Oh Brother / My NY Restos Top 10

in

Quick shoutout to my one regular reader (unless I have more?!?). My friend messaged me saying they’d read my last post and I felt very:

:’)

I do this for my fan(s?)

This week flew by. Definitely a bit of a special occasion since my brother came up to visit. Didn’t get much time to work on music but we had a pretty good time overall. I realized during rona there just generally isn’t that much to do. Neither of us are big drinkers and most of everything else is closed so we pretty much just ended up eating out and watching movies.

In non chronological order we went to

  1. Momo ramen for ramen and dumplings. The ramen got the job done. Wasn’t the best I’ve ever had but scratched that ramen itch

  2. Homeslice Pizza. Faithful reader(s?) will recognize this as my favorite pizza spot in my home neighborhood. So far I’ve had the margherita, regular cheese, meat lovers, square slice and loved them all except for the square slice. Shout out to the cashier lady who’s nice to me everytime :’) and is potentially starting to recognize me as a regular (I blame the mask if she isn’t)

  3. The local bodega for a BEC and halal chicken over rice. Man that halal chicken came out of nowhere. Was skeptical when I saw how they were cooking the chicken. Was annoyed that they were charging $8. But was pleasantly surprised when I tasted it. Good job guys. Also for the record I’m definitely recognized as a regular at my local bodega. Indisputable

    1. The BEC was good too. $4.

  4. hanon for udon. Mentioned this place before as well. We ended up driving here after Home Depot and eating out in their patio. Udon was bomb as usual but when they first served us they forgot the chopsticks. Ended up eating a lil with my hands cuz I’m a bad boy B). Besides that we got udon chips with tofu cream cheese (first time having tofu cream cheese! Pretty airy and almost more like whip cream than cream cheese. Pretty good dish overall). They also gave us free karaage. I still like them and would go back.

  5. Chuko for ramen (my brother loves his ramen. He wanted to get ramen a third time at ramen danbo but I vetoed). I had their kimchi ramen and it was great. Almost tasted like dukbokki (maybe a brothier version of it). Heavy. Had to walk it off but the taste was worth it.

  6. Calexico for nachos. These nachos are the best nachos I’ve had since I moved to Brooklyn. Expensive but delicious. Most restaurants just slop together a buncha salsa, chips, protein and call it nachos but these guys created layers. Different flavors too. Sour, sweet, tangy. All the good stuff. Will be back but this meal was hard to walk off as well.

Besides the food we watched the new Bill and Ted movie (stupid but in a likable way) and some Dexter episodes. We also went to Home Depot to pick up some PVC so I can build a new recording booth. Excited to see how that turns out.

Yeah great week overall but I’m excited to get back into my normal routine as well. Going back on my media purge. Also have the next two days PTO so that should be nice readjusting back to my normal flow.

Last thing—I have a first date tomorrow! Pretty excited about this one. We’ve been texting back and forth (a lot more than I usually do tbh) for the past week. Expectations have been heightened (then purposely lowered after we both agreed to lower them). Pretty excited tho… I think it’ll go great but if it doesn’t I’ll just write a real angsty song about it like I might have done in my high school days if I wrote songs back then :’)

Actually one last thing (as requested by my regular reader)—here’s my current top ten list of favorite restaurants in New York so far. The order does not mean anything and I’ve included my favorite dish from the restaurant.

  • Tatsu Ramen: Chicken ramen

    • This dish will keep you very warm in the cold winter. Helped me get through some lonely nights

  • Mala Project: Custom dry pot

    • This one’s definitely a love/hate for me but I cannot think of New York without thinking of this dish. I ate a ton of it when I first came to New York but as time goes on even the slightest bite of Szechuan food is enough to send my stomach into panic mode. My usual bowl is tofu pocket, sliced eye of round and funsize sausage… yeah maybe not the healthiest bowl :\

  • Los Tacos No 1: Pork tacos and corn cheese

    • I’m sure most people who live in NY knows about these tacos. They’re great, relatively cheap. Idk how many people try the corn cheese when they go but I really liked it. Tangy, creamy, fatty. Ooh baby

  • Homeslice Pizza: Regular cheese slice

    • Gotta shout out the neighborhood pizzeria. May not be the best slice in New York but it’s the best slice for me at this time in my life

  • Samba Kitchen: Stroganoff

    • To be clear I’d never had stroganoff before I tried it here but I was really blown away by how tasty it was. Yeah maybe my expectations were lowered because the first time I had it was after a long day of work ordering Uber Eats to my office and I didn’t really care about anything and was just generally hungry. BUT it was delicious

Intermission: I think I’m running out steam. The first five were definitely top of mind. The next five I’m starting to wrack my brain a lil. Does not mean that I love these restaurants any less… just means they’re not as memorable to me :’)

  • Pelicana Chicken: Korean Fried Chicken

    • I just have fun pre rona memories of coming here with my work friends after stressful days of work and just chilllllllling. Korean fried chicken is the best fried chicken imo

  • Mr. Taka: Ramen (don’t remember exactly what I got)

    • I don’t remember exactly what I got here but the ramen was great. Would definitely have gone back if corona hadn’t happened and made it hard to get around.

  • Medusa Tavern: Zucchini chips

    • I hesitate a lil to put this on the list since I’ve only had them once recently but the zucchini chips were great. Will definitely go back again since it’s close to my apt

  • Veselka: Pierogies

    • Coming here with a friend. Coming here at 2AM when I couldn’t fall asleep. Ordering delicious fried pierogies (no no to the boiled ones), hot apple cider. Good times

  • Lions Tigers and Squares: Square pizza

    • Best square pizza for me in NY

Honorable mentions:

  • Benemon

  • Baba’s Pierogies

  • Eataly

  • Halal Guys (back off haters)

  • Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao

  • 886

  • Katsu Hama

  • Jeju Noodle Bar

Yeah that’s about it. Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think in the comments below (aka messaging me directly bc comments are disabled)