Beyond Cereal

new blogs

2008-11-07T15:53:00.002-05:00

While my last post says that I've been too busy to blog - that is still true, but I've put up a few other blogs in the meantime.

Visit myBJJblog.com for my Brazilian Jiu-jitsu training blog.

In connection with myBJJblog, I've also put up a BJJ techniques wiki which you can find at wiki.myBJJblog.com.

Lastly, I've set up a site to talk about my pet turtles and other pets. See it at www.PetTurtlesAndMore.com.

Thanks!

Too busy to blog

2007-01-18T00:33:00.000-05:00

I find it so hard to blog here ...I'm a busy guy, I have another blog, work full-time, am taking my MBA part-time, am trying to fit BJJ and snowboarding into my schedule, and trying to keep sane! It's hard and there are so many restaurants that I haven't had the chance to write about that I ate in recently. Here's a sample:
-Morimoto
-Burritoville
-Good Burger
-Sophia's
-Ferrara's
-white Castle
-Gray's Papaya
-Grande Pizza
-Patsy's
-Rice Ball Cafe
-East
-Congee Village
-Satay
-Filippo's
-Casa Colombia
-Sahara Grill

And I know there's even more...Some of these are great restaurants, others are ok...I want to write about these places but just can't find the time to and when I do find the time, too many days have passed and I can't remember much about the dining experience.

Much more, I think I'm not a good food writer. I eat anything, even stuff that are bad and I don't like. Everything to me is "ok" and "good." I can't articulate much further about food. I'm not a good food critic, I'm not opinionated enough about food.

I'm considering ending my participation in this blog. Well, maybe I'll still write - but only if I can blog within a day of trying the restaurant. Even if it's a fancy or well-known restaurant, I won't blog about it if more than a day has passed. So all the restaurants in my list above will not be written about nor will every restaurant I try...

Serendipity 3

2006-12-28T23:18:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I ate at Serendipity for the 2nd time. It was upon the request of my friend that was visiting from LA.

Getting a table at Serendipity is the most absurd thing I've ever done to get the privilege of getting to pay someone to give me food. I wanted to get there early so as to avoid the lines to get in, so we (including AG) went there at 6pm. There was already a long line and a really long queue. We gave our names, and after it was added to the already lengthy list, we were told to come back in four, read it, 4 hours. While standing around, someone came by and asked their status on the list. "What time did you put your name in?" "1pm" "Ok, maybe another 30 minutes" How insane is that? I later learned that the place opens at 11am but a line starts forming at 930am. Wow!! But it's only like that because of the holidays and the tremendous influx of tourists coming into the city.

Anyway, we came back four hours later, and had to wait an additional 30 minutes. Outside. In the cold. When we were finally brought it, we had to wait an extra 15 or 20 minutes before we were finally given a table. A 5 hour wait for a restaurant!!!

During the 5 hour wait, we managed to go to Ferrara's, Gray's Papaya, and White Castle. So needless to say, we just ordered dessert. Their most famous item is the FFFrozen hot chocolate. So we got that and an order of Spudniks. The Frozen hot chocolate is an over sized sundae, topped with whipped cream. It is simply delicious. I don't know how to describe it. It overflows with the sweet chocolate taste and even gives you a brain-freeze moment or two (in my case, throat-freeze too!). The dessert was a meal into and of itself.

The Spudnik on the other hand is a plate of potato slices, with the skin, cheese and some other stuff. It tasted like it could have come from TGI....Fridays. It was nothing special and was honestly a disappointment. The highlight was definitely the dessert. Although a five hour wait is too much even for a dessert that large and good.

Prices were all right, $6.50 for the bland Spudnik and $8.50 for the sweet frozen hot chocolate.

The decors were very unique. Full of Tiffany lamps. The website, http://www.serendipity3.com/, gives a hint of the type of decors you'll find inside.

The place is an attraction, just like the line er, the crowd of people outside, and certainly does a lot to bring people to that area of Manhattan (225 East 60th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues).

I find it hard to believe that the movie, Serendipity, is the reason that so many people want to go there. I doubt that a romantic comedy can be so influential. If it is, it really shows the power, at it's best, of product placement in a movie. Andy Warhol used to frequent the place and used to pay for his meals with his drawings. I doubt that that's the reason for the crowds.

Also, it's called Serendipity 3 because it had 3 founders. It is not the 3rd restaurant.

My tired rating: 5 cereal boxes out of a possible 6.

Mandoo Bar

2006-12-28T19:14:00.000-05:00

Mandoo Bar, at K-town on 2 West 32nd Street near Fifth Avenue, is a great place. I've been there a few times this year, so when I friend of mine was visiting from LA, I just had to take her there.

We came in at around 12 noon and there were only two other tables taken. By the time we had ordered, all the other (about 10) tables were full and there was a line going out the door!

The combo mandoo (combination plate with 4 pieces each of seafood, veggie, and pork Korean dumplings) was awesome. It tasted like a new experience even though I had had that before too. We also ordered the Beef Fried Rice - which was stir-fried and had chopped beef, veggies, and an egg - and the Bibimbop - a giant salad-like dish that had veggies and greens, some beef, and an egg. The bibimbop had a reddish sauce served on the side that you were supposed to pour into it and mix, but we just dipped our mandoos (the dumplings) in it instead - and it was tasty. A bit later the waiter told us that it was for the bibimbop, so I poured the rest of it in the bibimbop and mixed it...the sauce really did fit the bibimbop better, but by then there wasn't much of it left.

I really like the food. They're all so simple, but oh so delicious! Korean food is tasty and this place ranks as one of my favorite Korean places.

The decors were simple and plain. All the tables and seats were bamboo colored benches. Meaning no back rests. If you lean back, you lean on the person sitting on the table behind you. The had framed pictures on the walls that all had some slightly intellectual and witty sayings on them. The temperature was on the cold side, which it also was during my previous visits on the spring and summer.

My chopstick and tea rating: 5 cereal boxes out of a possible 6.

Bonus points: They have part of the kitchen on the front window so that you can see them rolling and preparing mandoos from the street.

Dos Caminos

2006-12-26T15:31:00.000-05:00

For our holiday lunch, my work group went to Dos Caminos (373 Park Avenue South and 27th Street) for lunch last week.

It was great. The place is much bigger inside than its external storefront shows. It was nicely decorated and had a somewhat hip/metro feel. It was on the dark side but the company was fun and the conversation was light.

We (around 10 or so of us) finished a couple of pitchers of Sangria. The red sangria was much better than the red.

Service was awfully slow, but since lunch was on the company's time (and tab) I didn't mind. By the time my food came, I forgot what I had ordered....

We got nachos for appetizers. The chips were nothing special but the guacamole is prepared on a station near your table, but it's close enough that you can watch - although they don't call your attention to it. You can't choose to customize your guac, like you can in this other restaurant in Hoboken, but that's alright. Real and fresh guac is good!

I ordered an appetizer that had some octopus in it. It was the best octopus I ever had. It wasn't hard and chewy at all. It was so soft, it almost melted in your mouth. It was like dining on a lobster claw. I don't remember what my entree was, but since I don't remember, it wasn't anything special.

Dessert was great. The pumpkin flan was awesome!! Just like a regular Spanish flan, but with a hint of pumpkin. There was also ice cream and sorbet, they were good but not great.

Prices were reasonable enough, most entrees were in the $12-$20 range.

My rating: 4.5 cereal boxes out of a possible 6.

Enjoy the holidays!

Home-cooked surprise for AG

2006-12-23T13:44:00.000-05:00

Today is AG's birthday and as a surprise I made her some brunch.

I haven't cooked in years so this naturally got me very excited. Fortunately, the omelettes and pancakes that I made were delicious!

The pancakes were made from Aunt Jemima's Complete Pancake and Waffle Mix. It's very convenient, just add water, mix, and it's ready to cook. I burned my 1st pancake, but the rest were nice. I made about 6 or 7 pancakes, all of which we finished.

For omelettes I used Cage-Free Omega 3 organics eggs. I don't think they tasted any different from regular eggs. I cracked open 6 eggs and mixed it in a bowl. Poured some egg mix in a pan and fried it. When the eggs were done, I placed a slices of cheese over one half, then covered it in diced tomatoes. I then folded over the other half and transferred the omelette to a dish. I made 6 omelettes.

Me and AG liked what I made. Since It's been years since I last cooked, my biased self rating is: 4.5 cereal boxes out of a possible 6.

I hope to keep cooking a regular activity of mine again.

Happy holidays!!

Web store idea - hmmm

2006-12-06T23:41:00.000-05:00

Last week me and AG came up with an idea to put up a web store. Several days or weeks before, I told her that when I first started my undergrad that I wanted to put up a brick & mortar store and the web store will be just that: the web store of what I hope can be a brick & mortar store someday. I don't remember how the conversation went, but we did decide to put one up.

It takes some work to get a business set up and I'd like to do this right. The hard parts will be going through the mumbo-jumbo of legalese, tax stuff, organization, contracts, finding suppliers, determining the target market, finding a web host, testing, and others. The fun parts will be product testing, designing the website, fulfilling orders, etc... I'm not sure how to market it, but forums, blogs, and search engine optimization will play the biggest parts.

I'm really excited for this and my mind has been all over the place. I spent some time looking for some suppliers, went looking through web hosts, and even affiliate programs. I think this whole thing should launch without it's own web selling site first. Or start selling stuff through online market places like ebay and amazon, and later develop a website. I'm not sure. I dunno.

I really do want to start it out small. Thing is, I'm so busy already, it's going to take me a real long time to set things up and get things going.

Teriyaki Boy

2006-12-05T19:05:00.000-05:00

I love Teriyaki Boy, the one on 45th street between Lexington and 3rd Avenues. I eat there quite often, maybe 3 or 4 times a month. It's great. I love chicken teriyaki. Even their sauce. Heck, even if I order a non-teriyaki dish, I ask for the sauce anyway. That's how much I love it.

They're also very affordable. They have meals that start at $5 or $6.50. They usually come with rice, chicken or fish, sauce (mmhmmm!!), salad, a side of california rolls or dumplings, and miso soup or soda. How good it that? Of course prices will go up if you add other stuff. To get either vegetable or shrimp tempura, price goes up a dollar or two. Service is also very, very fast. It takes a bit longer if you order a non-teriyaki dish, since they will make them to order. I've had their eggbowls and ricebowls. They're all delicious. Even their sukiyaki was excellent. They also have a sushi fridge stand, where you can take some already made rolls, chirasi, or rice balls.

Again, they were all good. I'll be there again next week.

My biased rating: 6 Cereal boxes.

Butternut Squash and Pierogies

2006-12-03T04:54:00.000-05:00

AG made butternut squash sopa with green peas and potato spinach pierogies with artichoke lemon pesto a few nights ago, and it was very good.

Today she served them as left-overs and they were even better.

She put the pierogies down on the plate and covered it with the butternut squash. She then made some eggs and placed it on the side. When I first saw it, I got hungry. Tasting the egg and the squash, they didn't really seem to mix well. Later, when I was mixing in the pierogies too, the three food types blended wonderfully in my mouth. The egg was good with all three.

I think the squash is normally prepared so it is saltier, and the version that AG made didn't have any salt. I think. I don't really know about these things about food, I just like to eat. Anyway, the squash didn't taste the way it is normally served elsewhere, I think, but it was still good.

after a while, I commented that the dish might be better if I had some bread or rice. Actually, the soup was so good and thick, I just wanted to spread it on something and eat it, just for the taste. She pulled up a box of triscuits, whole grain and on the salty side, and the squash soup was very good on it. The triscuits were good with a slice of cheese on it too.

I stuffed myself. There are still leftovers in the pot, so I plan on picking on them later.

My cereal boxes score out of 6: 5 Cereal Boxes.

mmhmmm, Juan Valdez

2006-11-28T21:26:00.000-05:00

where: Juan Valdez, Times Square - 7th Avenue between 41st and 42nd

Over the weekend, me and AG were at the Times Square area when she got a coffee craving. Looking quickly around the area we were in, the mid-40s and Broadway, there didn't seem to be any decent coffee places around. I swear I think I saw a light bulb switch on just above AG's head when she said we should go to Juan Valdez.

And we did. And it was worth it. It was worth wading through the maddening, slow-moving crowd of tourists that populate Times Square. It was worth swimming through the tourist herds while carrying two pies in a plastic bag. Through Times Square. We had to walk through Times Square. I put the pies through unnecessary risk. A tourist actually hit the pies (she was enjoying the 'scenery'- not looking where she was going).

But the coffee was good. Very Good. Actually, it wasn't really coffee. AG ordered the Oreo Nevado, which was more smoothie shake than frap. It actually didn't even look like coffee. As soon as I tasted it, I commented that it's all Oreo with a hint of coffee. It was. That's also how the barista described it to AG. I didn't hear the barista as AG was ordering, I was resting on a chair. We had just walked through Times Square.

The Oreo Nevado was more like a caffeinated cookies and cream shake. Nice.

5 Cereal boxes. AG asked for no whipped cream but still got it.

World's largest slice

2006-11-26T00:26:00.000-05:00

For dinner yesterday, we wanted pizza. Filippo's On First was closed, so we decided that we would finally try Benny Tudino's on Washington avenue in Hoboken. Benny Tudino's is known for their huge slices of pizza and has been around since 1969, they even have their name imbedded on the sidewalk in front of their store.
Walking into the place, I immediately looked over the counter where the pizzas were because I wanted to see how big their slices were and they are gigantic! Probably double the size of any pizza I have tried. He ordered 2 plain cheese slices from 1 of the 3 guys behind the counter. Looking around the place was pretty busy, they had all their seats in the elevated back seating area full, so we sat in one of the booths by the counter.
The guy gave us our slices and I was ready to dig in. I like my pizzas with oregano and crushed red peppers, but wanted to try their pizza without it first. After a few bites, I added the oregano and the red peppers, tried it again and I was disappointed. It reminded me of pizzas I have had along the Jersey shore.. not that they were all bad but most were. The cheese was hard, the sauce was tasteless, and the crust was just bad. The top layer started separating from the crust as the pizza got cold, it took a while for me to eat mine and I didn't finish the slice. On the wall where our booth was, there were several years of Zagat's best awards (I think one of them was '1 of the 5 best pizzerias'), from what I saw they ran from 2001 till 2005. I couldn't believe one of the awards actually mentioned 'soft, chewy'. Being born in NYC and raised in the lower east side with pizzerias on every corner and living right next to little Italy, hanging out in Brooklyn since I was 14, I know pizzas shouldn't be soft or chewy, unless you're having a L&B square, which is soft but definitely not chewy. This is why we came up with this idea of blogging our food experiences. Maybe what we tried was a bad batch, but it was just not my type of slice and it’ll be a while before I give them a second try. It’s definitely a good place to go if you’re strapped for cash and hungry, they really have huge slices and SK paid about 5 bucks for 2 slices.

My score for Benny's is 2 cereal boxes.

Enjoy! AG

1st Post and Hoboken's Benny Tudino's

2006-11-25T23:43:00.000-05:00

We finally decided to wander from downtown Hoboken and venture to midtown Hoboken's Benny Tudino's. Benny Tudino's is "home of the world's largest slice" and is highly rated by Zagat. As a matter of fact, there were several Zagat plaques, as well as magazine reviews, on the wall near the entrance. Seeing those and the amazingly large pizzas over the counter really whetted my appetite.

The place was decorated ok. Actually, it looked almost like a truck-stop compared to all the other restaurants along Hoboken's busy Washington Avenue. Walking through the doors, one is transported from Hobokenite-dom to a place akin to a Jersey shore local pizzeria, which actually may or may not be a good thing. I guess it's natural for the place to look aged, it has been around for close to 40 years now. There's a lot of red paint all around, framed patches of pebble-wash on the walls, plastic lawn furniture outside, and a full kitchen situated near the window offering a full-view for passersby. The kitchen was fully staffed by 4 or 5 hairy-looking Italians and the floor had about 2 waitresses. The staff behind the counter seemed very hurried when they took our order and rather surprised when we didn't want anything to drink.

One of the magazine postings on the wall said that you should go to Benny Tudino's for pizza that is "soft, chewy." We only realized what that meant after a few bites from our plain pizza slices. The slices were no joke, they were huge! They were served on two paper plates and still had parts hanging off! I've no doubt that they are indeed the world's largest slices, and if not they are certainly one of the top contenders for the title. But just like the well-known saying goes, size isn't everything. In my book, portion size counts for a lot, but it had better be backed up something more. The pizza was quite unimpressive. The crust, though still on the thin side, was kinda thick, soggy, and bland. The layer of cheese and sauce on top kept separating from the crust. The whole thing was, as the magazine described, soft and chewy. I understand that food is truly a very subjective thing to write about but please, it felt like i was chewing on soft rubber or bubble gum long after the taste had disappeared...

I wish we had gone someplace else instead. Actually, we both did.

My rating for this joint, out of 6 cereal boxes: 2 Cereal boxes.
If you're really hungry, an extra large slice will fill you up.

It was really surprising given that they were Zagat's best pizza for a number of years. Food truly is subjective. While other reviews may be beneficial in terms of rating service, cleanliness and the like, things such as taste and value for money truly are subjective and will differ from person to person. This is why me and AG decided to start this blog. We not only need a record of our dining experiences, we also need a way to express our voices and opinions about the places we eat in and the food we try.

Eat well, SK.