Long time no blog!

It’s been quite a busy few weeks finishing up my internship, seeing friends from home, helping out with freshmen orientation at NYU…so I apologize for the lack of entries. However, that doesn’t mean I’m taking any less pictures. My friends around me can testify to that. My ability to sneak in a picture before everyone dives their forks into a dish is inpeccable.

In the month of August, I’ve been exploring restaurants all over the place. Being that there are so many places I have decided to highlight certain foods and activities surrounding my restaurant excursions.

In celebration of my friend Sunny’s birthday, we decided to take it back to Barcelona…or at least close enough to La Paella East (214 E 9th St., New York, NY). Of course we got some sangrias, tapas, and paellas. It was pretty good, but relatively pricy as well.

As you can see, this is the Seafood Paella that we got which has large shrimp, calms, mussels…yum yum. We actually ordered a bunch of other food as well but I’m going to keep this post relatively short and sweet!

Then for one of my favorite freshmen, Eric Lum, is now in Prague…but for his going away party we went to Spanky’s BBQ near Time Square (127 West 43rd St., New York, NY 10036). That was pretty fun. The menu screamed unhealthy to me – take a look at their menu. The typical American Southern BBQ kind of place.

I shared one of the two salads on the menu with my friend. As you can see, it’s got beef, taco bits, and avacado. I feel as though the greens were on the side rather the actual dish. hahahah. All in all, a decent place if you want to eat your heart out with a real All-American Southern BBQ. Wait, why are Americans obese again? haha.

So I had a small reunion with some friends at Momofuku Noodle Bar (163 First Avenue, New York, NY 10003). The head chef was a guy who also worked at restaurants like Craft I believe. This was also one of the top cheap eats listed in the New York Magazine so I definitely had to check it out. The line is extremely long so I give you warning – be ready to wait in line for up to an hour (depending upon when you go). Aside from the food, the actual restaurant can only fit around 30 people.

I got the Rice Cake with Baby Bok Choy and Braised Pork. It was pretty good I guess, but a bit too salty for my taste. That mainly came from the braised pork though.

We ordered their famous Steamed Pork Buns…and they were 2 for $9! Yeah, even though in my opinion this is pretty steep, it definitely lived up to its price. It was really good, especially because even though there was fat on the meat, it did make it taste better and not gross. I think there’s also cucumber and peking duck sauce. The combination of meat and fresh ingredients in these buns made me want to eat 50. Yum. Of course that would make me extremely poor…

I ended up going back the next day because my other friend wanted to go there. Thus, more pictures of their dishes:

My friend got their Chicken and Rice dish. It was REALLY good so I do recommend this to eat if you decide to go. I got a taste of the chicken, which was prepared really well. The flavors of the whole dish seem to come together very well so my friend adores this dish.

I got their famous Momofuku Ramen. It was really good too, but still a bit salty. I do realize that ramen in general tends to be saltier, so I’m sure it’s good ramen. I just have a dull palette. ha.

The next day I went to the Donut Plant (379 Grand St., New York NY) which I’ve been meaning to for the past few months. I finally got to go and it was definitely real good. Very unique flavors.

They’ve been on the Food Network before, showcasing their variety of flavors for their donuts. It’s crazy because they seriously make different ones each day. I got the White Peach donut. Oh man, that was really good too.

I definitely enjoyed my donut. I wouldn’t mind going back sometime…:hint hint:

Lastly, I went to this place in Fresh Meadows called Kyoto (153-11 Union Turnpike, Queens, NY). It’s a real cute place right next to a relatively sketchy bar…but nonetheless, they had good sushi rolls and an assortment of Thai and Japanese food. I ordered an Angel Roll, which I can’t remember what it consisted of. It definitely had crunchy stuff on top with tuna I believe…

It was fun times, eating and celebrating my friend Jenn’s birthday. We ordered a bunch of other things, but as I said before this blog entry cannot be any longer…hahah.

Anyway, this is just part 1 of my August eats. Check back next time to catch my other adventures around this beautiful, food-ridden city.