Category Archives: Culture

Food: Queens Edition

Queens is not the closest location from Brooklyn.

Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao

Needed an excuse to go all the way to Flushing to wander around.

Beef & Chili Pepper Noodle Soup

This was very worth the trip here. It wasn’t very spicy at all, despite the name. It would be considered your typical beef noodle soup (niu rou mian). Broth, noodles, and toppings were all excellent.

Xiao Long Bao

What the restaurant has in it’s name. Size-wise, definitely larger than xiao long bao’s you may be used to. Which means the amount of meat and soup you get is more than you’re used to in a bite. Would definitely recommend these.

I also ordered some shao mai (not pictured) that wasn’t exactly what I expected. I was expecting HK style pork and shrimp shao mai, but got Shanghai-style which has lots of luo mi (sticky rice). It turned out OK, but I wouldn’t order it if I knew what it was.

Tai-Pan Bakery

Walked around Flushing, relying on my Yelp app. It’s funny, before I’d almost never use Yelp, but now it’s good to have in a completely new place. As long as the reviews are above average and have reached critical mass (not just 2 reviews), it’s good enough of a sign to give the place a try.

Neapolitan Cake

Very good texture and flavor. Not too sweet, but good. Interesting since normally I’m not a fan of these frilly cakes, but this was good.

Egg Custards

This is a staple, rich and unhealthy pastry. Pictured from top right, clockwise: (1)Portuguese, (2) Traditional, and (1) Almond. The almond type is unique, I haven’t heard of it before. You can’t go wrong with the traditional egg custard.

Everything Bagel with Bacon Scallion cream cheese

One more thing:

At Brooklyn Bagel & Coffee, I picked up an everything bagel. The bagel was completely overshadowed by the deliciousness of the cream cheese. Bacon Scallion cream cheese? How could anything with bacon not taste good?

This was very delicious, and I’m sure I could pick just about any bagel and put Bacon flavored cream cheese and it would come out OK.

Greenwich eats

Wandering around in search of more good food. The good news? It definitely exists in bounds.

Mamoun's Falafel

First up is Mamoun’s. They had the usual (for well trafficked restaurants) displays of awards won in past years. One of them was best 4AM place. I went around 4pm? Am I doing it wrong?

Mamoun's Chicken Plate

This grilled chicken plate with pipin’ hot pitas was 10 bucks. It should be enough food for most people, but I still had more appetite. The hot sauce was VERY hot. Would definitely go here again. And you can even argue the “healthy” food angle.

Tebaya

Just walked by this place on the way to another store. I saw the Yelp people like us decal, and it actually intrigued me enough to try “Japanese fried wings.” This is related to Korea fried chicken, but it has more of a teriyaki and sesame seed spin to it.

Teba - chicken wings

The chicken wings (teba), fried potatoes (potemochi), and green tea. The wings were very well flavored and textured. The potemochi and green tea were much less notable. The potemochi has a crisp outside with a gooey mochi inside. Definitely want to swing by here again and grab the katsu sandwich that people on Yelp are raving about.

Some good food and NY tourist spots

Walked around NYC some more today. Decided to start putting a very small watermark.

2nd Floor Wii Area

The Nintendo Store wasn’t as big as I imagined, just two floors near 30 Rock. There is a Pokemon Center downstairs, in which “center” means aisle against the wall.

Samus Figure

Samus Figure

I think you can buy these?

Nintendo R.O.B.

As seen from Smash Brothers, etc!

DS signed by Miyamoto

This guy is a Nintendo legend. Created Mario and many, many Nintendo brands.

People for COCO in front of NBC

This is the backside of the protesters.

Pro COCO

The front side. Haha “Conando”

30 Rock

I didn’t go up to the top of the rock. Maybe one of these days? Also, I didn’t go ice skating today.

30 Rock Ice Skating

It looks fun.

Fifth Ave Statue

I think this is on 5th Ave, and I know it’s near 30 Rock. Pretty impressive.

Fifth Ave Signage

The texture / over-design elements interest me.

Sylvia's

Up in Harlem, we have Sylvia’s Soul Food. This was featured on the Food Channel. If I’m not mistaken, the table where I sat had a photo of Reverand Al Sharpton and Sylvia.

Sylvia's Hot Sauce

It was pretty spicy, in a Tabasco kind of way. I didn’t really use it much, because I wanted to savor the food and not just drink hot sauce.

Good Cornbread

This was “the bread” that restaurants give you to nibble on before the food arrives. I’m not a cornbread person, but I ate a lot of this because it was good – especially the crust parts.

The main entree - fried chicken and sides

From top left counter-clockwise: lemonade, fried chicken, baked mac-n-cheese, collard greens, gravy, hot sauce, and cornbread. It was all great except for the collard greens, which had a distinct taste that I’m not sure how to describe because I’m just not used to it. This was my one/only meal today. The rest of today was spent walking it off.

Baked Mac-n-Cheese Close Up

125 Street

Happy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day everyone! 125st was the subway exit with the Apollo theater nearby.

Brooklyn Bridge

Around the evening, the Wall Street area was pretty deserted (for NY). Then again, today was a “holiday.”

Ground Zero for 9/11

Zuccotti Park

This was right by Ground Zero.

These photos were mostly taken with the EF-S 17-55. At night, some were with the EF 50.

NY Upper West Side Eats

Some pictures from today’s food:

Gray's Papaya

Gray's Papaya Hotdogs

It came with a papaya juice. Not as dirt cheap as I thought, but still cheap for NY.

Gray's Papaya

Gray's Papaya Interior

They have juices behind the counter lined up against the wall. To the right are endless Frankfurts.

H & H Bagels

H & H Bagels Storefront

This place wasn’t that crowded on a Sunday afternoon.

H & H Everything Bagel

H & H Everything Bagel

The everything has everything on it. It was salty like a pretzel – next time, I should just pick 1 topping and go with it.

Katt Williams on Haters

Stuff White People Like is an awesome blog.

I recently saw the authors@google talk featuring the author, Christian Lander. He mentions Katt Williams saying how haters gotta hate and letting them do their jobs.

Searching youtube, I found the clip he was describing. I think this video is a good thing to keep in mind when living your life and running into hard times: