SATISFIED.

Sometimes there are so many options you can’t seem to pick any of them… that’s how I am at restaurants with big menus, i.e. Cheesecake Factory, and living here, in the East Village.   Walking the streets home from Astor Place subway station I pass countless eateries and bars all colorful, shiny and each one unique from the other; on top of that I have a long list, to say the least, of must-try restaurants in Manhattan and Brooklyn so lovingly provided by friends here and there… and everyday it keeps getting longer.  I’m trying not to obsess over needing to go to all of them, but it just happens.  And I have an irrational fear of wasting a meal on a mediocre choice… sometimes it’s the sub-par restaurant and sometimes it’s just the entrée I choose.  Jay likes to call it ‘entrée envy’ especially if I’m brooding over the fact that I should have ordered my first instinct, or worse, what he’s having.  It’s ridiculous, I know.  Ahh but I digress.  

So here in this city, I have hit up several very satisfactory spots in the past 5 weeks, but definitely not enough because at the rate I’m going I’ll never get through everyone’s recommendations and all the eye candy I see on my own.  In my neighborhood alone there’s pockets of ‘little Poland/Ukraine”  “little Japan/Korea”  & “Little India”  I simply HAVE to sample them all!  A couple weeks ago, after Dave turned me down for Indian food twice, I stopped in a pretty blue Indian restaurant 5 blocks away and ordered take out.   Even though I couldn’t make up my mind and basically ordered 2 entrees, it was delicious and lasted me 3 meals worth.  

My seat at the bar!

 But tonight walking home the three blocks on St. Marks Place, I was having a particularly hard time making a dinner decision.  I actually stood in front of a tiny diner on 2^nd ave for 5 minutes because they had perogies on the menu and seemed polish-esq… but I decided sitting and waiting for pergoies to go at the counter of this dismal looking space wasn’t what I really wanted to do. I had to pick up my laundry I dropped off 3 days ago and bring it home, so I had more time to think about dinner.  My usual yet partner-in-eating-crime was watching the basketball game uptown so I was on my own.  Hmm, there’s a Vietnamese ‘ban mi’ sandwich place across the street I’ve never tried, but man I’d love to cross those perogies off my list, but I pass sooo many crowded ramen houses on St. Marks every night… maybe I should just hop in one of those – I could bring my kindle and not look too weird… but oh that irrational fear of mediocre establishment sets in.  YELP to the rescue!  I get home and look up ramen in the East Village.  What do you know? The number one place on the list is Momofuku Noodle Bar with four stars. ****  I’ve read of this magical Momofuku empire… Molly recently posted an article about the Momofuku Milk Bar, a dessert haven, and from that I learned of their other establishments, all in my vicinity.  This is so perfect, I’m in the mood for ramen, I can cross something off my list that’s nearby, and I don’t have to wait for someone to be available to join me.   

loosening the noodles

I walk three little blocks to the Noodle Bar with no signage; I’ve passed this a million times and never knew what it was!   There are 4 groups waiting when I walk in,  This place did seem to be pretty trendy at the moment, I mean it’s a Wednesday night.  I go right up to the hostess and say “One,”  “Just you?”  “Just me!” “Right this way”.  She leads me through the crowd, oh the power!  I could get used to this whole dining solo thing!  She sits me at the last open seat of the long bar and I’m in heaven.  

Momofuku Ramen!  Yummers

Young, hustling sous chefs are placing perfectly poached eggs, breaking up noodles with their hands, mixing broth rapidly with chop sticks, squeezing bottles of oil and delicious sauces onto pork and chicken already cooking on the grill.  Yum!  I kept going from reading two lines in my book to snapping iphone photos, back to the kindle,  to sending said photos to friends and facebook, back to kindle and back to snapping off even more photos!  I went with the Momofuku Ramen.  Although I heard their pork buns are to die for, I had to go with the signature ‘noodle’ item… it has pork butt and pork shoulder… poached egg, lil of this, lil of that.  It was delicious, flavorful and oh so satisfying!  Plus I made a ton of people drool on facebook so that was a lil satisfying too, truthfull.  All in all, a memorable New York Wednesday.

Soft-poached eggs

Also I learned a new very interesting way to poach an egg, or I should say, soft poach an egg!  Poach it still in its shell, in a tray of water in the OVEN, and crack it open slowly over a bowl so you don’t break the semi-cooked egg as it comes out.  I was so impressed I talked to the sous chef about it!  Watch out Mer, this embarrassing talker-to-strangers is nipping at your heels!

Next I’ll try the Ssam Bar for the juicy pork butt, no inuendos intended!