NYC Fat Tour Recap: Part II, friday fun & festivites

NYC Fat Tour Recap: Part I, the PLANNING

PART II, the arrival, the snack, the beer, the DINNER, the fun, the hanging out until 4pm in an attempt to cling to the idea that we're not too old and boring.

Friday Pre-Dinner Snack: Artichoke Basilles Pizzeria
Friday Dinner: Ippudo

we knew the wait at ippudo would be atrocious. for a group our size (a horrendously large count of 8), we were anticipating a 1-2 hour wait since a) this is still considered the best ramen spot in nyc, b) it was a friday night, and c) we'd be arriving at the prime dinner time hour - between 8 and 9pm.

the plan, therefore, was to order a few slices from artichoke pizza, and eat them outside while we waited for a table to become available. WIN: having 2 slices of artichoke pizza and 1 slice of crab pizza waiting for us when we walked up to ippudo to meet up with the CT/MD contingent of this fat tour weekend. NOT-SO-WIN: finding out that the wait for our table would be 3 hours!

it was easy to take it in stride with each bite of delicious artichoke pizza, though! PLUS, central bar was right around the corner and ippudo's hostess promised to call us when our table was ready and would give us 10-20 minutes to arrive at the door once we had been notified.


:: artichoke basilles pizzeria :: 
address: 328 east 14th street, nyc
what we ate: artichoke pizza, crab pizza
i had heard mixed reviews about the artichoke pizza, and how the deliciousness is inconsistent depending upon hour of night or day of week, but on this night, it was unbelievable. it tasted like really rich warm artichoke dip spread over a 1/4 inch thick soft crust. each slice was huge; it would be more than enough for a meal for a normal sized person with a normal sized appetite (notice the qualifiers there? it's because i have normal sized friends with abnormally sized appetites. they'd need 2 slices. at least).

the crab pizza was also good, but i was so blown away by the artichoke that i don't really recall what is on there. i think it was crab and ricotta, but i am not 100% certain. isn't that terrible?

we made our way over to central bar while munching on the last few bites of gloriousness. after a few pitchers of brooklyn lager, we received THE CALL. ippudo was ready for us and  it ended up being less than a 1.5 hour wait. WIN.

:: ippudo ::
address: 65 4th ave, nyc
what we ate: ramen, pork buns 
dinner at ippudo was great. i had been there before and wasn't really expecting to be wowed again, since, c'mon - it's RAMEN. but i was very pleasantly surprised. both the ramen noodles and the stocks are freshly made on site.

we started with the hirata pork buns, which were the highlight of the meal for me. the plush half moons of bread that enveloped the bbq pork belly slices, drizzled with a mayo/creme of some kind, and a small leaf of lettuce for texture... YUMMMMMM.each order comes with 4 so everyone had one to themselves, then joey and soopah had an all out battle for the last one (who wants HALFSIES?!).

since we had indulged in a cream topped pizza as an "appetizer," several of us ordered ramen to share. the nice thing about ippudo (though the wait staff will hate me for saying this) is that you can order a ramen for $14, then pay an additional $2 for extra noodles. if you need to share for some reason, this helps quite a bit. or it leaves you with some extra money to order more PORK BELLY. which is what we did.

the RAMEN. according to the website:

 "Ramen is cosmos in a bowl. The basic broth is derived from the essence of pork, chicken, beef, or seafood, and seasoned with soy sauce, salt, miso, and other important ingredients.... Flour, eggs, kansui (an alkaline water), and other ingredients are used to make noodles.... Soup, noodles, and topping - the trinity brings forth the cosmos."  

ooOOooooo COSMOS. i don't know about all that, but the ramen was pretty damn good.

soopah ordered the akamaru modern-  'the original tonkotsu' soup noodles with ippudo's special sauce, miso paste and fragrant garlic oil, slices of simmered berkshire pork, cabbage, onions, kikurage & scallions.

he ordered it with extra pork belly too! the picture doesn't really look that appetizing, but in actuality, this ramen is delicious. the akamaru modern is extra garlic-y tasting. so don't order this if you're on a date with someone that dislikes garlic (but really, if you're on a date with someone who dislikes garlic, will you really go on another date with them? i think not).

the rest of us got the spicy ramen that was the special for the evening. unfortunately, i don't have a description of the dish, but it had less garlic and a strong spicy kick. it was spicy enough you didn't need to add siracha to the dish, but you certainly can. of COURSE, we all ordered the extra pork belly.

how was it you ask? oh, we totally HATED it. so much that we basically licked our bowls clean.

btw, we have decided we each need a GIANT soup spoon like the ones they give you at ippudo (the white spoon that looks like a plate in the lower left corner of this picture). think of how wonderful eating pho would be with said utensil?

post-meal FESTIVITIES
the CT crew pretended they were going to hang out and, to their credit, trooped over to a bar near st. mark's with us. but after 15 min or so of lounging around, they excused themselves. after all, we had a big day planned for saturday.

the remaining 4 of us discussed what we should do next - go home, go to another bar, meet up with another friend? our tired bodies wanted us to go home, but the rebellious spirit of our youth managed to get us to st. mark's ale house to meet our friends andrew and jeremy.

st. mark's ale house is a dive-y sports bar in the east village. this is one of my favorite bars in new york - unpretentious, small but spacious, friendly and helpful bar staff, and offers surprisingly delicious food. that's all i'm going to say about that. go there, if you must, but please please please don't ruin it by telling your friends about it.

we had several rounds of drinks... and when we finally felt that we had sufficiently proved our young/hipness to ourselves, we called it a night around 3:45am.

coming soon - part III: saturday brunch, culture and indulgence.