Eating Manhattan, Part 3/ by Pamela Hinkley TDR CEO
New York on 20,000 calories a day:
Sunday: We were close enough to walk up to David Chang’s empire. Like Tom, Chang’s joints are clustered close together- in Chang’s case, 4 restaurants in 4-block radius in the East Village.
Fortunately, there was room at the counter at Momofuku Ssam Bar, the shrine to pork (photo right). I had the best fried brussels sprouts of my life- greasy and finished with mint. Spicy rice cakes with sausage came next, and of course those killer pinch buns with pork belly. So delicious when washed down with a glass of rosé. We were glad to see a chilled red wine section on the menu- some reds do taste even better that way. Connected at the back is the Momofuku Milk Bar, which has wild sweet treats like the compost cookie and crack pie.
Good thing we had to walk back to the Bowery for dinner with friends at Daniel Boulud’s new sausage joint, DBGB. Looks like he spent a lot of money on the fine cabinetry stuffed with copper pots. The cool thing is that the cabinets all open up to see through to the kitchen (photo left). We had great apps, truly wonderful sausages that came with inventive sides, and finished up with tuna crudo, mussels, and a great cauliflower-broccoli steam.
To walk off dinner, we headed down to see a classic bakery on the lower East Side- Kossar’s Bialys. What a classic joint! All flour dust and crochety characters. I bought a doughy onion disk that was chewy and crusty, just right. On the journey our friends showed us a dive bar we want to try next time- Sammy’s Roumanian Steak House. In the basement, very messy and chaotic with karaoke- every table set up with an icy block holding a bottle of vodka. Big piles of Alka Seltzer to grab on your way out.
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