West + East Harlem – Page 2 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Raw Soul

348 West 145th Street between Edgecombe and St. Nicholas Avenues
212/491.5859
$50 for three, with 3 juices, without tip
half a ♥

I consider myself an omnivore and don’t turn my back on vegetarian dishes even though my first choice will always be meat or seafood. Once in a while, I crave all vegetables to feel “cleaner” and lighter. I’m known to surprise my friends by ordering a vegetarian burger from Shake Shack because it’s as good as their beef burgers. (Really!)

I’ve lived in Harlem for almost six years now and have always walked by Raw Soul. I’ve always been curious about the place and finally stopped by with friends after biking around Central Park. We needed food badly to combat the heat, so we stopped to pick up a few dishes with some of their homemade juices.

On the Raw Soul menu it says: Raw, vegan meals prepared with fresh organic ingredients from scratch. We use no soy, refined sweeteners, dairy, or processed foods. I went inside Raw Soul with an open mind but I still don’t understand why anyone would consider the food satisfying. The eight-inch personal pizza hit the spot with all sorts of vegetables and something they called walnut cheese, but man, that flax crust was like eating sand. The tamale pie was layered with vegetarian chili and would have been edible if not for the dehydrated corn bread. It was just so bland and tasteless that we couldn’t even finish eating it. If only it was baked just a teeny bit and served warm, maybe the flavors of all the vegetables would have melded together as one real pizza. The tamale pie also needed some heat, both in temperature and taste.

We put our remaining hopes on their fresh juices. I ordered Grandma’s Greens made of celery, kale, parsley, cucumber, chard, dandelion and spinach. Kate opted for the Intestinal Cleanser with carrot, beet, spinach, cucumber, cabbage and garlic with some cayenne pepper. Jase got the best drink out of all of us: a green lemonade of apples, ginger, lettuce and kale. I’m not a big fan of sweets, but my drink seriously needed a carrot as a natural sweetener. Instead of tasting greens, it tasted more like Grandma: tepid and boring. Kate’s and Jase’s drinks were so much better with the ice cubes we got from the Starbuck’s around the corner.

What was cold at Raw Soul would have been better warm; what was warm would have been better ice cold. I trust that everything was what they said it was, but I don’t think I’ll ever be that person who will enjoy this kind of cooking.

Related post/s:
Photos of Per Se’s vegetarian menu

Talay Restaurant

701 West 135th Street and Twelfth Avenue
212/491.8303
$104 for two, with 3 drinks, without tip
♥ ♥

If anyone in the restaurant industry deserves a break, it’s King Phojanakong, owner and chef of Kuma Inn in the lower east side. I don’t know if it’s the Filipino-Thai upbringing that keeps him humble but I’m sure he’s worked hard enough to keep Kuma Inn as unpretentious as possible. I believe that it’s his time to shine with Talay, his new Asian-Latin restaurant in West Harlem with co-chef Phet Schwader.

They couldn’t have picked a better neighborhood, too. Harlem is going through some major changes and Talay joins the new Body Club next door and old favorites Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and Fairway Supermarket. Ignore the irritating name the real estate agents are trying to christen the area–ViVa for Viaduct Valley–and check out this micro-neighborhood as it transforms warehouses to nightclubs.

We visited during a more sane Sunday night and sat at the bar in front of the kitchen to watch all the action. The green papaya beef salad was delicious and only made me salivate for more food. We loved the pork sausage spring rolls as well. We also ordered the octopus salad, a dish that I think caters to the few uptowners who want to be more adventurous. Talay does it pretty well. The summer roll had more vermicelli noodles than vegetables, but they cleansed the palate just in time for our blackened ahi tuna dish. With all the flavorful tastes in our mouths, the ahi tuna came out bland in comparison–we should have skipped it or at least ordered it first. There are some Latin-influenced dishes so as not to alienate the targeted crowd–arroz Valencia, ropa vieja, bistek churrasco–but the Asian dishes stick out and are among the tastiest.

After dinner, I asked the maitre ‘d to walk me upstairs to check out the party space. Talay is making up for what Kuma Inn lacked in space. There is bottle service and curtains can be drawn to keep a room more private–just the way the uptown and New Jersey crowd coming from across the bridge like it. While I don’t think the downtown crowd will make the trek past 42nd Street, Talay is a good reason for the uptown crowd to stay uptown.

Searching for a Good Taco: El Barrio, East Harlem

East Harlem, the neighborhood bordered by 96th and 125th Streets between Fifth Avenue and the east river, is referred to as El Barrio because it has been a predominantly Puerto Rican enclave. It literally means “the neighborhood”. Some people would even say it goes all the way to 142nd because Dominicans and other Caribbean groups have assembled in that part of Manhattan. Mexicans have also moved in to take advantage of the still-affordable rents above 116th Street. But with the on and off plans of a giant Home Depot and a Wal-Mart on the east side to match the condos going up, young families driven by rising rents downtown have also called El Barrio home.

Today, an Old Navy, H&M and a Starbucks on 125th Street co-exist with the historic Apollo Theater while juice counters, fabric stores and chicharron shops are struggling to keep their businesses open. The future of El Barrio is iffy and we all just have to wait and see what the rezoning of Harlem brings.

Searching for a good taco in this side of Harlem–I live on the west side–was easier and less contentious than recent events in the news. I knew it as soon as I walked in Taco Mix, tip-toed and caught a glimpse of the big vat of pork simmering next to the grill. I thought I was going to need some of my friends to help me scour the many–and there are many–Mexican holes-in-the-wall in East Harlem, but after comparing several tacos from all four of the stores below, Taco Mix’s buche taco took the cake.

1. La Lomita Del Barrio, 209 East 116th Street, 212/289.8138

I stopped by La Lomita because they had beautiful fruits and vegetables for sale outside their store. I saw my first watermelon of the season, decided against buying and carrying such a heavy load, and instead sat at the tiled counter to eat chorizo and carnitas tacos. The chorizo was crushed and crumbled before the lady put it on the grill. I loved the sharpness of the chiles and the aroma of the cloves, but I would have rather eaten it as a sausage without the tortilla. The carnitas was just all right because some of the bigger chunks were a little dry. A lot of cilantro and onions helped me finish them off.

2. Michelle Deli & Grocery, 215 East 116th Street, 212/828.9097

Just next door was another deli with a tiled counter selling tacos. The tripe was not on the menu but I watched an older man devour a bowl of it while I waited for my order of beef tacos: cecina which is more jerky and therefore chewy, and suadero, or beef stew, which was a little on the dry side and needed some fat content. I sure wish I got the tripe stew instead of their tacos.

3. Cart run by two ladies off the corner of 116th and Second Avenue

I stopped by the cart covered in blue tarp off Second Avenue to ask the ladies what they were selling because the tortillas they were pressing looked like arepas. They were for tacos, they insisted, so I bought a chicken and a beef one. They didn’t hear my usual request of skipping the mayo-like white sauce, so I was forced to eat them like messy gyros. They were bigger and needed to be packed and taken at home to enjoy. Back at home, I realized that the tortillas were thicker and more dense. Though I like that combination for my cakes, it wasn’t the best tortilla for tacos.

4. Taco Mix, 234 East 116th Street, 212/831.8147

I’ve gone back to Taco Mix several times after my initial visit for this write-up. When I go, I always order the buche, or the pork belly, and the oreja, or the ears, for some texture. I’ve since tasted their carnitas, chorizo, al pastor and suadero tacos and must say that all their tacos are far more superior than those of the surrounding delis and stores.

When the lone table in the back is unoccupied, you can sit, eat in and watch the Mexican soap opera blaring from the TV screens. Young men walk in and out, order their dinner and stand over the condiments counter to eat swiftly, while the two guys who work the kitchen chit-chat behind all the meat-smelling smoke. Just another slice of life in Harlem some of us call home.

A nice rewarding bonus–$2.50 for a quarter pound of chicharron from Chuchifrito off Third Avenue:

139th Street Barbecue

corner of 139th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard
no phone number
$25 for a whole rack of pork ribs
â™¥ â™¥

Amidst the condo buildings going up as fast as you can say gentrification, there still remains the open drums on the streets used as makeshift grills to sell home-marinated barbecue in Harlem. The Dr. and I stopped by earlier this year when we saw the smoke coming out of a corner street shrouded in scaffolding. We still haven’t figured out who runs the show, but as far as we know, a big black lady sitting down is the one who repeats everyone’s orders to the more-able “staff” around her: an older lady who spoons the sides in a container, an older man who slices the ribs apart and another who mans the grill. She is also in charge of how much to charge her customers because no one really knows how much the food really is, especially when it comes to people who look like us.

During our first visit, four ribs with a small tub of potato salad and two slices of white bread were $10; a second visit with an order of a whole rack without any sides, even bread, was $25. A third visit cost us $70 for two racks, four sides and a giant watermelon. We’ve caught the big lady giving the older man a look when they calculate our totals.

The ribs are really, really good. They have a tangy taste to them–a North Carolina style using cider vinegar. The meat doesn’t fall off the bones, but is tender enough to pull when you give it a bite. And in this rapidly changing neighborhood, very satisfying.

Famous Fish Market

corner of 145th Street and St. Nicholas
212/491.8323
$12 for two fish and chips, take-away
â™¥

Harlem is teeming with fish and chips stores, and living in the neighborhood has taught me that the longer the line outside, the better the food will be. (It doesn’t work the same way downtown.) Case in point: Famous Fish Market on 145th Street and St. Nicholas. I got out of the A train and noticed the long line outside this hole in the wall even while the rain was pouring. I asked the lady what the line was for. Fish and chips, she said. I asked if it was any good, and there was no hesitation in her voice when she answered in the affirmative. I had no choice but to join the queue. When my turn came, I ordered the regular fish and chips. I tucked the brown paper bag under my arm and ran home in the rain to eat.

I like the English fish and chips as much as the next person, but what’s different with Harlem’s version is that the fish is mostly, well, fish. There is no art involved in the making of the batter–it’s just all fried fish! I like Devin’s Fish and Chips a block away, but I think I’ve found a new place to stop by on my way home.

Related post/s:
Devin’s Fish and Chips