Thoughts & Reflections

Category: Food

  • Cream Tea at Podunk

    Cream Tea at Podunk

    Every time I visit Podunk, I always end up ordering the same thing: the cream tea. A plate of scones and a pot of tea (Ceylon, which is the suggested brew on the menu) is all I really want sometimes, especially when I’ve eaten lunch not too long ago. A proper afternoon tea is always better with friends but here, I can always drop in with no other company than a really good book. It’s a great place to stop for a tea break after running errands all over East Village and the Lower East Side, which was how I spent today’s cold Sunday.

  • Cornelia Street Café

    Cornelia Street Cafe

    A warm weekend (finally!) means finding any excuse to head out earlier than usual. So on Sunday, I met up with a friend for brunch (more like breakfast since it was 10:30am) at Cornelia Street Café. It’s one of those places I’ve walked by every once in a while in the West Village but never remember having seen it. The location was convenient for a meetup and a good starting point for a day-long walk around the city just to enjoy the weather.

    The $20 prix fixe was a good deal, with a build-your-own meal from selections of bread, main courses, and two drinks. I opted for the Farmer’s Breakfast (with delicious crumbly bacon hidden beneath the eggs) while my friend ordered the Huevos Rancheros. The food was good and filling, but did not leave me feeling overstuffed. It was the perfect amount of food and a great way to start the day.

  • Hi-Collar

    Tamago sandwich

    On Saturday, I had a sudden craving for an egg sandwich for lunch. Not the typical bacon and eggs on a roll but something a bit different. So it was off to Hi-Collar I went.

    On my first visit many months ago, I wanted to try their pork katsu sandwich but it was sold out and I ended up ordering the Tamago sandwich instead. The menu describes it simply as an Osaka-style omelette and cucumber sandwich and it looks exactly that, with a mound of fluffy egg nestled between slices of soft, buttered bread. But just one bite of it conjures memories of childhood, sitting in a Chinese cha chaan teng and eating a Western-style breakfast. There’s a bit of horseradish (of which I’m not really a fan) in the sandwich which can taste too sharp at times but I can quickly wash away the aftertaste with a cup of perfectly brewed (via a small hourglass timer) tea.

    A “salad” is served on the side: diced peaches swimming in slightly thickened evaporated milk. It’s one of the my favorite parts of the dish because it is exactly something I would find in Chinese restaurants years ago, usually as a topping (fruit cocktail from a can and a splash of evaporated milk) to a bowl of cold almond tofu. To me, it was more of a dessert, something I saved to finish my meal with.

  • Whitehall

    Brunch at Whitehall

    There’s nothing like a hearty meal to help get through these cold winter days. I met up with a friend for brunch at Whitehall and we ate very well: she had the avocado toast with poached eggs while I chose the English fry-up. We both ordered rashers of bacon and I added black pudding to my plate as well (because no fry-up is complete without a bit of black pudding!). The food was great; it filled but did not leave us feeling overstuffed. We washed it all down with a pot of English Breakfast (for me) and several cups of coffee (for her). It was the perfect way to spend a Saturday morning and once fortified, we stepped out into the cold once more.

  • Rose Bakery

    Scone and Tea

    Most of the shops in the New York location of Dover Street Market is out of my price range but at least Rose Bakery is affordable. Though I prefer the menu of the London bakery, there were a few interesting British-influenced options here as well. What I really wanted to try is the Cream Tea but I was several hours too early for that so I simply ordered a scone and a pot of English Breakfast for a very light lunch.

    Of the two varieties available, I settled on the maple scone (the other was hazelnut) with butter and apple butter. I prefer the traditional cream and jam accompaniment but the apple butter was very flavorful and tasty in its own right. According to the menu, clotted cream and jam is served with the afternoon Cream Tea so perhaps I will have to return one late afternoon to try it.

    Overall, I think I would have far more enjoyed the fare if all the tables weren’t cramped together; on the ground level, the bakery space isn’t very large so it’s a tight squeeze whether one is sitting down or moving around. There is an upstairs sitting area but I did not learn of it until much later; I would have gladly walked up for a bit more elbow room. The one nice thing that did happen was that I ended up getting a free overview of the Market and its history from a woman who sat across from me. She works for Commes des Garçons—the company that runs Dover Street Market—and couldn’t help but overhear the conversation between three guys sitting around me as they were trying to learn more about the Market via their smartphones and so offered up a nice verbal guided tour of the place.