When I went to NY last year I drafted a big group to go to Momofuku for the bo ssam (GIANT HUNK OF PORK DELICIOUSNESS). I also tried the regular noodle bar on my last day and got the amazing pork buns. MMM. I wasn’t planning to return there on this trip but then I heard about the new bakery. The schedule got shuffled a bit and we fit in a brunch at Sarabeth’s one morning so I didn’t think we’d make it to the bakery but after some excited texting between Lillie, Kristychoo, and me, we headed over there!
I met up with Kristychoo at Pinisi first. I love Pinisi. It is my favorite cakery ever. I don’t like cake that much, I don’t seek it out, and I hardly ever make it. But Pinisi’s carrot cake…or the red velvet cake…or any cake I’ve tried from there…has been moist and delicious with light fluffy not too sweet frosting. MMM. I went four times during my trip last year, and didn’t make it there until my last day this time. I was really disappointed to find that there was no carrot cake (what I carried home last year). I ended up buying a red velvet cake and Kristychoo got some cupcakes.


Of course, when we got to Momofuku I pulled a slice out for us to try, because I was seized with the fear that it was different. It was not. It was perfect. There’s no chemical taste of food coloring, just moist chocolate cake and fabulous cream cheese frosting.
Lillie and her friend decided to have lunch in the regular Momofuku restaurant so Kristychoo & I headed into the bakery which is adjoining. We each got one savory and one sweet item. It is expensive. I mean, all the Momofukus are pretty pricey (they use really stellar ingredients though!) but my brunch items cost me almost $20.
I chose the pork bun, which in the bakery is a larger version of the popular appetizer. In addition to the meltingly tender slices of pork belly, paper thin cucumber, and hoisin sauce, they add a deep fried soft poached egg. By now I think you all must know of my love for soft egg yolk. This was really good.

Kristychoo decided to get the VOLCANO. I had to put it in all caps because this was truly amazing. The volcano is a bun that is filled with a potato gratin, bacon, bechamel sauce, and caramelized onions, then topped with more cheese. When you cut into it, it erupts!



It was awesome. As much as I loved my pork bun, the volcano is really really really really good, and I kind of wish I chose differently.
Now the sweets! I got a slice of chocolate cake. It was layered together with sticky chocolate icing and yellow cake crumbs. I don’t think I’ve ever seen cake layered with other cake crumbs too. The yellow cake crumbs provided a strong flavor in the cake so I didn’t get a lot of chocolate flavor. Also, the chocolate cake was dry. A definite miss for me.

KC chose banana cake. In addition to cake crumbs there were also crunchy bits of something between the layers. I am not sure what they were. Another miss. Not much banana flavor, and dry! That’s why I don’t eat cake usually. Too many disappointing bakeries. We didn’t finish much of either slice.

Overall impressions?
food 3 I feel like I should split this. The savory things would get a 4 and the cakes would get a 2. Maybe even a 1.
ambience 4 It’s clean and has a bunch of high tables so you can eat there but I didn’t see any stools. Miraculously on a Saturday at noon it was almost empty but I can imagine it gets crazy crowded there.
why I’d go back? the VOLCANO. There are also cereal flavored soft serves, cookies, pies, cereal milk, and other cakes. I don’t think I’d ever try the cake again though. Also, I might need to sell a kidney first. This is definitely not cheap eats.

This post has been sitting in my draft file for a while…I thought I’d finish it before I wrote a post about LB’s wedding!
Balthazar has hovered on my NY list for quite a while, but the timing never worked out. When I got in touch with Paige it popped up again! She was awesome and took over reservation making, etc. All I had to do was show up on time! Which ::cough cough:: I sort of failed at. After our epic meal at Le Bernardin I ended up crashing in Lupe’s hotel room and waking up completely disoriented. I didn’t know exactly where Balthazar was, and Lupe (and her iPhone!) had gone for a walk up to Central Park. I got in touch with Chadwick (who was already there…uh oh) and got the address. After I met up with Lupe at Columbus Circle we took the train down and got there…45 minutes late. Luckily Paige and Chadwick had been seated and were doing a great job deflecting the hostess/servers’ questions about where the rest of the group was.
We had eaten so much fantastic food already that day – reading the Balthazar menu sort of overwhelmed me. I knew I definitely wanted dessert though, so I ordered the risotto, thinking it would be a little lighter. Of course, it probably wasn’t a good thing for Balthazar that the last risotto I’d had was the amazing version from Gary Danko. The Balthazar dish was quite good though, just sitting on the side of al dente with slivers of shitake mushrooms and sweet juicy shrimp sitting atop the risotto.

Lupe ordered the duck shepherd’s pie. I snagged a bite, but I’m not sure where the duck flavor was. Maybe she’ll chime in and let us know if she thought it was sufficiently duckcentric.

Kristychoo chose one of the nightly specials: bouillabaisse. Isn’t it gorgeous looking?

Chadwick wanted red meat so he wavered between the different steaks on offer but I think this was the bar steak (French restaurant, so check out that nice chunk of herb butter melting over the steak!).

Paige enjoyed this pork chop, which was very light though it was breaded and fried. I was also impressed at how it kept crispy with the salad layered on top.

All the mains were quite good, I think. More importantly, we saved room for DESSERT!

It’s a testament to how great NY food is when Balthazar is your worst meal of the day. Companywise though, couldn’t be beat!


It was a good night.
Overall impressions?
food 3.5 It’s pretty pricey and I wasn’t wowed. However, I had Shopsin’s and Le Bernardin that SAME DAY. So I think my taste buds might have been dead.
ambience It was very busy and crowded on Friday night, and I think it’s like that almost all the time. Not a place for a romantic or quiet meal, what with servers and patrons pushing past you every two seconds. It’s a warm atmosphere though.
why I’d go back? To try brunch! Or maybe just the Balthazar Bakery.

Lupe & I met up in Times Square to try and get lottery tickets for In the Heights. They had a bunch of $26.50 tickets but you have to drop your name in a bucket and get there 2 hours early to wait and see. Alas, we were unsuccessful but we did score some “partially obstructed” orchestra seats for the show. For about $40 it wasn’t bad at all. We only had an hour to grab dinner before the show, so Lupe consulted the Urban Spoon app on her iPhone, I texted Lillie, and we ended up a block away at Trattoria Trecolori.
It’s a busy, bustling Italian restaurant complete with dark wood, lots of slick looking waiters, and a menu that probably dates back to the 1950’s full of spaghetti, lasagna, and various iterations of pounded veal. We didn’t have a reservation so we felt lucky to have seats at the bar since the restaurant was so full.
I enjoyed my gnocchi alla baba with eggplant, fresh mozzarella, tomato, and a sprinkle of parmesan. I have no idea if it is an authentic dish or if the gnocchi were supposed to be chewy like that but I thought it was tasty.

We were eating really quickly since the food didn’t appear until about 20 minutes before the show was supposed to start but I didn’t hear any unhappy comments from Lille or Lupe as they inhaled their pasta e fagioli and vitello alla sorrentino (veal with eggplant, prosciutto, and mozzarella), respectively.


Overall impressions?
food 4 It’s not fancy but it’s relatively cheap and tasty.
ambience 4 Its appeal mostly lies in the fact that it’s not a chain and that it sits half a block away from the center of Times Square. I said it all above – dark wood, tablecloths, slick waiters. Not bad at all.
why I’d go back? I’d definitely consider going there again right before a show. Of course, there are a million more places in NY to try so unless I lived there I don’t know if I would definitely go back.

In the Heights is a relatively new Broadway show that won the 2008 Tony for Best Musical. It’s set in the Washington Heights neighborhood during the summer and the score includes hip hop, salsa, and rapping in addition to more familiar Broadway styled numbers. I don’t want to give away the plot so I’ll just say that we all liked it a lot and the songs were great! We were also lucky enough to see it during the last week that Lin-Manuel Miranda was playing the lead Usnavi. He started writing In the Heights when he was in college at Wesleyan. He’s only 29!