Paris Baguette: Asian Pastries Are Freaking Awesome

Paris Baguette. They aren't French, and they definitely do not sell the best baguettes, but they are conveniently located 1 block from my office and filled with tasty pastry treats.

 Cheese Croissant

Flaky chewy croissant with a slice of American cheese in the center. Basically, a fat kids grilled cheese. I suggest if you do get this one, throw it in the toaster to melt the cheese more. The cheese was a bit rubbery, but still tasty.

Price: $1.70

 Red Bean Squares

Basically mini croissants sandwiching red bean paste. Tasty, and sounds like exactly what is in it. Nothing special, I probably wouldn't get this again.

Price: $ 1.70

Cream Cheese Stuffed Bread

Holy Shit. 

Get this.

 Warm fluffy bagel shaped bread topped with toasted almond slices. Inside? Sweet creamy cream cheese. Freaking awesome.

Price: $2.00

Matcha Green Tea Bread with Sweet Potato Filling

The sweet potato was a little too sweet, but still pretty good. Nothing I would hunt down again.

Price: $1.80

Strawberry Spongecake

No, this isn't all for me! I got the awesome job of picking out a co-workers birthday cake.

It came with a super cute cake slicer and matches!

Pineapple slices stuffed inside. Light and spongy, almost guilt free cake! The perfect portion for 8 people (or 2?)

Price: $22.00

Verdict:  Trial and error hear, but go for your gut feeling (aka, what pastries make you salivate at first glance) and you won't be disappointed!

Paris Baguette

various locations

Arirang : Apparently They Think a Giant Ordered the Meal

Oh Koreatown.. .how lucky I am to now work right across the street from it? Packed with a seemingly endless array of restaurant options, I ended up trying out Arirang. After hearing rave reviews on their hand pulled noodles, I had to order from them. Especially since on that particular day, it was rainy and cold out.

Trying to find the actual entrance was a bit confusing, nested on the 2nd floor between 4 other stairs/ resturants will make you do a little back and forth dance before you find to correct pair of stairs. Oh, and they are pretty creepy....

Did I say creepy? Yeah.....

After picking up my order, I was certain that I had gotten the wrong thing. I mean come on, the bag was the size of a large grocery bag! And the noodle container was literally a gallons worth!! The girls in my office looked at me with their egg white and lettuce salad in envy disgust.

The three sides it came with. They smelled like death, and I had to immediately close the containers before the fumes seeped into cubicles

The Chicken Kalgusu and Sujaebi

Well this would be just impossible to eat from the container, I don't think my desk even had enough space to fit it. I had to scoop some in a separate bowl ( this was particularly difficult since the noodles were so slippery!) 

I took spoon full of broth, it was thickened with the starchy run-off from the kalguksu (knife cut noodles) and the sujaebi (hand pulled noodles). It was chickeny in every way possible. Not too salty and so aromatic. It would put any chicken noodle soup or chicken broth to shame. It also came with sliced potatoes, sliced onions and and a heap of curly scallions to top off this hearty meal. 

The noodles? Slippery pliable and when slurping, I most definitely flung some loose droplets of broth on my computer monitor. The knife cut noodles were like eating pieces of dumpling dough, super chewy.  

Price :$10.00

Verdict: Well this tub lasted me about 5 days (!!) worth of lunch. Though I had to buy some more chicken (since there were only about 5 pieces in the whole thing) it was still am amazing deal. Perhaps I will try eating in next time and share this dish with 4 other people...

Arirang

32 West 32nd Street

New York, NY 10001