Siddity In The City

Grubbin' Superdeluxe

Nah Trang Originally uploaded by niarain.

My best friend, who I haven't seen since, oh, April, came to town this weekend, and we spent all of Saturday eating. Nha Trang (87 Baxter St., J, M, Z, N, R, 6 at Canal) was stop #1.

I love pho. I love it, love it, love it. I like cheap things. I love them, in fact. I love pho, I love cheap, I love Nha Trang.

I haven't had great pho since I left Pho Vietnam behind in Boston. Now I have a New York favorite, too. Aside from the fact that gullet-stuffing bowls of pho noodle soup ring in around $4-$5, and you could easily nosh on three courses for about $15, it's also just damn yummy. As the photo illustrates, we were some eatin' fools. We ordered seafood pho, some squid with pepper or somesuch dish, and a beefy-thing. My memory for the dishes my cohorts ate would normally be better, but as squid gives me a nasty rash and I haven't had beef in about 60 moons, I wasn't all that interested in their meals. I was assured, however, that both dishes were very good.

After rambling around the UES looking for the Guggenheim (I always imagine my destination is much closer than it is; this is fine if I'm travelling alone, but absolute shit when I'm leading other people, because by the time we get to wherever we're going, everyone is tired, pissy or worse) we found it a good ten blocks farther along than I remembered. And it was closed. But it's okay, we're still friends. My friends are remarkably patient and forgiving people.

A few short hours later (the interim was spent playing The Sims 2 [me--guilty posts to come] and at a light show at the Natural History Museum [them], we hopped a cab and zipped back downtown to Blue Ribbon Sushi (119 Sullivan; N, R at Prince, C, E at Spring; or hell, you're already going to be spending a mint on sushi, what's $15 on a cab?).

With it's sleek decor and lowlight ambience, BRS deserves a thorough, sophisticated appraisal. But I'm reviewing it, so screw that. Blue Ribbon was hands down the absolute best sushi I've had in town. The sushi and maki were incredibly fresh, and melted like butter on the tongue. We had some pretty basic maki--California, spicy tuna and shrimp tempura maki--and some more inventive rolls, like the eponymous Blue Ribbon maki, with lobster inside and black caviar on top. We were not disappointed by anything. In fact, I think the California roll may have inspired a moan, which I wouldn't have thought possible until that point. I mean, California rolls are like the PB & J of the maki world, you know? Okay, the moan may have escaped due to the sake box I'd had beforehand, because you don't realize how much sake a little box can hold, or how loose your grasp on verbal restraint until you've had one. So. Long story short, I may have to pull some old-school dictator shit and insist my sushi meetup group head there this month. It ain't cheap, but it's soooo good. Of course, my friends (all of whom make more than I do though I make a decent living, decided they weren't going to let me pay for anything, which is incredibly sweet, and mildly frustrating, and dammit-you-promised-next-time-you'd-let-me-buy-and-I-will-hold-you-to-it, dammit. I'm a big girl now!) paid for dinner, so I don't know quite how much it did cost....

And then, for some godforsaken reason, I commited culinary sacrilege and topped the night off with a chocolate shake from McDonald's. That's a damn shame. A frosty-delicious damn shame, but a damn shame nonetheless.

That was our night. My friends danced off into the night and I went home to bed, since I was workin' on Sunday. Plus, I was the odd woman out, and frankly, clubbin' with two couples is a little bit like deliberately shooting yourself between the eyes with a nail-gun*.

*It's not you! Love you! But darlings, we all know you'd have a better time chillin' with your mens than warming a stool with me. Thanks for the invite. Mwah!

posted by Sid @ 10/10/2004 01:52:00 AM