NY/NJ Trip: New York State of Mind

Joel and I are back and mostly settled in from our trip to the New York tri-state area and Dena and Carl's wedding. Our New York pictures are up! This entry will just focus on New York City and the food that we ate, because I'm really not done digesting my feelings on the Garden State.

DAY 1: Off the plane and to the Great White Way

Joel and I flew the redeye into JFK, and upon arriving, had an interesting experience picking up our bags. As in, it took over an hour for the bags to get to baggage claim. Why, you might ask? Well, the words "hazardous chemicals" were thrown about along with "spillage." One fellow passenger waiting for her bags got information that what baggage handlers believed to be paint spilled from a bag, prompting them to stop baggage handling until federal agencies (I heard FAA and FBI and TSA and someone else, but I'm not sure if the girl was trying to remember which federal agency was involved) could verify the substance and release the rest of the bags. Yes, my friends, our bags were delayed because somebody decided that they needed to bring paint from LA to NYC. Paint. (On a side note, doesn't this sound a lot like one of those excuses students give to their teacher about why their homework was late? Like they're trying to be creative about why things are going wrong but really they just slacked off for a little too long?)

So Joel and I get to Brian's place in the East Village, where we discover that Brian and his wife Vladi live right over a funeral home. I'm telling you, only in New York! So after a refreshing nap, Joel and I are off! Since most of our friends worked, we amused ourselves by getting tickets to a Broadway show. We ate at Luxia (the food is great and at a pretty reasonable price for that part of town) before going to see Avenue Q (possibly the coolest musical on Broadway). Oh, and totally cool - the Sephora in Times Square is open 24/7. So if you're in New York City and you need makeup or high end skincare or hair product, you can go to Sephora!

Day 2: Downtown Fun

Joel and I woke up and went to Chinatown, where apparently all the tourists are if they're not in Times Square. Why they're all in Chinatown I don't know, but seriously, there seemed to be just as many tourists in Chinatown as in Times Square. But we went there for one reason and one reason only: dumplings. Our friend Megan got us hooked on juicy dumplings by introducing us to Din Tai Fung (as yet the only US location for this world-renowned restaurant - take that, New York and San Fran!), which has the most delectable juicy dumplings this side of the Pacific Ocean. Din Tai Fung, for those in the know, was named in 1993 by the New York Times as one of the ten best restaurants in the world. Quite the honor! In New York City, however, there is a restaurant by the name of Joe's Shanghai (9 Pell St., NY, NY) that is famous for its "soup dumplings." Intrigued, we had to go and compare.

When we got to Joe's, the first thing that Joel and I noticed was that Joe's claimed to be the "inventor of the soup dumpling." We took this statement with some skepticism. We ordered one order of pork "steamed buns" and one order of crab/pork "steamed buns," along with sauteed string beans and some Shanghai flat noodles.

There were 8 dumplings in an order as opposed to Din Tai Fung's 10, so I felt pretty safe ordering that amount to start. The order came out and I do have to say that in fact, calling Din Tai Fung's "juicy" and Joe's "soup" was pretty accurate. Joe's dumplings were HUGE! They barely fit on the soup spoon and they were overflowing with soup. At Din Tai Fung (DTF), we can eat 3 orders or more of dumplings (that's 30 plus dumplings) plus some noodles and sides. At Joe's, we barely made it through the 2 orders of 8 and barely made a dent in the noodles. The ginger comes out presoaked in the vinegar at Joe's as opposed to DTF, where you just get ginger and you can dress it up however you want. I don't like the taste of vinegar so much, but the guys were good enough to give me just ginger. Joel noted that the dumplings at DTF could fit whole in his mouth while the ones at Joe's he was having more trouble with. Joel had some trouble adjusting to the size and liquid difference of Joe's.

Size and soup aside, when dealing with taste, I'd have to say that the side dishes are comparable. The dumplings are also a tough call. They taste slightly different, with DTF having a cleaner taste. But I liked the crab/pork ones more at Joe's that at DTF. The pork ones I have to give to DTF. I don't know if I have a preference. Walking out of Joe's, I thought DTF DEFINITELY. I mean, DTF has a better presentation and a nicer looking aesthetic. PLUS it's like 10 miles away from where I live and I don't have to go to NYC for dumplings. But now that I've had time to think about it, I think it really comes down to your preference in size and soup quantity. If you like them bigger and juicier, Joe's is the winner. We barely finished 2 orders at Joe's, while at Din Tai Fung we can usually go through 3 orders (or more!). I think personally that DTF's dumplings are sized just right, though I did like the juiciness quotient of Joe's dumplings. And, while I can't vouch for Joel's opinion on it, Joe's crab/pork ones slays DTF's comparable dumpling.

So after lunch, we went shopping for a bit, and it started pouring rain. I mean torrential downpour. We hopped back on the subway and made it to Grand Central when the trains stopped. The tracks at 23rd were flooded so the trains would go no further. Bummer! Let me tell you, in any sort of bad weather, it's super duper hard to catch a cab. That'll teach us for leaving downtown on what was obviously a downtown day. We managed to get a cab finally, after giving up and walking to find a bus of some sort to take us downtown - thank you, random cabbie! We'll never forget you!

At night, we met up at Niagara with John near Brian's apartment, and then Nick met us at Assenzio (205 E 4th St., NY, NY) for dinner. This was a day of fine dining. The restaurant specializes in Sardinian food. Joel and I split the gnocchetti (wonderful, exquisite, lots of fine words for it). I had the stuffed veal rolls, Joel had the stuffed chicken rolls. Both great, but I think the veal rolls were better than the chicken. Nick got the gnocchi which was also exquisite, but really rich. John got the suckling pig to start if I remember correctly (quite good) and pasta as an entree (also delicious, but not as good as the gnocchetti). All in all, it was a marvelous meal, followed by a bit of revelry. The restaurant was great, though I didn't really get the "cash only" part of it, which I would have to say is the only real detraction to the place. Brooke, who was ill and couldn't join us, also had high praises for the restaurant. Yet another restaurant on the list to go back to when we're back in New York! It was also really nice to hang out with Brian, John, and Nick. We're only sorry Ajay and Brooke couldn't make it out as well!

Stay tuned for more stories from our trip to the East Coast!