Nopi

For our London trip, we planned on frequenting mostly casual spots, but we did set aside one night for a "nice" dinner at Nopi, a more formal Ottolenghi spot located in Soho. Visiting an Ottolenghi restaurant was a must for us, and when we looked at the menu for Nopi before our trip, we wanted to eat everything on it, so making a reservation was a no-brainer. Nopi has two floors, a more formal upstairs and a communal dining room downstairs. We made a reservation for downstairs, thinking it would be a little more casual, but when we got there, they offered us a choice and said we could be seated faster if we were okay with sitting upstairs. If they had no problem seating us upstairs, then that was fine with us!

We had a short wait before being seated at our table, and while we waited at the bar, they brought over a board with two small cups, one with marinated olives and one with roasted spiced nuts. We weren't sure if there was a charge for them since both were on the menu and at least £5 each, so we were hesitant to start eating them. When we got to our table, the server let us know they were complimentary because we had to wait. That was fantastic hospitality and very unexpected, especially since the wait wasn't long at all. The meal was off to a great start. A ate most of the olives, since M isn't a huge fan, but she did try a few. Like most olives, they were salty and sour, and in this case, also a little bit spicy. The cup of nuts seemed to have quite a variety in it. We spotted macadamia nuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds, almonds, peanuts, and cashews with lots of spices and seasonings that we couldn't quite identify. They were really good.

They brought out some bread and olive oil once our orders started to arrive. It was two pieces of something like country bread, and the olive oil was really, really good. We expected nothing less from the olive oil from an Ottolenghi spot considering their focus on quality and Mediterranean flavors.

The menu at Nopi was split up into nibbles, mains, and small plates to share, the last of which comprised the majority of the menu. We decided to order one item from the nibbles, but otherwise concentrated on the small plates so we could try as many things as possible. From the nibbles, we got the mixed seed lavash with burnt spring onion dip (£6.5, all prices as of a year ago). The lavash was very crispy and covered in a variety of seeds, including black and white sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, and many some others that we couldn't identify. The burnt spring onion dip was a dark greenish-gray color, similar to a black bean dip, and garnished with some pieces of scallions and microgreens. Both the lavash and dip were really tasty, and we made sure to finish the entire thing, even wiping up the remainder of the dip with the aforementioned bread. We especially liked the dip, full of onion and scallion flavor, nice and smoky.

Outside of the nibbles, we had five other plates and they split them into two rounds of three dishes and two dishes. They tried to match up things that they thought would go well together, and we thought they made very good choices. One of the dishes in the first set was the "roast aubergine, black garlic, broad beans, basil" (£8.9). There was also yogurt and pine nuts but those weren't listed on the menu line. We loved this dish. The aubergines were soft and tender. The flavor of the basil was so incredibly vibrant, unlike a lot of the basil we buy in the grocery store which can sometimes be a little dull. The yogurt was creamy and a little tart. We liked the garlic chips, the pine nuts, and everything worked so well together. The whole dish just tasted really fresh, really light, really clean, and it was the type of thing that we have pretty much always thought would come out of an Ottolenghi kitchen.

The next thing we tried were the scallops with apple yuzu puree, endive and pork (£12.9). Although we saw these on the menu and they sounded good, they didn't immediately jump out at us as a "must order" dish. Then the dish arrived at the table next to us, and the dish smelled so amazing that we had to order it. The dish had three large scallops, perfectly cooked, little bits of pork, soft roasted endives, and both apple and yuzu purees, together on the plate but not blended together. We tried the purees on their own and they tasted strongly like apple, but when we ate them together with all the other parts of the dish, the apple wasn't anything more than an accent. The balance of all the ingredients was just perfect, and this was one of our favorite dishes of the night. The scallop dish was so good that it made M's top 10 list in 2015.

Fish was our final plate in the first round of dishes, seared hake with roast chicken cream and pickled girolles (£12.9). We weren't sure what girolles were, but looked them up online and found out they were chanterelles. There were also peas which were not listed on the menu. We liked the fish, but just not as much as the scallops which were on the table at the same time. We couldn't place the flavors or small seeds in the sauce that the fish was cooked with, but the chicken cream was like a really thick, rich chicken gravy. The peas and mushrooms helped to balance out the dish, providing some fresh and light vegetables alongside the chicken cream. Even with all the cream, the dish felt pretty light, even though it was filling. It also felt very seasonal for the fall.

The first dish in the second set was the courgette and manouri fritters with cardamom yoghurt (£11.5). This was the first thing M saw on the menu when researching the restaurant, and she was immediately sold on them. Each of the three fritters had grated zucchini that was mixed with chunks of manouri cheese, formed into a conical shape, and then fried. These were rich and creamy because of the cheese, but lightened up a little bit by the zucchini. The cardamom yoghurt was a little bit tart, but also had some warming spice to it. We liked this, but not as much as we thought we would. Maybe we were already getting full, maybe we were spoiled for everything else because of the amazing scallops, or maybe our expectations were too high, don't know. They were really good, but just not the star of the night we thought they would be.

The last savory dish was the twice-cooked baby chicken with lemon myrtle salt and chilli sauce (£10.9). This was also listed in the mains section at £21.9 where they gave you a whole chicken, but we went with the smaller portion. The chicken had both dark meat and white meat, and the flavor was smoky and sweet. The chilli sauce provided a little heat (but not too much) and also some sweetness. It was like a sweet chilli sauce you can buy in the store, but not as sweet. M recognized the name lemon myrtle from native Australian week of the cooking challenge, but we didn't really taste anything but salt from that ingredient. That said, on the whole, the chicken was so much better than we anticipated. We really liked the flavors.

Once the savory courses were done, we moved on to sweet. With our desserts, A got a flat white, which he liked.

We got two desserts. The first was strawberry mess, sumac, rose water (£8.5). M was immediately drawn to that one. She didn't know what a strawberry mess was, but didn't really care because the listing of strawberry, sumac, and rose water combined three flavors she really loved. It also seemed in line with the Mediterranean flavors that we had been enjoying all night. What came out of the kitchen looked like a scoop of strawberry sorbet, rose water meringue, whipped cream, sumac, and pomegranate seeds, topped with edible flower pieces. M's favorite part was the strawberry sorbet on top. It tasted like wild strawberries, and had such a pure strawberry flavor without extra sugar. The rose water meringue pieces were a little bit on the hard side. We tasted some sumac in the whipped cream, but not much. After doing some research, we realized that this was their take on the typical Eton mess, which Wikipedia describes as a "traditional English dessert consisting of a mixture of strawberries, broken meringue, and whipped heavy cream." Without even knowing it when we ordered it, we were trying out something traditionally English.

The second dessert was roast pineapple with macadamia nuts, lemongrass, coconut cream (£8.5). This was pretty good. The pineapple was roasted and a bit caramelized. The coconut cream was fine, it tasted like whipped cream hinted with coconut milk. M preferred the pineapple without it, but A liked it much better with the pineapple than M. The more interesting of the two desserts though was definitely the strawberry mess.

Overall this was an excellent meal. It didn't come cheap, but we didn't expect that it would. We were very glad that we were able to try all the dishes that we did at the restaurant, and we would highly recommend a visit. Whenever we get back to London, we may choose a different Ottolenghi spot just for some variety and to try new things, but if we had a lot of time, we would go back to Nopi. The food was excellent, the service was wonderful, and the entire experience was great.

Banana Coconut Milk

M asked me to write this review as she doesn't want to think about this product ever again. I've held off on this for so long because, honestly, I don't really want to remember this either. Anyway, on our third day in London, we got off the train on our way to lunch and passed a guy handing out free samples on the street. Mylk was some sort of coconut milk that was flavored with cacao and banana. I didn't think there was going to be much good about this even though the flavors should have worked together.

After we both tried it, we had both had the same thought: this was terrible. I don't really remember what it was about it, but as I thought, nothing about this drink worked. I'm typically someone who can find something good in almost anything I try to eat or drink, but I found nothing here. After I finished drinking the first box we went to throw it away. On top of the trash can were several full or nearly full boxes left by people who obviously liked this about as much as we did.

Later in the day, back in the hotel, we were resting, and on a whim I thought to try the non-refrigerated box of Mylk we had remaining. I don't know why I thought this was a good idea. Maybe it's because I don't like wasting food. Oddly enough, it tasted better when it wasn't cold. M thought it tasted like a banana smoothie with a hint of coconut mixed in. She's not a fan of banana smoothies, but this one was tolerable when not cooled. I agree with that assessment, but it still wasn't that good. We would not ever buy this again, and we're glad we didn't pay for this to begin with. We saw this brand at Whole Foods back in the states, but thankfully it was not the banana flavor.

Hello San Diego

Our San Diego vacation from last October feels like it was just yesterday, and we wish we were back there instead of in New York's cold winter (even if today felt like spring for a day). We normally do separate posts for every place we visit on our trip, but since the first day was mostly spent traveling and we hit up lots of places that are repeats from other recent trips, I'm going to combine them all here to move things along faster.

We flew out on JetBlue from JFK, so there weren't a ton of fast options for lunch. A chose to go with Famous Famiglia's pizza, getting one slice of plain pizza and one slice with sausage and pepperoni, the first of which he found bland and the second a bit too salty. They both could have used more time in the oven, and generally he didn't particularly think too highly of them.

I went to the Boar's Head Deli which had a fancy tablet ordering system, and got a chipotle chicken sandwich with lettuce, avocado, and provolone. I remember the menu saying something about a mango mayo but didn't taste anything like that. This sandwich was supposed to be a panini, but it wasn't very pressed. The provolone cheese was melted, but the sandwich just seemed to come out like it would if I put a sandwich in the toaster for a few minutes, not a panini press. I had thought the chipotle chicken would be chunks of chicken, not slices, but that was not the most logical expectation considering where I went to get the sandwich. It was nice having some avocado, but since that was in chunks, it kind of fell out and made the sandwich harder to eat. The sandwich wasn't cheap, but at least the flavors were good.

In-flight, we got our usual free snacks - lots of water and (for A) some ginger ale, plus some chocolate chip cookies and Cheez-It crackers. We've mentioned JetBlue's free snacks plenty on this blog, and we hope they never stop doing that.

Once we finally arrived in San Diego and got our bags, our first stop was the Ryan Bros coffee stand near baggage claim. Ryan Bros was a local micro roaster, but A had no idea of that when he opted to get coffee. Unfortunately, he didn't think it was that good. He's not judging the whole brand by this offering though, because it was really late and this was just a small kiosk with coffee sitting in those silver cylinder dispensers and not freshly brewed. It really wasn't a very good cup of coffee.

To close out the day, we went for pretty much the same meal we always do when we first get to California, In-N-Out Burger. Is that what most people from the East Coast do when they go out west? We were pretty hungry, so we got three double-doubles, animal style of course, and two orders of animal style fries. It had been so long since we had In-N-Out that we forgot our usual order also added raw onions to the burgers, but it was fine without them. Everything was so, so, so, so good, and we were thankful that we got there at the exact time we did because that branch was packed. It was so crowded that the drive-thru line went out of the parking lot and circled down the street, and at one point after we ordered, we saw the restaurant line go out the door. Can't think of any fast food out here that would inspire that type of line other than Shake Shack (but you definitely couldn't get out of Shake Shack with all this food for $20).

It was a good first day of our trip, mostly traveling, with the San Diego portion kicked off by a delicious visit to In-N-Out. We were pretty excited for the upcoming week of relaxation and good food, and couldn't wait to get started.

Himalayan Yak

Writing our post about Dhaulagiri Kitchen recently reminded us about another Himalayan restaurant we visited a couple of years ago - Himalayan Yak in Jackson Heights. We started a post ages ago but never finished it, so we figured we'd finally get around to it now. We had a Groupon when we went there, and after perusing the menu, we ordered a few dishes which were all from the Tibetan sections of the menu, but Himalayan Yak also had dishes that were of Nepalese and Bhutanese origin.

Our Groupon entitled us to two drinks (either beer or house wine), one appetizer, and two entrees. This was definitely enough to eat for two on a hot summer night. We started with a couple of Heinekens.

For our appetizer, we split the fried gyuma which came with three condiments. Gyuma was their homemade Tibetan style sausage filled with beef blood and ground beef, and was supposed to be one of their specialties.

We got the gyuma fried (instead of steamed) based on the server's recommendation. It was spiced really nicely, and if you didn't know beforehand you most likely would never guess that this was a blood sausage. The sausage itself was mostly nice and tender, but the ends were a little tough to chew at the tie-off point. Because they were fried, the skin also had a little bite to it, but it paired well with the tender filling.

The first entree to arrive was the sha-bhaley, Tibetan beef patties filled with beef, onion and ginger, which was served with a small side of dangtsel, a classic Tibetan salad of cabbage, carrot and tomato tossed in vinegar.

The salad was delicious, very light which was perfect for the weather. It was a good accompaniment to the patties. The patties themselves were obviously heavier. They were like little hamburgers encased in a doughy, fried pastry puff. They were spiced nicely and were quite filling.

For the second entree, we got the steamed yak sha-momos. At the time, A hadn't had momos before (but had plenty of similar dumplings), but M had gotten Tibetan food once before and had some really good momos. It was the first time for both of us to eat yak though.

All the sha-momos were dumplings filled with ground meat, cabbage, onion, scallion, cilantro, garlic and ginger. We got one of the last orders of yak, as we heard many people trying to order it during our meal and being told they were sold out. We had good timing!

If we hadn't known the meat was yak, we might not have known. The main thing was that they weren't that greasy at all. We're not sure if it's all yak meat or just the meat they used for the momos, but it was very lean. Despite that, it was still very moist, and very flavorful. The momos were pretty good, but we also just really love dumplings so are reasonably easy to please when it comes to them.

We liked our meal at Himalayan Yak and planned to return, but we don't get out to Jackson Heights as often as we should. The cuisines of the Himalayan region are definitely some that we want to investigate and learn more about.

Week 1 - Screw-Ups Revisited

I wasn't sure at first what to make for screw-ups revisited as nothing major came to mind right away. I asked A, and he quickly volunteered the mozzarella sticks that I made for a challenge last year. Yeah, that was a pretty big failure and probably worthy of a re-do.

Last time, the mozzarella sticks turned into an entire melted sheet of cheese with bread crumbs on it, where I had to actually slice it up to turn them into sticks. I searched online for other recipes for baked mozzarella sticks and came up with one on Real Food by Dad that sounded like it might work. It was also simpler than the other recipe I used the first time, as it could be done quickly and required no refrigeration after dredging.

I didn't follow the recipe exactly, using Italian bread crumbs and not toasting them (although they probably would have been better toasted), omitting the salt, and only making 8 sticks. Generally, the breading and dredging was the same as last time - one bowl with flour, one with a beaten egg, and one with the bread crumbs plus some freshly grated parmesan. The sticks went into each of those bowls in order and then were put on a foil-lined, greased baking sheet.

The first few sticks turned out horribly and I realized it was because not much egg was sticking to them. I remedied that later so some of them turned out double-dipped. It didn't end up as clumpy as usual when I try to dredge things, so I guess that's an improvement. Once they were ready, they baked at 425 degrees for 3 minutes (instead of the 8 minutes I tried last time). 

After 3 minutes, the cheese was just starting to ooze out, so that was a good amount of time to cook the cheese, but because of how short the period of time was that they were in there, they hadn't really crisped up at all so you couldn't pick them up with your fingers (unlike last time when you could but they were just a block of melted cheese that hardened after cooling). The breading also didn't seem very "cooked" (which is probably why toasting it in advance would have tasted better). They were just so limp and had to be eaten with a fork.

These baked mozzarella sticks turned out better than last time but still not great. They did stay together and didn't melt all over the place. (The one on the end in that picture that looks like it did but that was because I accidentally split that stick pulling it out of the package, so it was never together to begin with.) They didn't become one sheet of cheese. They were individual sticks. But they weren't what I was hoping for. I don't quite know what I'm doing wrong, as I put on as much breading as I could, but maybe I'm just not meant to make baked mozzarella sticks (which, considering my lactose intolerance, really isn't the worst thing in the world to be bad at).

Chaan Teng

Back in November, on the corner that used to house Delta Grill in Hell's Kitchen, a new Chinese spot opened called Chaan Teng. We were intrigued by it, as the decor was a little fancier and more upscale and the menu had some interesting takes on Chinese dishes, like General Tso fried chicken. We also noticed that they had daily lunch specials (including weekends, unlike some other places), so we figured that would be a good way to try it the first time.

We both got lunch specials that day, which started off with a choice of appetizer (spring rolls, chicken and shrimp dumplings, or a green salad). We both went for the dumplings as usual. These reminded us more of Thai dumplings, like the chicken and shrimp dumplings from nearby Qi, than they did of Chinese dumplings, but that was fine with us since that's one of our favorites. It also made sense since Pichet Ong is behind both Chaan Teng and Qi.

For the main course, M got the charred lo mein with egg. The description said it was "wok charred egg noodle, cabbage, mushroom soy, Cantonese spices," which was an abridged description as there were also carrots, scallions, and bean sprouts among other things. Apparently there was also supposed to be Chinese broccoli, but M had that excluded because of her intolerance. (The server said everything was made fresh for each portion, so that was no issue.) The noodles were pretty good, lots of flavor, and tasted really healthy with all the vegetables.

A got the hot numbing rice noodles, marked on the menu with a three chili pepper spicy designation, and described as "rice noodles, Berkshire pork, vegetables, Sichuan spiced gravy." Hot and numbing was a proper description. The noodles were spicy and had a good burn, and the Sichuan peppercorns made A's tongue tingle and the water taste salty fairly quickly. Both are signs that the peppercorns are doing their job and messing with taste buds. The vegetables were infused with the hot and numbing flavors, and didn't help with not making A's mouth burn up. The pork belly was rich and fatty, and it had great flavor that didn't involve raging fire.

We were feeling hungry that day so we also got another appetizer to split - the spicy pork shumai (pork, chili, lemongrass, scallion soy sauce), which was the spiciest thing on the menu, the only thing with four chili peppers next to its name. We weren't sure how spicy the shumai could really be considering the description, but they weren't kidding. It was definitely hot, plenty of chili and chili oil, and it was full of that numbing effect of Sichuan peppercorns. The shumai themselves were really tasty, but that sauce was really, really hot. Normally we would eat all of the scallions and onions in the sauce, wiping up every last bit with the shumai, but we couldn't here because it burned (in a good way, but it still burned).

Overall, we liked our meal at Chaan Teng. It was enough to pique our interest about the rest of the menu, and we'll probably go back sometime to check it out some more.

The Quantum BRAT Diet

As A mentioned in the last post about dinner at Chic, I got sick on Day 9 of our Quantum vacation. Based on all the symptoms (which I won't get into here), I'm pretty sure it was food poisoning, but from what, I have no idea. It's pretty impossible to determine, especially when you're eating and drinking so many different things from so many different places made by so many different people over a short period of time. Whatever it was from, it happened, and I had to figure out how to deal with it on the ship. Trying to cope with this on a floating vessel in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean was much more difficult than being at home where you have a lot more control. I pretty much spent the next day and a half (until dinner on Day 11) trying to follow the BRAT (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) diet to recover, so I'm going to combine all of my meals from that time into this one post.

I skipped breakfast the first day after the incident. I was still recovering from a really late night of food poisoning and spent the entire time in bed. (Actually, pretty much spent the entire day in bed, thankful for a channel that played DreamWorks movies all day.) A went up to the Windjammer and looked for things to bring back for me. The ideal thing would have been bananas, but it was only 75% of the way through the trip, and the entire ship was out of bananas. How do you run out of bananas? It's not exactly the type of thing that's menu-dependent. Three days of no bananas? Someone's calculations were pretty off. That made trying to do BRAT a little difficult.

At lunch, I still didn't have much of an appetite but went up to the Windjammer anyway, partially because we had to vacate the room for the stateroom attendant to clean. I ate some rice (buttery, so not good), the insides of some French bread, and some really dry roast chicken. Not exciting, but it was what I needed. I pretty much just picked at it and ate very little. There were no bananas, no applesauce, and no toaster, so this was going to have to do. I would normally not have moved to chicken within 12 hours, but not a lot of options.

We spent most of the time between lunch and dinner just resting in the room, watching movies, napping, and trying not to feel sick, between my food poisoning issues and really rough seas. We were in the front of the ship, and for whatever reason, you could feel all of the swells way more than we had on any other ship. Sea bands didn't really help either. Adding the seasickness on top of the food poisoning after-effects was not fun.

Dinner that night was at American Icon, which A will write about more later, but I went straight for the Simple Tastes menu there. I still didn't have much of an appetite but I knew I had to eat, so I went for the grilled chicken which seemed safe. The one on the Simple Tastes menu came with root vegetable mash and steamed green beans, which on a normal day would sound good, but I ditched those and asked for a dry baked potato. What arrived also had some sort of brown sauce on it, which I wasn't expecting and didn't ask for, but it turned out okay. I thought it would be plain grilled chicken since the menu didn't mention a sauce, but I guess the restaurants couldn't turn out anything that plain. I think my digestive system was so beaten up and I still had so little appetite that I couldn't even finish this.

The next morning, I ate half of a banana after getting up. I think my parents, after they heard that there weren't any more bananas anywhere on the ship, gave us a banana they had stashed in their room earlier. Then we went up to the Solarium for breakfast. I was starting to feel a little more normal (other than the rocky seas) so I tried eating some more - a little bit of a turkey chorizo patty, a toasted English muffin, a toasted piece of white bread, and a few spoonfuls of yogurt. I was pretty glad Devinly Decadence had a toaster. Although I wasn't reacting badly to food anymore, I didn't want to stress my already irritated stomach while not at home, so I was trying to play it very safe. I really just wanted to eat bananas and toast for the entire time since this started, so at least I finally got some of both. A also managed to find some pears for me at the Windjammer for a snack, since that was the closest thing I could think of to applesauce. Trying to follow BRAT on board the ship was so much harder than doing it at home. After breakfast, more movies.

We went back to the Windjammer for lunch that day. I thought I would branch out and try some chicken and vegetable broth, thinking that could be good for an irritated stomach. After a tiny spoonful of broth, I stopped, because it occurred to me that I had no idea what vegetables would be included in their vegetable broth. What if it was one that I already have issues with, like broccoli? My brain had totally blanked out on that possibility when I was walking around the buffet, but at least I remembered before I had more broth. I thought I'd eat the crackers instead while waiting for A to get food, but they were soggy and stale.

After ditching the broth, I got a little more buttery rice, a turkey burger patty, a hot dog bun, some baguette pieces, and a very dry piece of grilled salmon. It was so bland and boring (other than the turkey burger), but seemed fairly safe. We rested through the afternoon again, watching more movies and napping some more, as the seas were still rough. By dinnertime, I was feeling well enough to stop trying to do BRAT and just make careful choices with regular foods, so I'll pick up with those meals in our regular posts.

So how hard was it to deal with food poisoning on the ship? It was pretty difficult. They always recommend a bland diet like BRAT when you're recovering, but the ship had (1) no bananas, (2) buttery-tasting rice, (3) no applesauce, (4) only occasional access to a toaster, and (5) stale crackers. (On other trips where there were always bananas everywhere, this might have been easier.) I pretty much had to stick to various forms of (untoasted) white breads and dry grilled chicken or turkey or fish, which is usually not where I start after an episode like this. Luckily I was able to recover enough to be able to eat somewhat normally two days later, but those two days were pretty difficult. Hopefully this won't ever happen again.

Chic On My Own (sort of)

After seeing the awesome show Sonic Odyssey, I had a late dinner with M's parents. M had been feeling increasingly sick over the course of the day (so much that she almost missed the show), so she went back to the room to rest. It was so late that I didn't really want to eat too much. Also, I was worried about M so I didn't want to stay away from her for too long.

One thing we've never mentioned before is the Simple Tastes Menu. Every restaurant on the Quantum had a main menu that we'd been ordering from the whole time, and also a Simple Tastes menu that we had ignored. Simple Tastes was different in each of the restaurants, but it was, as the name implies, a simpler menu for people who weren't necessarily into the more exotic flavors of the main menus.

From this Simple Tastes menu I ordered the roasted chicken noodle soup. It was described as "slow cooked chicken broth with rosemary, thyme, and vegetables." I wanted something clean and light, and this sounded like the right thing. I also ordered one to go for M since she wasn't feeling well. Funny thing, there was also an arugula salad on the Simple Tastes menu, but I opted against this as there was no arugula left on the ship.

I also got another order of the chicken I got every other visit to Chic because I liked it so much. Other than that, I got no dessert because of how late it was and because I wanted to get M her soup.

The meal was exactly what I wanted, light and quick. M was really thankful for the soup, and tried to have a spoonful or two of the broth. Unfortunately, she could barely stomach any of the soup because of her illness, and it ended up being a harbinger of things to come.

Thai Market Salad

Last night I found myself really craving salad. I hopped on to the Chop't website to see what the current destination salads were, thinking maybe I could grab one for lunch today, and was pleased to see that the next destination was Thailand. Every salad and bowl sounded so good, and after reading Eater today, it completely made sense. The consultant on all of the Thai salads and bowls was none other than Harold Dieterle, the chef behind Kin Shop which we loved and miss. No wonder.

Although I was really intrigued by the turkey meatballs in the warm bowl, I decided to go with the crunchy Thai market salad since I had been wanting salad for the past 12+ hours. I was a little disappointed to see that the list of ingredients being mixed into the greens was so slim (only 3 items), considering the salad with tax would end up being over $11. It seemed like it wouldn't be a ton of stuff for a decently high price, but I tried to keep an open mind.

The Thai market salad started with a base of tatsoi, purple cabbage, romaine, and herbs, and then they added satay chicken, pickled hearts of palm, and crispy rice crackers. The recommended dressing was a Thai coconut lime vinaigrette. Since the dressing seemed to be made specifically for this salad, I figured that it would probably be the best pairing and didn't deviate.

This salad was so good that I immediately wanted more. The flavors were so complex, so nuanced, just like dishes you would expect at a Thai restaurant, not a salad chain. The rice crackers weren't overly hard or crunchy, but just added a nice textural accent along with the crunchy greens. The seasoning on the chicken was so flavorful that when added to all the herbs and all the flavor in the vinaigrette, the entire salad was just a giant explosion of flavor. I wish I could be more specific about the herbs and seasonings used, but while I may eat a lot of Thai food, I'm not skilled enough to do that. But this salad was good, so good that I almost licked the dressing off the bowl and ate every single herbal green bit I could find. The Thai menu items will only be around for a couple of months before Chop't moves on to a new destination, so I definitely plan to return to try the rest.

Chimney Cakes

When we were at the Bryant Park holiday market before the holidays one night, we saw a really long line for a stand selling chimney cakes. We had never had one before, but they sounded interesting. We made a mental note to remember these if we came back another day and there were less than fifty people in line.

Chimney cakes originated in Hungarian cuisine where Wikipedia tells us they are known as kürtőskalács. This style of cake has been around since medieval times, and is pretty simple in concept. They bake the dough in the oven in the same style as rotisserie chicken with a rotating spit. The chimney cakes vendor at the Bryant Park market offered them plain ($7 each) or with an assortment of toppings like Nutella or dulce de leche for $2 extra each.

We got ours filled with Nutella which was a good combination for a snack. We first tried biting into the cake directly to eat it, but found that it unraveled into spirals which would have actually made it easier to eat if not for all the Nutella getting all over our fingers. We would imagine that a chimney cake without fillings would be really easy to eat by just peeling apart the spirals, but we didn't find a great solution with the fillings.

The cake itself was sweet as it was rolled in sugar, and the Nutella added even more sweetness and a bit of nuttiness to the cake. The texture of the cake was a bit on the crisper side since it was so thin, but tasted really good. A thought it was a touch too sweet, but overall was still good. M was curious what it would taste like without the Nutella, since that made it extra sweet.

While we're glad that we were able to try out something new and from a new country for WorldEats, we don't know that we would need to get this again, especially since the line was always so long.