New York: brunch, Asian food and general happiness
Saturday is brunch day! At least, in New York that is. We have no such thing as brunches with booze in Amsterdam. Something I’m very willing to change, by the way. I mean, why start the day with a sad sober breakfast, when the first thing you could (and should) be having on a Saturday morning is a tasty Bloody Mary with your sandwich or a freshly made Screwdriver with your eggs benedict?
We started the day at the Sunburnt Cow. This is an Australian dive bar with good food and better cocktails. The servers pretend they’re Aussies, but most of them are either Kiwis or locals with bad accents. For $18 you get a general brunch: pick one of the standard dishes (eggs benedict, BLT sandwich, steak sandwich, eggs norwegian, some salad) and a cocktail. Free cocktails as long as you’re eating your food. We manage to drink 3 cocktails each. Drunk before 1 PM, I think I’ve unlocked a badge somewhere.
After we had a late lunch somewhere on Bleecker Street (totally forgot the name of the place), we visited the Earth Room. Very weird, but inspiring, to say the least. Google it.
Our dinner that night was the best one I’ve had in a restaurant so far. We got at Takashi at around 7 PM, expecting a wait of at least an hour, and maybe even more. We left our phone number with the girl at the door and went to the sports bar across the street to wait for a phone call from the restaurant. Only 25 minutes passed before we got a call. A place at the bar was available.
Before we got to sit down, our coats and jackets were stowed away in a closet to keep them from getting a very BBQish smell. We were seated at the bar, right across from the two chefs who were prepping our food that evening. For starters, we got a plate with pickled cabbage, kimchi and bean sprouts. A great way to clear our palate, especially with the kimchi. After that, a big bowl of seasonal vegetables (namul) appeared on our table.
The first pieces of meat were 4 pieces of niku-uri: chuck flap topped with sea urchin and fresh wasabi. The beef was so fresh that it melted together with the sea urchin when you ate it. After this course, the grill on our table was lit. and the next course was brought to our table.
The next course of meat was Horumon-Moriawase, or chef’s selection. This dish consists of 5 different kinds of organ meat (all beef) marinated in Takashi’s sauce. The pieces we got (they change every day, dependent on which parts they can get fresh enough) were 1st stomach, 3rd stomach, liver, sweetbreads and heart. Every piece had its own distinctive texture and flavor. The waitress explained every piece in her very, very high accented voice. She made sure we didn’t overcook our meats and told us what each piece would taste like. 
The fifth course was Yooke. This is a chuck eye tartare, very thinly sliced, topped with a quail egg and shredded dried seaweed. The raw beef was covered in a special, secret sauce that made it even sweeter and this meat again melted away in your mouth. 
For dessert we shared a bowl of Madagascar vanilla softserve ice cream, with rice-flour dumplings, black sesame and soybean flour, sweetbeans and hojicha (green tea) syrup.
After this meal, I was ready to die and go to heaven.
Our last day in New York, we had breakfast at Vanessa’s Dumplings in Chinatown. This breakfast was later followed by a lunch at Coffee Shop. Eggs benedict, swooshed down by two mimosas. Before we headed to the airport, we had burgers at Paul’s. Very tasty burgers!
