Soccarat Paella Bar & Momofuku Milk Bar

Our long awaited Foodies come again, joined by our honorary guest Helen!

We ventured out for paella in the sleet and snow of last night’s unpleasant weather only to have it be turned completely around by our great company and of course delightful meal. See, that’s the greatest thing about Foodies. Most people who join us for Foodies night are overwhelmed and amazed at how animated and excited we are to talk about food and just food. But the greater underlying beauty of Foodies is that through these conversations, we take part in each other’s love through our common love of food and that in itself is bliss! Now, back to food.

Soccarat Paella Bar

• 259 W 19th St, New York 10011
• (Btwn 7th & 8th Ave)

Soccarat Paella Bar is a tiny restaurant with a long table for people to share. Fortunately, we were able to get a small round table of our own which served us right in terms of intimacy and privacy we were able to have. One thing you need to know about us Foodies is that we eat. A lot. And order. A lot. We’ve had five of their tapas: Pan Tomaca (toasted bread, fresh tomato, olive oil), ham to go alongside Pan Tomaca, one of their special octopus and scallops dish, Alcachofas Fritas (fried artichokes), and potato dish with garlic aioli. My favorite was the potato dish because of the garlic aioli – we all love aioli. So much that we asked for a side of it, only to be disappointed by the mayo-filled-ness of it (Reggie, your aioli still rates #1 in my book!). Then came the paellas. Now, we started off with Paella de Carne and Fideua Negra de Coditos, as recommended by New York Times’ restaurant critic, Frank Bruni. I learned that fideua is paella of sort, except with noodles instead of rice. I also learned that black squid ink is quite nice especially the way it comfortingly settles upon each bite. We loved Paella de Carne far more than Fideua so we ordered another paella, Paella Valenciana. This turned out to be my favorite of the three because of the richness in flavor and seasoning. I absolutely loved that each paella was filled with soccarat (burned rice = noo roong jee) which enhanced the texture as well as the flavor of the ordinary paella you’d taste from average Joe Spanish restaurant. After filling ourselves to death with all of this food along with 3 bottles of wine, we made our way to Momofuku Milk Bar for dessert.

I was recommended to go to Momofuku Milk Bar  by Ahyun and Mike and being that I am a fan of Momofuku and NOT dessert (I don’t like dessert), of course, I needed to give it a try. Besides, the rest of Foodies love dessert so we definitely had to go. The atmosphere isn’t impressive; more of a factory-like setting but that’s what makes Momofuku Milk Bar all the more interesting. We had Orange Julius (soft serve sorbet), Banana Cake, Candy Bar Pie, and of course the pork buns. I love their pork buns. The breading, the meat, and the cucumber all combined into one is just absolutely fantastic. Though, I must say, pork buns did taste better at Momofuku Noodle Bar than at the Milk Bar. Banana cake’s inside filling, in which we were completely convinced that it was made of wafers, actually turned out to be hazelnut brittle. It’s the hazelnut brittle filling that made the banana cake so delightful because of the crunchy texture, the burned sugar taste, with the denseness of the banana cake itself. The Candy Bar Pie was super sweet, I thought, and almost tasted identical to a giant Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cookie (the one with the hard cookie on the bottom of the candy), which wasn’t too impressive. But the Orange Julius finished and washed off all the sweetness from the dessert quite well because it was so refreshing and cold.

Momofuku Milk Bar

207 Second Ave., East Village

This is why Foodies are so important to me. Along with all the amazingness of our group, they inspire me to write as extensively as I just did.

Spanish-ed out,

Jasmine 

Finally an Alternative Chipotle! Big Enchilada

Thank God for Alex pushing me to drink 1.5 liter of water per day and thank God for having to go to the bathroom 7 times a day as a result and thank God for running into Michael en route to the bathroom for the 7^th time today. Because otherwise, I would not have had this amazing lunch. Ever.

I love Mexican food. No. I absolutely and wholeheartedly adore Mexican food. It’s a perfect combination of spicy and not nauseating food that is cream-less, vegetable-full, and my favorite, jalapeño-filled. On my way to the bathroom, I nonchalantly ask Michael where he is going and he says that he’s going to try out the burrito place Melissa always goes. He excitedly asks me to join him and at that moment, well, at any moment, buying lunch always sounds more appetizing than my frozen Lean Cuisine (recession + eating healthy = Lean Cuisine). I drag Alex to join on the bandwagon and we put our coats on to brave the frigid cold to truck ourselves to Big Enchilada (28 East 12^th Street, corner of University Place).

It looks authentic and it is small: a perfect hole-in-the-wall, thus, my favorite. Upon massive consultations and difficult decisions, I order the Mega Bowl: a combination of Mexican rice, beans (if you choose, which I didn’t because I don’t like beans), guacamole, lettuce, tomato, choice of chicken or steak (I choose steak!), and of course, I added jalapeño peppers. We rushed back as soon as we could (a whole 2 blocks) to eat the food and it’s honestly one of the most authentic* Mexican food I’ve had thus far in the city. What I liked most about it is that after eating the entire dish, I don’t feel greasy or necessarily full. The steak is grilled, not fried, so it leaves the charcoal after-taste upon bite. The vegetables are extremely fresh and the rice is the yellow “Goya” type of rice and not artificially-Mexican-imitated rice. Mega bowl is similar to Chipotle’s Burrito Bowl except, hopefully, crossing all fingers, less calorie intake than the Burrito Bowl. The best part of it all is that the entire Mega Bowl plus soda (or you can opt for their soup) was $9.99 plus tax.

I should have taken a picture of the Mega Bowl but I was way too excited to eat it that I didn’t think to whip out my camera. I guess you must try it for yourself!

I. AM. SO. HAPPY.

Excitedly finishing this entry,

Jasmine

*Please note that my standards for authenticity in Mexican food is very skewed, being that I am not of a Hispanic descent nor do I have extensive knowledge of authentic Mexican cuisine. My ratings are based on my past trips taken to Mexico and thus, it is not meant to offend what may deemed to be “true” authenticity of Mexican cuisine.

Balthazar

Another renowned brunch haven I’ve been dying to try …

And another poached egg dish and a Bloody Mary later … here I am.

Jane and I had a brunch date for her birthday this weekend.  We are both avid lovers of Bloody Mary after discovering it for the first time (and skeptically trying it together!) at Stephanie’s on Newbury Street in Boston.  We shared a Beet salad – I’m not a huge fan of beets because I think the color scares me a bit but Jane likes beets so I gave it a try. I liked the salad because there wasn’t an overwhelming amount of beet but actually an even proportion of beets to greens. I wish they gave us more than two small triangular pieces of gorgonzola cheese but overall, the salad was proportioned just right and made it enjoyable. I ordered Eggs Florentine: poached eggs with spinach, artichoke in hollandaise sauce and Jane ordered Eggs Benedict. I was a bit surprised that the Eggs Florentine was served in a skillet rather than a plate but nonetheless, it worked better because it stored all the juice overflowing from the spinach and the eggs. It was a bit heavy for a brunch egg dish and it was definitely very rich in taste. I didn’t get a chance to try the Eggs Benedict but from the looks of it, it looked standard, ordinary Eggs Benedict dish. Sometimes, the safe way may be the best way. You’d like Balthazar’s Bloody Mary if you prefer more liquid than the chunky content of the drink. I like Bloody Marys with lots of horseradish, enough so that with every sip, you can chew the horseradish bits. Balthazar’s Bloody Mary was liquid-y and very good! I was pleasantly surprised because it didn’t necessary look that great (they didn’t include celery = minus points on aesthetic presentation).

We both loved the ambiance, maybe because we had great seats, where we can see the entire restaurant. I’ve been there for a private event before so I didn’t have the opportunity to really observe the scene or the crowd. We almost liked the crowded, close-seat structure for this reason and perhaps it is the ambiance and great company that enhanced the taste of our brunch.

And thanks to NYMag.com for providing me with these images. HEHE.