As some of you may know, I’ve been contributing some writing to Yue Magazine, the relatively new Chinese/English magazine by the New York Observer Media Group. In the past few months I’ve interviewed Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Daniel Boulud, and also written on a wide variety of food related topics. Last Wednesday, Yue held its inaugural launch party at the Trump Tower Atrium, and I was there to cover the festivities.
We're writing for Yue Magazine
Catering the food for the day was chef Angelo Sosa, who gained fame and notoriety on Bravo’s Top Chef, and is currently the owner/chef at Social Eatz. When I first heard about chef Sosa catering for the event, I was admittedly askance in the selection. Chef Sosa is famous for his obsession with Asian flavors, but he is after all Columbian/Italian/American, how will his food fare when many guests are actually of Asian descent?
MuCash lets you make donations quicky in increments as small as a single penny. By leaving a small donation every time you find something of value to you, you can help me keep creating content like this for you to enjoy.
Beer and oysters are acquired tastes for most people: something totally detested in our early teens, but then cannot get enough our twenties and beyond. Put these two together in a restaurant, and you get a stream of young professionals looking to sip and slurp. But that only describes the very average seafood shack…. To further up the ante, Upstate on First Ave combines craft beer and a dizzying selection of oysters. Good combination made better.
We were definitely not alone with that thought. My first visit to Upstate was greeted with a line outside the door. Like most smaller seafood shacks, Upstate does not take reservations. Add this to the cramped seating, crowded bar area, and slightly undermanned wait staff, arriving early or very late would be your best bet. If you do decide to brave the queue, put your name on the chalkboard by the entrance and wait to be called. As tempting as it is to erase someone as hunger kicked in, we decided to do the honorable thing.
First come first served on the board.
The meal started with the excellent selection of craft beer. The beer from these small scale breweries are on rotation, so check the website for the latest offerings. The Peak Organic Simcoe Spring was a delicious ale. In fact it was so good that the next day I procured a case at my favorite beer store.
Start with a new mug of brew.
Upstate also cooks up some pretty good food. The house cured salmon, recommended by friends on Twitter, was truly excellent. I’ve seen television programs about curing salmon, with results like this I’m wondering why more restaurants don’t give it a shot. Continue reading Upstate Review – Beer and Oysters
MuCash lets you make donations quicky in increments as small as a single penny. By leaving a small donation every time you find something of value to you, you can help me keep creating content like this for you to enjoy.
As a former resident of the Upper East Side, I can attest that dining here isn’t particularly exciting, especially in the higher street numbers. 6 years ago when I lived on 88th Street, we seldom ate out within our neighborhood. Even the bustling area around 3rd Ave and 86th Street lacked proper dining options.
Fast forward to today, it seems the food culture has even managed to affect the UES, though still on a lesser scale compared to other neighborhoods or boroughs. 86th Street’s got a Shake Shack, Guggenheim’s got The Wright, and on 3rd Ave a few very serious looking restaurants have came to life in the last year or so. Scrolling through my old neighborhood, the dining options have changed quite a bit for the better.
Naruto Ramen on 3rd Ave.
Though the options are better, by New York’s overall standards, they’re behind the times. Italian eateries, steak houses, and nondescript Japanese or Thai “fusion” restaurants. All restaurants seem to be catering to the locals, as there’s barely any buzz in the interwebs surrounding any of these restaurants.
A noodle bar for the UES.
Which is why I was stunned to find a ramen shop. A narrow noodle bar that you’d expect to find in the village. Naruto Ramen reminded me of Rai Rai Ken, but with a much different demographic (older, families), and different type of ramen.
The headliner on the menu is the namesake Naruto Ramen, which is actually just a fairly standard shouyu ramen. They also serve miso, kimchee and mapo ramen, as well as two vegetarian options. Surprisingly they don’t have a shio ramen.
The Naruto Ramen.
Whatever the ramen you choose, it still all comes down to the base broth (before they add the salt, soy sauce, miso, etc…), noodles, and other accompanying ingredients. I found the broth to be flavorful, and not overpowering with fat. Noodles are cooked for a shorter period for a more textured bite, which happens to be my personal preference. As for the other ingredients, I was not a fan of their roasted pork, as it was a bit too thick and not very tender. The standard issue beansprouts, seaweed, egg and bamboo shoots were also not very exciting.
Though perhaps I’m nitpicking. For a neighborhood joint, Naruto Ramen is very good. If there was one in my neighborhood, it’d get my business at least once a week. Your bowl of noodles probably won’t compare with quality you’d find at Hide-Chan or Ippudo, but that was never the intent.
After all, this is the Upper East Side, lets take it a step at a time.
CS
Rating:
From the Notebook: Score reflects only on the ramen, which was very good though priced appropriately (high) for the Upper East Side locale. Cash only. There’s another one in Brooklyn.
Naruto Ramen
1596 3rd Ave
New York, NY 10128
(212) 289-7803
MuCash lets you make donations quicky in increments as small as a single penny. By leaving a small donation every time you find something of value to you, you can help me keep creating content like this for you to enjoy.
Steak may be a stereotypically manly meal, but I daresay a bouquet of carnation hardly competes with a slab of USDA prime, medium rare. This mother’s day, the steakhouse masters led by Benjamin would like to help you express your appreciation for mom–and when sentimental words escape you, ordering a steak should come naturally enough.
As another scion of Steakhouse Royalty, Peter Lugers, Benjamin Steakhouse has all the expected mainstays. Our meal, a week before Mother’s day, started with a perfectly smoked Canadian bacon, where the fat overpowers the lean by perhaps 4:1 sizing proportions. The shrimp, too large perhaps for a cocktail glass, cut through the bacon grease so that you may have your next bite without diminishing appreciation.
Start with some beautiful, thick cut bacon.
Four gigantic shrimp.
As they say in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, if you have a vegetarian amongst your midst, you may perhaps settle on lamb as a suitable alternative to porterhouse. The lamb’s contrastive flavor profile makes it just as satisfying as beef yet with an esoteric gamey twist. Silly as that may sound, you are left with precious little to eat if you are of the vegetarian persuasion. However, the creamed spinach is as fine as I have ever tasted, which may be in itself calorically worthy of a meal. Continue reading Benjamin Steakhouse Review – Carnations for Carnivores
MuCash lets you make donations quicky in increments as small as a single penny. By leaving a small donation every time you find something of value to you, you can help me keep creating content like this for you to enjoy.
Many years ago, a spontaneous dinner at Yakitori Totto left me so impressed that I wanted to write about the experience. It was the first restaurant “review” that I’ve ever written, and ironically not found on this site. Perhaps it’s for this reason that Yakitori Totto remains special. Apparently quite a few people feel the same way, it’s remarkably difficult to get a seat without an uncomfortable wait in the narrow hallway. A few blocks away from Yakitori Totto, Bobby Munekata’s latest venture Totto Ramen has also found great fanfare. 7 times I’ve attempted to go for a bowl of noodles, 7 times I’ve failed due to outrageous lines.
Luckily, as the world lined up for Totto Ramen, Munekata’s Hide-Chan Ramen on the East Side remains far more accessible, and taste absolutely fantastic. If you’re not in the mood to wait in line at Yakitori Totto, there’s also an alternative on the East Side: Soba Totto?!
Soba Totto, with the familiar icon.
Yes, the name of the restaurant literally means “Buckwheat Noodle Bird Man”. Many times while going for dinner at Yasuda or Sakagura, I’ve noticed the familiar chicken icon of the “Totto” restaurants, then got dissuaded from trying it because of the word soba. While I’m a huge fan of soba, hot or cold, Totto for me is all about creative ways of grilling chicken, not a cold plate of fine noodles.
MuCash lets you make donations quicky in increments as small as a single penny. By leaving a small donation every time you find something of value to you, you can help me keep creating content like this for you to enjoy.
