November 2010

The Archives

• Cliffside Park, Restaurants

  Petite Soo Chow & Turkeyless Thanksgiving – NJ

  11.27.10 | Permalink | 8 Comments

  

  For the longest time, my family didn’t have a go-to Chinese restaurant in New Jersey. In New York, yes, but in New Jersey, no. There was one place in Fort Lee we went to a good number of times for dim sum, but after several unwanted encounters of the creepy crawly variety, it was time to stop giving the restaurant a chance. Finally, about a year ago, my brother discovered Petite Soo Chow in Cliffside Park, and since then we’ve been slowly eating through the entire menu.

  We even ended up at Petite Soo Chow this Thursday. For the first time since I can remember, I did not have one bite of turkey this Thanksgiving. I’m not sure exactly how it happened. I know a few weeks prior there were a few rumblings in the family of not having turkey and only having ham, but never did I imagine a turkeyless Thanksgiving would happen. But it did, and although I b*tched and moaned a fair amount, I made do, and then some. MORE »

• K-Town, Restaurants

  Oyster Soondubu & Galbi at BCD Tofu House – NYC

  11.19.10 | Permalink | 10 Comments

  For the longest time I resisted cooked oysters. Why cook something when it tastes perfectly good raw? Then a few years ago I started to appreciate cooked oysters. Gently cooked so the meat is set like a soft boiled egg, oysters take on a creamy quality raw oysters don’t possess. Sure, I still prefer raw oysters, but I understand why people like oysters cooked too. Done right, they’re delicious. Overcooked, you might as chew the piece of gum you spit out hours ago. It’ll be just as tasteless and chewy.

  One place where they do oysters right is B.C.D. Tofu House (북창동 순두부) on 32nd Street in K-Town. The specialty at BCD is soondubu jigae (순두부 찌개), soft/silken tofu soup which can be ordered in varying degrees of spiciness: plain/not spicy, mild, spicy, or very spicy. My regular order is the Oyster Tofu Soup (굴순두부), spicy. MORE »

• Chinatown, Restaurants

  Offal and Country-Style Duck at Bo Ky – NYC

  11.12.10 | Permalink | 5 Comments

  

  A few months ago, Bo Ky was closed by the DOH. Some people get scared when things like that happen. Me, I pretty much accept it’s part of the restaurant game. Restaurants screw up, they clean up their act (literally), and then they open again. Dwell on the details too much and you’ll never be able to eat out again.

  Other people get mad at the DOH. I’m guilty of that too. I get annoyed when I’m denied food, but sometimes Big Brother means well. For example, before Bo Ky closed, there were signs all was not right. I remember on one visit before they closed, the Curry Chicken with Flat Noodles that I loved so much and wrote about two years ago tasted off. The chicken didn’t taste fresh and the soup was incredibly salty. Another time I was filled with dread throughout the meal because my waitress was obviously sick. By the way, one of Bo Ky’s citations was “food worker prepares food or handles utensil when ill with a disease transmissible by food, or have exposed infected cut or burn on hand.” Yikes! But again, you can’t dwell on these things too much. You just hope when the restaurant reopens, most of the problems will have been fixed. MORE »

• LES, Restaurants

  Nate Appleman’s Pulino’s – NYC

  11.04.10 | Permalink | 8 Comments

  I try to be a good blogger by making repeat visits to restaurants I like before writing about them. Most of the time it’s in my own self-interest. I want to eat more delicious food. Sometimes though, this backfires on me. Businesses unexpectedly close and chefs often leave taking their stamp on the restaurant with them. The latter is what happened at Pulino’s. I ate at the Nate Appleman’s Pulino’s twice and loved their pizza even though they didn’t serve the typical Neapolitan or New York slice. It was different, but still very good. The crusts were thin but never cracker-like. It was crisp with just enough poof. The cut was also different. The large pizzas were cut tavern-style or Domino’s thin crust style, in squares even though the pizzas were round. (The small pies were always cut in the regular triangle fashion.) And while not a fan of this cut (you don’t get a good sampling of all the different parts of the pizza, especially when sharing in a group), it was something I could live with.

  Well, I guess some people didn’t feel the same way, because two days ago Eater reported Nate Appleman left Pulino’s, and Feast reported the restaurant would now be serving triangle-cut pizzas with thicker crusts. The news was HUGE… at least for this week. As a result, this post will only serve as a record of Pulino’s past deliciousness. Although you won’t be able to go to Pulino’s and eat Nate Appleman’s pizzas anymore, let’s scroll through some tasty memories together. MORE »