NYC Food Roundup - May 2022

Hello! It's been a while (as usual). This past semester of grad school was BUSY and I did not have much time for blogging. But now I am out for the summer, I've finally graduated undergrad (2 years late), and I am eager to write more about all the food I've eaten over the past month!

Here are my favorite New York City restaurants/eateries from May 2022:

Savory

Oconomi - Smorgasburg Prospect Park

First up is the infamous Smorgasburg, which has several locations in NYC. I've been to the Williamsburg one once with my friend Abe, so it was only fitting that it was with Abe that I went to the Prospect Park location for the first time! Smorgasburg is a food pop up that has a bunch of different vendors. It shows up in Prospect Park on Sundays from 11am-6pm. The vibe reminded me of the Saturday Market in Portland and also just Portland food cart culture in general, so I loved it!

Off of Abe's recommendation (and also some random man passing by who weighed in), I got food from Oconomi. Okonomiyaki is a traditional Japanese food consisting of grilled cabbage, flour, and egg. I got mine with yakisoba noodle on top as well as a bunch of sweet sauce and mayo. This was a TON of food, but it was so delicious that I ate the entire thing. It's perfect for when you're really hungry because it's super satiating and comforting. And with all the grilled veggies, you can kind of tell yourself it's healthy?!

Beyond Sushi - multiple locations

Yet another place that I was introduced to by Abe, but also a place I revisited with Sarah, Meghana, and Anusha when we had our post-graduation NYC reunion! Beyond Sushi is a vegan sushi restaurant, serving all plant-based rolls and appetizers. When I first went with Abe, we split a spicy "tuna" roll, a Philadelphia roll, and the Nutty Buddy wrap. I was shocked by how realistic the sushi tasted. The rolls were almost indistinguishable from a normal sushi roll. I don't know how they make vegan cream cheese, but boy do they pull it off. And the Nutty Buddy wrap (filled with soba noodles, romaine, jalaneo peanut sauce, carrots, cashews, avocado, and tofu) was so good that I took a picture of the menu so I could recreate it at home.

Beyond Sushi also has a great lunch special where you can get a dumpling/soup and a roll for $15. The second time I went I tried the ginger "beef" dumplings with Impossible meat. I'm a big Impossible meat fan and find that I cannot tell the difference between their ground beef and real ground beef. The dumplings were soooo good and I'm already excited to go back here.

Lupa - Greenwich Village

Lupa has already been on my blog, specifically for their cacio e pepe, but the restaurant holds a special place in my heart so I put it on again. Sarah, Meghana, Anusha and I went here in fall 2019 on one of our food tours, so for old times' sake, we had to go here again when we reunited for graduation. This past May was the first time all four of us were in the same place at once since we left Yale, so it was really special to get to go here again again with them.

We were treated with an amuse-bouche of a bean paste crostini which was a nice surprise. We ordered champagne (we were celebrating!) and started with the prosciutto which came with raisins and burrata. It was hard not to fill up on that (as well as bread and olive oil), but of course, once the pasta came out we definitely had room for that. We split two cacio e pepes, the bucatini all'amatriciana, and the bolognese - all of which were very tasty. Even though the cacio e pepe is the classic, I actually enjoyed the all'amatriciana the most that night; it had these delicious pieces of ham and caramelized onions that were so full of flavor.

Sweet

Anita Gelato - Upper East Side

Maybe this blog should just be an ode to Abe who seems to introduce me to most food I love in this city. I am overall a skeptic of gelato in the United States. I find it's usually not that good. However, Anita Gelato shocked me by how good their gelato was. I literally gasped out loud in the shop and exclaimed something like, "Oh my god that's so good!" The lady giving us samples chuckled at me with an "I told you so" energy.

Seriously the flavors are amazing. And take the advice of the people who work there because they will steer you in the right direction. I tasted a bunch, but to my memory I think I ended up getting the hazelnuts mousse & chocolate crunch, the cookie flavor, and the macadamia nut. The cup looks super tiny but they really pile it on there and even add an adorable little cookie on top. The gelato is honestly so rich and sweet that I don't think I could finish anything larger than a small. My only complaint is that there is no Anita Gelato on the Upper West Side for me to easily access!

Sweet Moment - Chinatown

There are so many good dessert spots in Chinatown, but I really haven't been to many of them. My Big from Columbia, Becky, introduced me to Sweet Moment. They are known for their bingsoo, a Korean dessert made of shaved ice with sweet toppings. I had never had it before, so we ordered two flavors to split: the matcha red bean and the chocolate Oreo.

Overall, I really enjoyed bingsoo. Even though it looks super rich, because it's mostly shaved ice, it's actually quite refreshing. Both flavors we got were good for different reasons. The matcha red bean wasn't as sweet in a good way, and had that rich flavor from the red bean; the chocolate oreo was a solid crowd pleaser and tasted like a lighter version of a cookies & cream milkshake. And the extra scoop of ice cream on top provided a nice creaminess and heft to complement the shaved ice!

Spot Dessert Bar - Lower East Side

Spot Dessert Bar is one of those Instagram famous, potentially over-hyped dessert places, but also one that perhaps is famous for a reason. Sarah, Meghana, Anusha, and I went here for dessert after Lupa. We had to wait for a solid like 30 minutes to get in (it's popular, even on a Monday night and there aren't many tables), but it was worth it.

Anusha got the matcha chocolate lava cake (maybe their most famous dessert), I got the cookie camp (a freshly baked marshmallow cookies topped with pretzels, condensed milk ice cream, and fudge sauce), and Sarah and Meghana both got the Harvest (a berry cheesecake topped with Oreo crumb dirt, earl grey milk tea, and raspberry sorbet). All of the desserts honestly tasted as good as they look. My marshmallow cookie is not for the faint of heart (and if you don't like sweeter desserts it's maybe not for you), but I loved it. In a future instance I could see myself splitting this with someone (it's a lot), but that night I was happy to devour it all on my own :)

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That's it for my May 2022 New York City food roundup! As usual, even in the busiest times I am always eating my way through this amazing city. Hopefully this summer I will have even more time to explore, eat, and report back here 😜