NYC Tastes

It was a FREEEZING day Wednesday and I was not prepared to handle the weather. My thin black work pants were no match for the sharp wind and I dashed home after work to get some warmth. I walked inside my apartment and instead of feeling the rush of heat I felt nothing. I went back out into the hallway and saw a sign up that said "Sorry for the inconvenience the boiler is broken". Inconvenience!! It's fricken freezing!! So I called Mr. T and told him the situation. We decided to do what any normal American would and use it as an excuse to go out for some beers and dinner! We met up at McSorleys and over a couple of darks and lights we decided to go to Momofuku Noodle bar for some warm comfort food. We got to Momofuku right before 8:00 and only had to wait about 2 minutes for a seat. Both of us knew exactly what we wanted so we placed our order and got our appetizer within minutes. Of course we had to start with the pork buns. Okay...SO much has been written about these ...

I don't know about you but I kind of change my wine though the seasons. The last couple months we were drinking a lot of Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc. Obviously it was summer so white was the choice. But now summer has ended and it's time to get back into the reds and one of my favorite, cheap and wonderful wines to drink right now is the Las Hormigas Altos Malbec. It pours a dark reddish purple color and has an excellent dry, black cheery taste with a smooth finish. There have been a lot of great Malbec's coming out of Argentina lately and this is one of my favorites. It's a full body wine but so well structured that it's quite easy to drink. The best part is the price. In NYC it usually averages around $10.00 a bottle. So you can enjoy a nice wine without breaking the bank. It's a fantastic way to settle in and get cozy with some scary Halloween movies on a weekday night. So go out, grab a bottle, Return of the Living Dead Part II, your favorite main squeeze...

Friday night I went out to dinner with my family at Papaya, an Asian fusion place in Buffalo. The food was pretty good and the atmosphere was fun.  But the best part, in my opinion, is that it's next door to a dessert place called the Chocolate Bar!   I had always heard good reviews about this place so I was psyched.  Walking inside I immediately liked the decor.  It was dark, sleek and a little sexy I guess.  A good place for a date...Or with your entire immediate family..whichever you prefer. They have a surprisingly large selection of wine and spirits, for a dessert place, so I ordered up a bottle of Pinot Noir and we put in our dessert order.  Now since I'm on vacation and have SO much trouble choosing between desserts, I did the only thing one can do in these situations.  I ordered two.  The first one was the special of the month the pumpkin gelato. This dessert was certainly quite stunning to look at and really got me in the...

I've always been a person who NEEDS to have at least one piece of chocolate or sweet every day.  I just don't feel right until I do.   But lately I've been needing more.   Not more chocolate but more dessert...Cupcakes, puddings, ice creams...my daily mini Toblerone and my scoop of Nutella just haven't been doing the job lately. So the other day after lunch, I was heading to the nearby bodega for my sugar fix.  You know, a Rocher or some other single serving piece of chocolate they usually keep on the counter. Something that makes me feel less guilty than buying a whole candy bar!  But once I got inside, one look at the sad display of sweets I knew I needed something more   So I decided to take a little walk and trekked all the way down to one of the best chocolatiers in the city..Jacques Torres. Walking into his store is what I imagine it smelled like when Charlie first walked into Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.  Except no Oompa Loompa's. ...

I'm going back to Buffalo this weekend to watch the Bills take on the Chargers in what I imagine to be a very, very tough game.  I'm beyond psyched to see the game up close and personal for the first time this season.  Last time I was home I talked a little about the food I had enjoyed although I never got around to talking about Tempo in downtown Buffalo, where I had a delicious Arugula and Prosciutto salad that was surprisingly accompanied by Feta cheese. It came with a light lemon mint vinaigrette. The acid from this dressing really helped balance the strong taste of the Feta and it was delicious.  My main course that night was also phenomanal the whole Branzino. Yum!!! This came glazed in a Pesto sauce with a salad of sweet peppers and potatoes on the side.  It was fabulous! I have had a lot of whole fish here in NYC and I would put this one up against the best here in the city.  It was delicate, moist and simply bursting with flavor.  Tempo w...

So you know the cupcake I was telling you about yesterday? Daily Candy sent out an email about that dessert place How Sweet It Is today. AND if you print out the Daily Candy email and bring it into the store this week you get 25% off you order! Not a bad deal! I posted the link below...Happy Eating! Cupcake Coupon

I was walking home from work today and had my mind on getting some sweets. My plan was to walk through Chinatown, up the LES a little bit and then stop at the Chikalicious Pudding store on my last leg and pick up some cupcakes since I’ve never tried them out. Well as I was walking up Allen street I literally stumbled across this dessert shop. How Sweet It Is. Since that was exactly what I had in mind, I went inside and loved what I saw. A little counter housed a bunch of pastries, muffins, brownies and most of all different kinds of cupcakes!! The woman behind the counter was extremely nice and she explained each off the different flavors of cupcakes, to me: Red Velvet, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Nutella, German Chocolate…I could go on but I think you get the picture. The last one she said got me though. Their special of the week. The Chocolate Guiness Stout cupcake with pumpkin icing and pumpkin cream cheese frosting in the middle. Holy Halloween!!! I somehow made it all the way witho...

The weekend was the NYC Food and Wine Festival and I have to say it was pretty awesome. We had tickets to the second session of the Grand Tasting Saturday from 3:00-6:00. We showed up at the welcome center first and were greeted with free chocolates, a generous gift bag filled with all sorts of goodies and a free Waterford Wine glass. I was pretty jazzed already and we hadn't even gotten into the Tasting yet! The tasting was held on Pier 54 and it couldn't have been a more perfect day for the event. The sun was shining and everyone just seemed to be in a great mood. Mr T and I got a chance to try everything! I mean everything! There wasn't a station we missed. The best dish of the night goes solidly to Alex Urena from Pamplona. This was braised Washugya Brisket with Manchego rice and Black Olive sauce. OMG this was so good! The meat was so tender it just fell apart as you cut inside. The sauce was excellent as well as the rice but the meat really stole the show on it's ...

Okay..where I left you last was our Room Service meal, which really improved our health and well being :) I spent the rest of the day at the pool while Mr. T did a little bit of work from the room. We wanted to go out for a nice dinner that night but I was having trouble choosing. I mean every good place in Vegas has a place in NYC!!  Robuchon, Craft, Nobu...I had no idea what to do. Which is why we ended up at Yellowtail inside our hotel. The omakase on their menu looked fantastic so we decided to try it out. Unfortunately, as I told you in my first trip post, the food was not very good.For an expensive place, I have to say I've had better sushi at Whole Foods! All of the plates had strange combinations which just didn't work and the quality of the food was just a little below average. It seemed like a place that was really trying to find itself but lacked the money to get the high quality produce it needed. Then some things were just downright weird. When the dessert came ...

Okay I already gave a quick rundown of some Vegas stuff so I'm going to skip over Day One since we really didn't do much and basically just felt crazy from the whole trip getting there. We basically checked in, did some gambling in the hotel and just grabbed some food there. The next morning we woke up ready for a day of relaxation and fun.  We started out by heading to the hotel pool where we meet up with my friend from college, Catfish. (Not his real name and the story is way too long to tell but we'll be calling him Catfish) The hotel pool was absolutely stunning.  There were actually 5 pools situated in the large courtyard. One large and four smaller pools that had beautiful fountains in the middle. We grabbed some chairs and hung out by the pool for a few hours.  I was on vacation so I felt the need to have a strawberry daiquiri that probably filled my calorie quota for the day but hey...its vacation. The daiquiri was awesome! One of the best I have e...

So we're back and I feel a little crazy so this is going to be a short post. We had SO much fun on our trip and have SO many great pics. I hope tomorrow I can get around to showing some. We have the day off so it's a big possibility. Quickly though...three things...two great, one scary, One great.. The nutella crepe from the chocolatire in our hotel John Philippe. Yumm!!!!SO good no wonder the line was 10 miles long but worth it. Two the view from our dinner at Yellowtail in our hotel the Bellagio. Unfortunately the food was hot garbage. (really it wasn't very good) But the view was Spectacular!! We got to see all of the Bellagio fountain shows and it was actually quite romantic. Three... The decor in Jack in the Box... Scary!!! The whole place was!! And the food was so bad we couldn't even eat it. In-and-Out and Carl's were ten time better. But that's for tomorrow's post. Till then...