Last week, I realized that
the problem with Howard County's food options is that we have way too many
supermarkets.
I spent much of last week in Manhattan. I saw a single supermarket in days of walking around the island, and I ate wonderfully. Some really expensive stuff. But mostly, the food cost the same as around here; it was just better -- a brick oven pizza, a bahn mi sandwich, some French desserts called macaron.
The key to this abundance seems to be that New Yorkers are hungry.
They can't buy their own food. So they flock to these restaurants. We waited an hour to eat ramen on West 52d Street. Somebody roughed out a basement and installed cooking equipment against one wall. Hip youngsters pack the 18 seats to buy soup. They stood around patiently in a rainstorm, way less jostling than the crowds at Facci.
You get a bowl of chicken-based soup, tricked out with noodles, some vegetables, and two slices of pork belly. Delicious! I'm not saying that we'll attract the three Japanese chefs in their urban kerchiefs, but someone could make some money selling ramen -- or bahn mi -- or macarons -- if we could make people hungrier around here.
First, we need to start knocking down the supermarkets. Oh, I see you had the same idea.
I spent much of last week in Manhattan. I saw a single supermarket in days of walking around the island, and I ate wonderfully. Some really expensive stuff. But mostly, the food cost the same as around here; it was just better -- a brick oven pizza, a bahn mi sandwich, some French desserts called macaron.
The key to this abundance seems to be that New Yorkers are hungry.
They can't buy their own food. So they flock to these restaurants. We waited an hour to eat ramen on West 52d Street. Somebody roughed out a basement and installed cooking equipment against one wall. Hip youngsters pack the 18 seats to buy soup. They stood around patiently in a rainstorm, way less jostling than the crowds at Facci.
You get a bowl of chicken-based soup, tricked out with noodles, some vegetables, and two slices of pork belly. Delicious! I'm not saying that we'll attract the three Japanese chefs in their urban kerchiefs, but someone could make some money selling ramen -- or bahn mi -- or macarons -- if we could make people hungrier around here.
First, we need to start knocking down the supermarkets. Oh, I see you had the same idea.
Some HowChow suggestions: Angelo's Coal
Oven Pizza on W. 57th, Totto Ramen on W. 52nd,
Macaron Cafe on 7th
Avenue (or East
59th), and il Laboratorio del Gelato, which has moved to a new location on
the Lower East Side.
I also tried Bon Chon's Korean fried chicken for the first time. It wasn't a fair test. We had spent so much time at Mood looking for modern fabric that I had to order takeout to get back to our hotel. The 10-block walk killed the crisp.
I also tried Bon Chon's Korean fried chicken for the first time. It wasn't a fair test. We had spent so much time at Mood looking for modern fabric that I had to order takeout to get back to our hotel. The 10-block walk killed the crisp.
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