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.
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| 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 2nd 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
I'll move on to the next night, Momofuku special treatment night! I know I know, I already had a post about momofuku noodle bar on here, but this is different, trust me. Back then I barely stumbled upon the legacy, ate solo at the bar, chose my entree conservatively (classic ramen noodle soup) and had a solitary yet deep experience. This time around, we were with Pam! Pam is Dave Moore's good friend from traveling abroad (i think) during their architecture undergrad... They stayed friends in NY & now Pam's fiance is the sous chef for Momofuku noodle bar. Tim is an incredible guy! Not only is he uber generous, but he's fascinated by all the ways to cook eggs... which totally fascinates me! Soy sauce egg anyone?? So although i was so proud of dining solo the last time around, walking right through the crowd of hungry people waiting and sitting at the bar with excellent service, this time around we were royalty! The wait was going to be 40 minutes; as soon as Pam showed up, we walked in, the hostess and waitresses recognized her, parted the ways and seated us immediately. Dave and I were super impressed!!!
