Yuji Ramen - hidden inside Whole Foods

J and I read about Yuji Ramen around the web and saw that it was a different take on your typical ramen. On the day of our scavenger hunt, we literally gave up towards the end and was only thinking about food. To reward our hard work of running around NYC (haha -  total fail actually), we went and treated ourselves to some delicious ramen.

Yuji is located on the second floor of Whole Foods, the Houston location of Whole Foods. J, our friend, and I came around 3pm and good thing it was pretty empty. There's only seats by the bar so try and get comfortable. They're well-known for their mazeman which is dry ramen that's been mixed with sauces and seasoning. The overall experience was quite phenomenal.

It was a hot day in NYC that day, and this Cold Barley Tea was very much needed. It was plain yet refreshing and tasted really healthy, felt like I just detoxed myself.

J ordered the meal which came with the tea and also this Seasonal Vegetable dish. The appearance made me thought it was pickled but it wasn't, it was very crunchy and also act as a nice palate cleansing dish to prepare your taste buds for the ramen.

J has the Salmon and Cheese Mazeman. Definitely funky but the flavors actually works. Salmon was very fresh and the cheese was minimal so it didn't overpower anything else in the dish.

Our friend and I had the Bacon and Egg Mazeman. Oh lord, it was fan-freakin-tastic. No joke, it was really good. Every strand of noodle was covered in a savory tasting soy coating and then when you break the pouched egg, it was like I was in a different realm, a realm where I can swim in yolk and soy sauce along with ramen (ok, I know I'm getting a bit weird now so back to reality). The noodles are a bit tougher than al-dente but I didn't mind it. I liked the chewiness that it gave off. The kale was great, made me felt less guilty with the bacon (it was amazing!) and pouched egg (the yolk was unforgettable).

I would just come here for a quick afternoon snack because it's that good and I know I would be able to get myself a seat. The dishes are small so coming here for dinner might be a bit of a disappointment since you'll most likely have to order something more or go elsewhere and get more food. But for a snack, it's so perfect!

Yuji Ramen
95 E Houston St - 2nd Fl
New York, NY 10002
(646) 262-1358

Dudley's - LES brunch

J and I along with a friend had a NYC scavenger hunt last Saturday and was in desperate need of food. Actually, it was only me that was in desperately need of food since the previous night was a bit wild. Originally wanted to go to the Classic Coffee Shop, but we all fail to realize it was closed on weekends! So, we just walked around until we found a place that caught our eyes and stomach.

Dudley's caught our eyes and looked very modern and welcoming. We sat at the bar, took a while for a staff to realize we were there to give us the menu and also took a while to flag down one to take our order. Pretty poor service. What's even worse is that this couple next to us got their utensils before we did and we came and ordered before them...I'm starting to sense some discrimination here...

Anyways, enough of the service, let's move onto the food.

J ordered the Cortado, pretty bitter which I didn't like. I would need to add more milk and lots of sugar.

I had the Flat White which I wasn't too thrilled about. It wasn't as great was I hoped it to be. It tasted a bit bland and didn't give me that velvet-y texture, also got cold really quick (no beuno).

So, I still had a light "hangover" from the previous night which usually means I don't want other people's food but my own which also means I didn't get to try the other two dishes. I was cradling my plate which was the Fried Egg Sandwich. It was good, but I just couldn't finish it. The sandwich felt like a fancy version of a breakfast sandwich, I can totally deal with this.

The other two dishes looked really appetizing but I didn't really hear J or our friend rave about it... The Wild Mushroom Eggs Benedict and Avocado Toast were a lot smaller than expected. Overall, not too bad but the whole experience was just average, or maybe even below average. Very mediocre.

Dudley's
85 Orchard St
New York, NY 10002
(212) 925-7355

Il Corallo Trattoria

I've been to Il Corallo Trattoria twice already within a month. And yes, J and I are quite addicted to this place.

It was first introduced to us from our hair stylist (and yes, we go to the same salon and have the same hair stylist also), we actually sat at his salon for a good 10-15 minutes trying to find the place he was talking about on our phones, it was quite hilarious. Immediately after finding it, J and I had to go try it. According to our hair stylist, the price was cheap compared to city prices and the food was delicious. I pulled up the menu and saw they had endless amounts of pasta dishes - I need my pasta fix!

Il Corallo has a similar vibe to Bianca but a lot more laid back and casual. We got there around 2pm (for both times) and got seated right away.

The bread with olive oil and balsamic was really good. I like how dense the bread is so it can soak up the yummy oil. Each table had their own bottle of olive oil and balsamic so you can just pour away.

I ordered the Elderflower and Lychee Spritz which was very refreshing. Felt like I was cleansing myself - internally, it's nice to steer away from alcohol once in a while.

J had the Grapefruit Spritz which was good also, not a bit bitter and you can't really tell it was grapefruit.

Appetizer was the Bocconcini, a really nice light salad. The mozz was amazing, thank god we get to have two to ourselves. They also have prosciutto somewhere inside and pieces of shaved parmesan, one of the best starter plates I've had in a long time.

As for entree, we each had our own pasta. J ordered the Fusilli Tiberio because he likes fusilli, this dish wasn't creamy but it had a nice heavy flavor and aroma with it. What I liked was the lamb chunks, generous amount with nice artichoke hearts also.

I had to get the green noodles just because our hair stylist was raving about it. It was good but too creamy for me. The Fettuccine Molisane was filling and I really liked the texture of the pasta, a bit chewy and interesting to eat. There were a lot chicken chunks, my complaint would be that the mushrooms were sliced too thin, I can't find them!

After everything, we were stuffed but when the waiter came over and told us about dessert, we couldn't say no.

Oh my god, the Homemade Tiramisu was absolutely the best dessert I've ever had. So light and perfect. The mascarpone cheese was so fluffy and not too overly sweet. The cocoa on top didn't stick to the roof of my mouth, the lady fingers were entirely soaked in espresso leaving it un-soggy. Amazing! This is a must get, must!!!

So our meal, which was lunch literally felt like dinner. We had food coma after stepping out of the restaurant but that didn't stop us from coming back 2 weeks later.

We saw fresh pizza being made in the back and had to order it. Went with Pizza Napolitana because it was simple and we sort of learned from our lesson from the first time we were here. It was a decent size and it's enough to feed a person and have him/her be stuffed. We shared this (although I didn't really want to) and it's a lot better to eat it quick because it gets cold fast. The pizza had a really thin crust so it was really easy to just down like 3 pieces in less than 5 minutes.

Besides for pizza, we ordered the Cappellini Limone to share because we knew 1) the pizza wasn't enough and 2) if we ordered 2 pasta and the pizza we would most likely die. The pasta was so lemon-y good. Really light, a lot better than the creamy sauce. Wish I could've ate this all myself (haha, I hope J doesn't see this) and the pizza also...

I really don't want to rave so much about this place because we really want there to be less people coming here, we need tables for ourselves! But because I want to share the love, this is definitely a spot to go if you're looking for a place to take a date and you're a sorry broke ass person. It'll work, the lady will be impress.

Il Corallo Trattoria
172 Prince St
New York, NY 10012
(212) 941-7119

Pie Face

Friday night, J and I was going to grab something small because he has to get home and have dinner with his mum for her birthday, how sweet! I had no idea where he was going to take me since I thought we were going to KoreanTown and if we did, there's mad food around there. Little did I know he was taking me somewhere else...

He told me Hooters and yet again, I fell for his trick! Why is he so sneaky?!

We ended up at Pie Face, a place that I mentioned to him a few weeks back.

The outside of the small shop was extremely flashy. It would fit perfectly in Time Square. Good thing there wasn't much people but I did wish they had chairs instead of stand up counters.

The menu was actually on the right side against the wall. The menu that is smacked in the middle is all about coffee, I assume this is a big breakfast spot in the morning also.

They have about 4 different monitors to ring you up on your purchase and each had their own "card swiper thing," yea I have now idea what's it called but you know what I mean. So you look up at that monitor, see how much it is and just swipe away on the bottom screen whenever you're ready. Almost as if it's self paid.

The cute selection of pies. Each different flavor has their own face which is adorable. They also ahve the mini versions if you don't feel like getting the regular size pies.

The cute box and sticker. The packaging is so awesome here.

Yum Yum Yum. I had the Mince Beef Stack ($7.90) and J got the Thai Chicken Curry Stack ($7.90). Stack basically means "the works" which includes mash potatoes, mushy peas and gravy. It's pretty good and quite filling.

Look at that sexy food porn shot.
I love the colors and the layers that are incorporated here.

The way to chow down here is start in the middle. You don't want to start on the side and messing up everything. Dig a hole in the middle and get some of the filling with mash and mushy and gravy, it'll taste awesome.

Texture is quite mushy but the flavor wasn't so bad. I love how the crust of the pie tasted, flaky and buttery.

J also got the Chicken and Bacon Mini Roll ($2.95). Again, the flaky pastry was amazing but the filling wasn't that great. They need to put more flavor into making it savory rather than bland.

Oh and if you get the stack, you get a free bottle of water. Not a lot of places does that and I really appreciate it. I mean, an $8 meal and FREE water...woohoo!

Although as a pie place, they really got the crust part down - it's pretty great but the filling for the roll and the pie seem to lack just a tad bit. If they master that also, then this would be some pretty awesome pie.

Pie Face
1691 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
(212) 247-9065

Sushi Yasuda

This is my second time at Sushi Yasuda, the first time with J and we sat by the sushi bar. This time around, we came in a group of 5 and sat at the table. Both experience were extremely different and it made me decide which I liked better.

WARNING: There will be a ton of photos...some possibly repetitive, because I can.

Got seated right away because we made reservations a week in advance. There was 3 girls and 2 guys in total and we all ordered differently, which was just a tad bit confusing. Two ordered the omakase, two ordered from the a la carte, and one chose a prixe fix meal.

We all started with a small amuse bouche with pickled daikon, carrots, cucumbers, and seaweed.

Ordered a plate of Flash Fried Tuna. I thought it was just ok, nothing too special about it. Wish they had fugu instead though.

Lovely display of ginger and wasabi. You're suppose to have a piece of ginger after each sushi piece to cleanse your palate but I never do that since I'm not a big fan of ginger. As for the ginger, the sushi doesn't even need it because the chefs already tucked a bit of it in the sushi, sneaky indeed!

My beautiful table set up. Just thought it was cute and so neat. Lame but neat.

Starting off with my friend's dishes. She ordered a prixe fix (I assume) which she chose sashimi and was given a piece of paper to decide which type of fish she would like. She also ordered 4 piece a la carte because it was so tempting after seeing J and my dish (which you will see later on).

Our other two friends that ordered the Omakase had about 3 rounds of food coming and this was their first dish.

Of course, they couldn't resist and ordered more also.

This is J and mines. Went a little overboard but was totally worth it.
In no particular order, we ordered -- Big Eye Fatty Tuna, Little Tunny, Warasa (Yellowtail), Kanpachi (Yellowtail), Fluke, Sea Trout, Coba (White Fish), King Salmon, Sockeye Salmon, King Salmon New Zealand, White King Salmon, Coho Salmon, Sanma (Mackerel), Cherrystone Clam, Oyster, and Sea Urchin.
If you're able to match up the names with the pieces, congratulations because we can't for the life of us.

We ordered two more of our favorite pieces. Mine was the New Zealand King Salmon and J's was the Cherrystone Clam, the only place he eats clam raw.

Decided to get the Freshwater and Saltwater Eel sushi because our friend had it with their Omakase. I wasn't going to order it but it looked so appetizing and I just had to have it. Looks sure are deceiving because it was more on the bitter side since they used sake soy sauce instead of the sugared sweetened soy sauce glaze.

Finally, to end the meal we all ordered a piece of uni for ourselves. The uni was especially fresh and delicious that day. They only had the Santa Barbara Uni, a bit disappointed they didn't have the east coast but overall still extremely satisfied.

Our Omakase duo ordered the Green Tea Mochi Ice Cream. Nothing special since I remember having this the first time with J. It's good but the green tea powder can really dry up your mouth.

Our bill for 5 wasn't as bad as we thought. I remember the first time here with J, we easily spent over $300 for two people so either we held back this time (which I doubt because we're not cheap when it comes to food) or our stomach shrank, I like to think it's the latter.

And because we're Asians and we can, we divided up the bill into 3 hence the 3 credit cards. We even did the math for them and wrote it on the to of the bill. I was so proud at how organized we were. *thumbs up*

A good meal but not the greatest that I had here. Definitely interesting eating with a group and I look forward to it in the future.

Personally, I like sitting by the bar better because you get the full experience. You get to communicate with the sushi chefs and they can make you pieces of sushi according to your appetite and liking. They even give you some off the menu items which J and I had last time but not this time around since we weren't by the bar.

This is one of the places where I will find myself coming back, regarding if I go broke. Sushi Yasuda proves that great quality does come with high prices.

Sushi Yasuda
204 East 43rd St
New York, NY 10017
(212) 972-1001

Hill Country Chicken

J has been bugging me about this place for a while. He's wondering when he can take me here cause they make some kick-ass fried chicken. Knowing that I love fried chicken, he always ask me when would we go there together.

So finally on a night after a couple hours of shopping, we stopped by here. It's basically cafeteria style where you order at the counter and find a seat to munch on your food. Almost like, gourmet fast food. I had J do most of the ordering since he knows it better and I'll probably look like a fool if I was the once ordering it.

We had some special meal of the day which included 4 pieces of Hill Country Classic Fried Chicken, 2 sides, 2 pies, and a drink ($25). You might think it's a small meal for two but it just hits the spot.

Onto the Hill Country Classic Fried Chicken, the chicken that J has been waiting all along for me to try. Verdict? I didn't really like it. I was eating it and saying, why does it taste weird, like kind of sweet. He told me it's the spice rub. Yea, I don't like the spice rub. I like my chicken savory but the fact that the spice rub was on the sweeter side, kind of threw me off. This was a no go for me but they do have the Mama Els' Recipe which is just a regular fried chicken without the rub, definitely looking forward to that.

But overall, the chicken was cooked perfectly. Very moist on the inside and a nice crispy skin. Even the breast aren't dry which is always a good sign because you can easily overcook the breast.

For sides, I chose the Mac and Cheese while J chose something else. It was ok, nothing special but I did like how they use cellentani pasta instead of the generic macaroni.

J ordered the Cheesy Fried Mash Potatoes, indeed a killer side. It wasn't as heavy as I thought it would be and actually tasted quite light. Quite an excellent side.

The pie we both chose were the Banana Cream Pie and the Bourbon Pecan Pie which I didn't try neither because I was so full after the meal and I had J take them both home. So, next time I need to get Mama Els' Recipe and pies!

Hill Country Chicken
1123 Broadway
New York, NY 10010
(212) 257-6446

Dinner For One @ Joy Curry & Tandorri

It's one of those nights again where I have to stay late at work. The only good thing that comes out of that is the free dinner that I get. Tonight is Indian night and I haven't had Indian food in a long time, makes me realize how much I missed it.

I got a platter because it was the cheapest (not like it matter since the company is paying) and I can get 2 sides with it. It'll also be easier to spot in the kitchen since I know it'll probably be like World War II in there when food arrives.

It was indeed easy to spot. I was also grateful for the fact that they wrong on the cover what was what. I had gotten the Joy Platter ($7.95), I chose the chicken korma and sauteed okra, I love me some okra. It also came with naan and some sort of chutney. The naan were all packed together so I just took 2 sufficient pieces.

There was the plain ones and the garlic ones. The garlic naans were extremely pungent. Omg if there was ever a vampire, I would sooo turn it off. The naan were ok, until it started to get hard...but it was good when it was still warm, tasted great with the chicken korma.

Looked so beautiful. I was looking forward to the basmati rice. Having the usual jasmine rice at home all the time can be boring, so when given the chance to eat other types of rices, I'm so thrilled.

Chicken korma, it was a safe bet for me because I had this before and the description was something along the lines of cream sauce which means it wouldn't be too spicy because the cream usually balances that out. There were a lot of chunky tender chicken pieces.

I love okra. I got introduced to this when I first had my Sour Soup that my mum makes and I loved it. Then I had it had a Malaysian restaurant where they sauteed it with shrimp paste, delicious! So, here's the chance where I can try the Indian version. They sauteed it with tomatoes and spices. It was great, so glad that it wasn't mushy. Definitely had a little spicy kick to it.

I couldn't finish this that night so it was my lunch the next day. Because I couldn't put the tin container in the microwave, I placed everything on a plate. I was curious and started mixing all three things together and it was the best thing I've ever had. All the flavors combined and formed a really fragrant aroma and was so appetizing. I will totally get this combo again just so I can do that.

Joy Curry & Tandorri
148 E 46th St
New York, NY 10017
(212) 490-1277