raysrestaurants

Hey everyone,

Hope today is going well for everyone! Today, I want to feature a restaurant called Golden Unicorn, a great Chinese place on East Broadway and Catherine. So this past weekend, a group of me, my cousin, my girlfriend and her friends decided that we were craving some Dim Sum. Luckily, one of my girlfriend’s friends knew a Dim Sum place in China Town that had great food so we decided to try it out.

Golden Unicorn is deep in China Town, and it’s a nicely decorated and designed two floor restaurant. When we went around dinner time, there was a wedding reception on the first floor, which was nice, except for when I accidentally entered the first floor from the elevator during the bride’s speech. That was more embarrassing for her than it was for me, I can assure you.

Unfortunately, they only serve Dim Sum until 4pm so we were only able to order from the regular menu, which was still great, but still a let down because I wanted Dim Sum. To compensate for this, we just ordered an appetizer with Dim Sum style dumplings, which was quite delicious. We ended up getting 5 dishes for 6 people and some soup. We had orange beef, garlic chicken, Szechuan Shrimp, Shrimp with Mayonnaise, and a crispy noodle seafood combination. All of the food was very good, and the bill wasn’t that expensive either. In all, it ended up being 25 dollars per person, which was a good deal because we all had our fill.

The overall experience was a good one. The bill two quite some time to come long after we were finished eating, but it was fine because we were all talking and having a good time. I’d say definitely check it out, but try to get there before 4pm so you can try out the Dim Sum!

Here’s the info:

18 E Broadway
New York, NY 10002
Get Directions
(212) 941-0911

goldenunicornrestaurant.com‎

Happy eating everyone,

Ray

Hi everyone,

It’s Ray again.  I can’t sleep because I just had a very strange dream about illegal immigration.  In the dream, I was serving as a judge before a woman who was on trial to be deported but was appealing to the court because she wanted to stay for her son’s wedding and her father’s funeral.  The prosecuting lawyer was slamming her with every single statute that substantiated the movement toward deportation.

As the judge, there was nothing I could do. I sympathized with the woman because she was staying in America for very valid reasons, and she promised to leave after her son was married and her father buried.

I just recently woke up, and on cnn.com and Google News, I see several stories about the issue.  I see stories about policymakers struggling with the issue.  I see stories about ignorant and often racist people who want to keep the illegal immigrants out by building walls around our nation.  I see stories about people giving aid to immigrants.  From the sad, the happy, the disappointing, to the uplifting, the news stories make me happy and sad about the future of our nation.

And as we enter into the final months of the election, I wonder what the verdict will be in the end.  I’m happy I’m not the judge who has to make the decision, and I realize that perhaps one of the very many reasons I write about food is that food is something that is cross-cultural and vast.  It is something that can be shared.  Food is something that transcends borders and leaps over walls.

I only hope that one day the flexibility that people have in taste can be extended to our borders.  But then again, we’ll always have our picky eaters. The trick is the show them that new things aren’t so bad…that in fact, the best food is sometimes the food that doesn’t seem to belong.

Because you see…the beautiful thing about food is the same thing that’s beautiful about people.  There are so many kinds, so many flavors.

A very sleepy,

Ray

Hey everyone,

I was eating pizza today, listening to Nirvana, and as I was ruminating upon the deliciousness of the Philadelphia pizza that I was eating, I thought to myself, what ever happened to the rest of the people in Kurt Cobain’s life after he committed that dreadful suicide. So, like any good wikipedia loyalist would, I wikipedia’d Kurt Cobain and realized he had a daughter.

Yes, the legendary rockstar, suicidal or not, left in his wake progeny. And believe it or not, she’s alive. But here’s the thing- I wonder what’s going on in her head, to know that her father was a beast of a musician, brilliant - truly a genius. What would be going through your mind knowing that Kurt Cobain was your father?

Frances Bean Cobain…it’s weird isn’t it? How I’ve gone from pizza to Kurt Cobain’s daughter….but food makes you think about crazy things.

Yep, I’m weird.

That is all,

Ray

Hey everyone,

Hope all is well! Today’s feature is a nice little steakhouse that I ran into in Gramercy while walking on the sidewalk.  Actually, Eri found it because she is very observant and saw a sign on the walk that said “20.99 three course lunch special.”  (Actually, she almost ran into it because she does that sometimes…haha). Anyways, I’d heard of Angelo and Maxie’s, but I had never had the urge to pick myself up and spend $100 per person on a meal. But this offer just sounded too good to be true.  We went in and ended up getting two lunch 20.99 lunch specials.  The place was relatively empty for lunch, and the service was nice.  We started off with some pretty delicious bread, followed by our first course.  I got the Caesar Salad, and Eri had the House Salad. Both were delicious, and I think that the Caesar salad was one of the best that I’ve had in awhile. 

After the salad, our entrees came out (the second course).  I had the 12 oz. New York Strip Steak, and Eri had the Filet Mignon (because she’s high class like that hehe).  My New York Strip Steak was delicious, cooked perfectly, seasoned perfectly, and a little bit browned (the way I like it).  I tasted Eri’s, and hers was very good, but not as greasy as I like my steaks.  In any case, we both enjoyed our steaks thoroughly. 

For our desert course (third course), Eri had the assorted fruit (boooooooring!), and I had the New York Cheesecake (mmmmmm deliciousness).  Though the fruit was very fresh and tasty, I’d have to say that I definitely made the better decision with the cheesecake, which had chocolate in it and had cranberry syrup on it!  

Anyways, for two people, the bill ended up being 55.00 with tip and tax included which was a phenomenal deal for a restaurant that usually charges 40 dollars per entrée.   I highly suggest that you all take advantage of this great deal as it’s something that you just can’t pass up.  Overall, it was an excellent experience, and I definitely want to go again sometime soon!

Here’s the info:

Angelo and Maxie’s

233 Park Ave S
New York, NY 10003
(212) 220-9200

Happy eating everyone,

Ray

Hi everyone,

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I know I sure did. I went to New York again, as I noted in my Weekly Rant # 2, and while the bus ride wasn’t necessarily a phenomenal experience, by any means (mostly because of the obnoxious girls who took Sarah Jessica Parker as their role models), I did have a great time in New York (mostly eating of course!).

The first restaurant I want to feature this week is a Korean gem called Wonjo. I’m not really sure what that means precisely, but it did have Chinese characters below the name, and the translation of these characters (thanks to my girlfriend), is “the origin” or “the very beginning” – something like that at least. Of course, that put me in a good mood because any place that claims to be the origin of something has to be authentic…right?

Well, the food definitely was! We started off with the free banchan/panchan (the Korean word for the free side dishes you get with every meal), and they were great. There were eight in all, and the ones I was familiar with were the kimchi, daikon radishes, potato salad, veggie pancake like cakes, and some crab in pepper. I liked all of them and wished there was more, but I’m glad that I didn’t fill myself with the banchan because the entrees were delicious.

For entrees, Eri and I ended up getting three things and shared them. We started off with seasoned raw beef called Yuke/Yook Hwe over rice and veggies. The dish was called Yook Hwe Bibimbap, and it was definitely a delicious dish. Along with seasoned raw beef, it came with carrots, sliced cucumbers, shitake mushrooms, rice, hot Korean sauce, and a raw egg. After that, we had Budae Chige, which was a spicy soup that was filled with kimchi, meat, a mochi-like rice cake, noodles, and other vegetables. It tasted very very good. The meat gave the broth a very rich flavor, and the spicy soup went well with the assortment of vegetables and noodles. Finally, we had a dish called Kimchi Naeng-myun (I’m not sure if I spelled that right). Naeng-myun refers to noodles, and this particular cold noodle soup had kimchi, beef, a boiled egg, apples, and of course buckwheat noodles. It was a great complement to the previous dishes because it was served cold and had a sweeter taste to it, which balanced the saltiness and hotness of the dishes before it. Also, the dish itself was a pretty tasty contradiction because it was spicy and cold at the same time, which always makes for a good time.

The food was great, and I wanted to eat it all, but it seemed as if we ordered too much. The service was average, but the food was so good that I didn’t even care about the service at all. I will definitely re-visit this place. It gets busy at night time, and the soju bottles come out for those inclined to drink strong alcohol, but it was a fun and authentic environment, and I look forward to dining there again.

Here’s the info:

Wonjo Korean Restaurant

23 W. 32nd St.,

New York, NY 10001

212-695-5815

Happy eating everyone!

Ray

Hi everyone,

So I forgot to do my weekly restauRANT number 2 this past Friday, so I thought I’d make up for it by writing one now.  Anyways, I think this week I’ll do a little rant about how much I thoroughly dislike loud people on buses.  I was on my way up to visit my cousin and my girlfriend in New York riding on the Bolt Bus.  Generally, I have pretty nice experiences on the Bolt Bus, and I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling from DC to New York, DC to Boston, and I think there are other routes to that escape me at the moment.

At any rate, on this particular experience, I was sitting on the Bolt Bus enjoying a nice little nap.  Unfortunately, about an hour into the ride, these two female passengers sitting across the aisle from me started talking.  Now generally, I’m all about the talking and the socializing with your friends; however, these two particular girls decided it would be a good idea to speak at about 30000 decibels, deafening my ears.  To make matters worse, they were talking (actually gossiping) about worthless content.  If they were speaking at 30000 decibels about something interesting like literature, poetry, art, politics, philosophy, or even interesting stories, that would be a little bit more tolerable…but no, these brain dead women decided to talk about Sally, who broke up with Justin because Justin was looking at Megan because Megan broke up with her boyfriend and was now available to be looked at.  This kind of banter generally annoys me, but you can imagine how irksome it was to me at 30000 decibels on a quiet bus ride that is pretty peaceful to say the least.

In any case, I slept through must of the ride but putting on my headphones and blasting classical music on them.  Then, I wake up because guess what….the girls next to me are watchin Sex & The City on their computers without headphones, laughing like ugly hyenas at Sarah Jessica Parker do dumb things on her godforsaken show.  Luckily, 30 minutes later, I arrived in New York, and after giving them dirty looks, I bade farewell to the two dumb women who remind me that it’s always important to be considerate of your fellow passengers on any trip.

:)  I swear I’m not always this angry….

Take care yall! I’ll write soon about the tasty Korean restaurant that I just visited!

-Ray

Hey hey hey everyone,

Hope everything has been going well.  Anyways, I was thinking about varying it up a little by exploring the cuisine of cultures that I’m much less familiar with so I decided to feature an Indian joint called Mehran today.  I don’t know much about Mehran because I only order for delivery, but I must say that it’s quite good.  I hear from friends that going there physically is quite the “hole-in-the-wall” experience, which makes me like it a lot. I also hear that there is an all you can eat lunch buffet available at times so that sounds great.  

In any case, I generally get the butter chicken with extra basmati rice (because I love my basmati rice), and it’s definitely one of the most filling and tastiest takeout meal that I’ve had.  It generally only runs me about 12-15 dollars, which isn’t too bad for the quality and quantity of food that you get, so I highly suggest it.  The chicken tandoori is also very well done and actually goes well with the butter chicken if you feel like mixing dishes.   

So, I hope you check it out.  At least, try and order takeout from Mehran because it’s well worth the wait and the tip to the driver haha. 

Here’s the info:

Mehran Restaurant

2138 Pennsylvania Ave NW
(between N 21st St & N 22nd St)
Washington, DC 20037

Happy eating everyone!

-Ray 

Hey everyone,

So this past weekend, after enjoying some California Pizza Kitchen deliciousness, I headed over to Bed, Bath, and Beyond for some cheap house stuff.  After a hard day of carrying around everything that my girlfriend ended up picking (and no I’m not bitter…because she has good tastes), I was hungry and wanted to enter into the nearest dining institution so as to prevent grumpiness and ensure survival.  In any case, we ended up running into a Thai restaurant called “Thaiphoon,” which I thought was pretty funny and slightly inappropriate, which made it even more attractive.  In any case, word play aside, I thought the place was a pretty cool place.  It had great interior design as well as a chill atmosphere that I always enjoy while eating.  To top it all off, the food was very tasty and quite affordable.  The bill ended up being about 38 bucks for the two of us, and we both had Thai iced tea and a full meal (including soup and Satay). 

I really enjoyed the meal, and the service was really great; although, we unfortunately ended up under-tipping the waitress on accident because we didn’t realize how different Virginia tax is from DC tax (whoops!).  Next time I go there, I’ll be sure to ask for the same waitress and make sure to tip her extra.  In any case, I highly recommend checking it out, and hey, if you don’t like it, it’s not that expensive! 

Anyways, check it out:

1301 S Joyce St
Arlington, VA 22202

Get Directions

(703) 413-8200

 - thaiphoon.com

Happy eating yall!

Rayray

Hi everyone,

So today I want to feature a nice little Japanese place that was recommended to me by a friend. She suggested going to a place called Sushi-taro a little off Dupont Circle because it was one of the very few places that offered authentic sushi, and in this regard she was quite right. Washington is pretty lacking in the sushi department, but this place was quite good. I wouldn’t say it was as good as Makoto (featured earlier in my blog), but it’s still pretty authentic and delicious. I’d say the two things that could use improving are the pretty expensive prices and the “okay” service. As with all sushi in DC, Sushi-taro’s sushi is over-priced, but this is forgivable because it tastes good and is pretty authentic (according to my girlfriend again, not me…and she’s Japanese so I wouldn’t argue with her ). Anyways, the second thing of course was the “okay” service, which was good, but not what I expected for the kind of place that Sushi-taro is. It’s a strange feel because Sushi-taro seems to border on a very nice restaurant but also seems to be slightly casual at the same time. The servers aren’t very engaging, and most of them lack any kind of table talk or the ability to hold a decent conversation with the guests. Of course, there have been a couple of servers who have been extremely nice, and I’m sure all of them are nice people, but some could use some lessons with the small talk - if only to make the experience less awkward.

In any case, I had a good meal (of course a little pricey), but the experience on the whole was a good one (and is usually a good one whenever I go).

I suggest checking it out!

Sushi Taro

1503 17th St NW
Washington, DC 20036

(202) 462-8999

Happy Eating yall!

-Rayray

Hello all!

Hope the weekend treated everyone well! Today, I’d like to feature a great sushi joint that I checked out recently while hanging out in NYC for the weekend. So, to preface this feature, I just want to put it out there: I hate Sex and the City…in fact, I hated it so much that anything and everything done in the show pretty much deserved no respect from my part. That is, of course, before I went into Sushi Samba (which is a place where Sarah Jessica Parker and her annoying female cohorts go and talk about worthless things or complain about how much money they have to spend).

Well, in any case, I thought I’d hate Sushi Samba because for the most part, I thought that anything featured on a show I hate was by nature also deserving of my hate. But when I walked in and saw a couple of Japanese and Latin guys jamming out on a drum set, guitars, and a saxaphone, I knew that things would be okay. Add onto that the cool interior design and the great service, and I realized that I really liked the place.

Sushi Samba is a Japanese-Latin fusion which features creative dishes that combine the cuisines from both cultures. My girlfriend and I tried out the Tuna ceviche which tasted pretty delicious and followed that up with a couple of sushi rolls (each of which cost about 12 dollars).

It’s a little pricey, but for the great food and service it was well worth it. At night, the scene gets a little more hip, I hear. But I’m glad we went at lunch because the night scene would probably just include a lot more patrons who are Sarah Jessica Parker wannabes who would annoy me thoroughly.

Anyways, I suggest that you try out the Gramercy location if you like low-key dining, but of course, if you want the more trendy scene (here, read annoing), then check out the West Village location:

Sushi Samba

245 Park Ave S
New York, NY 10003

Get Directions(212) 475-9377

Happy eating yall!

- Ray