Deli, Italian, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Vintner Wine Market

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My wife and I strolled by this cool spot on Sunday and popped in for a beer and a sandwich. Vintner Wine Market sports hundreds of cool and unique beer selections in their fridges, as well as wines (by the glass and bottle). But what really got my attention was the roast beef sandwich.

This baby comes with horseradish cheddar, mayo and red onion. Simple and delicious. And the baguette was nice and fresh.

Good sized sandwich. We will be back here for sure.

VINTNER WINE MARKET
677 9th Ave
New York, NY 10036

Chinese, Long Island, Restaurant Reviews

Hoi Ming

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Hoi Ming has been feeding Long Islanders in the Oakdale/Sayville area since the 1960’s as far as I can tell.

The earliest notation I could find online about this place was something about it opening in 1971, but my folks seem to remember it being there in the 60’s. In any case it’s borderline ancient. There’s even a New York Times review of the place from 1976. Click the image below to view the article.

Not much has changed inside the place from what I remember back when I was there in the 80’s. Wood paneled walls. Lots of red. And an awesomely dim and cavernous tiki bar of sorts.

My whole family came here again recently to celebrate my parents’ anniversary. Basically, we just ordered a bunch of apps, but I was surprised that everything was actually pretty good.

Here’s the famous pupu platter – nothing has changed about this from my childhood memory of it.

Inside the foil was minced and spiced chicken.

The boneless spare ribs are generously portioned and delicious. My nephew calls them “red chicken,” not to be confused with the actual chicken that’s red in the pupu platter tinfoil.

And the shrimp toast is tasty as well. Pardon the blurry photo. My dad grabbed the plate and asked if I needed him to hold it for me.

I didn’t shoot anything else, but the menu is pretty standard. This place keeps its prices fair and provides a level of certainty and consistency for the locals who frequent the establishment. I guess that’s why it’s been there for 50 years.

HOI MING
469 Main St
West Sayville, NY 11796

Food Halls, Italian, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Dell’ Anima

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This spot just opened up in the Gotham West Market food hall, and is formerly of west village fame. My wife and I tried a pair of cocktails and a pair of pasta entrees. All were great. Here’s the breakdown:

Roasted Orange Negroni:

Tastes just how it sounds. Really great cocktail with prosecco, campari and roasted orange.

Blame it on the Aperol:

Aperol, gin, lemonade and soda. Perfectly refreshing.

Speck Carbonara:

Perfectly cooked tagliatelle with freshly shaved cheese and a gorgeous egg yolk, spiced up and naturally salted by the generous amount of speck in the dish.

Oyster Mushroom Pappardelle:

This was the winner. Amazing texture in the wheat pasta, nice pop from the Aleppo peppers, and great earthy flavors from the garlic and mushrooms.

We will definitely be back to try the other pasta dishes for sure, and likely for the apps and main meats as well.

DELL’ ANIMA
Gotham West Market
600 11th Avenue
New York, NY 10036

Burgers, East Village, Full Points for Flavor, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts

Mister Paradise

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Mister Paradise puts up an awesome burger! Their 25% dry-aged patty comes from Master Purveyors in the Bronx, but it also includes suet in the mix. This gives it a characteristic and deep, robust beefiness.

To top things off, the cheese is infused with bacon! It comes with slices of pickle on the side, and some caramelized onion on it as well. This is a top burger of the year for sure. Go give it a try.

UPDATE!

On the last Sunday of evey month, this place transforms into Paradise Prime: a tableside service 1960’s mod-inspired prime rib joint!

The set menu includes wine and cocktails like their expertly mixed martinis and Rob Roys.

Snack on some chicken liver mousse crostini while you sip.

After that, you’ll watch your Caesar salad be made from scratch; dressing and all.

Then there’s some massive cocktail shrimp to eat, and sides of creamed spinach and roasted potatoes accompany the main event.

The main event? A perfectly roasted slab of prime rib, carved right before your eyes!

Dessert is a unique and delicious malted pandan ice cream sundae with Johnnie Walker Blue on the side for your sipping pleasure.

At $150 this is a no-brainer! Tickets are available on their website, and I highly recommend you get yours ASAP. This meal is awesome – 10/10!

MISTER PARADISE
105 1st Avenue
New York, NY 10009

Burgers, East Village

Boilermaker

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I finally got to try the burger at Boilermaker this week. I had heard great things about this for a while.

I went with the single patty with American cheese. Each burger comes pre-dressed with thin sliced tomato and red onion, as well as a special sauce and slaw. The slaw and sauce are what really make this burger pop. Despite the unmelted cheese, I really liked this one.

BOILERMAKER
13 1st Avenue
New York, NY 10003

Restaurant Reviews, Upper West Side

Pappardella

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My wife and I came here to use some of her Blackboard Eats credit. I think we got something like 30% off the bill thanks to her. Anyway, let’s get down to business.

We started with a mixed charcuterie plate. We chose mortadella, finocchiona and bresaola. This was great, but slightly pricey at $21.

Next up was wagyu carpaccio with arugula, shaved parmigiana and pistachios. I loved this. A little squirt of lemon really made this pop.

Next up was the calamari. This was served in a tomato broth of sorts, with raisins. It was too sweet, and the squid itself was really bland and flavorless, despite being nicely cooked and tender. If you go here, skip this one.

For our entrees, we tried a pair of pasta dishes. First was this “pappardelle buttera” dish with peas and sweet and hot sausage. While I didn’t get much kick from the hot sausage, the sauce and all components – including the pasta itself – were perfect. Get this one.

We also tried the tagliatelle spinachi, which was a green spinach pasta served with roasted cherry tomatoes, shrimp and Calabrian chilis. This had no heat – maybe one single chili was in the dish. Like the squid, the shrimp was also bland as well. Weak flavors for such bold ingredients. Pass on this one.

That about does it. We skipped dessert because we were pretty full. Over all this place was mediocre. Some hits, some misses. But I think if you stick with the carpaccio and the pappardelle you’ll be happy.

PAPPARDELLA
316 Columbus Ave
New York, NY 10023

Commentary

Charcuterie Masters 2019

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It’s that time of year!!! One of my favorite meat events is coming to Flushing Town Hall again next week on February 23rd. That’s right: Charcuterie Masters is BACK, hosted again by NY Epicurian Events.

They are a Catskill Mountains-based producer of premiere farm-to-table food and wine festivals and educational programs. They pair the agricultural bounty (including grass-finished beef, organic produce, artisan cheeses, smoked fish, and wines from the region’s lush mountain valleys and fresh water streams) with New York City’s most innovative chefs and the culinary community.

Their goals include creating jobs, driving economic development by assisting family farmers and local artisans, and fostering culinary and agricultural tourism in the Catskill-Delaware New York City Watershed. This exposes everyone – from chefs to culinary professionals to foodies to gourmets – to delicious, fresh, sustainable and healthful foods.

From the ticketing page:

“Sink your teeth into the best of the best charcuterie as artisans—makers of sausages, patés, hams, salumi, and more—gather once again to vie for top honors at the fourth annual Charcuterie Masters. Enjoy unlimited tasting of more than 60 varieties of charcuterie, including sumptuous Portuguese Alentejano ham from Rodrigo Duarte who will also be doing a butchery demonstration of this forerunner to the pig that produces Spain’s famed jamon de pata negra. Like what you taste? You can also purchase charcuterie on site.

In honor of the Year of the Pig Chef Stephen Yen of Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill will be roasting a pig in La Caja China and preparing sumptuous roast pork bao with garlic hoisin, scallions, and cucumber.

Meet the charcutiers and taste exquisite dishes prepared by top NYC chefs, including Pitmaster Josh Bowen of Queens’ very own John Brown Smokehouse and Alfonso Zhicay of Casa del Chef Bistro. Savor pairings, including beer from Queens’ Mikkeller NYC as well as cider as well as cider and top-rated wines from Rooftop Reds.
VIP guests will have access to the entire festival one hour earlier and exclusive access to the Charcuterie Masters VIP Experience, which includes exclusive charcuterie selections from Muncan Food Corp., top-shelf spirits, and a charcuterie surprise prepared by New York Epicurean Events president Chef David Noeth, as well as an exclusive charcuterie demonstration.

In addition to the prestigious Charcuterie Masters Awards there will be a People’s Choice Awards where attendees will be able to vote for their favorite charcuterie booth and restaurant!”

A $70 general admission ticket entitles guests to explore unlimited tasting and sampling of all food and beverages. Additionally, there will be $150 VIP tickets sold, which will allow access to a special hour with early access to the entire festival. You can get your ticket HERE.

Maybe I’ll see some of you meat maniacs there!!!

Chinese, East Village, Restaurant Reviews

Hunan Slurp

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I came to Hunan Slurp with a group of friends, so we were able to sample a bunch of shit. Here’s what we tried:

The “Mala Beef” noodle dish was nice. It was slow cooked shank meat that was really tender. The egg noodles were perfectly cooked.

This dish contained pork and beef, and was served with rice noodles that were similarly perfectly cooked. Also shank meat, cooked very nicely.

This noodle soup was the spiciest on the menu, a pepper beef dish, which was really intense and flavorful. I wish this also contained the shank cut beef, as the stuff in this dish wasn’t as tender as the above dishes.

This next dish was cold “Hunan Charcuterie.” It contained bits of pig ear and tripe, among other nice off-cuts. This was my favorite dish of the day, and easily a contender for top dishes of 2019.

The smoked sausage plate was nice, but I wish it had more crisped texture to it.

This eggplant with “thousand year egg” filling was delicious. I’m generally not a big fan of eggplant, but I loved this. A must try here.

The beef skewer dish had a great cumin aroma, but ultimately the majority of the beef in the dish was chewy and tough. Pass on this one.

Most of the dishes were pretty spicy, so these sweet riblets were a great way to cool down and cut the heat.

We also tried stewed fish noodles, and a potato and duck egg dish (both not pictured) which were also very nice. But the last item I have here for you is winter melon, served warm and savory with ground pork. Very interesting.

Give this place a shot. I liked it.

HUNAN SLURP
112 1st Avenue
New York, NY 10009

Korean, Restaurant Reviews, Union Square/Flatiron

Barn Joo

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I recently had a meal here when celebrating a friends birthday party. Here’s a quick rundown of everything I tried:

This chicken with peanuts dish was really tasty. Nicely fried morsels of dark meat.

These fried beef dumplings were better still. I could have eaten a dozen.

While I’m not a huge tofu guy, these fried cubes were pretty tasty. I’d eat them again, but definitely not over the other two apps above.

Next up, beef noodles. These were ultimately pretty middle-of-the-road. Nothing stand-out about them.

The star of the show, however, was this pork belly dish. So much nice quality belly, with some chiccharones and a great spicy bean curd dip to boot. Awesome.

The octopus was perfectly cooked and had a great crunchy texture on the outside, but there was just something about it that bugged me. It had a flavor that reminded me of the smell of dried fish food. Perhaps it was something added on top for seasoning.

Lastly, their pickles and kimchi items are superb here. Some of the best I’ve had.

I would definitely go back here again.

BARN JOO
35 Union Square W
New York, NY 10003

Commentary

May 16th Farm to Tray & The Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen

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My wife and I recently got involved with the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen – located at the Church of the Holy Apostles on 9th avenue and 28th Street. This is the largest soup kitchen in New York City. It provides over 1,000 meals each weekday at a time when over a million New Yorkers struggle to put food on their tables. To date, the soup kitchen has served over nine million meals.

Founded in 1982, the soup kitchen also offers its guests clothing and hygiene distributions, shelter and medical referrals, and a computer lab, all of which help them navigate toward improved health, housing and jobs.

My wife and I got involved with this awesome charity because our friends help set up the Farm to Tray fundraiser at the church every year. Farm to Tray is an event that features well-known culinary figures from across the city and culminates in what I can only describe as the ultimate foodie party. There are lots of drinks, tons of amazing food, and a bunch of silent auctions to help raise money for the soup kitchen.

You can get tickets to the event HERE. It’ll be held on May 16th at the Church of the Holy Apostles.

Since its inception in 2013, the Farm to Tray event has raised nearly $2,000,000 in cash and in-kind support. The goal of this year’s event is to raise $300,000 – which is $50,000 more than last year – to help ensure that the soup kitchen’s shelves are stocked for months to come.

My wife and I will be donating some packages to the event’s silent auctions this year; credit in my butcher shop, and my wife’s baking services. I’ll be donating some good old fashioned green and promoting ticket sales, but I’ll also be trying to add some steak dinners to the silent auction docket as well as the “butcher and baker” items.

So what do you say? Want to donate to the cause or come hang out with me and The Cake Dealer at the event? If so, CLICK HERE! And thank you for reading.

carnivore connoisseur