Han Ah Reum Supermarket Foodcourt

Address: 321 Broad Ave, Ridgefield, New Jersey

Phone: 201-943-9600

Gan and I absolutely love the food court at Han Ah Reum supermaket near Palisades Park, NJ. We were introduced to this supermarket by our friend Ray sometime ago (he's our source to all good stuffs in NJ :) ) and we have been going there for food shopping and lunch/dinner ever since. We love the spicy chanpon noodles there and for about $8, you can enjoy a bowl of spicy seafood soup with homemade noodles. You get also get dishes like Kalbi Tang, Abalone Porridge, Soon Do Boo Chigae etc. Two thumbs up for this place!

Gan: This is one of the main reason I love the NYC metropolitan area (including NJ). The influx of immigrants in these area introduces a lot of possibilities in terms of culinary choices as well as ethnic food products (groceries). Mitsuwa, the Japanese groceries supermart at Edgewater is great for its Japanese produce (japanese organic eggs, cucumber, eggplants, and of course the seafood). The Korean groceries like Han Ah Reum is most famous for their great beef selections, especially the ribs (kalbi).

Spicy Seafood Chanpon Noodles

Gan: It's Chinese Korean but they are uniquely Korean because of their hot paste soup and noodles. It's really spicy but they're great. I think the key is they stir fry all the ingredients first, chinese style with the high heat wok before adding it onto the blanched noodle and spicy soup.

Jar Jiang mien- korean style.

Gan: Another Chinese Korean dish. Don't look appetizing with the color but the bean paste sauce with the noodle is great.

Yaokui Gan

Tailor

Address: 525 Broome Street, New York

http://tailornyc.com

Phone: 212-334-5182

We've finally tried Tailor. In terms of food concepts and presentations, there were a lot of similarities between Tailor and wd~50. But I feel that Sam Mason's Tailor has a long way to go before it's at the same level as Chef Dufresne's wd~50. Overall, the food was good, but I wasn't exactly wowed. Surprisingly the Salty dishes were more impressive than the Sweets, which puzzled me a little since Sam Mason, is after all a star dessert chef. My favorite dishes there were the Chorizo Cured Kampachi, Roasted Duck and Pork Belly with Miso Butterscotch. I don't really have a favorite dessert at Tailor, I thought they were all ok, but if I absolutely have to pick one, I'll have to say that the cheesecake paste was quite unique.
Gan: You hear it all the time but yet, it's amazing to see how often (in my humble opinion) restaurants keep forgetting this. "Keep it simple". "Let the ingredients speak for itself". "Good food do not have to be complicated". Gordan Ramsay lives by it. Thomas Keller perfected it. Even the Japanese makes it a cardinal rule to their cuisine. Tailor, it seems, had fallen victim to its creator's past success. Avant garde for the sake of it does not necessarily yield positive results and that is the case with this establishment. I agree with Sarah that there's a lot of similarity between Chef Duffresne's wd~50 and Sam Mason's Tailor. However, there's one big difference between them. Coming out of the dinner at wd~50, I can say the taste of the food was the most memorable experience that night, more than all the experimental, molecular gastronomy, and interesting presentation/plating. Sadly, I can't say the same after the dinner at Tailor. For some reason, when I give some thoughts to this, the always entertaining Iron Chef came to my mind. Specifically, it's the epic-like battle between Chef Morimoto's Neo Japanese cooking and the Ohta faction's traditional Japanese cooking. Morimoto was always chided for his perceived lack of respect for traditional Japanese cooking method by mixing it with elements from other cuisine. I have been a fan of his neo Japanese food but more than anything, I think I have respect for his willingness to take risk.
Back to Tailor... A bit long-winded on this.. hehehe :-) I commend Tailor for their willingness to take the risk in trying to advance their concept of blurring the line between dinner and dessert. There's some hits and misses in the dishes but overall, I think it's confused by its own complexity.

Bazooka cocktail - Vodka, Bubble Gum Cordial, House Sour

Diane and Jie Siang

Chorizo Cured Kampachi, Sweet Potato Cream, Potato Granola

Gan: I like this just as Sarah did. Quite a lot going on.. and can't really smell or taste sausage in the chorizo cured kampachi. The fish however, was salty, which I guess could be from curing it with chorizo (a usually salty sausage) and it works well with the sweetness of the garnishes.

Monk Fish Risotto

Gan: The risotto was creamy and goes well with the well cooked monk fish. I like most of the fish dishes. We actually ordered one of each dish from the menu for both sides of the table. Lol.. yao kuis!

Peeky Toe Crab, Pineapple, Basil, Pine Nut Puree - I don't quite like the taste of pineapple foam with crab.

Gan: I also agree with Sarah. Foams are usually focussed on the flavor (pineapple in this case) and light or airy. It doesn't have the original texture and are meant to be used as flavoring agent for the underlying protein. But pineapple flavor over peekytoe crab (used to be a throw away by product of lobster fishing) seems to be too overpowering for me.

Roasted Duck, Spaghetti Squash, Chanterelles, Raisin Dashi - Love the duck and the Chanterelles mushrooms

Gan: I think the sweet raisin dashi goes well with the duck, as with most sweet sauces. This is an interesting tasting dish and I like it.

Pork Belly, Miso Butterscotch, Artichoke - delicious!

Gan: I got the last piece of the pork belly and had the one without the crispy skin! Grrr... :-( The miso butterscotch sauce was yummy though.

Passion Fruit Poached Char, Lime Pickle, Coconut - a refreshing fish dish

Manchego Cheesecake, Concord Sorbet, Sage - the white paste on the plate was actually the cheesecake ;)

Gan: The cheesecake was not good for me. I didn't like this one at all. Not the taste which was way too sour for me and not the presentation, which didn't look too appetizing.

Black Olives, Sorbet - hmm....this dessert was strange.

French Toast - so so....

Gan: It's definitely an interesting dessert. Breakfast in dessert? As the waiter kept repeating.. it's outrageous!

Nick and Oi Yen

Sripraphai

Address: 64-13 39th Ave, Woodside NY

Phone: 718-899-9599


I miss the Sripraphai before the New York Times article...the place was less crowded then. You did not need to wait 30 minutes to get a table, and the restaurant was just a simple hole-in-the-wall place that served authentic Thai food. But as long as the food is good, Gan and I will still go back there since this is only place in NYC where we can find food that taste like those back home.

Gan's favorite - BBQ pork

Fried Shrimp Cake

Papaya salad - SPICY!

Steamed Tilapia Filet with ginger - we like this dish because it reminds us of our mom's cooking, but I thought the fish was overcooked, so I might not want to order this dish again the next time.

Chinese Broccoli with Fried Pork belly

Oriental Garden

Address: 14 Elizabeth St, New York, NY

Phone: 212-619-0085

Today a bunch of us Malaysian went to have Dim Sum at Oriental Garden on Elizabeth and Canal. It was amazing how much food we ate and how quickly we consumed all those dim sums!! It's obvious that we were the most rowdy bunch there, but since we were ordering so much food and since the managers knew our friend Nina really well, we got special treatment (and extra chili sauce! Ha!). This is officially one of my favorite Dim Sum places in NYC. Expect to wait in line especially on the weekends. Gan: Dim Sum is one of the most recognizable chinese cantonese dish. It translate as "touch of the heart". As with many Chinese dishes, you can always find a story behind every chinese dish origin. The one for dim sum is one of my favorite. One of the past king of China's wives used this little snacks to win the heart of the King and stole his attention away from the other wives. The moral of the story? Not only can you get the chicks, you get food to go with it as well! Lol.

In America, the better dim sum are usually found in the west coast due to what I think is a higher concentration of Cantonese immigrants (from HK) there. NYC's chinese immigrants are usually from other regions of China. That's probably why the dim sum is usually not as good as in some other west coast cities like San Francisco or Los Angeles or Vancouver. Oriental Garden is definitely one of the better ones in the city. According to Nina, she had yet to find any dim sum restaurant, on both side of the coast that serves better dim sum. I agree!

"Chong Fun with Yao Tui"

Gan: Darling, err.. isn't it yao tiu? Why don't you just call it Char Liong?

Assorted Dim Sums

Gan: Bean curd with some meat fillings and sauce. I love this.

Tea + Dim Sums

Gan: Dim sum dishes are usually quite greasy. Tea is a good way to wash them all down.

Egg Tarts

The yaokuis - seriously, that's all Malaysians do, eat!

Gan: Troublemakers lah!

Look at how many dim sums we ordered?! We were not even done yet!!

Gan: This was just during the first 15 minutes of the meal. Each circle represents a dim sum basket/steamer.

Kyotofu

Address: 705 Ninth Ave, New York, NY

http://www.kyotofunyc.com

Phone: 212-974-6012

Kyotofu has been on our "to try list" for a long time since I love tofu (ALOT). Today we met up with Ray and Sarah there for afternoon tea. I thought the black sesame sweet tofu that I ordered was yummilicious and the chocolate souffle cupcake that Ray ordered (which I stole some) was pretty good as well. We chatted with one of the owners of Kyotofu on our way out and was surprised to find out that he knew the owner of Kyoto Tofu Cafe at Roppongi Hills, which is one of my favorite cafe in Tokyo. Gan and I told Michael, the owner, that we love the tofu doughnut at Kyoto Tofu Cafe and hinted that it would be great if they open a store in NYC. Lets see if that will happen. I will be their #1 customer for sure!

Gan: I feel the tofu was made fresh but forgot to ask Michael, the owner. However, they serve their tofu with a spoonful of sweet sauce which overpowers the delicate taste of the tofu. The tofu itself was really good and in my opinion, could do without the sweet stuffs.

Black sesame sweet tofu - very delicate and not too sweet.
Gan: But the syrup on the side was quite sweet. It's good that they separate it so we have the option to not use it.

Signature sweet tofu - Gan forgot to leave some for me and ate the whole thing by himself!

Gan: ^_^' sorry, boss

My cup of Hoji-cha

Chocolate souffle cupcake - tasted more like souffle than cupcake, but it was good. Thanks Ray, for sharing!

Here's the lunch menu

Sarah, Ray, Sarah, Gan :)

Gan: Was meeting with Sarah and Ray who just came back from Shanghai. The interior of the shop is modern, simple and clean. Matches well with the focus of their product.

That's the owner Michael, was really nice talking to him.

Kyotofu's pastry chefs