lower east side food crawl part deux

Boy is this post long overdue! (sorry, Lisa)

Before I left for home (a whole other post I’ve been slacking on), my partner in foodie crime, Lisa, and I mapped out a much anticipated LES food crawl part two.

We made an ambitious list of sandwich shops, Asian delicacies, and other hidden gems throughout the LES.

I know you’re waiting for it, so here’s the map!

A: Doughnut Plant
B: An Choi
C: 88 Orchard
D: Cheeky Sandwiches
E: Fried Dumpling
F: Il Laboratorio del Gelato
G: Dessert Truck Works

That’s 1.7 miles of deliciousness!

We started at the doughnut plant.  Every day the plant has an array of specials like pumpkin, roasted chesnut or tres leches.  We asked for a house recommendation, and got creme brulee.

Sounds good to me! The doughnut was missing it’s hole, but I didn’t mind.  The soft sweet bread pretty much melted in my mouth and the custard in the center was as creamy as any good creme brulee.  The layer of icing sugar on the top added that toasted-sugar crunch.

Seconds please!

But we had a long afternoon ahead of us! So Lisa and I were trying to play it smart and keep our portions small.  Next stop, Vietnamese sandwiches at the popular An Choi…

We got a classic BBQ pork banh mi with shrimp chips.  Looks pretty standard, tasted pretty standard.  I still think Chinatown does it better.

Across the street was 88 Orchard.  A granola-y type coffee shop with a host of baked goodies sitting by the cash register for those wishing to indulge.

And we did!  With an oatmeal, coconut, chocolate, raisin cookie.

Their lamps were made out of colanders! I want one!

Next was Cheeky sandwiches, the NOLA-style hole in the wall serving classic and not so classic po’ boy sandwiches.  We went non-classic with  a “grass” sandwich.  Roasted beets, butternut squash, arugula, and crispy goat cheese on “flautta” bread.

The beets were sweet, the squash comfortingly soft, the cheese added the salty kick and the arugula the peppery crunch.  The bread was pretty darn amazing itself.  Who needs fried chicken on a po’ boy when you have this colorful beauty?

Just a few blocks away, on the border of Chinatown and the LES we stepped into a 2×2 room (practically) with three hard at work cooks churning out hundreds of little dumplings.

Unfortunately we were caught behind a group of what must have been 50 hungry food tourists waiting for their own individual plates of jiaozi (dumplings).

Hence the massive pile of dumpling filling…

4 little dumplings in a Styrofoam box…should be a song, no?

Just look at those prices.  Yes, that picture was taken in 2010.

On the way to the next stop, I spotted a Xin Jian lamb cart selling skewers of tasty lamb for a buck.  Since Lisa had never tried it before, I had to introduce her to the wonderful world of Xin Jian yang rou!

The verdict?  Another convert!

We hadn’t planned on heading into Il Laboratorio del Gelato either, but we walked by it on our way to our final stop and decided we had to go in.

It was a very clinical feeling room (laboratorio = laboratory?) and the cases were filled with about 30 different gelatos.

Ranging from olive oil to black sesame seed, this was definitely the most cutting edge gelato I’ve ever tried!

Lisa wisely picked a tried and true favorite – salted caramel. Oh.my.god.  It was everything you know and love about salted caramel.

Getting…full….Last stop! The brick and mortar version of the dessert truck…dessert truck shop.

Lisa ordered their Bobby Flay throwdown-defeating bread pudding (with bacon custard sauce, of course).

The bread pudding was more like molten chocolate goodness.  It was so warm and gooey, I think of it every time I’m walking through the friged streets of NY in the 28 degree cold.  Ah, winter.

The bacon custard was mildly bacon-y and a lot yummy.

While I ordered the beneigts filled with…wait for it, wait for it…

Nutella! Oh yes, that is the most amazing picture. Ever.

And I’m just going to leave it at that.

lower east side food crawl

If I had to live and eat in one neighborhood alone, I would pick the Lower East Side.  Tiny alleyways and narrow streets overflowing with hundreds cheap (and not so cheap) eats representing all corners of the globe.

It is said to be one of the oldest neighborhoods in NY and before mass gentrification, was home to poor immigrants from all over Eastern Europe.  The LES also used to be a Jewish cultural center, hence the Jewish delis (ever heard of Katz?) scattered about the neighborhood.

Overwhelmed by all the options for diner one day, Lisa and I decided on a LES food crawl.  After a bit of digging, we mapped out a route of all our must-eat spots in the LES…(I should note that this is maybe 1/2 of the original list…stay tuned for a LES food crawl part deux!)

That’s 5.3 miles, people!

We begin at Russ & Daughters…famed spot for smoked fish, cream cheese and lox bagels.

I’ve passed by this place hundreds of times, but never thought to actually go in.  Once we were inside, Lisa and I were bombarded with cured, smoked and pickled fish.  Not particularly my cup of tea, but I figured this place couldn’t be famous for nothing…

We ended up with something that sounded palatable and could still be considered a Russ & Daughters specialty.  1/4 pound of beet, apple, herring salad and 1/4 pound of smoked salmon tartare.

We sat on the lone bench outside on the side of the bustling Houston street and inhaled the fish, and some fumes too.  I wasn’t the biggest fan of either…a bit too fishy for me.  The beet salad was mild, and I couldn’t taste the apple while the smoked salmon probably would have been better on a bagel with some cream cheese.

Very ready for the next stop, we walked about 10 feet down Houston to Kung Fu Bing!

I’d recently read about this place and thought the bing (cake) reminded me of a Pakistani parata so I was curious to try this east meets west meets middle concoction.

We ordered the bacon bing with lettuce and a side of crispy fried mushrooms.

The bing was definitely as meager as it looked.  The bacon was to skimpy for the bold fried pancake.  But it did take me back to the days of eating greasy fried paratas with fried eggs for breakfast.

While I wouldn’t recommend one make the journey downtown for the bing, the mushrooms were another story.  There was some secret spice available to sprinkle over the food (I’m pretty certain it was pure MSG), but that over the crisp and juicy mushrooms was amazing.  I’m seriously contemplating heading downtown right now just to get some…

Next!  Yonah Shimmel Knish Bakery, self proclaimed as the “world finest knish.”

Again, this is another historic LES spot (and also on Houston, how convenient!).  Apparently this tiny place has been baking knishes for over 100 years! I believed it as soon as I walked into the dark, dingy place.

We ordered a mozzarella and jalepeno knish.

I’ve actually never had a knish before, but it is a carb-dream! Mashed potatoes wrapped in dough and baked.  It was warm and creamy, the ultimate comfort dish.  If I’m walking down Houston and its cold out – which it will be very soon – you can bet I’ll stop in to Yonah’s for a tummy-warming knish!  And I recommend you do the same!

We were only half way through and my appetite was beginning to wane. Good thing we had a bit of a walk ahead of us to…

All the way in Chinatown (although there is a new on that just opened up on St. Marks)!

This place has received a lot of unusual press lately.  Anthony Bourdain featured it in one of his episodes of No Reservations NYC and other celebrities like Kelly Choi (host of TC Masters) have their mugshots posted to the wall of the tiny restaurant.

We ordered the savory cumin lamb burger to share.

It was pretty hot, I’ll admit.  But I was mildly disappointed when the lamb had more of a cumin smack in the face than a lamb kiss on the tongue.  I was expecting a succulent piece of fatty lamb with a sprinkle of cumin and other spices, just like my favorite Xin Jiang food cart.  But alas, Xi’an is no Xin Jiang.

After a quick pit stop at the local bubble tea house too cool our burning mouths, we headed back uptown to Baohaus, the popular Taiwanese steamed bun shop from Eddie Huang (who recently opened the Taiwanese street food shop Xiao Ye).

I’ve tried the baos from baohaus at various tasting events before, and was a bit reluctant to pay a whole $4.50 for just one.

I almost wish we hadn’t.  The meat in the bao was stringy and tough.  The condiments were light and the toppings seemed tasteless.

Only the bao was soft and sweet.  Fortunately, we also had an order of the fried sweet bao drizzled with a black sesame sauce (aka condensed milk).

Now that’s more like it! The bao reminded me of the crispy fried mantao bread from chili crab house in Singapore. And the thick, sweet condensed milk topping made for a great dessert.

Even though we were tired and full, Lisa and I trekked further uptown to finish off our food crawl at Momofuku Milk Bar.

We were going to order the new BBQ inspired soft serve (BBQ, corn flavors) but after a sample, we were not impressed.  The BBQ flavor was like eating a syrupy BBQ sauce, but frozen.  And I can just imagine what the corn flavor would taste like.  Instead, we opted to share a slice of crack pie…

On any other night, this might have paid homage to its name and acted like crack – but tonight I was on sugar overload.   Instead, the pie seemed a bit too dense and gloopy for my liking.  The taste was good (vanilla, custard-y) but it was a little too much.

And so concludes our 6-course, $20 taste of the Lower East Side! I absolutely recommend spending an afternoon or an evening wandering the intimate streets of the LES…feel free to borrow our map if you want!