This Is Not a Steak Column!!!
Seahorse's tuna au poivre is a fun riff on the beefy classic, as is the maitake bordelaise at The Dynamo Room. Also...let's try tuna prosciutto!!!
A Few Treats for Everyone!
It’s fall in New York, the best season in New York.
The leaves are turning. The menus are changing.
And soon, we’ll have a new mayor.
So let’s celebrate by eating out. You’ll find some fun reviews after the jump. But first, a few quick items from around the web:
One: Matthew Schneier of New York Mag wrote up the year-old Kiko in West Soho! He likes the green chicken wings (dusted in makrut) and he seems to appreciate the crispy lobster rice. But the best part of the column is when Schneier meditates upon Martin Scorcese’s “After Hours” and all the fancy restos popping up around Hudson Square.
Two: Helen Rosner of the New Yorker reviews Johnny’s, the hip Peruvian-Chinese spot in Williamsburg. A key line: “Chifa isn’t fancy-schmancy, but there’s no reason that a golden half chicken or melty-tender, vinegar-basted spareribs don’t deserve an elevated treatment.”
Three: Mahira Rivers publishes an insightful piece about the “dessertification of drinks” on her Sweet City newsletter, with nods to quaffable versions of ras malai, Dubai chocolate, tiramisu, and…mango sticky rice!
Four: Eater’s Nadia Chaudhury and Sakura Hegarty put out a breezy video take on Taishoken, the new local outpost of the classsic tsukemen spot in Tokyo. I want to check this place out!
Five: Corima, the Northern Mexican spot that was my best restaurant of 2024, is hosting a pop-up on Sunday. Chef Fidel Caballero is teaming up with Summer Lee and her Seoul-based project, Narang, to recreate some of the restaurant’s flavors as gimbap — Korean seaweed rice rolls. Here are some of the varieties that the team plans to serve: mackerel, hot chicken burger (a Narang speciality), and beef cecina tlayuda. Start time: 1:00 p.m. on 9 November, until sold-out. Walk-ins only. 3 Allen Street, Lower East Side
Six: The New York Times put out a very cool list of 46 treats. They all run $20 or less. The column feels apt in our era of expensive everything, and in our era of Treat Culture. Some of my favorite selections: The salteñas from Bolivian Llama Party, the egg custard coffee from Larry’s Ca Phe, the tofu pudding from Fong On, and the cinnamon sugar pretzel from Elbow Bread! Shout out to Nikita Richardson, Becky Hughes, Luke Fortney (the “Where to Eat” columnist), Mahira Rivers, and Priya Krishna for this excellent inquiry into the world of snacking!
Seven: The Supreme Court issued an order on Friday that lets the White House continue to withhold some funds from SNAP, the country’s largest food aid program. The U.S. has sufficient capital to keep SNAP fully funded amid the government shutdown, but as the NYT explains: “Mr. Trump has declined to use that money, and his aides have claimed they cannot help, despite the fact that they have reworked other parts of the federal budget to sustain their priorities during the shutdown — including to pay officers conducting mass deportations.”
Reviews: These Are Totally Not Steaks!!!
Two frequent themes of this newsletter are:
Steaks keep getting more expensive
Restaurants keep serving more steaks
The latest Consumer Price Index — one of the best measures of inflation — showed that the cost of uncooked beef steaks rose by nearly 17 percent over the past year.
The reasons for those price hikes are well-known: Ongoing droughts out West have shrunk herds, while demand for red meat remains high. Though President Trump is now blaming foreign meatpackers — without any proof, as CBS News reports — for those steep prices.
The Lo Times puts out a Budget Steak Guide every spring. But today, let’s take a look at some steak alternatives that two new Manhattan restaurants are serving. I like them both, and they’re not too expensive.