JGV - Last but not Least

To end my JGV Journey, I've selected the Matsugen for my New Year celebration with my group of great friends. Catching up with the latest news with friends and sipping down specialty cocktail after another, finally comes the food.
The Omakase, 7 courses tasting menu, and a few extra appetizers would be a great way to end the year 2008. Started the evening with some Grilled Edamame and Homemade soft tofu. The tofu was so soft and silky that it dissolves in your mouth to soya milk instantaneously. If you are adventurous, try the Bakudan. It's a mix of sea urchin, salmon roe, scallops, scallion, poached egg, natto-"fermented soybean", and nori-"seaweed". Its medley fishy flavors were not my favorite. Then comes the nice juicy chicken meatballs served with hot mustard, good way to cleanse my fishy palette. Followed by the sushi plate: toro, salmom, kanpachi, and fluke. The fishes were all fresh as expected from a high-end Japanese restaurant. Then comes my favorite black cod with miso, it was perfectly grilled with the crispy skin and moist flaky fish. Finally, Matsugen's well known soba. It was good, but the flavor was not that impressive and the dipping sauce arrived after I was done with my noodle. . hmmmm. For the sweet finale, I've ordered the Matsugen parfait and the vanilla caramel pudding. : fresh season fruits, green tea and vanilla ice cream, red bean, white mochi, and warabi mochi. It's said to say that the desserts were the highlight of the night, I enjoyed the desserts more then the Omakase.
I was disappointed after my visit to Matsugen because, personally, i would expect alot more from an overpriced 'top notch' restaurant.

Tribeca: 241 Curch Street, NY (x Leonard St)

Udon

Sometimes trying a new spot might not always be a good idea. Udon West located on the Japanese strip of St. Marks Pl was a disappointment. After being seated, we were greeted by the waitress dressed in dirty stained yellow t-shirt. It was questionable the cleanliness of the kitchen if the waitress can't present herself with clean clothes. Since I'm here for the food, i should not make any judgement beforehand.
The marinated beef udon didn't look too appetizing at first sight. It seems that the beef was in the cooking pot over couple of nights and the texture was like a old tangled rug. The soup base tasted like beef stock directly from the can. All-in-all, the udon bowl was so bland that it's totally not worth another visit.
East Village: 11 Saint Marks Pl, NY (btw 2nd & 3rd Ave.)

Tribeca Iron Chef Alley

Greenwich Grill is a fusion between Japanese and Italian,   similar to Basta Pasta but it's a bit more pricey. After we were seated the waitress first brought us only the cocktail menu, it's a good sign that i won't be rushed out on my Friday night dinner. I can finally relax and enjoy a real meal after a long week.

Started with the "Wagyu" beef carpaccio. The beef was thinly pounded and topped with slices of parmesan cheese and mustard aioli sauce which gave a nice garlic flavor over the fresh tender meat.

The Mixed Seafood Ceviche was prepared with the special red snapper. The seafood was all very fresh and tasty but I had better ceviche elsewhere.I rarely eat lamb because of the gamey flavor but tonight i made an exception. Grilled lamb chops rubbed with Moroccan spice and vegetable couscous in tomato sauce. Wow! Amazing. So tasty. No gamey flavor. Lamb is back on my meat list starting tonight.

Thai green curry with Dungenes Crab on pappardelle. No frozen crab meat here - all fresh crab meat and real crab claws. Even though there was good amount of crab meat in the pasta, I was still struggled to get the meat out of the claws cause no food goes to waste.

The dishes were well portioned which allowed me to finish the nice dinner with a dessert. The blueberry cobbler took 15 min to baked but it was totally worth the wait. The sweet blueberries were buried in the crusty pastry topped with fresh whipped cream.

The Mont blanc was made with chestnut whipped cream with a hidden meringue inside and blueberry. OMG! Sooooo gooooooddddd. I had to be selfish this time, "Order your own - I'm not sharing."

Tribeca: 428 Greenwich St, New York (btw Laight/Vestry St)

Italian-Japanese Fusion

Italian Japanese is a rare mix fusion in nyc. Basta Pasta was a great success. The aroma in the restaurant immediately causes my mouth to water. Monday night is usually a quiet nite for dining out, but not for Basta Pasta. The unusual small open kitchen and dining room was packed before 7pm. Started the night the Special Squid with black ink sauce antipasti. The squid was lightly battered and fried, accompanied by the black ink sauce with a touch of heat. The squid was not overly breaded, nor too oily.
Immediately came the Tortino di Granchio: crab meat tartare, avocado, green apple, Yukon gold potato and basil aioli with grapefruit and watermelon radish. The perfect bite with the mixed ingredients and watermelon radish is unforgettable.

Spaghetti con Prosciutto e Parmigiano served in a half wheel parmesan cheese at the table is a very popular dish through out the dining room. The thinly sliced prosciutto was placed over the cheesy al dente spaghetti pasta gave a touch of saltiness to the dish.

Linguine al Ricci di Mare: fresh sea urchin basil and pink sauce. You rarely find sea urchin cooked, since this is no sushi bar, the sea urchin is cooked but the taste of sweetness remains.

Last but not least, the dessert round. Chestnut mousse with espresso sorbet; Almond crepe with ice cream filling, and the dessert special pear panna cotta. They were all amazingly good and the down side is it's never enough.

Union Square: 37 W17th St., NY (btw 5th & 6th Ave)

Ki Sushi

Ki Sushi is one of hottest sushi spots in Brooklyn. Not only is the fish fresh, but the seaweed is as well making it  tasty. The rolls are considered large by the standards. Order of 2 rolls and an appetizer is enough to fill 2 persons. Their specialty sushi menu is original, not the typical roll you see in japanese restaurants. 

Ki roll: tuna salmon yellowtail inside, topped with spicy crunch king crab avocado caviar with a decorative edible gold leaf.

TNT roll: spicy tuna inside, topped with a fresh mouth melting fresh fatty Toro.

 

The quality and portion of food served are such great value that this is my usual resto of choice when I'm craving sushi. 

Boerum Hill: 122 Smith St, Brooklyn (btw Dean & Pacific St)

KYO....TOOFFFUUUUU

Kyotofu is a unique restaurant serving both sweet and savory specialty tofu dishes. The simplicity of soya bean can be transformed into a fancy tofu dessert in the hands of the japanese. Their signature creamy sweet tofu blends perfectly with the black sesame tuile and kuromitsu black sugar syrup topped with dried apricot. 

Continued with several small bits of summer sweet corn cheesecake; warm miso chocolate cake; tofu ice cream; and green tea panna cotta. 

Amaaazing.... my craving for tofu has finally reached it's satisfaction.

 

Clinton: 705 9th Ave, NY (btw48th & 49th St.)

Ramen

It's unusual to see New Yorker line up for a chain restaurant. Ippudo is the exception. I stopped by 10pm but guess what, i still had to wait for 20 min. The fresh homemade ramen was perfectly prepared in flavorful meat broth. The down side is, for a $13 base price ramen, there are only 2 slices of pork and had to pay extra for a hard boiled egg. But if you're a noodlehead, you can drop another $2 for an extra noodle ball. 

East Village: 65 4th Ave (x E8th St), New York

Japanese Crepe

As we all know, crepe was origin from the french. But the japanese, Cecel Cafe Crepe, has retrofitted the crepe to a japanese crepe served in a rolled up fashion. The japanese crepe can be served sweet or savory. With my itching sweet tooth, i've picked the summer special: fresh mango, strawberry, japanese cheese cake, chocolate fudge and a generous amount of custard. It sounds fattening but i have to say it's very hard to resist.  

East Village: 135 1st Ave (x St. Marks Pl), New York, NY

Happy J 4th

J 4th Day, was a good opportunity to go to Blue Ribbon Sushi. One of the "hard to get" table resto in nyc. I was overwhelmed by their long menu, just counting the appetizers, there were at least 30 dishes. Narrowed down to Negimaki - broiled beef with scallion & enoki mushroom. Tick tick tick... where is my negi....hope the sushi at the sushi bar is my mine, i'm not ready yet...tick tick tick. Finally ahh... the beef was so tender, it just melts in my mouth.

Next the Sushi-Sashimi combo arrived with very fresh fish even the nori around the sushi was tasty
We ended with a delicious creamy Green Tea Creme Brulee that was so good it was hard not to lick the bowl even in a fancy restaurant.
But anyhow,
Pros: fresh, fresh, fresh.
Cons: Menu doesn't have eye-catching exceptional dishes; Over-priced for what you get.

Park Slope: 278 5th Ave @Garfield, Brooklyn

Curry-Ya

Curry-Ya was recently opened in this intimate space with only 14 wooden stool seating in the East Village. This specialized Japanese curry house has 9 curries that can be customized with different topping, spice, and size. I've ordered my favorite berkshire cutlet curry and i was a bit disappointed. I expected more to the curry since it's a curry house but it was like any other curry i've had elsewhere for 1/2 of it's price.

East Village - 214 E10th St @ 2nd Ave, New York

Green Tea Shortbread Cookie

How fat does that sound?!? If you don't know how shortbread is made, let me sum it up for you. Butter, butter, and butter. Yes, all butter. That's why it's so tasty. Nonetheless, we just want to fullfill our daily sweet craving with one bit of BUTTER. 

I went to a Japanese grocery awhile back and saw this Green Tea Shortbread Cookie nicely packaged in a fancy japanese wrap. I couldn't resist myself .... I had to have a bit of it and see if it taste as good as it looks. Humm..humm... After that bit, i was determined to make a dozen or 2 myself and shared this with my friends regardless of the calorie content.

Late Nite Sushi - Yamato

Sushi is always a good choice for late nite dinner. Surprisingly, Yamato has quite a interesting appetizer menu. Spicy miso toro w/ mango salsa & spicy miso sauce. Salsa is not commonly seen in japanese restaurant, but the fresh toro was perfectly seared with a touch and sweet & spice . Softshell crab & spicy tuna, topped with tempura flakes was quite a double decker. I wasn't sure if my mouth was too small or the sushi was too big. I can't manage to taste the whole piece in one bit.

There is always a great balance in sweetness to Japanese dessert. The banana coconut crisp drizzled with caramel sauce and lemongrass ice cream was the perfect way to end the meal.
Park Slope: 168 7th Ave @ 1st St., Brooklyn

Momofuku Ko - Open Reservation

Some NYC restaurants are popular, and not because their meals are always great. It’s because they’re hard to get --- IN. Momofuku Ko, reservation by internet only; 10am the 7th day reservation opening release; 2, 4, or 6 persons only. How much more difficult can it be? I just wanted to taste the food. I’ve been trying for the past month; 4 weeks; 31 days; everyday; 10am it’s fully booked. How can it be? It’s exactly 10am. Out of the blue on a Saturday afternoon i checked once again. Open reservation ...tonight...9pm...4 person table only. Of course i had to make the reservation even though i don’t know who the 3rd and 4th person would be. J would always venture to eat almost anything with me but who could the #3 and #4 be... D + C, the adventurous couple. I was so concerned to be on schedule. I could not believe that i FORGOT my camera.
The 14 course meal with wine pairing was amazing. You need to be very adventurous to eat a Menu-less fix price meal. Starting with a Mini-chive english muffin, followed with a fluke fish sashimi, another fish sashimi, then a pea soup with crawfish; berkshire belly pork; poached egg on onion and chips; snail ravioli topped with spring vegetables and ricotta sauce; grill trout with pink pickled radish, bacon puree, and almond..... The highlight -- Shaved frozen foie gras with lychee, riesling gelee, and pine nut brittle. This is not the end yet, there are at least 5 more dishes. By the 10th dish i was so full that I could not sit but stand. The meal was so ‘intense’ as my friend D described it. All the dishes were amazing but i don’t know when my stomach will be ready for another 14 course meal.

East Village - 163 1st Ave @ E10 St., New York