Chinese, East Village, Restaurant Reviews

Han Dynasty

December 3, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My wife and I stopped by “Handy Nasty” for a quick bite before a concert at Webster Hall. I’d heard good things about this place, so was eager to try it out.

We started with an order of pork belly with chili oil. This was served cold. The texture of the fat on each slice was noodle-like, and the meat was likely boiled and then sliced thin. It had good flavor, and I suppose all that oil is meant to be mixed into the big bowl of rice that comes with it. Honestly we could have been full just from that alone. Portion sizes are massive here.

We also tried the dry pepper chicken wings. These were a little greasy from the puffed up batter on the wings, but the addition of chili paste, fried ginger, fried garlic and dry peppers give it a great flavor. The meat itself was very juicy.

My wife had the dan dan noodles. The mildly spicy peanut sauce is mixed into the noodles table-side for this massive portion of starch.

I went with an old stand-by: chicken lo mein. I figured I would test the mettle of this joint by ordering something so insanely common just to see how they executed. It was great – probably close to my favorite of the night, right alongside the pork belly. Quality ingredients and correct proportions of each, along with a hit of spice and low grease content, all make this a winner:

HAN DYNASTY
90 3rd Ave.
New York, NY 10003

American, Other, Restaurant Reviews

Peck’s Arcade

November 29, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Peck’s Arcade is a great restaurant up in Troy, New York. My wife‘s friend Nick is the chef there:

When we were up in the area visiting my wife’s family for Thanksgiving, we stopped in to try the food. The building itself is a really cool historic structure that used to be an inn:

The place was full – even the wine bar next door that is under the same ownership.

We had a great bar style seat that was overlooking the small but extremely organized and efficient kitchen staff:

The cocktail menu is really dynamic, with old fashioned shit like the Pisco Sour, as well as new recipes like the Hibiscus Negroni.

Pisco Sour and a Red Scare are pictured below. Both were really tasty and well made.

We started out with several small plates. First was the octopus with hummus and roasted red pepper:

The char was excellent on this. The tentacle itself was expertly cleaned to be void of any chewy skin but the suction cups remained for a great crispy texture. It was soft and light.

Next was the bowl of wild mushrooms:

This might have been my favorite of the night. The mushrooms were simply but properly done with brown butter and coarse salt.

Next we tried a crostini with sardine. This was really flavorful and smoky, with a great savory punch to it.

The last of the small plates we tried were these fire roasted local carrots with dill, yogurt sauce, spicy smoked pepper paste and brown butter crackers:

Next we tried a pair of house-made pasta dishes. The first was the pillow soft gnocchi with a nice classic tomato and basil sauce:

The star, though, was the thick chitarra pasta that was served with broccoli rabe, a mild cheese sauce and some grated egg yolk.

It brought out the inner goombah in me so much that I started loading up my fork with twirling motions against a spoon, like my grandfather used to do:

For dessert we tried this really tasty smores panna cotta that came with chocolate cake, burnt sea salted marshmallow and homemade graham crackers.

Some cookies came with the bill as well. These also had a hint of salt in them, just like the dessert, which made the chocolate in both items really pop on the taste buds.

If you happen to be in the Albany/Troy area, definitely give this place a try. Everything on the menu looked so good, and with a seasonal menu that changes often, it will always offer something unique and different with each visit.

PECK’S ARCADE
217 Broadway
Troy, NY 12180

Recipes

Winter is Coming

November 29, 2015 Johnny Prime 2 Comments

It’s really simple:

1 part Amaretto
1 part Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey Whiskey
1 part Kahlua

Shake up with ice and pour over some rocks. It starts out looking cloudy and light brown, but then it darkens up as it settles. A riff on this if it is too strong is to mix in a little bit of milk, but then the whole dynamic changes.

These were a smash hit on Thanksgiving. I must’ve made a half dozen of them for family members that took a sip of mine and then wanted their own. To me, it tasted like liquid brown sugar. My sister said it tasted like chocolate covered black cherries. My wife said it was a very “Fall/Autumn” drink.

Commentary

The Turkey Cake

November 27, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This is just a quick photo dump of my wife‘s insane turkey cake that she made this year for Thanksgiving. Not only does the turkey itself look real, with realistic looking roasted skin an all, but she made side items like broccoli, cauliflower, grapes, lemons, berries, carrots, peas, sage leaves and stuffing as well. Unreal.

Underneath the delicious marshmallow fondant skin was a really soft and moist vanilla layer cake with vanilla frosting. Mmmmm.

Press Reviews, Product Reviews

Chef Anthony’s Smoked Fish Dip

November 27, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My buddy is a golf instructor down in Florida. His roommate is a chef, who started the Exquisite Bites catering company. That chef, Anthony Ramirez, has concocted an awesome smoked wahoo fish dip that is super addicting.

My buddy has been telling me about this stuff for a while, so over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend he transported some for me to try, from Florida, all the way up to New York.

The ingredients are simple and fresh: smoked wahoo, cream cheese, cream, worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, sweet relish, onions and celery, with some spices, seasoning and herbs.

The saltiness of the smoked wahoo is cut and balanced by the cream cheese. The small bits of minced celery and sweet relish add a pop of brightness with each bite.

This stuff is perfect for parties or binge snacking with some chips, pretzels, crackers or breadsticks.

I’m hoping this product takes off. Not enough people are in the know about wahoo and how great of a fish it is.

Flash Deals, Midtown West, Ramen

I Noodles

November 25, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This relatively new ramen joint just offered up a Groupon deal that included two bowls of ramen for $19.

We tried the tonkotsu (pork) and beef bowls. Both were a little bit weak in terms of broth strength, and the noodles themselves were a bit too soft/overcooked. The beef bowl came with straight alkali noodles, two slices of beef short rib, bamboo shoots, corn, cabbage, green onions and bean sprouts.

The broth had more of a Chinese soup flavor as opposed to the characteristic Japanese flavors you might normally associate with ramen. The meat was tender, but I think the use of cabbage watered down the broth too much and took away from what was meant to be a more full, thick and murky stock.

The better of the two was the tonkotsu, mainly because it came with seasoned boiled egg, which was the best part about both bowls of ramen here.

The pork meat was better too, and this came with mushrooms as well as the bamboo shoots, corn and green onion. The noodles in this were wavy egg style.

They offer a good happy hour with $3 beer and $5 wine, which is cool, but outside of using a Groupon I am not sure this place is ultimately worth your while. At full price I would have been annoyed at the quality, but since it was only $19 for two bowls it didn’t hurt as much. Caveat Emptor.

INOODLES
150 W 36th St
New York, NY 10018

Recipes

Sweet Cactus

November 23, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Adding to my repertoire of cocktails made with aloe drink, I went a little deeper into that family of aloe/cactus plant lineage with this mezcal-based drink:

1 part aged mezcal
2 parts aloe drink
1 teapoon agave syrup
1 packet of sugar in the raw
a squirt of lime juice

Shake with ice, and serve on ice. Very refreshing.

Recipes

Aloe Guvna

November 22, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Over the last few weeks I’ve been trying to make a dent in some booze that I haven’t touched for a while in the liquor cabinet. I offered to make my wife a cocktail and she said “surprise me,” so I figured I would concoct something new and unique.

I have a LOT of scotch, so that was the first ingredient I picked. I took the lemon juice out, and grabbed a packet of sugar in the raw. But it needed something else. I opened the fridge and saw some aloe drinks. Perfect! It has a lychee-ish, grape-ish, elderflower-ish flavor to it, and a bit sweet but refreshing at the same time.

So I threw one part scotch, two or three parts aloe drink, lemon juice and sugar into the shaker with some ice and went to work shakin’ that shit. The result was a foggy yellow colored drink that was absolutely incredible!

Strong, sweet, refreshing and unique. You can swap the lemon for lime if you want, and you could add a dash of spicy ginger beer if you have it, or perhaps a splash of cherry juice. I garnished with a cherry.

East Village, Ramen

Ramen Setagaya

November 21, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I’ve been meaning to check this place out for a while and finally got around to it this afternoon.

I went with the miso ramen based on the waitress’ suggestion between this and one other bowl I was considering.

It was okay. The broth was a bit bland, likely due to the cabbage watering it down a bit. But the egg was perfect, the pork was really nicely cooked (although only two small pieces was a slight bummer), the bamboo shoots were fresh and tasty, the wavy egg noodles were cooked properly, and the scallions were nicely chopped rather than shredded. I think if the broth punches up a little, and if you order this without cabbage, it would be a better bowl of noodles.

RAMEN SETAGAYA
34 St Marks Pl
New York, NY 10003

Product Reviews

Charlito’s Cocina

November 21, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Since I had a credit with Carnivore Club, I ordered a regular box. The quality is once again incredible. Take a look at the unboxing below. This time I had four sausage items from Charlito’s Cocina:

Inside, there is a card that tells you all about the meats you are about to eat, along with suggested pairings like cheeses.

Here’s what they look like unwrapped – like shriveled penises:

While a shriveled penis is admittedly not the greatest look in the world, I’m pretty certain that these taste much better than a shriveled penis. If any of you have had both, give me your opinions.

So as I was going over my note card along with my packaged meats, I noticed something. The “salami picante,” #4 on the note card, was swapped out for “campo seco.” It seems the provider ran out of the salami picante and substituted the campo seco instead, but Carnivore Club was unaware and unable to update the note card in time for the shipment.

No bother to me, really, other than the fact that campo seco and cerveza seca were somewhat similar in both look and flavor. Cerveza seca was a bit leaner, however, while campo seco had large blobs of delicious fatty white spots throughout – most of which were surprisingly tender.

The chorizo was good. Not too potent and garlicky, as some can be, and it had a mild heat to it that didn’t overpower.

The clear winner by far, however, was the “trufa seca” truffle sausage. It was coated with a sea salt and was vibrantly flavored with that earthy and robust truffle flavor. Absolutely delicious. I’ve never tasted something so unique in this kind of product.

I highly recommend purchasing meat from this supplier, Charlito’s Cocina. And if it isn’t obvious, I am a big fan of Carnivore Club. This box alone would cost WAY more if all items were purchased separately, so you’re getting a good deal along with such great service. I let Carnivore Club know about the swapped sausage issue for #4, and they, along with Charlito’s, insisted on sending me the salami picante even over my protestations. Good people!

So after keeping a close eye on this supplier, I noticed they set up shop at the Union Square Holiday Market (I am always stalking their Instagram feed) for the 2015 Christmas season.

I went down after I was all out of their delicious sausages and picked up three packages of trufa seca. While I was down there I got to meet the owner and founder, Charles (left). He threw in a package of chorizo for me to sample!!! I am really excited to bring this sausage out to my folks for Thanksgiving!