread and also a flat crisp bread accompanied.

Overall there was probably a little too much herring on my plate (mustard sauce, cream sauce and I'm not positive about this one, but possibly a tangy curry sauce), but this was a great delight! I love having a variety of foods to eat and making different combinations. My favorite combo was the classic shrimp salad on crisp bread, but I also liked swishing my potato in the lingonberries. The mustard worked really well with the gravlax. Now I am stuffed and really like a big time porker!

I Hate You Bistro Marketplace

That would be the one on Park Avenue b/w 41st and 42nd.

Seriously, what's the logic in charging me more for a one egg + salami on a roll than 2 eggs + ham, bacon or sausage on a roll? Lame, especially you grillmaster rolly eyes. You're a deli in New York, no one has ever asked you for salami and eggs?

Never going back there again.

Lotsa Eating, Little Writing

Some meals of late:

Taro Sushi - Jim popped his sashimi cherry this night, while Beth and I tried the omakase here for the first time. I went with the sushi and sashimi combo, while Beth was sashimi all the way. We started with an appetizer of monkfish liver atop a ponzu dressed sunomono. The liver had a really interesting texture. It was denser than I thought and reminded me of a smooth version of mentaiko, which I ate a lot of when I was younger. Anyway, everything tastes great with ponzu, IMHO. Next came the fish parade, including sardine, mackerel, butterfish, hamachi and a red-skinned whitefish which I think was called kinmae. Following that was a fatty tuna roll and a California roll made with real crab. But there was still so much more to be had, including variations on tuna such as bonito, which I love and some uni, which is not really a favorite. The uni nigiri was composed of two small orange oblong pieces atop the seasoned rice and I ate one of the pieces but left the other. I was incredibly stuffed after the meal, which I feel does not happen often when eating sushi.

Jim tried many new tastes and I think hamachi and mackerel came out on top as favorites. Hooray for Jim for trying new tastes!

Kushi Q - I discovered this futuristic hole in the wall Japanese place the other week when I had to stop by a friend's office to drop off Mets tickets. Though only half a block from Oms/B, where I go for lunch from time to time, I'd never noticed it before.

I ordered a atsuage tofu bento set with salad (you can also choose rice) and miso soup for $6.50. There was a trio of sticks, each with three cubes of battered tofu. Underneath the light and crispy shell was soft, creamy tofu. The salad was basic, composed of chopped romaine, carrots and corn, but filled me up nonetheless. I'd like to go back and try the butabara (bacon) and so-se-ji (little Berkshire sausages with pineapple). I've read some complaints about the portions not being big enough, but I felt more than satisfied.



Hibino - I did a bunch of small plates with the CLC and Dani before heading over to Floyd for bocce practice. The presentation on the fresh tofu is so cute, it's hard to pass up. It's amazing how rich and nutty tofu can taste. On this night, it was like eating a custard. It's also difficult to pass up the beef kakuni, a big hunk of braised short rib sitting atop a round of daikon. I rounded out the meal with one of the special daily obanzai - shitake and shisito pepper tempura, which unfortunately came sitting in sauce. I prefer to keep the tempura as dry as possible to maintain crispiness and do my own saucing.



Brio - I had lunch at this Upper East Side restaurant on Thursday with my coworkers Molly and Kendel to celebrate the latter's birthday. Molly knows the family who owns it, so we got treated to some lovely surprises, like a bottle of Prosecco and these two ginormous portions of tiramisu for dessert. To begin we noshed (am I allowed to say that to describe an Italian restaurant?) on a cheese plate and carciofi fritti, pan-fried baby artichokes. The cheese plate featured aged provolone, parmegiano and a deliciously milky salted fresh mozzarella. Kendel and I then shared the garganelli in salsa aurora rivista, which was a tomato-bechamel sauce, green peas, prosciutto and porcini. It was super rich, so a half-portion was the perfect amount. Then I wanted to take a nap, but I had to go back to work. Boo.

Sura - This Korean restaurant has undergone a bit of a makeover since I've last been. The setting seems a lot more serious and mature as the servers now dress in hanboks. The food was just as tasty as I remembered. Heidi and I shared the "pear and pork delight" to begin with. Layers of barbequed pork alternated with slices of Asian pear to create a nice contrast in textures. I just wish the kitchen was a little stingier with the sauce, which was a mixture of chili miso, raspberry and soy. It was too much and too gloppy. A light brushing of one of those flavors would have been more than sufficient. My main, the doobu kimchi bokeum suffered from the same over saucing but otherwise it was pretty damn tasty. The kimchi was gently sauteed with discs of rice cakes and surrounded by wedges of plain, steamed tofu. It was served with a small ping pong sized ball of mashed potatoes with cubes of Asian pear, what I guess is one of their trademark touches. It sounds weird, but provides a nice, cooling crunch in between bites of spicy.

Today's Lunch: Homefront Deli

The office where I work is in this weird food zone. Lots of mega-delis making sandwiches with pre-sliced meat, overpriced (but tasty) chains (I'm looking at you Pret-A-Manger)and high-end go-with-an-expense-account or a-friend-with-an-expense-account restaurants. Not a lot of other options. I frequently get some sort of Japanese on the strip of 41st St, between Madison and 5th, but I think I've overdone it because lately all I'm craving are sandwiches of the non-Asian persuasion. My favorite place to get such sandwiches is the Homefront Deli.

I finally pulled the trigger on the Homefront Deli a few weeks ago. The neon oaktag squares taped onto the front window, on which the specials and specialties were hand written have always intrigued me but I stayed away without any sort of reasonable explanation. I started with an egg sandwich one morning. It was exactly what I wanted - which is one egg with bacon on a squishy roll with black pepper and hot sauce. I feel like most delis really overdo it with the egg. When I order one egg, I just want one egg. Even better, give me a fried egg! I eventually made the leap to lunch, where I started with a cheeseburger and onion rings. The burger was a fine deli/diner burger and the onion rings were awesome in that Burger King onion ring sort of way, which is totally a compliment in my book.

I've also had the grilled chicken over feta salad, which is what I wanted today, only the cold line was four times as long as the hot line, so I opted for something from the grill instead. I got the grilled chicken with lettuce, tomato and steak sauce on a roll. They also threw in some super thinly sliced onions, which normally would have offended me and also given me a headache. I took most of them off, but left a couple rings on for extra flavor. Usually when onions are sliced really thin, they don't bother me. The sandwich was solid, but the fries I ordered to accompany were not. They were disappointingly undercooked and soggy. I picked out about 6 fries that had some sort of crispness to them and threw out the rest. Next time I'll ask for them well done.

geographically inaccurate (and ok with it) + today's lunch

After weeks of pondering, I'm unable to come up with a good enough new name that reflects our new zip code. So I guess we'll just stick with the Park Slope Gastronome, especially considering starting a new blog would mean losing comments like these. Also apparently Clinton Hill is already the most blogged-about neighborhood in the country.

My what to eat for lunch dilemma from the other month is no longer since I started working in a real office again. The new commute sucks, but I love my new lunch options. Right up the street from me is a cluster of Japanese owned businesses, including a small grocery store that also serves dons and udon, a sushi place that happens to make a ymmmy tiramisu and a juggernaut called Cafe Zaiya. There's also a great used bookstore called Book Off. I was psyched to discover this block and did so because I have been experimenting with routes to work. For a week straight my morning routine included a mochi donut from Zaiya. Feeling a bit muffin-toppy of late, I've purposely not walked down this block for the past few days. Anyway, Zaiya reminds me of the food court at Mitsuwa marketplace in Edgewater, NJ. Instead of all the stores and stands being spread out over a couple thousand square feet, they are all jammed in a space the size of your average Starbucks. You can get cream puffs from Beard Papa, a steamed green tea bun or fancy Opera cake from the bakery, a protein and two sides from the hot lunch counter in the back, pre-made sushi and tea sandwiches from the refrigerated case or one of the many room temperature bento boxes and dons from the metro shelving that divides the bakery section from the make your own salad area. Yes, there's also a salad bar. The food and prices are both solid so this place attracts a ton of hungry mid-towners.

Luckily for me, I take my lunch later (1:30 at the earliest) and the scene is a bit more calm then. This morning however I had skipped breakfast so I wound up eating lunch around 12:30. Holy shit, Zaiya was a madhouse. Granted, there were bento offerings I had never seen before, but it was a ridiculous scene. I attempted to make a quick lunch decision, but with all the never-before-seen offerings, I failed. I finally decided on a mixed bento box which contained the following: white rice with a little mount of chopped oshinko atop; a tiny scoop (size of a squash ball, maybe?) of potato salad/mashed potato hybrid; more oshinko; a panko-crusted fried shrimp, a slice of shio salmon, a small slice of some sort of meat loaf, a piece of karage, a hunk of simmered bamboo, two tiny sausages (sadly, not cut to look like an octopus or penguin); chicken and sauteed onions (basically oyako-don without the egg or rice).