Sripraphai vs. Lotus of Siam - East vs. West of Thai Cuisine

[Thanks, Girl Who Ate Everything, for reminding me that I needed to do this, via her Sripraphai post.]

Alright. Here we go.
I have been promising posts about Sripraphai since about the beginning of this blog, have since commented on other blogs about it, and eaten there at least 8 times in the past 4 months or so...it's time to finally do this. No longer shall this be a blog of broken promises (at least not this one promise).
I was waiting until I could get some better pictures to do the food justice, but I realize now that no pictures [taken by me] will ever do it justice, so I might as well post these AWFUL AWFUL pictures that I have had sitting on this hard drive for goodness knows how long. Here goes - this might be more epic than my burger post, so sit back (or just skip to the food pics).

There are two people in my life who have had definitive roles in the forming of my ideas about food: first, my mother [duh], and second, M.
My mother's home cooking, along with her predilection for funky, off-beat [read: eek] foods, and her militantly enforced "you have to try everything once" attitude has made my palate what it is today. Thank you, Mom.
M, a later influence in my life, opened my eyes to a world of cuisines that I thought I knew about, but actually had no idea (Polish-born, raised in Rockaway, schooling me about Asian cuisines - go figure). One of these is Thai food. I always thought, "Sure, I like Thai food. Noodles, curry, whatever. It's good for a greasy fix." Then M took me to Sripraphai. It was a revelation. It was like I had never tasted flavor before - not just 'these' flavors, but any flavor. It knocked my tastebuds on their asses, all of them, simultaneously. Or maybe like dominoes. I dunno.

I believe my mother's attitude towards Thai food was similar to my former feeling - as I believe it is for many people whose only experience with Thai food is pad thai (often take-out), or for the more daring pad kee mow or pad see ew, which is somewhat equivalent to believing Panda Express is Chinese food. So when I went to Las Vegas this past Thanksgiving with my family, I had to grab at the opportunity to potentially allow my dear mother to experience this same revelation, as I was confident she would, at Lotus of Siam - the legendary, and often hailed "Best Thai Restaurant in North America." I had never been, but even with my limited experience, felt sure that Sripraphai should be the holder of this title. Both are helmed by women made famous (locally and nationally) for their killer dishes (Sripraphai Tipmanee and Saipin Chutima, respectively), both have die hard fans. I needed to test for myself.

SRIPRAPHAI - Woodside, Queens, NY
[worst ever photos of best food ever]

Som Tum

Southern Style Curry w/Duck

Crispy Pork w/Chili and Basil and Inexplicable Satanic Red Glow*

*Do not ask me how that happened...maybe it was the heat of the Thai chilis emanating through the lens. Or that my sucky photography transcends the whole earthly spectrum of hues.

So, these are my standbys, which I unjustly call 'standbys' when actually they are 3 of my favorite things to eat on any given day. I've already talked about my love of som tum, so suffice to say that this is where it began. And ends. The crispy catfish salad is also a favorite, which is similar, but with shredded green mango instead of papaya, cashews instead of peanuts, and topped with heaping portions of deep fried minced catfish, which has a unique consistency somewhat like honeycomb, or fried cotton candy, but tastes like fish. Mmmm, right? YES, RIGHT. EAT IT. Ask for 'Thai spicy' if you want to experience nirvana...and a runny nose and sweaty brow.
Same goes for the Southern Style Curry, which is supposedly too spicy even for the chef. I've heard she doesn't eat it herself, yet she somehow manages to make it taste awesome. Thai eggplant [those things that look like tiny watermelons, or alien tomatilloes], long beans, green peppercorns, bamboo shoots, generous slices of succulent duck, and about 50 other components - all in a fiery soupy curry of psychedelic max flavor™. For best results, eat poured over a steaming bowl of coconut rice.
Lastly, Crispy Pork w/Chili and Basil. Words cannot explain. The consistency is not like any other pork or meat dish I've had - some might find it off-putting at first, though I think a few bites more would turn them around: crispy, then fatty, then tender...at times jerky-like. Flavor pow . That's all.

[Irrelevant Tangent: two nights ago M rode out to pick up take-away from Sripraphai, since it was raining, and I don't have fenders on my bike, and so didn't want to bike there. Coming off a big meat-binge, I requested for myself just Som Tum AND Crispy Catfish Salad. He also got an order of Crispy Pork and coconut rice. Long story short, the salads were so good, we ended up eating just those for dinner, and reheating the pork w/the rice the next night. Two very big meat eaters, being sated with just 2 salads for dinner. SALADS. We are not salad eaters. These dishes are serious.
Also, PROTIP: DO NOT REHEAT THINGS WITH THAI CHILI PEPPERS IN A PAN OF POPPING HOT OIL. I thought I would try to re-crisp the crispy pork in some piping hot oil, along with the chilis in the sauce, of course, whose seeds promptly popped open and released highly unpleasant amounts of capsaicin into our tiny, windowless kitchen, thus turning our meal into a riot scene simulation where we had just been pepper sprayed and then forced to eat delicious pork. Me: #1 Top Genius of the World.]

There are mores dishes/pictures from Lotus of Siam, as this was my first and only visit, and I was with my whole family, and who knows when I'll be back.

LOTUS OF SIAM - Las Vegas, NV

Nam Kao Tod

Crispy rice mixed with minced sour
sausage, green onion, fresh chili, ginger, peanuts, and lime
juice.

So, I composed a list of dishes to try, based on a honed down list of the many recommendations on the numerous Chowhound threads about this place. This was one of the items that kept recurring. It was flavorful, and had nice textures, but everyone agreed it was really salty, and a little too sour to enjoy all of the other flavors. And really salty.

Crispy Garlic Shrimp

Close-up

Okay, this was a winner. Another recommendation from the astute contributors to Chowhound, I don't believe it's on the actual menu, and so have to thank them for the tip. They separate the shells from the bodies almost entirely, except near the tail so it's still attached, batter it all up in some kind of magic (garlic), and then deep fry the whole shebang. Really spectacular. I don't even like shrimp that much. Mom was beginning to warm up.

Hoh Mok Plar

Close-up

Another Chowhound insider tip - the menu lists it as catfish, but if you ask for it with sea bass, they're more than happy to oblige. Now this was the dish that really got Mom's attention. She's not one to pretend to like something, and you know you've got her when she's scraping the aluminum foil with her chopsticks for dregs to flavor her remaining rice at the end of the meal. The waiter actually tried to dissuade me from ordering it - "It's, uh, you know, not for everybody," he offered with well-meaning naïveté - and I'm so glad I insisted. The menu description is not what some would call enticing: "With curry paste-fish, egg, sliced cabbage cooked in a bowl with your choice of catfish." 'Paste-fish'? 'Sliced cabbage cooked in a bowl'...whee. And I'm not sure what 'Your choice of catfish' means. Anyway, it was delicious, and I'm still not even sure what the waiter meant, because it didn't have any sort of funky or off-putting flavors or textures (as I was expecting, but probably also still would have liked). It was just wholesome and plain good.
(After the trip to Las Vegas, and I returned to NY, and my mom returned to LA, she called me to ask the name of the restaurant we ate at in Las Vegas, and this dish. My mother loves food, but she's never made such an effort to recall some place we've eaten so she could rave to her friends about it. Lotus of Siam turned my mom into a foodie.)

Khao Soi w/Beef

I like Khao Soi, there's nothing not to like, but it also just sort of falls into my previous notions of Thai food: delicious, rich, sort of sweet, noodly, but nothing life-changing. This one was obviously tasty, but nothing to travel to the desert for.

"Pork Stew" - possibly Kang Hung Lay...?

Another Chowhound rec, known only to me as "pork stew." I simply asked the waiter for "pork stew" and he seemed to know what I was talking about, and brought us this. I went back to the menu just now to see if there is a proper name for it, and I think it's the Kang Hung Lay, but don't quote me on it. Anyway, this dish pretty much remained untouched. Maybe I ordered the wrong thing, or they brought the wrong thing. In any case, I can recall nothing about this dish except that the meat was kind of tough and dry, and the flavor was all around just sort of...brown.

Crazy Dessert Sampler

I couldn't decide on a dessert, so the waiter recommended we get the sampler, which included portions of three of their best desserts: sticky rice, coconut ice cream, and fried banana roll. YES. So good. The fried banana roll is basically what it looks like: bananas rolled in thin springroll-type skin, and deep fried. And then glazed with some sort of sugar syrup. Coconut ice cream was coconut ice cream, and the sticky rice was sticky rice flavored with coconut. Put them all together, and you have a dream team sticky, warm, crispy, cool, creamy, chewy, sugargasm...with banana and coconut, one of nature's most beautiful flavor combinations. 'Nuff said.

So, the big question: whose cuisine reigns supreme???

The big answer: not sure.

Wah wah...Honestly, after having only been to Lotus of Siam once, and eating at Sripraphai semi-religiously about once every other week for the past year and a half or so, I can't even try to give a diplomatic opinion. If Lotus of Siam was in biking distance of my home, I would definitely eat there again. Perhaps as frequently as I eat at Sripraphai. Being that it's not only on the other side of the country, but in Las Vegas, and that I hate Las Vegas...it's definitely an excellent restaurant, and I would most certainly return if I was in the area. Based solely on that 1 visit versus about 50-some visits to Sripraphai: Sripraphai is, in my eyes, THE Best Thai Restaurant in North America.

Sripraphai
6413 39th Ave
Woodside, Queens, NY

(718) 899-9599

[Also at: 280 Hillside Ave
Williston Park, NY]

Lotus of Siam
953 East Sahara Ave
Las Vegas, NV
(702)735-3033

Food Spreadsheet

I've nerdily been keeping a google doc spreadsheet of restaurants I like and want to go to. It's not all-inclusive, as it mainly started as a list of old favorites and places I wanted to try. Then I started sharing it with friends, and it is slowly evolving into a general list of everything I eat and want to eat, as well as a [hopefully] useful guide for other people who don't have the luxury of time to read food blogs and restaurant reviews all day.

Here it is.

Bold means I've tried it, green means a favorite, and it's all color coded by borough.
I try to keep it updated [more so than this...] so keep checking.
Eat well and enjoy!

Tags

Looking at my 'labels' column on the right over there ----> I am realizing that I have no idea how to use tags/labels. Either that, or I just need more posts, as each label has an average of 1, and a max of 3 related entries.
Best to just ignore those, for now, I guess.

Cookies!

What with school and work and weather and all, I've been in a bit of an eating out rut. Meaning, I've either been eating my homework (as well as serving it to friends), or M and I have been ending up at our usual standbys because we're too wiped to think of a new place, go there, and potentially eat bad food. Thus this eating-out blog is evolving (devolving?) into a random-things-I-have-made-and/or-eaten blog.

This was a slight divergence from cooking recipes straight from class (I mean, one can only eat Poulet Rôti Grand-Mère or Aile de raie à la Grenobloise so many times, am I right). Since we already have parts of both an apple tart and a lemon tart sitting in the fridge, I decided two tarts is enough for one apartment of two people. We needed some cookies up in this @*#&.
I whipped up* some pâte sablée, and made some cute little plum butter shortbread cookies.

* i.e. slaved, sweated, and had just a handful of mini anxiety attacks over

Take that, Pepperidge Farm

More like Pooperidge Farm.

Just kidding, I have nothing against Pepperidge Farm. I've enjoyed many a Mint Milano in my day. But these. These have love, baked right in. Which as everyone knows means butter - obscene amounts of butter.
The plum butter is admittedly out of a jar - some extremely tasty Polish store-bought stuff, that usually goes on my bagels on the weekend. The cookies are delicately sweet, crumbly, and melt-in-your-mouthy.

On a cold rainy day, a warm apartment that smells of butter and sugar, plus a plate of fresh baked cookies - it's what daydreams-whilst-sitting-in-an-over-air-conditioned-office-staring-at-a-computer-screen-and-eating-a-crappy-deli-sandwich are made of.


Yes, M and I are going to be very fat.
Really very large.

More eating out posts to come! I hope! If I don't get too lazy again!

Postscript: I would include the recipe here, but 1.) I'm not sure if it belongs to the school or something, and am not entirely (at all) familiar with the intricacies of copyright laws in blogs, and 2.) it's fairly simple, but there are a lot of places to go wrong that makes it complicated and annoying to write out.
If you are inclined to make them, find a good shortbread recipe (I'd add a dash of lemon zest next time, for zing factor), cut into cute shapes (be sure to include a jam peephole), bake, and smear with jam of choice. Easy!

Postpostscript: I brought some for my friend, Carol: "MMMM! Susan, these are so good...they're like store-bought!!"
Great...thanks, Carol.

Second Chances

One night I went to bed thinking about the overripe persimmon sitting on our countertop.
Slightly drooped, she sat, patiently waiting to join the inevitable resting place for produce whose purposes were never fulfilled - a grocery bag hanging from a cupboard knob.

What to do with this once supple, now sad and slightly shriveled, erstwhile beauty? Surely her soul remained as sweet as in her youth, honey-sweet nectar and want of purpose near bursting from her skin.
She cried to me in my dreams for une raison d'être.

I awoke with a start, and uttered two breathless words: 'persimmon bread.'

[end mawkish over-dramatization]

So, I got up, got the idea to sub in persimmons for bananas (possibly making necessary adjustments for water content) in a banana bread recipe, googled 'best banana bread recipe,' and decided on this one. Then got to work.

But just one, sad, decrepit little persimmon was not going to do. She needed some younger friends to spruce up her image, and help her recall her vitality and worth - Lady Gagas to her Madonna, if you will. (I won't. But I did. Cringe. Too late, can't go back now.)

Luckily the deli around the corner had some on hand, and I picked up these beauts.

Sexy 'simmons

Some whipping, mashing, improvising, and added spices (fresh nutmeg, salt) later...and there it was. Purpose fulfilled.

Reincarnated: Spicy, warm, & gooey

Pretty good for a first try. It was dense and moist (I might have overworked the dough/batter just a touch), with delightfully smushy/chewy bits of persimmon flesh dispersed throughout.
I plan to try again, next time with even more spice (cinnamon? Cardamom?), and maybe a touch of ginger.

M wasn't such a fan to start - his initial remarks were things like, "It's not bad, but you know the reason people make things like banana bread is because the sum is better than the parts. Banana bread is better than a banana, zucchini bread is better than a zucchini..." Right, thanks. (To be fair, he really, really loves persimmons.) But after the bread cooled a bit, and had time to enrich and integrate its flavors, he was won over, too.

"Filet de limande à votre façon"

More class stuff.

So, we were each given a flounder to clean and fillet, and then do whatever we liked. I decided to go with one of my favorite fish dishes, which I learned from Arthur. Native to Hanoi[?], it's called Cha Ca, and consists of a white fish (he usually uses tilapia), marinated in turmeric, galangal, and some other magical things, and served on a huge bed of fresh dill, with a diluted fish sauce dip and toasted peanuts on the side.

I made a marinade of turmeric, ginger (no galangal on hand), chopped onions, olive oil, salt and sugar, and let the fillets marinate for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, I cooked some rice with olive oil, salt, and dill. When the rice was about done, I rolled some into the fillets, and popped 'em into the oven. Then I lightly toasted some peanuts, made a small tomato fondue (butter, shallots, garlic, s&p, tomatoes, quickly sauteed in a pan with a parchment paper lid) for color and garnish, fried a strip of the side of the fish for a crispy top piece, and made a turmeric mayo with the frying oil. Some extra dill as a side and garnish, and voila!

I had forgotten to put the mayo on the plate when we presented, so had to hastily run up with a spoonful of it and smear it on the plate, which is why it looks like sloppy electric bird poop. Oops.
It was pretty delicious, if I do say so myself.

Pre-sauce

Done

Last weekend, M and I went to Chicago for Halloween, AND to experience the marvel of maximum apocalyptic decadence that is Alinea. But more on that later.

Some Things I Made

Here are some things I made in school.

Apple Tart

Genoise [Whole egg cake] w/Mocha Buttercream

With little dark chocolate hearts I piped through a parchment paper cone onto another sheet of parchment paper, and then peeled off and placed lovingly onto the cake.


I also made an awesomely delicious pear tart with almond frangipane, and a quiche lorraine, but neither photographed so well.

These are the kinds of things your girlfriend might bring home to you if she were in culinary school.

Lazy post, just an update.

Hakata Tonton - Pig Trotters in the West Village

GAH! This blog is like a ghost town.
Culinary school is kind of kicking my ass right now, in a nice way, but as a result I haven't been interneting and eating at new places so much. This is from months ago. Also, this is my attempt at a new, revamped, more succinct style of blogging - which, as you can tell, is not going so well already. Me: not the best at using a few number of words to describe something in a verbally frugal manner.

Hakata Tonton! Tonsoku! AKA Trotters!

For my birthday [months ago] M treated me to some pig's feet. What can I say but the guy knows the way to my heart.
If you haven't already surmised, Hakata Tonton (I believe 'tonton' might be a cuteified abbreviation for tonsoku, but that's just a freewheelin' speculation, with no google research whatsoever, woo!) specializes in pig's feet, in various preparations, and according to their website, "Authentic Kyushu Japanese Soul Food." They have 2 very reasonably-priced tasting menus: Tonton Tasting Menu ($38) and Chef's Tasting Menu ($42). We went with the former, which won us over with the inclusion of a hot pot, and fortuitously also came with a lower price-tag.

Shabu Shabu Pork Salad

Pork salad. Can't be bad, right? It wasn't. The shreds of shabu-shabu pork were not dry, as I was half expecting, and an interesting deviation from the other forms of pork more prevalent in salads - bacon, lardons. The dressing was tangy and light. Very refreshing. I think there were fried shallots or minced onions on top.

Atlantic Salmon Carpaccio

Another can't-really-go-wrong dish. I could squawk something about the menu "playing to the masses," but the food was good, so who cares? I like raw salmon, I like sparkly tobiko, I like colorful sprinkles of garnish (chives). Win. The fish was fresh, and the dressing was a lemon (and soy?) dressing that played up the ingredients nicely, without being too overpowering.

Grilled Pork Toooooonsokuuu! (That is how I imagine it's supposed to be inflected)

This was almost certainly my favorite dish. Simply seasoned with not much more than salt, allowing the essential flavors of the meat and char shine. Yes, char shines. Oh so tender, and gelatinous, cartilage-y, and collagen-y...I understand the last three adjectives might not make most people's mouths water, but if you know what's good for you, you know they are good things. Seriously. Chef Himi Okajima praises pigs' feet, not just for the wonderful flavor and texture, but claims (in a 2008 interview from NYDaily News):

"In Kyushu, many people eat pigs' feet, so there is a lot of beauty there - beautiful women."

Collagen: it's not just for injecting into your face with a syringe anymore.
I definitely prefer the insertion-into-the-mouth-chewing-and-swallowing method of administering.

I regret to say that I could not capture a good picture of the most interestingly flavored dish of the evening, but you can catch a blurry glimpse of it in the top left corner of the picture above. I forgot what they were called, but we got them in lieu of the gyoza, which pleased me, 'cause I like getting special things, and trying new things. They were chicken wings, crispy and coated in...something. I can't say I liked them immediately, but for some reason I couldn't stop eating them. Here's what I said to M: "They taste like peanut butter rice crispy chicken wings." Scoff (or gag) if you will, but I liked them...I think...? Something made me keep going for them, but I would be remiss if I didn't say that it could've been their uncanny flavor resemblance to my childhood favorite candy bar.

Hot Pot - Phase 1

You are given the choice of the Hakata Tonton Hot Pot, or Shabu Shabu Hot Pot. I love shabu-shabu, but in the spirit of the night, we went with the namesake again. There was just a shitton of stuff in here: collagen broth, tofu, dumplings, vegetables, Berkshire pork belly, and tonsoku. Additionally, I think those are goji berries scattered on top.

Phase 2

I thought it was nice that we got a chance to digest the first few courses while waiting for the hot pot to stew, as wafts of funky, porky aromas waltzed around our contented faces.
I really enjoyed this dish, as well. I don't know if it is a traditional dish to Kyushu, but it actually felt very Korean to me. Like Kimchi Jigae, but really rich and deeply flavored Kimchi Jigae, probably owing to the collagen broth of long stewed tonsoku.

Phase 3

Confirming my notion of Korean influence is the choice they give you for the third phase of the hot pot: rice bibimbap or ramen noodle. We chose ramen. After you are done eating most of the contents of the hot pot, and it is apparent that you are fully satisfied, the server comes out and plops a bunch of more shit into your pot. You let that boil, and then you eat your Hot Pot Part Deux (remember the Hot Shots! movies? Yeah...)
This was also tasty, and still reminded me of Korean food, except this time Shin Ramyun.

Desserts: Cheese Mousse & Black Sesame Ice Cream

The desserts were nothing spectacular, but not bad. Just very bland subtle. I remember noting how black sesame ice cream looks like concrete.

So much for succinct. Fuckcinct.

Hakata Tonton
61 Grove St (between Bleecker & 7th Ave )
NY, NY 10014
(212) 242-3699
http://www.tontonnyc.com/

Burger Porn Post - vol. I - Updated

Pictures now, words later.

Name that burger.

[Update] I'm back! Now the words on these delicious babies...

Disclaimer: "What about Shake Shack, Burger Joint, and blah?" I love those burgers, but they are extremely well-covered, and I imagine that if you are reading this then you either have heard of them, or know how to use Google. No? Here you go.
These are Some of My [Other] Favorite Burgers in NYC - vol. 1.

BLT Burger - The Boy Next Door

Look at that bashful cutie...

There ya go.

But really, it's what's inside that counts.

I have no complaints about this burger. I went with "The Classic" [pictured], which weighs in at a very modest-but-sufficient 5 oz. of Black Angus beef - notably not so oversized as some of its mid-range, sit-down restaurant peers (I would say that the rest of the burgers in this post fall in the 8-10 oz or more range). It comes bare bones, but they offer a ton of toppings to choose from. I'm usually inclined towards the traditional - American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, condiments. And it's cooked to order - with proof in the form of a cutesy cow-shaped stake piercing the bun - which is a crucial quality that should never be overlooked (see Five Leaves burger, below).
Despite the high-profile French chef behind the joint (Laurent Tourondel), this place puts out a no-frills, well-executed American classic that's more "Oh, yeeah," than "Oh la la!" Not unforgettable, but it hits the proverbial spot.

The other options on the menu are mostly 7 oz. [still modest-sized] affairs, with various pre-selected themed toppings, all pretty standard, and perhaps now considered classic by some - bacon, lettuce, tomato; blue cheese w/grilled onions and mushrooms; jack cheese, avocado, etc. They also have more 'fancy' variations - "American Kobe," lamb merguez, turkey, veggie falafel, salmon - which, aside from maybe the first, I wouldn't really call 'burgers,' so much as burger-inspired sandwiches.
I should also note that they have "Spiked Milkshakes." I haven't tried the ones here, but a previous alcoholic milkshake experience (Beer Shake) taught me that sometimes a thing might sound like a good, no great idea in theory, but the reality ends up just being another reminder that sometimes good thing+good thing ≠ better thing. (That said, I will probably end up trying these at some point because, hey, I like ice cream and I like booze, and I often suck at learning lessons when they concern things that I like.)

Lure Fishbar - The Beach Babe

Yow-oww.

I really do like this burger, but 2 things keep me from going back to it too often (despite the fact that it's just a few blocks from my work): 1.) It's not cheap: $17 for the "Lure Style Burger," and a bowl of fries (which are always crispy and well-seasoned, but I could take 'em or leave 'em). And 2.) The place, Lure Fishbar, is right in the heart of SoHo, beneath the Prada store, and feels more "Sex in the City" than I generally like. (If that's your thing, no one's judging - just not mine, really.) The decor seems to be trying for...nautical chic[?], while the ambiance consists of pop hits from the 80s and 90s (which I don't mind, but it's pretty loud), and the inevitable gaggles of "ladies' night out" type situations (more gossiping over "cosmos" than dancing on bars) going on all around. Not my ideal burger eating conditions.
But about the burger: especially for a place whose focus is supposedly sea food, this burger is surprisingly well-executed. I first read about it on A Hamburger Today, and there's not really much I can say about it except what's been stated on that post: it's like a fancy, supercharged In-n-Out burger. Who can argue with that? It's served on a brioche, but the contents are not upstaged. It works. Also, I've had it a few times, and it's almost always cooked to order (M's was overdone once). It's not exactly a burger to seek out, but if you find yourself craving a burger in SoHo, or for whatever reason find yourself in Lure Fishbar, I would highly recommend it.

Stone Park Cafe: The Duke

Pure class

I don't often get the burger here because they have so many other wonderful offerings, but like everything else on the menu, the burger is Solid. Capital 'S.' Screw it, capital 'OLID,' too. Capital SOLID.
Maybe I'm biased because Stone Park Cafe has been one of my favorite restaurants in New York pretty much since I moved here about 5 years ago. (Full disclosure: I also know one of the owners, but that didn't really happen until after it was already a favorite). But I have brought many friends to this place, and have never felt like I had talked it up too much. Honestly, it's just one of those places where the incredible attention to detail is evident in every aspect of the restaurant, and every dish that comes out of the kitchen. Hearty and soulful, yet beautifully precise - it's sophistication without pretension. The burger is no exception. It's Grace Kelly in Levi's. I'm not really sure what that means, or if it conveys any sort of deliciousness, but this post is taking too long and I'm starting to get into stream of consciousness mode. It makes sense, trust me. Anyway, I didn't even have to try to make that shit look that good, and it's gorgeous, no? I went for the non-traditional, fancypants burger toppings this time - blue cheese and sauteed mushrooms - but you can also get Vermont cheddar, pepper jack, gruyere, what have you. The bun is a classic, soft sesame bun, which is my favorite kind of burger attire. Also, those are my favorite kind of fries. You know the ones - the "fancy McDonald's style" fries that everyone loves. I don't know how hard or easy it is to make fries like this well, but I do know that I come across mediocre or crappy fries a lot more often than not. These are always perfect.
Just go there, even if you don't get the burger. You can't go wrong.*

*Totally uncompensated endorsement, and not swayed by any sort of bias except for this beer sitting beside me.

Five Leaves - The As-burger Syndrome*

*Named as such mostly for its eccentricity and unpredictability, as well as its ability to be really fucking incredible and spot-on when it gets it right, the analogy doesn't really go into any deeper significance relating to Asperger Syndrome , nor should it imply that I have any real understanding of the actual condition (aside from fictionalized accounts). I love this burger dearly, and do not mean to offend anyone. I'm just a sucker for a stupid pun.

When I started this post, I thought I was putting the burgers in order from my least to most favorite. However, I have had this burger several times since then (YES, I started this a while ago...I am a busy lady), and I'm sad to say I might be changing my mind - mainly just due to the inconsistency. The first couple times I had this burger, I put it above all my previous favorites with much haste - such was my enthusiasm for this extraordinary burger. Incredibly juicy, well-seasoned, coarsely-ground patty, topped with a fried egg, fried pineapple, sliced beet (in the fashion of the Australian owners' native land), and harissa mayo, all on a fresh, lightly-toasted chewy but relenting ciabatta-type roll. It's a bigger mouthful than that incomplete sentence, and worthy of at least 8 more adjectives. All previous notions of a good burger, all love for tradition, went out the window. But as the story goes, haste makes waste, and my decision proved too hasty, indeed. Because it's in the neighborhood, paired with the fact that our first experiences knocked us on our asses, M and I find ourselves consuming the Five Leaves Burger pretty frequently. More than any other. It's never bad, per se, but to put it in M's words, "The inconsistency of this burger is hilarious." Our collected empirical studies have led us to the [somewhat arbitrary and unscientific] estimate that the burgers come out either overcooked or underseasoned about 3 out of 5 times. Which is no small fraction. And it seems to be getting worse, which makes me sad because when this baby is right, it is damn RIGHT. Flavorful meat, juicy (even when overcooked) with a nice crispy char, the broken egg yolk melding with the harissa mayo, oozing its way into every bite, with the sweet tang of the pineapple and beet to cut through the richness - heaven. Anyway, it's worth a try, even if the odds are against. If you like a well-done burger, you're in luck; if you like yours either medium rare to rare, be sure to order it rare (we always order ours rare now, and have yet to receive a rare burger).
Like at Lure, there is the regular burger and the restaurant's signature namesake burger. At both places, I recommend the namesake. Also at both places, not a cheap burger - the Five Leaves Burger will set you back 15 big ones. But if you're lucky, it'll be 15 bucks well spent on a burger that won't soon be forgotten.

Night shots

I eat this burger a lot.

BLT Burger
470 6th Ave (at 12th St)
New York, NY
(212) 243-8226

Lure Fishbar
142 Mercer St (at Prince St)
New York, NY
(212) 431-7676

Stone Park Cafe
324 5th Ave (at 3rd St)
Brooklyn, NY (Park Slope)
(718) 369-0082

Five Leaves
18 Bedford Ave (at Lorimer)
Brooklyn, NY (Greenpoint)
(718) 383-5345

#38 at Pho Pasteur - Chinatown

Sorry, blurry lady on the left, I didn't mean to catch you there (picking your ear?). Re-taking the picture was out of the question, as I did not feel like it.

Moline (IL), Richardson (TX), Rosemead (CA), Boston, Sydney, Toronto, San Diego, and New York City. What do all of these cities have in common? According to Google, they are all home to Vietnamese restaurants named 'Pasteur' or 'Pho Pasteur' (apparently unaffiliated) - and I am certain there are more.

So, what's the deal with Vietnam and Pasteur? Who really knows? Not I. I was unaware of how extensive the connection was until I started writing this post and googled "Pho Pasteur," which turned up numerous results from all over the world.
Curiosity and further googling led me to this:

Fully aware of the international importance of his work, Pasteur's disciples dispersed themselves wherever their assistance was needed. In 1891, the first Foreign Institut Pasteur was founded in Saigon (today Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) launching what was to become a vast international network of Instituts Pasteur.

And then questioning my (questionable?) authority on all things Vietnamese, and dear friend, Arthur (Vietnamese by descent, but Texas born and raised), got me this response:

Arthur: something about french colonial influence
especially re: pho's origins in french consomme

Thanks, Arthur!

I don't know about other people, but to me the words 'Pasteur' or 'pasteurize' or 'pasteurization' do not really get my tummy grumbling. And if they do, it's not in a good way. But hey, that's just me.

Festive signage.
That waiter that appears to be delighted about the lower half of his body disintegrating into an amorphous blob roughly the shape of South Vietnam...really creeps me out.

Now, you might be assuming this post is going to be about pho, but you would be wrong. SO WRONG. You have never been so wrong. Shame on you.

Why the hostility, Susan? I don't really know. I'm sorry, it was a joke. I'm at work and not working (because who works on Friday?), and my mind wanders. I'm sleepy, and I have actually never had the pho here.

BBQ Pork Chop! AKA 'pokchap,' AKA 'pokechop,' AKA Com Suon Bi Cha, AKA #38 on the menu.
Pretty, no?

In my estimation, this has to be not only one of the most pleasantly polychromatic, but most satisfying meals $6 ($6.50?) can get you in this city. Or in Manhattan, at least.
It's nothing spectacular, nothing knock-your-socks-off about it. But it's hearty, and homey, and delicious. And the portion is very generous. Also, I am one who really likes to have a lot of variety packed into one meal, and this plate's got it. The pork chop itself is nicely cooked, sweet and salty (the chili sauce in the squeeze bottle provided adds a nice kick), and just moist and fatty enough without being greasy. Not once in the 8 or 9 times I've had it has it come out the least bit dry.
In fact, twice in the past month M has actually gotten 2 of these for take-away, biked them home to Greenpoint in styrofoam containers, and I'll be darned if they weren't still lip-smackin' delicious*.
Then you have the dry, shredded pork [stuff] on the side. Pork 2 ways! That's fancy. As one would expect, it is dry, and also has a sort of grainy texture. And a bit salty. I wouldn't say it's not tasty, it's...interesting. I usually eat a few bites of it with some rice and some of the crinkle-cut pickled carrots or daikon, and then try to pawn the rest off onto M, who's usually cleared his plate by the time I make it over to this part.

*FYI: thesaurus entries for "tasty" are sucks.

Egg...thing.

My second favorite part of the dish is what I like to endearingly call the "egg thing." I don't know what it is. A cupcake-shaped omelet? Anyway, it's good. Very dense, and packed with glass or rice noodles, bits of pork (pork 3 ways!), and seems to have a hint of some kind of spice that I can't place. I want to say it almost tastes a tiny bit cinnamon-y, or cardamom-y, but that actually doesn't sound very good, so I won't say it. Consider it not said.

Not the most appealing cross-section shot.

And then you have the rice, and the ornamental vegetables (which I always eat, because they're there).

For a quick, cheap, and satisfying meal downtown, to stay or take-away, this a great stand-by. The restaurant itself is a little tight, and has weird feng shui* issues (if you're not careful, you'll trip right over a 4-top directly in front of the door), but the service is fast and friendly enough. Highly recommended. I do want to try other things on the menu, but M and I are creatures of habit (lazy brains), and it's not really a place to take a group, so I can't make any promises.

*I know approximately nothing about feng shui.**

**Man, I need to cool it with the footnotes and parentheticals.


85 Baxter St (btwn Walker and White)
New York, NY 10013-4433
(212) 608-3656

Er.

Blog inertia. Fuckfuckfuck.

So many pictures.

Soon, soon.

Someday, I'm gonna be a real blogger, and this will be a real blog. Again, not today.

Tonight we are doing a Miracle Fruit get-together, because we are old and behind the times, so we are partying like it's 1970. Or 2007. Or whatever.

Also, I started culinary school! Lots of things happening.

Me in about 4 hours:



This day is dragging like blargh.

Yun Nan Flavour Snack Inc. - Sunset Park, Brooklyn

Perpetually catching up on posts. This happened...a while ago.

We made it back, and it was open!
Yun Nan Flavour Snack Inc.
No shutters!
This is the menu. Its modest simplicity belies the exquisiteness* of the actual food.

We let M take over the task of ordering for the four of us, which turned out to be a good move. He picked out the 2 items on the menu which he had had on previous visits, which were incidentally the 2 items on the menu with quirky misspellings or substituted marquis letters for the word 'sauce' (I assume they ran out of 'a's for the "Dumpling with hot and sour sduce." I also suspect the 'p' in 'crispy' is actually an inverted 'd.')

*'Exquisite' is probably not a word anyone would use to describe the food here - not even me. I just liked the way it sounded and contrasted with 'simplicity.' A better word would be 'drrrtylicious.' But such urban colloquial terms are not really my style, even though I just made that one up right now.
Hot 'Sause.'

M told me that the first time he went there, after he had placed his order, the owner[?] of the place asked his Chinese dining companion how he - a glaring, flaring, blaring gweilo - knew to order the two best things on the menu. Such is the mysterious wisdom of M.*
He got us 4 orders of #13 - Rice noodle with crispy meat 'sause,' and 2 orders of the previously mentioned #27 - Dumpling with hot and sour sauce. I'm usually not a fan of hot and sour, but I put my trust in him. And it was well rewarded.

*Chowhound.

Unidentifiable amoebic forms and noodles floating leisurely in a nebulous broth. How gorgeous is that? Intensified by a few plops of ripened (read: old, but better for it) chili oil from an ancient dollar-store ceramic cup: sweat-inducing bliss on a warm night.

What does "crispy meat sauce" mean? I, who have had the pleasure of experiencing this dish, still cannot say. There is no 'sauce' to speak of, but the crispy bits of 'meat' (left) were delicious. Kind of like deep fried beef jerky, but not any jerky you'd buy trapped in cellophane from a store. Richer. Untainted by processing and overseasoning. Pure, subtle meat flavor - and crispy. And those amoebic, tubular forms (right and bottom)? I think tripe - but unlike any tripe I've ever had. Exquisitely fatty and heart-rendingly tender*. Hands down my favorite part of the entire meal - I'd go back just for that. The rice noodles were also a pleasant surprise, as they were much more springy and substantial than I would ever expect from a rice noodle. This soup entails a lot more chewing than your average soup.

*Beer makes me spew maudlin descriptions like wat.
The dumplings also did not disappoint. The skin was just as thin as I like, but not overboiled to the point of turning limp. The broth, deeply imbued with meat and tangy chili flavor, was worthy of sipping on its own. The meat filling was plentfiul and had a nice bite. These, as well as the noodles, come out piping hot, which works out well because I think the flavors of both only get better after sitting in the broth for a few minutes.
Obligatory close up, in Blurry Susan Vision™.

The guy running the place, who I assumed to be the owner, was gregarious and I think very excited to have us, obvious non-locals who had journeyed out seeking his delicious 'flavour snacks,' in the place. He even remembered M from his few past visits long ago. He was extremely accommodating and pleasant - exuberant, even - despite the very tight space being slightly overtaken by the four of us, and always trying to make sure we were enjoying everything. We promised we'd be back soon, and I'm certain it'll be sooner than later.

BYOB to experience Maximum Exquisiteness.

Yun Nan Flavour Snack Inc.
774 49th St (between 7th Ave & 8th Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11220
(718) 633-3090