March 9, 2007
Quick rundown: cheese, Thai, brunch, and Indian
I was planning to write one last substantial entry before going on vacation, but of course my seemingly long afternoon turned into, "OH CRAP I ONLY HAVE HALF AN HOUR!" and now I will write a very insubstantial entry with 500% food porn.
HERE I GOOO!
- mac n cheese
I finally went to S'MAC with two friends to gorge on little tubes of pasta smothered in cheese.
- eating...or eaten
It's not the most amazing dish in the world, but it's tasty and belly filling (maybe because it stops your digestion; I'm not sure). The small should be enough to hold you over...until dessert.
- ice cream
I dragged my friends to the nearby Sundaes and Cones and indulged in a two scoop cup with chocolate chip mint and ginger. Ginger was oddly creamier than chocolate chip mint. The chocolate pieces in the chocolate chip mint were more slab-like than chip-like, which I thought was a plus. Overall, I liked both flavors but was so stuffed from the mac and cheese that I couldn't finish it. Also, my frozen tongue was unable to discern the flavors near the end.
Conclusion: mac and cheese and ice cream don't mix.
NEXT!
- SriPraPhai
At Joyce's suggestion I finally made it out to SriPraPhai in Queens, famous for being the best Thai restaurant in NYC and for getting lazy Manhattanites like me to actually go to an outer borough.
- pile of meat
Ground meat with mint, dry chili and lemon = awesome.
- salad
Papaya salad with crispy cat fish = another level of awesome.
- crab
Fried soft shell crab = yet another level of awesome.
- need rice
Sticky rice = ridiculously stomach-filling, but also awesome.
Sorry for being so non-descriptive, but...at least I took photos. If you haven't been to SriPraPhai, you should get your bum on the 7 train (or the E if the 7 isn't working) and prepare yourself for face stuffage. I'll come along!
We also went to the huge-ass Indian grocery store Patel Brothers where we found:
- hot chips
Hot Chips that are in some way "deep".
- BISCUITS
Biscuits that are 50% tasty and another 50% tasty, therefore being TASTY TASTY. (Sadly, I must report that they are not even worth one tasty. The taste was mildly...mild. I did not get the double tasty sensation.)
- fluff
And flatbread that has been "Hand stretched For Fluffiness™".
NEXT!
- I did not eat this
I met Lia for brunch, meaning that I also met Lia's fluffy dog (not hand stretched), Jarvis. Jarvis is like a pig disguised as a mop disguised as a dog, or maybe in a different order, but something like that. He is adorable. In his half-awake state I watched him shuffle around the hallway and lightly bounce off the door after he realized he couldn't walk through it. Aw....
- chomp
We went to Frankies 17 for brunch, one of Lia's favorite spots. Her egg, bacon and cheese sandwich looked much awesomer than I had expected. Pretty sandwich...mm...yesss...
- french toast
I ordered the French toast upon Lia's recommendation. I thought I could easily engulf the two large chunks of sweet, custardy bread and the little cup of maple syrup, but I failed. My stomach was overtaken by the sugar rush of viscous tree extract and I ended up leaving behind some of the crust while hugging my distended belly. Otherwise, it was...awesome.
NEXT!
- FRIED!
Last night I ate at Chennai Garden with Doug and Marissa, one of the funnest couples (or two of the funnest people—your pick) anyone could eat with. We started with an appetizer assortment. What was in it? We didn't really know. All we could tell was that the contents were 99% fried, thus it must be awesome. And it was pretty awesome, even if we didn't know what we were eating.
- too much food
We shared a combination platter that included "iddly, medu vadai, vegetable, masala dosai, coconut chutney, sambar, badam halwa", which I would poorly translate as "savory pancake, savory donut, crepe thing, white bready thing, and stuff."
- mm, blurry
I also ordered the Chennai Rava Masala Dosai, "rava dosai with a hot and spicy potato filling", a thin, chewy, sometimes crunchy crepe with a plop of spicy mashed potato in the middle.
- poori
In case we weren't already stuffed (the problem being that we were stuffed), we also ordered poori, or uber pufftastic balloon-like bread. Soft, flaky, and bursting with the flavor of FAT. Quite good.
And now I have to go. Sorry for the excessive use of "awesome" and the overall suckitude of this entry. The next one will be better! And hopefully from Paris!
If you can't get enough Robyn action (... ...a disturbing though), check out my Q&A at Serious Eats! WIth this entry I hope to destroy any expectations that I'm fit to blog for professional websites. DID I WIN?!?!?!
Posted by roboppy at 5:57 PM
Comments (17)
hey robyn, I'm from Singapore and I have been following your blog for a almost a year now... really am enjoying incredibly funny posts and insanely good-looking food porn...
You have even inspired me to start looking out for the best baguettes around.. :)
Just wanted to tell you to keep up the good work.. and continue to eat everything please!
Posted by: Diana at March 9, 2007 8:15 PM [#]
woww, that's a whole lot of food to take in before going on vacation, I hope you get more of these at your next destination :) Anyway, my first time to your blog, hopped over from Orchidea's Viaggiesapori, enjoying your blog !:) man, just had thai food this evening, I don't feel as bad now hehe, now gotta hunt for Indian food next. Cheers !:)
Posted by: MeltingWok at March 10, 2007 2:48 AM [#]
Hey Robyn!
haha, this is the ultimate speed food porn post - and I love it! I had the medium size S'mac and was so stuffed afterwards, but Blackhound was just around the corner, and sigh, the friend I was with gets a pretty nice discount there! Have a safe flight to Paris and enjoy your break! :) oh yes, and eat plenty! ;)
Robyn, next time you go to sripraphai try the "crispy chinese watercress" salad. To me, that's as pure thai as you can get (besides the name): salty, sweet, spicy, minty, crunshi, chewy. It's a perfect dish. Also recommended: Any of the thai basil chili meat dished - especially the duck on the back side of the menu and the twice fried pork - the curry puffs (apps), the thai wide noodles, the coconut rice... I could go on and on. I've been going there for nine years now, about once every other month.
Posted by: CG at March 10, 2007 11:33 AM [#]
Oh my god- when will they perfect the computer-2-computer food transfer protocol, so I can just grab foods from your posts and eat them? Those Indian chips and biscuits were funny. Half the fun in discovering new foods is the odd and intriguing packaging...
Wow, the Thai minced meat salad looks very good. You have a great camera...am shopping for one so I might look into what you have. :)
Posted by: Rasa Malaysia at March 11, 2007 10:11 AM [#]
Hi Robyn!
Love your food porns. I can hear my stomach growling while looking at those pictures. It's past lunch time here in Jakarta, Indonesia. I guess I'd better go and grab some lunch... Suddenly I'm craving for Thai food. You should come to Jakarta, we have excellent (and really spicy) food here. Oh, and enjoy your time in Paris. Can't wait to see more stories and great pictures from you.
Posted by: Ully at March 12, 2007 1:50 AM [#]
Damn you! The breakfast sammich and french toast look wicked good and I'm STAAARRVED right now. The pix are awesome, as usual, and I loved your interview on Serious Eats. You've got plenty o'time to sell your soul to the devil for a paycheck, take time to enjoy life and do what you want to do before you tie yourself to a (insert the mother of all expletives here) job.
Have a fab time in gay Paree, can't wait to see the pix!
Jo
Posted by: AuntJone at March 12, 2007 10:26 AM [#]
How are you in Paris again? Sweet Jezus you are a well traveled eater. ;)
Posted by: SweetEnnui at March 13, 2007 5:04 PM [#]
mmmm! I liked S'Mac a lot when we went!! :) We got the Cheeseburger and the Cajun... Cheeseburger was by far the better one! :) mmmmm!!!!
Posted by: Jenn at March 19, 2007 12:07 PM [#]
Post a comment
If you comment under your business's name, I will unpublish your comment. I'll unpublish anything that looks overly self-promotional or doesn't appear to be from a real human. This only applies to 0.5% of you guys; as for the rest of you, stay awesome.
If you have something to ask me that's unrelated to this entry, please email me instead.
: This is the 
Somehow with the overload of food porn can almost nullify the lack of words in this post. Damn your good!
I've read Serious Eats' Q&A featuring you. I still think (and commented) you should've gotten a job there, not intern; even though, you contested the fact that you don't want a job yet.
Have a safe and fun time in Paris! Joie de vivre! :)
Posted by: Tina at March 9, 2007 8:01 PM [#]