Meatballs of all Varieties

The other night I went with a friend to the Lower East Side's newest hotspot, The Meatball Shop. What do you think they serve there??? You guessed it, meatballs, of all sorts. The menu is not super large but anyone can find something to eat there, even you vegetarians and pescetarians out there. There's the classic beef ball, pork balls, salmon balls, chicken balls, vegetarian balls, and today's special was something the bartender was coining "blue balls." Haha, basically it was a buffalo chicken meatball served with a blue cheese sauce. Of course, you all know that I don't eat blue cheese, so I had my friend order the blue ball slider with the sauce on the side. (See the photo below, sorry about the poor quality.)

The buffalo chicken slider was pretty good, not enough spice for me though. I ordered was the classic beef meatballs, it comes with 4 balls, ontop of rigatoni with a classic tomato sauce. You have a choice of sauce, classic tomato, mushroom sauce, parmesan cream sauce, or spicy meat sauce. I also ordered a side salad of arugula and apple slices mixed with the most delicious yet light dressing. I think I heard the bartender say it was a mustard vinaigrette of some sort. Whatever it was I could have continued to eat a few more bowls of it.

The prices are very reasonable too, which is always nice in these recession times. WE had a small carafe of wine that was $17. The meatball sliders were each $3. You can look at the menu online at their website. We didn't get dessert, but they have homemade ice cream sandwiches that looked amazing.

The place was packed, I sat at the bar, but the wait for 2 people at 6:30pm was about 30 minutes and then when we left at 8pm the wait was more than an hour. The place is small but cozy enough to want to go again and again, plus the meatballs were delish, the prices fair, and the people watching wasn't half bad either! Either way you look at it, it's a win-win, as far as I'm concerned. Although I'd highly suggest going on the early side of lunch/dinner time.

TENZAN is Not a 10!

Just a quick note to mention a very important event that occured last night. I went with a couple of friends to Tenzan, a sushi restaurant on 2nd avenue between 52 and 53 street. There are actually 4 Tenzans around NYC. This location, East 89th street, Upper West, and Brooklyn. I have been to the one on the Upper West before and the food was fine, nothing to complain about however, nothing to write home about either. Then when the one on 89th street opened up I ordered in from there...completely different story! I ordered some special rolls, both were NASTY! I ended up throwing it all out, and was completely nauseous the rest of the night.

I prefaced my friends' meal by telling them this story. I was eager to see how the meal was going to pan out.

They began the meal with steamed shrimp shumai, which was watery and mushy and edamame which seemed fine. I mean who the hell screws up edamame...It's not that hard of a task, is it? Moving on to the sushi, he ordered a yellowtail scallion roll and a sashimi plate. She ordered a rock shrimp and avocado roll with brown rice. Halfway through they both looked at me with this face that was priceless, and I just stared at them with a like I-told-you-so kinda face. Needless to say they didn't enjoy it, so I'll say it now, "I told you so!"

The waiter was called over and they told him that the fish was fishy and just simply not good. "If it's good sushi I'd eat it, but it's not and I feel like I am going to throw up," my friend told the waiter. After the waiter reported their complaints to the chef, the waiter came back, check in hand, and said that they only charged us half the price of the meal. You bet they did!

BOTTOM LINE IS....I'M NEVER GOING TO TENZAN AGAIN! AND NEITHER ARE MY FRIENDS! YOU SHOULDN'T EITHER, IT'S GROSS, TRUST ME.

Happy Friday, enjoy the weekend, be back with you all next week!

NYC Favorites

Sorry for the blog delay today, I'm getting the hang of the whole thing. From now on I'll try to put up the post in the morning so all you people who are reading at work while you should be working have something to read! :)

My friend's always come to me for suggestions of where to go out to eat. They know I love food and researching restaurants, so they come to me. I'm pretty much like a walking citysearch. Here's a list of some of my go-to restaurants around NYC...I'll tell you what I eat at each place so you have an idea of what to order.

For pizza I like to go to Otto Pizzeria, Mario Batali's place on 5th Avenue. It's great for a large group of friends or just a few. They have round tables that can seat 8-10 people, which is always nice! The pizzas and salads are good, the wine is flowing, and the price for what you get is great! Somehow every time I go there when the bill is split it comes to around $40 a person. I'd say that's a pretty sweet deal for a dinner out on the town.

For tapas I love Sala or Sala One Nine, owned by the same person, but two different locations. One on Great Jones Street and the other on West 19th street. I love their grilled calamari, fried goat cheese with honey, my favorite bacon wrapped dates, their tostas are good, and their seafood paella is big enough to feed 4 people (they say its for 2!). Another tapas option is Boqueria. I guess you can say it's more of a hip place to eat, however they do not take reservations and there's usually a wait during normal dinner hours. They actually have bigger and better bacon wrapped dates, but their menu is not as large and the vegetarian friendly options are limited.

For mussels I suggest going to either B Cafe or Flex Mussles, both on the Upper East Side. At B Cafe you will have a full menu, I usually get their Moule Frites provencal. I don't know about you but I like a mussel with a good sauce, no white wine sauce for me. Their fries and Belgian beers are excellent as well. Flex Mussels has the best Thai Mussels. The sauce is drinkable and great for dipping fries and bread into. In addition they serve these immaculate filled doughnuts (with your choice of filling) that come to the table warm along side a vanilla bean sauce for dipping. I have tried the blueberry and the caramel fillings, of which I ate up both in under 5 minutes.

For mexican i am a huge fan of El Rio Grande in the Murray Hill area. The Margaritas are killer and you only need 1 or 2 to get you way more than just a little tipsy. Now I don't know about you but I ONLY eat fajitas that come out to the table on a SIZZLING platter. If it's not sizzling I will not eat it. So at Rio you'll find that the fajitas sizzle. They also have this amazing salsa verde, for all you language challenged readers, thats a green salsa. It is simply amazing and when you get a fresh basket of tortillas you'll be in heaven! The typical red salsa is pretty good as well! BUT, if you head to Rio on the off-season (whenever that is) be prepared for them to tell you that there is no salsa verde.

For noodle bars I will only eat at Momofuku. Period. I stick to the noodle bar, but you can visit David Chang's other 4 locations. It's fresh, it's cool, it's growing, it's freakin' delicious, and I love it! And so do my siblings...thanks Ofer for even introducing me to it! The menu is seasonal and from the green market so it's always changing. If you are a vegetarian don't go there, simply put! I don't eat pork unless its in the form of bacon, but I still enjoy the Momofuku experience. I usually get the shitake mushroom steamed buns or the chicken steamed buns to start. And then I see what's on the menu that day and take it from there. Be sure to stop by Milk Bar to get the most yummiest rich in flavor cookies you have ever tasted!!!! My fave is the chocolate-chocolate cookie.

Here's a list of restaurants I have on my list to try right now:

Locanda Verde

Sfoglia

Sushi Yasuda

Keste Pizza and Vino

Supper

Emporio

Freemans

Bagatelle

Graffiti Food and Wine Bar

I'll leave you with this photo of me eating my first bacon wrapped date at Sala One Nine after having tried being a vegetarian for 6 months. Clearly, I was excited and enjoying the moment. I think I ate like 8 bacon wrapped dates that night....