Teany (Not so Itsy Bitsy)

Patrick Food, New York, Restaurants, UK Life

Tea NYTeany is owned by Moby and is one of the many tea rooms that surprisingly exist in New York. It’s located in the East Village and serves over one hundred types of specialities in addition to vegetarian and vegan foods including sandwiches, scones, biscuits and cakes. I think you pronounce the story as “Tea NY” opposed to “teeny” but it wasn’t quite clear to me. As I sat and had my tea and scone I noticed that the majority of people appeared to be tourists with their lonely planet guides in tow, or a few local fashionably dressed New Yorkers.

Tea and SconeThe tea menu is overwhelming and although the prices are over inflated for New York some of the teas are definitely unique blends that are worth the try. The pot of tea is also excessively large and easily serves two people. I ordered the Earl Grey Creme, a scented black tea infused with vanilla flavours and as I just found out on their site, apparently one of their best sellers. I found it nice and light without any need for sugar what so ever. I also ordered a scone with clotted cream and jam that I thought was okay for the United States. Like most things on the continent I could taste the large amount of sugar or sweetener they’d added so each bite didn’t really need much jam other than for a different flavour. I think it would have went well with a tea that tasted slightly more bitter.

The atmosphere was bustling without being too crowded and if New York has good weather, I suggest sitting outside in the canvas-covered area where you can absorb the maximum amount of sun and warmth.

Details: Teany Cafe
Found on: 90 Rivington Street, New York, NY 10002
Contactable on: +1 (212) 475-9190
Highlights: Huge selection of teas, vegan selection of food and a nice relaxed atmosphere.
Room for improvement: Slightly overpriced in all aspects but understandable considering the name behind it
The Kua Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Going Vegetarian

Patrick Food, UK Life

Last November I decided I was going to try going vegetarian for a month as an experiment to see how hard it would be, what things I would normally eat that I would miss, and to see how it affects the body. December was out since it was such a festive period and part of January since I didn’t want to miss out on certain food experiences whilst overseas, I’ve committed to trialling a month of being a vegetarian until February 6.

Here are the rules I’m playing by:

  • All fruit, vegetables and legumes are fine.
  • Certain meat products are okay such as all forms of diary products (cheese and milk).
  • Eggs are okay.
  • No meats including your standard chicken, lamb, beef and all types of seafood.
  • Products listing animal rennet and gelatin must be avoided.

If you have any suggestions about making the move, some recipes or some other tips I should be aware of (maybe other things I should avoid), I would certainly like to hear about them.

Pescatore

Patrick Food, New York, Restaurants, Travel

When I was in New York, I managed to catch up with Gerrod and Kristy a couple of times and we visited a couple of nice restaurants together with their current visitors Karl and Caroline. The most recent one we visited was Pescatore that conveniently wasn’t too far from where they lived. This restaurant is split into two floors with apparently the bottom floor a totally different and definitely more positive experience than if you sat on the top floor. Gerrod thankfully booked in advance (it’s one of those things that you just have to do if you want to go eat somewhere in Manhattan at a normal dining hour) and they seated us at a nice round table as soon as we arrived.

As it sounds by the name, this restaurant serves Italian food and after dinner I concluded it was pretty decent stuff too. By the time we sat down I think we were all pretty hungry so we ordered appetisers and an entree (a main course dish) soon after we arrived. When the first course arrived I think we were all stunned by the size of the plates and could have easily been almost a meal on its own. The calamari plate was huge as was the bruschetta and the bowl of lobster bisque I ordered was absolutely massive. I thought the lobster bisque was fantastic – it had the right level of creaminess and just enough flavour without being overbearingly fishy. Better yet was the huge number of lobster chunks all throughout it and the small toasted bread to give it additional contrast. My mail meal, a grilled snapper was also nice though I thought it was slightly overcooked and their effort to completely debone the fish was incomplete. Service was pretty good all night around and the waiters seemed to top up our water glasses just enough times and they were never in our face.

Details: Pescatore
Found on: 955 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10022, USA
Contactable on: +1 212-752-7151
Highlights: Great dining atmosphere on the ground floor. Great valued appetisers.
Room for improvement: My fish was slightly overcooked and my fish still had a couple of bones left in them.
The Kua Rating: 7 out of 10

Morimoto in Philadelphia

Patrick Food, Restaurants, Travel

Morimoto from the OutsideOther than a small sign embedded into the wall, and surprisingly discrete green doors leading into the restaurant, it is easy to walk by the entrance to Morimoto’s restaurant on Chestnut street that lies not too far from the Independence Hall. I ended up selecting this restaurant for lunch when I was in Philadelphia because it is one of two restaurants (the other ironically in New York City) owned by Iron Chef Morimoto.

The interior is a stunning work of art with a crested wooden wave floating high about your head and intricate designs impressed along the walls drawing down to the sushi bar and kitchen area at the back. Division by frosted glass tinged with colourA sculpture at the entrance splits the room into two with two walk ways splitting the main dining area into four main rows lined with glass tables and very comfortable modern wooden chairs. Each set of tables are separated by a thick layer of frosted glass embedded with a pulsating light at the bottom that cycles through calming tones of colours including purple, green, blue, and red. The shifting colours also incidentally pulse through the Morimoto sign that sits outside. Trendy lounge music pipes throughout the restaurant and even though the restaurant was fairly empty throughout my lunch the music never became overwhelmingly loud.

Cool interiorsThe interior is a stunning work of art with a crested wooden wave floating high about your head and intricate designs impressed along the walls drawing down to the sushi bar and kitchen area at the back. Though not Michelin starred, I thought the food was going to be more expensive given the name behind it but most dishes were reasonably priced. Morimoto offers a better valued set lunch including a salsad miso soup and a main course ranging between USD16-21 dollars. You can of course order individual dishes off the menu or the sushi menu but they also offer a set of tasting menus ranging from USD40 to USD80. I decided to pick one of these since I thought it would be the best way to not have to choose one particular thing and get a taste for many different courses without ending up with lots of food leftover. Based on the cost, the number of courses and the quality of ingredients improves as the price increases and better yet, you can still order it even if you are dining by yourself. Read on to find out what I ended up actually getting. Read more “Morimoto in Philadelphia”

Doyer’s Vietnamese Restaurant

Patrick Food, New York, Restaurants

Lemongrass ChickenAlthough the name of this restaurant sounds nothing like a real Vietnamese name, this place that our Time Out book recommended turned out to be pretty decent. Easily found with a bright yellow sign, and named after the street it sits on, this restaurant serves some great valued Vietnamese food. Its decor is a little bit dated and a little bit old, but is common amongst most restaurants that offer great value for money seem to share.

One of Doyer’s unique aspects are that they serve a big variety of bubble tea – a popular drink found in Asia that is typically made out of some sort of sweetened black or green tea and mixed with ice and chewy tapioca balls that you drink via a very think straw. Our meal first started with the crab spring rolls that actually could have been a meal on their own since they were so big. Each had been wrapped in the classic Vietnamese rice paper wrapped instead of the standard Chinese spring roll wrapper so their crispy skin had a rougher exterior. The filling was extremely tasty but had a little bit too much of a salt for our tastes. The grilled pork chop and the lemongrass grilled chicken and rice dishes were equally pretty good. The chicken was a little dry but the pork was nice and moist, but at least both were extremely flavoursome.

Details: Doyer’s Vietnamese Restaurant
Found on: 11 Doyers St, New York, NY 10013-5104
Contactable on: +1 (212) 513-1521
Highlights: Cheap Vietnamese food served with a large variety of bubble tea. A good variety of both Vietnamese and Chinese dishes.
Room for improvement: After ordering and receiving your food, expect service that matches the price of the food.
The Kua Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Bubba Gump Shrimp Company

Patrick Food, New York, Restaurants, Travel, UK Life

Run Forest, RunBubba Gump’s Shrimp Company is a highly successful chain restaurant based on the idea taken from the movie Forest Gump (then again, there are plenty of chain restaurants in America). Its central theme is very simple – serving shrimp in many different ways in each dish including salads, fried shrimp (far too many ways), grilled shrimp, and shrimp in a bourbon sauce. The restaurant does offer more than just shrimp on their menu including chicken, fish, BBQ ribs and several options for vegetarians.

Each restaurant is excessively dressed to look like a real ol’ southern restaurant with far too many tacky memorabilia and items hanging from the roof, and a rusty tin bucket holding all the sauces and a roll of brown paper working as your serviettes (or napkins as they’re referred to as here). Popcorn ShrimpAn interesting variation and probably the only other thing from the movie is a sign that sits at your table that you use to grab the attention of the staff that walk up and down. Leaving it on the blue “Run Forest, Run” sign and for the most part the waiters and waitresses will leave you to your own devices, but if you do need some attention of some sort, you can flip it over to the red “Stop Forest, Stop” sign. It’s a novelty system that although is kind of fun to do the first time, still quite isn’t as effective as actually stopping someone who is going by and asking them for something.

Details: Bubba Gump Shrimp Company
Found on: New York – 1501 Broadway, New York, NY 10036
Contactable on: +1 212-391-7100
Highlights: A different chain restaurant themed on the Forest Gump movie. Each dish has plenty of shrimp and some of it is actually quite tasty. It’s a fun restaurant with a strong family vibe going
Room for improvement: Almost to the point where it’s overbearingly tacky, Bubba Gump is fine as a first time but I couldn’t see myself there all the time. The novelty stop/go signs aren’t as effective as they make out they are.
The Kua Rating: 5 out of 10

Spanky’s BBQ

Patrick Food, New York, Restaurants

BBQWhen it comes down to American BBQ, I think you always get quite strangely named restaurants, so I wasn’t too worried entering a restaurant called Spanky’s. Found just off Broadway in Times Square, this American BBQ joint is approximately half bar and half restaurant serving good ‘ol Southern food including Gumbo, Steak, Fried Chicken, Crab Cakes, a whole variety of BBQ ribs and Roast Chicken. This restaurant’s walls are covered in bits of strange artwork or memorabilia – such as one wall covered with two large paintings of pigs marked for chopping up by a butcher, and another wall covered by massive bottles of Tabasco sauce. Then each table is covered with the typical red and white chequered tablecloth and has the wide variety of sauces you see in your typical BBQ join including hot sauce, ketchup and BBQ.

SpankyWe ordered the sampler platter and the southern fried chicken which both came out as extremely massive portions that we couldn’t finish. The sampler platter was amazingly impressive with a piece of BBQ chicken, some pulled pork, beef brisket and some ribs as well. Like usual the beef brisket was extremely tender, melting in the mouth while the pulled pork was soft and slightly tangy in its own sauce. The BBQ chicken was nicely smoked but the chicken breast was a little bit too dry for my taste. I didn’t taste the ribs but the southern Fried chicken was really spot on with an impressively crispy crunchy coating and a moist juicy meat on the inside.

After not knowing what to expect in this restaurant, I was quite impressed with the quality of the food and the decent service that we received. The portions (like most American restaurants) were massive and most of the foods were spot on. The only downsides were probably the vegetables that we had – the collared beans were obviously well overcooked, having almost lost their colour while the sweet potatoes seemed like they’d added tons of sugar or some other sweetener since they were unnaturally and excessively sweet.

Details: Spanky’s BBQ Times Square (Closed)
Found on: 127 West 43rd Street, Between 6th and Broadway Avenues, New York, NY, 10036
Contactable on: +1 212 302 9507
Highlights: Great portions of quality food that was not excessively greasy. The beef brisket and pulled pork were both super tender and the fried chicken was fantastically cooked. Service was average and the atmosphere seemed proper for the style of restaurant.
Room for improvement: Overcooked beans and over-sweetened sweet potato took away from the meal.
The Kua Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Ran Restaurant

Patrick Food, Restaurants, UK Life

Earlier this week I finally managed to eat at Ran, a Korean restaurant I always walk past on the way to work but I had never had a chance to eat their yet. I’ve been intrigued in this place for a while namely because I haven’t had much Korean food in London yet and this restaurant has a large LCD facing the street cycling through all the delicious looking platters of food they serve. I made a booking for six of us and although two of the six were half an hour late I thankfully never felt hurried or rushed to order by the staff, even though tables seemed limited in number.

Ran Restaurant

I like Korean food the most for the delicious charred food you get from the gas grill that sits in the middle of the table. All of the Korean restaurants I ate at back home had a very homey feel, with most of the grilled done by yourself. At Ran though, they go to the supreme effort of cooking all of it for you (with the gas grill still in the middle of the table) and then distributing it out amongst the diners. It is extremely demanding on the waiters and waitresses and they certainly deserve the 12.5% service for all the preparation they did for us.

We tried a great selection of many dishes including Korean pancakes, assorted tempura, assorted kim chi, gyoza, a variety of grilled meats and the Dolsot Bibimbap. It was a supreme feast and I think we were all surprised that even though collectively we’d all had some shoju, warm sake and some Korean beers, and service included it only ended up at £25 a head for such a fine meal.

Details: Ran
Found on: 58-59 Great Marlborough Street, London, W1F 7JY
Contactable on: 020 7434 1650
Highlights: Fantastic atmosphere, great service and great quality Korean food at decent prices. Booking over the Internet was extremely easy and a great all round experience.
Room for improvement: The chair and table arrangements make it hard for the waiters and waitresses to cook and serve food. They don’t open for lunch on weekends.
The Kua Rating: 8.5 out of 10