Archive for June, 2010

The Eggshell Donut

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Sometimes all it takes is a bored sibling doing chores to create something interesting and artistic.  My siblings and I was helping my parents prepare food when my sister came up to us with enormous grin on her face.

Part of the recipe we were working on involved about 60 eggs.  Instead of throwing the eggshells into the garbage right away, my sister decided to do something creative with them.

That is alot of eggshells. The butcher knife is there for scale, it was NOT used in the actual creation of the Eggshell Donut.

Yep, she had taken all of the eggshells and linked them together into a giant ring.  Then she squeezed it together until it was packed tight.

Here's a closer look. That really is alot of eggshells

Sadly, we had to dispose of it.  There was no way it was going to last (nor were our family going to allow us to keep such a thing).  As a final note, this is one of the few things we will cover here on Diners.org that you can NOT EAT.

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Thai Son in Chinatown

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

Thai Son
89 Baxter St
(between Walker St & White St)
New York, NY 10013
(212) 732-2822

The team here at Diners.org is happy to include a new addition to our team.  Donna is a friend of ours who is willing to share her experiences and opinions on her dining experience.

First up, “Thai Son” in Chinatown (we’ll update this with an

Thai Son is one of my favorite Vietnamese restaurants to go to when I am in Chinatown. You can tell if a Vietnamese restaurant is good with just one dish. That dish is the Pho Thai for me.
Honestly speaking, soup is the hardest thing to make in this dish. And if the soup is flavorful, it means they added tons of meat and flavorings in there. At Thai Son, it is exactly so!
The soup is to die for. The beef is cut simply. All it needs is a bit of beansprouts and some basil for me. If you do not wish to order any soup, I would recommend their Summer Rolls,
if you wish to get something not too oily. If you wish for something a bit more oily, I would recommend their Springrolls which also come in Vegetarian flavor. If you are a fan of spicy and you are here on a weekend, I would recommend you to order the Bun Bo Hue.
This is a spicy soup that comes with alot of meat and food for your buck. Their vermicilli noodles are delicous as well. I, personally, like adding springrolls, their barbequed pork (Thit Neung).
I personally think their barbequed pork is one of the best in Chinatown! If you wish to try something on a slightly more safe side, I would recommend their Bun Xeo, which is a Vietnamese crepe (it’s not dessert).
These crepes, I would honestly recommend sharing with someone seeing that they are huge! If you go down their list and see that there are too many things to try out and you’re with a big group, I recommend that you just order one dish per person and share it.
The prices are not bad at all. From what I remember, the cheapest order was $4 and the highest was $25. The $25 being a Vietnamese barbeque meal that I would definitely recommend for big groups as well. Each Person may need to pay $20+ each, but it is worth your money.

Donna also gave us some photos to go with her commentary:

This should be the Bun Bo Hue dish which is a spicy soup. The large bowl in the back is Pho Thai. The spring rolls is Bun Guon with shrimp.

This is their Bun Xeo which is a crepe.

Stay tuned for more posts about Dining with Donna!

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Kyotofu… no it’s not a fighting style

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

Kyotofu
705 Ninth Avenue (between 48th & 49th)
New York, NY, 10019
212-974-6012
info@kyotofu-nyc.com
Lunch / Brunch
Tuesday though Sunday, 12:00pm to 5:00 p.m.
Dinner & Dessert Bar
5:00pm to 12:30am Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday
5:00pm to 1:30am Thursday, Friday and Saturday

Yesterday was Japan Day at New York City’s Central Park.  Held at the East Meadow near the 97th Street and 5th Avenue entrance, the event featured samples of Japanese culture.  The team here at Diners.org wanted to go check out the food and tea ceremonies but alas, by the time we got there everything was gone.

So!  Instead we are going to cover our recent visit to Kyotofu, a restaurant that specializes in “Modern Japanese Deserts”.  Contrary to its tagline, Kyotofu is not just a specialty eatery like Nunu Chocolate.  Kyotofu serves both lunch and dinner menus in addition to their deserts.

This is photo from Kyotofu's website showing their NYC location. You can probably see the first problem we have with Kyotofu: There is no obvious sign showing that this is Kyotofu to passerbys. The best they have is a letter-sized flyer right by their door. A bad decision in our opinion since there are quite a few Japanese restaurants in the vicinity. Finding this place was a pain.

But inside it is much nicer.

Here is another photo from Kyotofu's site, this time of their dining area. It wasn't lighted like this when we got there during the day so this was probably taken during the evening. The window binds in the back of the photo is their storefront. The photographer was probably standing next to the bathroom door when this shot was taken.

To be honest, according to Kyotofu’s website description the Manhattan location was “Designed by Japanese architect Hiromi Tsuruta, Kyotofu is a modern take on a traditional Kyoto-style home.”

That may explain the aesthetics, which we have to admit makes the restaurant a nice place to dine in (we spent something along the lines of four hours there).  There are more pictures at Kyotofu’s website which you can check out by clicking here.

Now the food here reflects the artistic goal of Kyotofu.  This isn’t your paper/styrofoam plate joint; every dish comes with its own presentation.  Below are a couple of dishes, deserts, and drinks the diners.org team and friends sampled:

From their summer menu, ZENSAI starters: warm japanese mushroom salad (baby arugula, red onion, and parmesan)

Trio of burgers and I think tofu chips. Aren't they cute?

More tofu chips.

Kyotofu also has dinner menus which allows you to pick a starter, main course, and desert for a much cheaper price. Like typical bento box styles, everything's neat and organized but most importantly... delicious. The mustard sauce is incredible.

Deserts! This is their "trio of sorbets" which is homemade at their location

This is one of their tofu deserts but we forgot which one >_> Tasty though.

Honestly, we forgot which desert this was. One of our friends got this and we have to ask her if she remembers. We will update this when we find out. Still, ain't it pretty?

Kyotofu also serve some very nice homemade drinks. Yeah, we lost the notes on this one too.

Yeah seriously, this is embarrassing. We need better notes on what we ordered when we dine out.

Well, that’s all of the pics we have for you for now.  Many thanks to Donna, Zuchra, and Pedro for the pictures and the fun times.

They also give cooking lessons on Mondays which perked our curiosity.  We will try our best to check that out sometime soon.

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Cookies… with bacon?!

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

Rubb BBQ
208 West 23rd Street
New York, NY, 10011
212-524-4300

Whew, the Team here at Diners.org hoped all of you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.  It was sunny and warm here in NYC and we hoped the men and women in uniform who visited NYC as part of Fleet Week enjoyed the occasion as much as we did.

With that said, right before Memorial Day a few of us from the Diners.org team was invited to a baby shower.  Being guys, we went and got the only thing we couldn’t mess up as a baby shower present:  food.

What we brought to the baby shower (and to the delight of the attendees) are chocolate chip bacon cookies from Rubb BBQ.

(It’s kinda odd on how nearly every awesome food we talk about involves bacon.  I guess it means we need to broaden our horizons.  To new eating places!)

Anyway, Rubb BBQ is located in mid-Manhattan within walking distance of the F, 1, C, and E lines.

"Righteous"

The restaurant is fairly small, definitely not like your Denny’s or Applebee’s, or TGIF Fridays.  It can still fit a good amount of people, but be careful this place is packed on the weekends.  They do takeout and you can call in your order over the phone to be picked up.

Which is what we did as in order to pick up our delicious desert in time for the party.  As we enter the restaurant we couldn’t help but notice the amusing chalkboards outside.

If you don't get the joke, you're too young to understand

And also this:

This one is more PG friendly.

The cookies come in batches of four cookies per order and cost $5.85.  Quite a bit but the taste is worth the price.

Here’s what the cookies looked like:

:: angelic hymn ::

They’re big, chewy, and both sweet & sour to the taste.  They were a big hit at the baby shower and were quickly devoured soon after we arrived.  We would like to say that the rest of Rubb BBQ’s menu is as awesome as their cookies but that would have to wait for a more “proper” visit to their restaurant.

Posted in Desserts, Holidays, Restaurants | Comments Off