Writing With My Mouth Full

Ippudo Westside

321 West 51st Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues
$115 for 2 people, with drinks, with tip
212/974.2500
♥ ♥

Ippudo without the wait? You don’t say! We stopped by the new Ippudo in Hell’s Kitchen during their soft opening week and were whisked upstairs to sit in front of the still-unused kitchen covered in subway tiles. The space will remind you more of Momofuku rather than Ippudo East Village because it’s brighter and lighter inside.

It was quite hot outside, so we decided to nosh on appetizers and try as many dishes as we could and just split a bowl of ramen for our main course. The Hirata steamed buns filled with eggplant and eringi mushrooms were really good. I loved the subtle crunch from the tempura (or was it panko?). The beer-battered fried chicken came with blistered shishito peppers and were probably the best appetizer on the menu. We weren’t as thrilled with the zucchini-potato dish because they were unexciting compared to their other tastier options.

For our ramen, we opted for the Shiromaru Hakata Classic, a tonkotsu soup noodle with pork loin chashu and sesame kikurage mushrooms, plus additional toppings of mustard leaves and pork belly. True to Ippudo style, the noodles were cooked perfectly: tender and just the right amount of bite and chew; the broth so satisfyingly rich and full.

Don’t wait until it gets cooler outside to make your trip uptown. You’ll be waiting in line soon!

Costata

206 Spring Street between Sixth Avenue and Sullivan Street
$155 for 2 people, with drinks, with tip
212/334.3320
♥ ♥ ♥

Matt wanted to buy me dinner while he was in town, so naturally I dragged him to the newest Michael White restaurant I can’t afford. It was 10pm and I was a bit worried that they wouldn’t let us in because kitchens usually close at that time. We walked in and they sat us right away. Our cocktails were pretty amazing and because we skipped on the steak (next time someone else wants to pay for dinner, promise!), the food came pretty fast.

While we waited, they brought out the fresh bread with this little guy on the table: lard in olive oil. It’s a heart attack-inducing treat that we couldn’t stop eating.

My favorite were the crudo razor clams marinated with fennel and small pieces of soppressata. At $22 for 3 pieces though, they’re hard to swallow. I would gladly eat 10 more of them if I can afford them.

The casarecci pasta al nero was to die for. I’ve had squid ink pasta before, but they’ve usually been spaghetti with the squid ink in the sauce. These look like cute little leeches–sorry to say–served with shrimp and cuttlefish with a wonderful chile kick. I’m still dreaming about this dish.

And as if we weren’t full enough, we couldn’t help but order my favorite pasta, the cavatelli, smothered in a super-rich braised oxtail stew. If I could coddle a bowl of this during rainy days with a bold glass of red wine, I would be a happy human being.

Michael White restaurants never disappoint when you want really refined Italian food. Go when you’re on someone else’s tab or celebrating a milestone because it’s definitely pricey for just a regular weeknight.

Day 1 in Bhutan: Rinpung Dzong and the National Museum in Paro

After a long flight from New York to Dubai and a brief stop in Kathmandu, Nepal, we boarded a small plane to Bhutan. We were on a small propeller plane and saw Mount Everest. It’s the world’s highest mountain at 29,029 feet and it’s that black one towards the left. The view blew every Instagram photo anyone has ever taken from a seat of a plane:

The light was beautiful in Bhutan that it was difficult not to keep snapping photos. We saw a lot of this kind of view: mountain ranges in different layers and shades just like how a painting would depict them.

In Paro, we met our guide and driver for the duration of our trip: Dorji and Karma. They were wearing the traditional dress for men called gho and they welcomed us with silk saffron scarves just like how Hawaiians welcome their guests with leis. (The saffron color is the Theravada Buddhist monk color, the oldest surviving branch of Buddhism.) I might have drank the Kool-Aid early, but I swear I instantly felt some kind of peace as soon as that happened. The moment reminded me of when I was welcomed the same way in Luang Prabang in Laos, but this time, I was glad to be traveling with friends and not solo.

After we stopped for tea at a local shop in Paro, we drove to our first dzong, the Rinpung Dzong, a fortress architecture that now serves as both administrative and religious building to the district. The conch-shaped watch tower now-museum was under construction after the 2010 earthquake, so we went inside the temporary space across the alley instead.

One of the many giant prayer wheels we spun on our trip:

And the ubiquitous prayer flags:

In the beginning I made wishes for myself, but as our trip progressed, I found myself wishing good things for my family and friends; I found myself sharing the fortune I had in being in the Kingdom of Bhutan. It sounds cliché, but this trip was very enlightening for me.

Tanoshi Sushi

1372 York Avenue between East 73rd and 74th Streets
$100 each for 5 people, omakase with 3 shared appetizers, with tip; BYOB
646/727.9056
♥ ♥ ♥

You know when a restaurant review comes out and it fucks it up for everyone else? This is it.

Betony

41 West 57th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
$120 each for 2 people, with drinks, with tip
212/465.2400
♥ ♥ ♥

The disclaimer here is that I know someone in the kitchen at Betony. I met Josh in 2008 when I went to the Spotted Pig for Fergus Henderson’s visit from the UK. Josh came all the way by bus from Delaware just to eat the chef’s food and we immediately got along and shared our plates. Since then, he’s worked in several other restaurants and we’ve shared more than just pig’s face to eat. It was a given that I would support him at his latest gig even if Betony was not started by his old friends from Eleven Madison Park.

Betony brings the food experience back to basics, or at least it makes you feel like you’re eating very simple dishes. Josh’s marinated trout roe with cucumber looks just like that: trout roe served on a rice cracker, but I found out later that the puffed rice was made from scratch, the roe was marinated in dashi and the cucumber was a bavarois using the cucumber juice that was turned into a fluid gel.

The shellfish ragout is one of their best dishes. The lobster with the season’s peas was decadent, and the cured pink snapper subtle and clean.

Eleven Madison Park won all those awards not because of how fancy their food was but because of how simple they made everything look. It’s the quiet simplicity that will make Betony successful; New York City diners will just have to make room for more excellence.