Ever since I enlisted in the Army and businesses started offering Veterans Day promotions, I’ve tried to make it to a participating business each year. I’m not one to pass up free food, especially when it’s from a place like Olive Garden. I’m just being practical. Besides, I’m a veteran, and in a way, I already paid for it. That’s what the day is about, and I’m glad businesses have decided to give back to the veteran community one day a year in a show of appreciation for the efforts and loss that some people went through, or are still going through, for those on active duty.
The first time I remember going to a restaurant for a free meal on Veterans Day was when I was stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. I think I went to a Golden Corral or a similar all-you-can-eat buffet-style restaurant with a group of guys from my unit. This year, like last year, my wife and I went to the Olive Garden in Times Square. In addition to the free entree for veterans, the restaurant was offering 10% off for family members. I’m not sure if that was 10% off the rest of the bill, or just the other entree(s). I forgot to check and tossed the receipt already, but it doesn’t really matter to me. A discount is a discount.
The entree options for veterans were limited, but they offered a nice variety of choices. I went with the cheese ravioli. We also got the stuffed mushrooms as an appetizer and my wife ordered the capellini pomodoro, which she said tasted delicious. It looked delicious. I also ordered a new drink they have, a blood orange blackberry iced tea. That tasted outstanding.
Blood Orange Blackberry Iced TeaCheese Ravioli with Marinara SauceCapellini Pomodoro
These guys were outside the Olive Garden. I thought it was pretty cool, so I want to share the photo:
Mounted NYPD
We finished the evening off at Starbucks, which was offering a free tall brewed coffee to veterans and family members.
The evening wasn’t completely free, but the discounts at Olive Garden made our evening out more affordable and gave my wife and I an opportunity to be thankful for my coming home in one piece, to remember those who didn’t, and gave us another reason to just spend time together out of the house. We’re looking forward to doing it again next year.
Holiday decorations inside the 5 Napkin Restaurant at 14th Street
I don’t remember exactly when the place opened, but for the past few months the 5 Napkin Burger restaurant has been full of people almost every time I’ve gone by. The smells of cooking hamburgers wafting out of the restaurant onto 14th Street made it hard to walk by without getting hungry. So, it wasn’t much of a surprise when my mom asked me and my wife to take her there for her birthday dinner.
Christmas ornaments hanging from the pipes on the ceilingChalk board covered with drawings, including a flask and Bunsen burner.
The holiday decorations inside the restaurant are nice. It felt festive. My wife pointed this out to me later, but it looks like the restaurant has a biology lab decor underneath the Christmas decorations. I don’t really get it. Is the implication supposed to be that they’ve used science to perfect their burger recipes? It feels like a bit of a mental stretch and personally I don’t want to think about biology labs or what might be festering in Petri dishes while eating.
My mom and I opted for the signature 5 Napkin Burger. I figured I might as well get what should be their best dish. My wife opted for the steak and eggs. I was tempted to join her. We’ve been watching King of the Hill on Netflix and the night before we’d seen an episode about Hank, his propane and propane accessories and grilling steaks.
The 5N burger costs about 15 bucks. That’s steep, but they do give you a very, very large portion of food. I cleared the plate but my mom took half of her burger home for dinner. I should have done the same because later I wound up with a stomach ache that left me incapacitated on the couch for about two hours. The burger sat in my stomach like a lead weight for most of the day and then just sort of knocked me down for a while late in the evening. Luckily, everything cleared up the next day. If you know what I mean.
Anyway, the food quality is decent. According to the missus, the steak and eggs were good, but she’s had better. She said the portion was a good size, but it wasn’t extraordinary and the quality wasn’t comparable to the price. The 5N burger itself was tasty, but the portion was so big it was hard to hold it all together, especially when the juices from the meat started to run out onto my hand. Not that I’m advocating dry burgers, but I think the whole thing would come together better if the portion was just a more… normal size. The heavy garlic butter stuff (I forget the fancy name) along with the extra juiciness (grease?) and the lack of vegetables in the burger caused it to have a very unbalanced taste, and it might also be what led to my discomfort later in the day.
Some bizarre “cocktail” that tasted like flat champagne and cost 10 dollars.
The worst part of the meal was this holiday cocktail that was supposed to be a mix of champagne, some essence of elder flower, mulled ginger and some other essence of something that came in a tiny glass (that I got charged 10 bucks for…) and tasted like flat champagne. The only bubbles in the glass were coming from the interaction between the ‘champagne’ and the translucent slice of ginger in the bottom of the glass, which didn’t seem to help the taste of the drink at all. I can’t figure out why it cost so much, either. Do essences of stuff that add no flavor to a drink cost a lot? It certainly wasn’t costly because of the size of the drink. We mentioned the lack of taste to what I assume was a manager, since I think I remember him wearing a suit, and he said he appreciated the suggestion.
The best part of the meal was the onion rings. I’d go back for the onion rings. The chunks of onion are big and they’re not buried in batter. When I bit into them I could taste the onion and the batter instead of heavy oil. The other good thing about the meal was the service, up until the end when we were getting ready to leave. Some server had added an extra table to the booth across from where we were sitting that took up more than half of the walking space, so when we were trying to get out and leave, waiters and waitresses kept asking us to move out of their way. It was slightly annoying.
Thinking about the meal as a whole, we didn’t dislike it at the time. We didn’t have a ‘bad’ experience. I mean, no one left the restaurant upset, angry or disappointed. But, I don’t know that I’d want to go back and get what might be another mediocre steak and eggs or heavy (flavor-wise) burger, or flat champagne cocktail, all of which are highly (over) priced, just to get good onion rings. With three entrees, three sodas, one cocktail and two extra sides of onion rings, plus a tip, our bill wound up being 98 dollars. We could probably have been just as happy for half of the cost at any number of other burger places. So, while I think 5 Napkin is a decent meal, it’s not a decent meal that’s worth the price and I don’t think we’ll going back.
I just can’t get enough of those damn fried chicken wings and drumsticks! I don’t know how they make them, but they come out so crispy and delicious that I don’t mind that the spicy ones are burning my face off. I just keep eating them! They also come in soy & garlic flavor, which is great.
Kim Chi Bi Bim Bob and Beef Bul Go Gi
I’ve been gradually getting my wife around to all of the places I want to show her here in NYC that I already know about and Boka Bon Chon finally came up on the list. We were in the mood for something Asian and we were in the neighborhood, so we went on in.
Besides the wings, which are an absolute must if you ever go to this place, we got the kimchi bi bim bob and an order of beef bul go gi. The servings are generous. Maybe we were hungry, or it was just particularly good yesterday but we cleaned our plates and stripped the bones.
Waffles and Dinges Truck at Astor Place
Then we saw a food truck. A bright yellow food truck with a delicious scent coming from it. It turned out to be “Wafels and dinges,” which sells different types of waffles with a variety of toppings, including one called a “WMD” and, gross as it sounds to me, waffles with bacon or pulled pork.
Brussels waffle with chocolate and powdered sugar from Waffles & Dinges truck.
We were feeling the food we’d just eaten, so we got one and shared it. It was incredibly good! I’m looking forward to the next excuse we can find to eat at this food truck again. =)
For a Sunday afternoon, this was a great meal. I love NYC.
A couple of years ago, when I was living in Singapore, I got over my fears of being poisoned by “the enemy” and tried some Indian Muslim food at a hawker center in Pasir Ris. Indian food basically means curry. There’s a lot of different types, but all the curry I had was delicious! I finally got tired of reminiscing about how great the curry was and my wife and I decided to try our hand at making curry ourselves.
After a little trial and error we finally got it down right, using a recipe from a local Indian spice store as a guide. It was a lot of fun and it’s great to know that we can throw together some curry whenever we want. It’s amazing how many different types and how great a quantity of spices go into one meal.
I wonder how the first Europeans felt when they got to India and tried the local food? I mean, obviously they loved it, or the spice trade wouldn’t be what it is today, but what I’m getting at is, were they surprised? Shocked? Amazed? Or did they not like it at first and then it grew on them? I suppose I’ll research that when I have time, but for now, I’ll just enjoy the goodness that India’s spices create.
Hawkers, located between 2nd and 3rd Avenues on 14th Street in Manhattan, is a restaurant that serves Southeast Asian food. I’ve passed by this place almost every day for over a year, but I’ve never gone in because I assumed it was just a bar, and judging from the layout, serving alcohol is its primary function.
The restaurant seating is laid out as one long bar that covers the center of the space from front to back. It’s simple, but functional. The layout maximizes space, but sacrifices comfort. The seats aren’t exactly something you’d want to spend a lot of time sitting on, so don’t plan on spending a lot of time enjoying your meal.
The food itself is excellent.
The satay tasted authentic. The peanut dip was a little off from what I remember, though it could just be a difference between recipes. The only satay I have to compare this to was satay my wife and I ate in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I’d go back to Hawkers just for this, if nothing else. It’s simple, but satisfyingly tasty.
The green curry was really, really spicy and completely awesome!
The popiah was ok, but not something I’d order again.
My wife cleaned her plate, so I guess the grilled eggplant “lunchbox” must have been delicious!
The bill for what you see in the photos (including a gratuity they helpfully add to your bill for you) added up to about 74 dollars. That’s a little on the high side for me for a two person meal, though it was quite a bit of food. In fact, it was too much food for two people. The only reason we went with this option was because of a Groupon deal. When we go back, we’re going to stick to the lunch menu, or whatever they have for smaller portions.
The last two things I’d like to mention about this place is that its empty in the photos because we went early on a Monday afternoon, and the service was really great. The girl that served us is from Thailand and we chatted with her about our trip to Phuket, Thailand in 2008 I think it was.
In 2008, one of the last things I did before leaving the United States and moving to Asia was to have lunch with family at Veselka’s in the East Village.
I don’t remember too much about the visit, except that the pierogis were awesome. They were so awesome, that I lamented the fact that pierogis weren’t available (at least that I ever saw) during my stay in Asia. Maybe they were. Maybe they were hiding on a menu in an overpriced boutique restaurant in an upscale mall somewhere. Who knows? Either way, I kept telling my wife about how good they are, pierogis I mean, and I was excited to take her to Veselka’s so she could experience them for herself.
Needless to say, she was a bit overwhelmed. When we got there, she just sat at the table, looking at her phone. I asked her if she was going to choose what she wanted to eat, and she said, “Oh? I thought we were having pierogis?” I told her, “Of course we are, but you have to pick which kind of pierogis you want.” Then she got excited! There are plain potato, cheese, meat, spinach & cheese, sauerkraut & mushroom, sweet potato, and arugula and goat cheese. There’s also the “boiled” or “fried” option to think about. Veselka’s offers two pierogi plates: the big plate (7 pierogis) and the small plate (4 pierogis). We both went with the big plate. Might as well get what we went there for, right? My wife tried one of each and with the exception of the sweet potato pierogi, which seemed to just not be consistent with the rest of the dish, she said they were all excellent. I picked and chose but had one of everything but the sweet potato and meat pierogis.
Matzah Ball SoupUkrainian BorschtFried pierogis.
We thought about having dessert, but after the pierogis and a bowl of soup each, we were full. The best part is that the food is good quality, but priced to not break your bank. You can take a look at the full menu by clicking here.
Also, I was happy to see that the murals on the walls in the dining area had been replaced with something more upbeat. I found two old photos I took in 2006 of the wall murals:
Somber looking aren’t they?
This is definitely better:
Thanks again for the good food, Veselka’s! We’ll be back.
I have the vaguest recollection of eating at Katz’s Delicatessen as a kid. The place has been open, in the spot, since 1888 and is frequently visited by famous people. The walls inside are covered by pictures of notable diners, like Johnny Depp for instance. Today my wife and I decided to go down there and give it a try.
Despite the hype, we were not prepared for the line we saw when we passed the end of the last block. Both facades of the restaurant were covered by the lines of people. The line going down Houston (on the right in the picture) was for take-out; the line going down Ludlow was for dine-in. Like my wife said, “Thank God for smart-phones.”
The wait wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be, but the line outside wasn’t a line for a table. It was a line for another line. Well, really it was for the set of lines where you line up to get your sandwich. Also for the line where you line up to get a drink. On one hand, the madness and the business of the set-up adds to the excitement of eating there. On the other, it was very time consuming. I suppose there isn’t a faster way to do it though. Table service would likely take even longer. My only real gripe was that there was just one guy at the soda/fries (and other extras) counter, which made that a really, really long wait to just get two cans of soda.
Complaints aside, the wait was worth it. The food is awesome and you get a huge portion. One sandwich is enough for two people, unless you’re starving to death. I have half of the sandwich I ordered sitting on my table next to me, still waiting to be eaten. I had to go ask for a sheet of wax paper so I could wrap it up to bring it home. The prices aren’t that bad for what we got. The sandwiches pictured above are pastrami on rye. I think they were about 15.75 apiece.
If you’re visiting New York City (or if you live here and just haven’t gone yet) and you’re doing the food tourism thing, pizza isn’t the only must-have while you’re here. Definitely do stop by Katz’s. It’s worth the time and money. Oh, and one last thing: Dr. Brown’s root beer kicks ass!
Last May I went to a restaurant called Boka: Bon Chon on St Mark’s place in Manhattan. I wanted to take my mom out for something nice for Mother’s Day and she’d never had Korean food so it seemed like a good choice. We were both very satisfied with the food we ate, and after hearing back from some people that the fried chicken there is really awesome, we decided we’d go back to try it out at some point.
We finally did manage to get back there and try the fried chicken at the end of last month and it is amazing! We only ordered a small plate because we weren’t sure if we’d like it or not. Now I wish we’d just gotten a big plate of the fried chicken and nothing else. Just looking at the picture is making my mouth water. The skin of the chicken was crispy and tasty and the meat wasn’t oily. I could sit down and eat a bucket of the stuff. Well, maybe not the spicy fried chicken. The spicy fried chicken has a real kick to it. I can’t figure out which I like more. I think I actually prefer the spicy kind, but I probably couldn’t eat as much of it as the other.
We also got a plate of fried dumplings. They were crispy and looked nice, but the inside was a bit mushy. Maybe that’s the way they’re supposed to be. I don’t know, but my mom didn’t care for them too much.
We also ordered this. I don’t recall the name of it now, but it’s a spicy chicken ‘box lunch’. I was surprised when they brought it out, because the tray looks just like trays used at Korean restaurants in Singapore. I’m not sure if it’s still there, but I specifically remember there was a Korean restaurant that used these trays in the basement level of the Cineliesure (?) Mall in the Orchard Road area.
We figured that between the chicken, the dumplings and the ‘box lunch’, we’d have more than enough to eat for two people, and we did wind up bringing some of the chicken and dumplings home as leftovers (which disappeared quickly that same night). It was pretty filling, especially since we were eating it all with white rice.
In the future, when I go to Boka: Bon Chon, the fried chicken will always be one of my choices. Maybe the best option would be to get a large order of the fried chicken and another dish (like a bowl of bibimbap) and then ask for smaller plates and share the meal.
What you’re looking at is 30 dollars in a cup, believe it or not. This is Kopi Luwak Arabica. Why is it so expensive? Well…
It’s all in the digestion… or production… process. You see, this coffee is made from beans that have been previously digested and crapped out by an Asian palm civet. In the picture above you can see an example of the coffee beans prior to cleaning and roasting, and the finished product on the left. The cost of the animal husbandry and the long process of securing the digested beans is what makes the coffee so expensive.
When I lived in Singapore I’d heard about this coffee. It’s mostly produced in Indonesia. I never did take the time to try it out while I was there, and of course I wasn’t about to spend 30 dollars on a cup of coffee here in the US, so I was happy to see a Groupon pop up for a 20 dollar discount at Jezalin’s, which is where I had my first kopi luwak experience.
Like the rest of the Limelight Market (corner of 6th Avenue and 20th Street in Manhattan), Jezalin’s has a really nice, classy atmosphere. When I got my cup of coffee, the girl behind the counter (also visible in the picture above) came over and showed me the display and explained the process. I was already familiar with where the coffee comes from, but it was fun to listen to her talk about it.
So, was it worth it? It was definitely worth the 10 bucks I wound up paying. The kopi luwak tastes like coffee, but it has a thicker taste to it. It’s not as strong as coffee. It has a more mellow, earthy (poopy?) taste to it. Oddly enough, I felt like taking a nap after finishing it off. At 30 bucks a cup, it’s not going to replace my morning cup of coffee, but it was a pleasant experience overall, and I’ll definitely convince my wife to try some.
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