I Ate My Feelings At Shuka And I Have Thoughts

Shuka is a Mediterranean spot in Soho with a menu that leans into chef Ayesha Nurdjaja’s travels through Spain, North Africa, and Tel Aviv kitchens.

The vibe inside Shuka is unreasonably good for a weeknight dinner — think red cushioned seating, dark wood tables, floral arrangements, a striped ceiling, warm lighting, and decorative mirrors, plus Moroccan-influenced tiles and textiles everywhere you look. There's also a greenhouse-style back room strung with fairy lights and a lively outdoor area.

Now. Let's talk about The Feast.

Perfect for sharing, the Shuka Feast is less "appetizer" and more "here is a small buffet, please rearrange your entire evening around it." It includes an assortment of delicious dips like Labne topped with roasted grape, Hummus with beets, and my favorite Squash Skordalia made with roasted butternut squash. The appetizer platter also features Market Vegetables, Medjool Dates, Fried Halloumi with spiced yogurt, Turmeric Pickles, and crispy Falafel.

For the main, each person got to choose a protein. We got the Niman Ranch Sirloin and Grilled Shrimp, both of which were very tasty. The sirloin was charred on the outside, juicy in the middle, no notes. The shrimp was smoky and snappy. And the zhoug deserves its own fan club — it's spicy and herby and I put it on literally everything. It also came with Mixed Greens and Basmati Rice with roasted peppers, red onion, cumin, and cilantro.

We also tried the seasonal Heirloom Tomato Salad with cucumber, red onion, Kalamata olive, and feta, as well as Crispy Cauliflower on a bed of pickled mustard seed aioli.

This place is10/10, would dismantle this feast again. Bring people. Bring a big appetite. Bring stretchy pants. 

I Ate My Way Through Very Fresh Noodles At Chelsea Market And I Need Everyone To Know About The Tingly Cumin Lamb

 A love letter to hand-torn noodles, numbing spice, and the eggplant dish nobody talks about enough

If you have walked through Chelsea Market anytime in the last decade, you have probably seen the little window where a guy is slapping noodle dough against the counter like it owes him money. That's Very Fresh Noodles. I've walked past it so many times. This time, I finally sat down and ordered like I meant it: tingly and spicy cumin lamb, la mei Taiwanese beef noodle soup, tiger salad, chicken wings, and fried sticky eggplant. Five dishes, one tray, zero regrets. Here's the full breakdown.

Tingly & Spicy Cumin Lamb

This is the dish. The one everyone's Yelp review is about. The noodles are hand-torn "biangbiang" style, which means they're wide, thick, and chewy in a way that makes every other noodle you have had feel like it was phoning it in. Toss in a heap of cumin, Sichuan peppercorns, chili oil, celery, and cilantro, and you get that specific "mala" sensation: spicy like a jalapeño, but also buzzy and numbing in a way that makes your lips tingle mid-bite. Lamb was tender, and coated in enough oil and spice that I was still thinking about it hours later.

La Mei Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

If the cumin lamb is the flashy main character, this is the comforting best friend. Slow-braised beef shank, hand-pulled noodles, and a broth that's doing about six things at once. Sweet, savory, and a little tangy. It's technically a Taiwanese beef noodle soup but with a biangbiang noodle soul. Topped with pickled mustard greens, bok choy, scallion, and cilantro for crunch and brightness against all that rich broth. This is the bowl you order when it's cold outside and you want to feel hugged from the inside.

Tiger Salad

Don't skip this. It's cilantro and scallions dressed in a fermented cucumber vinaigrette with sesame oil, chili oil, soy sauce, and rice vinegar — tart, a little spicy, extremely refreshing. After the lamb and the soup, both of which are rich and heavy hitters, the tiger salad is the palate reset you didn't know you needed. Think of it as the sorbet course of a very unconventional tasting menu

Chicken Wings

Solid, no notes needed to overthink it. Crispy skin, well-seasoned, the kind of side dish that disappears off the tray before you've even really started on your noodles.

Fried Sticky Eggplant

This one deserves more hype. Crispy on the outside, soft and almost custardy inside, coated in something sweet-savory-sticky that makes it dangerously easy to keep picking at "just one more piece" until it's gone. If you're the type who thinks eggplant is boring, this dish will fully recalibrate your opinion.

Very Fresh Noodles earns the hype, and then some. The cumin lamb alone is worth the Chelsea Market crowds, but going in with a full spread with soup, salad, wings, and eggplant turned it into one of the better random weeknight food-court meals I've had in this city. Fair warning: the spice is real, the portions are generous, and you will leave smelling like cumin in the best possible way. 10/10, would fight the tourists for a table again.

I Went To Rosa Mexicano In Union Square And Now I Understand Why Guac Has Been Famous Since 1984

 Tableside guac, fall-off-the-bone pork, and fajitas that arrive still sizzling...this is comfort food of my dream.

Walking into Rosa Mexicano feels like stepping into a Union Square institution that knows exactly what it is: warm lighting, a buzzy dining room, and that unmistakable energy of a restaurant that's been doing this since 1984 and isn't interested in reinventing itself for anyone. It's the kind of place where you hear sizzling platters going by before you even open the menu, and you already know you're in for a good time.

Let's start with the obvious: you don't go to Rosa Mexicano and skip the table-side guac. It's basically illegal. This is the recipe they have been perfecting since 1984, made fresh at your table with warm corn tortilla chips and roasted tomato salsa on the side, and watching them mash it up right in front of you feels like dinner theater you actually want to be at.

Then things got serious with the Chamorro — a pork shank so tender it basically gave up and fell off the bone before I even picked up my fork. It came with cabbage escabeche, tomatillo salsa verde, habanero-pickled onions, and warm corn tortillas so you can build your own little tacos at the table, which is exactly the kind of interactive dinner activity I didn't know I needed.

The Grilled Shrimp Alambre was the surprise MVP of the night. Sautéed spinach, Mexican rice, and a chipotle mango BBQ sauce that somehow manages to be smoky and sweet and a little spicy all at once.

And if you're going full group-dinner mode, the Sizzling Fajitas are non-negotiable. Chicken and steak, both, over a smoking medley of peppers and onions that hits your table still hissing, plus corn tortillas, shredded cheese, crema, and pico de gallo to build your own. There's something deeply satisfying about a dish that announces itself before you even see it.

Rosa Mexicano isn't trying to reinvent Mexican food in Union Square... it's just doing the classics really, really well with a side of table-side theater. Bring a group, bring an appetite, and let them make the guac in front of you. You'll understand.