vip in the city

Adventurous eating @ Congee Village

SC and JG had arranged for a group of us to meet at Congee Village on Allen, with a call to “bring your appetite and your sense of adventure.” Congee Village, you see, specializes in Hong Kong and southern Chinese dishes of organ meats, innards and a startling array of pause-inducing fare. Still, I suspected that growing up in a traditional Chinese household had probably inured me to such things for the most part. Plus, I was interested in finally checking out this place which, since its opening seven years ago, has become a popular, almost hip dining destination among the late night Lower East Side bar revelers.

I arrived about half an hour early — forgetting how quick the ride from Wall Street could be on the J/M/Z train. I promptly ran into JB on Delancey and we decided to retreat to the nearby Starbucks for cool drinks before returning to the restaurant at the appointed time. Once there, we met (engaged!) AC at the neon-lit, lacquered wood bar; the three of us settled into the odd assortment of hulking wood and futuristic plastic chairs in the lounge area to await the others. SC and JG arrived soon after, with LR trickling in eventually.

Our group was escorted — well, partly escorted — to one of the banquet rooms down the narrow stairs. The restaurant is in fact, quite large — much larger than just the main upstairs dining space would suggest. I wonder if this was one of the basement karaoke rooms I’d read about?

After some negotiation, we settled upon a mix of “safe” and “adventurous” dishes from the impressively extensive menu. Here, the dried scallop congee, which arrived at the table still boiling, but a bit too gingery for most of our tastes. Also, fish maw congee… because SC and I couldn’t decide upon just one.

(Actually, all the congee is listed on the menu as “porridge,” which seems odd given the name of the restaurant.)

The “House Special Chicken” — crisp skinned and garlicky: one of my favorites of the evening. Sharing this “safe” end of the spectrum were the “Han Moon Style Chow Mei Fun” (thin rice noodles with shrimp, Spam(!) slivers, egg, beansprouts and vegetables) and a cylindrical bamboo pot filled gift-like with sticky sweet rice and meats. We were about a third of the way through the dish when we realized that what we were eating was not the “Sizzling Frog in Casserole” we’d ordered; it tasted like chicken because it was chicken (with black mushroom.) The waiter had inadvertantly brought us another table’s dish — whoops! (The frog came later.)

Chilled jellyfish and this dish of “Sweet Pea Pods and Sauteed Duck Tongues in XO Sauce” over explanations of vernacular and “Would You Rathers” among friends both old and new — what could be finer?

Out of the Frying Pan

Inspired by my recent Friends of the High Line event, I returned to Pier 63 Maritime to revisit the Frying Pan lightship. The first tours were scheduled for 2:00PM, so on the way over on 23rd Street, I stopped in at the Choux Factory.

Japanese chain Choux Factory opened its first U.S. store in Tudor City in 2004 to challenge Beard Papa’s for cream puff supremacy. Like its rival, the shop specializes in piped-to-order pastry puffs, bursting with a variety of flavored custards. Other similarities between the chains are striking: brightly colorful, shiny interior and a cheerful staff, greeting every customer in a chorus of enthusiastic Japanese. Choux Factory also serves Kona coffee, muffins and sandwiches.

The Choux Factory puffs are softer, sweeter and slightly smaller (and more expensive) than Beard Papa’s puffs. The vanilla cream is also thicker, though to my taste, not quite as good: the vanilla flavor of the Choux Factory custard seems less pronounced, and I do miss the dark flecks of bean evident in the Beard Papa’s. Still, accompanied by a steaming cup of their rich Hawaiian Kona, it made for a perfect snack on this chilly, rainy afternoon.

By 1:30 it was raining pretty hard, but I was determined to tour the Frying Pan this last Sunday in August.

Lightship #115 is one of only 13 remaining from more than 100 built. Another lightship, the Ambrose, is moored at South Street Seaport and serves as a permanent exhibition space on navigation and the role of lightships. The U.S. Coast Guard used lightships as floating lighthouses to guard and guide ships that could not be served by a lighthouse – either due to distance or topography. Many were also used to mark the entrances to harbors. The ship at Pier 63 was originally stationed at its namesake, Frying Pan Shoals, 30 miles off of Cape Fear, NC from 1930 to 1965. After being decommissioned and used for a time as a museum in Southport, NC, the ship was sold in 1984 and moved to an old cannery in the Chesapeake Bay, where it capsized and sunk, remaining underwater for three years before being raised by its current owners. After tons of silt and shells were removed from the hull, the ship was outfitted with a replacement engine and in 1989 cruised under its own power to New York City’s West Side.

The driving rain kept everyone else away; I was the only visitor to the pier this afternoon, and there was no tour to be found. After wandering around aimlessly for a bit, I tracked down a young man swabbing the deck (really), who invited me aboard to tour the ship on my own. And so I did.

Difficult to imagine 15 men living on the ship in such close quarters for months on end. I explored the three levels of the darkened ship at my leisure: the engine room, the galley, cabins and common areas.

I arrived home, did a quick load of muddy, rain-spattered laundry and headed out to meet B and his newly arrived Tennessee cousins for an early dinner at Vynl. By the time we finished our meal, the drizzle had let up enough to allow for an impromptu tour of the Upper West Side. The four of us strolled up to the Time Warner Building, passing the Hearst Tower, which gave me the opportunity to share some of what I knew. From there we hit Central Park, stopping to admire the prettily lit lanterns at Tavern on the Green, which I pointed out was the site of my high school prom, those many years ago. As darkness fell, we somehow found ourselves near Rowboat Lake and the edges of the Ramble. I don’t know which made me more uneasy: the relatively deserted environs or the shadows of Park critters skittering about — eek!; in either case, we hastily made our way back up to Bethesda Terrace and out to the misty streets.

Dinner @ Momofuku

After another late-ish night at work. I got a text message from SYB around 9:00PM, inviting me out to a post-Monopoly meal at Momofuku Noodle Bar with him, EH and KR. Sounded good to me.

By the time I wrapped up things at the office and hopped a car service downtown, it was over an hour later, and the trio outside the restaurant had shrunk to a duo. (EH abandoned the cause about ten minutes into the hour-plus wait and was long gone before I arrived.) No doubt the tiny noodle bar had experienced yet another bump in its already considerable popularity after New York Magazine ranked it #2 on their list of Best Cheap Eats in New York City. (#1 was Bay Ridge’s Tanoreen, which I investigated a week ago.)

We finally settled into our spots at the end of the long bar, and ordered the house specialties: the Berkshire pork steamed buns and the eponymous ramen. At least, SYB and I did; KR opted for the Pan-roasted sweet corn and Gulf shrimp with bacon, miso and onions (and seemed ultimately a little disappointed with her choice.)

The wonderful, steamed buns arrived warm and fragrant at our table: fluffy rice flour pancake sandwiches layered with their famed fatty pork, thin slices of cool cucumber and a dollop of sweet hoisin. It’s a preparation reminiscent of peking duck – another one of my favorites. I could eat these all day.

And then the ramen: giant bowls of noodles with slabs of melt-in-your-mouth Berkshire pork belly, shreds of tender, smokey shoulder, fresh fixins and a just gelled, slow-poached egg, topped with twin sheets of nori. For me, though, the broth is what sets this dish apart. According to New York Magazine, it derives its “super-porky flavor” from long-simmered chicken legs, roasted pork bones, ham hocks, and bacon.

Mmm, bacon…!

At $14 a bowl, though, these noodles are not what I would consider “cheap.” (Thanks, SYB!) But they are quite wonderful.