Ramen in Your Price Range and Japanese Ambience at Sapporo East

Japanese has to be one of my favorite cuisines. I like it all, form the sushi to the soups and the fried noodles. I was already a fan, but my love for Japanese food was cemented when I spent a month there during high school. Unfortunately, Japanese is often one of the most expensive cuisines to enjoy in the United States. That's what makes Sapporo East on 1st Avenue at10th Street such a great find. We initially went in for the very reasonable prices, but I am so thrilled to have found this little gem right in my neighborhood.

Let me begin with the fact that this restaurant actually reminds me of a place I ate at in Japan. There's a definite Japanese ambience, despite it not looking like the typical Japanese restaurant. It has the vibe of a ramen house during the lunch rush: busy, crowded, and filled with delicious smells. This ambience was offset by gangster rap in the background, which should have bothered me, but somehow I was in the mood for that kind of quirky tonight.

The menu includes many different varieties of Japanese food. There is a full sushi menu, and the prices seemed relatively reasonable. I didn't try the sushi, however, and know nothing about how they source their fish, so I won't recommend one way or the other. There is also yakisoba, various types of curry, and an assortment of rice dishes, but my dining partners and I all opted for soup.

My friend Dekel went with the tempura udon. If you're not familiar with Japanese food, tempura is a way of frying meats and vegetables, and udon is a type of thick, white noodle often used in soups. I thought his broth was sweet and nice, but nothing particularly exceptional. It was a good, standard tempura udon, however for only $11 it was huge and included three large pieces shrimp tempura.

My roommate Pierre and I both opted for Ramen. Yes, the ramen you buy for 2 cents and some pocket lint at the Food Lion is a (completely unacceptable and relatively insulting) imitation of this dish. Real Ramen, however, is delicious noodles in rich broth with all kinds of toppings. The only resemblance to the grocery store version is the shape of the noodles and the name. We got different kinds, and they were both great, but very different. Pierre ordered the Rokuban Ramen, which had a soy broth with ground beef, tofu and bean sprouts. It was incredibly flavorful, but definitely beefy! While I personally found the flavor a little too heavy for my tastes, if you enjoy beef and are looking for a hearty soup, I would recommend it.

I ordered the Sapporo Special Ramen, and let me say, sorry boys, but I win this one. My ramen was killer. The broth was intensely flavorful with a miso base, and if I had just been given a bowl of broth, I think I would have been satisfied. The Sapporo Special, however, comes with pork, fish cakes and vegetables. I have no idea what they did to that pork, but it tasted like it was made for royalty. It was tender with a slightly sweet flavor, and complemented the broth perfectly. The fish cakes were also tasty, but I prefer mine slightly thicker cut than at Sapporo East. This isn't really a complaint though, because it's just personal preference. My noodles were also perfectly cooked. I could have eaten that soup until I died of over consumption. Seriously. This place is on my way to and from school, and I'm not sure how I will walk by it every day without stopping in for a bowl of ramen.

The best part of all is that all of this was in approximately the $10 range. Both bowls of ramen were $9, and the tempura udon was $11. I've checked out ramen menu's in the neighborhood, and this place is an absolute steal.

So, to recap: nice, quirky atmosphere, great food, affordable prices. What more could you possibly want? If you're in New York, go get yourself some ramen!

Indian Tanpura Weekend Lunch Special

This past week was the first week of classes, and let me tell you, PhD school is hard. As a result, my diet has consisted largely of protein bars, whatever I can graze from my kitchen, and some eating out. Since I have been such an irresponsible blogger, you might even get two posts today, but this one is about my surprisingly good lunch at Indian Tanpura on the Upper West Side.

My brother Patrick and I originally planned to go to Saigon Grill, a Vietnamese restaurant where he had eaten before with his girlfriend. They may have good food, but it turns out they don't have good labor practices. There was a picket outside, and it turns out there's an entire community organization focussed on trying to get them to change the way they treat their employees. They even lost a court case to former employees and were required to pay damages, which have apparently not been paid. You can learn more about the dispute here: http://sweatshopfreeny.tumblr.com/. Needless to say, we decided not to eat at Saigon Grill.

Instead, we walked a bit further down Amsterdam where we found a tiny Indian restaurant called Indian Tanpura at 564 Amsterdam Avenue between 87th and 88th Streets. It looked a bit pricy for lunch, but hey, it's Indian food, so we figured why not.

Indian Tanpura is located at 564 Amsterdam, between 87th and 88th Streets

Once inside, it turns out that Indian Tanpura has great, very affordable lunch specials 7 days a week. There were lots of vegetarian options including Aloo Saag (spinach and potato curry), Channa Saag (chickpea and spinach curry), Mixed Vegetable Curry (self-explanatory), and Mattar Aloo (pea and potato curry), all of which were $7.95. The various meat dishes included Chicken Curry, Beef and Vegetable Curry and Lamb with Spinach, and were all priced at $8.50. The lunch specials include rice, a salad dressed with lemon juice and spices, and a pakora, which was particularly exceptional. I don't typically like pakoras except in the sense that everybody loves fried dough, but this one was fragrantly spiced and really delicious.

Indian Tanpura doesn't deal in high end, gourmet Indian food. It tastes the way I imagine the food would taste if it was made in somebody's kitchen for a weekend lunch. In fact, I think that is approximately what you are eating. The place is tiny, and there was a bit of a wait for them to prepare the food, but it was seemingly very fresh.We ordered the mixed vegetable curry and the aloo saag (a curry made with spinach and potatoes), and neither was a disappointment. The spices are not quite as subtly balanced as in some higher end places you may have eaten, but the bold assertive flavors work, and take any pretension out of the food. While both dishes were good, I think that my aloo saag was particularly great. I asked for medium, and it was perfectly medium, just enough kick without overwhelming the flavor. The gravy was flavorful and warming, and the entire meal left me feeling full and comfy. Perfect for the end of a stressful week.

Patrick's mixed vegetable curry was more truly mixed vegetables than in many Indian restaurants I have tried. Often you get a somewhat disappointing mix of mostly carrots, peas and potatoes. This version included green beans, big pieces of carrot, potato, broccoli and tomato, for a really healthy mix!

Look at Patrick's face and decide for yourself how the vegetable curry was. ;-)

The service was also particularly nice. Admittedly, we were the only ones in the restaurant (we came a bit on the late side for lunch, but they serve the specials until 3:30), but the server, who seemed like he might also be running the place, was both friendly and attentive, without overdoing it. I asked, and at least he is from Bangladesh, not India. I wonder if some of the spice differences I noticed were regional, but don't know enough about regional variations in South Asian cuisine to comment for certain.

If you are around the Upper West Side, I recommend giving this little place a try. With the lunch special prices, we paid $10 each including the tax and tip, making this a tasty and affordable option. The dinner prices also seemed reasonable, given that it is Indian food, but were slightly more than what you would pay at lunch. If you're in that neighborhood, they also deliver.

Enjoy your meals!

Chinatown Dim Sum

This What's for Dinner is actually a What's for Lunch, but I'm sure you'll forgive me. After this lunch, all I could manage for dinner was some veggies and cottage cheese!

Dim Sum. The word alone is enough to make my heart skip a beat, so when I learned that NYU was sponsoring a Dim Sum lunch in Chinatown for new grad students living in NYU housing, I'm really mostly just lucky I remained conscious. The experience was great before we even got to sit down and have food. We walked from NYU down to Chinatown, which was a fascinating experience for me, since I haven't spent much time there. I saw the most BEAUTIFUL chinese long beans, I wanted to knock over the bystanders blocking my path and just snatch them up, but unfortunately I was with a group, and that sort of behavior tends to be frowned upon. I decided that the long beans would probably be there another day, but my pride once lost was lost forever. Hey, a girl's got to make friends! I also saw at least 4 varieties of mushroom that I couldn't identify, including some beautiful shiny black ones with wide thin caps and slender stems. I'd like to go back with a camera and figure out what all of them are. All of that to say, I will definitely be returning to Chinatown at some point when I can fight through the crowds without shame.

When we got to the restaurant there was a huge mass of people waiting on the street, and no wonder! Jing Fong (http://www.jingfongny.com/) is a Chinatown institution. We had about a 30-40 minute wait, and just to give you an idea of how popular this place is, the dining room seats 800...and we had to wait 30 minutes. Luckily, grad students are creative, and we decided to get bubble tea while we waited. For those of you who have never had bubble tea, it's a milky, sweet iced tea with giant black pearls of tapioca in it, making for a sweet delicious drink with a chewy after-bite. It's delicious, and another one of my favorite things. I'm almost glad we had the wait since it meant getting bubble tea.

Once we finally got inside, everything happened very quickly. For those of you unfamiliar with dim sum, it is a traditional way of eating, most particularly in Hong Kong. You sit at a table, usually with a group, and waiters with carts roll by and offer you an absolutely blinding assortment of delicacies. Most people know dim sum for dumplings, but there is so much more than that. Within seconds of sitting, our table was filled with steamed pork buns, doughy on the outside and filled with sweet, barbecue pork, several types of dumplings including small shu mai shrimp dumplings wrapped in clear rice wrappings, vegetable shrimp dumplings, and pork dumplings. The most interesting item we were served, however, were the fried taro dumplings. These were deep fried, slightly sweet mashed taro root, covered with wispy threads of fried dough, wrapped around pork, scallions and a sauce fit to make you faint. On top of the incredible dumplings, we had soft-shell crab fried with spicy red pepper, tiny fried whole fish which were salty and delicious, and two different types of barbecue pork. Even the little touches, such as the sweet, crunchy soy beans under the pork, were perfect. All of this was washed down with an endless supply of jasmine tea, and finished off with coconut foam and sesame dumplings filled with sweet bean paste for dessert. The meal was perfect, and giant. I was somewhat concerned that I would need to be rolled home, but I managed to walk. I actually thought that it was possible that I had died, and this was heaven. But, no. This, my friends, was simply Chinatown, although I'm beginning to doubt whether those two things are all that different.

Enjoy your labor day weekend, and if you have a chance, get a group together and grab some dim sum! You won't be sorry!

End Note

While it will be impossible to truly capture what happened yesterday, Jing Fong's website has pictures of some of what we ate here: http://www.jingfongny.com/dimsum/. The taro dumplings, which I think are the hardest to describe, are the third from the left on the top line.

Sao Mai Vietnamese Cuisine

Tonight, my dad was in the city to visit my brother and I, and he took us out for Vietnamese food in my neighborhood. I love Vietnamese food. I could live on Pho and summer rolls for the rest of my life, true story, so I was excited to find this cute looking Vietnamese place only a short walk from my new apartment. I was even more excited by the fact that the prices were unbelievably reasonable.

We split some vegetarian summer rolls. These were pretty standard fare, to be honest. They were awesome, as summer rolls always are, but there was nothing mind-blowingly special about them. They included mint, vermicelli noodles, and fried tofu, with a peanut-based dipping sauce.

I had the seafood pho as my main meal. This is my standard order in any Vietnamese restaurant, and this one was nice. The broth was well-prepared, although blander than a recent pho that I enjoyed in Philadelphia, and I got a giant, incredibly satisfying bowl filled with noodles, shrimp, vegetables, fish balls, crab sticks and squid for $9. I couldn't even finish the whole bowl.

I have to admit, though, that my order was not the star of the meal. My brother, Patrick, definitely won that competition. Patrick, a recently converted vegetarian, went for the tofu banh mi. For those of you unfamiliar with Vietnamese food, banh mi is sort of like a Vietnamese po boy. Apparently, the word itself in Vietnamese is simply the word for bread, but when you see it on a restaurant menu it usually refers to a specific type of stuffed sandwich on a baguette. Most traditionally, this would include all kinds of meat in sauce, with herbs, maybe with pickled carrots, and that version is incredibly delicious. Patrick's tofu version, however, was anything but a disappointment. The sandwich was gigantic, and absolutely exploding with flavor. The bread was crusty, with a great crunch, but soft and light on the inside. The tofu was covered in a sort of sweet sauce, with just a tiny bit of a kick (if I had been lucky enough to order it, I would have put some garlic chili on to spice it up). I want to go back and eat it again and again just to figure out what is in that sauce, because it was incredible. It also had lettuce, tons of cilantro and, of course, tofu. Also, and this may or may not be the best part, this gigantic sandwich, which I believe was sent directly from the heavens, retails at Sao Mai for only SIX DOLLARS. That's stupid cheap. According to the menu, it is only served from 11-5, but Patrick ordered it when we met for dinner at 7:30. I'd say you're taking your chances ordering it after 5, but definitely give it a go.

If you're in NYC, Sao Mai is at 203 1st Ave between 11th and 12th streets, next to a now-defunct Philippino restaurant (too bad!). I highly recommend it, particularly for the sandwich!

Enjoy!

Healthy Mushroom Casserole

Tonight's dinner is a healthy mushroom casserole that I have made before. The recipe comes from 101 Cookbooks, which is a great food blog, and which also has the best recipe for banana bread that I have ever tried.

I made a few adjustments to the original recipe. I made all the dairy fat free, used greek yogurt instead of sour cream, and added some chicken for protein. I also used asiago instead of parmesan, because I had it in the house. The protein was a nice added touch, as it kept me fuller than the last time I made it when I did it with only the mushrooms. If you are vegetarian, I think you could add tempeh or smoked tofu, for some similar deliciousness. With the greek yogurt and cottage cheese there is already SOME protein though.

The recipe is here: Mushroom Casserole

This recipe is really versatile, and I think there are lots of ways you could spice it up. She suggests leafy greens, pine nuts, etc. I think that you could try different kinds of fresh herbs (sage would be AWESOME with the mushrooms), toasted walnuts, and add other veggies. If you added veggies with a high water content, I would be a bit careful, just because the casserole might fall apart a bit. As it is, I actually think it bakes up almost too firm, and next time I might see what happens if I use only one egg. Some people in the comments also substituted egg whites, and that seemed to work for them.

This is a great comfort food recipe, and it doesn't take too much active cooking time. Plus it makes a lot, so it could feed your whole family or, in my case, last for several meals!

Enjoy!

Turkey Sandwich of Extreme Awesomeness

Let's get real here. A turkey sandwich is just not exciting, or inspiring. It's not something I ever order off a menu, and it's the kind of thing I make when I don't have anything in the house and I need something that's going to be healthy, yummy and not take me too much time.

This is NOT that kind of turkey sandwich. Tonights dinner STARTED like that turkey sandwich, but it quickly transformed itself into the Turkey Sandwich of Extreme Awesomeness (which is most definitely a proper noun in this case).

Here's the story. I didn't want to go get more groceries, but my supplies were relatively limited. I had some Trader Joe's smoked turkey and decided to make a turkey sandwich with whatever was sitting around the house. So far, so boring. What was sitting around the house was the following: lettuce, half a tomato, an avocado, greek yogurt, feta cheese and bread. I decided to use all of it, and thus, the best turkey sandwich I have ever made was born. Here's the recipe:

Turkey Sandwich of Extreme Awesomeness

Two slices whole wheat bread
4-8 slices of smoked turkey breast (or as much as you will enjoy eating)
1/4 of an avocado
1 Tbsp fat free Greek yogurt
2 Tbsp feta cheese
Lettuce
Tomato
Salt

Turn on the broiler on your oven, and set it to high. Put the bread under the broiler, but keep an eye on it as it will tend to burn (this would be even better done in a toaster oven, but I don't have one).

Meanwhile, smash the avocado and yogurt into a guacamole like paste, and add a little salt.

Once the bread is toasted on one side, flip it over and put the feta cheese onto one of the slices. Continue to broil until both pieces of toast are crispy, and the feta is melted slightly. This shouldn't take long.

Take the bread out of the oven, spread both sides with the avocado spread, being careful on the feta side, because the feta will stay somewhat crumbly most likely.

Add the turkey, lettuce, and tomato to one side, top the sandwich with the other piece of bread, slice and consume!

WARNING! This sandwich is drippy, and avocado can stain your clothes, eat over a plate. Also, it's highly addictive. Highly. Addictive.

Enjoy!

Quick and Dirty Chicken Stir Fry

This is a long-standing finals week favorite of mine, and despite not being in the middle of finals, it was called for on this lazy Sunday evening. The basic recipe goes like this:

Get some veggies. Frozen is fine (fresh onions, garlic, and ginger if possible). Chop some chicken. Put oil into a wok or skillet (sesame adds a nice flavor, but use whatever you have). Add garlic onions and ginger until soft/a bit brown. Add chicken until slightly browned. Add veggies and stir. Add desired sauce. Cook until chicken is done. Serve alone or with rice while studying, veging in front of the television, or whatever it is you do during finals and/or lazy Sunday afternoons.

It's the height of simplicity, is healthy, cheap, fast and delicious. Tonight, I used a frozen stir fry mix, some frozen green beans and frozen broccoli, chopped mushrooms, onions and garlic, chicken, and Trader Joe's Soyaki sauce. At the end, I added a cup of frozen Trader Joe's brown rice directly to the wok and let it soak up the sauce.

Gourmet it is not. Most even good home cooks would probably flog me for using frozen green beans when I can probably get them fresh just around the corner, and they would be right. I'm an awful, awful person. An awful, awful person with a delicious bowl of stir fry in front of me. I believe you should always use the freshest ingredients...except when you don't have fresh ingredients in the house, are broke, are lazy, and have all the frozen and pre-chopped makings of your dinner without even getting out of your PJs. In that case, I say bring on the freezer burn!

Substitutions include basically anything you can possibly imagine. Make it vegetarian with tofu, or tempeh, or leave out the protein all together. Make it with beef, seafood, or any other protein. Put whatever veggies you like, fresh or frozen (as I said, fresh is always better, but frozen is always lazier), and leave out whatever you don't like. Add Sriracha or garlic chili sauce for heat, add spices in different combinations for flavor, mix sauces. You can literally do whatever you want with the basic outline and come up with something pretty tasty. Well, probably not if you mix ketchup and balsamic vinegar with a cumin based sauce, but, you know, within reason.

Mine turned out great. Hope yours does too!