Blogs : Manhattan Digest

A Custard Tart Contender in Chinatown

Ka Wah Bakery is a slice of an older Chinatown, wedged into the new one. It’s a Cantonese-style mom-and-pop, in business since the ’80s, now surrounded by more recent arrivals from Fujian. It’s also the spot to hit for some of the best custard tarts in town. “This place reminds me of the delicious egg tarts I’ve had in Hong Kong,” swears HLing. Lau describes a great flaky crust and luscious custard with just enough sweetness and egginess—probably the best he’s had in Manhattan.

Beyond the dan tat, HLing has a soft spot for Ka Wah’s walnut cookies and dumplinglike sticky-rice pastries filled with coconut and ground peanut. Everything goes well, Lau adds, with the excellent yuen yang cha, a tasty blend of coffee and tea.

Ka Wah Bakery [Chinatown]
9 Eldridge Street (between Division and Canal streets), Manhattan
212-226-0133

Board Link: black sesame ice cream/bubble tea and egg custards? where!

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Tagged with: manhattan, restaurants and bars, ka wah bakery, custard tarts, egg tarts, dan tat, yeun yang cha, chinese

A User's Guide to the Mascarpone-Prosciutto Brioche

Something to try at home, urges allenbank: Run Sullivan Street Bakery’s mascarpone and prosciutto brioche under the broiler, top down, until crisp. Flip it over and broil the top until the crisp cheese bits turn golden and the mascarpone in the middle melts.

“You must not take your eyes off it during this process or you risk it becoming charcoal,” allen warns. “The difference between perfection and embers is seconds. Crack a bottle, pour a glass of Brouilly and enjoy.”

Sullivan Street Bakery [Hell’s Kitchen]
533 W. 47th Street (between 10th and 11th avenues), Manhattan
212-265-5580

Board Link: Found New Delicious Morsel > new to me anyway.

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Tagged with: manhattan, restaurants and bars, sullivan street bakery, mascarpone, prosciutto, brioche

Hero Worship at the New Defonte's

Defonte’s has been slinging sandwiches in Brooklyn since 1922, and that’s long enough to get it right. Now it’s brought its hound-beloved Italian heros to Manhattan at a new shop near Gramercy Park.

guttergourmet recommends the signature hot roast beef sandwich: rare meat, sliced to order, with fresh house-made mozzarella and eggplant fried to the crunch point. He’s also sampled fried shrimp, served only on Fridays and Saturdays. “They’d stand up to the best shrimp po’ boy I’ve had in New Orleans, another city where the Italian amore still exists,” he says. And off the menu, jon advises, there’s a great egg and mozzarella sandwich, a few bucks cheaper than the other breakfast choices.

guttergourmet—a connoisseur of New York hero haunts past (Rosario’s, DiBella Brothers) and present (Alidoro, Biellese, Mike’s Deli)—has somehow never managed to visit the original Defonte’s. “My loss, but the new Manhattan branch has brought that old NYC Italian love on a roll with them,” he writes.

Defonte’s Sandwich Shop [Gramercy]
261 Third Avenue (at E. 21st Street), Manhattan
212-614-1500

Board Links: Defonte’s-To hell with Quiznos, Subway and Blimpie
defonte’s coming to nyc?
Defonte’s of Brooklyn opens in Manhattan

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Tagged with: manhattan, restaurants and bars, defonte's, defontes, sandwiches, subs, deli, hero, defonte

Fresh Mediterranean Flavors at Trigo

The Mediterranean menu at Trigo ranges from small plates to big ones, but fans keep coming back to the irresistible flatbread starters. DavyTheFatBoy singles out the onion tart, accented with tangy cheese, a hint of Middle Eastern spice, and a tasty green apple salad. “This is something I’d get hungry for,” he says. westchesterdiner goes for taleggio and garlic.

Beyond flatbread, hounds recommend marinated olives, pickled pumpkin, and saffron pappardelle with lobster and tomato confit, which westchesterdiner considers one of her “desert island” dishes. And for dessert, Davy suggests trying the doughnut-like chocolate bomboloni or fennel cake with lemon mousse and strawberries.

“Overall this was the most interesting and pleasing assortment of flavors I’ve had recently,” he adds, “and nothing was forced, it just worked.”

Trigo [Tribeca]
263 W. Broadway (at Sixth Avenue), Manhattan
212-925-1600

Board Links: Trigo - some very appealing flavors
Best New Restaurant in Tribeca? - Trigo!

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Tagged with: manhattan, restaurants and bars, trigo, mediterranean

The Brunch-Lover's Bible

kathryn, an avid and omnivorous bruncher, has been updating her encyclopedic file of New York’s best. It’s an impressive piece of work, ranging from bacon to waffles, from Harlem to the Lower East Side. Here’s a shorthand sampling, broken down into your favorite midday food groups:

• Pancakes: Clinton Street Baking Co. (“second to none!”), especially for pancakes with wild Maine blueberries and warm maple butter. Prune for its giant baked Dutch-style pancake with pears. Shopsin’s for bacon-and-egg pancakes, mac-and-cheese pancakes, and the signature Slutty Cakes (with pumpkin, peanut butter, and spices).

• French toast: Pastis, which uses brioche. Jane, which uses brioche battered with crème brûlée—and serves a generous helping of fruit compote on the side.

• Waffles: Balthazar for its sour cream–hazelnut waffle. Good Enough to Eat, which makes one with bits of bacon inside. For the Southern-style version with fried chicken, Alias and Amy Ruth’s (which has dubbed it the Rev. Al Sharpton).

• Eggs: Popover Café for its omelet with cranberry, bacon, and cheddar. Good Enough to Eat for its omelet with sharp white cheddar and slices of Granny Smith apple (known as the Gramercy Park). Blue Ribbon Bakery for its spin on eggs Benedict: the Blue Benedict, with Jarlsberg, Serrano ham, and tomato. Cookshop for sunny-side-up skillet eggs. ’ino for truffled egg toast. Barney Greengrass for a classic New York breakfast: scrambled eggs with lox.

• Bacon: Cookshop for house-made, double-smoked Berkshire pork bacon (“amazing,” kathryn promises). Balthazar for juicy, thin-cut bacon. Morandi for a unique bacon made from boar.

• Sandwiches: Prune for its Monte Cristo (a ham, turkey, and Swiss triple decker, battered and deep-fried), served with fried eggs and currant jelly. Clinton Street Baking Co. for scrambled eggs, cheddar, and house-made tomato jam in a buttermilk biscuit.

• Bread: Balthazar for its bread basket, called Le Panier, especially chocolate bread and fruit focaccia. Blue Ribbon Bakery for bacon bread and challah. Ouest for a selection “so good I wanted them to wrap it so I could take it home,” kathryn confesses.

• Doughnuts, etc.: Cookshop for buttermilk beignets. Five Points for churros (get them with Mexican hot chocolate). Stanton Social for warm caramel doughnuts and ricotta fritters with raspberry jam—quite tasty, if a bit on the heavy side.

• Drinks: Jane and Little Owl for lemonade. Norma’s for fresh-squeezed orange juice and free refills (“basically the only thing I liked there,” kathryn says). Great Jones Cafe for eye-opening-spicy Bloody Marys. And Prune for Bloody Marys with a difference, like the Chicago Matchbox—a salad in a glass featuring pickled radish, green beans, caperberries, baby turnip, and Brussels sprouts.

Clinton Street Baking Co. [Lower East Side]
4 Clinton Street (near Houston Street), Manhattan
646-602-6263

Prune [East Village]
54 E. First Street (between First and Second avenues), Manhattan
212-677-6221

Shopsin’s [Lower East Side]
In the Essex Street Market
120 Essex Street (between Rivington and Delancey streets), Manhattan
212-924-5160

Pastis [Meatpacking District]
9 Ninth Avenue (at Little W. 12th Street), Manhattan
212-929-4844

Jane [Greenwich Village]
100 W. Houston Street (near Thompson Street), Manhattan
212-254-7000

Balthazar [SoHo]
80 Spring Street (at Crosby Street), Manhattan
212-965-1414

Good Enough to Eat [Upper West Side]
483 Amsterdam Avenue (near W. 83rd Street), Manhattan
212-496-0163

Alias [Lower East Side]
76 Clinton Street (at Rivington Street), Manhattan
212-505-5011

Amy Ruth’s [Harlem]
113 W. 116th Street (near Lenox Avenue), Manhattan
212-280-8779

Popover Café [Upper West Side]
551 Amsterdam Avenue (near W. 87th Street), Manhattan
212-595-8555

Blue Ribbon Bakery [Greenwich Village]
35 Downing Street (at Bedford Street), Manhattan
212-337-0404

Cookshop [Chelsea]
156 10th Avenue (at W. 20th Street), Manhattan
212-924-4440

’ino [Greenwich Village]
21 Bedford Street (near Downing Street), Manhattan
212-989-5769

Barney Greengrass [Upper West Side]
541 Amsterdam Avenue (between W. 86th and 87th streets), Manhattan
212-724-4707

Morandi [Greenwich Village]
211 Waverly Place (at Charles Street), Manhattan
212-627-7575

Ouest [Upper West Side]
2315 Broadway (near W. 84th Street), Manhattan
212-580-8700

Five Points [East Village]
31 Great Jones Street (near Lafayette Street), Manhattan
212-253-5700

Stanton Social [Lower East Side]
99 Stanton Street (near Ludlow Street), Manhattan
212-995-0099

Little Owl [West Village]
90 Bedford Street (at Grove Street), Manhattan
212-741-4695

Norma’s [Midtown]
In Le Parker Meridien Hotel
118 W. 57th Street (near Sixth Avenue), Manhattan
212-708-7460

Great Jones Cafe [East Village]
54 Great Jones Street (between Lafayette Street and the Bowery), Manhattan
212-674-9304

Board Link: Best Brunch (Updated For 2009)

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Tagged with: manhattan, restaurants and bars, prune, shopsin's, pastis, jane, balthazar, good enough to eat, alias, amy ruth's, popover cafe, blue ribbon bakery, cookshop, ino, barney greengrass, morandi, ouest, five points, stanton social, little owl, norma's, great jones cafe, clinton street baking company, brunch, breakfast