Misoya, welcome to Ramen Central, East Village NY

Eugene and I were about to grab a bowl of borscht and a tuna melt at B&H dairy on 2nd avenue and 7th street (highly recommended- sit at the counter and enjoy the banter) when we noticed a new Ramen joint next door at 129 2nd Avenue and decided to give it a try. Misoya is a Japanese chain that seems to have its sights set on US expansion, this being the second American restaurant ( the first is in Santa Clara, California). Misoya specializes in Miso Ramen, and makes a further distinction between three varieties of Miso broth: Hokkaido, Kyoto, and Nagoya style.  The menu is downright confusing and does a poor job differentiating between the three varieties, but thankfully there were some handy pictures to help us out. For a good description of the differences between these miso ramen styles check out my fellow blogger Lauhound's post on Misoya. The restaurant offers a $10 lunch set menu which includes your choice of Kara Age (boneless fried chicken), three Gyoza (Japanese dumplings), or sticky rice. We didn't realize that Cha su roast pork isn't included with the lunch special, but we were able to remedy that situation with a $1.50 side order- not bad for a tasty and surprisingly thick slab of pork. I apologize in advance for the quality of these pics- I was having a bad camera day....

Fried chicken- they need to work on that batter

Perfectly fried Gyoza

I've read some so-so reviews about the Gyoza at Misoya, but I was very happy with the one I tried. True, they are heavy on the chives but they were perfectly cooked and managed to pack in a lot of flavor. The fried chicken was filling and tender but rather bland and probably better suited to your inner 10-year old who still craves chicken fingers. I'm used to this dish being a bit spicier and saltier, a little A little Five Spice in the batter might have been a welcome addition.

Eugene ordered the Shiro Ramen, and I tried the Hokkaido style. I believe mine was made with red miso paste and Eugene's was made with white. Both of the broths were extremely tasty and redolent with veggies like bamboo, corn, and scallions. Eugene's was even anointed with a couple of pieces of fried tofu, and mine had a couple of surprisingly tasty roast potato wedges in it.

Hokkaido style Miso Ramen

Nagoya style Shiro Ramen with tofu bonus

A tasty side of Cha Su

This is what get's posted when you try to evade the camera Eugene!

The noodles didn't seem to be made in house, but they were a very serviceable version of the type of noodle you find in a package of Top Ramen, only of much better quality. They were tender and slightly chewy with a nice bounce. I really enjoyed the side order of Cha Su pork, which came fresh from the oven or pan and was still sizzling when it arrived. The pork wasn't cooked into oblivion as Cha Su often is, resulting in a piece of meat that didn't crumble to the knife .We really enjoyed our meal, and at $23 plus tip, it was a good deal cheaper of the equivalent meal at Ippudo.

The East Village is Ramen Central in NY at the moment and there are quiet a few choices, including David Chang's Momofuko right up the block, Minca on 5th street, and scores of others attempting to cash in on the current noodlemania. Compound this with the current trend of Japanese noodle imperialism: Ippudo, Ramen Setagaya, and now Ramen Misoya have all raised their flags on a patch of the East Village.  Considering the the veritable tsunami of choices, Misoya compares rather favorably with just about all of them, them, with the exception of Ippudo--only one doesn't need to wait an hour to sit down at Misoya and the price is much more reasonable. While none of the ramen restaurants can come close to either the noodles or the broth at Ippudo, Misoya does a very serviceable job. True, I couldn't taste the sweat of the pig in mine, but that's not always necessary at lunch time, especially if you'd like to move around a little bit after you eat. If you find yourself wandering around the East Village with a sawbuck in your pocket, pop into Ramen Misoya, you'll be happy you did.

More Pho Bang for your buck

What better remedy on a cold rainy night heralding in the onslaught of a long winter than the solace of a steaming hot bowl of Pho. Together with my Danish Pho posse, Michala, Rasmus, and Anna, we braved the chill damp to meet at Pho Bang for a Vietnamese dinner orgy. On the menu tonight, Pho, what else...?

Pho Bang has been around for a long time, the 157 Mott street location appears to be the flagship and this mini-chain also has another restaurant in Elmhurst. My favorite Pho Bang was a crooked little joint on Pike street that shut its doors around 5 years ago. It was staffed by loving Chinese auntie types and had a door that never shut properly. One could always count on burning off some excess calories getting up several times over the course of a meal to close the door on a cold winter day. I miss that Pho Bang and the loving attention they poured on me and on their Pho, but the big brother on Mott St. has always been a dependable stand-in. According to Wikipedia, Pho Bang is a famous street in the NE Vietnamese town of Dong Van, but that probably has little to do with he name of this restaurant and the scores of other non-affiliated  Pho Bangs scattered across the country. "Bang" translated to "state" when I looked it up, perhaps one of my thousands of Vietnamese readers would care to comment on the true meaning of "Pho Bang". Once I have the answer to this burning question, I feel like I'll finally be able to turn a page in my life...so hurry up!

We began the meal with an order of eight Cha Gio, fried spring rolls that are stuffed with pork that you roll in lettuce and dip in fish sauce. These were tasty but awfully greasy this time, and I had to pat them down with a napkin before we could dig in. We also ordered a summer roll each, good any time of year really but not very exceptional at Pho Bang. 

Spring Rolls and Summer rolls

We eat Pho all the time but we paid special attention to the flavors on this trip because next Sunday we are going to attempt to make a Pho at Michala's loft in Brooklyn, so watch the blog! As usual, I order a big bowl of the Pho Tai, which comes with raw roast beef that cooks in the soup and flavors the already fragrant broth. Michala added some flank to hers, which is fatty and good at Pho Bang.

Pho Tai at Pho Bang

Pho with Phixins'

I always love a bowl of Pho, even a slightly inferior bowl of Pho, as this one was. The broth was over-concentrated and over-seasoned with what tasted like the wrong type of flavors, namely salt. I didn't detect any of the slightly gamey beefy flavor you find in great Pho broth. Also missing were any striking notes of star anise and even a hint of Cinnamon. What we had was a salty, beefy, broth, not bad mind you, but it wasn't going to win any contests either. I've had better Pho here in the past, and I'm afraid to say Pho Bang is slipping off of its game a bit. I liked the beef and the noodles, which were cooked perfectly, but still I was distracted by what they were floating in.

Step it up Pho Bang!

Or else...

Anna will attack you with lettuce!

One very bright spot for me at Pho Bang are the waiters. This all male ensemble have all been working here for years. As a first time visitor you may experience somewhat gruff handling by the waitstaff, but once you get to know them, these guys are the salt of the earth and quick to boot.

Dinner was still pleasant although not a stellar experience and with tip it was a whopping $14 each, cash only. Still, when Pho is the namesake of your restaurant, you are making a bold statement. You are making a commitment to me and all the other Pho lovers of the world. You are saying, we are very serious about our Pho. Sadly, in that respect, Pho Bang is breaking my heart, and I'm going to have to rebound elsewhere.

Old standbys at New Malaysia

My friend and former colleague Marlon crossed the river from Brooklyn to join me at New Malaysia, located in an alley at 46-48 Bowery, just South of the Manhattan Bridge. My friends and I tend to judge Malaysian Restaurants by comparing them to Nonya on Grand Street, one of the few restaurants that stays open past 10 PM in Chinatown, and also the best in its class. I don't usually go for noodles at Malaysian restaurants, preferring to focus on other favorites like Hainan Chicken, but since Marlon agreed to split an order with me I was able to have the best of both worlds. We started out with some Ipoh bean sprouts and an order of Roti Canai- both of which should be ordered each and every time you walk into a Malaysian restaurant, unless you do so every day.

Roti Canai- crepe is not as large as it appears in pictures

Ipoh Bean Sprouts

Roti Canai, much like Pad Thai is to Thai food, is a bellwether by which you can judge whether a Malaysian restaurant has its chops or not. It is a small starter dish of not too spicy curry sauce laced with a few meaty morsels of chicken that is served with a flatbread or crepe.. The Crepe, or Roti, in particular is a good judge of the skill of the kitchen. They should be airy, fluffy, and chewy as well as slightly crunchy with a buttery flavor all at the same time, as they are at Nonya. At New Malaysia, the flavors are there, but we found the crepe itself slightly too thick, and the small pancake diameter wasn't as pleasing as the LP record served with an order at Nonya. The yellow curry was very good, in fact, every bit as good as the one Nonya serves.

I love Ipoh bean sprouts and they are one of the simplest dishes you can imagine. They are bean sprouts blanched for about 30 seconds and garnished with scallions, soy sauce, and sesame oil. On a diet and need a rice or noodle substitute? Ipoh bean sprouts will serve in a pinch. I thought the Ipoh Bean Sprouts were great but Marlon would have liked them just a little crunchier. For heat lovers they are perfectly mated with some Silipadi (see-lee-pa-dee) chili peppers served in soy sauce, available upon request for no charge. The way I remember the name of these chilis is of course to think of Silly Putty, which was ubiquitous in my 70's childhood. If you pressed this magical putty hard enough against a newspaper, you could make an imprint of the funny pages. The putty resembled a big hunk of chewed bubble gum, which is why I'm guessing there are still remnants in my intestinal tract...

Silly Putty in my belly?

Silly putty plagiarizing- so am I by stealing this image.

For the main course, I ordered the curry chicken noodle soup, or Mee Kari, and Marlon had Chow Kueh Teow, a stir fried rice noodle dish with shrimp. My curry soup was pretty good, I'm a sucker for curry soups and usually enjoy them, but the New Malaysia version is no match for the incredibly delectable curry soup found at Cong Ly on Hester St. I'm not a fan of the thick egg noodles they use at New Malaysia- next time I'll have to ask about what some other noodle options are. Marlon enjoyed Chow Kueh Teow. I thought it was tasty, but when I'm going to order flat stir fried noodles with meat or seafood I usually prefer the Chinese preparation of Chow Fon. My favorite variant is Beef Chow Fon, and it's just about the only beef dish I'll order at a Chinese restaurant, barring beef with scallions at Joe's Shanghai. Why order beef when pork, chicken, duck and seafood are so excellently prepared in Chinese restaurants? But I digress...

I want "He loved his curry chicken noodles" as my epitaph

Chow Kueh Teow

Did somebody say cold, boiled chicken? Don't turn up your nose. The very best dish we had at New Malaysia was Hainanese chicken, AKA chicken rice.This is a very popular dish in SE Asia and China too, but alas it's not very popular in the US. That's probably because most people here don't want to eat cold chicken, or boiled chicken, but if you haven't tried this dish, I would strongly encourage you to do so. It is served along side chili sauce and mashed ginger but Nonya makes my favorite preparation, a fantastic variant they call "Thai Chicken" which comes smothered in a brown onion sauce. At New Malaysia, the chicken was perfect, soft, tender, and silky in texture and wholesome and meaty to the tooth. Marlon and I devoured the whole thing, in addition to our main courses and the preceding appetizers. Before you call me a glutton, remember, I'm a professional....I have a blog.

Hainan Chicken and her friends

Marlon hard at work

I eat therefore I am.

We really enjoyed New Malaysia and I actually prefer the setting, tucked in an alleyway off a busy thoroughfare, to Nonya, which moved and remodeled a couple of years ago and no longer has any "noodle joint" feeling to it. Nonya is fancy now and is only really on my radar for dinner and delivery, whereas New Malaysia has the the feeling of a workaday restaurant where the standby dishes are executed well. I'll be back for some Hainan chicken and Ipoh bean sprouts, and perhaps next time I'll try one of the gooey chipped ice desserts Malaysian restaurants do so well. Go get yourself some cold, boiled chicken, you won't regret it.

An evening at NY Noodletown with friends

I had a craving for some Cantonese style noodle soup this weekend so together with Charice, Michala, Rasmus, Alexander and Tim we headed over to an old standby, NY Noodletown at 28 Bowery. Most families in the NY area, or at least the Jewish ones, have a go-to Chinatown restaurant. Most of the sheep head.to the cramped basement barracks of eateries like Wo Hop on Mott Street, whose ubiquitous tee-shirts are spotted on the backs of the culinary unenlightened all around town.  My own, more refined family, has always preferred NY Noodletown and their highly un-kosher pork laden noodle soups.

Hello Pork!

My father loved this type of food so much that towards the end of his days, when he was very sick from a draining chemo regimen, I would bring him this soup. His favorite pork and pasta delivery method was the dry version, or Hong Kong stye Lo Mein. which we would order to go in plastic quart containers piled high with thin egg noodles topped with a dollop of oyster sauce and copious amounts of Char Su pork.We were always very careful to specify EXACTLY what we wanted, lest we receive the less savory white man's version of Roast Pork Lo Mein with fat greasy noodles and the type of roast pork that doesn't hang in the window  (Wo Hop style!) and isn't nearly as good. The dry version, ordered with broth on the side, is absolutely the right way to go if you are taking your noodles home, unless you prefer eating soggy, slushy noodles. In fact, it may be the best way to order this dish at any time. Putting Char Su pork inside the soup, although it may add some flavor, makes the pork soggy and much less enjoyable to eat. The pork adds salt to an already very salty chicken based broth and is much better dry and slightly crunchy.

We started off the meal with beer and some roast duck, a previous occupant of the window display. Noodletown is known for their roast duck, as well as their "salt baked" dishes like fish. I found this duck a little too oily and fatty for my liking.and the skin lacked the intense flavor that its appearance belied.

Half duck- Roasted

We also ordered a little greenery, some Choy Sum topped with oyster sauce, a real must-have side dish with any type of Cantonese soup eating. At $4 a pop, these are just as enjoyable as Bok Choy and only half the price.

Choy Sum straddling duck

Everyone ordered the same exact thing, Roast pork noodles soup with Wontons. They have some really fantastic wontons at Noodletown.

Wonton loaded with shrimp

And then the merriment ensued......

Tim and Alex dig in

Rasmus contemplates

David, Michala, and Tim in action

Charice goes to town

The soup itself was good but not the best I've had at Noodletown. The pork was a little fatty, the broth was a little salty, but the noodles and the wontons were really perfect. I'm willing to forgive Noodletown for these errors as they were minor footnotes in an otherwise very enjoyable meal.. The overall experience was a solid B. On a better day it can be a B+, especially if you take the time to ask for less fatty pork. Still, NY Noodletown and I, we have history, and that counts for a lot. At $16 a piece including drinks, it didn't break the bank either. I also noticed other people ordering heaping plates of lightly fried shrimp and squid with scallions. They looked like they were fried perfectly and didn't appear too oily either. I'll file that away for next time, which I'm sure will be very soon.