Dinosaur Bar-B-Que

Address: 646 W 131st St, New York

http://www.dinosaurbarbque.com

Phone: 212-694-1777

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que started in Upstate New York by a group of bikers, and it became legendary for its ribs and opened its first store in NYC in 2004. With so many restaurants to try in the city, Dino BBQ was not on our radar for some time, until we saw After Hour with Daniel. So with much anticipation, Gan and I drove north from Jersey City to Harlem on Friday night to sample some really good ribs.

Because of the restaurant's popularity, there was a 2 hour wait to get a table, but of course being an experience diner (*wink), I had reserved a table ahead of time, so we only waited for about 20 minutes before we got seated. I didn't have time to research on the popular dishes there but I thought the fried green tomato sounds good and Gan like the drunken spicy shrimp boil, so we ordered those for appetizers. As for the entree, I had the Three Meat Combo, which came with a 1/4 rack of ribs, Texas briskets, BBQ chicken and two sides, while Gan had the 1/2 rack of ribs with 2 sides. We had a good start with the amazing appetizers; the friend green tomato and the drunken spicy shrimp boil were so delicious. However, when the ribs came, we were quite disappointed. My ribs were not bad, they had a faint apple and hickory wood smoky taste and they were tender, but Gan's ribs were not cooked well at all. The meat should really be cooked another 4 hours or so before it was served. I guess that was a good example of bad quality control??

Overall, thumbs down for Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. Maybe the Syracuse and Rochester restaurants serve better ribs, but not this one in NYC. They've got to focus on getting their ribs right.

Gan: I like where the restaurant is located (off the normal paths of NYC streets and avenues, nearby the West Side Highway in Harlem) and the atmosphere of the interior. Very rustic and bbq like as in American South. Personally, I'm not that big of a barbeque fan as I sometimes think the Texas barbeque style with its strong barbeque sauce layered on the meat on top of another overpowers the meat sometimes. It's typical in the barbeque smoking methods where meat is usually infused heavily with all kinds of flavor and smell, with the type of wood to the ingredients used in the sauce to cover it. You sometimes can't really distinguish how good or fresh the meat is. So the trick, it seems, is to slow cook it as much as possible and using the sauce to coat the meat enough so moisture is kept in the meat. It's good when the meat is soft and tender, as it is strong in taste.

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que take-outs. Maybe we should have done that.

Gan: Price is very reasonable. The quality of the barbeque meat is much better than the typical barbeque restaurants.

The waiting area

Rustic, biker interior

The restaurant's own BBQ sauce

Gan: You can find this in the grocery stores as well. An enterprising business.

Fried Green Tomato

drunken spicy shrimp boil

Gan: Strong cajun spice. Not your typical shrimp cocktail.

3 meat combo with mac & cheese and BBQ beans
Gan: Sarah's rib was much more tender and moist than mine. So I ended up eating from her plate more than mine. She had all 3 types of meat - pork ribs, beef brisket, and chicken. It's one of the better barbeque ribs you can get in the city.

Malacca 06 & 07 Part 1

It took me a while to put everything together on Malacca (my hometown) and now it's finally done! Honestly, I don't know most of the restaurants' name, so I'll have refer them based on their locations. Anyways, here are some of my favorite restaurants in Malacca, Part 1.

Gan: What you like to eat is mostly determined by what you eat when you were growing up. So for us, Melaka is a source of most of our culinary idiosyncracies, our likes and dislikes, and our passion for appreciating good food in general. It only makes sense for us to review some of the food we've grown up with.

Kampung Pantai Bak Kee Soup

One of Gan's favorite dishes -- Bak Kee Soup (Pork in soy sauce broth served with rice on the side). I've never eaten this dish before but according to Gan, it's good!

Gan: Another typical Hokkien dish. You coat the pork slices with tapioca flour and boil it in the soup. The tapioca coating turns into a geletine like texture. That's where I think the dish is most interesting, in the texture. Of course, the flavors with how the season the pork and the flour as well as the soup and the aromatic yam rice rounds this dish up.

The Spotted Pig

Address: 314 W. 11th Street, New York

http://thespottedpig.com

Phone: 2121-620-0393

It's incredibly difficult to get a table at Spotted Pig. We've already tried going there twice, and we were told each time that there was a two hour wait for a table. Ravi and Laura, our friends/readers had told us the best way to get a table is to go at an odd hour. So we went there around 5pm today and true enough we were able to secure a table after a 30 minutes wait! And best of all, during our wait by the entrance, we got a glimpse of chef/owner April Bloomfield walking in and out and she even smiled at me! :)

The restaurant's one Michelin star is definitely well deserved. The food there was spot on in terms of flavor and freshness, and the meat was cooked flawlessly. I especially love the Prosciutto & Ricotta Tart with Marjoram and the Sauteed Quail with Pomegranate. The Tart's pastry is delicious and goes well with the prosciutto, Ricotta cheese and Arugula. The Quail was very tender and the Pomegranate sauce provided a sweet, sour and tangy touch to the dish. Our pub meal would not be complete without the beer, so Gan and I each ordered the Speckled Hen pub ale and it was hearty and complemented the dishes well.

I would definitely go back to Spotted Pig again. It's one of the best meals I have eaten in NYC and definitely worth the wait.

Gan: We have heard about the gastro-pub movement but were not quite sure what was the big fuss until we've tried the food here. The food here is really very good and is on par with the better restaurants. Most of the dishes, it seems, goes well with the typical bar beverage. This is something like the Japanese Izakaya which we love to go to (not for the alcohol, but mostly for the tapas like dishes).

Spotted Pig's interior- the restaurant has two bars, one on the first floor and the other one is upstairs on the second floor. We were seated upstairs which was just as crowded. Our table was tiny and barely fit the two of us. But we were comfortable.

Gan: Pigs all over the interiors! It's as though there's some kind of pig fetish going on here... but surprisingly, there's not that much of pork dishes on the menu. Go figure!

Spotted Pig's dinner menu

The upstairs' bar

Speckled Hen Pub Ale

Half a dozen of Beau Soleil Oysters with Mignonette

Gan: We ordered it because someone brought a tray of it into the restaurant while we were waiting out front and it looked fresh! Sarah's always love raw oysters ever since she had her first (many of her culinary firsts are introduced by me.. hehe)

Deviled Egg

Gan: You can have some bar snacks to accompany your typical pub beverage. This can replace your normal appetizers while you're waiting to be seated.

Chicken Liver Toast - a little too rich for me

Gan: Hehe.. we scrapped the excess off

Prosciutto & Ricotta Tart with Marjoram

Gan: The puff pastry is really good!

Grilled Skirt Steak with Horseradish Sauce & Roasted Beets

Gan: Was quite surprised at how tender the meat was. The same goes for the squab. They really know how to cook their meat well. I'm happily surprised by the sourness in the seasoning of the meat (perhaps due to vinegar?) but it enhances the taste of the dish. Quite simple.. and the roasted beets were great in place of the typical starch.

Sauteed Quail with Pomegranate - it's not easy to cook Quail, most Quails I have eaten are somewhat dry/overcooked, but Spotted Pig's is just perfect. Moist and Tender. Gan: Quite surprised to see a squab dish on the menu in a pub. Was extremely glad that we ordered it. I must say again, they really know how to cook meat here.

Prune and Argmagnac Tart

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Gan: The desert was good but it's not spectacular. We had a good 3-4 course dinner here and if it had just been shown with the pictures of the food, I don't think anyone would've thought they were all from a pub. I guess I can see what the fuss is about now with the gastro-pub movement.

Editor's note: thespottedpig.com seems to have found this little blog site and posted a link from their page. Bet a good review of the food helps. Don't worry, we will continue to be impartial and write what we thought as the main targeted audience of this blog site is for friends we know first, and food lovers in general. Just amused to find this little blog site in some restaurants public website link: http://thespottedpig.com/links.php

Kunjip

Address: 9 W 32nd St, New York

Phone: 212-216-9487

We like Kunjip in K Town and thought the Korean BBQ there is pretty good. However, yesterday's meal was disappointing and not to mention quite pricey. We ordered a combination BBQ and a Gobdol Bibimbop, and in the end, the only thing that tasted good was the free appetizer/panchan - steamed egg casserole. Maybe the food was not good because we went there for dinner really late (11pm)?

The Combination BBQ meal comes with a bowl of Soon Doo Boo Chigae. It was not bad.

Gobdol Bibimbop. Quite tasteless and the ingredients weren't too fresh.

Combination BBQ - beef, pork belly and beef tongue. We love to grill our kimchee.

Yakitori Taisho

Yakitori Taisho

Address: 5 Saint Marks Pl , New York

Phone: 212-228-5086

Gan and I used to hang out in the East Village alot more during our earlier days in NYC since my college was close by. Before Yakitori Totto, Yakitori Taisho in the East Village was one of the few yakitori places in the city. It's insanely popular with NYU students since the food is not bad and decently priced. This was also the place where Gan and I were chased after by a waitress for more tip a couple of years ago! Mind you, we usually tip fairly, but we had a good reason for that time -- we only had enough cash for about 12% tip and didn't want to use our credit card. But 12% tip is still a tip right?!

Anyways, we went to Taisho after watching one of the No Reservation episodes where Anthony Bourdain was enjoying delicious yakitori in Tokyo, but regretted the decision as soon as we tasted the yakitori. It was horrible and a real waste of money. Definitely will not go back there again.

Ume Chazuke was decent

The worst Yakitori - the meat was not fresh, the seasoning was too much and the gyutan (beef tongue) was overcooked