Filipino Food: Sa Aming Nayon & Maharlika

Sa Aming Nayon is a new Filipino restaurant in the East Village and Maharlika is a new Filipino pop-up restaurant in the East Village. Pork adobo, kare-kare, longanisa, sisig... who's ready for a Filipino food adventure in what might become an East Village 1st Ave-based little Manila?

Potbelly

I once ate at a Potbelly a few years ago in a Chicago airport and thought the sandwich was surprisingly fresh and delicious. Potbelly just opened up 2 locations in Manhattan (and will be opening 2 more this year) and once again I thought the sandwich was surprisingly fresh and delicious. My memory is not that great.

I went to the downtown Potbelly location, which is basically attached to my friends' 2 Gold apartment building. There was no line for dinner, but I've heard that the lunch line can go down the block -- it's all those people trying to escape the mundanity of their typical Subway or Chipotle lunch fare (the competition located directly across the street).

Out of the chalkboard of options, I chose "A Wreck", which I initially wasn't sure about because I wasn't in the mood for anything heavy and "Salami, roast beef, turkey & ham with Swiss Cheese", along with a name like "A Wreck", was sounding mighty meaty and greasy. I'm not a big Italian fan (Italian sandwiches, to be clear!), and the Pizza Sandwich sounded disgustingly greasy (my husband obviously chose this option), so out of the 3 Signature sandwiches, "A Wreck" sounded least offensive. Now as you can tell, I didn't have particularly high expectations for this sandwich.

But here is the aftermath of my Wreck, which I happily consumed after finding that the meats were not the least bit greasy, and that my addition of lettuce, oil and italian seasoning actually made my sandwich taste vaguely like a salad! I so quickly ate my sandwich that I forgot to take a picture of it sans teeth marks. My husband so quickly ate his grease bomb pizza sandwich that by the time I took this picture, he had already swallowed his sandwich whole and moved onto his second helping of chips and salsa at our friends' place.

So Potbelly exceeded my initial grease expectations, but time and the Manhattan lunch crowd can only tell whether it will soon meld into the sterility of the Subways, Chipotles, Lenny's and Quizno's that I have not found myself patronizing in months and, in some cases, years.