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skinny / linda took the 14 month old puppy to his first dim sum, he loved it, and we think its the best weve ever had, rumor is people drive all over the city to chow here
daily news: Ocean Port Seafood Restaurant; 6202 18th Ave., Bensonhurst; (718) 236-8118. On weekends, dim sum lovers line up outside this Brooklyn Chinese restaurant to sample chef Joe Ng's Hong Kong-style dumplings, possibly the best and definitely the most innovative in the city
ny times: $25 AND UNDER; Where Sunday Tea Is a Dim Sum Parade By KIM SEVERSON Published: December 22, 2004, Wednesday
LUCKILY the nice Chinese family from Queens adopted us. They didn't have much choice. At Ocean Port Seafood Restaurant, a jumping dim sum house in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, diners get squeezed in whenever a seat or two opens up.
Set in a neighborhood where the Carvel ice cream signs are lettered in Hebrew and the CD shop sells Italian music, Ocean Port is fast becoming a destination dim sum parlor. The attraction is more than 100 seasonally adjusted dumplings and small plates assembled by Joe Ng, who said he has cooked in 10 states, often in Hilton hotels.
On my first visit, the place was packed. So an accommodating waiter made room for me and a guest at a crowded table, using a few pink napkins to cover up the dim sum stains of diners who had gone before.
We plopped down next to a large family several pots of tea into their Sunday yum cha. Yum cha means ''drink tea'' in Cantonese, and tea is vital to the perfect dim sum experience. Pouring a few cups with strangers is also a great way to make friends.
It was our great luck to share a table with people who really knew their way around a dim sum cart. Without them we might not have learned two of Ocean Port's secrets: the suckling pig ($10.95), so crisp-skinned and tender that it was one reason the family drove in from Queens, and the chiu chow gow ($2.95), a translucent-skinned steamed dumpling usually reserved for celebrations.
The soft, wet skin of the round dumplings held a pleasantly dry filling of evenly chopped peanuts, pork, celery, water chestnuts and shiitake mushrooms. Their flavor and the attention to detail that went into their creation were indicative of the quality of most of the little dishes that come flying from the kitchen on stainless steel carts. Most are between $1.95 and $2.95 per plate of three or four pieces, with a few dishes inching above that. On another visit, the bill for a party of five enthusiastic eaters barely topped $100. But bring cash; Ocean Port does not accept credit cards.
On the weekends, especially Sundays, the two dozen big tables are always full. You'll be bumped and jostled and have the occasional dish of braised pork spilled on your sleeve.
It was hard to find a miss in the dozens of dumplings we ate our way through. Among the favorites: an open wrapper with a nugget of shrimp inside a wad of spinach sprinkled with scallion and parsley; a Shanghai-style pork meatball in a thin skin and shiny har-gow with shrimp that had a little snap to them.
Beyond the dumplings, a plate of bean curd skins wrapped around shredded pork and tree fungus was perfect. We ordered extra plates of fried, thin-skinned peppers stuffed with shrimp paste and sucked tender morsels of meat from an order of braised fish jowls. For dessert, don't miss the fried green balls filled with sweet black sesame.
The only dishes we did not like were mushy turnip cakes and a glass bowl filled with dry sticky rice studded with sweet Chinese sausage and mushrooms. Fish balls seasoned with ginger that were light and luscious when steamed became leaden in the deep-fat fryer.
and here
$25 AND UNDER; East Village Noodles, All the Way From Japan
By ERIC ASIMOV
Published: July 14, 2004, Wednesday
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FOR many Japanese, ramen is not so much a noodle dish as an obsession. Americans know ramen as the savior of college students, who, equipped with only hot plate, dried noodles and powdered broth, whip up late-night snacks. This packaged meal has little to do with the Japanese conception of ramen, which is more akin to Mom's chicken soup, painstakingly and lovingly prepared and consumed with a sense of comfort and well-being.
Not that Japanese mothers are all slaving over the pot. In Japan, most ramen is consumed at shops and stands that dot the cities. And, just as my parents, when traveling overseas, told me they craved the sort of Jewish foods that they rarely ate at home in New York, many Japanese travelers and expatriates who experience ramen lust may simply be longing for the comforts of home.
One such expat is Shigeto Kamada, a musician, who says he despaired of finding good ramen in New York. So he taught himself to make it by reading books and watching videos. Now he is satisfying similar appetites at Minca, a little ramen shop he opened about a month ago in the East Village.
Mr. Kamada calls Minca a ramen factory, but there is little about the place that suggests an assembly line. It is just a storefront with four or five tables and eight or so seats at a counter. Tiny halogen spotlights hang from the ceiling, and unusual selections from Mr. Kamada's art collection adorn the brick walls.
Many people assume that ramen means noodles, but noodles are only one component of the complete ramen dish. The noodles themselves are of the type called chukasoba, or Chinese-style soba noodles. Unlike soba noodles, which are made of buckwheat, curly chukasoba noodles are wheat and have a springy elasticity that lets them remain squiggly even when cooked.
Mr. Kamada uses dried, portioned noodles delivered from Japan. Though crucial to ramen, the noodles are the easy part. Far more difficult is the soup. Mr. Kamada uses 80 percent pork bones and 20 percent chicken bones to prepare his broth, which he boils for hours until it achieves a light, velvety texture, a milky color and an intense porkiness.
If you take a seat at the bar and order the basic ramen ($8.50), you can watch Mr. Kamada assemble it before you. First, he puts a portion of the noodles in a pot of boiling water. Then, he opens a white vessel on his work counter, revealing dozens of hard-cooked eggs steeping in a soy sauce. With chopsticks he plucks one out and slices it lengthwise.
From another pot he pours the fragrant broth into a blue earthenware bowl. He adds the egg, a selection of ''mountain vegetables,'' which look like curly mushrooms, and salt and pepper. He tosses in the noodles and uncovers a long pan filled with cooked pork, sliced ultrathin. Eying the pork carefully, he selects a few slices and floats them on top of the broth. Finally, he adds a small sheet of nori seaweed.
On a summer day, the ramen experience can be a bit like taking a steam bath. With soup spoon in one hand and chopsticks in the other, you alternate bites of savory pork; slurps of noodles; sips of the rich, peppery broth; and occasional tastes of egg, scallion and mountain vegetable. I like to add a jolt of spicy red hot sauce. Before long you can feel your face begin to flush, and beads of sweat break out on your forehead. Each bite feels like feeding the furnace, yet the ramen is so good that you do not want to stop.
Variations on the ramen theme include soy ramen ($8.50), with an extra dose of soy sauce in the broth, and chicken ramen ($8.50), which uses a lighter chicken-and-fish broth. You can have it tsukemen-style ($8.50), in which the noodles are served in a separate bowl. You dip the noodles in the soup before eating them. For a little more, you can have charshu ramen ($11.50), which is topped with six or seven slices of pork. Or you can try my favorite, toriniku ramen ($11.50), which is topped with meltingly soft chunks of pork belly and buttery tender leaves of green cabbage.
Preliminaries might include exceptionally delicate gyoza dumplings ($4.50), stuffed with pork and pungent cabbage, or a refreshing salad of julienned daikon ($4), dressed with a spicy sesame sauce. That's it. No dessert, no beer or wine (you can bring your own), just ramen.
For that, the predominantly Japanese clientele seems especially grateful.
Minca
536 East Fifth Street (Avenue B), East Village; (212) 505-8001.
((skinny))
need to eat here
Using His Noodle
Before he opened Momofuku Noodle Bar, David Chang spent months cooking and eating in Japan, where he learned that ramen is as diverse as American barbecue, and that variations are just as passionately debated among connoisseurs. So rather than attempt the impossible—making “real ramen” far from its authentic Japanese context—he’s come up with his own style, using ingredients like miso compound butter, eggs slowly poached in their shells, Greenmarket corn, and Berkshire pork. The result is a gently priced menu rooted in tradition but not enslaved by it, with a Pan-Asian twist in the form of additions like cold Korean buckwheat noodles and Chinese pork buns.
163 First Avenue
212-475-7899
((skinny))
Using His Noodle
Before he opened Momofuku Noodle Bar, David Chang spent months cooking and eating in Japan, where he learned that ramen is as diverse as American barbecue, and that variations are just as passionately debated among connoisseurs. So rather than attempt the impossible—making “real ramen” far from its authentic Japanese context—he’s come up with his own style, using ingredients like miso compound butter, eggs slowly poached in their shells, Greenmarket corn, and Berkshire pork. The result is a gently priced menu rooted in tradition but not enslaved by it, with a Pan-Asian twist in the form of additions like cold Korean buckwheat noodles and Chinese pork buns.
163 First Avenue
212-475-7899
hebrew, the chosen beer
skinny loves wd~50:
last nite the food was fab, i am not sure i will eat a better meal this year, this years bay scallops might even be better than last year (which were the #1 in nyc), the new monkfish dish is fantastic, and the desserts were stunning as usual (french toast is not just for breakfast anymore)......
skinny sez yum yum
NYTimes $25 and Under reviews Uminoie (86 East Third Street; 646-654-1122):
Mutsumi Tanaka and Mika Okui opened this unassuming spot in January without a day of professional kitchen experience between them. The women, both in their 20's, cook, act as hostesses and wash dishes behind a five-seat bar — not unlike an island counter flanked by stools in a home kitchen — that is the focal point of the narrow, sparsely appointed space.
Uminoie serves an idiosyncratic blend of food cooked in the style of Goto Island, west of Nagasaki, where Ms. Tanaka grew up, and in the style of Ms. Okui's mother, who is from Tokyo. Goto's cuisine is distinguished by the use of ago-dashi, a broth made by briefly simmering dried flying fish, in lieu of ichiban-dashi, the dried bonito and kelp stock commonly used in Japanese cooking.
Portions are generally small, and the menu is not divided into courses. You are encouraged to linger, to drink and to order at a leisurely pace, as is the custom at an uminoie, a casual beachside restaurant and bar.
Dishes from Goto and nightly specials are the best bets. Goto udon ($8) showcases the sweet, delicate flavor of ago-dashi in a simple soup of hand-cut udon noodles made by Ms. Tanaka's father on Goto. The creamy curd of a rolled omelet infused with ago-dashi ($8) called to mind another fish and egg combo, slow-cooked eggs with caviar. Nikujyaga ($5), beef stewed in ago-dashi with onions, potatoes and carrots, has an elusive and alluring sweetness that hints at mirin or miso.
Prodded for its secrets, the kitchen coyly offered that the stew contained "other Japanese flavors" in the manner in which home cooks "accidentally" omit an ingredient when passing on recipes.
BEST DISHES Goto udon; dashimaki-tamago (rolled omelet); nikujyaga (beef stew); kakuni (pork belly); stuffed peppers; gyoza.