Author: rodney

Why is it at the END of my trip, THAT’s when I find new cool Japanese places to hang out at? One of them, I nearly lost track of time and almost missed my train that went to my plane…
There’s a new place called Soba Totto on E 43rd, near Grand Central Station. Their soba was OK but their yakitori kicked ass! Great stuff. Great decor and a young and hip 日本人 staff. They’re open late too. I’ll blog and report next visit.
On this trip, I stayed at the Pod Hotel again. It has a great Midtown location and is an “affordable” place to stay on the Island. Because US$89/night during off season is a good deal!
On my way to JFK on Monday via the 6 to the S to the 1-2-3 to Penn Station to the LIRR to Jamaica to the AirTrain (sounds harder than it is), I found myself pulled into a new tea shop called Tafu. And it was open!
Actually, I first noticed this place on Sunday, as you have to walk by it going to or from the 51st Street station. They’re closed on Sundays so I had to wait until today to get my fill of sencha before embarking on my long journey across three time zones and the continent back to SFO. Pix next visit since it was kind of busy during the lunchtime rush to take pix..
Soba Totto
211 East 43rd Street (between 2nd Ave & 3rd Ave)
New York NY 10017
(212) 557-8200
Tafu
Doubletree Metropolitan Hotel (on 51st between Lex & 3rd)
New York NY 10022
http://www.tafuny.com

One of the great things about NYC is that there’s always a reason to get up early. And of cors, it’s always food related.
NYC seems to have no end of new “good” brekkie places to check out. Why is that? Is this a side effect of New York being such a fast paced, go go kind of town that its denizens insist on waking up early to squeeze every last bit of life out of the 1440 minutes allotted each day? Maybe that’s the reason why New York is one of those rare places where people here get up hella early but also stay out VERY late.
Each time I visit, I mysteriously morph into one of these early risers, so I can try out a new brekkie place before the hordes hit and a 5 minute wait becomes a 1 hour wait. Maybe that’s why people get up early here. To eat brekkie!

If you get here before 1030, you can just walk up to the counter and seat yrself…
Despite the dubious sounding name, Community Restaurant is a pleasant, well lit place with nice big tables in the front and smaller tables hidden in the back for some privacy. And unlike many of the restaurants in San Fran, Community also has a counter where you can seat yourself if you’re eating solo. Following my modus operandi when it comes to trying new places, I wind up ordering one of the simpler dishes on the menu, blueberry pancakes with a side of bacon.

Not really artsy because I was more interested in eating it than styling it…
In the greasy spoons I usually haunt, pancakes usually have a spongy feel to them, both when you cut into the stack with your fork AND when you actually chew and swallow. You can also experience the sponginess when your plate is dry after drowning the stack in syrup 5 minutes earlier. That’s because many restaurants use a mix where you add water instead of making the batter fresh. Fresh batter usually does not have the sponginess. Community’s blueberry pancakes does not have the sponginess. And because of the quality of the ingredients that the pancakes are made with, they provide a small tin of maple butter instead of syrup. You can enjoy the yumminess of the pancakes without having to drown them in syrup.
Did I just type “yumminess”? Hmm I guess I did. The orange juice (order the large) was fresh squeezed and the coffee was from a pot (as opposed to the french press you get at Norma’s). It was cold outside so it wasn’t too bad having coffee from the pot. Warms ya up, it does…

Community Restaurant
2893 Broadway (between 112th & 113th)
New York NY 10025
212.665.2800
http://www.communityrestaurant.com

Has anyone noticed how yupped out the Lower East Side has become? Between Katz’s Deli and that monster Whole Foods, there’s a lot of juice-box yuppie places now with a lot of juice box yuppies patronizing these places who I’m sure, wouldn’t venture into the Lower East Side a year ago without a posse and a police escort. Now they are all over the place now. Even in Katz’s!

May I present, a pastrami reuben. Before it was devoured!
Inside Katz’s, there are tables along the wall with big signs (written in English) that say “Waiter Service Only”. During my 30 minute “scarf the big sandwich down” session, I saw three different parties who walked over to the empty table, made a point of reading the sign, decided that “they don’t me ME” and sat down with their friends. Only to have the waitress order them out in the most quaint New York way (loud volume with threat of violence. OK, I made up that last part but they moved!). Sigh.
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A few months ago, I blogged about the news that MUJI has opened a store in SoHo. I made a visit there and was a bit disappointed.

Well, it looks like a MUJI
According to the staff I spoke to, many of the things that the store carries are things that don’t require regulation. To make this easier to understand, here’s some of the things that MUJI sells that can’t be brought to the US because of the need of these things to be regulated.
There’s no MUJI food, appliances, CD player, bicycle, stereo, house and many of the home furnishings that they’re known for.
But there is a good selection of the stationary products, dishes, some clothes and linens that make up the core of MUJI’s product line. It’s a nice sampler into the world of MUJI, but for those of us that have seen the Yurakcho store in Tokyo, it’s a bit of a letdown.
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According to a local Japanese newspaper, Sapporo USA will be re-importing my favorite favorite beer, Yebisu! At least to New York City. Let’s hope that a nationwide re-launch is in the works! Hit the link and check them out. I’ve had all of them!
Burp.