718 Sessions

Under fun:



718 Sessions
http://www.dannykrivit.net/



Santos Party House
96 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10013
http://www.santospartyhouse.com/



Happy New Year! We caught up with our boogie-on at Santos Party House on New Year's Day. There was a last-minute snafu with the location, as the venue was originally at Webster Hall.



Santos Party House is in a nondescript building with large blacked-out walls on Lafayette Street in Chinatown. The flyers mentioned that the party started at 6pm ($5 for the first 100 to get in), but even by then, the outside was eerily empty at 6pm. We were not even sure we were at the right place, but a line started to form a little after. Doors were opened at 6:30pm, so we got in for cheap. Yay!



The main floor of SPH was open that night. It had a roughly crooked rectangular layout, with two bars. There were at least three DJ booths that we saw, with the main one on stage. There was also a "serious" mixing board according to DJKung. The dance floor was wood and pretty even. The wall of speakers hanging on the wall looked impressive at first sight, but DJKung and I felt that the sound system needed a lot of improvement. The music did not really feel very warm, and it was hard to find the sweet spot on the dance floor.



This was our first time at 718 Sessions. We've been fans of Danny Krivit from his days at Body and Soul, so we expected a lot of classics, which he delivered. Even three days later, we're still humming "We're gonna stomp... all night... in the neighborhood...'coz it feels all right!" I must say that even with my eight-year hiatus from boogie-ing, the vibe is still the same. Well, apart from the cell phones and smoke-free environ, that is. The place did get pretty packed around 830p-9pm with a lot of sweaty, singin' and screamin' peoples.

Movies we watched this week

Under fun:

Donnie Darko (2001)

This was on tv during the long Christmas weekend. Donnie Darko is about a teenaged boy who may or may not be having grandiose and scary audiovisual hallucinations. I prefer to think it is the latter, and that the movie was exploring two universes. The part about the wormhole connecting the two seemed rather illogical, though.

DJKung liked the movie, but hated how uncertain the ending was.



Les Enfants Terribles (1950)

We got this at our local library (yay to public libraries!). I picked it to find out why this movie was such a classic. It is about two overgrown brats. The movie is really dated, with the acting very exaggerated. Nevertheless, the story was quite hilarious and more than a bit disturbed.

Always hoppin' at Hop Kee!

Under food:

Hop Kee Restaurant
21 Mott Street
New York, New York 10013
(212) 964-8365


I can't believe that we have not yet posted Hop Kee, the original denizen of our SUPERROTATION---DJKung's parents used to bring him here all the time since he was an itty bitty thing. I blame DJKung for the oversight; he tends to go here after work with his buddies. And he never brings home leftovers. Well, after getting our groove on at 718 Sessions, now was my chance.


The following are our top four picks whenever we go. The waiters know this by heart, because apparently, all their FIlipino customers order the same thing.


1. Salty squid with hot peppers. I love how they cooked it today and gave it a slight char. The squid is, yup, salty and chewy-crunchy. No flash-frozen precleaned squid here. You can taste the brine in 'em. Make sure you mind the peppers; sometimes they are benign, but once it a while they are hot-hot.



2. Young chow fried rice. DJKung absolutely digs the fried rice, wheareas I like mine plain white. I think this is what they call Hong Kong style cooking. You can really taste the wok sear in the rice.

3. Peking pork chops. Their sauce is a bit stickier than others'. Sometimes, they do go overboard with the vinegar, which Chibby does not like. I like to dribble a little bit of the sauce on my fried squid.

4. Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce. Hop Kee always cooks it just right. These babies retain their crunch and are just lovelt. In the summer, you can get their sauteed water spinach, which is equally good.

Alas, no oranges today. But plenty of Fresh Naps to clean your sticky paws after some serious eatin's.

Bistro 18

Under food:

Bistro 18
Montclair, NJ

Moms was in town last Christmas, so we had my (second? third?) belated birthday dinner. With the holiday traffic, we decided to stay close to home. Pickin's were slim, but I found that Bistro 18 was open Christmas Eve.

Our party of five was still short by two, but we got seated at 7pm with no problem (we had reservations). The place was not even half-full that night, probably because it was wet and cold outside.

Moms was hungry, so we mentioned to our host that we were ready to order. To which the host, in a Seinfeldian-Soup-Nazi huff replied, "I don't like my staff to take orders when the table is still incomplete, it confuses the staff in the kitchen." (WTF*?!!!) I have never encountered such a brusque response, which was odd given that (a) the place bills itself as a bisto; (b) it was not exactly bustling that night, and (c) they seemed to have a sufficient number of staff.
* what the fur

It was certainly bizarre to say the least. The host did grudgingly send a waiter to take our appetizer orders. The waiter seemed to have no problem whatsoever with taking our orders.

Bread basket.

Mozzarella, prosciutto and roasted peppers with balsamic sauce. The peppers were sweet, but the mozzarella was dry and bland. Couldn't even tell if it was buffalo mozzarella.

Potato and celery root soup. Nice starter, very light.

Herb-crusted snails with garlic demi-glace. We were impressed by this, it was really tasty. Chewy, buttery and well-seasoned. It came with a basil sauce and a pepper sauce, I think.

Washed down the apps with the '05 Mondavi merlot that Brother D got last Thanksgiving. It was not bad, fruity but with enough weight, balanced, eminently quaffable.

Yay, Brother F and his friend made it! Of course being the good sister, I immediately dispatched him to the local wine store for more vin. This is what he got.

Frei Brothers Reserve merlot, Sonoma. What a good pick... it was a tad sweeter than the Mondavi we just had, and also worked well with the food. Brother F remembered our sojourns in Sonoma county last Thanksgiving, so he figured that the wines would sorta taste the same. Can't argue with that logic.

I was not able to go and take pictures of everybody's plates. I ordered the tuna. Brother F got the veal, I think, and his friend ordered the seafood pasta. Moms got full from the soup and bread.

Wasabi crusted yellowfin tuna. With brown gaze (soy-based?), yellow rice, steamed bok choy and wasabi on the side. I liked the tuna, which was very generous serving. I also liked the crunchy wasabi crust on the outside, kinda like a spin on your typical pepper-crusted tuna. The sauce was super-sweet and I was not fond of it. The bok choy was alright, a bit on the limp side. The rice did not work well with the fish; too many flavors going on.



Capellini (angel hair pasta) with shrimp, lobster, scallops, arugula and fresh plum tomatoes. The friend said it was pretty good.


I think this was veal scallopini with sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke. The picture does not really match the description on their online menu, so I could be wrong.

Bistro 18 has a nice selection of desserts.

Creme brulee. I think the sauce was raspberry. This was textbook-perfect: brittle crunch of the caramelized sugar and creamy, silky custard. There was also a syrupy sweet sorbet (raspberry? strawberry?) that went untouched.

I think this was ice cream in a crepe cone, but not sure.

Could not get this picture to come out clearly. This was an apple tarte tatin with vanilla ice cream.

Everybody finished their plates, which said something for the food. We even got to meet the executive chef, Ricky, that night. Very young-looking Filipino dude, and he sounded pretty serious when he mentioned his training and experience. I wonder if he was curious about the crazy table that dared to order apps without their party being complete.

Bistro18 is BYOB.