Malaysia Taste Good

This weekend I went to Elmhurst to satisfy my craving for a good,
spicy, noodle soup. Malaysia Taste Good (an oddly but accurately named
restaurant) fit the bill. I had a curry fish ball noodle soup for
around $5.50. It was a medium-sized bowl full of a nicely spiced,
coconut-based soup, with noodles, fish balls, and a handful of bean
sprouts. The noodles were soft and thick, without much chew. The soup
was well balanced and really flavorful. I'll be back again for the
exact same thing.

After the soup, I noticed that Elmhurst now has a Quickly bubble-tea
store. Good bubble tea is hard to find, and Quickly is the best you
can find here. It comes from the Bay Area, and there it is solid but
unexceptional. Sometimes I miss that place. I actually noticed a
fruity taste in my tea, which shouldn't have happened since my tea was
black tea flavored. Otherwise, the tea was good.

Hakata Ippudo

On Thursday, my friend Ben and I went to try the new ramen noodle shop, the Tokyo-based Hakata Ippudo. It was packed with a mostly Japanese crowd. We were seated within ten minutes in an elegant medium-sized room that sat about 40.

The soup I ordered was very well executed. It had a rich porky broth, but it was well balanced. Not too salty, but very robust. The noodles were thinner than the usual ramen noodle, but they had a great firm texture. I think this is the best ramen noodles I've had. Unfortuntely, I have not been a good food blogger, and did not write down the name of the soup. But it was the second soup on the small menu. 

For dessert we had a macha green tea creme brûlée.  It came with a lychee ice cream, and it all worked very well together. 

The past year has seen a huge ramen rennaisance in New York. And it is not over, more Tokyo-based shops are coming.  I love it! 

Taqueria Coatzingo

Last weekend I went to try the tacos at Taqueria Coatzingo, in Jackson
Heights. They come with a surprising amount of guacamole. They were
good, better than most California tacos but not quite as good as the
best Taquerias I've been to. Tacos are all about the meat, and this
meat was well prepared, but it lacked the strong meaty taste of the
best taquerias.

I hear the other food here is very good and authentic. Next time.

Chicago pizza

I made a good Chicago style pizza yesterday. One of the things I did
differently this time is that I did not precook the sauce. This turned
out to make a lot of difference, since the sauce is cooked for 45
minutes in the oven anyway.

Luzzo's

Today for lunch I went to Luzzo's in the East Village for some coal-
fired pizza. The pizza was ready very quickly, and was superb. It had
a crust that was fairly soft like a neopolitan, but not so soft it
needed a knife and fork. The buffalo mozzarella tasted fresh, and the
entire pie was light tasting.

I think this is now my current favorite coal-fired pie.

DiFara's

DiFara's prices have increased, but it still is well worth it. It's
not my favorite pizza in the city, but its close.

I went there today with some coworkers. Most thought the square pie
was truly special, while the round pie was merely good. Both are
rather rich, but the square pie has that rich, proscuitto-infused
sauce. For me, though, the relative lightness of the round pie made it
preferable.

Pizza Making

Lately I have been making pizzas at home every week. It is cheap, fun
and not actually all that hard. This weeks pizza was my first really
successful dough. It was soft and stretchable. I made it fairly wet,
gave it a 20 minute rest before and after kneading the dough, and did
a 15 minute wet knead.

I also baked it on the upper part of the oven, which encouraged
browning from the reflected heat from the top of my gas oven.

Overall, I think it came out pretty well. I now need to work on
getting more oven spring, probably by playing around with yeast
quantity and rise times.