Momofuku Noodle Bar

Momofuku Ramen (Classic)

Asian Egg McMuffins

Magical Slushie

Background: If you don't know about David Chang and his Momofuku empire, then I'm sorry because you haven't been living your life. Get started by reading this Wikipedia article and then read this interview on Food and Wine and then read this article on Time Magazine and that should give you an idea of how influential, awesome, and, dare I say, sexy Mr. Chang is. Fun Fact: Charlotte Chef Shortino and his team went to Noodle Bar to get ideas for Futo Buta.

But enough about him, let's talk about us. Back when half of scallionpancake (Jason) was living in New York I stumbled on Noodle Bar in the East Village. Coming from Fort Mill, SC, where the closest thing to real Asian food was one Panda Express on South Boulevard, I had never experienced anything like what Noodle Bar offered. It wasn't the noodles --which are out of this world, but it was the pork buns that changed my life. I had never tasted pork belly before (remember, this is circa 2008), with its melt in your mouth goodness, combined with the Momofuku flavors and the soft-as-a-baby's-bottom bun. This was my "finding Jesus" moment of food culture.

Order This: Really you can't go wrong with anything you order at Noodle Bar. The best thing to do is go with a few friends and order a bunch of things off the menu. But the BEST BEST thing to do is to get a reservation for the special fried chicken dinner for 4 to 8 of your best friends. You can get the fried chicken either American or Korean style. Get Korean style and put on your stretchy pants! If you can't do this here are a few of my other favorite things to order:

Buns: The pork bun is the greatest thing you'll probably ever put in your mouth (see "Jesus Moment" above), but all of their buns are fantastic. They rotate the buns a lot, but some of my favorites are the Brisket and the Egg/Bacon one, which is like the best McMuffin you've ever had.

Bowls: If it's your first time definitely go for the classic Momofuku Ramen pictured above. My second favorite is the Chilled Spicy Noodles with the Sichuan Chicken Sausage. 

Dessert: Momofuku has their own dessert store called Milk Bar which is two blocks away. Noodle Bar serves a limited amount of the desserts at the restaurant, but I would recommend walking over to Milk Bar and getting either the Cereal Milk soft serve ice cream or the birthday cake truffles. Again, you can't go wrong with anything at Milk Bar, but trust me the cereal milk soft serve and the birthday cake truffles are the best and will change your life for the better.

Drink: Sake, Sake, Sake! They have two specially made Momofuku Sakes which are great sharing drinks. They also always have two alcoholic slushies on rotation which are always delicious. My favorite is an alcoholic sweet tea slushie.

Atmosphere: I used to always take visitors to NYC here because it's has a quintessential energetic New York vibe. The decor is clean and modern, and the seating ranges from booths, to bar seating, to a community table. 

New York Hipster Asian Hospitality: There is definitely a "we make good shit here so don't ask us for too much" attitude from the servers, but, hey--they make good shit, so don't be so needy, k? 

Frankie's Notes: To get the feel of Jason moving from Ft. Mill to New York, just play the Green Acres theme song in reverse; Ordering the fried chicken for 4-8 people and showing up as a single diner is a straight baller move; Scallionpancake has most of its "Jesus moments" surrounding food and dining; Or should we say "Moses moments?"; Being an adult is hard; alcoholic slushies ease that pain. 

Rating: 5 out of 5

Et Cetera: 

171 1st Avenue
Between 10th & 11th Street
New York, New York 10003
Monday-Friday 12-4:30 & 5:30-11 pm
Saturday-Sunday 12-4 pm & 5:30-1 am

https://noodlebar-ny.momofuku.com/

 

Toro

Shisito Peppers

Sea urchin, miso butter, and pickled mustard seed sandwich

Hamachi Crudo

Razor Clams

Hamburguesas

Chocolate Torte

Chocolate Churros

Background: Co-chefs and owners Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette, of the original Toro in Boston, opened up the Manhattan location of their restaurant in September 2013, conveniently located by the bustling High Line and Chelsea Market. We dined here with Jason’s NY buddies, Vishnu and Bravo Danny. Bravo Danny because he is to be differentiated from Charlotte Danny, and because he worked at Bravo. Yes, that means he has met Andy Cohen/he is one step from God.

Vishnu and Danny have a chicken wing club where they eat chicken wings all over NYC and then rate them, one through five. Their rating system is pretty clever--in order to keep their ratings from being influenced by others in the group, they put their rating number on their phones, and then all flip their phones over at the same time. They then create an average based on everyone’s number. I know what you’re thinking--how does one join this club? We are wondering the same thing, but in the meantime, we are considering starting a Charlotte chapter.

Eat This: The menu at Toro is overwhelmingly large, but we were lucky to have a nice server who directed us to some of her favorites, although it turned out that her favorites were not as well liked by the table as some of the other options we picked. Here’s what we went with:

Pimientos Del Padron: Spicy shisito peppers with sea salt. This is a dish that we have seen on a lot of menus recently, and while the preparation is similar everywhere, the quality varies greatly. These are the best version of shisitos that we have had--the heat is multi-dimensional, not just hot. The peppers are charred enough to add a smoky flavor, but not so much that they taste burned, and the salt is wonderfully generous.

Esqueixada de Hamachi: Yellowtail with sultanas, fish pepper, quail egg, and crema. We loved the addition of the yellow raisins (sultanas) with the tuna. The flavors were bright and this was a nice, light dish for early in the meal.

Bocadillo De Erizos: Pressed sandwich of sea urchin, miso butter, and pickled mustard seeds. Jason and I both agreed that this was our “must order” of the night, even though our table mates remained unimpressed even after it was served. Whatever, this was amazing. It was all about that delicious umami flavor, and we could have easily downed another order.

Navajas: Razor clams with piquillo pepper, garlic, and lemon. Our waitress highly recommended these, but we found them just alright. They had a flavorful citrus tang, but there just was not a lot to them. Since we only got a fairly small number of dishes for four people for dinner, we probably should have gone with something a bit more substantial.

Hamburguesas: Grass-fed mini burgers with smoked tomato, aioli, and pickled red onion. These were definitely the crowd pleaser of the night. Everyone at the table enjoyed the flavorful preparation, and it was so easy to eat and share.

Dessert: We tried the chocolate churros with a caramel dipping sauce, and while these were good, they were basically what you can expect anywhere from churros. The standout was the chocolate torte. It was a rich, dark chocolate sprinkled with graham cracker crumbs and served with ice cream.

Drink: We did not try any speciality cocktails, but the beer, wine, and liquor selection included a solid variety and had everything we wanted to order.

Atmosphere: Toro is housed in the former Nabisco factory: a loft-like, cavernous space. The raucous sound of diners, along with the bumping bass of rap music means that the restaurant was loud when we arrived at 8:00, and only got louder from there. It was a little difficult to make conversation, but the music selection was a steady stream of all of my favorites, so I didn’t mind.

Iberian Hospitality: The service here was slow in that it took a while for the waitress to come over initially (over 15 minutes) and then again to come back and take our food order. However, once our orders were placed, the kitchen had the dishes out super quickly. All of the staff was polite. We did order one dish we never got (the empanadas), but we were pretty full by the time we realized it, so we let it slide.

Frankie’s Notes: Javon is currently accepting applications for the Charlotte Chicken Wing Club; If you want to be in our club, you can’t eat chicken wings with your knife and fork and you have to drink the wing sauce; I am only good at one of these requirements; Bravo Andy is to God as Orange County is to Mecca; Bravo Danny has never met table-flipping Teresa; We are going to institute a more democratic voting process when dining with friends from now on; But, FYI: Ollie is a super-delegate.

Rating: Of course, we had to do the chicken wing rating system for this meal, and our table average was a:

3 out of 5

Et Cetera:
85 10th Avenue
New York, New York 10011
Monday-Wednesday 5:30-11 pm; Thursday-Saturday 5:30-12 am; Sunday 5:30-10 pm
http://toro-nyc.com/