Becky's Diner

Are you looking for the best blueberry pancakes ever? Then you need to head to Becky's Diner in Portland, Maine. Located at 390 Commercial Street, Becky's is serving up some serious, out-of-this-world blueberry pancakes. 

Basically that's all that I have to say. These pancakes are simply ridiculous. When they arrive, you think, oh these pancakes look pretty good. But then you look on the underside of the pancake and realize it's exploding with delightful, delicious Maine blueberries. Be sure to ask for real maple syrup to have a truly amazing pancake experience.

My other advice for Becky's is that if you want sausage, be sure to order the Italian sausage instead of regular sausage links. There's nothing like a nice piece of meat in the morning, and the regular sausage just doesn't compare to the Italian. It also tastes particularly good when doused in some of that real maple syrup.

Unfortunately I have no photos of my Becky's Diner breakfast, so you'll just have to trust me. Go to Becky's Diner. Eat blueberry pancakes. Be happy.

Woo Chon

If you’re looking for delicious Korean barbeque in New York City then you’ll definitely want to check out Woo Chon, located in Midtown at 8 West 36th Street. We had quite a crew that night, and Woo Chon was a great place for family-style dining. We ordered a ton of food, and left stuffed and satisfied.

First the servers brought out an array of Korean vegetable dishes. These included kim chi, bean sprouts, egg plant, radish, and dried seaweed. Just look at that spread—there was something for everyone. 

 

And then the appetizers started filling up the table. First up was the Seafood Pajun—an incredible scallion pancake with mussels, squid, oysters, and mushrooms. It arrived at the table nice and crispy on the outside, fluffy and light on the inside, and simply exploding with seafood.

Next came the Mandoo Gui. These dumplings stuffed with beef, pork, tofu, and vegetables and fried until crispy were excellent, like little pockets of perfection that were great for sharing.

The server also brought over some Haemul Sun Tofu soup on the house. This spicy soup was prepared with seafood and soft tofu. There was lots of different types of seafood in the soup, and I was happy to discover some tasty tentacles.

I insisted on ordering grilled baby back ribs, which were flame broiled with a spicy marinade. These ribs were out of this world with their spicy and sweet sauce. One of the reasons I love ribs is tearing the meat off the bone—it makes me feel primitive (in a good way).

The Korean-style barbeque was one of the main reasons we decided to hit up Woo Chon. At each table there is a burner. The server turns it on and allows a metal grill plate to heat up. After it’s hot enough the meat is placed on the grill and allowed to cook through. We ordered Galbi (prime rib filleted off the bone) and Saewoo Gui (filleted shrimps). Both were served in the Woo Chon marinade and tasted awesome.

When the meat was ready we wrapped the pieces up in lettuce and a dollop of spicy sauce (next time I'll definitely be saving those assorted vegetables to wrap up the barbequed meat!).

 

We also ordered two types of Bibimbap. Bibimbap is a very popular Korean dish—it is often a mixture rice, vegetables, and meat served sizzling in a hot stone bowl. The ingredients are then mixed together in the bowl at the table. I don’t remember exactly what was in each of the bibimbaps that we ordered, but they were delicious. Bibimbap is great to eat, but it's also a lot of fun to say.

For drinks to accompany our meal I ordered some cold house sake while everyone else opted for the Korean OB beer.

 

Woo Chon was a great place to devour tasty Korean barbecue. There’s so much to choose from that you simply can’t go wrong. I recommend going with a large group so you can try lots of these delicious dishes!

'Tis the Season

A weekend of good holiday eating...

Seared Sea Scallops

Wild Rice with Garlic and Shallots

Steamed Snow Peas

Braised Pork Belly

Coffee with Egg Nog

Breakfast Sausages

German Apple Pancake

Beef Tenderloin

Green Beans and Carrots

Roasted Red Potatoes

Salad with Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

Dark Chocolate, Blackberries, Raspberries, and Whipped Cream

Thai Market

The best type of boyfriend is one that treats his girlfriend’s sister to dinner every once in a while. I’m a lucky girl—I get to be that girlfriend’s sister. Remain single and still get my dinner and drinks paid for? Yes, please.

So while Sonya cultured herself at a friend’s dance recital, Pat and I ventured up the Upper West Side to 960 Amsterdam Avenue to dine at Thai Market. He raved about it all day essentially since we left ’ino earlier, and I couldn’t wait to try out some delicious Thai food.

The décor of Thai Market was pretty interesting—definitely not what I expected for a Thai restaurant. It was very modern with sleek tabletops and just enough dim lighting that Pat could hide his phone and watch the game on it while we ate.

We started off with a couple of Singha beers (a Thai lager) and ordered some appetizers to share. One of the items Pat insisted we try was the Loog Chin Ping—Thai meatballs with a tamarind chili glaze. They were the perfect item for sharing. The cute, little meatballs came split in half and impaled on toothpicks and drizzled with the tamarind chili glaze offering a bit of sweetness and spiciness. I couldn’t wait to get my mouth around those balls. 

Next up was Yum Yum Thai spicy salad. We ordered the Yum Neau, which came with grilled skirt steak, mint, red onion, watercress, and roasted rice. The salad was my favorite part of the meal. Don’t get me wrong—everything else was fantastic, but that salad was something else. Pat asked them to go really spicy, and they delivered. There’s something about really spicy food that, once you get over that initial burn, you can’t seem to stop eating. It’s almost as if you think if you keep eating it the next bite will cool off your tongue. But it doesn’t. The flavors of the salad were so delicious I couldn’t stop, and the alternation between delicious flavors and intense spiciness is like a little dance of pain and pleasure on the tongue. I definitely need to learn how make this salad at home.

We also opted for one of the items on the specials menu—crispy shrimp pancakes. Just imagine a latke but even crispier and with shrimp incorporated into it. Delicious. And the dipping sauce that came it was one of the best I’d tried. It was light, sweet, and spicy, and it was the perfect accompaniment for the crispy saltiness of the shrimp pancakes.

For the entrée Pat ordered the Amber Shrimp dish, which came with shrimp, Chinese celery, onion, egg, and long hot pepper that was sautéed with yellow curry. I only tried a couple of bites but it was amazing and had a nice heat from the pepper and curry.

I ordered the Kow Moo Dang with roasted pork, Thai pork sausage, boiled egg, and moo dang sauce, served over rice. Sometimes I like to order what I know for sure will be good, and sometimes I take a risk—this night I took a risk. I was very curious was Thai pork sausage would taste like and was surprised to find that it was very sweet. The dish was sort of a yin and yang. On one side were slices of savory roast pork and on the other was the sweet Thai pork sausage, all brought into balance with the boiled egg in the center. The Kow Moo Dang sauce was also very sweet with almost an essence of maple syrup in it. While the sauce was quite tasty I needed some heat and tried it out with all the various hot peppers that served as condiments. Delicious.

 

Thai Market was a great place for dinner. The dishes were all high quality and authentic and yet the prices were not New York City prices—everything on the menu is completely reasonable. They don’t have a Web site, but you can check out the menu online. I highly recommend Thai Market to anyone in the city who is looking for a good place to enjoy some tasty, authentic Thai food.

Two Waffles and a Pancake

Zach Galifianakis: Guess what I had for breakfast?

Ben Stiller: Egg yellows?

Zach Galifianakis: Two waffles and a pancake.

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis: Ben Stiller from Between Two Ferns