Minca

It's getting chilly! Which means I'm entering my soup phase...I swear somtimes I will have soup for lunch and dinner several times a week when it's cold outside. There are a few great markets around Morningside Heights which make this possible. But I just got a wonderful package in the mail from my mom with an immersion blender in it--which means I can finally make my own soups! And dips, and smoothies, and...I'm so excited! I have no microwave, no cuisinart, no toaster oven, but I do have an immersion blender? One step at a time until I get out of college kitchens...

One of the soup varieties I love in fall and winter weather is ramen. There are tons of ramen shops popping up all over the city, all competing for title of most authentic or richest, porkiest broth. I'll have to try a ton more to be a true judge, but I like to think I know when something tastes really good, good enough to blog about at least. Minca was really good.

Minca is an intimate place with an open kitchen on the Lower East Side--it kind of feels like you're eating out of someone's home. The menu is pretty straightforward, with some appetizers and then an abundance of ramen choices, centered on different kinds of broth and noodles. I like the fact that you can make youre own combinations, though at the same time I'd like to be able to trust in the restuarant's combination and go an authentic route. The choice was easy for me--bring on the pork! But for those who want something lighter, there are chicken based broths, or vegetarian options. You can also choose a miso or soy-based broth as well--basically, any kind of ramen you want, you can get.

I chose the basic pork broth ramen, which comes with slices of pork, fermented egg, nori, and slices of wild mushrooms. When it arrived the bowl smelled so rich and earthy.

The broth had all those components that a nice strong pork broth should--the saltiness and the rich, meaty tinge to it. I like my ramen to be like an asian beef stew. This ramen was also distinctly garlic and onion flavored, which I liked. The mushrooms were also really nice because they not only added flavor but a crunchy texture which complimented the soft noodles.

I also ordered a side of kimchee, half of which I ended up pouring into my soup. I've had kimchee ramen before and loved it, but I wanted to try the ramen as is beforehand and add it in to my liking. I was tempted to order a spicy version of my ramen but I withheld, because I didn't know just how spicy it would be. I'm glad I did because then I was able to add my own amount of spice with the kimchee--with the pickled cabbage flavor as well. It was a great combo.

My friend ordered the spicy basic ramen, which was also really good, but a little too spicy to eat a whole bowl of that night. It just depends on my mood. Her ramen came with corn, which was an interesting addition I hadn't seen before. But it was a welcome addition.

My meal seemed steep at $9.50 for the ramen and a bowl of kimchee for $4.50, but since the bowls are HUGE (you could easily share one), I only ate half and took the rest home. So in reality, two full meals for $7 each isn't that bad.

All in all Minca is a great ramen find.

Minca
536 East 5th Street
Between Ave A and B
NYC 10009

(Another location with the same menu, called Kambi, is located at 351 East 14th St, between 1st and 2nd Ave.)

Later,

Nosher

Asian Sandwiches

You can take the girl out of Asia, but you can't take the Asia out of the girl. Only in New York City can you find such a plethora of foreign flavor combinations that are making the until recently lesser known street foods of Southeast Asia accessible to just about everyone.

Lately I've been on such a sandwich kick, and here are a few of my finds:

I stopped by Xie Xie (pronounced shuh shuh), last week to try my hand at this new trend. All the sandwiches looked great and I couldn't decide which one to get, so I asked the owner, Angelo Sosa, who was behind the counter making the sandwiches, which his favorite was. He guided me in the right direction with the shredded braised chicken sandwich with smoked egg salad, cilantro, and picked onions.

The chicken was slow cooked to perfection and retained a ton of its juices, so it naturally went well with the generous amount of pickled vegetables. I love it when a good sandwich contrasts both flavors and textures--the deep, rich flavor of slow cooked meat with the vibrant and sour crunch of picked vegetables.

My friend had the Vietnamese bbq beef sandwich with basil mayo and carrot kimchee. While tasty, it wasn't as rich in flavor as the chicken was; the beef was a little dry and the carrots weren't really kimchee-d at all, but the basil mayo was a nice touch.

I would love to go back and try the Asian Lobster roll with kewpie mayo and tarragon crispy shallots, but I was a little short on change the first time around. The sandwich I got was $8.50--a little pricey but in my opinion, worth it.

Sosa also stocks up on some unusual beers and will recommend some combinations for you. My boyfriend tried the Lighthouse Ale with the "100 year old" Ice Cream Sandwich--a thick block of vanilla ice cream surrounding black caramel in between two thin and chewy chocolate cookies. Yum.

Xie Xie
645 9th Ave at 45th St
New York, NY 10036


More recently, I went on a Banh Mi excursion with my friend Adam. He took me to Baoguette/Pho Sure on Christopher Street. While there seemed to be a lot of tasty and authentic options on the menu, many of which I had just had in Vietnam, my choice was easy--classic, please.I think I had a banh mi sandwich every day in Vietnam, yet it still hasn't deterred me from eating some more. All the ingredients and flavors were spot on, and it definitely had a kick to it--Adam had already warned me that "medium" spicy actually means really hot, so I went with the mild and it was still spicy, but not in an overwhelming way. And at $5, it was pretty cheap for the size--I couldn't finish. Definitely not the dollar I paid in Vietnam, but in NYC it's a great price. I did have one major qualm though--their ingredient distribution is way off! Distribution is key!! They stacked all the components of the sandwich horizontally in the roll instead of vertically, which meant that I could only ever get a bite with everything on it in the middle of the sandwich, and to get to the middle I would have to have two very uneven bites on the sides first--all picked vegetable/cilantro or all pork. Banh mi is really a revelation because of the combination of components in between the bread, and doesn't work as much for me when the ingredients are separated. For someone who takes sandwich making very seriously, this was a big no-no. But alas, if you're not so much of a stickler, I would say go for it anyways. It was still substantially satisfying at the end of the day. I will have to keep exploring, though.

Baoguette/Pho Sure
Various locations
NYC


Nosher

Highlights from SE Asia, or, Mostly Pork

Sorry for the delay, but moving into college yet again is quite time consuming. Although it's pretty nice to come back to a roomate heavily armed with fridge magnets for our daunting grocery lists and magazine clippings of impending bacon excursions. I already have a few blog posts lined up from the city.

But this must come first: a round up of the best of my food adventures from SE Asia. And for lack of imagination, in chronological order.

THIS was the first thing I ate upon arriving in Asia:GOOSE. With BBQ Pork hidden underneath there. I actually flew into Hong Kong, and a friend of mine from school took me to Yung Kee Restaurant in Central, which is apparently one of the most authentic and oldest dim sum restaurants in the city. It tasted a lot like Peking Duck, but was inexplicably better. The key is the crispy skin. MMMmmm.

Novelty is the tastiest; this was my first meal in Thailand: Josie and I stumbled upon a small place our first morning, and we lucked out. The lone woman working at the cafe couldnt cook both of our orders at once, so she cooked mine first, served me, and then went back to cook Josie's dish. True home cooking. This is fried rice with pineapple, pork, baby corn, onion, and bell peppers. A simple dish that tasted infinitely more authentic and delicious in its native environment.

The Sunday market in Chiang Mai had a wealth of amazing street food. My friend Liz got this roast pig's feet served over rice with a vinegar dressing poured on top-- The meat was so juicy and melted in your mouth. I got some fried quail eggs, miniature eggs cooked in this big circular pan with a dozen half circle inlets. They're served with pepper and soy sauce. Soy sauce is actually really good with eggs. Try it at home with regular eggs and eat with toast slathered with coconut jam. This is how they serve it at Street in LA.

There were so many choices at Quan An Ngon in Saigon that Josie and I had to go there twice. It's an established restaurant but all of the owner's favorite street vendors line rim of the seating area, preparing their one signature dish. My single favorite dish from here was the Nom Quan Ngon, or pork salad with cucumber and bean sprouts, with rice cakes and two different sauces (a fish/vinegar sauce and a chili sauce):

But the real street food was even better in Saigon. We ate at the market near our hotel every morning and other various markets elsewhere for most of our other meals, choosing our eats mainly by seeing something that looked appealing and then pointing. One staple, however, was Cafe Su Da--iced coffee with milk. Or in other words really fucking strong espresso with sinfully sweet condensed milk. It was the only way to survive in the heat.

After only eating soups, curries, and rice in Thailand and Cambodia (the equivalent of Thai food but less spicy; left out of this section because nothing honestly made the cut and paled in comparison to the Vietnamese food we had), Josie and I were seriously jonesing for bread. Good thing Vietnam has a history of French rule and awesome baguettes to match. The result? Banh Mi sandwiches...we had one every day were were in Vietnam. They. were. so. good. Perfectly crisp/soft combination baguette with pate, various cuts of pork, picked vegetables, cucumber, chilies, soy sauce, chili sauce, and most importantly cilantro used to the extent of lettuce. Genius combination. Luckily these are pretty trendy in NYC so I can get my Banh Mi fix (and of course post them here).

Another market favorite was Banh Xeo, a crispy egg pancake with minced pork and shrimp inside. A balanced breakfast!

And, to top it off, the perfect bowl of pho, eaten at an impromptu streetside cafe while watching thousands of motorbikes fly by. So many things in Vietnam are served with a huge basket of fresh herbs--basil, coriander, lemongrass to flavor the broths, different kinds of lettuce to wrap the spring rolls in, etc. It's the most genius concept ever and just reinforces how farm fresh (mostly) everything at the markets were. How is it that I got to eat the most delicious bowl of noodle soup with unlimited fresh herbs for the equivalent of a US dollar?

That's all for now.

Can't wait to get into it here in NYC. The food adventures have only just begun.

Love,

Nosher