I really didn't feel like going to Jersey this weekend, but it turned out to be a good weekend. We got in NJ around 12. Then woke up around 6 to leave around 7 to get to the opening of Momofuku Milk Bar at 8. It said 8 on its website, and all the blogs said that it would open around 8. We parked on 10th, and Jon ran ahead of me. When we got to Ssam, we saw two Japanese girls waiting outside closer to Ssam than the bakery. Perhaps they didn't know where they were supposed to be waiting. However, that they were waiting outside was the first indication that the place wasn't open yet even though the church bells in the area already rang 8. The sign on the door said that they weren't opening until 9. WTF. At least there was a covering to wait under (it was about to rain). We lined up. A man who seemed to have worked at a Momofuku restaurant was there with his camera. Jay? Joe? I was too cranky to pay attention. I brought a hat I'm knitting, so knitted for the next hour while Jon figured out what he wanted to order. Good thing too because if he ordered like the people behind him (thumbs up their butts about what the menu is) I would have freaked out. So around 9, the door opened. We entered. I staked out a table to stand at, and Jon ordered. We got:
- Strawberry milk--good; probably made with frozen strawberries; tastes like a shake but a really thin shake
- Chocolate milk--good; not what I was expecting though; it's really rich and dense tasting--like a melted milk chocolate bar; my ideal chocolate milk would be more like a Cocoa Puffs consomme.
- Knish--would probably get again--it was tasty; bacon is so freakin delicious
- Crack pie--really good--tasted like toffee but without it hurting my teeth
- Pistachio ice cream--good, but salty
- Grapefruit sorbet (yes, it's still 9AM)--tasty but nothing special; it really helped cut all the salt and fat though
The bakery smelled good and all, but with all the extra bodies (about a dozen other people were in line with us for the opening) it got a little stuffy--and I think one of the guys burned something so they opened the door. About half way through our breakfast, I needed air, so we went back to the car with the half eaten food. It was nice sitting and eating.
The tables there were fine conceptually to get people in and out, but they are much too wide for their purpose. I mean look at the photo on the website. Imagine bodies around the table enjoying cake and pie and knish while a line snakes around them. It doesn't work. And the place is definitely not carriage friendly. There's a place down here called Community Canteen, and while not a milk bar per se or David Chang related, it does have some tasty foods that I think is somewhat reminiscent.
Tenth street was nice--a bunch of yellow leaves were falling. It started to pour and thunder too. It sucked not having an apartment to taxi home to anymore, but I guess our car was a like a mobile NYC apt.
Our next stop was lunch with Jon's parents at Park Avenue Autumn at 12:30. They didn't have the broccoli Cheetos dish, which was a little disappointing. I still wasn't very hungry though. Breakfast was pretty heavy, and PAA was serving a set brunch so while I could have gotten $35 granola appetizer and lettuce main, I instead went for the ricotta spinach ravioli and Upper East Sider, which was a split English muffin with a poached egg one end and cream cheese and lox on the other. Stupid I know, but I really couldn't eat. Jon and his parents all got the scallops and filet mignon, which in total was definitely worth the $35. The plate of breads was not that bad either, but there are better brunch bread baskets I think. Jon also got a side of "soft scrambled eggs," but they were just regular scrambled eggs. They forgot the "soft" part so that was also disappointing.
The weather cleared up so we walked through the park to the Met, but they didn't allow my leftovers/scramble eggs, so we went to see the new James Bond movie, which was fine for what it was.
We drove into Brooklyn for Jon's cousin's meet-the-fiance's-parents dinner and had a Chinese banquet dinner there. Some of the dishes stood out. I think we figured out there why we stopped taking pictures of restaurants and their food.
On Sunday, we went to Mitsuwa to relive Japan with Bryan. On our way back, Lakshmi called, and I promised to write her love story as fantasized by me out, which I will do now.
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