So here we are on Part II of the great NYC adventure date. When you last left us I had just given my girl partner for the day a horrible tasting powdered drink mix. We were left in the heat totally unsatisfied and had set off across the PATH into NYC.What was I to do? How would I make it up to her? Was that first failure a sign of things to come or would I be able to turn it all around and make things happy again? I was hoping the second would be true so I decided to take her to a small hole in the wall place 78west's own poll celebrity Ryan and I found during a random NYC walking around session. Today we find out about NYC own's premier rice ball cafe, Oms / b.
Who made the great pyramids? Why is it called Oms / b? What is the meaning of life? Is it really NYC's premier rice ball cafe? Are there even any other rice ball cafe's to compete against it? What came first, the chicken or the egg? These are the great questions that have perplexed mankind for almost all time. Perhaps here we will find answers to some of them, or perhaps we might just end up with some rice balls. We'll see.
The place itself is tiny. Only a few tables along a very small wall, maybe room for only 12 people to sit? Facing the small group of tables is the rice ball cooler with a pre-made selection of the finest flavors of rice ball products. You simply point at the one you want and the friendly Japanese girl (yes, she actually was Japanese, not a Chinese or Korean knockoff like you find in many of today's sushi restaurants) will put them in a container for you and you'll be on your way. It's simple, it's fast, and it's not too expensive. It's something you could stop by for a quick snack when you are in a hurry and you do not want your standard fast food fried garbage.
For the taste test we picked out three different kinds of rice balls. First up we have an eel one. A small cylinder of rice with a nice piece of eel laid out on top, wrapped up in seaweed garnished with some egg. It tasted just like eel sushi, which is a good thing. 
Next is a seaweed rice ball. Once again the picture is not in focus as I forgot to push the macro button on the camera. Oops. This one is your standard rice ball. An almost triangle shaped ball of rice wrapped in seaweed with your standard brown rice flavoring inside. What is that standard rice flavoring, you ask? No idea. It's good and that's all that matters.
Here we have the final rice ball for the test (and also the only one in focus), plum. Wrapped in a pink soy sheet the plum rice ball has a nice sweet flavor to it. With a plum on top and purple plum flavoring throughout the plum rice ball was my favorite of the bunch. I'd recommend this one to anyone not looking for a fishy or other more Japanese flavor in your rice ball. I've been eating this kind of rice ball since around 3rd grade so I suppose I am a bit biased towards them, but that just makes me want to spread the love.(Now that I look at those pictures I sure wish I had them all in focus. Oh well.)
So, getting back to where we started, what did the lady I took out think of all of these things? Did she enjoy them more then the green tea disaster from the day before? YES! She did! Woo Hoo! She ate them up quickly and had no complaints at all. Looks like the date is back on track. To answer some of the original questions, I think this is indeed NYC’s premier rice ball café, I have no idea if there are even any other restaurants like it, and as for the name, no clue. I suppose you could always ask someone who works there about that one.
4.5 cheeses.
Posted by LordJezo
