cannibal - gotham west market

I went back to Gotham West Market for another food experience. The first day after ramen, Cannibal wasn't going to open till 5pm and I wasn't going to return that day. This time I had another person with me so I could order more things.

We ended up sharing a salami plate, cheese plate, roasted Japanese yam with sea salt and the pigs head terrine (for me).

The yam was glorious. It was buttery and the skin on the outside caramelized like a candied yam. I barely needed to add sea salt as I ended up eating it with everything else we ordered. It went well with everything. I am partial to all yams, however, so this is not surprising. 

The pigs head terrine could have used a bit more pickly-vinegary flavor or a lime on the side, but I love my head cheese so I'd get it again (and again). 

We let our server pick the salumi and cheeses for us. I liked the meat on the far right the best. Our cheese selection was a soft cow's milk, sharp blue and a mild gruyere of which the soft and blue stood out the most for me. 

I had a lime-heavy rum drink which I'd go back for again plus they have negroni and Manhattans on tap! They also had his favorite beer, hobgobiln, which means I can drag him back again without complaint (plus he ate most of the yam). 

ivan ramen slurp shop - gotham west market grand opening

I had to make a trek out to 11th avenue and 45th in order to get my slurp on. It was super cold outside so ramen must be the cure, right? 

 I chose the roasted garlic mazemen with roasted tomato, egg and chili garlic oil as add-ons. The broth was creamy and complimented the chewy rye noodles quite well. There was, as you can see, a metric ton of green onions put on top. Towards the end of the bowl I got a big mouthful and had to fight off nausea (too many onions at once does that to me every time). Since I didn't want to spew all over their opening, nor lose the food I'd just finished consuming, I had an internal battle with my stomach and won. *cue Final Fantasy win music*

The chili garlic oil wasn't spicy at all, which I kinda liked cause I could dump the whole thing in, but kinda didn't because even after dumping the whole thing in there was barely any kick. I did love the garlic flavor though.

Also, and this is a big also, there was one piece of chashu nestled in the entire bowl. I expected two, probably because of Ippudo and Totto spoiling me. I know you can add additional meat to the ramen, but normally when I do that I find that I have too much if the original had more than one piece. Knowing this now, I'd probably get the pork as an add-on and skip the roasted tomato unless they can get it where the tomato is actually room temperature to warm (mine was cold in the middle).

I also had their yuzu lemonade which was quite refreshing and not weirdly lemonadey like some other restaurants seems to make their lemonade. I still haven't found something close to what my mom used to do besides, perhaps, Auntie Annie's pretzels which gets the flavor right if a little too sweet for my liking. 

I'd totally go back and give the other noodles a try plus they have a whitefish rice bowl I'm interested in tasting. Next time, I will not stuff a wad of green onions in my mouth either. 

some more shots from castle on the hudson

Maybe I'll get to writing the full description of this, maybe not. The amuse bouche was a chilled corn soup shooter with black olive dust and some sort of cream. There were little phyllo rolls with eggplant puree and goat cheese and i had a lovely bit of salmon.