Notes from a New York City Foodie Trip
A hit and a miss at this Asian marketplace
The tiny hot dog we got from a cart near our hotel left us hungry, so we headed to Urban Hawker for lunch. Urban Hawker is an Asian marketplace – think like a food court but with many more, mostly independent, Asian restaurants. We ended up getting food from two, but if you visit, I’d recommend trying different stands – or at least different dishes.
Daisy’s Dream Kitchen is the first stand when you go in using the entrance on W 51St. It serves Singaporean Peranakan dishes, which were a novelty for me. I had the Nyonya Curry Chicken (boneless chicken cooked in a thick coconut curry with potatoes – $17). It was the blah’est curry I’ve ever had – it barely had any flavor and had no complexity at all. They would have done better if they’d mixed some powdered curry powder in coconut milk (wait! is that what they did?). Totally not worth the price. I also had a single Ngoh Hiang Meatball (pork meatball with water chestnuts and shrimp, wrapped in beancurd skin and fried – $1). The small meatball – pictured in front of the rice – also had very little flavor.
The restaurant has a nice story – it was started by a 60 year old woman who wanted to share her mother’s recipes -, but the original owner is gone, and the short menu needs some quality control. I wouldn’t eat here again.
Wok n’ Staple is an off shot from a Singaporean restaurant conglomerate, offering Singaporean style hawker food. Mike ordered the Roast Cha-siew Set (roasted honey-glazed pork loin served with steamed Jasmine rice & vegetables – $16.80). It was very tasty and very reminiscent of Japanese teriyaki. Now, I wouldn’t go out of our way to get it, but we did enjoy it. Still, I’d try something a bit more exotic next time.
Urban Hawker 135 West 50th Street New York City Monday-Saturday 10AM-10PM Sunday 10AM-9PM