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Otafuku’s Okonomiyaki in NYC
The New York magazine review of Otafuku says, “It’s very rare to find this stuff in New York. Consider yourself lucky.” Similarly, my boyfriend has been going on about this place for the entire nearly-three years I’ve known him. He went there on a date with a girl before my time and claims that while the date sucked, the food was life-changing. I don’t actually believe him about the date, but I was at least interested in the food. Otafuku is not a restaurant. It’s a hallway divided in two by a counter, with men cooking on one side and customers ordering on the other. There’s enough room for four…
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Would You Eat This? #1: Fish Balls
While riding the bus down 2nd Ave. a couple of weekends ago, I forced Dr. Boyfriend out the back door and into a shop called Schaller & Weber, thinking it was a cheese store. Because its sign is yellow and red, which everyone knows are the universal colors of cheese. But no, it turned out to be a totally famous and ancient meat shop that we later saw profiled on this Anthony Bourdain special about disappearing Manhattan culture (about two minutes and 45 seconds in). One wall of the store was taken up by a display case of various sausages and terrines, the other wall was a refrigerated case of…
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Bacon Candy Bar
I really hate that loving bacon has become such a trendy thing–i.e. Josea in the Bacon is a Vegetable t-shirt in last season’s “Top Chef”–but I do love that I can now basically find it everywhere and in everything. Case in point: Mo’s Bacon Bar by Vosges Haute Chocolat, modeled here by my boyfriend and fellow smoked meats fan, Kamran: We spotted it amongst the coffee-flavored beer and the tofu jerky at Whole Foods, and since my co-worker Tim is always raving about his bacon-flavored gum, we went for it. The website directs you to “rub your thumb over the chocolate bar to release the aromas of smoked applewood bacon…
Reviews of the Best Restaurants in NYC