Showing posts with label Satay Junction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Satay Junction. Show all posts

10/30/10

Tasting the West Village

I love food. You know that by now. I also love the West Village. Put the two together, and I'm pretty much in awesome heaven. Group buying site The Dealist recently organized a food tour called Taste of the Village: West and I was all over that. I especially liked how the title left open the possibility of a sequel in either of the Villages Greenwich or East. 

The deal, if purchased through the site, was $17 for six tastes at W. Village establishments plus drink specials at different bars along the way. My dad was in town for the weekend so he came along on my culinary tour. 

First stop was the hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese sandwich shop, Num Pang. A huge crowd gathered outside in line to participate in the tasting and we were able to select from either the Duroc Pulled Pork or Veal Hoisin Meatball slider. We tried one of each and they were delicious. The meat was moist and the bread was not too overbearing, as it can often be with these sandwiches. I thought the little eating nook up the spiral staircase was charming and felt like a little hideaway from nearby Union Square. The outside line reminded me of a drive-thru of sorts, without the cars obviously, but that just made it all the more New York.

Sign at Num Pang welcoming food tour participants

Duroc Pulled Pork and Veal Hoisin Meatball Sliders from Num Pang

Me enjoying the sliders
Next we walked south to Cabrito. I've heard about this colorful Mexican joint before so I was eager to try it. Although not on the menu, they were offering fish tacos for the tour and I love a good fish taco. The fish was nice and crispy on the outside but definitely not too oily, which I appreciated. With cabbage, avocado and radish slices on a fresh flour tortilla, I felt not to far away from the beaches of Cabo. My dad went for the spicier pork taco, and while it was tasty, the spice was far too overwhelming and even after the one bite I had of his, I felt the heat all the way through the next stop on the tour. They were offering $6 margaritas, and though we passed on them, I'll definitely be back because they use the real stuff - no syrup there.

Fish and Pork tacos from Cabrito
Just down the block was stop #3, Spunto thin-crust pizza. I've never been much of a pizza afficionado, but I like a good thin crust (almost as much as a juicy thick-crust). There's something so delicate about a crispy crust that still maintains a bready consistency with flavorful sauce and gooey cheese that strings from your mouth when you take a bite that I can appreciate. Spunto has perfected this. We were each able to sample (an understated word in this case) a piece of cheese and a piece of pepperoni. This could have been a whole meal in itself! Out of all the stops, this was my Dad's favorite and we'll definitely be back.

Thin-crust pizza from Spunto


Next, we made our way north to the long and skinny Satay Junction. The sample choices here were two satay sticks with a choice of chicken, beef, pork, lamb, shrimp and tofu. Since satay is on a stick and meant to be eaten easily and quickly, and with only 45 minutes left in the tour, we figured we'd be quick here and make our way on. However, this was not the case. After placing our order, we waited 15 minutes before we even got an update on our food. While it did feel good to sit down for a bit, we were weary of missing our last stops, and I decided to walk up to the Donut Pub to pick up our samples there before the tour was over. Of course the satay came minutes after I left, as it always does, but honestly, it wasn't that good. Oh well.

Half-eaten lamb and shrimp satay

Donut Pub - what a great name - excited me because they had advertised red velvet donut bites. When I got there however, all they had left were glazed and powdered sugar. After the long satay debacle, I wasn't going to turn down donuts.  WIth only five minutes left in the food tour, I picked up four mini donuts for my dad and I and headed back to Satay Junction.

Impressive donut display at The Donut Pub
We took our treats up to the Highline for a fantastic sunset. I love the architecture around the old elevated train tracks and I love showing it off to visitors even more.


Although we didn't make it to Pasticceria Rocco for mini-canolis, I was full and happy from a successful tour. Thanks to The Dealist, my dad and I had a wonderful afternoon and I can't wait for (hopefully) Part 2 and 3!

Num Pang on Urbanspoon

Cabrito on Urbanspoon

Spunto on Urbanspoon

Satay Junction on Urbanspoon

Donut Pub on Urbanspoon

Awesome Reads

Awesome in New York New York restaurants

Awesome Keywords

art gallery art museum Astoria atlantic city awesome alert Awesome Deal awesome giveaway awesome savings bakeries bar bar crawl BBQ beach beauty beer beer event birthday Book Launch brazilian breakfast Broadway Brooklyn Brooklyn Bridge Brunch Bryant Park carnegie hall celebrity spotting Central Park cheap tickets cheese Chelsea Market Chinatown Chinese Food Choice Eats class cocktails coffee columbus circle concert concert in the park contest cookies cooking creativity crunch cuban dance Deals Delicatessen delivery designer clothing dessert. food dinner Dior discount spa treatments discounted tickets doughnuts Downtown drink specials drinks East Village Ebates Entertainment event exercise Facebook giveaway fashion film fitness Flatiron Flushing Meadows-Corona park Food Food event food truck free Free Champagne free coffee Free Concerts free cupcake free dessert free drinks free food free museum admission free stuff Free Ticket free wine French food fundraising gift Gilt City giveaway gourmet food store Grand Central Greek Greenwich Village Groupon Guggenheim Museum half marathon halloween health healthy living helicopter tour hell's kitchen historic site history holiday shopping hot chocolate Italian food jazz jazz club jewelry lincoln center local food Lombardi Long Island City Lower East Side lunch macaron Madison Square Park Manhattan margaritas MCNY memberships Met mexican food MOMA movie premiere ms walk museum music New Year's Eve New York new york botanic garden New York City Food and Wine Festival New York Magazine New York Times New York Wine Expo Nolita NYC Off-Broadway online shopping open bar out of towners outdoors pancakes party photos pizza public art publications Queens restaurant Restaurant Review Restaurant Week Riesling Crawl rooftop roosevelt running sake save money shopping shopping deals skincare social media Social Media Week Soho spirits summer Super Bowl sushi sweetery tapas taxi TDF Terroir The Jewish Museum Theater thrift store Thrillist Times Square travel Twitter giveaway upper east side video views Village Voice volunteer opportunity website West Village williamsburg win wine wine class wine event Yankee Stadium yelp yoga Ziegfeld Theater