I used to live on the corner of E 3rd St and Avenue A, and I loved the neighborhood. This was before this blog existed, but I still was excited about the many food options available to me: Nicky’s Vietnamese Sandwiches, Mama’s, and a 24-hour Key Food, among others. I was not, however, aware of the existence of Perbacco, an Italian restaurant that blends tradition and the avant-garde. Lucky for me my friends Jess & Garrett knew about it, and the three of us met there for dinner last week. Lucky for you also, because their photos came out much better than mine (click the link to their blog if you don’t believe me).

Click to continue…

After the whole Egg Tart King debacle I was still craving for some sort of Chinese dessert. The next best thing on my list was a cake log or cake roll whatever you want to call those things. I randomly walked into Lucky King Bakery, it was diagonally across from what used to be Egg Tart King on Grand St. At first I was looking for egg tarts but I didn’t see any. Then I scanned through their cake log choices. They have the usuals coffee flavor and vanilla(?) flavor. They also have chocolate flavor (have I seen chocolate before?) and green tea. Never had or heard or seen a green tea cake log before I decided to get that and it was only $4.25 or around there. WIN! These usually go for $8! Thats crazy talk. Oh and the ones from Lucky King Bakery were all pre-sliced. Can’t get any better than that.

Besides it being green tea and that its green, its just a typical cake log and nothing else. There was just a slight hint of green tea and as always there’s never enough cream in these logs.

- Lucky King Bakery 280 Grand St. New York

Coluck or aka that one place in the tunnel between Elizabeth and Bowery is one of my favorite places to eat at. I just wish I go there more often. So why is this place special to me, besides it being in a frakkin’ tunnel? Well why do you like wearing that old beat up shirt? Because its comfortable, Coluck is comfortable to me. If you know me personally or have been around this blog long enough you should know that I love Hong Kong style cafes. Hong Kong style cafes = pretty much my entire life. When I first moved to NY I was sad to find out there were only few cafes in Chinatown. But slowly I have begun to find more and more. There’s of course the XO Cafe, The M Star, Happy Times Cafe and few more and of course Coluck.

Click to continue

Sometimes you get so caught up in going to the newest, hippest, most happening restaurants in town — What’s got great buzz? What’s been reviewed recently? What’s the newest trend? — that you forget that there are plenty of restaurants that have been around for a while. It takes a visit to a real veteran restaurant to make you realize what it takes to run a successful restaurant in New York City. At a recent dinner at Po (after a few drinks at Vol de Nuit) with my friends Jeff & Eva, we had just such a revelation.

Click to continue…

I have seen photos of how the citizens of Cincinnati eat their chili. I have seen it on the Anthony Bourdain show and I have had friends described it to me when they went to Cincinnati for a long weekend but it wasn’t until last Monday that I finally came face-to-face with it.

Every last Monday of each month, Edward’s in Tribeca does a Cincinnati Night where you’ll get to eat some of the popular Cincinnati food items. Of course the one thing everybody goes for is chili from Skyline Chili. Chili from Cincinnati isn’t as thick as regular chili and they add cocoa powder into it to give it a bit of sweetness. Besides Skyline you can also get ribs from Montgomery Inn, pizza from Larosa and ice cream from Graeter’s.

Click to continue

While in Chinatown, after having dinner, I wandered around the streets. I wanted desserts. But it was too cold to get an iced jasmine milk tea at Ten Ren. Then I thought about getting egg tarts so I strolled over to Mott St to Egg Custard King. Hoping they still have some banana flavored egg tarts. I never know where Egg Custard King is on Mott St until I see it. So I was looking for it on Mott St but I was getting closer to Canal St yet no Egg Custard King sign. Then I realized I was standing right outside of it or where it used to be. Hm.. ah shit when did it close? At that point I really wanted an egg tart so I walked over to Grand St and Forsyth St to the other Egg Custard King. As I got close to Forsyth I could see the big Egg Custard King sign and was glad that it wasn’t closed yet. But as I got closer I noticed a different sign over the Egg Custard King sign…NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I walked by and it was just a regular ole bakery.

Where the hell does one get a banana flavored egg tart?