Tofu in a Pod at Penn

Last week, I found myself at UPenn midweek for a recruiting trip for my "real" job. Since I had to stay overnight, I met up with my friend JR from college, who's in his third year of law school at Penn, for dinner on Wednesday night. We made our way to Pod, an Asian fusion restaurant attached to the Inn at Penn, where I was staying.

Pod is a weird, weird place. It's all futuristic plastic surfaces, primary colors, and shades of white. Our two-person "booth" was basically a niche carved into the wall under a recessed window that made me feel as though I was eating in a dungeon. There was anime playing on a flat-screen TV over the sushi bar, which (of course) had a conveyor belt. It was that kind of place.

Pod is actually relatively expensive, even compared to Manhattan prices, which surprised me. And the vegetarian options were somewhat limited. But I decided to go for the tofu lettuce wraps with Thai peanut sauce-- what could go wrong? Well, when the plate arrived, I was startled to find that the tofu in question was deep-fried. Oy. I tried to eat as much as I could, but the sauce's spices weren't that tasty and the whole thing was just clumsy and heavy, and with every bite I was sure the dish would make me feel miserably sick. I ended up primarily picking out the bean threads and scallions and eating them with the lettuce and the peanut sauce. Oh well. Fortunately, I actually felt okay afterwards-- score one for my stomach!

Regrettable lettuce wraps

JR went with a Pod Caesar salad, which was both ample and delicious (according to him). Special points for the black sesame seeds, which always add dramatic flair. To the salad, JR added an order of Tempura rock shrimp, which he also enjoyed. The candied walnuts that came in the mixture looked tempting, but I was dissuaded from trying one by the mysterious heavy mayonnaise-y sauce coating them. This dish also included grilled pineapple, which JR spoke highly about, but I can't for the life of me find it in the picture below. I suppose we will just have to trust.

Asian Caesar

Fried tiny shrimp

Overall, Pod was... weird, and kind of cool. It was clearly more a scene than a value- or high-dining destination; they had interesting-looking cocktails and a lounge area that I could tell could be an on-campus hot spot if they play their cards right. JR and I definitely had fun, but as a vegetarian who doesn't eat much sushi, I don't think I'd return to Pod for the food alone. It's a two Offset Spatula destination, by Philly or New York standards, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't be back for a cocktail or two...

Pod
3636 Sansom Street
215-387-1803

Blossom gets the best of me

Ever since I started at the bakery, the "gourmet organic vegan" restaurant Blossom has haunted me. It's right across from the bakery, and it's supposed to be the best vegetarian food in the city. But I never really wanted to go, even though, as a vegetarian, I'm SUPPOSED to want to go. Well, the guilt finally got the better of me, and earlier this week, I met BL there for a catch-up dinner.

The dining room is very interesting. You enter through an unmarked black door, turn right, and all of a sudden you're in what looks like someone's living room. It's quiet and soothing and quite nice, but a little weird, since it does feel like you're in someone's house. Regardless, there's a lot of space between the tables, and it's a pleasant place to be.

We perused the menu (which states the Blossom is "first and foremost animal caring") and placed our orders. BL started with the soup du jour, a coconut and sweet corn soup, which came with two slices of bread. It was a copious bowl of sunny yellow soup, and a taste revealed the powerful taste of coconut. BL noted it was a bit sweet but still relatively good.

Sweet & coconutty

For an entree, BL had chosen the baby spinach risotto, upon my recommendation (I'd heard that it was really good). I took a few bites, and it was... well, interesting. Incredibly rich and hearty, with huge chunks of mushrooms and bits of tofu, and perhaps too much lemon (BL wasn't all that into the citrus kick the dish provided). It was a huge portion and so rich that the few bites I had left me feeling slightly sick.

So incredibly rich

My own entree was a small grilled tofu salad. This was a simple mixed green salad topped with a bit of shredded seaweed, a few halved cherry tomatoes, and two triangles of grilled tofu. The tofu was soft and warm, but the greens were, well, greens, and the seaweed was seaweedy. The carrot-miso dressing, which I got on the side, was unappealingly oily with little flavor. While nothing was necessarily bad about the salad, it wasn't that great, either, and it left me still quite hungry.

Pretty but bland

Since I had (distinctly non-vegan, non-organic) treats from the bakery, we skipped dessert, paid the bill, and left. Blossom is a relatively expensive destination, and though I went with a salad rather than one of the more creative vegetarian entrees, I can't really recommend the restaurant. I've found that vegetarian restaurants often compensate for the lack of meat in their dishes by making their food incredibly rich and heavy in other ways, and I always leave feeling a little weighed down. While I definitely respect what Blossom is doing, for what I'm looking for, there are many cheaper, better places in the city to go. As a result, Blossom gets two Offset Spatulas and a tip of my hat.

Blossom
187 Ninth Avenue, between 21st and 22nd Streets
212-627-1144

Ripped off at Room Service

This evening, walking home from the bakery, I passed a new restaurant on 9th Ave between 47th and 48th streets. Called Room Service, it was Thai, like every other restaurant on 9th Ave, and it looked cool. So when the bro and I were searching for a dinner destination, we headed straight there.

I'll be upfront with the primary positive of dining at RS: the space is cool. Very cool. It's modern and baroque at the same time: The chairs are metal wire covered with black pads; there's a collection of different shaped mirrors on the ceiling; and the center of the room is occupied by a giant chandelier. The bathroom was gorgeous and dominated by an enormous framed mirror leaning up against one wall. Even the food presentation and the accompanying tableware were really cool. You'll never be bored eating there, that's for sure-- there's always something interesting to look at.

Unfortunately, the food isn't quite as cool. The bro and I both agonized over our food selections, as there were many items on the menu that appealed to both of us. After much thought, he went with an appetizer sampler, ordering the chicken satay, the coconut calamari tempura, and the assorted golden fritters. The satay arrived first and was definitely the winner of all of them-- it was beautiful and very tasty, he reported. The assorted golden fritters were merely "meh"; while some were good, some weren't. And the calamari was simply awful: not only did it not taste of coconut, but it was so over-fried that the entire dish was desiccated. The bro tried one or two bites of it and left the remainder in the bowl.

Vertical satay

Fritters. In one half of the bowl.

Brittle and dry... but was once calamari

My own selection was the spicy Thai basil saute with vegetables and tofu. It was okay; not incredibly flavorful but not awful. Bizarrely, it got cold rather quickly. The accompanying sticky white rice was probably better than the main dish-- very coolly presented and delicious, especially when doused with soy sauce from the amazingly awesome bottle the bro requested.

Stealthily expensive...

Mod rice

Throughout the meal, service was incredibly, claustrophobically attentive. We were asked whether our meal was okay by three or four separate waiters (I lost count); one waitress attempted to take away one of our plates two times while we were still not done with it. This is clearly a function of the restaurant being new, but.... still. At a certain point, you've gotta let us eat in peace.

In any case, all this would lead me to waffle between granting two and three Offset Spatulas. But wait-- Room Service decided it for me. When the bill arrived, my dish was a dollar extra than it had been on the menu. When I asked the waiters about the charge, they informed me that the extra charge was because I had asked for tofu AND vegetables-- tofu is $1 extra. One of the waiters went to retrieve the menu to "clear things up." Well, nowhere on the menu did it disclose the extra charge; in the "Vegetarian dishes" corner, it stated that all dishes could be made "with assorted tofu and a variety of vegetables upon request." Silly me, I took that to mean that dishes could have veggies and tofu for the stated vegetarian price. Apparently not. I told the waiter that that was misleading and I wouldn't have ordered the tofu if I had known it was going to be a dollar more. He said something to the effect of "wow, thanks for informing me," and then did nothing. So I paid my extra dollar and we left.

And that, dear readers, is how we went from a potential three-OSer with a probable return visit due to the cool atmosphere to a never-again two-OS place, far down my priority list of Thai places on 9th. Too bad, too, because the space itself has such promise.

Room Service
9th Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets

The squishy, the spicy, and the bland at Land Thai Kitchen

On a chilly Monday night, AV and I were driving down the West side when I suggested we stop at Land Thai Kitchen for dinner. Land had been a favorite of AV's-- we considered going there for dinner last weekend, but the no-reservations policy left us facing an undesirable wait time. This seemed perfect: we'd park right nearby, and on a weekday night at around 7PM, the wait couldn't be too long.

We were right--though the tiny dining room seemed full, we were seated right away. One table switch later (as is often the case in NYC, tiny = uncomfortable, especially when a cold draft envelops the room aggressively every time the door opens), we were ready to order.

First up: a shared order of the vegetable dumplings. Described as "shitake mushroom, sweet corn, tofu, spinach, peanut, garlic chip, and sesame soy," these appeared as four kelly green blobs on the plate next to a dish of dipping sauce. The one word I can use to describe these dumplings is squishy. In fact, I couldn't stop saying that word while we were eating them, which probably detracted from the overall dumpling experience. But I couldn't help it, I swear, as these dumplings were the most squishy food I'd ever ingested. The wrapper had no texture, and the filling was sticky and gummy and... well... squishy. It felt like a food you'd gum rather than chew if you had no teeth, or even if you did have teeth, which is what we did. The flavor itself was powerfully peanutty, which was weird because there were no visible or detectable peanuts in the green parcels. Overall consensus was that if the chef had pan-fried the dumplings, thereby giving them a bit of crunchy texture, they would have been improved immeasurably.

Squiiiiiishy

For an entree, AV got the wok basil with beef. It's listed as very spicy on the menu, but he specifically requested mild, which our server seemed to acknowledge. What emerged, though, was an inferno on a plate. AV noted that the portion sizes used to be much bigger (Land is under new management, and according to AV previously the plate would have been completely full rather than what you see below). But that may have been a blessing in disguise, because after shoveling the food down as fast as he could, a masterful technique to avoid tasting and/or searing one's tongue, AV had to take a bit of quality time in the bathroom to reorient (reattach?) his taste buds. And again: this was MILD. Let that be a lesson to you, folks. Exactly what lesson, I can't say. But a lesson nonetheless.

Spiiiiiiicy

My own choice was the wok vegetable medley with tofu. This melange included napa cabbage, baby corn, snow peas, broccoli, cauliflower, baby corn, and tomato, along with a few big chunks of lightly fried tofu, all in a ginger-garlic sauce. Ironically, perhaps, this dish could have used some of the wok basil and beef's spice. While there wasn't anything necessarily wrong with the dish, it just lacked flavor, or punch-- I guess it was a bit bland. It also seemed like something I could easily make in my own kitchen, and do, for that matter. Nonetheless, it was satisfying and ample, especially with the large dish of jasmine rice that came alongside (free with all the entrees).

Bland.

All in all, I guess I'd say Land was a bit disappointing, especially compared to how much AV used to like it. While there wasn't anything terrible about the food, we didn't have anything that we'd go out of our way to have again, and seeing as how Land is very much out of the way for both of us, I wouldn't necessarily go back. With the additional fact that the dining room is small, cramped, and largely uncomfortable, I'll give Land two Offset Spatulas and counsel you to stick with your neighborhood Thai place.

Land Thai Kitchen
450 Amsterdam, between 81st and 82nd Streets
212-501-8121