NYC Tastes

I went back to Roni Sue to pick up some more choclates for some work people and was shocked to learn they were completely out of the peanut butter squares!! I didn't know what to do! This was my last present and I was banking on those squares. I started looking at the various truffles when I saw these squares on the bottom shelf. They looked exciting so I asked about the flavor and found out they were Hazelnut. Then I tried a sample and almost fell over! I think they may be better than the peanut butter. So rich and smooth. I knew I had a winner. As I was waiting for my chocolates to be packaged up I started talking with Roni-Sue and found out that she's coming out with a new line of cocktail chocolates this weekend! She reached behind the counter and handed me a sample of the Manhattan chocolate. Wow- really good. The dark chocolate was strong and bitter at first and then the flavor of boubon slowly seeped in. It was nice because it blended well together- neither one ...

I literally have a list of over 300 bars & restaurants I want to try out in the city. About 1/4 will probably close before I get a chance to go, but those will be replaced by newer and even more exciting places! These are the places that are at the top. And luckily we got gift certificates for Christmas to 3 of them!!! L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon (completed 9/19/08) Allen & Delancy (completed 3/6/08) CraftSteak (completed 12/08) Mercadito(completed 2/1/08) Peter Luger (completed 12/6/08) Bar Masa (completed 6/4/08) Blue Hill at Stone Barns (completed 1/17/09) Perilla Fatty Crab Arturo's Pizza (completed 5/08) Inoteca (completed 8/08) Dressler Joes Shanghi (completed 11/2/09) Union Square Cafe Sushi Yasuda (completed 7/31/08) Prune (completed 12/2/08) These are in no particular order...just hoping to get to them all sometime in 2008. As you can see they are kind of all over the place; upscale, downscale, organic, MSG filled, etc. Hopefully at this time next year I will ...

Okay so maybe I don't get paid by the New York Times to go out to restaurants and maybe millions of people don't read my reviews BUT I think that if Frank Bruni comes out with a year in review than gosh darn it- I can too!!! So here is my 2007 list. Just to note- Not all of these places opened in 2007 . Some opened before but I had never been to them before. So this is actually MY year in review- not restaurant openings. Just wanted to make that clear so here goes: Best Dishes I Had in 2007: Vermont Farm Suckling Pig from Eleven Madison Park. This rectangle of pork was crispy and delicious it is almost unbelievable so much flavor can come out of a dish this small. Pork Ssam and Skirt Steak Ssam at Momofuku. Okay so this is top of Bruni's list for best new restaurant and I totally agree. I don't know what they put in the meat there but I wake up in the morning and crave this sandwich- seriously. Bluefin Tuna Sashimi at Aburiya Kinnosuke. Best piece of sashimi I have e...

Between the holiday season and everything else going on I am a little behind on posting. Some reviews may never make it, we'll see what happens but I'll try and give it a go! So last weekend my friends from home came to visit to see NYC at holiday time. We did all the touristy stuff like Rockefeller Center, Times Square, Time Warner Center, etc. We even stopped for a drink at Hawaiian Tropic Zone since we figured we were already acting like tourists we might as well do it up! By the end of the day we were starving and wanted to get out of all of the crowds. I figured Tribeca would be pretty devoid of people so we hopped in a cab and headed to EN Japanese Brasserie for dinner. We got there about 6:15 and were seated right away even though our reservation was for 6:45. We ordered some beers and shochu while we looked at the menu. EN is basically an izakaya where you order small plates of food to share while drinking. We decided to go slow and order only a few dishes at a time and...

Just a quick note about some AMAZING chocolate Ive been eating lately. There is a fairly new Chocolate shop in the Essex Street Market called Ronnie Sue's. It's a tiny closet sized space but what it lacks in size it makes up for in taste!!! I went in to pick up some last minute Christmas presents. My favorite candy they have is their Peanut Squares. I got these about a month ago and knew immediately that I needed to pick some up for My chocolate peanut butter obsessed friends and family. WOW!! How good do these look!!!! You know why they're so good? Its a blend of milk and dark chocolate so you have a little bitter with sweet, then they add natural peanut butter (which I love) and then add a last swirl of white chocolate and peanut butter on the top. Holy cow- so creamy delicious and rich. One square is absolutely decadent. The best part is that Ronnie Sue herself is pretty cool!! She always has something for you to taste and she's just quite a spunky lady. I really lik...

So I have long been a fan of a blog called Lovescool. I frequently used to check it out because it was all about my favorite things- desserts! So when I saw that the writers of the blog were finally going to make their dream of opening a bakery come true I knew I had to go. Imagine my surprise when I saw that it was opening only a couple blocks away from my house!!! So I hit it up the very first day it opened and grabbed some tea and a green tea cupcake. It was awesome!!!! I went back yesterday and had to pick some up to bring home. I was planning to just get the Greeen Tea Cupcake but once I saw they had Pumpkin as well I had to get one of each. The Green Tea cupcake is really good- I've had it before. Unfortunatly this one must have been made the day before because it was a little stale and hard. The Pumpkin on the other hand was perfect!!! The cake was moist and light. A very good dessert if you're not looking for something overly sweet. Amai is defiently a nice add...

So after a completely emotionally draining week at home I was spent. All I wanted when I woke up Saturday was to have a relaxing trip home where I didn't have to deal with anything. Of course this didn't happen. Saturday ended up being awful and when we finally got home about 5 hours late I told Mr Trekker I was getting into bed and I wasn't sure if I would ever get out again. Luckily, he intervened and said the six little words that I can't resist "I'm taking you out to dinner." So I dragged my depressed self out into the night air. Buffalo had been so cold I was always darting inside to the heat. NYC on the other hand was perfect. There was a chill in the air but it felt crisp and fresh against my skin. I was finally starting to feel a little better so we headed to Gramercy Tavern to see if we could get a seat at the bar. Of course we walked up and saw that the bar was about 3 people deep and there were also people waiting outside. I was a little disappo...

So we had to travel up to Western New York unexpectedly this week because of a death in the family. Death is never an easy thing and this was especially hard. So when Mr Trekker and I found ourselves with some down time I knew I was in need of getting some comfort food.   We headed out to Pasquale's which is a casual Italian restaurant in the neighborhood. They have an awesome Baked Ziti here but I was feeling something extra unhealthy!!   Before I even opened up the menu I knew exactly what kind of fried, greasy goodness I needed. A chicken finger sub! This is truly something that I believe is made only in Western New York. It's breaded chicken fingers dipped in Buffalo Wing Sauce on a hero with lettuce, tomatoes and blue cheese. As you can see it also is topped off with some provolone cheese that gets nice and melty once its squished inside next to the hot chicken fingers. I was going to wash this all down with a Loganberry soda, another WNY staple, but I didn'...