Yogurtland

We finally have Yogurtland in New York!

Technically we already got two last year - one on the Upper East Side and one in Park Slope - but we never heard that they opened those and didn't know Yogurtland had made it here until we stumbled upon it during our walk today. New York is a bit overrun with yogurt shops, but we have always wanted Yogurtland (ever since we went in LA a few years ago) and now we finally have one! And it's not that long of a walk from our place either.

When we got there, there were free samples outside and then they offered us multiple little sample cups to try the other flavors. Between all the sample cups, we tried NY cheesecake, red velvet cake, taro, double cookies and cream, toasted coconut, Mexican chocolate, black sesame vanilla and strawberry lemonade sorbet. So many delicious flavors!

We went with the black sesame vanilla, part of the limited edition Flavor Quest (world flavors) series, and topped it with strawberries, lychee and mochi. If you've never been to Yogurtland, they charge by weight, so you can add as many flavors and toppings as you want.

We are so happy that Yogurtland is now close by. Their yogurt flavors just taste better than the other yogurt places, and the atmosphere has a very similar vibe to being back in California. We can't wait to go back!

The new Yogurtland is at 358 Seventh Avenue (between 29th and 30th Streets). Very close to Penn Station!

Black and White Cookie

The first new custard we have tried in a long time is black & white cookie.  We were really interested to see if this would be like eating an actual black and white cookie.

M's thoughts:

When I saw this custard listed, I was worried that it would just taste like a Frosty. Luckily it didn't. While I didn't think it tasted exactly like a black and white cookie, it did taste like a mix of chocolate and vanilla with a hint of something citrus, kind of like the cookie. I liked it and would get it again.

A's thoughts:

I still have no clue what a real black and white cookie is supposed to taste like, but if it tastes like this custard, I think I'd like them. I definitely tasted the chocolate and vanilla hints in the custard itself, but there was also something that I can only describe as "cookie-ish". It wasn't like a sweet, flour cookie like a chocolate chip cookie base, but it was something different. It definitely tasted like a cookie, though. I'd be interested in trying this custard again and also to get a real black and white cookie.

Black & White Cookie

A's rating: 7.5/10

M's rating: 7.5/10

Key Lime Light & Fit

We did a lot of grocery shopping this weekend and one thing we stocked up on was yogurt. I don't usually get Dannon Light & Fit, but it was on sale (50 cents each), so I picked up two to try. This morning I decided to test out the key lime one.

The yogurt was a pale green shade when I opened it. I hoped that it would be a light citrus flavor and that it would taste like real lime, kind of like the way the Yoplait apple yogurt we tried in Cancun tasted like biting into a green apple.

It did taste like lime, but sadly it was an artificial lime flavor. It was like they were going for key lime pie instead. It was just too unnaturally sweet (kind of like how I felt after trying the Yoplait "dessert" yogurt line). Why can't we get a real fruit flavor instead of all of this artifically sweet stuff?

Otra Vez Arroz Con Pollo

Since my first visit to the Peruvian cart Manos Peruanas (when I enjoyed a lovely arroz con pollo lunch), I have returned and tried more dishes. The only problem is that I forgot to write about them at the time. Now that I went back as part of the goodbye tour, I might as well mention them all here!

One cold winter day, I tried the aji de gallina. Set over a bed of white rice, the dish consisted of pulled chicken in a sauce of aji amarillo (a yellow Peruvian pepper) and parmesan cheese. There were also potatoes, half of a hard boiled egg and an olive.

This was basically chicken in cheesy creamy pepper sauce over rice and potatoes. I had gone there with the intention of getting arroz con pollo again, but the creamy chicken stew just seemed so comforting and warming for the winter weather. It definitely was both of those things, but it was also really, really creamy. Which means the dish is a little rich and you will get food coma. Tasty but a little too heavy for me to get on a regular basis.

Another cold winter day I went to order arroz con pollo (again) but the menu said it now came accompanied by papa a la huancaina. I had never tried that before but had seen it listed separately on the menu, so I thought this would be great - two dishes in one! It looked like creamy potatoes in the photo so I figured it would be warming and comforting like the aji de gallina. Which would be perfect since it was 23 degrees out.

What I didn't know when I ordered, having never tried papa a la huancaina before, was that it is supposed to be a cold dish. It consisted of two large pieces of boiled potato (basically, an entire potato) covered in huancaina sauce. Wikipedia tells me that huancaina sauce is made up of cheese, aji amarillo, evaporated milk, oil and salt (and sometimes garlic, onion and crushed Saltines). The sauce was tasty, but I don't remember it being that spicy. I also hadn't been expecting the potatoes to be cold so that was a bit of a shock after eating warm bites of chicken and rice. I was glad to try this Peruvian staple since it expanded my Peruvian food horizons, but I preferred the arroz con pollo with just the rice and onions.

All of which leads up to my most recent visit, when I went back to get some more arroz con pollo (third time's the charm?). They asked me if I wanted to have it with just rice or also some potatoes, and I enthusiastically asked for just the rice. Since I don't know when I can have this next (unless I go again this week), I wanted to make sure I got my fill of the cilantro rice with peas.

The arroz con pollo was good. It was a drumstick and thigh set over the cilantro rice with lots of the peppery red onion mixture. The chicken was a little drier than last time but still pretty moist and flavorful. The onions were as good as always. Adding the green hot sauce (not pictured) made this so delicious. I was so happy with lunch.

I highly recommend Manos Peruanas for a Peruvian lunch in Midtown. Whether you're looking for a healthier meal like arroz con pollo or something creamy and comforting like aji de gallina, they cover all the bases. And I don't know anyone else in Midtown that does what they do!

Smacked Cucumber in Garlicky Sauce

The easiest dish to make from my Every Grain of Rice dinner was the smacked cucumber in garlicky sauce (suan ni pai huang gua / 蒜泥拍黃瓜).  

Finished dish of smacked cucumbers

The ingredients for this dish were (prices in parentheses):

Cucumbers ($0.83)

Salt ($0)

Garlic ($0.20)

Sugar ($0)

Light soy sauce ($1.99 for the bottle, but probably only used about $0.15)

Chinkiang vinegar ($1.29 for the bottle, but probably only used about $0.10)

Chili oil ($2.59 for the bottle, but probably only used about $0.25)

Ground roasted Sichuan pepper ($0)

Some of the ingredients - forget you saw the chili bean paste here...

A tasty cold dish for under $2, when you count the fractional amounts of the oils and vinegar. We didn't have most of these ingredients in the pantry when we started, but now that we do, I know we will keep using them so I'm comfortable not treating the whole bottle as the cost (unlike some other things that we never end up using again). I suppose if you wanted to eat this on its own as a meal you would need a lot more cucumbers, but I think it would still be a pretty inexpensive dish.

Process:

The first step was to roast and grind up the Sichuan peppercorns. This was used more in the ma po tofu, but since this dish is coming up first on the blog, I'll talk about it here.

Ground roasted Sichuan pepper

A's mom left us with a bag of Sichuan peppercorns awhile ago that we never had a chance to use until now. We heated them on the stove, cooled them, and then ground them up with our mortar and pestle. It was fun and took so much less time than I thought it would. They weren't as spicy or numbing as I thought they would be either, but maybe that's because they're a bit aged. Or maybe I didn't heat them long enough on the stove?

Next, clean the cucumbers and smack them with a knife before chopping them into diagonal slices. These are all different shapes because A smacked one cucumber and I did the other, and he has just a bit more force than I do. A bit more smashing was involved. The cucumbers sit in salt for a little bit and then you drain them.

After that, it's basically just combining the other ingredients in a bowl and then adding the cucumbers. Simple!

Review:

This was a good cucumber dish - light, crunchy and refreshing. A often makes a different Chinese cucumber dish - one that uses soy sauce, sugar, vinegar and garlic as its base. The major difference here was the addition of chili oil and Sichuan peppercorn which gave it a nice spicy flavor. Both are good, just slightly different. The spiciness of the cucumbers here also complimented the ma po tofu pretty well.

I think we would make this again. It's really easy since we now have everything on hand except for cucumbers!

On the Road Again

One year ago yesterday, Sweetery teamed up with the Food Network for a pop-up truck called Cupcakes on the Road. They featured cupcake flavors based on various travel destinations as well as a free tote bag. Both A and I took advantage of the free cupcakes.

I got the pineapple crunch (inspired by Hawaii and Aston Resorts). It was a perfect fit since I love Hawaii and we have actually stayed at an Aston Resort. The cupcake was good - like a crumb cake cupcake and just as moist as all the Sweetery ones I've had before. It got a little crushed on my walk back to the office but survived mostly intact. At a different truck stop, A picked up the Mississippi Mud, but I don't have a picture of that one.

Yesterday, Sweetery and Food Network teamed up again but this time - it was popcorn on the road! I'm not a huge fan of popcorn but of course I was going to check it out for a free snack.

I narrowed it down to bacon BBQ, spicy cajun and chipotle cheddar and eventually decided to go with the chipotle cheddar (inspired by Texas). It was pretty good and had a zestier cheese flavor than regular cheddar popcorn, but I thought the flavor would be stronger. I didn't love it, but I think that's more about my feelings about popcorn than the popcorn itself.

What will it be next year? Donuts?

Return to Ambrosia

Third stop on the goodbye tour - Ambrosia, my go-to spot close by the office for Korean food (original review here and follow up post here). Since my last trip there (apparently sometime last year), they have raised most of the prices (by about $1), so sadly now my usual orders push me over $10.

I wanted to get the Korean style fried rice one more time from Ambrosia as part of the goodbye tour because we don't tend to order fried rice on any of our K-town visits since there is much more exciting food to be had. I love the plentiful chopped vegetables, the hint of spiciness (today it was more mild than usual, unfortunately), the fried egg on top, and that it comes with 2 banchan, kimchi and a miso soup. It's a lot of food so it's still a pretty good deal, especially if you're in the area and craving real Korean food.

May Custard Calendar

So, we didn't get any custard in April. We meant to try the 2 flavors that were new to us but lost track of the days and never made it. Maybe we'll get back into the swing of things this month?

Source

The May custard calendar brings a bunch of repeat flavors (average scores from previous reviews in parentheses), but at least they are flavors we liked, like olive oil cake and chocolate chip cookie:

     Wednesday: oatmeal creme pie (6.25/10)
     Thursday: olive oil cake (7.75/10)
     Friday: chocolate chip cookie (7.5/10)
     Sunday: banana bread (6.75/10)

The flavors that are new to us are lemon meringue (Monday) and black and white cookie (Tuesday). Technically Saturday's flavor - spiced chocolate brownie - is also new, but I think this is just a renamed version of Mexican chocolate fudge brownie from last year (which we both rated a 5).

I'm most intrigued by black and white cookie because I want to see if they can really nail the flavor of a black and white cookie in a custard. And maybe they'll add chewy cookie pieces? It's also a very NY thing, so it would be great to see that one shine. A isn't sure if he's had a real NY black and white cookie, so he's also interested in trying that one. He also wants to see if the brownie flavor is just a rename or if they changed the recipe.

Hopefully we'll make it for some custard this month!

Still No Tortas for Me

Stop #2 on the goodbye tour: one of my favorite food trucks, Mexico Blvd. Although I said earlier that I was going to skip most food trucks that made night and/or weekend stops, they were parked right outside the office today and I couldn't help myself. I kept missing them recently due to my erratic lunching schedule, so it felt right to go on my goodbye tour.

I thought about getting a torta since I like tortas and I've never tried one there. Really, even with my taco addiction, I considered it. But in the end those Mexico City style tacos drew me back in.

I have gotten the same order almost every time I go - the two taco special which comes with small chips & guacamole and a drink.

Today I got the tinga (shredded chicken in tomato & chipotle marinade) and the pastor (sweet spicy pork topped with pineapple slices). I debated between the pastor and the adobo (marinated pork in their great grandmother's recipe), since I like them both, but ultimately went with the pastor because I was in the mood for pineapple. My favorite of the 3 is probably the tinga.

The tacos were just as good as usual - juicy, full of flavor, and a generous portion. The chips were crispy (although they are plain chips now - I miss the chili pepper dusted ones from before), the guacamole was nice and creamy, and my tamarind drink was sweet and cooling. Such a great combo. (They have another one with 3 tacos but I like the guacamole and drink too much to give that up.)

Since it appears I have never talked about the adobo, here's a photo of the adobo taco from October to satisfy your curiosity about what it looks like. (I thought I had gotten it last time or fairly recently, but I looked through photos of multiple visits and had to go as far back as October to find the adobo.) It's really good so I'm not sure why I haven't gotten it more recently.

Next time I go, I must get a torta. As much as I love the tacos, I really ought to try one. It's just so hard when the tacos are so good!

Biryani Revisited

So, I'm leaving my job in two weeks (surprise!). I'm not going to talk about work or the reasons, but I mention that solely to introduce my new project - what to eat for lunch in Midtown before I go. 

Coming up with a list was more challenging than I thought it would be. I wanted to skip anywhere that I could easily visit on weekends or elsewhere in the city (so that eliminates chains I commonly visit like Hale & Hearty, Just Salad, Chop't, Maoz and Potbelly, and even smaller or independent places like Margon and Xi'an). Some of my favorites have closed recently (Karam, Indus, etc). Even the food trucks that set up in Midtown during lunch are often roaming the streets on the weekends or at night. I didn't come up with a full list until last night, and I think even now that's in flux.

But yesterday for lunch when the idea for the project surfaced, one place popped into my head as the first place I must go - the Trini-Paki Boys cart at 43rd and 6th.

Packed container of biryani and extras

A wrote a post a few years ago about their biryani and how much we love it. We could have sworn that we've written about their chicken and rice, doubles, samosas, and more... but since I can't find it, I'm guessing that we planned to but never got around to it.

This cart was one of the first places I visited when I first came to Midtown many, many years ago, prior to all the food blogs that introduced me to new and exciting places, and it has remained my favorite street meat cart. For awhile I was just getting the chicken over rice, but once the biryani arrived, I started getting that instead. I just love all the spices. I wish I could cook like this!

White and hot sauces mixed together over the food

The biryani is topped with curried vegetables, curried chickpeas and a fresh salad, along with white sauce and hot sauce. Yesterday she also added some extra chicken to the top. The chicken was a little more well done than usual but that could be because I was having a very late lunch and it had been on the heat longer. I still recommend the biryani and am considering a second trip during my "revisiting" period to get the chicken over rice as well. And a samosa. Maybe doubles if A has time to come with me.

Underneath the salad and vegetables - biryani!

This family-owned cart is truly one of Midtown's treasures. The line has been longer during the past few years than I remember from when I first started going, and while that makes my wait time longer, I love that they seem to be doing good business. But since they are only out for lunch on the weekdays, I needed to make sure I went there before I go. Love this place!

Best Restaurant in the World

The 2013 World's 50 Best Restaurants list came out today and the amazing Girona restaurant El Celler de Can Roca is now the best restaurant in the world! When we visited last May, they were #2 but as of today, they are #1!

We haven't gotten up to writing about El Celler de Can Roca in our Barcelona trip recaps (we did touch on certain dishes in our 2012 favorite dishes lists), but considering the recent news, I think we're going to skip ahead in the chronology and relive that meal sooner rather than later.  Congratulations to El Celler de Can Roca! They are incredible and they definitely deserve it.

Der Krung

For our first real dinner since returning from LA (yes, this is a bit delayed), we ordered some Thai food from Der Krung, a place in Hell's Kitchen that used to be called Thai Basil. We always intended to visit when it was Thai Basil and thought the new menu for Der Krung looked interesting, so it seemed like a good time to finally try it. Some people say that eating Thai food in LA is so good that you can't eat Thai food back in NY again. That might be true but didn't really apply to us. We love Thai food and I don't think I could go without it for that long even if it were better in LA. Plus, in LA, we only went to Jitlada, and had some southern Thai specialties there that we can't even get here if we tried. So, no overlap!

We decided to get one appetizer (dumplings), one salad (our usual larb), and two types of noodles to see what Der Krung had to offer.

Homemade Der Krung Dumpling ($7): Thai style chicken and shrimp dumpling served with homemade soy sauce.

These dumplings were pricey! For almost $2 per dumpling, I expected something large and meaty. These were definitely better than some of the others we've tried which are like dried out meatballs wrapped in wonton paper, but they weren't amazing. They looked like ground chicken and shrimp dumplings with a small piece of imitation crab on top, and didn't have any remarkable flavors. I love dumplings but am not sure we would get these again.

Larb Gai ($9): Medium hot, minced chicken salad, chili, scallions, onions, roasted ground rice with spicy lime dressing.

Larb gai is one of my favorite dishes and this one was pretty good, although quite spicy. It seems that their "spicy lime dressing" means dressing with lots of chopped up jalapenos. Otherwise this was like most larb dishes - ground chicken, carrots, red onions, scallions on a bed of lettuce. Such a healthy dish. Probably not my favorite larb ever but a good one.

Kee Mao Noodle (Drunken Noodles) ($11): Medium hot, flat rice noodles with chicken, egg, onions, bell peppers, basil and chili basil sauce.

These were pretty good, and perhaps even better on reheating the next day when the noodles had more time to soak up all the flavors. There was a decent amount of spice to it and they included plenty of basil. One of my dislikes is when a place sends you pad kee mao with no basil. What's the point if they're basil noodles? Definitely not an issue at Der Krung.

Der Krung Noodles ($11): Medium hot, angel rice noodles with chicken, bean sprouts, scallions, onions and curry powder.

The appearance of these noodles reminded us of Singapore chow mei fun, except with just chicken. I liked these more than A did. There was a nice curry flavor to the noodles, but it's not as strong or powdery as it usually is in Singapore noodles. There were lots of chopped up vegetables which also made it seem healthy.

I don't think Der Krung will replace our go-to Thai delivery places (those would probably be Qi and to a lesser extent Wondee), mostly because they are on the expensive side, but I would go there again. I would probably just skip those expensive dumplings! Maybe I'll also try out their weekday lunch special one of these days.

Der Krung is located on 9th Avenue near 56th Street.

Japadog

In early 2012, Japadog opened its doors in the East Village, giving everyone an opportunity to try their Japanese-style hot dogs that had become so popular in Vancouver. We were excited to try their hot dogs with savory toppings like Japanese mayo, seaweed, bonito flakes and miso.

Yes, they have ice cream "hot dogs" too!

Although they're Japanese hot dogs, we planned to visit for the Canadian portion of our WorldEats challenge. Japadog started in 2005 as a street cart in Vancouver and steadily grew to multiple street carts and 1 restaurant there. It's not cheap but the hot dogs are loved and famous in Vancouver. Also, since Asian cuisine is a big part of the Vancouver eating scene, for us that made Japadog a perfect stop for our Canadian exploration.

Imported from Vancouver

Since they opened last year, we've been to Japadog twice, most recently in December. It looked like they tweaked the menu between our two visits, adjusting for things that sold well and also newly available ingredients (I think they didn't have kurobuta yet on our first visit). We went the second time because we wanted our memories of the hot dogs to be fresh for our WorldEats post, but here we are in April posting about them. Time to do it before we have to go for a third time!

The menu, last December

The Japadog menu has lots of options and it's difficult to choose between so many things that sound so tasty. On our second visit, we saw this handy flow chart that helps you pick based on how hungry you are and your other preferences.

I really love this flow chart! Everyone should do this...

The hot dog I heard most about before Japadog opened was the terimayo. On our first visit, we got the classic beef terimayo, but on our second, we opted to try the kurobuta terimayo, advertised as a top seller.

Kurobuta terimayo

The terimayo consists of the hot dog (beef/kurobuta), topped with fried onions (although they seemed more stir-fried than crispy fried), teriyaki sauce, Japanese mayo and seaweed.

Terimayo cross-section

From what we remember, this was good with both the beef and the kurobuta. The combination of onions, seaweed, mayo and teriyaki sauce went well together, so we could see why it had become so popular.

The second dog we got on both trips was the okonomi, which consists of pork sausage (probably not kurobuta on our first trip), fried cabbage, Japanese special sauce and bonito flakes.

Okonomi, March 2012

It looked a little different on our two trips (the dog from our March visit above and the one from December below), but I'm pretty sure they were both the okonomi as we were drawn to the bonito flakes.

Okonomi, December 2012

The kurobuta sausage worked really well here with its richness and saltiness. We love bonito flakes and eating that on top of a hot dog was a lot of fun. Bonito flakes just add so much flavor and made this a really tasty hot dog.

Okonomi cross-section (March)

On our second visit, we opted for a third hot dog instead of fries and picked one from the "heavier" portion of the menu - the croquette dog.

Croquette hot dog

The croquette dog had Arabiki pork sausage, fried cabbage and mashed potato croquettes. That's right, potato croquettes inside a hot dog roll. Starch on top of more starch!  If you don't want potato croquettes, you could always opt for your double starch through the yakisoba dog.

Croquette dog cross-section

This hot dog was heavy. We love potato croquettes and these were good, but it was kind of like having 2 different things - a hot dog and a croquette. Not sure how well those actually went together but they were tasty separately. The cabbage was good because it added some nice crunchy vegetables, which you really need after all these hot dogs!

On our first visit, we opted for a side of fries. They were just regular thin crispy fries (a little dry), but topped with a choice of seasonings. We opted for the shichimi (basically hot pepper/togarashi) and garlic powder, which was tasty, but in the end they were just fries, so we didn't get them again. You could also get sauces on the side like ketchup and wasabi mayo.

Togarashi fries

Japadog isn't the only Asian hot dog place in New York (there's also Asiadog) and isn't the only creative hot dog place in the East Village (can't forget Crif Dogs!), so it faces a lot of competition. But the Canadian import is a nice place to stop if you're looking for a Japanese hot dog snack!

Japadog is located at 30 St. Marks Place (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues) in the East Village.

Grilled Chicken and Cheddar

I went over to Potbelly for a late lunch today, intending to get my usual turkey and provolone, when I encountered a sign advertising a new grilled chicken and cheddar sandwich.

I'm a sucker for new Potbelly sandwiches, like the Mediterranean I tried not long after it came out last year. So of course I tried the chicken and cheddar sandwich instead of my original plan. I like grilled chicken and cheddar cheese, and thought it would be a good combination on nice toasty bread.

This sandwich was okay. I got it on multigrain bread with my usual set of toppings (mustard, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, oil, Italian seasoning). The grilled chicken, advertised as hand-sliced, was fine. The texture was good and it had a nice chicken flavor, but it didn't seem like the chicken was very seasoned. Although the cheddar cheese (advertised as aged cheddar) was clearly present, it also didn't have very strong flavor. I had been picturing thick and oozing slices of cheddar cheese, like a tuna melt, but that didn't really happen here. If you like grilled chicken, it's worth a try but I think I'll stick to my usual turkey, tuna or meatball in the future. I love those!

The Potbelly website claims there is also some new buffalo chicken sandwich with Frank's RedHot sauce, but I didn't see any signage for that. When (if?) I do, I think you can be sure that I'll check it out!

Ajisai

When we come home from trips, we usually look for a "detox" dinner, something relatively clean and healthy, to recover from days of unhealthy vacation eating and hours of sitting on a plane. This usually leads us to our neighborhood sushi spot, Ajisai. Yesterday for lunch I was feeling kind of similar and was in the mood for something relatively light and healthy, so I decided to try out Ajisai's lunch special.

Ajisai has a number of lunch specials - for kitchen entrees like teriyaki, bento boxes, sushi combinations and roll combinations. Most are priced over $10, so I went with the $9.50 special for the 2 roll combo. Combining that with the current 10% Seamless discount, it kept me under $10 with tax included.  The combo came with 2 rolls plus soup and salad (a lot of places only give you one).

The miso soup was your basic miso soup - small tofu cubes, pieces of seaweed and light miso flavor. This was fine.

The salad consisted mostly of lettuce. The entire small takeout container was filled with large pieces of iceberg lettuce, plus one cucumber slice and some shredded carrots. The dressing was the usual orange ginger type of dressing you get with Japanese garden salads which I love. Not a very exciting salad and mostly lettuce, but I was kind of in the mood for something like this - light, crunchy and full of dressing.

For the two rolls, I went with the salmon/avocado and the spicy tuna. Similar to Aoki, they let you pick from an entire list of rolls, and not just something basic like tuna rolls or cucumber rolls. I appreciate that I can get "real" rolls for the price. Ajisai also let me substitute brown rice on both rolls for no extra charge. That's really rare. I don't like brown rice sushi rolls as much in texture as regular rolls, but it's so much healthier and I need that right now!

The rolls were fine. The salmon/avocado was a little bland. The spicy tuna had a good balance of mayo and tuna, and you could definitely taste the "spicy" flavor and the fish (and not mostly mayo, like some other places).

I would get this combo again, since it's a good deal and the quality is fine. I think where Ajisai shines in rolls is their special rolls (which we've never gotten around to writing about here) but their basic rolls are just fine for lunch, especially as part of the combo.

Welcome Xi'an Famous Foods

The official grand opening for the new Midtown branch of Xi'an Famous Foods was today. (They soft opened late last week.) Going for opening day lunch was a little bittersweet for me since they're taking the place of the recently shuttered Lebanese spot Karam II, which was one of my favorite places for a cheap, healthy and vegetarian lunch. On the bright side, a good place like Karam isn't being replaced by a crappy place that I'll never go to, but it's still sad that they won't be around for any more fasoulia.

In the announcement about their grand opening a few weeks ago, Xi'an Famous Foods offered a free coupon for their stewed pork burger or spicy cumin lamb burger. Free good food? Yes, please. I've had my coupon printed and ready to go since then, waiting for today. 

My free burger!

The lamb burger usually goes for $3, and contains chopped up pieces of lamb sauteed with jalapenos, onions and scallions (and lots of cumin and other seasonings) and stuffed into a bun (which had a texture similar to an English muffin). Since a lot of people came with their free burger coupons, I watched them make a bunch of burgers, and they all looked delicious.

Spicy cumin lamb burger - looks just like its menu photo

Inside the spicy cumin lamb burger

The lamb burger was delicious. I went to lunch on the early side so that the line would be shorter (good decision considering things were a little slow on opening day), so this was pretty filling. It was a tad bit oily, but I'm willing to look past that for such a delicious sandwich.  I loved all of the seasonings. There was so much cumin that the air in my office smelled like cumin for hours. It made me want another burger by the time 4 pm snacktime rolled around!

I'm so excited for the new location of Xi'an Famous Foods because it means that A and I can go back on the weekend to try more dishes without having to trek downtown. Can't wait to get some noodles for lunch!