Tuesday Night: Gotham West Market - Ivan Ramen and Genuine Roadside

Towards the end of one year, my friends thought that we weren't hanging out enough. It's true, we weren't. So they started Tuesday night get-togethers. Every Tuesday, we'll pick a bar to drink, eat, and hang out for a couple of hours. Whoever can make it will attend. If you're busy, it's okay. There's always next week. So this is Tuesday Nights on Tasty Eating where you will find bars that serve food and how we like them.



On this recent Tuesday Night, we headed out to: Gotham West Market



I really wish this food court was open when Mr. M&P and I used to live in Hell's Kitchen. It was would certainly made it in our weekly rotation for food.

They have some pretty tasty places in there like Ivan Ramen which is all the rage right now. His sweet savory ramen broth, chewy noodles, and garnishes have been praised by many. On my night there, I had the Classic Shoyu ($13) with his famous chicken broth, chasu, and added an egg (+$2). Delicious and flavorful. The rye ramen noodles were heartier than most noodles and paired well with the broth. Overall, it's a lighter ramen but I don't mind it at all. It's certainly different and yet very delicious.

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Mitsuwa

Mitsuwa is a great place to grab hard to find Japanese and Asian groceries. But really, I go there for the prepared food. The food court is always busy so be aggressive. Their prepared sushi is also good to take home for a later meal. This post is mainly to showcase the former.

The ramen line is always long. Put your order in and just wait for your number to be called. In the meantime, find some seating. People are hawks when it comes to this. Don't be afraid to walk extremely fast to get a table.

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Ginger Sushi

When I moved to NJ, I was nervous about the take out/delivery options I would have. I got really spoiled in NYC with the plethora of choices around my home. I certainly wasn't expecting a close representation of the kind of places I had in Hell's Kitchen. But I did need to know if I could count on some of the basic meals I ordered frequently. Sushi is such a meal. When it comes to this delicious Japanese cuisine, there are kinds for me: moderately priced and high end. The latter is usually set aside for a special occasion. What I wanted was a moderately priced neighborhood sushi restaurant that I can count on. Now, you may have noticed that I didn't say cheap. In general, I do not enjoy cheap sushi. I think the quality lacks so much that it's worth paying just a bit more for something substantially better.

So Mr. M&P and I one night decided to try out Ginger Sushi which was only a block away from our home. The convenience was clear. But what about the quality of food? Well, a good sign was that the restaurant was regularly filled through all nights of the week. At least the ingredients were having a good turn around rate. That's important to me when it comes to sushi. But the real test was actually going there and trying it for ourselves. For the first attempt, we went to the restaurant to eat in. We started with a seaweed salad ($3.75) which is a simple staple. The serving size was quite small and the addition of fake crab meat was neither warranted nor needed. Otherwise, the seaweed salad was just fine as it met every one of my expectations.

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