who can resist an eatery named “tic tac toe” ?

 I took a day off to spend time with my bestest when she came back from Penn for Thanksgiving.  We started the day at this cute tiny shop/eatery in Chinatown called Tic Tac Toe (on Hester between Elizabeth and Mott).  This place was previously a cell phone store / Japanese and Chinese import candy store / internet cafe / eatery.  I used to come here for my favorite Japanese gummy candy fix.  

Space: The whole right wall is lined with brown chalkboard where they’ve written their menu in cutesy font and colorful chalk.  In addtion to food, tic tac toe place sells unique items for the home like candles and cutesy novelty umbrellas and tote bags. 

The Grub:  The food selection is sub-par and if I wasn’t so obsessed with their drink menu, I might never want to sit here for food at all.  They have a big tea selection and many conoctions are made from white tea, which I’m a very big fan of.  White tea is supposed to be really soothing and good for you.  Two varieties I wanted to try were the peach white tea and the lychee white tea.  The guy behind the counter informed me that he was told both are served best cold, but the weather didn’t permit cold drinks.  I thought since white tea is generally very mild, it would taste fine hot or cold, but that wasn’t the suggestion.  I didn’t really want to risk it so I ordered two green tea lattes for me and the bestest.  The green lattes were really good; there was a strong green tea flavor was frothy, which made it thicker than regular green tea.

 
a peak into the kitchen area // a variety of juices, including aloe!

Their food menu is very small and contains mostly paninis, which is what we ordered.  They have this tofu chicken salad I wanted to try but decided against it because they used the iceberg lettuce.  We ended up ordering a turkey panini with swiss, and a ham with american cheese with chili mayo spread, and an order of edamame sui mai.  The chili mayo reminds me of the Japanese spicy mayo- orange with some red chili specks .  I would’ve referred any other green but iceberg lettuce, but the melted cheese and the warm bread made the sandwich really messy to eat but really savory.  The swiss cheese added a sweetness to the turkey panini.  Other than the chili mayo, there was nothing special about the paninis.  They just tasted like sandwiches in panini form. 

  

I’m pretty sure this is not store made edamame sui mai, but rather it’s just reheated and store bought.  I’ve never seen these in the store before, but if anyone sees them around- be sure to give me a heads up!  I wanted to try this because I thought it was really interesting to put a Japanese twist to a Chinese dim sum dish.  The edamame flavor really came out in the sui mai, which surprised me because I half expected something artificial.  Besides the edamame flavor, I could’t make out the other ingredients.   On the inside, there are bits of mashed edamame combined with other veggies.  The skin is a little chewy- it’s the same consistency as a wonton skin.  These bite sized sui mais are good with just about any type of sauce; I tried some with my chili mayo and vinegar (though the vinegar was better).  I’m sure soy sauce works well too.

Overall: I’d come here for the edamame sui mai if I wanted something small to hold me over and for their drinks.  The variety of tea and juices is pretty wide, with both Japanese and Chinese options.  The paninis here are only okay and only cost around $6 for one.