Thing 1: Hello new website! Welcome!!! I’m super excited to share it with you! One really cool thing about having a real grownup website is that now you can follow me! Go scroll down to the thing that says “Follow!” to receive updates by email! Yaaaaaayyy!!!

Thing 2: A foodie trip to NYC! Hooray! And what type of Broadway show do foodies go to see? A show about pie, obviously. Well, pie and other things. And foodies also enjoy other shows that don’t involve pie for the record, but the pie is an added bonus. My fabulous friend Julia and I are huge Sara Bareilles fans, so we had been dying to see her musical, “Waitress” for what felt like forever. And it was amazing (even though we sadly didn’t get to see Jessie Mueller playing the starring role– but don’t worry her understudy was great). The show was so fun and heartwarming with a super talented cast! We absolutely adored it.  

Our theatre-going evening was of course preceded by a top-notch dinner which of course required much research. Finding great restaurants is a true art. After conducting many a Google and Yelp search including keywords such as, “Best pre-show food NYC” “Trendy NYC restaurants, Broadway”, and “Cool restaurants in Theatre District”, we found Obao. Well, our waiter had a man bun if that’s any indication of its trendy-and-hip-factor. That’s when ya know. Obao is a gorgeous restaurant that serves some amazing Vietnamese and Thai food with a modern twist.

And did I mention gorgeous restaurant? The interior and its ambiance were perfection. The rooms are lit by these stunning lanterns that look like wire hot-air balloons. So pretty! All the food was also very reasonably priced, especially for NYC food!

First, we shared the Sambal Spiced Calamari! The crispy coating of the calamari was seasoned wonderfully, and it was flecked with the bright red chili peppers from the Sambal. Sambal is a Southeast Asian hot sauce, and it gave this calamari a perfect sweet heat. I find that many times when I order calamari, it’s all about the fried breading on the outside, but the pieces of calamari in this dish were huge and so tender and flavorful! The calamari was sauteed with scallions and onions and the spicy sauce went perfectly with a sweet cucumber relish for dipping.

Our two entrees were the Pad Thai and the Flank Steak Banh Mi. Pad Thai is one of my absolute favorite meals, so I’m very picky when it comes to this dish, and this was a very solid Pad Thai, but I wasn’t as wowed as I had hoped I would be. The noodles were really thin, and I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about them because they all got a little clumped together. I did love the touch of adding the poached egg, though. I’ll always stand by my statement that a runny egg makes everything better.

Julia and I have had a recent strange obsession with watching “yolk porn” videos on Instagram– videos of people seductively breaking open the runny yolk of their fried or poached egg. So we definitely had a bit of a yolk porn moment with our Pad Thai and that was this dish’s greatest achievement. I wasn’t mad at the average Pad Thai though, especially because the rest of the meal was exceptional.

Then, there was the Flank Steak Banh Mi! Banh mi is a Vietnamese sandwich served on a French baguette. The marinated thinly cut flank steak was oh so flavorful, and it was complemented by fresh cilantro.

Pickled carrots, cucumbers, and daikon added a tangy brightness to the dish, and slightly spicy chili mayo sauce was served for dipping. This sandwich was fantastic. Ugh I want to eat it again right now yumyumyummm…

In our search for the ideal cool restaurant, Julia had alerted me that the sister restaurant of Obao is Spot Dessert Bar– a place that has been on our NYC food bucket list– actually the first location on our NYC food bucket list– and yes we do indeed have an NYC food bucket list. Spot Dessert Bar is supposed to be incredible, so we knew that if Obao had anything to do with Spot, the dessert would be wonderful, and it was. We decided to order the Kabocha Brulee Cake– a warm, dense Kabocha cake (Kabocha is a Japanese pumpkin with a flavor that’s kind of cross between an American pumpkin, butternut squash, and sweet potato) with a brûléed sugar crust, topped with a sweet crumble and a beautiful dollop of creamy condensed milk ice cream. It was heavenly…
Sara Bareilles, Broadway, friendship, and great food. Who could ask for anything more?

 

Enjoy! 🙂 Love, The Perky Foodie