Friday, February 12, 2010

NYNY 2009: Dean & Deluca, Lombardi's, Balthazar, Han Bat


After Serendipity3, we headed towards SoHo to do some shopping, and right out of the subway station is Dean & Deluca. Mikol loves this place so we decided to check it out.

Oh and sorry for some of the warm color temperature of the photos. The lighting at the restaurants wasn't that great but I didn't want to use flash.

Dean & Deluca

560 Broadway
New York, NY 10012



outside
Shot of Dean & Deluca.


It's a tiny neighborhood market that sells specialized foods and groceries. I wish there's one here in LA :[

brussel sprouts
Never seen brussel sprouts like this!

coffee
Had to try their coffee. It was smoooooooth. It doesn't leave that weird sour after taste some bad coffee leaves. It's very aromatic too.

It's such a cool little market. All sorts of exotic and specialty ingredients, things like truffle oil, artisan breads, cured European meat (they had Iberico ham), pastrami from Katz's etc etc! It sorta reminds me of the small market at the LA Farmer's Market. It's probably twice the size of a 7-11 and it feels like I can spend the whole day in there just checking out what they have. I want to live in there.


Lombardi's Pizza
32 Spring St
(between Mott St & Mulberry St)
New York, NY 10012


BEST PIZZA EVER.

After Dean & Deluca, we stopped by Balthazar and put our name down on the waiting list. Rather than just standing there waiting for an hour (it was packed), we decided to walk further down and get a taste of the world famous Lombardi's.

lombardi's
A shot of Lombardi's.

1st pizzeria
Lombardi's is US's first pizzeria!!

pizza
Our pizza! We had to wait about 30 minutes just to get seated at around 8 30 and about another 15-20 minutes for the pizza to bake.

toppings
Foodgasm alert: Homemade meatballs, garlic sauteed spinach, mushrooms, and red onions on a thin crust pizza pie with fresh tomato sauce and mozarella. Sooooo good and the crust is the best part! Since it is baked in a coal-fired oven, it leaves a little bit of char on the bottom of the pie and the high heat really makes this pizza different from a pizza baked in a normal oven. It's my favorite pizza in the whole world now.


Balthazar
80 Spring St
(between Broadway & Crosby St)
New York, NY 10012


After scarfing down our pizza, we arrived at Balthazar just in time. Balthazar is essentially a French brassiere that's popular in NY.

riseling
Of course, gotta start with a good bottle of white wine for the seafood we're about to have.

lobster risotto
Lobster risotto. Got big chunks of lobster. So creamy.

salad
Mixed greens with sherry vinaigrette. It tasted so good cause we didn't really eat any vegetables the whole trip so salad was a refreshing change haha.

oysters
Plate of 6 different kinds of fresh shucked oysters. I forget which one I like the most but yeaaa raw oysters, still not really my thing.

frisee lardon
Frisee lardon. See that big fatty piece of bacon? Glorious.

escargot
Escargot in garlic butter. Freakin delicious. Totally worth the effort digging that damn thing out.

absinthe neat
Of course, at a French brassiere so we gotta try absinthe, served "neat." It just tasted like licorice, wasn't that bad. It hit me pretty fast though in combination with the wine haha. Loved Balthazar. I need to try some French brassiere here in LA.


Han Bat
53 W 35th St.
New York, NY 10001

After Balthazar, we took the taxi back to our hotel and we suddenly remembered that there are Korean restaurants that opens 24/7... so we decided to search for some good soju and Korean food.

outside
Mikol outside of Han Bat.

seafood pancake
What's a must get? Seafood pancake of course! A little different from the usual in that they were more crunchy. I think this was the best seafood pancake I've ever had.

labokki
Lakkboki. Honestly, when this came out, I was stuffed but after having a bite, the spiciness brought my appetite back haha.

soju
We wanted flavored soju but this was a legit spot so they didn't mix soju but the waiter was nice enough to add lemon soda to the soju and mixed it in a tea kettle for us. Totally worth the extra $5 hahah.


Pretty much, all we did that night was go food crazy, which makes it a good night.

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