lidavidm’s blog

Ditching GMail for Fastmail

2021-01-18T00:00:00-05:00

A couple months ago, I ditched GMail for Fastmail, paying for an account and linking my domain name.

Overall, Fastmail is an acceptable experience, and works well to replace GMail itself. Where it still falls a bit short is in some of the other things linked to GMail.

Pros:

Very snappy web interface—as fast as GMail’s basic HTML interface without sacrificing functionality.
GMail import/integration makes it easy to switch. In particular, I can continue to send/receive emails from GMail seamlessly to keep old accounts & contacts where I can’t change the email.
Custom domains are super flexible, including allowing wildcard addresses (so I can use any address I want on my custom domain with only a bit of setup).
- I can use catchalls like “spam” or “subscriber+foo” as throwaways or to set up per-service emails.

Cons:

Calendar is functional, but not as convenient; in particular, there’s no support for reminders.
The app could use a little more polish.
- No offline support at all—if you don’t have Internet, you can’t look at anything, including cached emails.
- The direction of swipe-to-delete/swipe-to-archive is reversed from GMail.
- Little platform touches like a long-press menu are missing.

Overall, however, Fastmail does what I expected it to do, and it was a painless way to slighly de-Googlify my life.

What I’ve Done in NYC, COVID19 Edition (2020 Mar/Apr/May)

2020-05-26T00:00:00-04:00

It is coronavirus season, and so many of the restaurants here started offering takeout instead. Hence they probably don’t do as well as usual.

Bookstores

The Center for Fiction (Downtown Brooklyn) centerforfiction.org

A nonprofit bookstore hosting events, with a members-only reading area. (See below for Ken Liu’s book tour, which stopped here.)

I have mixed feelings about the layout. There are not actually all that many books, and most of them are on a set of tall bookshelves on a wall, making them hard to browse (you can’t even reach >60% of them without a ladder). But their display tables are thoughtfully arranged; I ended up picking up an extra book on a whim from one of them, and finding several more I wanted to read.

Food and Restaurants

These locations are in no particular order, though I roughly sort places I liked more first.

Takeout/Street Food/Fast Casual

Maybe worth considering:

Bagel World (Park Slope) bagelworldparkslope.com
Bergen Bagels (Park Slope) bergenbagels.com

Local bagel shops. They give a generous amount of lox with your bagel. Bergen Bagels has slightly nicer bagels, but is far more expensive, and since Bagel World is closer, it gets my vote.
Lotus (Park Slope) lotusvietnamesesandwiches.com

A Vietnamese takeout place. Not as good a value as Sunset Park, but good enough. They do offer decent bubble tea and sardine banh mi.
Purbird (Park Slope) purbird.com

A chicken-focused takeout place. The chicken thigh sandwich didn’t have too much chicken, but was decent overall.
Russo’s Mozzarella and Pasta (Park Slope) russosmozzarellaandpasta.net

A sandwich shop with some groceries. Sandwiches are large, filling, and definitely not healthy for you, though I wish they’d hollow out the bread a bit to make it more manageable. Their chorizo was disappointing: they seemed exactly like regular sausage.

Meh:

Pita Pan (Park Slope) thepitapan.com

The falafel wrap was tiny; not worth the price.
Oxaca Taqueria (Park Slope) oaxacatacos.com

“Chorizo” enchilada was just dry ground beef; there was little sauce, either. Now that Maya Taqueria reopened, there’s no reason to go here.

Actual Restaurants

Worth dropping by if in the area:

Insa (Park Slope) insabrooklyn.com

Normally sit-down, now takeout.

A Korean restaurant. Even their takeout includes banchan! Bibimbap does not work well as takeout, unfortunately, but this is not their fault.
Haenyeo (Park Slope) haenyeobk.com

Normally sit-down, now takeout.

Another Korean restaurant. Decent, but I’d like to try some of their other dishes—wings and kimbop were decent. They don’t give banchan (at least with the dishes I ordered), but for now they offer make-at-home kits that I’d also like to try.
SkyIce (Park Slope) skyice.net

Normally sit-down, now takeout.

A Thai restaurant—comparable to the others I’ve been to. Their standout feature is a wide array of homemade ice cream, offered by the scoop or by the pint, with lots of unusual flavors like durian as well as more…accessible…ones like Thai tea.
Peaches HotHouse (Fort Greene) bcrestaurantgroup.com

A fried chicken restaurant offering several generously sized pieces of chicken along with your choice of sides. Absolutely messy, but worth it. I do feel like they spice the chicken to request after cooking—so a lot of ground pepper will just fall off the chicken once you pick it up.
Sushi Yashin (Park Slope) sushiyashinbrooklyn.com{.place-link0}

Normally sit-down, now takeout.

A solid sushi spot; not among the top tier, but won’t disappoint you. They offer omakase, though not during the crisis.

Maybe worth considering:

Takahachi (Tribeca) takahachi.net

An upscale Japanese restaurant with a wide array of dishes, sushi, etc. Decent, but nothing special; for anything they offer, a nearby restaurant probably does it better. Check out their sister bakery instead!

Other

Ken Liu Presents The Hidden Girl and Other Stories with Tochi Onyebuchi and Christina Orlando

centerforfiction.org

Honestly, Liu and Onyebuchi said some things, but mostly it was fun watching them riff off each other, drop BnHA references (while all the adults in the room got confused looks), and talk about playing Stardew Valley.

The Values of Stories; Stories of Values with Ken Liu

newburyportliteraryfestival.org

Ken Liu did a short Q&A here via Zoom. He believes that people understand things by constructing stories out of them; for instance, we understand our values by carrying them out, turning them into stores other people tell. He talks a bit about a genre label he coined for his novel The Grace of Kings, “silkpunk”, by analogy to steampunk. Liu also talks about his translation work: he feels translation is actually a common form of storytelling. For example, if you explain the news to your children, you’re engaging in a form of translation, even if not between languages. Finally, he gives a book recommendation for W. Brian Arthur’s “The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves”.

What I’ve Done in NYC, Part 5 (2020 Jan/Feb)

2020-02-29T00:00:00-05:00

2020 is off to a strong start!

Also see: part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.

Bookstores

Haven’t visited any new bookstores yet, sadly. In the queue: Ken Liu’s book tour stopping at the Center for Fiction.

Food and Restaurants

These locations are in no particular order, though I roughly sort places I liked more first.

Takeout/Street Food/Fast Casual

Worth visiting:

Macao Imperial Tea (multiple locations)

A solid boba tea chain with prices on par with everyone else and all the requisite trends (cheese foam, fruit tea, brown sugar, etc.)—though I had only the standard bubble tea. (Sadly, I couldn’t try the red bean oatmeal flavor.) At 30% sugar, a little sweeter than expected, but that was perhaps because I added boba. Unlike some other chains, the tea flavor still comes through to balance out the sweetness and milk.

Worth dropping by if in the area:

Miss American Pie (Park Slope)

WIP. A pie shop with lots of pies, except when I came in, it was close to closing and they had only apple pie—solid, but nothing special. I think I’ll revisit this place sometime closer to when it opens, to try to get a fresher slice of a pie I haven’t seen before.

Also offers private lessons.

Maybe worth considering:

暖心饭团 Nuan Xin Fan Tuan (Chinatown)

Fan tuan, $5

A fan tuan (onigiri/rice ball) shop. Unlike Japanese onigiri, these are larger and come with more fillings; a spicy squid fan tuan also had lettuce, mayo, etc. inside, keeping it from being dry. This shop also uses purple rice, in case you needed more fodder for your Insta.
Rice to Riches (Nolita)

Imagine an ice cream shop, except they sell 20 flavors of rice pudding. That’s Rice to Riches. Rice pudding is nice, and the shop is…interestingly decorated—it seems made to appeal to the Instagram crowd, and is plastered with faux-encouraging phrases like “you can’t diet on an empty stomach”.

Now, it turns out rice pudding is really heavy, and everything here is almost sickeningly sweet. One portion of rice pudding is more than enough for two people.

Actual Restaurants

Worth visiting:

Szechuan Mountain House (East Village) szechuanmountainhouse.com

A Sichuan Chinese restaurant. We mostly stuck to the “classics” (水煮鱼片, 辣子鸡, etc.) but they were extremely well done, and they offer lots of less common dishes for your second time around.

Usually has a long wait.

Worth dropping by if in the area:

Bessou (East Village)

A Japanese restaurant with a slight fusion feel. My main complaint is that dishes come out slowly and prices are maybe high; a green bean and shishito pepper appetizer had only four peppers, for instance, though the green beans were also great. Chicken karrage is closer to Western fried chicken in size—you get medium-sized pieces of chicken, not bite-size pieces. The steak platter is kind of like Korean ssam; you get lettuce, nori, pickles, rice, steak, and sauces to make your own wrap.

Probably a better place for a date or 1-1 dinner than for a group.
Gammeeok (Koreatown)

A 24/7 Korean restaurant. Unlike its peers (e.g. Five Senses, BCD Tofu House), it gives only kimchi as a side, not the full set of side dishes, but the kimchi here contains chunks of radish in addition to cabbage, and is significantly more sour (and to me at least, somehow fizzy due to the fermentation).
Sugarfish (SoHo) sugarfishsushi.com

Sushi, $40

A interesting take on sushi, with a selection of fixed menus and a relatively sparse menu otherwise. The fish itself is not quite traditional: the first item out was tuna drenched in a ponzu sauce, and one of the nigri was slightly spicy. Decent quality, but at a price comparable to places like Blue Ribbon, you may prefer to stick with something more traditional.
Pho Bang (Chinatown) yelp.com

Pho, $8

A dirty, but affordable, pho spot in Chinatown. Not quite on par with the places in Phoenix we go to, but it’s at least similarly affordable.
ノノノ nonono (Koreatown) nonononyc.com

Yakitori, ramen, and small plates, $3–5/skewer

A yakitori restaurant also offering small plates and ramen. Yakitori offers lots of chicken parts that you wouldn’t normally get; go for the juicy chicken oyster and the crunchy gizzard. Ramen, with broth made from the leftover chicken parts, is decent, though to me, the noodles seemed like instant ramen noodles. We didn’t try the small plates, but the karaage won’t let you down.
Hou Yi Hot Pot (Chinatown)

Hot pot (I don’t know what you expected?), $35

An all-you-can-eat hot pot place, which distinguishes itself by also offering free drinks (like a boxed lychee juice) and ice cream as part of the package. Other than that, it’s a fairly standard hot pot place.

Maybe worth considering:

Vic’s (Greenwich Village) vicsnewyork.com

An Italian place, one of those places where everything’s dim and just a little noisy. We had a set menu for a group, so I can’t reflect on the food too much, but it all seemed solid. (Some people ordered fish/steak separately—those actually looked good.)
Jane (Greenwich Village)

A casual (I think?) American restaurant serving the usual avocado toast, pasta, salad, eggs benedict, etc.

Bonus: 2020 Film Ranking

Princess Mononoke
Ride Your Wave
Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll

In the queue: Children of the Sea (Kaijuu no Kodomo), potentially Tokyo Godfathers

A Trip to Seattle

2020-01-29T00:00:00-05:00

I guess I’m going to go all-in on this being a travel/dining blog.

It’s really refreshing walking around without a cellular connection—I was out of data for the month, so I spent most of my time in Seattle sans Internet, and just walked around and took in the sights instead. Not being able to look up restaurants and directions on the fly was a little inconvenient; I searched for places to eat and things to do beforehand, which helped. Also, I didn’t take public transit, instead just walking everywhere.

Living Computer Museum

I made a beeline for the Living Computer Museum because ~~I'm totally into retrocomputing and the maker movement~~ I’m an unimaginative computer person.

Some highlights:

They had an original Microsoft Surface on display, the research concept that was a table-sized touchscreen computer, with multitouch gestures like pinch-to-zoom. Using it now doesn’t seem in any way impressive, and the UI was definitely buggy and finicky, but at the time, it must have seemed like the future.

Apparently I couldn't open Photos. Not the Surface.

They had some 90’s era beige Windows PCs with MAXIS games pre-loaded, which was a throwback to my childhood. Sometimes I do miss SimFarm and SimAnt…

I wonder if they try to un-yellow the plastic?

The Xerox Alto: I can’t imagine what this must have felt like 50 years ago. A three-button mouse, the GUI, object-oriented programming…is there anything today like this hiding in a research lab?
It turns out I’m terrible at UNIX, since I couldn’t even figure out how to write a C program on the PDP-11 they had to try out. After trying to figure out ed, I no longer feel like a masochist for using Emacs. (After I walked out, I realized I should’ve tried shell redirection…but was that even implemented?) On the other hand, it was impressive how many things still felt the same; they built a foundation that still holds up today.

Ah, looks like compiler messages were just as good back then…

Uwajimaya Seattle

I really like walking around grocery stores for some reason. One reason is that though New York definitely has everything you could want, it’s spread out everywhere; there just isn’t enough space for a mega-mart as there is in Phoenix or Seattle. And that means there’s far too many people in far too small a space, and I feel awkward meandering about to smell the ~~roses~~ stinky tofu while there’s so many people just trying to get their shopping done. So it’s nice being home, or in Seattle, where there’s actually space for things and it’s ok to just wander around a grocery store for an hour to admire all the random things they have. A freezer full of natto, shelves full of donabe, a box full of yuzu, snail rice noodles, yogurt soju…

Restaurants/Food

Capitol Cider

A complaint about NYC: it’s all wine here. I don’t drink much, but I do like cider, and there just isn’t anything…whereas Portland had a couple dedicated cider bars, and Seattle had this bar, with a long list of ciders on tap.
Din Tai Fung

A complaint I don’t have about NYC: soup dumplings. I got lukewarm, tiny soup dumplings with kind of gummy wrappers :( at Din Tai Fung in Seattle, and they were more expensive than the ones in Chinatown here!
Hong Kong Bistro

No further comment needed.

Kizuki Ramen & Izakaya
Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream

I feel really conflicted about “sweet and spicy” flavors, like the laoganma chocolate and curry banana flavors at Morganstern’s, or the spicy chocolate here. They’re generally really subtle—I’d almost rather dial the spiciness up, but maybe that’s actually too weird?
Amandine Bakeshop

Bookstores & Parks

Elliot Bay Book Company

I spent a lot of time debating whether I wanted a book, and if so, whether I wanted a cookbook or a fiction book. I ended up with R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War, which was a great historical/fantasy story focusing on Chinese mythology and history (though the historical parallels got a little heavy-handed). I feel these kinds of stories are rather underrepresented in English, so it’s always a joy to find stories like this. (Also see: The Paper Menagerie, Ninefox Gambit.)
Kinokuniya Seattle

I only made it out of here without manga because I had already purchased The Night is Short, Walk On Girl at Kinokuniya Portland.
Volunteer Park Conservatory

A large park with an old water tower that you can climb, offering decent views of the city.
72nd Annual Chrysanthemum Show

Official blog post

Cal Anderson Park
Olympic Sculpture Park

What I’ve Done in NYC, Part 4 (2019)

2020-01-23T00:00:00-05:00

Also see: part 1, part 2, and part 3.

Disclaimer: it’s been so long since the last one that I don’t remember half the things anymore.

Updated 2020-01-26: turns out Greenwich doesn’t have as posh a spelling as I thought. Added Haidilao which didn’t deserve to be forgotten.

Bookstores

Housing Works Bookstore and Cafe (SoHo)

A used bookstore and cafe. Not a big selection, but decent enough—you could spend a few hours here. I ended up getting Weike Wang’s Chemistry, which was an amazing read about dating/romance/Asian parent expectations.

Food and Restaurants

These locations are in no particular order, though I roughly sort places I liked more first.

Takeout/Street Food/Fast Casual

Worth visiting:

Suki (East Village)

A tiny, counter-service-only katsu curry place that gives generous portions of katsu, curry, and rice. The curry is rich, but heavy or thick like at Go! Go! Curry. You also get a really nice kale salad, which was honestly the only time I’ve ever enjoyed kale and felt like it belonged in a dish.
The Dessert Kitchen (Flushing)

A cozy dessert shop in Flushing, offering board games. Honestly, the desserts are just decent, but the board games make everything worth it. (Featuring: Cards Against Humanity and Jenga.)
Fei Long Market (Sunset Park)

麻辣香锅 Mala xiangguo or dry pot is a dish where you pick out meat and vegetables, then they take it, season it, stir-fry it in a wok for a bit, then hand it to you with rice. If you’ve heard the hype around Mala Project in NYC, that’s what they serve. But at Fei Long, it’s just ~$10/pound—you’re not paying $5 for a handful of cabbage!
Cha-An Teahouse (East Village)

They offer dessert as well as baking classes! Grab an elaborate parfait and a kettle of fancy tea.

Worth dropping by if in the area:

Taste of Guilin (Sunset Park)

A cash-only counter-service shop with some specialties from the city of Guilin, including Guilin rice noodles.
Meet Fresh (East Village)

A Taiwanese dessert shop with an extensive menu. Grab the chewy QQ mochi!
C Fruit Life (Flushing)

Yet another Chinese dessert shop—you know the drill.
Bento place in the New World Mall food court

Don’t know the name, but for ~$8, you can get lu rou fan (滷肉饭)—braised pork rice bowl—with pork and a marinated egg.

Maybe worth considering:

Yifang (Chinatown)

A Taiwanese tea chain specializing in fruit teas. Nothing particularly special—either when we visited in Japan or America.
Mudflow Bubble Tea (Sunset Park)

A bubble tea shop with really fancy pictures, but the tea is just alright.
Alidoro (SoHo)

A lunchtime sandwich spot near the office.

Avoid:

Culture (Park Slope)

A frozen yogurt shop, with a very limited selection of flavors and a vague “suburban mom health” vibe. The white peach flavor tasted exactly like vanilla, and the employee wasn’t even sure which was which.

Closed:

Gran Gelato (Greenwich Village)

A small gelato shop with lots of flavors, generous portions, and a friendly owner. Sadly closed ☹️
Bad Seed (Prospect Heights)

A cidery with several interesting flavors, including a particularly sour one. Sadly they closed their NYC taproom.

Actual Restaurants

Worth visiting:

Haidilao (Flushing)

An imported Chinese hot pot chain, with lines out the door before even opening. To be honest, the hot pot itself isn’t that different (and in general I feel like the food is mostly the same between different hot pot places); where Haidilao distinguishes itself is service, with a waiting room equipped with drinks, snacks, a Switch, a playground for kinds, and a hand massage station, and gimmicks like having the waiter do some dance to stretch your noodles out before your eyes. (Protip: someone else is going to get baited into ordering that, so just watch the tables around you.)
Soba Noodle Azuma (Midtown)

An imported Japanese soba shop, with an extensive menu. Grab the fried soft-shell crab. For soba, you have lots of choices: cold or hot, dipping or noodle soup, etc. All the noodle portion sizes are the same price, for 100g, 200g, or 300g. 200g is quite a large meal; 100g is one bundle of grocery store soba.
FunNY BBQ (Chinatown)

A hot pot, skewer, and malatang restaurant, offering all-you-can-eat skewers. For lunch, they offer a skewer/malatang combo that is an unreasonably large portion of food—definitely a good value.
Friendship BBQ (Chinatown)

The Manhattan outpost of a Flushing BBQ skewer place. It’s higher-end than FunNY, and lacks an all-you-can-eat option, but tastes better overall—better seasoned.
Katsu-Hama (Midtown)

かつ, ~$20

All the katsu! Get nice crisp deep-fried breaded pork cutlets with lots of side dishes (miso soup, salad), or get it with egg on rice (katsudon), or get it with curry, or get it in ramen…
Jing Fong (Chinatown)

A very traditional Cantonese dim sum spot (with all the carts) in an enormous second floor space in Chinatown. Grab the durian cakes (榴莲酥)—a deep-fried shell with durian custard inside.
Asian Jewels (Flushing)

A traditional dim sum shop (carts and all). Wide variety of dishes (though no durian cakes).

Worth dropping by if in the area:

Wasan (Park Slope)

A Japanese restaurant in Park Slope, which I think occupies the space between your usual American “sushi and hibachi” spot and a fancy Japanese import restaurant. It’s not quite as high-end—you don’t get fancy wooden furniture and an imported chef—but the food is good and you aren’t dealing with a long wait and extreme prices.
Taiwan Pork Chop House (Chinatown)

A cash-only restaurant featuring various proteins (like, pork chops) with pickled mustard greens over rice. While it sounds simple, the oil/juices from the meat (pork, duck, etc.) soak into the rice for that distinctly unhealthy and filling taste, and the tang of the mustard greens make sure it doesn’t feel too heavy.
Golden Rich (Sunset Park)

A small Taiwanese restaurant on the northern edge of Sunset Park (aka not the Chinatown part, surprisingly). Grab the deep-fried stinky tofu and the three-cup chicken (三杯鸡).
Old Tbilisi Garden (Greenwich Village) oldtbilisigarden.com

A Georgian restaurant. Order the cheese breads (khachapuri)—you won’t regret it.
Wong Wong Noodle Shop (Sunset Park)

An AMAZING beef noodle shop. You get a large bowl of noodles with a tea egg, beef, tripe, and bok choy for less than $10. Definitely worth it over Meet Noodles, if you’re in Sunset Park ever.
Meet Noodles (Sunset Park)

A Chongqing hand-pulled noodle shop, with a location in East Village as well. There’s lots of choices of broths, meats, and vegetables; broth is nice and fatty—maybe a bit oily—and the noodles are chewy. Not a place to seek out (there are other Chongqing noodle shops), but a worthy contender for a meal when you’re in the area.
Shinka Ramen (Chinatown)

Ramen, $15-20

A hotel restaurant ramen joint: decent, but definitely not the best ramen in the city. Their house special involves a giant bone where you scrape the bone marrow off.
Turntable Jazz & Chicken

Service is rather slow, however, and quality is uneven (depending on when you go).
Western Yunnan Crossing Bridge Noodle (Sunset Park)

A noodle restaurant with a gimmick/story attached about a devoted wife trying to bring noodles to her husband far away. To keep the noodles fresh and not soggy, she separated the broth, noodles, and other ingredients, packing them individually. So it goes here, where they bring you a tray with all the ingredients, then bring a pot of broth and dump everything in in front of you.
Lobster Place (Chelsea)

A seafood market and sushi counter. Nothing particularly special either way—not too expensive, not particularly amazing. Of course, it’s in Chelsea Market, so it’s rather crowded and noisy.

Maybe worth considering:

PhoBar (Chinatown)

A more upscale pho spot. Honestly, the pho is about on par with your typical counter-serve joint, but the space is a little nicer. Cash only!
China Blue (Chinatown)

A Shanghainese/Chinese restaurant. Get the beef noodles for lunch.
Peking Duck House (Chinatown)

A restaurant specializing in Peking duck. They bring the duck to the table and slice it in front of you, then give you the crepes for wrapping. While the duck itself is good, the crepes are a little thick and chewy, and the rest of their dishes are nothing special.
Wok Wok (Chinatown)

Yet another “Malaysian” restaurant in Chinatown, though this one seemed a little better than the ones below. Get the fried rice, which comes with baby anchovies fried in some spicy sauce.
Java (Park Slope) yelp.com

An Indonesian restaurant. Not being familiar with the cuisine, I couldn’t really tell you if it was authentic or not, but it was decent food at decent prices. (Though, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was really an American-Chinese restaurant in disguise.)
East Harbor Seafood Palace (Sunset Park)

A very traditional (apparently) Cantonese restaurant that normally specializes in dim sum, but we went for dinner (oops). The place is really meant for large groups/families; portions are large and two people can’t do very well if you want a variety of dishes.
Tataki (SoHo)

A Japanese place, basically like Wasan above: it’s a step up from the typical Japanese-American place, but isn’t quite as refined as one of the Japanese imports or smaller places.

Closed:

Bombay Bread Bar (SoHo)

An Indian restaurant, with notably good naan (as expected, given the name). Sadly, it closed soon after we visited.
Oriental Garden (Chinatown)

A very traditional, ornate Cantonese restaurant.

Meh:

Cornerstone Cafe (Lower East Side)

A generic American brunch place.
Soho Thai (SoHo)

A Thai restaurant. Small portions, kinda pricey.
Boqueria (SoHo)

A tapas restaurant. Pricey, but good if you like that kind of thing.
Mimi Cheng’s Dumplings (East Village)

A dumpling shop in East Village. While the dumplings themselves are nice, service is slow, menu items are expensive, and portions are miniscule for dumplings.
Koku (Koreatown)

A ramen joint in Koreatown. Not very inspiring—especially not their cold noodles.
Udon at Japan Village (Industry City)

Overly salty and heavy, while somehow also not filling at all.
Thailicious (Chinatown)

It’s a Thai place.
West New Malaysia (Chinatown)
Langkawi

Both are “Malaysian” places (really they’re Chinese restaurants).
BentOn (FiDi)

A counter-service ramen/Japanese joint in FiDi. Decent if you have no other choice (especially given the area), but not worth going out of the way for.
Wayla (Chinatown)

When we visited, this restaurant had recently opened, and had a long wait. While the decor is snazzy, menu items were pricey, and they gave especially small portions—a noodle-wrapped meatball appetizer gave a handful of grape-sized meatballs, and the Thai iced tea was filled to the brim with ice.
Cafe Steinhof (Park Slope)

An Austrian restaurant. Cute decor?
Formosa Cafe (Sunset Park)

A Taiwanese dessert shop. I forget what I ordered, but soup with rice and a chunk of ice in it was not the best thing I’ve ever had.
Mee Thai (Park Slope)

A meh Thai place.

Not Restaurants

Morgan Museum (Midtown)

It’s sometimes free? An art museum in a library, not particularly interesting.
NYC Ferry

The schedule is very infrequent and you can’t use a MetroCard pass, but the ferry itself is comfortable enough, and you can go up on the roof to watch things.
Coney Island

It’s a shitty amusement park and a beach.
Green-Wood Cemetery (Sunset Park)

It turns out there’s a crematorium here with a koi pond that’s enjoyable to walk around for a bit.
Sang Kung (Chinatown)

A restaurant supply store. Hope you speak Chinese, but the staff were helpful even though I’m definitely not a restaurant.
Chinatown Fair Family Fun Center (Chinatown)

An arcade in Chinatown. Rather small and not up to date, but they have a few DDR (and DDR-style) games.
National Museum of the American Indian
K-One Karaoke (Chinatown)

A karaoke place. Nothing particularly notable, though you can order from the restaurant downstairs.
Indoor Extreme Sports Paintball & Laser Tag (Long Island City)

Laser tag!! The arena is quite big and has lots of hiding spots and such, though it does seem to favor one side. (Also, you can crawl under a desk and get a lot of hits that way.) They also offer, though we didn’t try, a Hunger Games style match where you get bows and foam arrows.
Wegmans (Brooklyn Navy Yard)

While they’re much beloved elsewhere, Wegmans’ NYC location was kind of a disappointment: difficult to get to, with no nearby public transit, not an especially breathtaking selection, and high prices.
AnimeNYC 2019

What I’ve Done in NYC, Part 3 (2019)

2019-06-10T00:00:00-04:00

Also see: part 1, part 2.

Bookstores

Greenlight Bookstore (Fort Greene) greenlightbookstore.com

A medium-sized bookstore in the neighborhood adjacent to mine. A decent selection, especially for a neighborhood shop. Compared to Community Bookstore, the space is organized better—lots of

light, space to move around—but the selection is comparable.
Unnameable Books (Prospect Heights) unnameablebooks.blogspot.com

A small used bookstore. A broad, but not too deep selection, with lots of subcategories and a mix of new books.

Food and Restaurants

These locations are in no particular order, though I roughly sort places I liked more first.

Takeout/Street Food/Fast Casual

Worth visiting:

MilkCow (Chinatown)

Soft-serve ice cream, $5

An outpost of a Korean soft-serve chain. Get the ube flavor, or add honeycomb on top (or both!)
Morganstern’s (NoHo) morgansternsnyc.com

Unusual ice cream, $5

An ice cream shop with a wide variety of…out-there flavors, such as laoganma chocolate and curry banana, as well as pie slices.

Worth dropping by if in the area:

Kopitiam (Lower East Side) kopitiamnyc.com

A Malaysian cafe offering a variety of small plates, dishes, and drinks. Try the curry puff!
Konditori (Park Slope) konditori.com

A Swedish-themed coffee shop. I can’t rate their coffee, but the cardamom bread is a nice treat that isn’t too sweet.
Blue Marble (Prospect Heights) bluemarbleicecream.com

Ice cream, $5

A local ice cream and sorbet shop, with standard flavors—nothing unusual or weird. Pints are offered as well, and allergens are clearly displayed.
Thanh Da (Sunset Park)

Banh mi, $6

A cash-only banh mi and pho shop. Crispy bread, and cheaper than other such places here.
Kotti Berliner Doner Kebab (Industry City) kottidoner.com

A German-style doner kebab counter in Industry City. While solid, their food was also expensive; what I really want is the old VertsKebap, which sadly rebranded to chase health food trends.

Maybe worth considering:

Sweetgreen (SoHo)

Salads, $10

Just your average chain fast-casual salad shop.

Actual Restaurants

Worth visiting:

Liuyishou Hot Pot (Flushing) liuyishouna.com

An American outpost of a Chinese hot pot chain. It may not be as good a value as some other places around town, but is still affordable, and has the best spicy broth you’ll find.
Shanghai Dumpling (Chinatown) yelp.com

Soup dumplings, $6 for 8

A cash-only restaurant known mostly for their soup dumplings (xiaolongbao). Although there’s an extensive menu, we’ve never really ordered much else despite having been here several times.

Used to be known as Shanghai Cafe Deluxe.
Topaz Noodle Bar (Hell’s Kitchen) topaznoodlebar.com

A Thai restaurant that does not just specialize in noodles, despite the name.
Ramen Danbo (Park Slope) ramendanbo.com

Bowl of ramen, $10

An outpost of a Japanese chain from Fukuoka, with rich tonkotsu broth and full customization over your meal, from the thickness and firmness of the noodles to the amount of spicy paste in the broth. Chashu here is thin, but melts in your mouth (vs Ippudo which has more of a chew).

Worth dropping by if in the area:

Ajisen (Chinatown) ajisenramennewyork.com

Ramen, $10

A solid ramen spot with somewhat unusual toppings (chicken teriyaki?).
Ramen-ya (Greenwich Village) ramenya.nyc

Ramen, $15

Another ramen spot with lots of less common styles, including dipping ramen and brothless ramen, as well as a wide variety of appetizers, such as several kinds of fried and steamed gyoza. Cash only!
Upstate (East Village) upstatenyc.com

A seafood restaurant with happy hour oyster deals.
Nippori (Hell’s Kitchen) nipporinewyork.com

A standard Japanese restaurant offering up donburi and ramen. They have some tables in booths, kind of like a traditional Japanese restaurant, but without requiring you to sit on the floor.
Han Dynasty (Upper West Side) handynasty.net

A trendy Sichuan-style Chinese restaurant known for spicy food (though, I didn’t feel that the food was noticeably spicier than other restaurants).
Shigure (TriBeCa) shigurenyc.com

A Japanese sake bar and restaurant, featuring some washoku (Western-style) dishes like hamburg steak as well as standard dishes (curry, ramen, donburi, etc).
Aux Epices (Chinatown) auxepices.com

A French-Malaysian restaurant. Cash only! A rather small space, with a “garden” and some benches out front to sit in.

Maybe worth considering:

Bricolage (Park Slope) bricolage.nyc

A Vietnamese fusion restaurant/bar (example: roast duck banh mi). Reasonable food, with a pleasant garden dining area in the back, but not quite worth the prices.
The Milton (Upper East Side) themiltonnyc.com

A British (or American? but hey, fish and chips) restaurant.
The Smith (NoMad) thesmithrestaurant.com

Your standard hip brunch spot with a forgettably hip interior and dishes consisting of eggs or pancakes along with the latest trendy ingredients.
Aroy Dee (FiDi) aroydeethaikitchennewyork.mycafepage.site

A Thai restaurant with rather large portions (and good value, for the neighborhood), but a small space.
Sushi Damo (Hell’s Kitchen) sushidamo58.com

A sushi restaurant with some donburi. I didn’t feel it was anything special, and it was pricey; their unagi don (eel on rice) was too sweet, and tasted like it was store-bought.
Felix (SoHo) felixnyc.com

A Brazilian restaurant with an open-air space. Pretty, but nothing notable.
Flaming Kitchen (Chinatown) flamingkitchenny.com

A standard Chinese-American restaurant with a nice space, but nothing notable food-wise. Take less adventurous friends here; it feels more upscale than your standard Chinese place.
Cafe China (Midtown) cafechinanyc.com

While Michelin starred, there’s nothing special here: food is solid, but not exceptional. Laziji was dry and overcooked, with leathery (not crispy) chicken, and dishes were often too oily. Shuizhuyu was mostly soup, whereas even in a second-rate Chinese restaurant in Phoenix it would normally be a heaping bowl of highly spiced fish.
Chuko (Prospect Heights) chukobk.com

Ramen, $18

Reasonable ramen, but an extremely poor value: the base bowl includes no toppings (except a few vegetables), with a single piece of pork costing $1.50. Just head over to Ramen Danbo instead.
Hao Noodle (Greenwich Village) haonoodle.com

An upscale Chinese restaurant (though I couldn’t place it to any particular region). Food is actually quite nice: try the eight-spice fried tofu, mildly spiced with a thin, crisp outer shell and soft tofu inside. Unfortunately, portions are rather tiny for what you get.

Closed:

Kiin Thai (Greenwich Village)

A Thai restaurant with large portions—the roast duck on rice was practically half a duck and impressively crisp.

Sadly closed, as of June 2019.

Avoid:

Miramar (FiDi)

A standard Italian seafood restaurant, with high prices, outsized portions, rubbery calamari, and waterfront views.

Bonus: 2019 Film Ranking (So Far)

Into the Spider-Verse

Things I couldn’t handle: oh man, Spider-Man takes the Q train.
Kimi no Suizou wo Tabetai (I Want to Eat Your Pancreas)

The English dub is actually reasonable; I didn’t feel like I missed anything. Awkwardly enough, Pancreas has better fireworks than Fireworks (and less depressing ones than Koe no Katachi).
A Dog’s Journey

It’s really weird to see an Asian male as the primary love interest in a film.

(Koe no Katachi/A Silent Voice was a rewatch, so it doesn’t count—but it would be at the top of the list.)

Museums, Classes, Concerts, and Other Things

Dumpling Class at King’s Co. Imperial kingscoimperial.com

Here, we learned to make dumpling filling, including for soup dumplings, roll out dumpling wrappers, and fold dumplings three ways (soup dumplings, with the twist at the top; boiled dumplings, with a bit of pleating; and pot stickers, simply pinched together). The chef isn’t Asian, but he and his staff know their stuff well, and this didn’t feel like one of those “fusion” or “modern” takes on ethnic cuisine. We made a decent amount of food, and the chef made lots of dishes for us afterwards (sesame noodles, spicy cucumber, etc) to go with the dumplings.
Japanese Baking Class at Cha-An Teahouse chaanteahouse.com

Cha-An is a small Japanese cafe in the East Village with a third floor where they hold small group classes. This was actually a fairly serious class: the staff handled the actual baking, but let us do all the shaping, and we made quite a bit of food (lots of anpan, melon pan, and shokupan). They provided pre-made dough, but circled back at the end to make milk bread dough for us. There were only eight of us, and the instructors walked around and helped us out individually.
Japanese Street Food class at Cook Space cookspacebrooklyn.com

In contrast to the other two classes, this was a giant letdown. Mostly that was on me, for not really looking at the target audience of the space; most of Cook Space’s classes are date night-oriented events, times to chill and try cooking something exotic (“exotic”) in a hip space. This was one such class, with BYOB and not too much hands-on work. While the food seemed authentic (however you feel about “authenticity”) and the chef and staff cared about the class, a lot of the cooking and work was simply taken away from you. Now, Cha-An’s class also pre-prepared everything, simply due to time constraints, but here, everything was completely prepared and nothing was explained afterwards. We chopped some vegetables and assembled some foods, nothing more—so even though they had lots of staff on hand to help us, there was nothing worth helping us with.
Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy ffdistantworlds.com

Ever since I started listening to Nobuo Uematsu at 13, I’ve wanted to see a Final Fantasy concert, and this was finally my chance. Yoko Shimomura attended; she didn’t conduct or play, but they did put a couple tracks from FFXV on the setlist. Arnie Roth was definitely the highlight as the conductor and occasional violin soloist, stopping several times in between pieces to talk about the history of the series and its concerts.
Harry Potter exhibit at the New York Historical Society nyhistory.org

This was frankly a disappointment, even though I don’t consider myself a particular fan of the series. The exhibition focused mostly on real-world artifacts (botanical books, astronomical tools, etc.) related to Rowling’s series, which were somewhat interesting, but weren’t particularly tied to the books except incidentally. They had a few drafts of the novels, which were actually fun to read as a “what-if”, as well as merchandise, including a book featuring everything on display. They did not allow photos, so the book would have been a requirement if you liked the exhibits.
The Brooklyn Museum brooklynmuseum.org

Although I’ve lived here nearly a year, I didn’t visit here until May 2019. The Brooklyn Museum was actually quite a bit larger than I expected, with a mix of art from all regions and time periods, from paintings of colonial America to modern exhibitions on sexuality.
J+B Design (Park Slope) jplusbdesign.com

A small Japanese cafe, grocery, and concept shop, featuring household goods and clothes from Japanese designers. Interesting to walk around, but rather pricey. The grocery selection is laughable, with just a fridge and a freezer, but the grocery isn’t really the focus here.

What I’ve Done in NYC, Part 2 (2018)

2019-02-03T00:00:00-05:00

Also see: part 1.

Bookstores

Community Bookstore (Park Slope) communitybookstore.net

A cozy bookstore in my neighborhood. The selection isn’t as extensive as the Strand, as well categorized as McNally Jackson, or as anime as Kinokuniya, but it’s still quite reasonable.

Food and Restaurants

Apparently, I spend all my time in Flushing and Chinatown.

These locations are in no particular order, though I roughly sort places I liked more first.

Takeout/Street Food/Fast Casual

Worth dropping by if in the area:

Banhmigos (Park Slope) banhmigosbrooklyn.com

A decent banh mi spot in my neighborhood, though admittedly I’m not familiar with what makes them good or not.
Thanh Da (Sunset Park)

$5.50, banh mi

Another banh mi spot, which seems to be held in high regard; also offers pho for dine-in, and coffee & Asian pastries for a quick snack.
Yiwanmen (Chinatown) yiwanmen-cq.com

~$8/bowl

A Chinese noodle shop that closes relatively early, but is definitely recommended for rich, warm broth. Make sure to bring cash, and don’t expect too much meat in your bowl.
Dumplings & Things (Park Slope) dumplingsandthings.com

A cash-only dumpling shop, offering very good pot stickers with doughier wrappers.
Tasty Hand Pulled Noodles (Chinatown) tastyhandpullednoodles.com

Another Chinese noodle shop! The space is not as nice is Yiwanmen’s, but you get lots more options, including various choices of noodles.
Wang’s (Park Slope) wangsbk.com

Fried chicken with Asian-inspired condiments. Solid and only a block away from home.
Golden Steamer (Chinatown)

$5 for a pack of 4 包子

A small shop selling packages of baozi with various fillings, which you can then take home and steam. Their baozi are enormous; the filling-to-wrapper ratio is maybe a little off (too much dough, in my opinion), but one (maybe two) by itself makes a good meal.
Japan Village (Industry City) japanvillage.com

Both a large Japanese grocery and food hall; going off memory, this place is bigger than Sunrise Mart’s East Village location (and much bigger than their SoHo location, which is more a takeout place with an attached grocery shelf). Lots of food vendors here, including a bakery, takoyaki/okonomiyaki, and other choices.
Maya Taqueria (Park Slope) mayataqueria.com

~$10/item

A Tex-Mex takeout spot with the types of food you’d expect (burritos, quesadillas, bowls), great horchata, and a build-your-own-salsa station. Solid, comfortable, and always open when I get home from work after 8 PM (which is fortunately rare).
Souk and Sandwich (SoHo) soukandsandwich.com

A tiny takeout place serving kebabs, pita wraps, etc.
Ba’al Cafe & Falafel (SoHo) baalfalafel.com

Another tiny Mediterranean takeout place.
“Peking Duck Sandwich Stall” (Flushing)

Not sure of the actual name, but this place offers Peking duck in a steamed bun for $1.25. Make sure you know a little Chinese, and if you see something else you want, buy it right away before someone else does (RIP youtiao).

Maybe worth considering:

Nacho Macho Taco (Park Slope) nachomachotaco.net

Fairly similar to Maya Taqueria, but not as good.
Ho Foods (East Village) hofoodsnyc.com

This got some hype recently for bringing Taiwanese breakfast to NYC. While decent food (example: fan tuan with you tiao, zhacai, and rousong wrapped in rice), it’s pricey ($8 with tax) and not at all filling.

Avoid:

The Mill (Soho) themilltogo.com

~$8/item

One of the quick takeout lunch spots near the office, that charged me $8 for what isn’t even half as good as a Subway sandwich. I don’t understand why my coworkers would go here, except it’s the closest spot (except for Souk and Sandwich) and is fairly quick.
Korilla (Hudson Yards) korillabbq.com

$15/item

100% not worth it: for $15, you get a bowl of pretty boring food, essentially Chipotle with some kimchi. Admittedly, we went here because we were at a convention nearby, so we definitely paid for convenience.

Drinks & Dessert

Worth visiting:

Yeh’s Bakery (Flushing)

$1.75/mooncake

Quite a walk from the station, but worth it around Mid-Autumn Festival for Taiwanese-style mooncakes. Unlike their mainland counterparts, which are large and dense, these mooncakes are small (< 2 inches in diameter) with a flaky crust.
Takahachi Bakery (TriBeCa) takahachibakery.com

$2-3/item

A high-end Japanese bakery with both classic treats (roll cakes, anpan, melon pan) and new inventions (a “flower” pastry with matcha filling). Any of the desserts/treats here is worth a shot—can’t speak to the sandwiches, though.
Grace Street Coffee and Desserts (Koreatown) bygracestreet.com

Around $4 for a drink, $10 for food

As the name implies, a cafe + dessert shop with fancy lattes, shaved ice, Korean doughnuts, and lots more, including this really cute latte:
Iris Bakery (Flushing) irisbakery.com

$1-3/item

A standard Chinese bakery with a decent selection, including great fresh pineapple cakes (fènglísū 凤梨酥, not cakes in the Western sense¹). Fresh ones are surprisingly hard to find! Even good packaged ones are rare—a friend gave me a ChiaTe one, which was incredible. Good ones have soft, buttery pastry (packaged ones are crumbly and plain) and a soft filling, not too sweet (packaged ones are too sweet and too hard, making them feel like they’ll take off your teeth).

Worth dropping by if in the area:

SkyIce (Park Slope) skyice.net

Cup of ice cream, $5

Both a Thai restaurant and an ice cream stand; their ice cream is quite good, with slightly “exotic” flavors available like durian.
Kulu Desserts (Flushing) kuludesserts.com

An Asian dessert shop featuring treats like taro balls and waffles with “homemade nuts”. So, er, maybe not the best place to go for someone with allergies. The desserts themselves are quite good, and not too sweet, if you’re not a fan of overly sugary treats.
Mango Mango (Flushing, Chinatown) mangomangodessert.com

An Asian dessert shop whose offerings mostly revolve around mango: mango ice cream, mango drinks, fresh mango, … There’s actually quite a bit of variety though, so as long as you’re OK with mango, you can have anything from mochi to a crepe cake.
Paris Baguette (Koreatown) parisbaguette.com

A Korean bakery chain (yes, really, ignore the name) with carefully crafted cakes, sponge cakes, cheesecakes, and more. Worth stopping by to stare and wonder how exactly they shaped and decorated their cakes.
Sweet Moment (Chinatown) sweetmoment.nyc

A dessert shop specializing in towers of shaved ice.
Van Leeuwen Ice Cream (FiDi) vanleeuwenicecream.com

Another ice cream shop, with a selection of non-dairy ice cream.

Maybe worth considering:

Almondine Bakery (Brooklyn Heights) almondinebakery.com

A patisserie that was on my radar due to their supposedly excellent croissants. After trying a couple places (see: next place) because of that recommendation, though, I’ve decided I’d rather have something less excellent and more warm and buttery. (Essentially, I’m being nostalgic for the Sunday brunch rolls served in the dining hall my freshman year.)
Ceci-Cela Patisserie (Lower East Side) www.cecicelanyc.com

Again, supposedly excellent croissants, but I just want warm flaky butter pastry. I do think theirs are better than Almondine’s—maybe it was the time of day, but Almondine’s croissant was almost crunchy, while Ceci-Cela’s was at least soft (but still flaky).

Actual Restaurants

Worth visiting:

Hirohisa (Soho) hirohisa-nyc.com

A high-end Japanese restaurant serving sushi and rice bowls with raw fish on top. Get the ikura don, which consists of salmon roe over rice. Or honestly, get anything here. Apparently the omakase is amazing (as to be expected), but it’s a bit pricey…
You Garden (Flushing)

A cash-only Shanghai restaurant, serving everything from soup dumplings (you get a free order!) to perfect, crisp, fresh youtiao (FINALLY). Don’t get the giant soup dumpling, unless you really want to drink a cup of grease and fat with a straw.

Worth dropping by if in the area:

Abiko Curry (Koreatown) abikocurryrestaurant.com

A cash-preferred curry shop with large portions and lots of toppings/sides, including a great (well, not great for your health) cream cheese croquette.
Spice World/Xiang Hot Pot (Flushing) xianghotpot.com

A hot pot restaurant in Flushing’s New World Mall that appeals to social media with some sort of edible teddy bear to place in your pot. Be warned; they charge for the sauce bar (though you could consider this just a table fee). You’ll want to eat here as soon as you walk past, however, as you smell all the spices coming from their restaurant.
Raku (SoHo) www.rakunyc.com

Udon, $12–$20

An udon shop with lots of options, such as the chicken-and-mochi bowl and the beef bowl I had. Warm, filling, and affordable, especially given the area.
Little Sheep (Flushing, Chinatown) littlesheephotpot.com

A Mongolian hot pot place, with different broth options and discouraging the use of the sauce bar. They also offer sides of skewers and roasted meat; the skewers are definitely worth trying.
Namaste (Park Slope) namasteparkslope.com

A solid Indian restaurant right under my apartment. (Unfortunately, I’m not familiar enough with Indian food to really say more.) Usually not too busy.
Nargi’s Bar and Grill (Park Slope) nargiscafe.com

An Uzbek restaurant, specializing in amazing meat skewers—moist, juicy, and perfectly spiced. Also try the manti (dumplings).
Nagomi (Soho) nagomijapanesenyc.com

A solid sushi spot in SoHo—well worth it if you’re after quality sushi, but not something extravagant.
Hog Pit (Midtown) hogpit.com

A Southern restaurant/bar. Get the fried chicken sandwich, which is fried chicken in a biscuit—messy and amazing.
Aurora (SoHo) aurorasoho.com

An upscale Italian place near the office. Honestly, I’m not super familiar with Italian food, and I don’t really remember what I ordered, but it was good.
Pera Soho (Soho) pera-soho.com

A Mediterranean restaurant, also near the office. Grab a bunch of small plates, especially the adana (lamb/chicken rolls).
Gunbae (TriBeCa) gunbaetribeca.com

A solid Korean BBQ restaurant. Honestly, to me, it’s hard for a KBBQ place to distinguish itself unless it’s exceptionally bad—otherwise, to me, it’s all just (marinated) meat.
Five Senses (Koreatown) fivesensesnyc.com

An eternally crowded, more casual Korean restaurant in Koreatown. Get the seafood pajeon, a scallion pancake with seafood embedded inside. (I could honestly eat one by itself for a meal.)
Cho Dang Gol (Koreatown) chodanggolnyc.com

Another Korean restaurant—solid, but I don’t remember anything that made it stand out in particular.
Miss Korea (Koreatown) misskoreabbq.com

Another Korean BBQ spot. This one distinguishes itself with its drinks: get a bottle (or two) of the lychee soju and the rice wine.
Dons Bogam (Koreatown) donsbogam.com

Yet another Korean BBQ spot. Nothing particularly standout here, in my opinion.
Piccola Cucina Osteria Siciliana (SoHo) piccolacucinagroup.com

A decent Italian place with good lunch deals: $10–15 for a quite sizable portion of pasta.
Chow House (Greenwich Village) chowhousenyc.com

A solid Chinese (Sichuan?) restaurant. Somewhat spicy, but not notably so.
Golden Unicorn (Chinatown) goldenunicornnyc.com

A well-known dim sum house. I didn’t find it anything special, but I was also there as part of an enormous group.

Maybe worth considering:

Carmine’s (Upper West Side) carminesnyc.com

An Italian restaurant. To be fair, I don’t particularly care for Italian, and I visited as part of a very large group—likely their food is better when they’re not trying to serve a group of 50.
Let’s Meat (Koreatown) letsmeatnyc.com

An all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ spot. The food itself was fine, but the restaurant just can’t handle the amount of traffic it gets—we had to wait nearly two hours (admittedly, on a Saturday night) for a table. While understandable, the staff were not so forthcoming on how long exactly the delay would be.
Bogota Latin Bistro (Park Slope) bogotabistro.com

Solid Columbian/pan-Latin(?) restaurant, but nothing particularly memorable to me here.
Altesi Downtown (SoHo) www.altesinyc.com

An Italian place. Nothing standout.

Avoid:

Tao (Chelsea)

An “Asian fusion” restaurant with creepy, mildly racist decor (giant statue of Buddha? Scrolls of geishas?) and forgettable, generic Asian-American food, mostly consisting of labeling Western meals in a cutesy, misleading Asian way. (No, appetizers are not the same as dim sum.) Especially given the price, there is nothing worthwhile in this restaurant.

Closed:

Brushstroke (TriBeCa)

A Japanese kaiseki restaurant that since permanently closed. Their tasting menu was quite impressive though; I still want their soft-shell crab tempura.

Miscellaneous

Worth visiting:

Aji Ichiban (Chinatown)

Candy! ~$12/pound

A tiny bulk candy shop selling various candies, dried fruit, and jerky by the pound. Find all your standard favorites (White Rabbit, pineapple cakes) and less common treats (vinegar dried ginger?).
Brooklyn Botanic Garden (Prospect Park)

A fairly large botanic garden nestled on the edge of Prospect Park, with an impressive rose garden and a Japanese garden (including a torii gate). Free admission on Fridays.

Worth dropping by if in the area:

Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket (Park Slope) grownyc.org
Down to Earth Farmer’s Market (Park Slope) downtoearthmarkets.com

Two farmer’s markets, with the Greenmarket being larger and Down to Earth having more varied vendors. If you’re after produce, milk, cheese, etc., Greenmarket is a better bet, but Down to Earth has more food vendors, such as a pajeon stall.
Metrograph Cinema (Lower East Side) metrograph.com

A “hipster” movie theater that tends to show indie, older, or international films (OK, they show anime sometimes, you got me.) In particular, they ran a Makoto Shinkai retrospective, which was amazing just for the chance to see Five Centimeters Per Second on the big screen.
Tarzian West (Park Slope) tarzianwest.com

A home & kitchen goods store—they probably have everything you need to stock a kitchen, assuming you spot it in the cramped space. Focuses more on higher-end equipment; go somewhere else for your disposable non-stick pans.
B&H Photo Video (Hell’s Kitchen) bhphotovideo.com

An enormous electronics store in Midtown, notably not open on Saturdays.
Battalion Studios (Gowanus) battalionstudios.com

A music studio rental space, with a solo room open for $12/hour—quite a good deal.
Image Anime (Midtown) imageanime.com

An anime merchandise store—they really only stock items for fairly popular series, though.
liquor stores in Flushing

Reason: cheap soju, at ~$3–5/small bottle.

Conventions, Concerts, & Movies

One of the benefits of living in a large metropolitan city is better access to less mainstream media, which in my case consists of a lot of anime. (Though not everything I want to see comes here—Distant Worlds, please come someday!) For instance:

Five Centimeters Per Second (Metrograph)
Night is Short, Walk On Girl (Metrograph)
Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms (Village East Cinema)
Tale of the Princess Kaguya (Metrograph)
Liz and the Blue Bird (Village East Cinema)
Mirai (Quad Cinema)
Haikara-san: Here Comes Miss Modern Part 2 (Village East Cinema)

Bonus: 2018 Film Ranking

Night is Short, Walk On Girl
Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms
The Ex-Files 3: Return of the Exes
Crazy Rich Asians
Haikara-san: Here Comes Miss Modern Part 1
Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Kase-san and Morning Glories
Mary and the Witch’s Flower
Liz and the Blue Bird
The Incredibles 2
Mirai
Ralph Wrecks the Internet
Seitokai Yakuindomo Movie
Satellite Girl and Milk Cow
Napping Princess
Haikara-san: Here Comes Miss Modern Part 2
Fireworks: Should We See Them From The Side or From The Bottom?

(Five Centimeters Per Second was a rewatch, so it’s not in this list.)

Other things from 2018:

AnimeNYC (Hudson Yards) animenyc.com

I only attended on Saturday, but it was a packed day. Just walking through all the various vendors took forever! The AnimeNewsNetwork CEO came to give a panel, and we also got to see a screening of Kase-san and Morning Glories. I also met one of the cartoonists I follow in person!
Studio Ghibli/Joe Hisaishi Concert (Carnegie Hall)

I GOT TO SEE JOE HISAISHI LIVE.

Read up on gao, bing, and su at The Cleaver Quarterly. ↩

Teaching Programming with Games

2018-11-24T00:00:00-05:00

For two years in college, I worked on games to teach programming, particularly on a project named Reduct. Other than the paper¹, there’s little information on it, and I’ve never managed to satisfactorily explain what we did. So first, here’s some context on the problem we faced.

Building educational games is like trying to dress up vegetables for a child: done poorly, they’re a thin facade of “fun” on top of the same old boring lessons; done properly, they’re entertaining in their own right, and the learning becomes invisible. Games that are first and foremost educational are the equivalent of cutting steamed vegetables into star shapes—an educational game needs to be a game still, and designing games is something even game studios can struggle with.

A cherry-picked example of an educational "game", Quick Flash II.

Designers struggle to strike this balance: DragonBox, arguably one of the most successful in this space, didn’t actually demonstrate that students learned anything in studies². Zachtronics games like SpaceChem or TIS-100, as well as programming-inspired games like Human Resource Machine, are essentially puzzle games; you wouldn’t use them to pick up programming itself, even if you might gain some programmatic thought. To be fair, all these games here do an incredible job of making math and programming concepts fun and accessible, whether they consciously try to be educational or not.

Even further down the spectrum, games like Minecraft or Factorio often manage to teach programming almost on accident; people feel compelled to build complicated redstone contraptions because they can. You get sucked in because these games offer programming as an opportunity to make your life in the game easier. To be fair, Factorio is designed entirely around automation. I feel this is really an unexplored avenue: how many developers of today got their start chaining triggers in StarEdit (below)? (I know that influenced me for sure.) A friend of mine got drawn into programming by setting up Perl scripts to automate MMOs. And of course, there’s the stereotype of the student who enters a computer science program because they wanted to make video games. But again, perhaps these games just happen to hit the right buttons for people who might already be amenable to programming; they simply reach far more people than formal CS education ever could, by nature of being games.

Editing triggers in StarCraft's StarEdit.

Of course, no discussion about teaching programming can fail to mention Scratch—especially as Reduct derives from and improves on its concepts. MIT’s creation is wildly successful; programs like Hour of Code and Code.org use it to introduce programming, and schools around the country teach it to students of all ages. The core idea here is simple: code can be represented as blocks, snapped together much like Legos. To make programming more visible, more meaningful, Scratch pairs these code blocks with a “stage”, allowing your code to move around sprites, play sounds, and respond to input—the worlds easiest game engine. Arm students with a palette of blocks and a library of graphics, and they can build some fairly impressive applications.

The Scratch interface.

What I worked on is neither so sneaky as Minecraft nor primarily a game; Reduct, at least as it stands, is first and foremost a teaching tool, and its design reflects that. Designing games is hard. Obviously, we still wanted Reduct to be fun in its own right, and so in some sense, it’s also “just a puzzle game”. Hopefully, we’ll see the project expanded and made widely available someday.

Next time, we’ll tour the design of the game itself.

Arawjo, Wang, Myers, Andersen, and Guimbretière, Teaching Programming with Gamified Semantics (2017). ↩
Long and Aleven, Gamification of Joint Student/System Control Over Problem Selection in a Linear Equation Tutor (2014). ↩

Release: Kirigami, a puzzle platformer

2017-12-10T21:30:00-05:00

Kirigami, our team’s game for Cornell CS 4154, Analytics-Driven Game Design, has launched! It’s available both on Kongregate and my personal website. Unfortunately, I can’t talk about our stats, but I’m very happy with how it all turned out. I developed this as part of a six-person team, along with Yuhan Wu, Crystal Liu, Michael Mauer¹, Joel Hoover, and Tomasz Chmielewski.

The game is a puzzle-platformer, with a focus on the puzzle and minimal platforming. You control a ninja that has the power to cut a line through space, then move objects on either side of the line in a direction parallel to the line. With these powers, you can cross gaps and scale walls to reach the goal. We’ve developed 20 levels (plus 5 challenge levels).

We developed Kirigami in TypeScript using Phaser Community Edition. Overall, we found the engine just fine, with some quirks in its physics. I’m hoping to write more about challenges we faced in the design of the game itself later.

Hope you enjoy the game!

The very best level designer there ever was. ↩

What I’ve Done in NYC

2017-07-02T00:00:00-04:00

I am not a travel writer or food blogger, but on the other hand, I’d like to remember all the places I’ve gone this summer, because I’m already having trouble keeping track.

TL;DR: Visit The Strand, Kinokuniya, and the MET. Eat everything you can.

Updated: 2017/08/13

Bookstores

The Strand strandbooks.com

Giant bookstore of tall shelves with probably every book you could want, along with lots of nicely curated tables with various categories to help you find something new. Honestly, I had trouble finding the books I was interested in—likely I missed them around all the others, but I couldn’t find the first book of Dune (even though the later ones were there), or The Gunslinger (but the rest of The Dark Tower was there), or Color of Magic (yet I had no trouble finding all the Discworld spinoffs and side books). They have discounts placed on several books, including recent and popular ones.

I did later find Dune—instead of keeping it on the shelf with the author’s other books, it had been placed on a special sci-fi books table. The online search function is able to vaguely locate books in the store, and tell you whether it’s on a shelf or on a table, so if you’re wondering where something is, it’s worth it to search online.
McNally Jackson Books mcnallyjackson.com

Smaller selection, but has a little café, and a self-published book section. 20% off on certain books, including popular and/or recent ones like Murakami’s Men Without Women. I liked the categorization here; segmenting literature by region of origin seemed a little arbitrary at first, but it was nice just being able to see (for instance) all the translated literature from Chinese authors in one place (though, Cixin Liu was mixed in with the rest of the sci-fi/fantasy, etc).
Kinokuniya usa.kinokuniya.com

A Japanese bookstore chain, with a branch in NYC. Three floors, with the ground floor functioning pretty much as a typical bookstore, the upper floor holding all the anime and manga, as well as a little cafe, and the basement holding Japanese language books and magazines, along with stationery. They have lots of nice pens and pencils, such as Pilot fountain pens from the Kakuno to the Vanishing Point to expensive maki-e pens, Uni Kuru-Toga mechanical pencils (these rotate the lead when you lift the pencil, keeping the point sharp), Pilot and Sailor fountain pen inks, and Kakyuo notebooks. It’s nice just to have a stationery store to wander around, and I eventually purchased some stationery and envelopes, along with some Pilot fountain pen ink.
Book Off bookoffusa.com

Like Kinokuniya, Book Off is a Japanese bookstore chain, but deals in used books and other things—everything from manga to classical CDs to used cameras and guitars. As such, the selection is rather eccentric, especially compared to Kinokuniya. They might not have the latest manga, but they did have the Radwimps Kimi no na wa album already; on the other hand, I couldn’t find a single Kalafina CD. (Also, is it BOOKOFF, Book Off, or Book•Off?)

Also, Barnes and Noble, but that’s not interesting.

Museums

MoMath—Museum of Math momath.org

$10 student admission

Tessellating shapes at the MoMath.

This is really a museum oriented at young children, but it’s still fun to be able to play with the exhibits instead of just being able to look from afar. We spent the most time just putting together tessellations.

MoMA—Museum of Modern Art moma.org

$14 student admission

Honestly, I don’t really “get” abstract art, but they currently have an interesting exhibition on Frank Lloyd Wright, and of course it’s always nice seeing famous works from artists like Picasso, Pollock, and Monet. Van Gogh’s The Starry Night was absolutely overrun by patrons, while Monet’s massive Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond was relatively ignored—the latter impressed me far more.

Xi’an Famous Foods is literally across the street, should you get hungry.
MET—Metropolitan Museum of Art metmuseum.org

Pay-what-you-want, suggested $12 student admission

A porcelain rooster at the MET.

An absolutely enormous museum that really needs no comment. I haven’t explored all of it, but I managed to drain my phone battery just taking photos in Arms & Armor.

MoCA—Museum of Chinese in America mocanyc.org

$5 student admission

Tiny little museum in Chinatown dedicated to the experiences of Chinese immigrants and Chinese-Americans here. By tiny, I mean I spent less than an hour to go through all the exhibits (which I feel they tried to pad by adding lots of audio voice-overs), and I wish they had gone more into certain things, like yellowface in American theater. Interesting if you’re in the area and want a little quiet place to get out of the sun and crowds.
Cooper Hewitt Museum of Design cooperhewitt.org

$9 student admission

This museum was…alright. It had some neat stuff on display that I can’t remember, and really, the only thing that stands out was that Google somehow got the Pixel and the Home into a display case. I’m no Apple fan, but if you’re going to show a modern smartphone, why not the iPhone? Or even the Galaxy S8 or Note Edge—they had the Microsoft mouse that turns on when you bend it, bent screens should be just as interesting.
Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum intrepidmuseum.org

$31 student admission

I’m not sure how I feel about these sorts of military museums (though this one isn’t military-affiliated). On one hand, it’s cool to see all the different ships, planes, and submarines we’ve used through the years, and seeing a space shuttle in person is worth it, even if you can’t see the inside. On the other hand, it’s weird having things like a video of a plane bombing a jungle and just no commentary on it, as if that were normal…as much as they emphasize how tough it was for our American sailors, pilots, and other personnel abroad, there’s not much about what we did while abroad, exactly. At a quick glance, for instance, the Vietnam War exhibit shows headlines from when we actually started military actions, saying an American ship had been attacked—but there was nothing immediately apparent to make it clear that the actual circumstances were murky.

In any case, it’s worth seeing, though it is the priciest of the lot.

Food & Restaurants

As you can infer from your scrollbar, this has made up the majority of my explorations in NYC. It’s weird, and frankly overwhelming, to have such a density of food places nearby. Noticeably missing: New York pizza.

Takeout/Street Food/Fast Casual

Kong Kee kongkeefood.com

you tiao (油条—fried dough/cruellers), 5 sticks for $2(!)

I admit this was a nostalgia trip for me: in Fort Collins, as a kid, we’d drive down to Denver every so often to get groceries in the Asian plaza (I don’t think it quite qualified as a Chinatown). Nearby, there was a little shop that sold fresh fried 油条, which I remember as being very airy and crispy until it cooled down. In Phoenix, unfortunately, we had no such shop, and the you tiao the dim sum places sold, like the ones Mom made from a box mix, were dense and chewy. This place is in the middle: it looks like the fried, oily, crispy dough of my memories…but when I came, they had been sitting there for a bit, and weren’t quite as crispy. Also, my body can’t handle as much dough and oil anymore. Still worth it.
Vanessa’s Dumpling House vanessas.com

Dumplings and 葱油饼 (scallion pancakes), ~$4/item

Supposedly (according to Serious Eats) some of the best dumplings and scallion pancakes in the city. I can’t say anything about being the best, but these definitely were the thing for me when I was feeling a little homesick.
Sunrise Mart sunrisemart-ny.com

~$10/item

One of the three main grab-and-go spots near where I work (the other two being Essen and Gourmet Garage). This is my favorite, with good rice bowls of various types (oyakodon, etc.) for a good price. Also has groceries; I only went here for groceries once, but they had lots of fish fillets, types of noodles, soup stock (dashi granules), and such.
Essen essenfood.com

~$10/item

Another takeout place near the office, which is more like a cafeteria, with prepared sandwiches, salad bar, hot food bar, and made-to-order noodles and things.
Gourmet Garage gourmetgarage.com

~$10/item

The least favorite of the takeout places near my workplace. There’s nothing wrong with the food, it’s just that none of it appeals to me (lasanga, chicken over kale, that sort of thing). They do have sushi, which I haven’t tried, but 3” diameter rolls are kind of tempting.
Samurice (Canal Street Market) canalstreet.market

~$10/item

Eh. Not bad, nothing special.
Xe May Sandwich Shop xemaysandwich.com

Bánh mì sandwiches, ~$10

Not as good as City Sandwich, but still worth a visit. Cash-only.
Go! Go! Curry gogocurryamerica.com

Japanese curry, ~$10/plate

Large portions of food that is probably not in your long-term best interest. But hey, if you’re hungry and want a big serving of rice with breaded meats (and cabbage to make you feel better about it), this is the place to go.
Xi’an Famous Foods xianfoods.com

Chinese hand-pulled noodles, ~$10/dish

Long, chewy, spicy noodles in lots of oil. Really bad for you, but 100% worth it. They also have nice sweetened/flavored teas in the fridge.
Taïm taimfalafel.com

Falafel sandwiches and platters, ~$10/dish

Again, considered the best falafel sandwich in NYC by Serious Eats. It’s pretty affordable (not as cheap as a street cart, but those look quite sketchy), and quite satisfying.
Tasty Dumpling

Fried dumplings, $1.25/5

I mean, look at that price. Sure, they’re not top quality, but that price.
Calexico Cart SoHo calexico.net

Platters, burritos, and quesadillas, ~$10

Chipotle-like Tex-Mex food, though without the process of choosing everything that goes into your meal, in food cart form. Good food, affordable, bit of a line.
Chelsea Thai (Chelsea Market) chelseamarket.com

Rice and noodle dishes, ~$10

Takeout Thai food—great for the price.
Halal Guys thehalalguys.com

Falafel on rice, ~$10

Solid food, large quantities. They gave me BBQ sauce instead of their spicy “red” sauce (think I didn’t speak up loudly enough), which was okay.

Update: red sauce was had, can confirm it’s as good as everyone says.
OatMeals oatmealsny.com

Oatmeal (no way!), ~$10

I was kind of excited for this place, but the matcha oatmeal bowl I got didn’t sit right with me. There’s something about oatmeal that sounds good to me in theory, but in practice, it becomes a heavy sugary mush. Maybe I should look for a place dedicated to congee next. (I mean, there’s a cookie dough place, and a cream cheese place opening soon enough.)
Baohaus baohausnyc.com

Taiwanese steamed buns, ~$5 for 2

Too trendy and hip—the cashier could barely hear my order over the music being blasted, and orders came out slowly even though you could see them assembling it out of bins, as there was only one employee working on this. If you get takeout, like I did, the topping on the buns will probably all fall off by the time you get home, and the taro fries were overly salty and extremely dry. The buns themselves were good, and much cheaper than at (say) Momofuku Ssäm bar (not the same quality, of course), so this would be okay if you wanted a bunch of buns for cheap, but I personally just don’t want to step foot inside again.
Thompson’s Finest Deli
VERTS Mediterranean Grill eatverts.com

Mediterranean counter-serve, ~$10 for a bowl or wrap

I remember this place from Austin quite fondly, and I still like it here in NYC. It’s relatively cheap, it’s fast, and it’s good. The turkey/mushroom meatballs are not worth it, though; stick to actual meat or falafel.
City Sandwich citysandwichnyc.com

Portugese-inspired sandwiches, ~$10

Okay, this place gets sandwiches right, and now I’m not going to be satisfied again. This Portugese eatery boasts about their healthy options and bread rolls, but here’s what I really cared about—the bread is toasted, but 1) not so hard that it tears up the roof of your mouth eating it and 2) not so thick that you can’t even take a bite out of it. Oh, and they don’t pile on so many different random ingredients that the sandwich falls apart as you eat it. Imagine, a sandwhich that can actually be eaten without bib, knife, and fork.
Pi Bakerie pibakerie.com

Greek bakery, ~$5/item

Decent stop for lunch when you want something different than Essen or Sunrise. Individual items are quite small, so get a mix of things.
by CHLOE eatbychloe.com

Trendy salads, ~$15

Trendy salads. Yeah. (Also, trendy burgers.) Very very crowded around lunch.

Boba & Dessert

Sundaes and Cones sundaescones.com

Ice cream, ~$5/1 scoop

Lots of interesting flavors here. Sesame is good, and the wasabi was interesting (and not as terrible as I would have expected)—it’s unidentifiably sweet at first, with a slight afterburn. I still need to try the ginger. They will let you sample flavors before ordering, but I just commit to whatever random flavor seems unusual (otherwise, what’s the point?). Oddly enough, it always smells like cleaning supplies as you walk in—at least you know it’s sanitary?

Update 2017/08/11: the ginger ice cream is…okay. It doesn’t have much of a noticeable ginger flavor, and is a bit too sweet. Meanwhile, I feel like the lavender flavor just does not work in ice cream, though I enjoyed it in boba tea.
Tai Pan Bakery (Chinatown)

Asian baked goods, ~$1.50/item

I did not grow up with many of these foods, even the Asian ones that are so disproportionately represented on this list. Living in Colorado, we had to drive to Denver to find an Asian grocery store; a lot of the foods I remember from childhood were my mom’s best impressions of things like beef stew and Mexican (well, Tex-Mex) food, and simple stir-frys using readily available ingredients. Moving to Arizona, we did have some pan-Asian grocers reasonably close by, but finding certain things, like longyan, was still difficult.

And so, walking around in a Chinese bakery is still a strange experience to me. I don’t recognize anything they’re selling, and while I’d love to stop and peruse all the goods for sale, the crowds are always surging forward. I figured anything here is worth having, and so I tried a green tea honey bread, which turned out great—just sweet enough that I could taste the tea, but not too noticeably sweeter than even plain white bread. (Maybe that says more about American bread than the bakery’s.) I believe this was actually kasutera. Hopefully I’ll have the time to try out more.
Pan-Ya panyany.com

Japanese bakery, ~$2/item

Okay baked goods. That’s all.
Cafe Zaiya zaiyany.com

Japanese bakery, ~$2/item

Better than Pan-Ya. Also just around the corner.
Grom Gelato grom.it

~$5

Long line (though, we showed up right at their busy time during a hot day), but it moves quickly. The gelato itself was very good, and I didn’t mind the small portions.
The Boba Guys bobaguys.com

Boba tea, ~$5

This is supposedly a renowned place, at least on the West Coast, from what I understand. They offer lots of choices of interesting teas (e.g. chai) and different milks (almond), and I think this has the best boba so far (chewy, but not overly chewy; not all stuck together, so it goes through the straw easily).

Also: Chatime, Kung Fu Tea, Coco. Gong Cha is supposedly very good, and something I want to try.
Gong Cha gongchausa.com

Boba tea, ~$5

Probably my favorite boba tea place in NYC. Like The Boba Guys, the pearls are a little smaller than usual, not as sticky, and not so chewy: they won’t get stuck in your straw or tire your jaw out. They’re a little cheaper as well, at least for a basic drink.
Spot Dessert Bar spotdessertbar.com

Dessert tapas, ~$10/item

I’d say this is much more about presentation than substance. Not that the desserts were bad, but it was hard to figure out how to split each item, and things tended to fall apart as soon as you touched them.
Momofuku Milk Bar milkbarstore.com

Shakes, cookies, and pie; ~$8/shake

Good coffee shake, nothing special to me, though I didn’t try any of the more unusual flavors.

Dim Sum

Tim Ho Wan timhowanusa.com

~$3-5/item

The thing to get at Tim Ho Wan.

Get the “sticky rice in lotus leaf” here. It’s pricier than the other menu items, but it’s a meal all by itself, with a large mass of sticky, steaming rice, chicken, pork, sausage, and mushroom that’ll have you picking every last grain of rice off the leaf. And get the other menu items while you’re at it. Geting in involves a wait that is definitely worthwhile.

Actual Restaurants

Joe’s Shanghai

小笼包 (xiaolongbao/soup dumplings), $8

Soup dumplings are steamed dumplings with broth inside—tricky to eat, but absolutely worth it. You have to be careful to not puncture them while picking them up, and you can’t just pop them into your mouth whole (well, unless you like burning yourself). Instead, set it on your spoon, bite a small hole, and start sucking the broth out. At $6 or $8 for 8 dumplings (depending on whether you want pork or crab meat filling), this is a pretty cheap, satisfying meal.
Kanoyama kanoyama.com

Sushi; “sushi for 3” for ~$80

Now, this was only my second time having sushi (I wouldn’t really count RPCC sushi), and trying the eel sashimi was a revelation. It’s nice and fatty and exactly the kind of thing I want on top of rice.
Lucky Strike luckystrikeny.com

Burgers; ~$15

I had a very juicy burger (now I understand why people say that) served with an English muffin instead of a bun—I feel this held up better than your typical bun as I ate.
Momofuku Ssäm Bar ssambar.momofuku.com

Asian fusion, ~$30-40/entree

Amazing pork buns, though they cost $6 each (~2.5x the price at Baohaus), and perfect ribs.
Bubby’s bubbys.com

American food; ~$20/entree

Had a solid sandwich and salad combo for lunch. Would definitely go again given the time.

Update: I didn’t have the time.
Papatzul papatzul.com

Tacos and other Mexican food; ~$15/entree
Brazen Fox thebrazenfox.com

American food; ~$20/entree

Wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really my thing.
Hundred Acres hundredacresnyc.com

Mediterranean food; ~$20/entree

Nothing really special here—it was good, but doesn’t really stand out in my mind. I had a pita with chicken, which felt awkward, as I didn’t want to roll it up and start biting into it (it was a nicer restaurant, after all), but eating it with a knife and fork felt off.
David Burke Kitchen

American food, I didn’t have to pay, thankfully

It’s good? But it doesn’t stand out. This place has some weight or reputation, judging by the way everyone talks about it, but without that, I probably wouldn’t even have commented here at all. Then again, I might just not have the proper context to appreciate the food or whatever.
Ikinari ikinaristeakusa.com

Steak, pay-per-gram

Order however much steak you want, eat it while standing up. Oh, and they can appararently only cook it rare (which is fine), if you’re someone who can’t stomach of less-cooked meat. (They offer more doneness, but in practice, even after someone in our group sent theirs back, they just overcooked a part of the steak and left the rest rare or medium-rareish).
Cupping Room Cafe cuppingroomcafe.com

American food, $15

They get their sandwiches wrong.
Katz’s Delicatessen katzsdelicatessen.com

Sandwiches, ~$20

Chopped liver is great. Bit of a weird ordering system involving a ticket and tasting the meat or something first, which makes me kinda hesitant to return, because I’d rather just order something at a counter and go (I trust that your chopped liver tastes like…liver).
Caracas Arepa Bar caracasarepabar.com

Arepas, $10

A tiny place selling Venezuelan arepas, which are a type of corn flour cake. They’re stuffed with meat and vegetables, with their hot sauce on top.
The Dutch thedutchnyc.com

~~Dutch~~ American food, $30

This place is seriously unhealthy, but it’s amazing. Their fried chicken was crisp on the outside, juicy on the inside; the pieces were rather random (they use what they have, so it’s not like you always get wings and legs), but meaty. Also, the side of honey-slathered biscuits might as well have been dessert. (Actually, they’d be a great dessert. They’re not even too sweet.)
BCD Tofu House bcdtofu.com

Korean food, $30

I haven’t been to many Korean restaurants, but this makes me want to return. You get the full complement of side dishes (kimchi, tofu, etc), along with a whole fried fish (yellow croaker, I think)—you have to be a bit careful here, if you want to eat the entire thing, because at the base of its head is two hard bones that you do not want to bite down on. (And there’s the spine, of course.) But all of the rest is edible. Then you’re on to the entree, which is a bowl of tofu soup along with (for me) another whole fried fish (larger this time).
Pershing Square pershingsquare.com

American diner, $15

An apparently highly-regarded diner across from Grand Central Station, with great pancakes.
Osteria Laguna osterialagunanyc.com

Italian food, $25

An Italian place. Not much to say here; it’s good, but I don’t feel strongly about Italian cuisine.
Mapo Tofu
Mile End mileenddeli.com

Poutine. $20.

Poutine. In particular, “specialty” poutine, I guess you’d call it (e.g. General Tso-topped poutine). Also, some other things that you might expect from a delicatessen.

Just order regular poutine; General Tso on top of fries isn’t all that good, and definitely doesn’t sound as good as gravy and cheese curds on fries.
Westville Hudson westvillenyc.com

American food, $15

They get their sandwiches wrong. Also, the side salad was kinda mushy.
Taboonette taboonette.com

Mediterranean food, $15

For dinner, I had a portion of rice with a generous portion of brisket. It’s not particularly special, but it’s a solid choice.
Blue Ribbon Sushi blueribbonrestaurants.com

Sushi, $??

The food here was really good, but in the context of why I was there (a business lunch) I was a bit too nervous to notice.
Barn Joo barnjoo.com

Korean barbeque and restaurant, ~$20/entree

Unlike BCD Tofu House, Barn Joo doesn’t give the usual Korean side dishes, only kimchi; it’s a very upscale place, but wasn’t really what we were looking for.
Lupa luparestaurant.com

Italian restaurant, $20

Again, good, but I have nothing really to say.
Curry-Ya nycurry-ya.com

Japanese curry, $15

While also a counter-serve curry place, Curry-Ya is quite different from Go! Go! above. Instead of just draping a bunch of sauce over rice and topping it with fried protein, Curry-Ya has a pot of curry, along with a seprate plate of plain rice and anything else (I had a croquette). The curry is also more substantial—the “classic” curry I ordered had beef and potatoes in it, and felt kind of like a stew. Unfortunately, I only found this place at the very end of summer, but I think it’s a nice compromise between when you want something quick, yet don’t want just takeout.
Dumpling Man Albongidas dumplingman.com

Dumplings (!), $10

A dumpling house with more unusual fillings, including “mystery” vegetarian and meat dumplings that turned out quite well, and banana dumplings that were far sweeter than I expected. A good place when you want to change it up from Vanessa’s.
Brick Lane Curry House bricklanecurryhouse.com

Indian food, ~$20/entree

The biryani here was good, but not as spicy or as generous as the restaurant I remember from Lowell, MA. Not quite a disappointment, just a bit of a letdown.

Ramen

Ippudo ippudony.com
Totto tottoramen.com
Ramen Misoya misoyanyc.com
Ramen Setagaya (no link)
Ramen Takumi ramentakuminyc.com
Mei Jin Ramen meijinramen.net

Honestly, I can’t say one of these stood out particularly for their food, but the first three listed were better than the other two (or at the very least, I can’t remember eating at those places, despite what Google/my bank statement claims). Ippudo has lots of great appetizers. Ramen Misoya was interesting because everything was miso-based, with different types of miso (heavier or lighter, etc.). Totto sticks out because while the restaurant does not accept credit cards, there’s a “Totto Ramen” next door which does…?

Upon reflection, I liked Ramen Misoya the most. It’s not as busy as Ippudo, and it’s close to the dorm, unlike Totto, with lots of different choices.

Barbeque

Gyu-Kaku gyu-kaku.com

Standard, solid barbecue place where you grill meat yourself given plates of raw meat. No complaints here, though I am not really familiar with this type of place—this was the first time that I’ve been to such a restaurant.
99 Favor Taste favortaste.com

All-you-can-eat barbecue, ~$30/person

Unlike most BBQ places, 99 Favor Taste has the waiters cook the meat for you. Since they’re rather overworked, this means it can take quite a while for your all-you-can-eat meat to be cooked. On the other hand, they provided a complimentary bowl of quite nice ice cream for our party member who had a birthday. If you want maximum value and can wait for it, this might be a good place, but if you’d rather not spend several hours eating, I’d go for the hot pot.

All-you-can-eat hot pot, ~$20/person

Now this is definitely worth it. The fish balls filled with meat (or whatever) are particularly good.

Miscellaneous

Union Square Greenmarket (farmer’s market) grownyc.org

Not as expensive as you might think for a farmer’s market in the middle of Manhattan—there are deals to be found. For instance, while the peaches might not have been their absolute cheapest at $3 a pound, they were ripe, very large, and sweet, unlike the other peaches I bought from nearby groceries. Also, my introduction to Honeycrisp apples.
New York Mart (Chinatown supermarket) newyorkmart.com

Unbelievably crowded, but a lot of fun. I had trouble finding things just because it was hard to navigate (somewhere in this city I will find persimmons), but it’s your standard Chinese/pan-Asian supermarket. They did have bins of dried and preserved things that I haven’t seen in the stores in Arizona. Just down the street, I finally found fresh longyan (龙眼), a lychee-like fruit that we haven’t been able to buy fresh (or even dried) for several years.

While shopping here, a kind older lady took pity on me as I was looking at the jellyfish and warned me that it was too cheap to be real jellyfish—thankfully, my Chinese still functioned decently that I could understand and talk to her.
Muji (Japanese home goods store) muji.us

Muji actually has notebooks that work well with fountain pens! They carry a “bleed-resistant” pack of B5 notebooks, $3 for 5 (30 pages each), that have well-coated paper. Other than that, a standard home goods store, with clothing, bedding, kitchenware, and other such things.