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Cafe Cello
The guy behind the counter asked me, "Do you want skin?" Am I alive? Do I like oxygen? Do I like comic cons? Or cherry blossoms? Uh, duh! Of course instead of saying that, I just nodded like an idiot and drooled on the counter, but who is counting? When I saw the post on Cafe Cello on Midtown Lunch, I knew it would be love at first bite.
Located on 46th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue, Cafe Cello is easily accessible for those who work in the heart of midtown. And they are right next to a mini outdoor seating area, therefore you can grab your food to go and enjoy the sun. Unless you want to take pictures, then you see that the sun blows out all your highlights. Booo...
The roast pork or pernil, comes with rice and beans, but I think there are two ways to order the rice + beans part. They keep a tray of rice and beans mixed together, but right after I ordered, the person behind me asked for those things separate. Hmm... that sounded better. The three or four times that I have tried this, it never occurred to me to ask for it separately, but if you go, you definitely should.
Sometimes when you get food from a steam table, you might think it would be dried out since the heat source is constant after initial cooking. This was not an issue with the roast pork. The pork was moist, easy to chew, and went well with the rice. I think the beans were a little dried out but perhaps you can circumvent that issue by getting it separate from the rice.
By far the best part of the meal is the crispy skin! If there is no skin left on the roast pork in the steam try, I would recommend skipping it. If they still have it, I say ask nicely if you can get even more than what they initially give you. The skin is crispy and has a crunch when you bite into it. They could rename the skin to 'delicious' as far as I am concerned. "Do you want some delicious on your pork and rice?" Yes of course I do. If you have time to visit Cafe Cello, try the roast pork, and apparently the fried chicken is good also.
Originally I did not mind if my blog was sucky, as long as it remained irreverent and also irrelevant. And usually I like to talk about my friends, for example I wonder if it is possible to incorporate a section of my site to be about "What would Ming do?" But he probably would not like me for that. So today I am going to talk about a subject all New Yorkers love - gentrification! Some really cool sounding beer garden just opened up in the 718 (wait is that right, is the area code for Brooklyn actually 718 now?) And on that gothamist page, some comments are all like, "Boo! gentrification! Boo!!!" The thing I find funny is, the people who are getting priced out of their homes due to gentrification... THOSE PEOPLE DO NOT POST COMMENTS ON A BLOG LIKE GOTHAMIST!!! Seriously yo. If you are posting comments on a blog, you are contributing to gentrification because your histerish clothing from Beacon's Closet is nudging that bodega outta its space.
In other news, Zagat used one of my pictures for one of their Buzz blog entry. See, pretty. If anyone else reading this wants to use my picture, just email me and ask. If anyone ever wants to pay me to take pictures, I promise to undercut any professional photographer in the city. haha. Ok, that is wrong. But... me = costco of photographers. Wow, this is no longer a food blog...
Cafe Cello
Address: 48 W 46th St. New York , NY 10036
Phone: 212-764-8701
MapPosted by Danny on April 30 2008 at 10:47 am
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That looks amazing! Are Asian by the way? You seem to visit a lot of Asian restaurants (which is great!!!)
thateatconomist on April 30 2008 at 12:29 pm
omg, yumm! there's this place here in Wiesbaden that has these roast pork sandwiches.... the skin is the best part!! ;)
I grew up eating rice, beans, and fried sweet plantain... so damn good.
Kathya on April 30 2008 at 3:36 pm
Wow those look so yummy. Definitely need to go here, thanks for posting about it =3
Kumi on April 30 2008 at 6:34 pm
haha, the skin question is a crossroad of respect. you definitely passed the test.
Jeff on April 30 2008 at 7:01 pm
That looks alot better than the pernil that they served at my cafeteria today. So funny that your photo is on zagat!
Ang on April 30 2008 at 7:51 pm
Yum. Congrats on Zagat picking up your pic, though I do have to say those photos of the crispy pork skin are prettier (to me). :) I clearly need to get to Cafe Cello asap.
Brownie on April 30 2008 at 11:53 pm
EatConomist,
Thanks! Yes, I am Asian, and you are right that I visit a bunch of Asian joints. It just feels normal? Other than that, desserts are often featured!
Kathya,
Roast pork sandwiches make the world go-round, as far as I am concerned. :) The skin really is the best part! Man, it is almost lunch time, I need foooooood.
Kumi,
Thanks! I am glad this gave you an idea for lunch.
Jeff,
Haha, awesome. Where do you like to go for good skin? That almost sounds wrong...
Ang,
Oh man, I want a cafeteria...
Brownie,
Thanks! Yea you are right and I agree that crispy pork skin is a much prettier picture than any landscape shot ;)
Danny on May 2 2008 at 11:07 am
I used to go to Cafe Cello all the time when I worked near that place. Pernil with rice and beans with platanos was definitely my favorite meal there. The beef stew was good too.
Eddie on May 3 2008 at 5:50 pm
When I was visiting NY, I had to go to Chinatown everyday just so I would not be too homesick... once an Asian, always a Asian, no matter where..
thateatconomist on May 4 2008 at 11:42 am
Eddie,
You are the second person to tell me something like that. It must be a favorite amongst folks who work right by that joint.
Eatconomist,
Haha, yes, once an Asian, never able to change into another ethnicity... but yea I am right there with ya, chinatowns are awesome. :)
Danny on May 4 2008 at 10:55 pm