Thursday, April 15, 2004
B&H Dairy
Whenever I mentioned that I'm going to grab lunch/dinner at B&H, my conversee usually shoots me a What The Fuck? look. For B&H is near the NYU art department, where I work, and the B&H that's referred to around the photolab is a behemoth photo/video/audio supplier, with the most ridiculous checkout process imaginable. Really, whenever I go there I feel like I'm in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. But the restaurant could not be less similar, it's an old diner, real cozy and all vegetarian (and kosher, for that matter)! The food there is honest and good, most things I have there are structured around the challah bread, 'coz I love the soup and the sandwiches. Their split pea, yankee bean and borscht are hearty and fulfilling (be sure to ask for salt and pepper if you're taking out), the only one that ain't so great is the vegetable, because it's just unseasoned vegetables, kinda unremarkable, but if you like chopped vegetables in a thin broth, it's for you. Sandwiches are referred to on the menu as "overstuffed" which is true, egg salad, goat cheese and mozarella are simple and good, no mayo, no catsup, no mustard, just cheese+veggies on challah, the mozzarella one has fresh basil, which is awesome. If you like grilled cheese, theirs is king. It takes kind of a long time to make, but what happens is that the challah gets lightly crispy all the way through, and the barrier between cheddar and challah gets vague in the middle of the sandwich, leading to a taste so subtle you can taste the onion that was just cut with the knife used to slice the grilled cheese in half.
Their pierogis are good, as are the blintzes, but I tend not to order them, 'coz I'm trying to cut down on the deep fried. The mac and cheese is like a warm blanket. The cool thing about this place is that you can sit down and have dinner by yourself without feeling like you're all lonesome and such, counter seating was designed for a newspaper with coffee and soup on it.
East Village
127 2nd Avenue (Near St. Marks Place)
New York, NY 10003
212.505.8065
Hours
Mon-Sat 7am-10pm, Sun: 8am-10pm.
Their pierogis are good, as are the blintzes, but I tend not to order them, 'coz I'm trying to cut down on the deep fried. The mac and cheese is like a warm blanket. The cool thing about this place is that you can sit down and have dinner by yourself without feeling like you're all lonesome and such, counter seating was designed for a newspaper with coffee and soup on it.
East Village
127 2nd Avenue (Near St. Marks Place)
New York, NY 10003
212.505.8065
Hours
Mon-Sat 7am-10pm, Sun: 8am-10pm.
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Jamaican Flavors - W. 3d and Sullivan
In lieu of other content, I'm going to start posting here about food stuff that I like. Food has really taken over as the primary focus of my attentions, aside from Herodotus and this Seth Benardete commentary I'm reading alongside.
Jamaican Flavors is on West 3d and Sullivan, right next to Peanut Butter and Co, it's tiny tiny, but the patties are out of control good. So much so, that I eat them at least 3-4 times a week. Everyone tells me that the meat ones are mighty tasty, but they're ital friendly, and that's fine by me, serving veggie and callallo patties as week. The veggie ones have a blend of cabbage, carrots, peas (sometimes) onions, cooked up almost mushylike, and lightly spiced, wrapped up in a firm bread shell. They give the option of having it in coco bread, which is a piece of bread structured like a hot dog bun, but much more dense and bigger. They throw the pattie in the middle, and at that point I slather it in Scotch Bonnett sauce, because all of the delicacy of the filling is being swallowed up by the bread. The patties are better without the bread, but since I eat these for lunch, when there is an acre of time before I get home for dinner, it's a little extra roughage for $.75 (the patties, at least the veggie ones are $2.25). The callalloo pattie tastes like callalloo, and I've had the ackee and saltfish patties twice, because they've been out of the others, and I was hungry. Those are the real traditional, special ones, and while they were good and distinct, I was uncomfortable eating them, 'coz....y'know, I don't like putting animal flesh in my mouth.
The mac and cheese is another story. It may be a regional thing, but theirs is kinda fucked up, the actual macaroni is good, but on top, there's this fucking 1cm thick bright orange, crisp an greezy block of cheese. I tried to eat it, but couldn't do it. Some people go for this kind of thing, I guess, but to these tastebuds, that's some vile, vile shit.
I've been to this place probably like 50 times now, and I still haven't had the veggie roti, will re-edit when I do.
Jamaican Flavors is on West 3d and Sullivan, right next to Peanut Butter and Co, it's tiny tiny, but the patties are out of control good. So much so, that I eat them at least 3-4 times a week. Everyone tells me that the meat ones are mighty tasty, but they're ital friendly, and that's fine by me, serving veggie and callallo patties as week. The veggie ones have a blend of cabbage, carrots, peas (sometimes) onions, cooked up almost mushylike, and lightly spiced, wrapped up in a firm bread shell. They give the option of having it in coco bread, which is a piece of bread structured like a hot dog bun, but much more dense and bigger. They throw the pattie in the middle, and at that point I slather it in Scotch Bonnett sauce, because all of the delicacy of the filling is being swallowed up by the bread. The patties are better without the bread, but since I eat these for lunch, when there is an acre of time before I get home for dinner, it's a little extra roughage for $.75 (the patties, at least the veggie ones are $2.25). The callalloo pattie tastes like callalloo, and I've had the ackee and saltfish patties twice, because they've been out of the others, and I was hungry. Those are the real traditional, special ones, and while they were good and distinct, I was uncomfortable eating them, 'coz....y'know, I don't like putting animal flesh in my mouth.
The mac and cheese is another story. It may be a regional thing, but theirs is kinda fucked up, the actual macaroni is good, but on top, there's this fucking 1cm thick bright orange, crisp an greezy block of cheese. I tried to eat it, but couldn't do it. Some people go for this kind of thing, I guess, but to these tastebuds, that's some vile, vile shit.
I've been to this place probably like 50 times now, and I still haven't had the veggie roti, will re-edit when I do.
