Last day in New York: Little Italy and bubble tea.
One of my favorite parts of this weekend actually wasn’t any of the touristy hot spots or the glamorous clothes but rather people watching. It’s really interesting to imagine what all of these people are like, where they’re going, what their stories are. We did see some weird, crazy people like that guy in the subway who asked for my address and the lady who kept talking/laughing to herself, but for the most part, I had a lot of fun just sitting in the subway or in Central Park, watching people go by.
We had our last full meal in NYC at Little Italy. We went to Novella and got a table outside. We got a table outside on a beautiful day, and the ambiance was great. Three of us (hahaha) got the Gnocchi al Pesto, which was pretty good. SS got the Gnocchi al Pomodoro.
Gnocchi al PestoGnocchi al Pomodoro
Before we left NYC, SS and I just had to get some more bubble tea, so we stopped by Quickly, which had the most delicious bubble tea. Plus, you get a $.50 discount if you have a student ID. Quickly is apparently a bubble tea chain from Taiwan, but in NYC, they also added shabu shabu (Japanese hot pot) to make it an actual sit-down restaurant. They also sold these cream puffs, which AN and I wanted to try. We bought some to share, and they were SO DELICIOUS! They were nice and warm and the cream inside was actually kind of like egg custard. I was expecting something along the lines of whipped cream, but this was really really good. I want more!
Novella Ristorante
Little Italy
191 Grand St
(between Mott St & Mulberry St)
New York, NY 10013
3rd day in New York City: Peep, Shilla Korean Barbeque, and Red Mango.
We went to meet CS in Chinatown today, so we had breakfast there as well, trying a different bakery. Unfortunately, I was so hungry that I devoured the food before realizing that I didn’t take a single picture. 😦 Stupid me. But I can tell you that the pork and preserved egg congee and the sticky rice bun were both heavenly. I’ve never had a sticky rice bun before, but I really liked it. The sticky rice was like how it would taste in a zong zi, so it had a great savory flavor to complement the slightly sweet tang of the bun.
I was watching the Travel Channel one day, and they did a program on the weirdest bathrooms around the world. One of the places was Peep, a Thai restaurant in Soho, where the bathroom walls are all 2-way mirrors, so that they look like mirrors on the outside, but from the inside, everything’s transparent. You can “peep” at all the people in the restaurant from inside the bathroom! I thought this was hilarious, and I was determined to find this place while I’m in NYC. Goal accomplished. We went there for lunch, and I had a blast. It’s kind of ridiculous how excited I was to eat here. Not only were the bathrooms just as I imagined, but the food was delicious.
Thai Ice TeaGrilled Teriyaki Calamari
My first plate was Grilled Teriyaki Calamari. It was very tasty with just the right amount of chewy-ness. I loved it!
Panang with Tofu
My second plate was the Panang with Tofu. The spices took some getting used to, but it’s one of those dishes that taste better as you eat more of it. I was very satisfied.
Peppered Spinach Dumplings (AN's first plate)Turmeric Saffron Fried Rice with Chicken (AN’s 2nd plate)Horseradish Caesar Salad (SS’s 1st plate)Grilled Vegetables Salad (CS’s 1st plate)Chicken Pad Thai (both SS and CS’s 2nd plate)
I loved the atmosphere of the place. It was very trendy and hip and looked way more expensive than it actually was. The service was great, which cannot be said for any of the previous restaurants that we’ve been to this weekend. Plus, I was extremely entertained by the bathrooms…I love this place so much!
It's Peep!View from inside the bathroom!
For dinner, we went exploring in Koreatown and went to Shilla Korean BBQ. They had an extensive menu, and I had such a hard time deciding. I really wanted to try their barbeque since they actually cook it in front of you, but I wasn’t in the mood for so much meat. Many of the soups looked delicious as well, but my poor stomach could only hold so much. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had bottomless stomachs and could just eat and eat and eat and never have to worry about getting full and getting fat?
Gol Dop
Gol Dop – I loved it. It reminded me of the Chinese bao zai fan (clay hot pot rice). I only got a picture of it after I mixed all the parts together because I was too eager to dig in and completely forgot about my camera until CS reminded me. I only wished that the sides of the bowl had more of the crispy, burnt rice. That would have made it perfect. Also, it seems to me that the spicy sauces often used in Korean cuisine are never as spicy as they look. The spicy sauce and the kimchi are all such a bright red but really not that spicy. Here is what everyone else ordered:
Bulgogi Gol Dop (AN's order)Vegetable Fried Rice (CS's order)Side DishesMore Side Dishes
We went to Red Mango, which was right next door, afterwards. I’ve never had Red Mango before, but AN positively raved about it, so I had to try it. Red Mango is basically fro-yo using real yogurt, and they have a ton of different toppings. I thought it was adorable how they had the calorie count next to every topping. We got the original with mochi and kiwi. I discovered that I really like mochi, but the yogurt was not my favorite. The sourer, less sweet taste was really different. Maybe it’s one of those things that’ll grow on me. Sadly, I have no picture of the yogurt because we just stood on the side of the street and demolished it within 5 minutes.
NYC Trip part 2: Flor de Mayo for Peruvian and Spanish food, Veniero’s for Italian desserts
Flor de Mayo is a Cuban/Chinese restaurant, which I thought was a rather bizarre combination of cuisines, but it sounded interesting. What it turned out to be was simply that the menu was half Spanish/Peruvian food and half Americanized Chinese food. I really didn’t see anything Cuban on the menu at all, which was sad because I love Cuban food.
Ocopa
SS and I split the Ocopa appetizer because we wanted to try something exotic that we’ve never eaten before. It a Peruvian appetizer of sliced potatoes covered with this nutty, tangy spread with eggs. I think the spread is made from cheese, peppers, nuts, and Peruvian herbs. It had an interesting taste, although I felt the spread was too overwhelming. I wasn’t the biggest fan, but that might just be that I’m not used to this type of cuisine.
1/2 Peruvian Chicken
People on Yelp and Menupages also have been raving about their Peruvian Chicken, so I decided to try that. The chicken came with a soup, which tasted awfully like canned Chicken Noodle Soup with some added cilantro. Not very appetizing. The chicken itself was actually really good. I loved the spices that they used. However, it was slightly too salty for me, drowning out the flavor of the rice. I only finished about half the chicken because it was so much food!
Tortilla de Jamon - SS liked it!Arroz con Pollo (Dominicano) - AN liked this too!
Since we had that humongous lunch pretty late in the afternoon, we weren’t very hungry when dinnertime rolled around, so instead, we decided to just get dessert. Exciting! We had heard good reviews about Veniero’s, so we trekked all the way to East Village from Upper West Side. It’s funny how we will go totally out of our way just try a restaurant. Just goes to show that I have amazing, wonderful eating friends! But seriously, I really enjoyed this aspect of our trip because it gave us the chance to explore some parts of New York that we would’ve otherwise never have gone to.
Veniero’s had an old, retro feel to it but was a little too cramped for my liking. However, by now, I’m starting to understand that almost every restaurant in NYC is rather small and cramped. The menu of pastries and desserts and cakes and cookies went on forever. I would LOVE to try everything they have, but alas, I could not.
We got 3 mini pastries, a mini cheesecake, and a fruit tart to share.
Millefoglie and Baba Rum
The Millefoglie is on the left, which we already started eating before I was able to grab my camera. It had layers of puff pastry and cream that was so wonderfully scrumptious! Probably my favorite of all the desserts we had that night. On the right is Baba Rum, which had a really strong rum flavor, so I didn’t really like it.
Personal Cheesecake
Personal cheesecake with blueberries – delicious! Not the best cheesecake I’ve ever had, could have been creamier, but nevertheless very good.
Tiramisu
The Tiramisu’s coffee flavor was too strong for a non-coffee lover like me, so I didn’t like that one either. I guess I’m really weird in that I don’t really like many of the drinks that most people like. I don’t like coffee, alcohol, or soda. All I ever drink is water and milk with some occasional milk tea.
Mixed Fruit Tart
I didn’t try the fruit tart, but AN and SS both said that it was wonderful.
Right as we walked out of Veniero’s, it started pouring! And I mean POURING! We got soaked through trying to get a taxi because the metro station was too far away, but then we couldn’t understand the taxi driver through his thick accent, and it was just terrible. Oh adventures…
Victoria F Hu 