Adventures In Menu Collecting: Chelsea Cottage

I often wonder if restaurant staff keep track of how many menus they give out and how many are returned to them especially if you have a large party. I'm guessing probably not, and they probably don't care either. Sometimes when I'm with a group of 4 or more people, I get really gutsy by looking at the menu, ordering my food then sticking it in my bag, which was the case at Chelsea Cottage.

The restaurant does fairly well with take out orders more than it does dining in. I order from this place a lot. It's a combination of Chinese and Vietnamese foods, and I've ordered from both menus. While it isn't the best Vietnamese restaurant in the city, it certainly is convenient, inexpensive and it tastes pretty good. Supposedly, if you really want good Vietnamese food you head to Chinatown. Pho shoa!

Upon looking at the menu, my friend, David, noticed something peculiar. I call it Engrish. Number 17: Salmon Fish, anyone?

For appetizers, we shared cold sesame noodles and scallion pancakes, and David ordered the summer roll for himself. I was a bit disappointed with the taste and texture of the scallion pancakes. It was very crispy, overdone and tough to chew. I could barely taste the scallions let alone see it. I much prefer Korean scallion pancakes over Chelsea Cottage's. However, the cold sesame noodles is a dish that I always order from here. I love tossing the noodles in the sauce with my chopsticks to coat the entire dish mixing in the bean sprouts and scallions. The smell of peanut butter, soy sauce and sesame oil mixing together makes me so excited to eat this dish.

For my entree, I ordered another favorite of mine, Singapore mei fun noodles with tofu, egg and vegetables. Once again, Mark introduced me to this savory noodle dish years ago. It's rice noodles with Singapore seasoning (think yellow curry powder) with mixed vegetables, egg and your choice of meat, which in this case I went with tofu. You can really taste the cumin and tumeric and the smell is very aromatic. It reminds me of being in a Turkish bazaar, and although I've never been to Turkey (yet), I imagine this is what it smells like. Other entree orders from our table included beef with broccoli, chicken sate and banh hoi.

Since we were a block away from Billy's Bakery, we stopped in to pick up a few cupcakes before ending the evening. I was given red velvet cupcake with white frosting. I decided to eat it when I returned home, but the others devoured theirs in front of the bakery. When we lived on 20th & 9th Ave., around the corner from Billy's, we used to get cupcakes from here all the time, but since the cupcake wars in NYC exploded over the last 7 years, my current favorite neighborhood cupcake shop is on 23rd St. between 6th & 7th: Big Booty Bread Co. I prefer my red velvet cupcakes with real cream cheese frosting and Big Booty Bread Co. serves it just like that.