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Showing posts from March, 2009

Choice Eats!!!!

I'm about to head out for the Village Voice Choice Eats Festival. Last year was their first one ever and I have to say it was pretty awesome. They moved the location this year from the Puck building to the Armory and there looks to be even more restaurants participating. I'm really excited to try out Fatty Crab, Radegast & Kampuchea for the first time. I'm even more excited to see what some of my favorites- Porchetta, Jimmys No. 43 and Fette Sau will be serving up!!! Hopefully it will be lots of pork! Tickets sold out a long time ago but you may still be able to get some via Craigslist. Hope to see everyone there! Village Voice Choice Eats

Signs of Spring!!

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Okay so it wasn't exactly warm out today but I was in the spring spirit. We decided to forgo making the dinner we had planned and headed over to shack shake for some awesome burgers. As we waited for our food I decided to try out the beer they have on tap that's made exclusively for the Shake Shack from Brooklyn Brewery called the ShackMeister Ale. I am always trying to support the local breweries and have tried almost every Brooklyn Brewery beer to date so I really needed to check this one out. As you can see it wasn't exactly warm while we were drinking the beer but man I really enjoyed it. Obviously a plastic cup isn't the best device for trying a new beer but at Shake Shack that's how they roll. For such a bad drinking device this beer was excellent! It poured a light amber and had quite the lacy head and a fantastic autumn smell. The taste was wonderful as well. It had a nice malty dry hopped flavor that was perfect for drinking in the chilly park. If they b

Thanks!!!

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Just wanted to give a big shout of thanks to everyone who reads my blog! I was pretty excited this week to be featured both on Eater and New York Magazines Grub Street . I really don't expect stuff like this and truly just do this to share some good food. So I just wanted to say a quick thanks!! It made me my week! I celebrated by taking myself to Bespoke Chocolates for their Pretzel Covered Sea Salted Caramel Chocolates. Oh my these are so delicious. A piece of wonderful salty caramel is dipped in a rich milk chocolate and then doused with bits of pretzels. Sweet and Salty- my favorites!! The owner is always super friendly and the pretzels come from Martin's Pretzels in the Union Square Greenmarket! So I'm also supporting some local fooder makers. What's not to love! So Thanks again!! Bespoke Chocolate

Wechsler's

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We were walking around the East Village last weekend when we stumbled across this little gem. They had a large green chalkboard menu standing up outside a small store front listing various german beers and grilled meats. The front doors were slightly open and the smell of grilled sausages wafted out onto the sidewalk. Hmmm…delicious German beer and grilled meats?? Two of my favorite things! I was sold. We grabbed a seat at the front entrance and ordered a couple Hefenweizens from the friendly German folks behind the bar. With only three seats up front and two tables in the back, this is a very cozy little place. The wooden stools and dim lighting add to the effect and I found myself wanting to hole up for a while and leave the bustle of the outside world. We really weren’t too hungry since we were on our way to dinner but we decided to order a bratwurst just to check it out. (Thank goodness we did since our meal at China 1 turned out to be extremely uncomfortable and overpriced- but

Per Se

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Monday afternoon I was riding up to the Bronx for a late day meeting. Since I never have much “above ground” train time, I used it as an opportunity to peruse some of my favorite food blogs.  I just happened to look at Eater where they had a report that Per Se was going to start serving an a la carte menu in the lounge that very day! Holy Cats!Anyone who knows about food, knows about Per Se. And anyone who knows about Per Se, knows it is extremely hard to get into and very expensive.  $275 for a prix fix dinner (not including wine, etc) and usually requiring a 30 day in advance reservation.  So when I heard Per Se was going to start this offer, I knew I had a golden opportunity.  I was so excited I decided to go that very night. As soon as my meeting was over I headed back into Manhattan and right to the Time Warner Center. I knew they opened at 5:30 and it was only about 5:15 when I arrived. I decided to grab a glass of wine at the Bouchon Bakery bar. I didn’t want to be the

Per Se Preview

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I went to Per Se today!!!! They started an a la carte menu in the bar and I took full advantage! The service and food were beyond compare and I will have a full review with pics tomorrow!!

Standings

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One of my favorite places to go grab a beer and watch a game is Standings in the East Village. It’s a very small quaint bar that has more Sports memorabilia and TV’s than most of the large sports bars in the city. What makes it extra special is their super friendly staff and wonderful selection of rotating beers on tap. Most sports bars have the usual- Miller Light, Sam Adams and maybe a Bass or New Castle. In other words- crap. At Standing they focus more on craft breweries such as Sixpoint, Penn Brewing, Captain Lawrence, Otter Creek, etc. In other words some darn good beer. This past Sunday they held a special Dogfish head event where they tapped a keg of Dogfish Head Red and White. Mr. T and I were in the village so we decided to swing by for a glass. What’s so special about this beer? Well it’s brewed with Pinot Noir juice concentrate and aged 89% on oak staves and 11% in Pinot Noir barrels. Hmm...beer and Pinot Noir…oh and it’s 10% alcohol! Wa-blam-ohh!! The beer poured a golde

Grand Sichuan

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We have been on a serious Chinese food kick as of late and Sunday was no different. We woke up and didn’t feel like ordering anything so we walked down to St. Mark’s and decided to eat in at Grand Sichuan. Grand Sichuan is on the second floor of a building that houses Super Cuts and Chipotle. (Can you believe what’s happened to this street!!!) We got a great table right at the front of the restaurant over looking the street which was great for people watching. One thing I liked about their menu was that every dish had a picture. The one thing I didn’t like were the delicious looking bubble tea pictures they had when they really didn’t sell any :( Oh well. We decided to start with a small plate of Unagi and a special that day the Spicy Peanuts. Okay the Spicy peanuts may be one of the best beer drinking foods I have ever tasted. The peanuts were coated with a honey sugar glaze that had red pepper flakes mashed in. Whew- these peanuts were spicy, hot and sweet all at once. Yum!!! For $5

Wogies

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Mr. T and I used to frequent Wogies on a weekly basis about two years ago. This was one of the few places in the city where I could find a good chicken wing and I had to go often to get my fix. Since then, I have learned to live without chicken wings as a staple in my diet but I couldn’t resist stopping by for a plate when we walked by the other day. We were having a big dinner later so we decided just to split a plate of the Garlic Butter wings. Before these babies were even within eyesight I knew they were on their way. The strong smell of garlic permeated the air and my taste buds started to water in anticipation. I felt like Pavlov’s dog for a minute. My goodness…am I that easy to condition? Lol! These wings were every bit as good as I remember- plump, juicy, fried to a perfect crisp and covered in a stinky garlic sauce. Then they top it off with a generous amount of Parmesan cheese perfect for soaking up some of the buttery goodness of this dish. Yum!!! Greasy and good. One th

Golden Unicorn

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We found ourselves once again walking around Chinatown last week after a successful shopping excursion at J & R. Hungry and cold we decided to try out a new place and headed over to the Golden Unicorn. On the second floor of a building on East Broadway sits Golden Unicorn. Follow the blinking lights outside, up the elevator and into a huge dining room decked with bright red walls and big golden dragons. We got there about 7:00 and the place was virtually empty. Only two other tables were filled and it felt strangely quiet in such a big room. Undeterred we set down to ordering and got some tasty Cantonese dishes and a bottle of wine. We decided on two dishes the Jumbo Shrimp and Chicken sizzling platter with garlic sauce and the Salt Baked Pork Chop with Chili. The shrimp and chicken platter came out just as advertised- sizzling!!! Huge chunks of chicken and shrimp were mixed with onions, green peppers and a spicy garlic sauce. Mr. T and I always order the garlic sauce when ther

The Redhead

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We met up with some friends a couple weeks ago to celebrate Fat Tuesday. Well not really- it was just an excuse to go out for dinner! We had heard so much about the Redhead we figured it was high time we check it out. The Redhead has an old classic, warm kind of feeling to it. The rickety wooden bar and low, dim lighting (which is why the pictures are so dark) give it a certain charm. Kind of like putting on my favorite old sweatshirt it just had a comfortable feel about it. We started off with some appetizers for the table of the famous Bacon Brittle and Sausage pretzel. Now the brittle isn’t really a brittle. It’s more just peanuts tossed with some molasses and little pieces of bacon. That being said however it was pretty awesome. If this is the nut mix you’re serving at your next party be sure to put me on the invite list! Salty, sweet and incredibly addictive I kind of wish I wasn’t splitting them with the whole table. The sausage and pretzel was really good as well. The warm p

New Ronnie Sue Chocolates

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I hadn't been to Roni-Sue in forever!!! She's one of my favorite NYC chocolate makers and I had been neglecting her! I decided to swing by last week and check out what kinds of new stuff she had in stock. I ended up picking up two pieces of chocolate that sounded awesome. One piece of Beer, Pretzel and Chocolate and also a piece of Chocolate covered Bacon. The beer pretzel chocolate was only so so. I love salty with my sweet but there was too much bitterness going on in the chocolate to balance out the salty pretzel crunch. The chocolate covered bacon fared much better. OMG this was pure bliss! A super crispy and high quality piece of bacon covered in silky rich milk chocolate. This was out of this world!!! Highly unhealthy and utterly delicious- this was fantastic. So one slight miss and one huge hit from Roni-Sue. You gotta love her.

Snow Day at Eleven Madison

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So this past Monday brought a slew of snow to the city and for the first time in 5 years I got a snow day!!!! No Work! Holy Cats I was so excited! The possibilities are endless on a snow day- there is so much I could do! I decided a good meal was in order. After doing some shopping in SOHO I decided to head over to the Cub Room and check out the place since it was supposedly under new management. As I was walking up to the restaurant I noticed a man outside scattering some salt on the sidewalk. I was almost to the door the man threw the salt directly at me!! WTF!!! I was so surprised I stumbled a little- I didn’t know what to do. I walked closer to the menus outside and stared intently at them waiting to see if he would apologize or even acknowledge me. He did nothing except to scatter more salt on the ground. He barely even gave me room to look at the outside menu. After feeling a little bit hurt by this man’s behavior and upon closer inspection of the completely deserted dining room

Recession Update

Last night at Nobu Next Door. We walked in a party of three at 7:00 and were immediately seated! No taking down the phone number, no one hour wait, just seated. An hour and a half later, stuffed to the brim with some of the best eel I've had in a long time, we left. The sushi bar was half full the entire time and there were still a table or two available in the main room. Talk about Recession dining! Oh and the Rock Shrimp Tempura with creamy spicy sauce was just as amazing as ever.

Weekend Cocktail

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Yum!! This is a Green Tea Martini from Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar and Grill. It’s a mix of matcha tea, Hendrick’s gin and Blue Ribbon’s own special honey syrup. This cocktail tasted wonderful and deceptively light. Since it’s made with tea I felt like I was being sort of healthy drinking it as well. All that “health” went out the window however when our entrée the fried chicken arrived. I didn’t get a picture but it was really good. It was fried lighter than most- maybe in a tempura batter and came with an awesome wasabi honey mustard dipping sauce. Yum!! So good!! The rolls the people next to us ordered looked pretty good but we were too stuffed to have any sushi. However they have a California roll on the menu that is made with King Crab…Possible Bar Masa contender? We will be back to find out.

Return to Bar Masa

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We got another gift card for Bar Masa at Christmas time and decided to use it this past weekend. We showed up around 5:00 and the place was pretty much empty. From 3:00-6:00 they only serve a limited sushi/sashimi menu which was just fine with us. To start we ordered a California Roll, two pieces of beef, and a Unagi Avocado Roll. The California roll was something we had both really enjoyed last visit and this time was no exception. The roll was fantastic. The crab was succulent, sweet and extremely fresh. This has no resemblance to the crappy California Roll you get at other places- this is the real deal. The Grilled Unagi Avocado roll was pretty good. I liked the flavors together but it didn’t really blow me away. Ever since I was feed Unagi by Yasuda himself I have never had anything that comes close to as tasty. The pieces of Kyushu with salt and pepper were tasty as well but no where near worthy of their $12 a piece price tag. The spicy tuna roll was pretty large and came wit

Peking Duck House

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We randomly decided to try out the Peking Duck House last Saturday night down in Chinatown. We showed up pretty early, around 6:30 and there was already a small group of people waiting. I had never been inside the Peking Duck House before and I was really surprised how different it was. Super white walls with low lighting and disco music- it certainly didn’t resemble any of the other places in Chinatown that I’ve been to. After about a five minute wait we were seated and ordered a couple of drinks. Since it was only the 2 of us we unfortunately couldn’t get the duck because it is served only for 4 people or more. However they had a duck appetizer so we decided to try that out. This is the chopped duck meat with pine nuts. At first I simply tried a little of the duck and I wasn’t sure if I liked the flavor or not of the pine nuts. However once I put it inside the lettuce cup and put a little bit of hosin sauce on top it was perfection. The sauce really balanced out the flavors. We w

Sorry!!!

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Sorry for the lull in posting! I've been super busy it seems..having tons of fun though! To hold you over here's picture of some of the most delicious ribs ever at Big Wong in Chinatown. Super moist, extra crispy ends and awesome sauce made these spare ribs amazing!!! And for $5.50 quite the value. I got lots more to post about- this past weekend we ate at Bar Masa, Blue Ribbon Sushi and Grill, Bespoke chocolates and Medieval Times. Yes that's right-Medieval Times. No stars for their food but a couple for their enthusiasm. It was pretty fun. More to come....