…along with everyone else. However, clearly in this case, good things come to those who wait.

Shio-ramen was, well, salty. At first it was a bit too salty, but then as I made my way toward the middle to the bottom of the bowl, my palate seemed to adjust and what was left was a nice, somewhat smoky flavor. BTW- kaedama (extra noodles after you’re done w/ the first bowl) is only $1.50. I’m glad we got it today as I can’t see how they’ll continue to sell it at that price. I give it 2 weeks before the price goes up or it comes off the menu entirely.

Tsukemen was much less salty and more mild. I think if I hadn’t had the shio ramen first, I would’ve enjoyed this more.

In both cases, the noodles were a bit firm, but were definitely a pleasant texture. I look forward to having too much ramen at a place too close to home for many nights, days and months to come. Did I mention they were sold out of product at 8:30PM?  I think all of the people who were absolutely sick of terrible ramen at Momofuku came out of the woodwork to give the NKOTB a try.  There’s probably enough ramen business to go around between good ramen and bad ramen.
On a related note, Cecel cafe crepe has undergone some changes: they now offer small portions for about 50% off the original $6-$7 price. This is a welcome addition as the small size is appropriate from a dessert and wallet perspective. They got rid of the refrigerator w/ crepe cakes, but I hope they still have some kick in them.
It’s good to live on my block. The two block radius, within which I live most of my non-work life, has gotten much more interesting over the past year. For instance, right across the street, a new wine/food bar is opening (Graffiti) with a grand total of ~10-12 seats. Previous occupants of the storefront space haven’t fared well over the past 4-5 years, but there’s always hope: the radius seems to generally be supportive of the foodstuffs (sorry share, we knew ye too briefly). I only hope others feel the same way.

If you haven’t had one of these creations before you need to check it. It’s frozen yogurt with fresh toppings, but they use what i call the “asian yogurt” flavor. It’s that intense yogurt flavor that you find in hi-chews and other assorted asian candies.  The yogurt itself is tart and tangy and not too creamy so it’s easy on the stomach and the cholesterol. I have to be concerned about this type of thing these days

Anywho – The regular is better than the green tea, and the sweet rice cake/mochi topping is the best. I should know because I accidentally ate most of it from Aya’s pinkberry. It took a few subway stops for the anger to subside.

I was less than excited about the $7.50 price tag, but for the quality, the price seems reasonable, if not affordable. I’ll be back to try these varieties:

• Sweet
• Red bean & strawberry
• Red bean & cinammon
• Double mango
• Savory
• Hijiki salad
• Potato salad prosciutto

The place is run by Kaz Yokoi, formerly of Sushi of Gari and Patisserie Payard. I’ve never been to Payard, but I could’ve sworn that I’d seen the crepe chef at Gari before. It seems like it has legs – we’ll see if we can get a few more rounds in before the locusts arrive.

I found this TimeOut NY article that mentioned a growing “mutual curiousity” between Italian and Japanese kitchens. This struck me as curious in itself as Basta Pasta has been around since 1990.

Anyway, I’m not here to degrade the efforts of the journalist. Rather, I would like to point out the “italo-japanese” influence in the kitchens of Basta Pasta and Dieci is decidedly copacetic. I won’t go into the details of Basta Pasta’s lovely parmesan/prosciutto pasta (it’s lovely), but I will touch on some highlights of the newly opened Dieci.

• Foie gras + black truffles + crostini was excellent
• Mozarella croquette with tomato sauce was better than advertised: you’d think the combination of ingredients would be more Applebee’s fare, but it was crunchy, tasty, and better still, interesting.
• Black squid risotto: made my teeth and tongue dark and menacing, but was pleasantly salty.
• Chocolate cake with homemade banana gelato: the combination is great, and the gelato was like a smooth frozen banana

Oh, and Dieci is on my block. I hope it’s 25 seats don’t get overwhelmed too quickly.

I didn’t know you could do fried chicken so wrong. I don’t want to bash, but this was a really disappointing meal. I guess the first sign we should’ve noticed was that the restaurant didn’t smell a whole lot like chicken when we walked in. The chicken was crispy and browned, but there wasn’t any flavor other than plain, unseasoned chicken. Maybe I was disappointed because I wanted a cheaper, closer alternative to the salty, crispy chicken at Mama’s. If you really want to hear a rant, come ask me about the wet buffalo wings.
I suppose it’s too easy for me to forget the reason why there are always new places popping up in my neighborhood: many spots just aren’t ready.

I suppose we can try Kaleidoscope next. It might actually be nice with sufficiently lowered expectations.

• Una pizza napoletano – As you’ll read in various blog postings and reviews across the internet, the owner is a neapolitan pizza purist, plain and simple. There are only 4 types of pizza on the menu, and it’s safe to say that they’re all excellent. Make sure you get there early: We arrived at 8PM, were told at 8:30PM that we would be the last people served that evening (they close when they run out of dough), and were eating by 9:15PM. This isn’t exactly our idea of a great meal, but the food overcame the wait. At $18.95 per 12″ pie, it better be able to overcome a lot.
• S’mac – Two doors down from the pizza place above is S’mac. As they only serve pizza at Una pizza napoletano, it only seems appropriate that they only serve macaroni and cheese at S’mac. Of the many varieties, we tried the Gruyere with slab bacon and the Cajun with peppers and cajun sausage. I knew it was good when I saw they had tomatoes as an optional topping. To me, a true mac and cheese must have tomatoes. It’s usually bustling inside, but the few times I’ve been by, the line never grows longer than a few minutes wait. A tip: The medium sized portion is way too big for dinner, and basically constitutes two meals. Next time, I am going for the small. The large size will have to wait until I have some kind of dinner party (they have bake-at-home offerings too).

All in all, I’m never surprised to be surprised in the neighborhood. I really need to get out more.

If he were born in the USA circa 1937, there is a good chance we would call him “Tak”, but he wasn’t, so we call him Takeru Kobayashi. For the 6th straight year, Kobayashi has taken the Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest, held annually at Coney Island on the Fourth of July. While the result was no different than it has been in years past, this year, he only narrowly attained his goal. Squeaking by jingoistic-fan-favorite Joey Chestnut by about one hot dog, Kobayashi proves he is equal to Michael Jordan… if only in the number of titles he has won. You heard it hear first: Kobayashi will now retire to pursue his lifelong dream of playing professional baseball very poorly.
All stupid comparisons aside, I don’t think Michael Jordan ever had something like this written about him:

In 2004, he triumphed again by eating 53 1/2 hot dogs in 12 minutes, beating his old record. There was a small conflict over this result, as some fellow competitors accused him of expelling vomit during the 12-minute competition. Vomiting is not prohibited per se, but the vomit is not allowed to leave the mouth of a contestant. [via wikipedia]

I’ve seen my share of vomit in sports (Beckham I’m looking at you), but no instance that has ever broken any rules of the game.

Two new revelations in the NYC Japanese food scene…

• Yakitori Totto – In a word: sublime. This is no standard yakitori joint. The decor is straight out of Shinjuku and the food is what they serve on the Buddha’s table. If you think you can’t do grilled chicken any better than you’ve tasted, come a little further. Easily a reason to live in NYC… period.
• Aburiya Kinnosuke – OK this place isn’t really a stretch: it is owned and operated by the same folks that run Totto. Aburiya Kinnosuke focuses more on fish. That being said, one of the star attractions is the Robata grilled chicken meatball (tsukune). Coated with a wonderful soy-based sauce, and dipped in a steamed egg, consumption is a memorable experience. My favorite: kurobuta, a grilled pork filet seasoned to perfection.

Nights like this (80 degrees, passing thunderstorms and humidity like an armpit) are made more than tolerable after a grin-inducing visit to either of the above. Don’t sleep on this.

The bag contains what can only be described as a cross between Cheez Puffs and Funyuns. The consistency was similar to Cheez Puffs (not Cheetos mind you, those are kind of crunchy hard), airy, insubstantial, with powerful onion flavor. Everything was going well until we were reminded by the imagery on the bag that Tamanegi-san apparently harvests his own young w/ a shovel to be made into onion puffs. After I realized the systematic commoditization of the smiling onion-headed youth of today, I could eat no more.

It’s official: A new Japanese treat has landed in Manhattan. Tonight AK brought home a bag of gorira no hana kuso. This literally translates to “nose shit of gorilla”. Less literally, this translates to “gorilla boogers”. This wouldn’t be noteworthy unless they were edible. (they are)

These have been available in Japan for a few years. They’re popular among children, especially when sold at zoos. I think their US equivalent would be the chocolate covered frozen banana: You eat them at Disneyland, but nowhere else. I’ve never seen gorilla boogers stateside, nor happened to try them, until tonight. They look like you would expect, but the taste is different…

The texture is that of overcooked jellybeans. If they were real gorilla boogers, I would’ve expected them to be more salty. They are a little sweet, and slightly pasty. The texture is appropriate since they’re basically dried and seasoned black beans. I ate about 4 of them, and I could probably eat a few more.

If you’ve read this far, you should be rewarded.

You would not believe the power of Whole Foods Natural Wasabi Green Peas. I usually go with the widely available Kasugai Wasabi Peas, which are plenty fierce. In fact, Kasugai peas make my cat Nomo gag when he smells them.

However, I have a feeling whoever made this batch just got dumped or perhaps wanted to play a cruel joke on all the gluten-free, tofurkey eating, olive bar sneezing, whole foodies. I’ve never even had wasabi this strong.
In any case, they’re making me cry as I type, and they’d probably make my cats vomit their spleens, which is a new experience for me as far as peas go.