A Few Excellent Bites from the Weekend

A trip to Chinatown Saturday morning… not for dim sum though.  Instead, we went searching for some Chinese style fried pork chops at Excellent Pork Chop House on Doyers Street.  

Two chilled appetizers to start.  The first is a cucumber salad with a biting garlic dressing and a julienned radish and jellyfish salad.

The second, a seaweed salad with marinated bean curd.

Of course, I can’t resist an order of Chinese fried chicken.  No excess batter – just simply crispy skin and moist drum stick.

And finally, the star of the meal, the whole reason we found ourselves at this little hole in the wall, a big bowl of rice topped with fried pork chop and pickled cabbage.  The meat was crispy around the edges and dusted with a five spice for flavor.  So satisfying for just a little more than 5 dollars.  What else can you ask for?

Dinner took me to a brownstone in Clinton Hill to Daniel and Alicia’s kitchen for a Mexican themed meal at NY Bite Club.  More to come on the delicious meal a little later…

Sunday morning was an early one.  It has to be one if we wanted to brunch at Shopsin’s where lines start at 10AM and even though we were only 3 minutes past the hour, we still had to patiently wait for a seat.  To make up for the wait, we might have overindulged just a little too much starting with mini chicken tender slides with buffalo sauce and sauteed onions on top of mac and cheese pancakes.

Just to make it even more delicious, a drizzle of maple syrup right in between the pancakes.

Not to be outdone by the starter, we followed up the sliders with tupelo three part happy breakfast.  And happy we were indeed.  Part one were a small tiny stack of slutty cakes made with caramelized bananas and stuffed with peanut butter and bacon.  Part two were mini maple pumpkin donuts and finally part three was a little something savory, a spicy and smokey chorizo pimento scramble.  This three part breakfast tray kind of fulfilled everything I want for brunch, something sweet and savory.  Now, why can’t all breakfasts be this well balanced?

Finally, the weekend ended with a home cooked meal of seared duck breast served with ginger scallion sauce with SB and KC.  To accompany the medium rare duck, I roasted broccoli and kabocha squash finished with a drizzle of maple syrup and toasted walnuts.  This is now my second time making canard de magret and I am happy to say, practice does make indeed makes things just a little closer to perfect.

Excellent Pork Chop House | 3 Doyers Street, New York, NY 10013 | http://excellentporkchophouse.com/

Shopsin’s General Store | 120 Essex Street, New York, NY 10002 | http://www.shopsins.com/