I’ve been traveling a lot, and really couldn’t be happier to be back. It’s my favorite season in my favorite city, and it happens to be my favorite week of the month: digging through your hyper-specific dining requests, sent via email at [email protected], as submissions to this form, and on my Instagram, where I’ll regularly post story prompts for you.
This time around, we’ve got some kids at my alma mater (Go, Violets!) stumped between college budgets, dietary restrictions and the urge to party. We’ve also got a request for plain ol’ good soup, and one for a specialty dessert that took me down a rabbit hole. Let’s ride!
This one was truly Greek to me
After eating portokalopita every day in Crete, my search to find it here has failed despite attempts in Queens and Manhattan. I’m not looking for one that sits in a pool of overly sweet syrup, but one that is moist and tastes of orange. Can you find the Cretan version for me? — Laura L.
Laura, you’re about to feel sorry for me, but I’ve never been to Greece, nor had I ever tried portokalopita before this message came in. So I started by watching every available recipe video online, Clockwork Orange-style — the base is made by slicing phyllo dough into strips, baking it until crispy, and then crumbling it into a mixture of yogurt, orange juice and some of the usual cake batter suspects: eggs, sugar, oil, baking powder. After baking, it gets a soak in rich orange and cinnamon syrup.
Then I tried five portokalopita that came highly recommended from trusted fans of the dessert, and here’s the rapid-fire rundown: Pi Bakerie in Soho was missing the caramelized top and enough bitter orange syrup. Tzatziki in NoMad was the opposite, flat like a pancake oversaturated in maple. As for the Astoria bakeries: Artion Bakery was the prettiest, lacquered with glossy syrup, and To Laiko scored points for serving its portokalopita fresh out of the oven, but neither achieved Goldilocks status.
While on this journey, I’d tapped in my colleague, Ellie Clayman, who visits family in Greece yearly and eats portolokopita on the regular, and her recommendation for Omonia Cafe blew the rest out of the water. The ideally eggy, kugel-like density and potency of orange zest flavor completed my picture of what this cake is meant to be, and how it’s meant to make you feel: like you can’t put down your fork until it’s disappeared.
The soup limit does not exist
A place where I can get a really good bowl of soup. — Marilyn S.
I’ve waxed poetic in this newsletter before about the magic of white borscht in a bread bowl from Karczma, and bouncy udon noodles in spicy miso broth from Raku.
But of the soups I’ve enjoyed recently, three at Cafe Himalaya in the East Village stood out. This is a place that, on a cold day, feels like a Mecca for soup. Look around at each table and you’ll see nearly everyone hovering over a bowl of Tibetan thupka, spooning garlicky, potent hot sauce onto mouthfuls of bouncy, brothy wheat noodles. I see a use case for all eight soups on the menu, like soothing, sunshine-hued dal confettied with cilantro, and the hangover-soothing ruthang momo soup, chasing slippery glass noodles through a rich savory broth studded with beef dumplings the size of peacoat buttons.
78 East First Street (First Avenue), East Village
Vegan, gluten-averse and on a budget
I am an N.Y.U. student who is vegan with nonvegan friends (and one gluten-free friend) looking for a fun place for a dinner out that will please everyone and isn’t crazy expensive! — Josie L.
The best part of writing this newsletter is when a reader question has an answer so impossibly perfect, right down to the details. If Spicy Moon’s location just below Washington Square Park had existed when I was an N.Y.U. student, I’d have had a near-religious reverence for it.
The entire place, one of a micro-chain of Sichuan restaurants, is vegan, with plenty of gluten-free swaps and most entrees in the low $20 range. As for the “fun” part of your ask, the lights are pink, the music is bumping, the people are laughing. Rip a big order of gluten-free dan dan noodles, vegetable wontons in chile oil, dry pepper-style tofu and wok-fried string beans, and everyone wins.
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