Kung Fu Tea, New York

As an Asian, I am always in the search for the best bubble tea. I think it is the combination of sweet creamy liquid and chewy texture that just gets me all the time. Even though there are TONS of bubble tea shops out there, some good, some bad, and some just plain ugly, there are certain stores that you can always rely on to buy this delicious beverage, and my go-to store is Kung Fu Tea!

Kung Fu Tea is great because it doesn’t add too much water to the mixture and uses a special milk that makes the drinks very flavorful - not bland at all, like most other bubble teas.

My go-to beverage at my go-to bubble tea store is the Black Milk Tea with Herbal Jelly and 30% sugar (bubble optional, depending on my mood):

I really like this combination because it’s light, since there is no bubble, and not too sweet, since there’s only 30% sugar (you can customize the sugar content of your drinks). The Herbal Jelly somehow makes me feel less bad about drinking it, because it’s herbal and HERBAL GOOD!

 One famous beverage from Kung Fu Tea is the Wow Milk, which is basically a very creamy milk, I believe, mixed with condensed milk (someone please confirm or deny this!). A lot of people like Wow Milk, but I prefer the milk tea because it has more taste. A blogger mentioned that  Wow Milk tastes better warm, which I have never tried before and would definitely be up for in the future (follow up review coming!). And so to add to that, yes, Kung Fu does serve hot versions of most of its beverages, so definitely experiment!

So there you go. New time you are in New York or Boston, definitely stop by one of Kung Fu Tea’s locations and try out this liquid gold!

Indita

13 June 4 Permalink

Totto Ramen, NYC

After living in NYC for about 3 years, I finally got the energy and time to wait in line at Totto Ramen. My friends were visiting from Jakarta, so I thought, “why not be touristy??” Not that Totto Ramen is such a touristy place, but apparently it’s the one noodle/ramen place to check out.

Reading this link might be useful:

http://blog.zagat.com/2012/10/new-york-citys-8-best-noodle-shops.html

We arrived at about 8:20pm and we finally got in at almost 10 pm. It was raining and overall boring. But thank god my friends were pretty entertaining. And by the way, there is a food massage place right across the street. I think it’s $18 for a 20 minute massage. Try that place out to kill some time.

Moving on to the food. I got the Totto Miso Ramen with extra Char Siu Pork.

I think that the ramen itself was fine, but the pork was a little overcooked, the broth was delish and, of course, like any other ramen places, the portion was too much. You can ask for sesame chilli oil (Rayu) on the side for $1.25. Trust me, it’s worth the price. The sauce made such a difference to the flavor of the broth and it wasn’t even THAT spicy.

You can find the full menu below:

http://tottoramen.com/?page_id=50

The waiters and cooks were really friendly Japanese people. One cook actually knew one Indonesian word, “merdeka,” which basically means… Independence? Random, but funny. If you come here alone, you will definitely not feel lonely. They’ll try to make you as happy and comfortable as possible, knowing how long you have to wait to get in.

The place was REALLY small. So small that it only fits about 20 chairs max, probably. Hence the long wait. But it doesn’t feel stuffy at all though, so all is good.

So, was it worth the wait? If you haven’t tried it then yes it was worth the wait. But next time I’m craving for a ramen, I’d rather go to Menchanko Tei.

Indita

Totto Ramen

366 W 52nd Street

New York, NY 10019

30 October Permalink

Island Burgers & Shakes, NYC

I am finally writing again! My excuse: the usual (homework assignments, midterms, life). But hurricane Sandy is coming to New York and I literally won’t have class until Friday, so Tasteritos it is!

My friend Heera is working for David Letterman this semester, which is only a few blocks away from my place, so we do lunch dates about twice a week. One of the places I took her to was Island Burgers & Shakes. I know this place because, well, it’s sort of famous, and my other friend had told me about it for a while.

This place probably serves more than 30 kinds of burgers, sectioned by the level of hotness. Although this makes it harder to choose, I love the options! There’s one with guac jack and bacon, there’s one with no bacon (who would want that??), one with pizza ingredients, one with potatoes and eggs, the choices are endless!

I ordered the Tijuana, which has bacon, jack,  guacamole and caramelized onions:

Even though it seems like there are a lot of ingredients in it, the end-taste is not so crazy, which is okay, but I just wish the onions were more flavorful. Texture was good. VERY juicy. Portion was also really good.

I heard the customers’ favorite is actually the fries, but I didn’t get to try it. Maybe next time!

The crowd was basically people living in the neighborhood and business types who work around the area. Waiters are cool and young. There were some people who came alone as well, so if you don’t have anyone to go with, you shouldn’t worry too much. Speaking of, I’m seriously considering of writing about eating alone in restaurants. ANYWAY.

If you have been here, feel free to comment! I would love to try out more stuff.

Indita

Island Burgers & Shakes

766 9th Avenue

New York, NY 10019

29 October Permalink

Le Bistrot du Sommelier, Singapore

This is probably my favorite restaurant in Singapore. It’s a French bistro, famous for its wines, located on Armenian Street. Such a nice photographic location too (the alley by the restaurant has cool wall arts, perfect for photography!) The combination of great food and excellent atmosphere makes me want to visit each time I’m in the city. Well, I’ve only been there twice, but my experiences were great both times!

I came here first with my parents and dad’s business partners and we basically had a feast! My mom took the chef’s, Patrick Heuberger, cooking class in Singapore about half a year before the visit, so we told them that we would really like to meet him and have a little chat. It was so nice that he took time to come over and suggested some of the specials. So we just took a leap of faith and have him decide what we should eat entirely.

The second time I went with my dad and sister and we almost ordered the same things. It’s pretty nice that the host remembers us, since I basically said “we’ll have what we had last time!”

We received a nice surprise when the host (who looks like a French, skinnier version of Chris Evans) served us a plate of artichoke, which we forgot to order at the beginning, but he remembered since I mentioned it was my favorite from our last visit. Or maybe it was just available HAHAHA. Well, either way, it was great.

This is the duck sausage with foie gras and pistachio, served on bread.

Another thing our host suggested was the salami combination, which were horse, wild boar and donkey meats. I never had horse and donkey meat before, so I was really intrigued by the idea of trying. In case you are wondering, the meal was very delicious even by itself!

That’s my sister with the horse salami that has black peppers on the edge.

And this is the one food I would swim across the Pacific ocean for. The pepper-y steak served with fresh tomatoes drizzled with olive oil. The steak is VERY tender, juicy and overall the best one I’ve had in a very long time. The pepper and salt portion is just perfect and writing about this makes me want to do a day visit to Singapore just to eat it again. I am jealous of anyone who is eating/about to eat this piece of heaven.

Of course, the barbarians we are, my sister and I decided to order a dessert, the special one of course! This is, in simple terms, chocolate custard with cream.

All in all, we spent about S$240, which is reasonable for this kind of restaurant and the kind of quality that they serve.

You have to definitely visit this place for at least the steak and the artichoke. I am already planning my next visit in December when I go back from New York. The restaurant is definitely worth trying!

Indita

23 August Permalink

Super Duper, San Francisco

Delicious burger place where you can custom make your burgers! YAAY!

Super Duper is located across Neimann Marcus and very close to Union Square. It’s basically in the middle of the city; a very strategic place.

My friend was really excited to show me the place. I pretty much understand why; cool place, humorous signs, cute cashiers, cool decor, organic and cute cashiers.

This is the front of the brochure (sorry for the quality):

As you can see, everything’s supposed to be all natural and that good stuff.

I decided to order a burger with bacon, tomato, lettuce and caramelized onion, with fries and garlic on the side. For those of you on a diet, BEWARE!

Here’s a better quality picture I posted on Instagram:

Everything was served on a tin serve plate, as shown above, which may make it look barbaric when you eat it, but I don’t mind :)

The burger was good, but the fries were especially delicious! Other than garlic, I think it also has a little cheese. Although I’m not sure.

Another fatty order was the vanilla/oreo milkshake. Very creamy and fresh!

That was a really good day for my stomach!

Try it out!

Indita

16 July 1 Permalink