New York Prices

Paella Valenciana from TORO, a Spanish tapas restaurant in Boston's South End.

One of Spain's greatest legacies to the world in all of history is the tapas restaurant. Called by some as "small plates," tapas dishes most closely resemble appetizers, h'orderves, or gourmet bar food – petite and shareable portions of what are usually finely executed culinary creations. In recent years, several modern cuisine and fusion restaurants have followed suit in serving menus in the tapas tradition. Traif, the restaurant I mentioned late last month, can be considered one of these avant-garde, new American, tapas-styled restaurants.

I like Korean food. I like small plates. Together, they make the best dinner you will ever have in your life. Thanks to modern Korean fusion, we now have some of the most innovative foods invented thus far in the 21st century, including the bulgogi Korean beef slider and the kalbi short rib taco. In the West Los Angeles area, locked in the heart of downtown Culver City, was my all-time favorite restaurant, Gyenari. The best things in life may not be free, but they will surely have coupons or happy hour prices, and Gyenari's happy hour dishes were arguably the best spent $13 I ever paid for a meal.

We as humans have lost many a great thing to well-intended but unwarranted and imprudent reinvention. Take the new Penn Station, for example, on West 34th Street. What was once a grand architectural marvel is now an unsightly, haphazard mesh of walls, train tracks, and escalators, all thanks to the reinvention of the 1960s – a decade of freedom and love that also happened to be the decade that made everything look ugly. A tragedy to the world, Gyenari earlier this year also decided to reinvent itself into a more expensive version of the original, now called Moko, without its beloved bulgogi sliders or kimchi fried rice.

Los Angeles is the Korean food capital of the nation, and it has been difficult, to say the least, finding anthing comparable in New York City. Imagine my excitement, then, when I discovered Danji – a small restaurant on West 52nd Street, serving the same tapas-style Korean fusion food that Gyenari once did.

Whelk salad and soba, kimchi bacon fried "paella," and pork belly sliders. I don't know what possessed me to take pictures of my food.

Danji's food was lacking in substance, but adequately delicious and of excellent quality. I am not much a food critic; I am, though, a price critic. I couldn't find it in my heart to mention to the white couple sitting next to me that the kimchi and the scallion pancakes they ordered for something like $16 are usually free (though maybe not as fancy) at other Korean restaurants. In comparison? Take a look at a couple select dishes:

GYENARI, Culver City:
Bulgogi Sliders with grilled onions and gouda ... $5
Kimchi Fried Rice with double-fried pork belly and fried egg ... $4

DANJI, New York City:
Bulgogi Filet Mignon Sliders ... $14
Kimchi Bacon Fried "Paella" ... $14 (+$2 with fried egg)

Perhaps I am only mourning the death of Gyenari, but I personally consider these New York prices to be inexcusable, especially for Kimchi fried rice. However, because Danji's meat is all organic, and because not everyone comes from Los Angeles, and considering the cost of atmosphere and presentation, I suppose the prices are acceptable to the average New Yorker and the New York City tourist who know no better. And, I suppose, there is a reason why Gyenari no longer exists.

Danji's business card details, included only because I like its clean look.

"What do you expect? It's New York prices" seems to be the ubiquitous excuse. A tofu soup from BCD Tofu House in Los Angeles costs $8.99; from BCD Tofu House in New York City, $11.99. The one-dollar menu at McDonald's in midtown? $1.69. So here is the lesson of the day, known as The Law of New York City Prices: Everything in New York is 15 to 500% more expensive than it is in Los Angeles. If the summer humidity, trash on the streets, crowds, and city pigeons haven't already ruined your day, then rest assured that New York City prices will. Bring cash accordingly.

Skinny Jeans and Bacon

Brooklyn Bridge, the gateway to Hipsterland.

New York City is full of hipsters. City hipsters are purposefully unconventional, less ambitious versions of city people, who come in several varieties of plaid, marled wool, or vintage denim. Every social blogger has written in some way or another their sociological interpretation of hipsters.

I don’t really care what hipsters are, and I don’t want to burden you with another attempt to divulge in detail how much I know about the illusive subculture of people. I am, however, very interested in the places where hipsters flock. Hipsters live in little coffee shops and cafés, which happen to be concentrated in unusually desirable, not-too-ghetto, young, and surprisingly affordable neighborhoods, neither too close nor too far a distance from mainstream life. If you want to see a live hipster in his or her natural habitat, look no further than Williamsburg in Brooklyn. One step off the L train at Bedford, and suddenly the average population age drops by 20 years, and everyone's faces are covered with stubble or beards.

The hipsters' greatest and possibly only tangible usefulness to society is the fact that tiny enclaves of gentrified housing and exciting new restaurants follow them wherever they go – things which even normal people can enjoy. One such novelty, Traif, in the southern tip of Williamsburg, has won its way to being among my favorite reasonably priced restaurants of all time (though I rarely frequent it).

Traif for brunch. Particularly note the sweet potato fries with chipotle aioli sauce, strawberry pancake, and bacon donuts. Dinner is even better.

Brought to you by chef Jason Marcus, who in the past dabbled with some restaurants in Southern California, Traif boasts of small and shareable dishes of duck, pork, shellfish, and anything unkosher – all in the tradition of "New American" cuisine, which is, what I've discovered, simply a hip way of saying, "Menu changes frequently; chef will cook whatever he wants to cook today."

Rarely do I find myself compelled to advertise for a restaurant that I like; Traif is among the few. But to avoid rambling on like a foodie, I will just say this: Traif has the best pig tail and strawberry pancakes I've ever eaten. The end. If you want to know more about this restaurant or read an actual review, look it up yourself on yelp or something.