Fooooooooooood!

I am coming up on my last week in New York City. It has been a great summer. I have loved living with Juliet and Freddy. If you have the opportunity to live with one of your best friends, take it. While living with someone can be stressful and provide the opportunity to see the frequency with which another person leaves their dirty undies in the bathroom (note: Juliet does not do this), it is also a great way to get to know the interesting things about their personalities in a way that you never could otherwise. For example, Juliet likes to retell stories that I have told her to others changing enough of the important details so as to completely change the meaning of the story thereby forcing me to share my life’s details with near strangers. Additionally, she enjoys telling people that I plan to go into divorce law because it is “recession proof”- and while I did once tell her that a lecture that I attended on matrimony law was interesting, I don’t have any plans to pursue that area of law. Although George Clooney did make it seem interesting in Intolerable Cruelty.

We have had a lot of fun together this summer as we have watched endless hours of Law & Order, wandered the city in search of the best Japanese food and she has been an excellent sport in accompanying me to the many tourist hot spots that I wanted to go to. I once said that having Juliet around is like having a GPS for alcohol and dessert because no matter what neighborhood we were in, Juliet always knew the best place for a cupcake or a beer. And New York is certainly an amazing place for food. I have said it before and I’ll saw it again: New York is THE place for a good meal. So, with that, I am offering you my list of amazing restaurants in New York City. They might not be “THE BEST”…. But they are my best!

Tasty Dumpling (54 Mulberry St): A favorite lunch place of mine near the courthouse. You can get five fried pork and chive dumplings and a bowl of wonton soup for $2.50. I dream of these dumplings.
Fried Dumpling (106 Mosco St): Right around the corner. They serve only fried dumplings and have no seating but you can get 5 fresh dumplings for $1! A few orders of those and you won’t be able to eat for a week!
Rice (115 Lexington): Juliet, Kelly and I went there for their brunch on a Sunday (they also do it on Saturday). For $20, you get all-you-can-drink mimosas, bellinis and botticelli’s, scones with lemon curd, tea or coffee, juice, an entrée (I had arepas with poached egg and guacamole), and a side (I had delicious homefries with peppers and onions). We asked why there was not a line around the block and the waiter told us that they make all of their money on the weekday lunches. Must be true because they sure did not make any money off of us!
Carnegie Deli: I thought that $11 for a tuna sandwich was a little absurd until I saw the sandwich. It came with three different kinds of pickles and so much tuna that I literally took half of it off of the bread, brought it home and made another sandwich to have for dinner.
Caracas (91 E 7th): I went to a great Arepa bar with Alex and Eva for delicious arepas. They were affordable and tasty.
Pomme Frites (123 2nd Ave): I had heard about this place on the Tori Spelling reality show (not that I watch it). Tori Spelling had visited because she wanted to open her own fry stand. Oh boy are these fries good! Not exactly a place to go for a meal but the perfect place for a decadent snack. They had all sorts of sauces but I went for the original award winning one- ketchup and onions.

Juliet and I also had a tradition of going out for Japanese food on Mondays.
Go (30 St. Mark’s Place): Go is Juliet’s go-to Japanese restaurant. Serving a good selection of sushi and other Japanese delights, it is really great place to go with lots of people to try lots of different things. I’d make recommendations to you but that would be foolish because it is all really good.
Yakitori Totto (251 W 55th): I heard from different people that Yakitori Toto was THE place to go for Japanese meat on a stick. It was really delicious but a bit more pricey than I needed. I am used to dirty, cheap, homey yakitori bars in Japan and this one is definitely a lot nicer than that. The food was delicious and I had a fresh chuhai which was amazing. It was Japanese shochu (liquor like vodka) mixed with fresh squeezed grapefruit.
Yakitori Taisho (9 St. Mark’s Place): This was a bit closer to the meat on a stick places that I was used to. We ordered a set and some glass noodles and watched them cook it right in front of us. If you like cheap meat on a stick, I reckon this is the place to try.
Sakae (135 W 3rd): Juliet, Kelly and I went here for conveyor belt sushi! The fun of the conveyor belt is really the draw here. The sushi was really good too and it was not too expensive. Most of the plates were around $1.50.

And then, of course, I had to try some of your typical New York fare type cuisine and was not disappointed at all…
Steak sandwiches at Carl’s Steaks
Pizza at Lombardi’s and Ray’s Pizza
Lox bagel at Zabar’s
Cupcakes at Magnolia’s (although I do have to plug Crumb’s Cupcakes which I thought were far superior to Magnolia’s!)

I also went to some great restaurants whose names escape me. There was the Peruvian one in Queens that Juliet and Freddy took me to… and the brasserie on the Upper East side that I went to with my Dad and Cindy. Come to think of it, I have eaten a lot this summer…. But its been delicious!

EDIT:
Now that I have been back in Boston for a few weeks and dreaming of the food in NYC, I remembered two restaurants that I felt terrible for leaving out. Really, both of these places were must-go's. I am embarassed that they slipped my mind the first time.

Sobaya (229 E 9th St # 3): Meaning noodle house, Sobaya is so much more. Juliet and I got their early bird special (served week days until 6, I think). It was a delicious plate of noodles and sauce, tempura and appetizers of the day. The food is pretty affordable and the atmosphere is really lovely. Highly recommended- especially if you can get there before 6.
Hagi (152 W 49th St): True NYCers scoffed when Matt and I told them that we were going to Hagi in Times Square for dinner. But when you walk into the unassuming basement restaurant, you know that you are in for a treat. We went with Chris and Liz and ordered a ton of stuff to share- okonomiyaki, sashimi, gyoza, yakisoba and, of course, lots of sake and Asahi super dry. We had to wait for a table but it was worth it- it was loud, friendly, fun and delicious.