Momofuku: I Wouldn't Wait For This!

We on the Upper West Side have been hearing about Momofuku Noodle Bar for some time. Located at 171 1st Ave, NYC, 10003, it is difficult to get to and they don't take reservations. So, after an excellent afternoon hanging out with the lovely wife on my Vespa, we parked in front and headed in at the early bird special hour of about 6 PM. No problem getting a seat then!

Momofuku is a small space with a noodle bar and several long tables with multiple tightly packed stools set around them. If it was crowded, you would clearly know much about the business of the people sitting next to you: you could also identify their cologne and whether they bathed recently.

The restaurant specializes in ramen; which most of us think as something you buy 3 for a dollar in Chinatown but the Japanese take quite seriously. There are also a tremendous number of pork dishes, and the pedigree of the meat is proudly listed on the menu. Vegetarians are "welcome" but only in that "if we don't invite you we could get in trouble" kind of way.

We had several dishes. The steamed pork buns, which are served in Peking Duck pancakes are good. The best dish we had was a grilled octopus salad, which had many distinct flavors and lots of excellent tasting whole baby octopus. This is in contrast to most of the other dishes, which were expensive and tiny. The prawns with grits (pictured) contained only two medium sized prawns, which were greasy. The grits were a little too crunchy. It tasted good, but not great. The ramen was fine, but for $16, it still tasted like a bowl of ramen with two types of pork thrown into it.

Momofuku was a fine experience, but one I wouldn't repeat quickly. When we were done, it cost as much as decent sushi, and I still felt like I needed a snack. In fact, when I didn't have one, I think a lost a bit of weight. If it was crowded, I would imagine it would be unbearable. Unless you really wanted to know what that stranger was thinking. Or smelled like.

What's With The Mochi???

Ah. Pulverized, glutinous sticky rice surrounding a ball of ice cream. What could be better? Well, it turns out a lot of things are better, but many things are in fact worse. We went to our "somewhat" uptown friends house for dinner last night, and after some chicken from Pio-Pio (more on this in a future post), we were ready for dessert. Besides more traditional ice cream, our friends had procured some mochi ice cream from a local market, which still exist on "somewhat" upper Broadway.

I think mochi tastes like edible latex. Rubbery, chewy, and a bit on the tasteless side. And sticky, too. None the less, there is a large tradition surrounding the stuff, including a ceremony called Mochitsuki where the stuff is made. Having said that, last I learned that not all mochi, and certainly not all mochi ice cream, is equal.

Although originally created by the giant megacorporation Lotte, mochi ice cream is now available in the US from a variety of producers. In fact, the Lotte brand we had last night was clearly inferior to the mochi ice cream distributed by the somewhat smaller megacorporation Sanwa. It was also more expensive.

All in all, I'm not running back for more mochi. But it is an interesting dessert, and it does look cool on a plate.

Momoya on the Upper West Side: Good!

I had previously noted the opening of Momoya on the Upper West Side. Last night, I finally got a chance to try it. The lovely wife and I were headed to a party at, of all places, the Dublin House, and wanted to get something to eat before going. Momoya, on Amsterdam between 80th and 81st Street, was close, sushi is usually reasonably quick, and so we went. The first thing you see when you walk into Momoya is, as opposed to most of the other sushi bars on the Upper West Side, someone took some time to think about how to decorate the place. There is an attractive white marble sushi bar, and the walls are decorated with cut out pieces of the wood blocks that sushi is served on. It looks good. The music playing reminds me of the CD they provide for you when you stay at a W Hotel. The place felt cool, and you felt cool being in this place.

As opposed to the service at the W, the service at Momoya was excellent. We told them we were in a bit of a hurry, and they did everything possible to get our food to us as quickly as possible. The people at the bar next to us were in some deep and long conversation, and the staff let them talk (and talk. and talk.). I should add that the bathrooms were nice, too.

The food is good, but the lovely wife and I agreed that the sushi at Matsu was better. If you were getting take out, there would be no question as to which place you should order from. But walking into Momoya is like leaving the Upper West Side and heading downtown. And when it comes to restaurants up here, thats a pretty strong recommendation to go. I will be back.

Momoya Now On Upper West Side

Finally, something has come in to replace the Korean Grocery that was located between 80th and 81st Streets on Amsterdam. Its Momoya, a sushi restaurant. They also have a location in Chelsea and a website that is "launching August 2007." While I'm not sure why we need another sushi restaurant less than a block from Haru and Roppongi, I will be sure to try it soon. Maybe tomorrow if they have lunch. If anyone has been to their Chelsea location, please let me know. Frank Bruni gave it a pleasant but dull review in 2005. So maybe its perfect for the Upper West Side.

ADDENDUM: We ate there! Click to read about it!

Nëo No Go

I actually like the food at Nëo, sort of. But this is not an "I come to bury Cesar, not to praise him moment: I am actually here to try to bury Nëo. Because, despite the fact that its a pretty space, and the fish, on average, is of high quality, slow service and eye popping prices make this place not worth it.
My last trip to Nëo started when the lovely wife and I left a party a bit before 9 PM and wanted a quick bite to eat before returning home. Since we were near 83rd and Broadway, the Lovely Wife suggested we go to Nëo. She figured that we could have a quick bite at the sushi bar, and still have plenty of time to get home and relieve the babysitter. It had been a while since we had eaten there, so I agreed to take a look. The place wasn't that crowded, and we sat down.

As opposed to many other sushi restaurants on the Upper West Side, sitting down at Nëo is a pleasure. The sushi bar is quite comfortable and so are the tables. We were approached by our waiter quickly, and we ordered: some drinks and three sushi or sashimi based dishes. Our drinks came, and we waited.

And waited. After about 25 minutes, we realized it was starting to get late and we still hadn't seen a dish. We called over the waiter, and told him of our babysitting plight. Then we told him again. Finally, the first dish arrived, their "signature" hamachi serrano chili. Consisting of pieces of Japanese amberjack (the English translation of Hamachi), topped with a thin slice of spicy serrano chili and literally swimming in a large amount of a somewhat sweet sauce, the dish is not bad, although it seems like a pale comparison to a similar dish at Nobu Next Door.

Then we waited. We kept asking the waiter how we were doing. He assured us that our dishes was being made: eventually he was telling us the truth. Finally, our dishes came: an assortment of sushi picked by the lovely wife and Chirashi for me. Nëo has gotten better on their "we hate soy sauce" routine in recent years and now asks you if you want it as opposed to making you think of it and ask.

The sushi: good. Can't say it wasn't. The overall experience? I still felt as if the restaurant thought they were doing me a favor to let me pay a lot to eat their food. Even though its close, its just not worth it. Next time, I'm walking over to Matsu: its worth a smaller chair for better service and just as excellent fish.

Kitchoan, NYC: Bring a Little Bit of Japan Home

We had a party for the respective hockey teams of boy #1 and boy#2 last week. While the cold cuts from Zabar's were quite excellent, the beer selection sublime, and the assorted starchy chips tasty to the 7 to 10 year old crowd, the surprise hit were the cookies brought to us by our friend from Japan (and his son, the defender for the team). Besides being beautifully wrapped (this photo does NOT do justice to how great looking the box was), the cookies themselves were perhaps the best vanilla wafer cookies I have ever eaten. The wafers were light and crisp, and the cream had an excellent texture. Nothing was too sweet. They were great.

Because of this, the boys and I decided to travel to the source: Minamoto Kitchoan. This temple of Japanese sweets is in Rockefeller Center, on 49th Street off 5th Avenue. It is without a doubt one of the most beautiful bakeries I have ever been in. They sell a variety of seasonal baked goods. Many of the products were fruit and gelatin based, and the special of the month was in fact a Japanese Cherry encased in an opaque gelatin. For photos see flickr.

In all honesty, my friend chose well. The cookies were the clear favorite of all of us. The other desserts are beautiful, however, and the packaging makes them worth buying for someone even if they tasted like sawdust (which they don't!). If you are looking for an exotic baked good to bring someone, and you are in New York (or any other major wealthy city, as they have lots of branches), you can't go wrong with Kitchoan.


LINKS:

Flickr Photos