Burger Binge

Over the past couple of months, this blog has explored a wide array of different exciting food options that are available around the Big Apple. We explored foods like cactus tacos, raw beef, chicken feet, arancino, spicy ice creams, and other crazy, completely out of the ordinary foods for the most daring of food-lovers. We took a look at the foods of a wide variety of cultures including Chinese, Ethiopian, Mexican, Korean, Halal, Sicilian, and others. We saw that restaurants can go for a specific specialty (such as meatballs, tacos, or chicken and waffles), or can have a host of different foods like in markets such as the Chelsea Market or the Essex Street Market. Through all of these completely different options it is not difficult to see that in New York City, someone can find just about anything that could possibly be consumed.

But what if on a particular day we are not actually feeling quite daring enough for all the crazy things listed above? Sometimes when we’re hungry we can’t handle the stress of trying new, but rather want something both delicious and familiar. Whenever I’m not in the mood for anything quite too fancy, there is one thing that I crave… And that’s a good burger.

New York City has so many burger joints it would be impossible for me to list every single restaurant that I have ever left perfectly satisfied and extremely impressed, so I will have to only list a few highlights. As has been an underlying theme of the entire blog, one of the best places to get any meal in New York City is Williamsburg, Greenpoint. Conveniently, one of the best burgers to be had in the city is no more than a four minute walk away from my house in a cozy, brand new restaurant called River Styx. Right on the Hudson River, River Styx has gorgeous views of Manhattan, an extremely cool and hip vibe, and of course, a great burger. Often what makes one burger stand out from all the rest is its sauce, and River Styx has their’s down to a science. Perfectly creamy with just the right amount of spice, the Styx Sauce takes juicy burgers to a whole new level.

The Williamsburg Bridge- MugurM

Another great joint is simply called Diner, and is worth visiting for it’s atmosphere alone. Almost the entire restaurant (except for a small expansion) is in an old subway car from the 1920s, and is located right below the incredibly beautiful Williamsburg Bridge. Their grass-fed burger (recommended to be ordered rare) is quite literally the tenderest burger that I have ever eaten. If you’re not one to believe in organic, grass-fed burger meat, this diner will almost certainly change your mind.

Shake Shack in Madison Square Park- Wikimedia

And of course, no burger blog post could be completed without mentioning Shake Shack, the most well-known burger chain in all of New York City. Shake Shack not only has the best fast-food style hamburgers (for a relatively cheap price), but also has some of the best ice-cream shakes in the entire city. If somehow you have still not experienced the burgers and shakes of Shake Shack yet, I urge you to make your way to NYC as soon as you possibly can to finally get a taste. And of course, if you are ever near Williamsburg in Brooklyn, River Styx and Diner are must sees for any burger lover as well.

Food Fusion

New York is widely known for it’s unique ability to draw in millions of people from vastly different cultures around the world. New York’s stunning diversity can be seen in a plethora of different ways including through it’s many cultural neighborhoods, nearly one hundred different museums, world-renowned parades and celebrations, hundreds of monuments, and of course… it’s food. New York City is home to every cultural food known to man, and indeed a hungry tourist could find just about any food culture that he/she could possibly bring to mind. In fact, there is so much food culture in New York that very often restaurant’s won’t commit to just one kind.

At the forefront of culinary innovation is fusion cuisine, a unique style of food that combines the traditions of two or more completely different cultures to create one, all new, unique take on old favorites. Fusion restaurants have become quite hip, and restaurants with the most unlikely combinations can become the next big craze.

Lucky Luna's Daily Specials

A particular fusion that comes to mind is the strange combination of Mexican and Taiwanese foods popularized by Lucky Luna, a small family-owned eatery in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. A family with both Mexican and Taiwanese heritage that wanted to borrow the best aspects of both their Mexican and Taiwanese cooking in clever new ways and Lucky Luna was born.

As soon as a hungry customer walks into Lucky Luna they can tell that they are in for a more exciting food experience than they could have hoped for when they look around at the inside of the modest space beautifully decorated with arts with both Mexican and Taiwanese flairs. Once the menu is casually dropped off at the table it is hard to wait to see what crazy concoctions a mix of two seemingly opposite foods could conjure up. It can be impossible to decide what to order off of a menu as complex as Lucky Luna’s, but it would be criminal to pass over Lucky Luna’s signature dishes: their taco’s and steamed buns.

Lucky Luna's Chorizo and Pork Belly Taco's

On my trip to Lucky Luna I made sure to try as many different tacos and buns as I could, and ended up ordering one Duck Confit Bao (bun), one Pork Belly Bao, one Chorizo and Potato taco, and one Pork Belly and Kimchee taco. Starting with the buns, I was immediately impressed by the luscious, soft, steamed bun made right in Brooklyn and the soft tender meat of duck and pork. Each of the buns had a deliciously creamy sauce that combined the sweetness of Taiwanese cuisine with the spicy kick one would expect from a Mexican taco. The taco’s were just as good with flavorful combinations of hot, savory pork and chorizo and cool, crisp veggies on a warm tortilla. The chorizo taco was particularly good, combining the classic Mexican hot chorizo with creamy aioli.

No matter where you are in New York City, it’s worth the short subway ride to get down to Greenpoint, Brooklyn and try the delicious Taiwanese-Mexican fusion offered by Lucky Luna.

The Latest Scoop

With winter finally coming to a close and spring upon us it is once again becoming acceptable to eat ice cream at all hours of the day. Of course, I never stopped eating ice cream over the winter as I am a firm believer that ice cream is the best dessert no matter how cold it is outside, but now it makes a lot more sense to be eating tubs of ice cream at a time. I am the biggest ice-cream addict that I know; over the past spring vacation I ate at least one pint of ice cream every single night. As a huge ice cream fan I can say that the best ice cream and related desserts in the world are all in New York City.

New York is well known for its odd and unique foods, and it is no different with ice cream. My new favorite place to pick up a scoop is called OddFellows, with locations in Williamsburg and East Village. OddFellows of course nails all of the classics, but as their name might suggest, is much more well known for their flavors that are a bit more out of the ordinary.

OddFellows Ice Cream

On my first visit I was enticed by a flavor called Spicy Fig, which was a vanilla ice cream base with fig toppings and a variety of spices. The Spicy Fig ice cream was one of the most strange flavor experiences I have ever had in my life. When first taking a lick, the rich, sweet qualities of the vanilla ice cream come forward warming your soul like vanilla ice cream should. But after the ice cream rests on your tongue for a few seconds an intensely spicy flavor comes to the forefront. And it’s not just a hint of spice, it was extremely spicy, so much so that I actually felt like I needed a glass of water after finishing the the whole scoop. What made the ice cream so good was that while being so spicy, it still maintained the creamy qualities ice cream should have, so every lick is a cycle of intense heat followed by refreshing milk.

It must sound quite weird, but I loved it so much I came back for it several days in a row until it moved off the list of flavors. The OddFellows constantly change their flavors as to continuously keep their customers on their toes, always introducing crazy new flavors like Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Carrot Cake Cream Cheese. Of course they are willing to give as many free samples as you need to find your perfect flavor, so there is no need to worry about taking risks for the more adventurous flavors. Their flavors for any given day can be accessed on their website.

The High Line- Wikimedia

There are many other delicious frozen treats scattered across the city. Another great treat is the Italian ice. Located all over Manhattan are Ralph’s Famous Italian Ice’s. With over 40 different flavors of Italian ices that melt as soon as they leave your spoon, one could never get bored. Even another frozen delicacy is the ice pop. Along the High Line in Chelsea are several ice pop stands that make wonderfully refreshing ice pops fresh every day. Some vendors will even make shaved ice by shaving off of a huge chunk of ice as you order.

So as you walk around New York City this hot summer, be sure to stop to get one of these great frozen treats to keep you cool!

A Well Rounded Meal

For almost every food adventurer, a market is almost equivalent to an amusement park. The seemingly endless new food options that surround you are enough to make anyone even slightly interested in food dizzy. The coolest foods that I have never even heard of I have almost always discovered at a market. In fact, my first blog post revolved around one of my favorite markets in the world, Chelsea Market. Over spring break I discovered another market almost as fantastic.

Essex Market- Wikimedia

Actually, my family and I were walking towards the Chelsea Market already, but after walking over the highly scenic Williamsburg Bridge from Brooklyn into Manhattan (easily over a two hour walk) we were quite famished and could not possibly make it another ten blocks to get to our favorite market for lunch. So instead we were forced to look around right where we were. And it just so happened that the Williamsburg Bridge lets off right near the Essex Street Market. Of course we were all far too tired and hungry to think about it too much, but we rushed into the market eagerly searching for our next meal.

The Essex Market had a huge variety of drastically different food options, ranging from Japanese to Mexican to Sicilian and more. But the biggest takeaway from the entire market was by far the Sicilian food. One stand in the Market, called the Arancini Brothers specialized in arancini and indeed had almost nothing except for over ten different kinds of arancino.

By now you're probably wondering what in the world an arancino is as I had absolutely no idea what it was when I first saw it either. Arancini are basically just balls of carbs with all kinds of different foods stuffed inside of them.

We started out by ordering only the Bacon-Cheese-Burger, Taco-Cini, Buffalo Ball, Mushroom Taleggio, and Nutella, but after getting hooked after the first ball, we quickly rushed back in line to order every other arancino on the menu. They were warmed up as you ordered them so that your first bites are into an extremely hot and soft pancake-like covering, perfectly seasoned with moderate amounts of salt and garlic and hot filling. The best filling by far was the Bacon-Cheese-Burger as the gooey melted cheese went perfectly with the garlic covering, and the freshly ground beef was perfect for adding some substance to an otherwise snack food. However there was not a bad ball, even the super weird ones like The Everything with lox, cream cheese, capers, red onion, and tomato, were perfectly balanced and delicious. And of course, one could never go wrong with Nutella.

And once you're done with the arancini balls, you can move on to more balls for dessert! Not more than 50 feet away from the Arancino Brothers is a stand that sells cake balls. If you are not familiar with the cake ball craze, cake balls are just what they sound like: succulent balls of cake. They sell a dozen different flavors, but the best I had was the red velvet. The cake balls were perfectly moist and packed more flavor in one ball than some full sized cakes.

So if you're ever in the mode for arancini and cake balls, Essex Market is the place to go!

Brunch Village

Sprouting all across New York City are restaurants that specialize in a very particular meal: brunch. Too late for breakfast, but too early for lunch, brunch is the perfect meal for anyone who loves sleeping in until noon on weekends and can't decide over the comfort of waking up to breakfast or the excitement of going out to lunch. Brunch has become extremely popular in NYC and it is nowhere out of the ordinary to be put on waiting lists hours long to get a meal at the hippest new brunch restaurant. 

Personally, I did not understand all the hype, so when my family and I went to eat at Sweet Chick (supposedly one of the best places to grab brunch in the entire city) and were told we would have to wait an hour and a half for a table, I can't say we didn't consider ditching the whole idea and getting McDonald's breakfast for just a dollar instead. But I am very glad to say we were tough enough to brave an hour and a half of stomach groans and got our hands on the brunch we had heard oh so much about.

Like many other restaurants specializing in brunch, Sweet Chick has one dish that is the staple of it's entire menu: Chicken and Waffles. In fact, the restaurant's actual full name is Sweet Chick: Chicken and Waffles.

Not surprisingly, this dish has only two elements to it: deep fried chicken and buttery-sweet waffles. Considering that Chicken and Waffles are raved about and sold in almost every brunch restaurant worth its oil, I was very curious how such a simple meal could be so popular. Once I tried it I got my answer. Chicken and Waffles, when you think about it, are the perfect brunch meal as they combine two favorites from breakfast and lunch to satisfy your cravings. Once I took my first bites I instantly was on board with the craze.

The chicken was deep-fried to perfection; it was crunchy on the outside and melted like butter on the inside. The deep-fried shell was delicately seasoned to perfection giving the the chicken a robust flavor like no other. Once I moved on to the waffles I was pleasantly surprised all over again. These waffles were the fluffiest waffles that I have ever eaten in my entire life. They were so airy that it literally felt like I was biting into cloud, except one soaked in sweet maple syrup and butter. I have never even liked waffles because they are usually much too hard and bland, but these waffles completely redefined waffles. The sweet fluffy waffles complemented the crisp savory chicken thighs perfectly.

Of course, the Chicken and Waffles were not the only treasure available. We also tried the Smoked Pork Hash, a very interesting take on corned beef hash. Sweet Chick also has a variety of exciting specials if nothing on the main menu seems enticing enough.

While I went to the location in Williamsburg, close to my home, there is also a great location in the lower east side of Manhattan in case your ever walking around Manhattan and must stop for some brunch!

The Wandering Dumplings

In just about every restaurant in the United States with service you can expect the exact same pre-meal procedure. You are welcomed, seated, given a menu with just about a hundred different foods, and expected to find one dish going off of nothing but a name and a vague description. I don't think I am alone in sometimes getting a bit overwhelmed and having not the slightest idea what to order after given just a few minutes to look over a plain text menu.

However, this service model is certainly not the only model. What if instead of looking at a menu and being forced to one meal, a wealth of different entrees were carted to you fresh out of the kitchen for you to pick and choose?

Dim sum Cart- Hazel Tsoi

Dim sum is a unique style of Chinese cuisine where food is prepared in small, appetizer sized portions, stuck on a cart, and rolled around the giant dining room to catch the eyes of hungry customers eager for their next dish. The carts transport a panoply of different Chinese treats and confections. All the customer has to do is pull one over and point at as many different plates as they could possibly want. This system is so attractive for three reasons. It is easy to choose your meal when your options are hot and steamy right in front of your eyes, you don't need to commit to any one dish when you can (and should) get one of nearly everything, and you get your food immediately; there's virtually no time between getting pumped for your lunch and taking your first bite.

Har gow (Shrimp Dumpling)- Wikimedia

These carts wheel around some of my favorite foods in the entire world. You could pull over a cart to get steaming plates of shrimp dumplings, buttery bar-b-que pork puns, and many other well-known Chinese specialties, but there are also a host of foods that would be more interesting for the daring foodie. These include hot turnip cakes, fried squid, fish balls, seaweed, and even "phoenix claws" which are deep fried, boiled chicken feet. (I have never been able to muster up the courage to eat a pair of chicken feet, but I hope I will one day as to get the full dim sum experience). If none of those sound particularly appetizing, don't fear, there is certainly a ton of more foods that the average american could enjoy.

Phoenix Claws- Wikimedia

After being stuffed with twenty different plates of Chinese, it's important to not stop eating there, for the desserts are the best part. Well known for their egg custard tarts, sweat cream buns, and jin deui (sweet red bean paste in a sesame seed bun), the dim sum restaurants roll out more dessert than they do all other foods combined. The bite sized creamy egg custard tarts are so addicting it's quite easy to shovel down three plates full before even realizing.

Middle- Egg Custard Tarts, Back- Jin Deui Wikimedia

True dim sum is quite hard to come by in Manhattan (even in China Town), but delicious dim sum restaurants line the streets in Flushing, Queens. Though a long subway ride from Manhattan, it is certainly worth the trip not only for the food, but is also quite cool to walk around and has a few great off-touristy destinations.

Food on the Move

The average New Yorker is extremely busy, and doesn't always have time to stop in an upscale restaurant, wait for a table, wait for their server to take their order, and then wait even longer for the food to come out. No, New Yorkers need their food quick. But that doesn't mean that the quality of the food needs to be in any way compromised.

One of the greatest modern culinary inventions is the food truck. Parked right along the sidewalk, it's extremely easy for any person rushing from place to place in desperate need of a quick bite to walk up to the window, and leave with food that not only fills their empty stomach, but has them grinning for the rest of their commute. Equipped with a kitchen with only the bare necessities and a staff of passionate chefs, even in a space no larger than a family minivan, delicious foods can be made to order in the amount of time it takes to be handed a cold fast food cheeseburger from an uninspired McDonald's cashier.

Food trucks have come to dominate the streets of New York City. It seems on certain streets of Manhattan one could spot several food trucks in just a small block. Food trucks have become so massively successful as they do food the best: the tastiest most unique foods, taken to the people. What better advertising is there than having hungry pedestrians smell your culinary delights as they walk by on the street? This ingenious marketing has sucked me into trying quite a few different food trucks, but my absolute favorite food trucks in the city are those that sell Halal food.

Halal Truck- Flickr

Halal food is defined as any food that is permissible to eat according to Islamic law. With such a general constraint, a Halal truck sells a variety of hot foods. They are most well known for their all-beef hotdogs, but also sell cheeseburgers, gyros, falafel, and more. However, the only thing that I will ever order is their Chicken Over Rice. Chicken Over Rice is basically exactly what you would expect from the name: soft tender grilled chicken with a variety of unique spices over hot rice with creamy yogurt and hot sauces, and a side of salad. The chicken on top of the Chicken Over Rice has got to be the most tender chicken that I have ever eaten in my entire life, and it nearly melts in your mouth. I have also tried the Lamb Over Rice, Chicken Gyro, and Lamb Gyros, which are all great, but do not compare.

Chicken Over Rice- Flickr

While these trucks are scattered all across New York City, the ones in Brooklyn are a couple of dollars cheaper and two times tastier than the ones in Manhattan, but that should not discourage one from giving this delicious Halal food a try if passing one in Manhattan. There is a Halal truck that always parks just one block away from my home in Brooklyn, so needless to say I have Chicken Over Rice at least five times a week every time I'm on break.

The Food of the World on a Silver Platter

Considering New York City is one of the largest melting pots in the entire world, it should come as no surprise that the bold and daring food lover would have no difficulty finding foods that might not be tried by the average American. New York City hosts a cornucopia of foods from all over the globe. Unfortunately, the average tourist overlooks many of their options and goes for the basic foods we all know and love: a juicy burger, a slice of cheesy pizza, or a super-stuffed pastrami sandwich. This is a major problem, because just because a food is uncommon or unpopular, does not mean it cannot be five times more satisfying than any of the options listed before.

Growing up, I was exposed to all sorts of different kinds of foods as my mother was very passionate about sharing with us her love of adventurous foods. Our all-time favorite is by far Ethiopian. While different from standard cuisine in almost every possible way, it is just as (if not much more) delicious than any other style of food.

Ethiopian Plate courtesy of Ernesto Andrade- Flickr

Ethiopian food first differs significantly in its presentation. When ordering Ethiopian, each person at the table does not each order their own dish to selfishly chow down on, but the entire party orders together instead. Once the party chooses all of their dinner servings, the food is brought to the table on one giant platter, with each food item as a small "sample" paired with many other such samples. Then all there is to do is dig in!

When eating Ethiopian, there are no utensils. No forks, spoons, knives, chop sticks, etc... Instead, everything is eaten with hands. Now this would pose some obvious sanitation problems considering that most of the food is not very finger-friendly, so instead special bread, injera, is used to pinch small portions of the food to eat. The injera is much more sour than traditional wheat bread, but does a much better job of absorbing all of the delicious juices from the food that has been scooped. All of the food is placed on top of this bread as well, to ensure that not even an ounce of flavor can escape.

Injera- from Wikimedia

Two of my favorite orders are raw kitfo and the vegetarian combo. The vegetarian combo is pretty straight-forward and nearly every Ethiopian restaurant will have its own version of it. It is essentially just several unique vegetable dishes (some like salads, but most having a paste-like consistency) in small doses. However the raw kitfo is not quite as standard. Kitfo is minced beef with a few different spices giving it its uniquely spicy taste. But as is implied in "raw kitfo" the beef is 100% raw. Even when assured that the meat was acquired from reputable farms and has been extensively cured, at first nearly every person has an aversion to raw meat. While Kitfo can technically be ordered cooked, it is so much more savory, juicy, and spicy when ordered raw. I have had several friends try it to date and almost all of them have come out loving it, so I strongly urge everyone to at least give it a try before dismissing it just for not being cooked!

Raw Kitfo from Awash- courtesy of Kirk K- Flickr

If you were sold on trying Ethiopian there are several great Ethiopian restaurants in Manhattan. Two that are worth trying out are Awash and The Queen of Sheba. Hopefully you can muster the courage to try one!

Balls and Sauce

New York City is very well known for taking one small group of foods and blowing it out of proportion. If you were hungry for some macaroni and cheese, you could find one restaurant that serves nothing but pasta soaked in hot, gooey cheese. Similarly, if you had a hankering for hot dogs, you would have little difficulty finding literally hundreds of different combinations of hot dogs under one roof. This is one of the many reasons I believe that New York City is the food capitol of the world: seemingly nowhere else could you find a restaurant that serves nothing but grilled cheese sandwiches with more options than you could count, yet each sandwich is brilliantly crafted around a set of seemingly incompatible ingredients that come together to make the most mind-boggling culinary creation you have ever had between two slices of burnt bread. One of my personal favorite restaurant that certainly lives up to this ideal is The Meatball Shop (you may have already guessed its specialty).

Steven Pisano- Flickr

They have a few locations across the city, but the one with the most character has to be their Williamsburg location. Williamsburg is one of the nicest areas in Brooklyn and enjoys a very hip scene with tons of delicious restaurants. Living in Greenpoint (just a 15 minute walk away) I have had more than my fair share of meatballs as the food is so stunning you can't help but go back again and again.

The Meatball Shop's menu is perhaps unsurprisingly simple: there are four meatballs (beef, pork, chicken, and vegetable), but what you can do with them is practically endless. However, there is a method to the madness. You start off choosing your favorite meat to be ground into balls, slather it with one of your favorite sauces, and plop it on top of the most appealing side. With four types of meatballs, five signature sauces, and ten different sides there are already two-hundred possibilities. 

Where it really starts to get exciting is when you start to consider all of their "daily" specials. (The first few times I visited I was amazed that they could possibly have a completely different set of specials every single day, but when I started going multiple days in a row, I realized the specials are more like a weekly deal. However, I still think this is impressive). The best combination I have had so far has been the spicy pork with creamy mushroom alfredo sauce, over extra-creamy polenta. The creaminess of the mushroom alfredo and polenta combine to form savory flavor that I had never experienced before. The meatballs, of course, made the dish.

If you weren't already enticed by the meatballs, the meal doesn't end there. Although you'll already be stuffed, it is certainly worth eating one of their signature ice cream sandwiches 'cause who doesn't want ice cream after every meal? You get to choose your choice of delicious fresh-baked cookie and homemade ice cream. You'll be sure to leave filled to the brim, but not be able to help grinning from ear to ear after a meatball dinner that is sure to remind you of your childhood, except better.

The Meatpacking District No More

Every year, millions of tourists from close by or oceans away are attracted to one of the most exciting and diverse cities in the world: New York City. The Big Apple draws people far and wide for lists of reasons that go on for ever. It is well known for its towering sky scrapers, dazzling shopping strips, and sparkling river waters, its enchanting broadway plays, stunning live music, and momentous landmarks. These are all great reasons to love New York City, but for me, the best part of a city this big... is the food.

When traveling around such a monster of a city on an empty stomach, it can be very difficult to pin down just one restaurant to chow down at. A decision of that magnitude deserves a thoughtful analysis of many different options. And the best place to go to look would have to be Chelsea Market, by far.

Wikimedia

Chelsea was once a meat-packing district, and a run-down, even dangerous part of town that was generally avoided if at all possible. Now, Chelsea is now arguably one of the hippest neighborhoods in all of Manhattan. In the heart of Chelsea lies the Chelsea Market, a gorgeous indoor marketplace equipped with over 35 different gourmet eateries. When I first walked into the market I couldn't help but gape at the rows of sparkling lights, colorful waterfalls, and artfully utilitarian industrial lights lining the ceilings.

Wikimedia

Wikimedia

But of course, no one comes to the market for the scenery, though it is a pleasant touch. Having been to Chelsea Market at least five times now, I can say that it has some of the tastiest, and most unique foods I have ever had. The first time I went, among the thirty-five different options, what I was most drawn to was a taco stand. Not having been to Chelsea I did not know what I was in for. The menu seemed very simple: you ordered tacos.

There were only four to chose from: steak, chicken, pork... and cactus. I do not believe I stand alone in never before seeing cactus used as an ingredient in any sort of food, ever. Of course I had to try it. I got one of each taco, and instantly feel in love. They were each deliciously made with perfectly juicy meat, rich and spicy salsa, and fresh, crisp veggies. The cactus taco was not nearly as weird as one would expect, but rather surprisingly tasty. It is almost impossible to describe the taste of cactus, as it is unlike anything I have ever had before, but I strongly recommend (if the opportunity should ever arise) to take a chance.

Flickr- m01229

But tacos are only one of the hundreds of food items that one could procure at the market. I have had delicately sugared fresh-made donuts, savory and sweet crepes, daringly bold espresso, tastefully sweet tea, lightly-crusted corned beef sandwiches, and the list goes on. So no matter what you're hungry for when in New York, Chelsea Market's eateries should not be missed.