Tuesday, May 4, 2010

NY Nights: MoMA + Dim Sum Go Go + Hon Cafe

The other night, Greeshma, her friend & our new eating partner in crime, Belmund, and I began our Friday night with contemporary culture at the Museum of Modern Art for Target Fridays, in which admission is free beginning from 4p-8p.  It's a very good deal, since adult admission is normally $20 and student admission is $12. The museum was plenty crowded with fellow freeloaders, testing our patience a plenty, but it was worth it to see the Tim Burton exhibit finally and discover his great sense of humor.

We also took some time to appreciate the classic arts


and more contemporary art a la Marina Abramovic, who declares herself the grandmother of performance art.  I think her artwork continues to haunt all of us still as the exhibit includes live re-performances of some of her past works which involved us walking in between live naked people, a live naked woman lying on a table with a skeleton draped over her, videos of naked people humping a grassy field, and a video of a woman repeatedly thrusting a skull towards her breasts.  It was an extremely eye-opening experience, and I will be the first to say that I will never understand performance art, especially what was occurring on the top floor of the MoMA.


The artist herself was involved in a performance on the mezzanine level in which she sits at the table, and anyone is able to come and sit across from her and gaze into her eyes.  Some people describe the experience as profound, and they discover things about themselves that they never knew before.  It's hard to take someone seriously though who looks like they are wearing a Snuggie in public. 

Walking in between naked people did wonders for our hunger, so we headed to eat some dim sum at Dim Sum Go Go in Chinatown.  Belmund and I felt ultra-taboo for eating dim sum at night (who knew there was such a thing?!), but as Greeshma reminded us, this was the beauty of New York where such things actually existed and tasted ultra-delicious.  Dim Sum Go Go is Greeshma's favoritest dim sum spot.


At Dim Sum Go Go, there are no carts that come around where you point at the items of interest and they stamp your card with your selection.  Instead, it is done more sushi style, where you tally the items you want off a list, and they make your dim sum fresh to order. 

We took turns making selections off of the menu and nibbled on roasted soy nuts as we waited for their arrival.


The first round of dim sum involved:

Chicken feet.  Belmund ended up eating all of these himself.  He said they tasted pretty good.

Shrimp and chive dumplings.

They were chock full of amazing chives.

Duck dumplings.

The duck dumplings were moist and very sweet.  I could have eaten ten more.

Chicken and sticky rice in lotus leaf.

I also loved this one, but I do love anything sticky rice.

Shiu mai.  More love.

The second round of dim sum involved:

Fried mango rolls.

The fried mango rolls had just-underripe mango slice fried in a thin, crisp wrapper.  It was a nice fruity contrast to all of our meaty dimsum picks.

Crab dumplings.  Despite the bright green wrapper, one of my least favorite as the crab meat was more in meatball form instead of fresh chunks of crab meat.  Was okay, but not great compared to the others we had that night.

Roast pork buns, Greeshma's beloved.

Bright fluffy dough encircling sweet, roasted pork meat.  Delicious.

And chicken buns.  Also good, but not knockout like the roast pork.

All in all, the dim sum was very, very good.  Super hot and fresh, and everything seasoned very well.  The only hesitation, as you will find in reading other reviews of Dim Sum Go Go is the price.  $4/plate is steep for most traditional dim sum places, but most traditional dim sum places are not open for dinner when the dishes do taste so, so good because it feels so, so wrong.

After dim sum, we went to find a Chinese dessert spot for a light treat.  Remembering a blog entry about a certain Tiger roll, we headed to Hon Cafe, which I pronounce like my name because it's just so close.

As stated previously, Asians are so good at making super cute desserts.




It was love at first sight for Greeshma, the sheep cake and the tiger roll.

Chocolate sprinkles along the base really sealed the deal for Greeshma.  They did add a nice crunch to all of the cake's creamy wonder.  It had just the right touch of sweetness and a lovely amount of creaminess.

It had such cute chocolate dot eyes that Greeshma gazed into as she ate the head in one fell swoop!

A glimpse of Greeshma's fierce tiger roll that she loved.

I tried their pearl milk tea, which was a bit bland.  The pearls were fine.  Belmund ordered a lychee slush which smelled amazing.  Can never go wrong with lychee!  I have a feeling their fresh fruit drinks are the surefire way to go here.

Greeshma + Belmund at the end of a successful New York night !

11 W 53rd St, New York, NY‎
(212) 708-9840‎

Dim Sum Go Go
5 East Broadway, New York, NY‎
(212) 732-0796‎
Dim Sum Go Go on Urbanspoon

Hon Cafe
70 Mott St, New York, NY‎
(212) 219-1431‎

1 comment:

  1. ugh, i want to eat EVERY PICTURE!! except maybe for the moma ones... that woman looked creepy!!hahaha. i read about the exhibit in nytimes! so cool that you got to see it in person!!

    fried.
    mango.
    rolls.
    *sigh*

    ReplyDelete