New York: Becco

We were all able to secure a flight out of NYC that week on Friday so Thursday night was our last dinner in NYC.  We walked around Hell's Kitchen for a bit, looking for a place to eat.  At first we though sushi, then it turned into BBQ, and then we finally decided on Becco. 

Becco

355 W 46th St 

Between 9th Ave & 8th Ave 

New York, NY 10036 

Hell's Kitchen

becco-nyc.com

Becco, means to peck and nibble.  The bird logo is quite fitting haha.


Complimentary starters.


I forgot what they called it, but I'm just gonna call it white bean hummus :P  It's exactly like a hummus but instead of garbanzo beans, they use white beans.


Olives.


Assortment of bread.  The bread at the front with the rosemary and caramelized onion was very good.  Salty though.


Becco is known for having a $25 wine list, so we picked a Fattoria Paradiso Sangiovese.


Our antipasti.


Prosciutto San Danielle.  You can choose between San Danielle or di Parma.  I'm a fan of San Danielle.


Chunks of Parmigiano Reggiano.


Tonnato di Vitello.  Roasted veal loin sliced paper thin & topped with diced plum tomato, capers, scallions & tuna aioli.  I was not a fan of this... thanks to the tuna aoili.  It was like tasting creamy canned tuna on top of veal.


So we found out that the only pasta option is if you order the Sinfonia di Paste, which is unlimited pasta.  There's three different pastas daily and those are the options.  Instead of ordering individual pastas, the guys just ordered an entree, with the unlimited pastas as an add-on.  Janice just got the Sinfonia di Paste.


Penne Bolognese.  Probably my favorite out of all of them.  Heaty meat sauce.


Gnocchi Gorgonzola.  It was good, but gnocchi was definitely overcooked so it was very soft and mushy.  


Server serving the spaghetti from the pan.  That's probably the reason why the pastas are so overcooked since it just sits in the pan while the servers are serving it.


Spaghetti Marinara.  Overcooked as well.


Comes with Caesar's Salad.


Jimmy's Porterhouse d’Agnello.  Grilled domestic porterhouse lamb chop with scaffata, and finished with extra virgin olive oil.


Edwin got the Osso Buco alla Becco.  Braised veal shank served with farro tossed with butternut squash.  Very heavy and hearty.  They also give you a small spoon for the marrow.


Link and I went for the Costoletta di Vitello alla Joe.  “Joe’s Veal Chop” grilled & served with garlic mashed potatoes, caramelized shallots & escarole with prosciutto, then finished with extra virgin olive oil.  Very thick piece of veal.  Cooked perfectly.


The super garlicky mashed potato.

In the end, Becco was more like an Italian steakhouse than a pasta place.  Nothing to complain about, but we had crazy food coma once we were done.  I think Edwin, Link, and I were tired both mentally and physically from everything that happened that week when Sandy hit.  It was fun since it was with good friends (bromantic trip) and everything is more fun with alcohol but we were definitely ready to go home.

New York: 3 Meals in One Night - Day 1

After Eataly, we went back to the hotel, and instead of waiting for Audrey to get to New York, we decided to grab a bite at The Breslin first, which is a gastropub located at the Ace Hotel.

I've actually heard of The Breslin since their lamb burger was listed as one of the top burgers in US in a list on some blog or website I read. Since Audrey wanted ramen when she arrives, we decided that we will just grab a few drinks to get the night started and share a few things. We ordered a few things but the lamb burger was definitely not what I will remember The Breslin for, but the Scotch Egg!

Since it was a Friday and after work, the place was packed! The wait for a table was a ridiculous 2 hours, but we were able to find a spot at the bar to order.

The Breslin

Ace Hotel

20 W 29th St

Midtown West, Flatiron

New York, NY 10001

thebreslin.com

Menu at The Breslin. It's actually fairly small.

Tonic & Grapefruit with a saison beer that was on draft. The Tonic & Grapefruit is made with Beefeater, grapefruit bitters, tonic, and grapefruit zest. I'm not a huge fan of tonic after my 22nd birthday, but the drink was very good! Unfortunately I forgot what the beer was, but the Belgian-style saison was very good with the lamb burger.

The Breslin Lamb Burger ($21). Chargrilled lamb burger with feta, and cumin mayo. Strong gamy lamb taste just hits my taste buds, and the cumin mayo instantly takes over. Cumin & lamb just go so well together that the gaminess didn't bother me at all! The lamb patty was grilled to a nice pink so it was juicy as well. Don't know what kind of buns they used but it had a more "rustic" texture haha.

Thrice Cooked Chips. Yup, fries fried three times! Ridiculously crispy with still a creamy center.

This, is a Scotch Egg. For $8, you only get one and you may think that it is a rip off... but this golden orb of fried goodness is awesome.

Scotch Egg is a soft boiled egg covered with sausage meat, breaded, then fried! Sounds ridiculous but it's fawking awesome

See the sausage surrounding the egg?

Crispy outside, then you hit the sausage and then the soft egg in the center. Too good.

---

After The Breslin, we then hit a few bars... and from what I can remember, we spent a good amount of time at the Boss Tweed :P When Audrey finally met up with us, we then headed off to Minca to grab some porky ramen!

First thing Jimmy told us was that Minca is one of those places you either love it or hate it, since their ramen is extremely porky. Perfect. Jimmy, Ben, and I got there early so we decided to get different ramen and take turn rotating the bowls so we get to have all 3 haha.

Minca

536 E 5th St

Between Avenue A & Avenue B

East Village, Alphabet City

New York, NY 10009

newyorkramen.com

I wanted the Spicy Miso Ramen with wavy noodles. The broth is made with both pork & chicken, but you definitely taste the pork more cause the soup is suuuper porky, and I loved it! I think it's cause we all drank quite a bit, and anything with the strong flavor taste awesome haha. Great charsu!

Minca Shio Ramen with straight noodles. Tonkotsu based broth flavored with salt. Very solid tonkotsu ramen with that porkiness.

Recently, tsukumen's all the rage at ramen shops so we also got Minca's tsukumen!

What's tsukumen? Well essentially they give you a bowl of noodles with all the fixings and then a bowl broth for you to dip the noodles in. You don't leave anything in the broth, unless you want to, and whatever you dip in the broth is eaten right away. Definitely a new way to eat ramen!

Tsukumen's broth. Again, very porky and a little thick. It's gotta be thick so when the ramen is dipped, there's viscosity so the broth will stick to the noodles! Wavy noodles work best here since there's more surface area for the broth!

---

Afterwards, went to another spot and drank some more. At this point, we were defintely not sober and ready for our third meal of the night, and if you're in New York, gotta go to the halal carts!

Now, I've been to NY a handful of times, and unfortunately, I never made it out to the halal cart on 53rd & 6th, which is definitely the most popular one out of all. Everybody always talk about the chicken & rice and the legendary red sauce, and finally, I got to try it!

53rd & 6th Halal Cart

Look above for address :P

Midtown West, Theater District

HI AND FINALLY!

We were definitely excited!

"How many???" At $6, it is a great value for late night drunk food in NY haha.

We all went for the combo, chicken & lamb with rice. I gotta say, I had a few other halal carts/trucks in NY but this was really the best one. Both meats had great flavor and the yellow rice is the perfect companion.

Ben's EXCITED! We've been talking about this since January :P

Lamb + chicken.

The sauce station! There's actually white sauce, which is a cream based sauce, BBQ sauce, and the red sauce, which is their deadly harissa hot sauce. The BBQ sauce actually works but most people go for the white & red sauces. Definitely don't add too much... and if you did, add more white sauce to balance it out :P

White sauce first! It makes everything creamy but don't add too much or else it'll be gooey.

For some reason, Ben didn't listen and just covered his with the red sauce. If he adds more white sauce, then it'll be too gooey or definitely get the right ratio down...

So how spicy was his? I took a bite of his and I couldn't taste my own for like... 5 minutes. I actually went and bought a yogurt drink cause it was so spicy. When Ben ate his, he couldn't fall asleep about 40 minutes later cause his tongue still taste the spiciness! Mine was about half the red sauce and it had a good burn! Definitely don't be the hero and add a ton. Moderation here is good :P

First chicken & rice (with lamb) experience was pretty damn awesome, and that red sauce is seriously killer. I should've paid someone like 5 bucks to squirt it in their mouth hahah.

So how did I feel after eating 3 times in one night? I justified it by convincing myself that my stomach needs all the food it can get in preparation for St. Patrick's the next day and damn... it's a good thing I did too.

Philadelphia: Pork & Beef

Day 2 in Philly meant that it was the opening day for the biggest industry show in the lighting. I actually didn't have time to grab breakfast and had to wait until around 1:30pm for my lunch break. Right across from the convention center is the Reading Terminal Market, which is a downtown farmer's market, with the same kind of feel to Seattle's Pike Place (much smaller of course). There's specialty foods vendor, butcher, fishmonger, bakery, grocer, and food spots.

With the convention right next door, the market was packed during the lunch rush, well into 2pm. Co-worker and I decided to walk around a bit first to see what our options were.

Reading Terminal Market

51 N 12th St

Philadelphia, PA 19107

www.readingterminalmarket.org

Lots of people sit around the counter or just order to go.

Lots of cool looking vendors in there.

The famous Tommy DiNic's! They are known for their roast pork sandwiches.

Just look at that line! I had to try to so I stood in line just like the rest of the folks haha.

Menuuu.

Huge pieces of roasted pork to be delivered. Lucky bastards.

Chopped up pork ready to be served.

AHHHH my Tommy DiNic's Roast Pork with Broccoli Rabe & Sharp Provolone! Waited 40 minutes in line for this baby.

Look at how the bread glistens :9

The last time I enjoyed a roasted pork sandwich this much was... never. Juicy and tender, the pork is as good as it gets, and the broccoli rabe has a little bit of bitterness that's perfect with the sandwich. One thing you can really taste is the sharp provolone!

I only had 20 minutes left but I'm pretty sure I devoured the sandwich in less than 15 minutes. Too gooood.

After the show we had a company dinner planned for several invited guests and a few of our important customers. I figured the best place would be a steakhouse and super elated to find that there's a Fogo de Chão about 15 minutes away on foot from the convention center so made a reservation!

Fogo de Chão

1337 Chestnut St

Philadelphia, PA 19107

www.fogodechao.com

First ever Fogo de Chão experience. I've had Brazilian BBQ before but not Fogo. Some of the people kept on saying "Hey look did you have a long lost ancestor in South America??" -___-

The awesome salad bar.

Co-workers grabbing some salad.

Charcuterie (prosciutto, salame & smoke salmon) & cheese. I took a piece of cheese, wrap a slice of prosciutto, and just engulf it.

Bread.

My salad plate. The basil cream dressing for the salad was out of this world. Never had basil flavored dressing before! Fresh mozza ball was seasoned with oregano and they actually provided you with real pieces of fatty bacon.

I sat next to the wine cellar. Didn't order any drinks since I wanted to save room for the protein, but maaaan... so close yet...

There was a crate of Opus One wine just sitting there.

First side dish up, fried bananas!

Garlic mashed potatoes.

Fried polenta with parmigiano. Never had polenta before. Not bad at all.

Fogo's famous buttery pão de queijo, cheesebread. OMG straight up addicting.

Green light! Gauchos serving the cuts.

First to arrive, bacon wrapped filet mignon & bacon wrapped chicken. Yes!

Alcatra (top sirloin) & Beef Ancho (rib eye). Do you see the layer of fat around the rib eye? :P

Linguica (sausage), Frango (chicken leg), and more bacon wrapped filet mignon. The juicy sausage came together with the tender chicken leg. On the bottom right corner is actually the Picanha cut (top sirloin), which is Fogo's house special. Totally forgot to take a picture of it cause every time I would just devour it. My favorite!

Leg of lamb. There was also lamb racks... but after a bite, I realized I'm still not a big fan of lamb :P

Filet Mignon, perfect medium rare! Tender goodness.

Fraldinha (bottom sirloin). Plate's getting full hahah.

Lombo (pork loin). They sprinkle parmigiano over it as a seasoning!

After all that protein, one of the patrons wanted something to wash it all down and ended up ordering a fruit cup. Came with strawberries, papaya, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. It was good and refreshing but definitely not worth the $8. Good thing I ain't paying for it haha.

Since we ate so much, a few of my co-workers and I decided to take a 30 minute trek back to the hotel to help us digest. Along the way, I was taking pictures of historical buildings, as well as Yelping on my phone to see what was around the area. Found that there was an old-fashioned ice cream & soda shop so I convinced them to come with me. Nothing better than some ice cold sweets to help wash down the greasiness yea?

The Franklin Fountain

116 Market St

Philadelphia, PA 19106

www.franklinfountain.com

Old school feel to the whole place. Lots of flavored syrup for soda drinks and sundaes.

Love the cash register and the old-fashioned milk canister!

The offerings!

Decided on an old-fashion mint chip ice cream with waffle cone.

I like how it doesn't have that artificial green color to it! Creamy and nice mint flavor with big pieces of chocolate chip throughout. Perfect way to end the day!

Ok looking back at it now and typing this up.. I ate a lot that day O_O. No wonder I was craving for something healthy like a salad once I got back from Philly haha. Really though, gotta try the Fogo in Beverly Hills since I actually didn't get to try some other cuts of meat like ribs since I was so full when they came by.