Showing posts with label Asian. Show all posts

Anyone who knows me knows how big a fan I am of Top Chef. I've been to Dale Talde's   Talde Brooklyn as well as Harold Dieteltre...

Anyone who knows me knows how big a fan I am of Top Chef. I've been to Dale Talde's Talde Brooklyn as well as Harold Dieteltre's kin shop. Next up to bat was Leah Cohen's Pig & Khao. There were a few things that kept me from wanting to try her food. I was really turned off by the great reviews from Steve Cuozzo of the New York Post. I mean, how can you take a news publication seriously when Snooki is on the cover every other week? Pete Wells also gave it a two star review, but I feel like Wells had a pow-wow with an intern and asked "where do the cool kids eat these days?" Another larger factor was Leah herself. I know it's television but every week I was scratching my head and my balls, and asking myself "how the fuck is she still on the show?" But if I believed everything I saw on TV, I'd be 20 pounds lighter and have a twelve-inch penis with just two pills a day.

The only thing Pig & Khao did have going for it was it was a Fatty Crew joint, so I bit the bullet and rolled over to 688 Clinton street on the lower east side. The place was pretty packed for a Sunday, and the sounds of Shyne's "Bad Boyz" bumped in the background muffling the sounds of the conversations at the table and the bar which faced the open kitchen in the middle of the room. The smells from the kitchen would make someone with a full stomach hungrier than a pot head at an Action Bronson concert .  A friend of mine took full charge of ordering and this is what we ordered:

Sizzling Sisig ($14) - Pork head, chilli, whole egg. The dish comes served on a piping hot cast iron plate with a raw egg on top that you mix into the dish, dope!  I never had pig head before so it is hard to say if the texture was good, but the taste was on point. Hints of lemongrass rolled onto your palate with hints of spiciness every so often. 


Crispy Red Curry Rice Salad ($12) - Minced pork, crispy garlic, shallot, coriander, ginger, peanuts, lime-fish sauce. This rice dish, crispy in texture, served with lettuce leafs, had hints of sour and sweet that switched back and forth with every bite. My favorite dish of the night, and I would straight up catch a case for this one.

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Quail Adobo ($15) - Soy sauce, vinegar, Szechuan peppercorns, and crispy garlic. Not bad, but not great. Although the bird was crispy and juicy, the flavor was lacking. All I really could taste was soy sauce from beginning to end. 
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Khao Soi ($16) - Red curry, coconut milk, chicken, egg noodles, pickled mustard greens and shallots. Pieces of chicken swam in a coconut curry broth, filled chewy dense egg noodles that were topped with crunchy egg noodles. Every bite started off with heat but ended with cool sweet flavor from the coconut milk. This dish should've come with a warning in the description "may cause boner." 
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Grilled Curry Lamb Ribs ($24) - Yogurt, pickled beets, whole wheat roti chapathi. The ribs were perfectly cooked and juicy, but the dish had more of a Mediterranean flavor than an Asian one. Needless to say I sucked the meat off the bone. 

The bill came to $146 with drinks but without tip. I couldn't come up with an elaborate ending like I do in the rest of my reviews. All I can say is that I was wrong in every which way and the hierarchy of the food review game were right. 

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Pig & Khao
68 Clinton Street New York, N.Y. 10002
(212) 920-4485
pigandkhao.com
NYCRestaurant_A

You would think with all the Asian girls I dated in my life, one those bimbos would haven taken me for Dim Sum at least once. We always ende...

You would think with all the Asian girls I dated in my life, one those bimbos would haven taken me for Dim Sum at least once. We always ended up either eating Italian food or McDonald's and just having sex. Don’t get me wrong, that was cool but the bad thing about having sex with a Chinese girl is that you’re horny half an hour later. I know dim sum isn’t a big deal, dumplings, shumai, rolling carts, etc. Basically, Tapas for Asian people. If you don’t know what Tapas are, please stop reading this and light yourself on fire.

It was time I took matters into my own hands. It was my fathers birthday and I figured that I would treat him to a good meal. The man loves any kind of Asian food and he especially loves eating in Chinatown. He says it reminds him of Brighton beach except everyone is Asian. I also wanted to eat in Chinatown to do my part in trying to ever so slightly help struggling business recover after Hurricane Sandy.

I decided to pay a visit Nom Wah Tea Parlor - A joint serving up Dim Sum to New Yorkers since 1920.  During the past few decades the small dim sum shop had fallen on bad  times but it was revitalized in early 2010 by the owners nephew Wilson Tang.

The decor of Nom Wah is that of an old school coffee shop. A counter with stools, tables and a few booths. My parents and I were pointed to a booth in the back, upholstered with red pleather and a table that slanted forward. I was in love.

We were handed two menus, one with pictures for the Lames or Yelpers and another paper menu to check off what you wanted to order. Here’s what we got : 

Stuffed Chinese eggplant ($3.50) Eggplant stuffed with deep-fried shrimp paste, served in a brown sauce with scallions.



“The Original” Egg Roll ($3.95) Mixed vegetables and chicken wrapped in a crepe type blanket and deep-fried in a batter. This isn’t your ordinary corner white-boy Chinese food egg roll. It was weird and I could have eaten five more.



House special fried dumplings ($3.95)  Pork and chives stuffed into a dumpling skin and pan-fried.

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Pork Bun ($1.50) Steamed bun filled with pork and caramelized onions. Hands down makes my top 3 pork buns in NYC
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Stuffed Chinese eggplant ($3.50) Eggplant stuffed with deep-fried shrimp paste, served in a brown sauce with scallions.
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Shrimp Rice Roll ($3.50) Shrimp stuffed inside of a flour rice noodle topped with a sweet soy sauce. 
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Shanghai Soup Dumplings ($3.50) Pork dumplings filled with broth.  Perfectly shaped, perfectly pleated,  dough wrapper filled with a perfect ratio of soup to meat ratio. As you can see I keep the hooliganism down and let the dumpling cool in the vinegar before eating whole. Instead of biting a hole in the skin like some dickhead Yelper.

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Shrimp & Snow Pea Leaf Dumplings ($3.95) Shrimp and snow peas tucked into a homemade wheat wrapper served open face.  Now, my chopstick game is tight, but I was having trouble picking these dumplings up as they stuck to the bottom of the pot. This doesn’t mean I didn’t eat 3 out of 4 in the serving, You snooze, you lose, Mom.


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Salt & Pepper Spare Ribs ($8.50) A heap of deep-fried pork spare ribs in a light crispy, salty, peppery coating. It’s hard not to love deep-fried, salted pork. Went down perfect with a Taiwan Beer.
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We also ordered the pan-fried noodles in superior soy sauce and the house special dumpling soup which were both good, but I was to busy eating and dodging “Why aren’t you married yet” questions from my parents to take pictures of the dishes. My family and I ate like champs for $65, a reasonable dinner tab for any tight ass.  What more can I say, go to Nom Wah Tea Parlor as-soon-as-possible.

Nom Wah Tea Parlor
13 Doyer Street, New York, NY
212- 962-6047
www.NomWah.com