In recent years, Omakase sushi has claimed the fame it deserves. Michelin grade sushi chefs are celebrities in this town. Renowned places need reservations 3 months ahead, some even need to be prepaid. Omakase became another word for expensive fine dining. And the price, skyrocketed. Nowadays a 15 course omakase dinner is about $150 and up. The most priced place in NYC is about $800 before drinks and tips, which can almost fund a round trip ticket to Tokyo. One begins to ask, is it really worth the price, or is it just hype.
This once a weekly affair, now has become an occasional indulgent. Can’t afford to chase the stars, I search hidden gems for bargains. And I found one on Upper West.
The Pandemic has been with us almost two years now. There was a moment that we thought things were getting better, we could feel the light at the end of the tunnel. People relaxed, lockdown was lifted. Restaurant reopened, we started going out again. Then Delta came. For better or worst, put the pandemic back in focus. We were not out of the woods.
When we heard there’s a restaurant opened by a Din Tai Fung veterans, the first thought was we must go. We missed that famous Xiao Long Bao, which could very well be call a Taiwanese National Treasure. If anyone have been to the real deal in Taiwan, it is an experience hard to forget or compare. Every little soup dumpling is handmade in all steps, paper thin dumpling skin wrap up the juice filled goodies inside. Every “bao” is identical, with same amount of meat, soup, the size of the dumpling wrap. Tt has to be 18 folds, not one more, not one less. Which is the established amount of folds make the dumpling versatile to hold up the soup inside, but not make the top folded portion doughy. The dumpling skin although paper thin, but it will not break when you pick it up with chopstick. It is not only an art form, but also a science. The Famous Din Tai Fung own it; they are the grand master of soup dumpling. Yes, there are of course other place that are outstanding in their crafts too, but when compared to Din Tai Fung, they are still missing a beat. Din Tai Fung has a very successful branch in Los Angeles, opened one location after another (currently have 9 if including Seattle). It is operated by a family member of the Taiwan Original. However, the craft did not match up with the name. Our visit to LA was unfortunately a disappointment. Carma in West Village also claimed to have a Din Tai Fung former executive chef in their roaster, but we did not find any evidence of such. There are a lot of Chinese restaurants in town that advertise their soup dumpling, but very few look like the real thing, even less come close to taste or feel like it should. Most of them fall apart upon picking it up, many of them are too doughy, even more that don’t really have any soup inside. And don’t even get me started with those humongous ones that need a straw… One Bao after another, we tried. Yes, we have long seek those perfect little soup pillows, and our search might be over soon.
Pinch Chinese opened in Soho earlier this year. It replaced what was Peek (a long time Thai restaurant). And their soup dumplings, were very much on point.
We learnt from somewhere that Pinch Chinese is run by a former Din Tai Fung Head Chef. We were a little skeptical at first. After all, we have had quite a few disappointments. In the first few months of opening, there’s always a line at dinner time. They did not have reservation system in place, and might have underestimated the power of “Din Tai Fung’s name” in this town. Several months later, Pinch is on Resy, and with touch of a button, we were there. Gone is the awkward semi-transplanted bathroom, the long shape room is now brighter, and red themed. The large portrait photo deco on the wall are pasted together with newspaper. To be honest, it is rather scary. Especially the wall in the front of restaurant is actually a choking help manual. We don’t know the significant of these people, I just feel awkward. But the old lady on the drinks menu made me smile. Perhaps it is because the subtitle said “Drink while there is still wine”. For me I think the translation should be “Tonight we drink”.
Of course we started with Soup dumplings. Out of the 6 different choice, we chose pork, and a pork with seafood. We were hoping the pork with seafood would be with crab or crab roe, which is the way it should be, but they turned out to be pork and fish. Too bad Pinch does not have crab roe, but the pork soup dumpling is almost as good as the Taiwanese original. Exactly 18 folds, easily pick up with chopsticks but not easily broken. With a little bit of vinegar and shredded ginger, the whole thing went head first into my big mouth. One bite, the soup inside burst out, and I am swimming in a cream pork broth. The meat and fat inside was just perfect balance; I wish there would be a little more soup. But I dare to say this is by far the best soup dumpling I had in United States. The closest to the real deal (the pork seafood was not in comparison). Order the Pork dumplings, I stand behind the original.
Xiao Lung Bao was just the start. And everything that came after were excellent as well. They are exactly the way they are meant to be. I was actually surprise of how authentic our meal was. One would say, New York has a huge Chinese population, the biggest Chinatown in the World (outside of China), how hard would it be to find authentic Chinese. Actually, you would be surprise. Many Chinese restaurants have been Americanized, especially in Manhattan. To find that authentic “home” taste, we often have to go to outer borough. And there are very few “FINE” authentic Chinese cuisine. Unlike the other Asian cuisine, Chinese somehow always went into a bargain deal war with each other. Instead of refining the product, Chinese chose to lower the price to complete, at the same time, lowered the quality. It is sad, but it is a fact. Thanks to Pinch, I now have a Chinese restaurant that I would be proud to recommend to others for dinner (dim sum is another story). House Special Shrimp tiger shrimp Kung Pao’d Spicy Wontons niman ranch pork + house crack sauce Scallion Chicken Cold Noodle bell & evans organic, charred scallion Free Range Wind Sand Chicken Lancaster organic, garlic Dong Po Pork Belly bak choy + house stewed tofu
KazuNori, the so call original temayaki (hand roll) bar in new York city, a spin off from the LA based, highly popular Sugarfish, which also landed in NYC last year. Now I have not been to Sugarfish. I have to admit that the pictures of Sugarfish on social media are not very appealing. It is amazing how a few pictures could change our interest in a place. I am in no hurry to go to Sugarfish, but I thought I could try out the more affordable Kazunori first to get a feel what the Californians rave about.
I strolled into the counter only dining room in NoMad on a sunny afternoon, just passed 1pm. Cashier right at the door, there is no hostess, but a velvet roped line defining waiting area. Next to it is the menu stand, the handroll place offers an eat-in and a take-out menu with lightly different items.
The lighting was dimmed, almost dark, the place seemed packed and I couldn’t look past 1/3 of the long hall. I stood around looking for seats, and also at the menu. 5-10 minutes had passed, I thought I was waiting in line for an open seat. I finally walked up to the counter and waved at one of the servers to inquire about seating. Then he directed me to the deeper end of the bar. Turns out there were plenty of seats in the back. So, yes, it said seat yourself, but it would be nice that someone would tell me there were seats available. it was really too dark inside to know there were empty space …… Did they think I was standing there for something else?
I finally sat down at the deep end of the bar, since I had plenty of time to look at the menu, I was ready to order. But then unfortunely, I was informed that I was looking at the take-out menu. Well…. The two menus look the same…. Yes, I guess I should have read. Take-out menu (L) & Eat-in menu
Turns out there were no special on that day, snapper was sold out too. L instead of snapper, it was salmon instead. That helped me chose the 5 handroll set instead of the 4.
Where I was sitting gave me a full view of the prep station. Almost like a Chipotle counter, everything is already prepped, just scoop, scoop, andwrap. The toro looked like they were blended instead of chopped. All mashed, and that was the first one I was served. The toro had completed lost any texture at all. So mushed, I couldn’t tell what I was eating. It felt like some cold meat. If this was in fact toro, I am hurting for the tuna fish. It scarified for nothing.
The nori was crispy enough, but the rice….. the rice was hot. Extreme temperature difference between fish and rice, the mashed toro was on the cold side and the rice was almost hot enough to have steam. Once the rice hit nori, all the crispyiness was gone. I was sad. Not only it lost the crunch, after the second bite, the nori was so mushy that I cant even seprate it with my teeth, ended up stuffing the whole thing in my mouth. And in the process, a handful of rice and fish mixed ended up in my palms. Yes, there were no back stop. So if you have to finish the handroll in 3 to 4 bites, chances are, your hand would be quite messy, as the rice fall off the back end. There’s not much you can do at that point. Eat off your hand, Or push it off to the plate and use chopsticks to try and pick up the pieces. There are no good choice here, and I hope you washed your hand. toro handroll blue crab hand roll baby scallop & yellowtail hand roll
Almost to the end of my meal, the “manager” look alike came up and asked how was everything. A routine gesture, just a polite thing to do. Normally I never really say anything. I don’t know what hit me that day, I spoke up. I guess he was surprise too. I told him my honest opinion about the rice being too hot, and totally “melted” the nori. He responded politely and said that it is something that their customers like specificity, the rice being warmer than room temperature. Well, I am impressed; I am impressed that he came up with a “logical” answer off the spot. It totally felt rehearsed. However, it still haven’t change my mind about hot rice, and I certainly wouldn’t call that “slightly warmer than room temperature”, it was not steaming, but it was straight out of a rice cooker.
Original or not, there are other hand roll bar in NYC. The price is attractive, but I don’t know if that could made up for the quality. I might actually defer to sunrise mart and have a couple boxes for the pre-made refrigerated rolls instead. But if you have to come here, try the baby scallop. Between the mushed toro and the heavily mayo’d crab, the baby scallop would be my choice.
