Pot Belly's and Joe's Ginger

For lunch, we had Pot Belly's. An old friend first introduced me to the roast beef sandwiches, and after trying most of the rest of the menu and various permutations of the toppings, I found that her original order was still the best.

Roast beef on wheat with mayo, lettuce, pickles, and hot peppers. I felt that adding tomatoes or onions diluted the hot peppers and pickles too much, and you need the acid and heat to cut through the rich roast beef, provolone, and mayo.

I love their shakes and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, but since we had lots of fatty meals coming, I settled for just a drink.

Luckily they had my favorite Nantucket Nectar flavor!

After a dinner at Gyu-Kaku (the rain and timing kind of forced us there), we spent a long day wandering about, and had a late night snack at Joe's Ginger.

Joe's Ginger is to soup dumplings as Shake Shack is to burgers.

Even though I know from personal experience that these things will make you very fat, we ordered an entire "long" each. (that was Chinese in the quotes btw, for those layers of bamboo steamers)

They come at $5 for 8, and you pay cash only. That's how the restaurant passes the savings onto the customer.

They are served with vinegar and ginger.

They are the best because of the thin translucent skin, minimum dough top - just enough to pick it up - but it's not nasty and thick. The meat inside is tender and melts in your mouth. And the soup! The soup is flavorful and has a nice balance of soup and fat.

It was so good that I think that they deserve a closeup.

We ate them all properly by biting off the top, adding the vinegar/ginger, and eating the rest with all the best parts mixed together.