new york

week 29: the meatball shop

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i was not afraid of the boogie man.
i was not afraid of the dark.
rather
my biggest fear as a wee one
was sitting down at the dinner table on spaghetti night
and looking down at my plate
and finding that my poor poor spaghetti
was contaminated by a 
big 
fat 
traumatizing 
meatball.

why? oh why must i eat this, mum? it is ruining my beautifully olive-oiled spaghetti!! 
i cried. i begged for mercy.

protein blah blah blah you wanna grow old and be frail and brittle bullshit bullshit?
{was something like her response}

it was clear:
if i wanted dessert,
that ball was going in my mouth.
boy, was life was tough. 

the struggle continued 
and continued
and my adolescent years proved to be successful in finding ways around the dreaded meatball
but eventually
hype and hipness persuaded me to go to
this is me at the meatball shop
and this is maria's best attempt at taking a picture of her newest celebrity crush,
the owner
{scruffy dude in the back}

what a fun place!
i love all the hustle and bustle of the lower east side
and i love looking at all the stylish kiddies that hang around that area.
there was a bit of a wait for a table, but that adds to the tastiness :-)
above is a picture of the multiple choice dry-erase marker menu on which maria and i kind of blindly picked our balls.

yay balls!!!
they were nothing like my childhood meatballs.
these were really good, and juicy, and rich in flavor
and big
but emphasis on the juicy!
and there was an amount of taste that you don't expect with ground meat.
it just bursted with flavor!
the balls just burst!
and the fact that they weren't corrupting spaghetti 
by being served in non-offensive sliders and heros
calmed my dark-childhood-memory-induced anxiety.

we also got a hero:
beef balls
marinara
&
provolone
on a whole wheat baguette
sometimes the thought of a baguette gets me nervous.
is it going to be hard to bite?
is it going to scratch the inside of my mouth?

you will all be relieved to know that this baguette was soft and doughy
and worked well with the balls
as to not make the sandwich self-destruct upon consumption.

it was like a neater, more highbrow, italian version of the sloppy joe. 

it was a comfy sandwich, indeed. 
one that i've since dreamt about numerous times.


ok, let it be known:
if you go to the meatball shop and do not order dessert, you are an idiot.
their ice cream sammiches are monstrous.
so monstrous that eating one like a sandwich might be impossible. 
but when thur's a scoop of house-made chocolate ice cream sandwiched between two no-bake peanut butter cookies sitting in front of you, it doesn't matter how it gets to your face, you just want it.
{ohhh}

maria got the ginger snap and vanilla combo.
it was fine, you know, if you like ginger snaps.

i'm really glad that my meatball spell has been broken.
although
after having these
i'm not sure i'm going to be able to have any other ones.

.............

23 restaurants to go, boys and girls.


xoxo


yeh




the meatball shop is on stanton and allen in the lower east side
and it's open late!





week 28: zigolinis pizza bar

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what? 
i have to keep up with restaurant challenge during my schnitzel month?
apparently so, say's my boss {me}

i'm really going gaga over this napoletana pizza business. 
it's making me obsessive.
like,
i need to try all of them.
and then i want to somehow assemble a meal with one pizza from each of the top contenders and judge which one is the best.
but if my food memory serves me correctly,

zigolinis 
has the best crust. 

it's the first crust on a napoletana pie where the middle wasn't soggy
{i was beginning to accept that as a casualty, you know, like separated mustard goo}

it's like pillsbury doughboy all up in that shit,
that's how doughy it is.

the first time i went
-i went two times in a week-
i ordered the margherita
which was like dough-overload.
i was all
where's the rest of the cheese, luigi? 
{yes, the pizza dude's name is luigi and he a-comes from a-italia}

lesson learned,
i returned and got 
pesto
with mozzarella
and
can i have tomaters on that?

much better balance of dough to friends
and luigi yelled at me when i tried to put parmesan on it.
like, what?
 is pesto + parmesan faux pas or something?

evs.
it was delicious and i gobbled it up and didn't have any room for dessert but got it anyways
#storyofmylife
get this:
nutella pizza
same doughboy crust,
nutella,
marshmallows

sugar overload.
i coulda done without the marshmallows and more nutella.
but,
in life,
there's never enough nutella.

if there's a better napoletana crust out there,
i'm going to find it.
but i think it's going to be pretttty difficult.

till then,
i'll just eat a schnitzel.

...24 mi amores!


xoxo


yeh


zigolinis pizza bar is at 46th and 9th

flea market tour 2010

in ,
something i will never do again without the aid of a red bull


first stop:
ate:
a mini la newyorkina watermelon popsicle
a sigmund pretzel with whole grain mustard
a melt bakery raspberry sorbet ice cream sandwich

...and a la sonrisa chicken empanada

then headed to the
i wanted a hand cut silhouette.
but five dolla was either going to get me that or...
{sorry, cut-out man, the choice was obv}

i also wanted a pupusa.

but it was time to head to the 
hey. 
where's the food?
ok. 
bye.
{beer & pretzel break at loreley williamsburg}

then...
no food.
but super pretty and unique jewels!


sheesh. 
four fleas in one day is tiring. 



xoxo


yeh




week 27: canteen 82

in ,


in the molly yeh book of commonly kvetched about things,
there are three huge chapters:

1. idiots
2. lack of good restaurants on the upper west side
3. lack of good dim sum in manhattan

i recently discovered that two of these things
are defied by the new-ish-ly opened
 and since idiots will sadly always be an obstacle of life,
you may safely assume i am referring to numbers 2 and 3.
vibe was clean, sterile-y {in a good way}, and comfy
but more importantly, 
the food was magnificent! 
ok here it goes:

taro bubble tea
yes!
is bubble tea coming back by way of its hype being almost as vintage as 
saved by the bell swag?
probably not. 
but this place serves it shamelessly and i don't mind because it's dericious! 
really, if there's one flavor i'll ever favor over red velvet, it's taro.
scallion pancakes
exactly how a scallion pancake should be:
crispy on the outside
doughy on the inside
greasy enough to feel a little bad
but not bad enough to keep you from fighting over the last one with your date
sesame doodles
not their strongest point
in fact
not good.
i like my sesame noodles swimming in sauce a la empire szechuan
but these were... not....
pan pan buns
it's true.
frying things makes things better. 
#donutsarethenewcupcakes
...as if steamed buns weren't good enough already.
these might have been the highlight.
there was a bit more depth given to your typical steamed bun...
the crunchy fried bits on the outer edges were its way of playing hard to get.
that sassy minx. 
and the innards were supremely tasty, too.
everything worked well.
it was an unexpected and lovely surprise.
i love it.
soup dumplings
what drew me to canteen 82 in the first place.
the cool kids around school seem to talk about getting soup dumplings as if they're going to buy weed.
it's kind of only for those in the know,
invite only,
and you have to travel to the far places to get the best ones.
and i'll admit, i've been way too lazy to go to joe's shanghai. 
evs.
don't need to now.
canteen 82's were just fantastic.
even better than the ones i've had in chicago.
the soup actually tasted like soup- not watery goop we pretend is soup because we're too busy being excited about the concept of there being liquid in a dumpling.
really,
they were as tasty as the concept is cool.
{except i probably could have done with a bit of a thicker dough, 
as to not stress out about it breaking and having the soup fly everywhere except my mouth. really, it's a stressful situation. think: SAT II stressful}


stresses aside,
i'm so happy to have found 
incredible
fresh
dim sum
on the island
!!!!!!!!!!!!


ok how many am i at? 
25!
25 restaurants to go, ladies and gents.




xoxo




yeh




canteen 82 is on 82nd and columbus