New York Foodie Asshole Throwdown: 100 best SINGLE MENU items in NYC

Please be super-selective. Do not just post a) what you ate last night or b) ilxor-style blocks of data that's useless to navigate. Just post one or two things that make you live for the city!

Boring, canonical picks are totally acceptable!

1. Corned beef sandwich @ Katz's Delicatessten
2. Pork buns @ Momofuku
3. Soup DUMPLINGS! @ Joe's Shanghai

pick top 64 and make a tourney

4. Chicken biscuit @ Pies 'n' Thighs
5. Shackburger with cheese @ Shake Shack
6. Jungle curry @ Sripraphai

(Pretty impossible to pick one item at Sripraphai)

keep this thread going

will try (most) of these

7. Soppressata Piccante pizza @ Motorino

the homesickness begins now

8. regular cheese slice from joe's on carmine

I'm quite jealous of American sandwiches. On TV they always look so much better than ours.

bookmarking thread

are sweets acceptable? if so

9. crack pie, momofuku milk bar

most def

10. #19 at City Sub
11. Fish tacos at Mercadito
12. Capocollo pizza at Saraghina
13. Jerk chicken at Islands

its a lot easier to do this w/ places i go all the time than w/ super expensive places that have amazing food but i dont know the menu that well

14. Everything bagel with lox, cream cheese and tomato at Bergen Bagel

shout out to the bronx

15. fresh mozzarella, casa della mozzarella
16. sfogliatelle, delillo's

max, i would go with

17. everything bagel @ Bagel Hole in Park Slope

bookmarking thread

― just sayin, Friday, October 15, 2010 12:04 PM (11 minutes ago)

18. cannoli, veniero's

to each his own

(favorite bagel)

19. Duck lo mein at Great NY Noodletown

10. #19 at City Sub

lol what is #19. mine would be "turkey pastrami city sub with lettuce, onion, hot and sweet peppers, vinegar and oil"

20.Grilled Octopus at Babbo

21. burger at Molly's on 3rd ave.
22. O.G. Po' boy at honeychiles
23. parihuela (spicy seafood stew) @ chimu

13. Jerk chicken at Islands

^^^ the realest.
i'm dogsitting in crown heights tonight and might take the doggie for a walk down eastern parkway to the islands

19 is the ham and salami but yeah the turkey pastrami is ill

20 falafel sandwich at taim

falafel variety & favourite server to be debated on subthread
i wanna put down samosa at lahore next door to housing works as 21 but think i'm probably alone on that

haha i think you mean 24.

never got the samosa there, but when i worked @ m4t4d0r it was one of the cheapest lunch options and i'd go get rice & lentils and shit on the regular.

25. fresh roasted turkey hero at Han's deli on broadway

also fyi if i had to pick my one item @ sripraphai it would be crispy pork & chinese broccoli

26. Pulled pork sandwich at Num Pang

27. The Outrageous California or smaller Baja Burrito, with Rachel's Special (extra red sauce & cheese on top, and into the steamer to melt and soak in), from La Tacqueria on 7th Ave in Brooklyn.

28. Rigatoni Bolognese from Fragole on Court St.

Bonus: Also on menu: the best bruschetta I've ever had. Every time I've ordered bruschetta anywhere else in the last 5 years, it's been with the hope that it would live up to Fragole's.

It never has.

29. vanessa's dumpling house, all the fried DUMPLINGS!

there's one post in here that i really wanted to reply "Do you know what food is?"

Listen, I've had the pork bun from Momofuku and it tasted like a big mismatch of flavors and proportions, to me. So why don't you just eat, and not judge?

^ good advice imo (except for the part about hating pork buns)

chicken! @ Chirpin' Chicken (the one on the upper west side)

30. Any form of cheesecake from Veniero's (served with a side-order of nostalgia gained while living two blocks away).

the g stands for gourmand.

la sa tom soup @ Saigon. (addictive stuff)

laurel im interested in why you think the pork bun flavours are mismatched! i think the sour pickle w fatty meat is always a good combo

You know tbh I only had a couple of bites of someone else's, and it had cooled off by then. I'm not saying I wouldn't try it again in the fut, just that it didn't impress.

I was much more interested in the mini-quiche thing with goat cheese, asparagus, and some kind of cured pork product.

whats the name of that udon noddle bar at 8th st?

29. vanessa's dumpling house, all the fried DUMPLINGS!!
--not everything is a campfire (ian)

OMG the sesame pancakes here are like some other-dimension amazingness

31 gnocchi (or lasagna) at Max

32 vegan chicken Parmesan sandwich from Red Bamboo

If I was to ever hit that mythical never-have-to-work-again lottery, I'd probably move to NYC and see if any ilxors wanted to squire me around on a neverending foodie tour of the city, everybody gets a one week shift as curator, I'll pick up the tab. (I could probably blow through the lottery winnings in a couple of years.)

bookmarking thread

― just sayin, Friday, October 15, 2010 12:04 PM (11 minutes ago)

― Unfrozen Caveman Board-Lawyer (WmC), Friday, October 15, 2010 5:16 PM (2 hours ago)

even though there's no way I'll get to New York in the next five years

33. steve's authentic key lime pies, red hook

63. crispy watercress salad at sripraphai
64. samgyupsal at hahm ji bach in flushing
65. seafood sukiyaki soup from sushi gen in prospect heights
66. mina special dal fry at spicy mina in woodside

67. Aui Zhou Spicy Chicken and Grand Sichuan Chelsea

Re Lombardi's I would offer the straight-up neapolitan pizza. any place that can't do that well should be wiped off the face of the earth

― JIMMY MOD THE SACK MASTER (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Monday, 18 October 2010 22:40 (Yesterday)

I was hesitant to do pizza because that's like it's own thread, but I would put Lucali up against anything.

59. Panelle Special and Pasta con Sarde, Ferdinando's

SO happy someone repped for this

63. crispy watercress salad at sripraphai
64. samgyupsal at hahm ji bach in flushing
65. seafood sukiyaki soup from sushi gen in prospect heights
66. mina special dal fry at spicy mina in woodside

― bene_gesserit, Tuesday, October 19, 2010 12:44 AM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

i still wanna try Spicy Mina. seafood sukiyaki at gen is amazing yes but what about the curry???

Actually I would also put up

68. Carne Asada at Calexico (burrito or taco) -- I know this isn't the choice of tru-mex heads but I think it's some of the tastiest meat I've ever had in mexican food, so authenticity be damned

i have a special place in my heart for the sukiyaki

also re: falafel, i think the 'canonical' choice might be mamoun's? but idk.

69. Pommes Frites, 2nd Ave.

70. Ground Pork Salad, Planet Thailand

i still wanna try Spicy Mina.

possibly closed. last dozen times I've walked by it's been shuttered and nobody seems to know what's up.

:(

Are we doing beverages too? Because I don't think there's a better coffee in the city than

71. Cappuccino at Cafe Pedlar

my top falafel is Alfanoose around Wall Street

don't think I'm enough of a falafel head to say it's a BEST MENU ITEM

think it was mentioned upthread but taim is probably my favorite falafel

ok but are you a falafel head

I really, really like the falafel from Meze Grill but surely that is not the BEST falafel?

There's a promo where if you became a fan of them on Facebook you got a free falafel, but it was just access to a link to a free falafel coupon, so I printed out a bunch and kept getting free falafels for lunch when I interned in midtown.

72 hominy @ mercadito

73. Pork n Grits at Clover Club

Has anyone been to Fiat Cafe in little italy? Food was fantastic and the prices were really great.

74. Sul Long Tang @ Gahm Mi Oak -- PHOTO
75. Dungeness Crab on Sticky Rice @ Imperial Palace -- PHOTO
76. Roasted Bone Marrow & Oxtail Marmelade @ Blue Ribbon
77. Cold Tofu Skin Noodles @ Xi'an Famous Foods -- PHOTO

78. basic pork ramen from minca
79. pollo picante tamale from the guy with the cooler who stands in front of joe's pizza on sunday mornings (intersection of prospect ave & prospect park west, across from holy name)
80. planet roll from kiku sushi on 7th, park slope again

or maybe negimaki, on 2nd thought

ever since I started bookmarking I never notice new threads.

38. chicken over rice w/ green sauce - sammy's halal cart, jackson heights

I say chicken AND lamb over rice, w/ all three sauces. Why is the green sauce so mysterious? How come they always ask if you want white sauce or hot sauce but you have to ask for the green sauce? Do they figure white folk won't like it? Is it expensive?

lol yeah I usually go for all 3 - but the green is what makes sammy's what it is. I have become bros w/ one of the guys who works there and he explained to me that the green sauce was very good for you and had lots of vitamins.

I can't imagine it's super expensive, I'd just bet most people are used to hearing white/red and they go w/ what people expect?

spicy mina has been closed for months.

meanwhile the original owner of Zabb Queens now owns the late night place next door, for what it's worth. I haven't been back to Zabb queens for ages, which was always a bit better than Zabb City, but now has a different menu.

Carne Asada at Calexico is awesome.

81. Cumin Lamb at Little Pepper
82. Roast Pork with special house sauce over rice at Sripraphai (it's got roast pork, crispy pork belly AND sausage!)
83. Veggie Momos at Mustang Thakali Kitchen
84. Fish Tacos at Tortellaria Nixtamal
85. Chicken and Lamb mix gyro at Mangal Kabob (with hummus, best hummus ever)
86. Crispy Basil Pork over rice with a fried egg at Rumphool (you order from there iatee? They finally started translating their special menu. Now they need to get on the ball with serving mock duck.

I always forget that place exists, the only time I pass by is when I walk to that big liquor store. thought about going recently actually but sripraphai is so cheap/close/consistent that it's hard to venture out.

they deliver and are super close, so it's always a back-up option. It's not in the top tier of places, but still authentic and friendly and better than most of what you'd find outside of Woodside and Elmhurst. They do a crispy duck salad that's really good too, I get it for lunch sometimes.

i've been trying to decide which sandwich from saltie i should put on this list, but i can't choose, all that i have tried (clean slate, scuttlebutt, captain's daughter and little chef) are really delicious. it's basically my favorite place to eat right now.

I like the one with the feta and olives and capers...

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/12/29/dining/20101229-year.html

87. Oxtail Soup @ Pam Real Thai

88. Chickwich at Hill Country Chicken in Flatiron. Chicken sandwich with pickles, mmmmm.

89. roast duck with e-fu noodles at great ny noodletown

90. Yeung Qi Dze (Shrimp Stuffed Eggplant) at Royal Seafood. This is the best dim sum thing I've ever tasted.

91. smores at recette

Judging by most of what I've read, I now wonder if I live in a different NYC, with a different palette.

92. Eggplant polenta from Barbossa
93. Gorgonzola, apples, and honey on toasted raisin bread from Bread
94. Poached fig panini from Falai (w/ baked eggs w/ fontina being a close 2nd)

95. Sincronizada especial from Barrio Chino
96. Pinolatta Della Casa from Nonna Les Pizzeria

I'd guess a different budget!

Great thread and I'm going to do eat at all these places.
I try to eat big when I'm in NYC so it's:

97. Sea Urchin Linguini at Il Posto Accanto
98. Homemade tofu at En
99. "From the garden" at Corton

(I am 100% unimpressed by 99% of all fine dining and feel sad when it's a story about Per Se or Fat Duck or whatever but Corton will always be welcome to all my cash at least once every couple years)

sietsema says the city's best falafel is at Hazar, a new Turkish place in Bay Ridge
http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-08-08/restaurants/hazar-the-city-s-best-falafel/?ref=navigation

yeah well, it would be. JFC

100. Kung pao pastrami at Mission Chinese Food

the thrice-cooked bacon there is the real deal, too

yup. we got both, I thought the pastrami was slightly better.

still want to try the ma po tofu w/ pork

oh damn didn't even know they had one here now