Cafe Zaiya Bakery – East Village, NY
Cafe Zaiya
69 Cooper Square
New York, NY
I apologize for the lack of posts! I’ve just been very busy, but I always have blogging on the back of my mind. I will try to update whenever I can even though if the posts are short.
I am a big fan of bakeries! When I’m in the East Village, I always make sure I stop by Cafe Zaiya for their sweet unique pastries and bubble tea. The price is a little on the expensive side compared to a bakery in Chinatown, but it’s worth every penny. I must admit that it isn’t the first time I’ve been to this cafe, but it’ll be my first post on it!
So I picked up a few pastries and I would like to share them with you. Sometimes I don’t even know what I’m buying, but I know it has to be tasty because it looks it! If you guys know the name of the following pastries, please let me know!
Black Sesame Bun w/Red Bean Paste
Close up of black sesame bun w/red bean paste
Soho Park Cafe
Soho Park
62 Prince St (near Lafayette)
New York, NY
(212) 219-2129
SUMMER RECAP:
On this beautiful summer day on Friday, July 20, the bf and I took a half day from work to go to the anime convention in Baltimore with a few friends. While waiting for them to drive down from Somers, I managed to the drag the bf to SoHo where I attended to shopping matters. Of course knowing me, I get hungry afterwards. Ah heck, when the hell am I not? I complained like a mad woman to the saint-like patient bf, and alas, after walking all over soho, we found this cute place called Soho Park. It didn’t look too pricey and dingy like a fast food restaurant which was a good enough reason to go in.
It’s packed in here, but amazingly it wasn’t loud at all.
You get a license plate after you make a purchase. Pretty neat huh? The purpose of this is to set it on your table so the server can serve you your orders.
Park Burger w/shredded iceberg lettuce, sliced pickles, tomato, and special sauce.
Price: $5.50; $7.50 w/fries.
I could have sworn that I ordered the Belgian fries, but apparently not. Oh well, regular fries will have to do even if everyone else around me is having that. Bahh. This burger is definitely not worth the price. Maybe it’s because I’m such a cheapo and prefer more bang for my buck, but I swear, I’ve seen bigger burgers for the same price.
Ok, so I may sound a little bias, but if a burger is of average size like this, it should at least make up in taste for it’s mediocre size. But no, there’s nothing special about the taste. The patty is cooked very well since it’s moist, juicy and gosh darn tender, but unfortunately it’s pretty bland.
This is what I get for ordering the most basic burger on the chopping menu. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad burger. It tastes pretty clean…almost organic, and it compliments well with the lettuce, pickle and tomato. I didn’t love this burger, nor hate it. Nonetheless it’s still comfort food which makes me happy.
My rating: 3/5
Recommended: No.
Dipping Sauce for Fries
Price: $.0.50
Your choice of:
Basil Mayo
Roasted Red Pepper
Garlic
Black Olive Mayo
Curried Mayo
Spicy Sambal Ketchup
Smoked Paprika
I swear, when you’re in SoHo, merchants will charge an arm and a leg for everything, even goddam dipping sauce. They should just have a giant pump with all the sauces and give it to us for free.
But I understand why they do it, I just want to gripe about it.
Left: Roasted red pepper; Right: Garlic
I did not like these sauces at all. I’m sure it’s just a personal preference, but the roasted red pepper is very strong and tasted bitter in my mouth. The garlic one is also strong, but I felt like I was dipping grease. Yuck.
The fries taste much better without the dam sauce, in my opinion. It’s already nice and salty so don’t even bother seasoning it. I liked it.
Herbed Buttermilk Red Onion Rings
Price: $5.00
This is by far the worst batch of onion rings I had in my entire life. Like, where’s the batter? I felt like I was eating greasy ass crispy onions. This is disgusting. And no amount of dipping sauce would help me through this arduous eating process.
Recommended: No way.
I love the look of this place, but unfortunately that’s essentially what you’re paying for.
Sunway Cafe Chinese Diner
39-07 Prince St
(Near 39th Ave, 7 train to Flushing)
Flushing, NY
After watching Simpsons The Movie at the glamorous College Point Movie theatre, the bf, bf’s brother, and I were craving for food. We left at about 10:30 pm and tried to figure out what the hell we were going to eat. No, not Wendy’s or White Castle again. For once, we were all sick of fast food and thought that we needed to sit down tight at a civilized place with plates of real food. Since we were on a tight budget, we decided to head out to Flushing for some cheap ol’ Chinese food. The bf’s younger sweet 16 brother, Alvin, suggested that we go to Sunway. He swears that it’s the best place ever and claims that he’s been there over 20x. It must be dam affordable if he goes there religious. With growling tummies and a loose wallet, the bf and I decided that we should hit this joint and find out.
If you’re in Flushing, you have to be blind not to see this restaurant. It’s smacked right in the middle of Flushing, literally a block away, and it’s right on the corner of Prince and 39th Ave. We got there around 11pm and had to wait on line because there were so many people waiting for a seat! Outrageous! Well, it’s better than it being deserted because then it would get creepy, like in manhattan’s Chinatown.
After about 10 mins, we got seats right under the plasma tv. The baseball game was playing, but not like anyone was paying attention to it. Most of the people here were younger kids that looks really fobby. A pack of young teenage girls were giggling in the back of the restaurant, and a good sprinkle of older fobby guys were sitting in the middle chatting it up like gangsters.
Anyways, after we were seated for like 10 mins, a waitress came to us and asked what we liked to drink. Let me tell you, the best part of the menu are their drinks. I’ve never seen anything more colorful and cocktail-like in my whole entire life. They serve an array of bubble teas and mixed fruity drinks. I opted for the Phoenix Sunrise drink, picture below, because it sounded so kickass. When the drink arrived, I was oh so impressed by the color because it looks like how it sounds and it tasted very sweet, which I love. I can taste mango and orange. Exactly what they put their drink is beyond me. And Alvin got the mango smoothie, which to me didn’t look anything special. The taste wasn’t that great too.
Alright time for the chow part of this blog.
Rice noodles with duck, wonton, and choy sum
Price: $3.75
I wished they gave more rice noodles. Apparently Alvin didn’t finish this bowl due to the dim sum that we ordered, which I will get to. I did have a taste of the duck and wonton and to me, it wasn’t anything special. I grew up eating this stuff, and I figure as long as the taste doesn’t get worse it’s fine by me.
My Rating: 3.5/5
Recommended: Yes especially if you never had this before, or you’re craving for delicious duck and noodles.
Rice noodles with braised beef
Price: $3.75
Again, what’s up with skimping with the dam rice noodles?? I ordered this thinking that this dish can absolutely cannot go wrong, but it did. I’m pissed as hell with the skimping, but to give me the hard ass part of the beef and a few pieces of meat is not cool with me. The broth tasted pretty good, but I’m not feeling this skimping part.
Rating: 2.5/5
Not Recommended
Dim Sum!
Price: $2.25/each
Beef wrapped with Rice Noodles (In Chinese, it’s called Ha Chern)
Malaysian Spongcake
Ha Gow (Shrimp covered with thin rice paper)
Pork Bun
I give them props for having dim sum at this hour. These didn’t taste bad at all. If you are craving for dim sum late night, I’d definitely recommend it.
BBQ Spare Ribs
Price: $5.25
This is the cheapest piece of meat that I’ve ever seen. There’s not a lot of meat and this is the most oily thing that I have ever eaten. I didn’t really like it and wouldn’t recommend anyone ordering this.
Remember, you pay for what you get. The food is decent here and it really gives a quick fix for a staving stomach. The drinks here are absolutely phenomenom. People were ordering it here like crazy. I really recommend that. Alright, I’ll leave you with the health inspection results from the city.
SUNWAY CAFE
39-07 PRINCE STREET, QUEENS 11354
Violation points: 9
Inspection Date: 09/14/2006
Violations were cited in the following area(s) and those requiring immediate action were addressed.
Sanitary Violations
1.) Plumbing not properly installed or maintained; anti-siphonage or backflow prevention device not provided where required; equipment or floor not properly drained; sewage disposal system in disrepair or not functioning properly.
2.) Evidence of flying insects or live flying insects present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.
