Asian Culinary Tour, 11/20/05

Two weekends ago (I’m a little behind!), JB & I decided to spend the day on a Culinary Tour. We (I) picked out a few snack-type spots and decided to walk around the city eating. Cheap eats was the goal and as it turned out they all had an Asian twist. Here are the highlights:

- Rickshaw Dumpling Bar, 25 W. 23rd: We took it easy here since it was our first stop on the tour. Only one order of dumplings for the two of us to share. We decided to go traditional and had the pork & chive dumplings which were seriously awesome. We wished for another order, but were on our way for our next snack. Total cost: 9 dumplings for $8

- Tebaya, 114 w. 19th: Our friend Cynthia had told us about a place that specialized in Japanese chicken wings and we had to try them. Tebaya is a tiny store front with a just a small counter, but they churn out the best snacks. We had to get the chicken wings which were spicy and delicious. I also got kushikatsu which is basically chicken fingers on a stick and potemochi, which is similar to gnocchi but fried and in a soy sauce. These are definitely not your run of the mill snacks. If it were closer to us, I think it would give our pizza place a run for its money.

- Momofuku, 163 1st Ave: We slowly meandered from Chelsea to the East Village, stopping at Paragon for golf stuff (of course),Astor for wine and made it to 1st Ave. We walked past a few times before finding the sliver of a restaurant. The inside is a series of counters and at 5:45 it was already crowded. We sat where we could see them make our food which also happening to be under an air conditioning vent. I froze. We went there for the ramen which is one of JB’s favorites. He found it “eh”. The ingredients were fresh, pork, egg, noodles, but overall it was nothing special and not worth $14. Isn’t ramen supposed to be cheap? I was really full from Tebaya so I had an order of pork buns which I’d heard were standouts. They were. The pork was placed inside a biscuit with fresh cucumber. It was probably the best thing I had all day.

We’re thinking if planning another tour, so if you have any ideas, let us know.

Until we eat again, KLB