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Showing posts from September, 2010

The $1 Slice

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Some crazy stuff happened over this past weekend in my hood. The Tasty-D-Lite across the street closed down and two new things moved in. Two new cheap eat things! First up $1 Pizza. This little shop opened on Saturday right next door to Terakawa. I have to say it wasn’t a very grand opening. One lone man was working inside and one lone pie sat on display. I was not deterred however and ponied up a bill for my slice. Unfortunately this $1 pizza really tastes like $1 pizza. There was hardly any sauce. In the picture it looks saucy but the tomato paste was incredibly thin and almost a little bit hard. There was an ample amount of cheese but the slice had little to no flavor at all. It even kind of hurt my throat trying to swallow it down. I was not impressed. The true test of this pizza joint was Mr. T declaring that he liked the pizza. That sealed the deal in my book. He always likes terrible pizza. The other opening I’m much more excited about- Mike’s Papaya. A hot dog joint

Snacks at Double Crown

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Continuing my quest for amazing chicken wings in NYC Mr. T and I headed to Double Crown Saturday night. Now Double Crown isn’t the type of place you think of when you want wings. It’s British/Asian fusion food, gorgeous décor and much more of a cocktail fancy pants place than a bar. However I heard their Szechuan wings were good so I was mostly going to have those. It was a beautiful night and we got a seat outside on the noisy Bowery. We each ordered a glass of wine and decided to stick with a couple apps for the night. First things first though the bread basket.   It had your regular old rolls but also some scones! Really tasty scones filled with raisins and berries served with fluffy whipped butter. I loved these scones. In fact they may have been my favorite part of the meal. I assume this is the British influence on the menu? First up the appetizer I had been waiting for- Forever Crisp Chicken Wings Szechuan style. At first glance these wings look great. They were very big a

Taste the West Village

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It’s that time of year again- food festival season!! This is my favorite time of year. The weather is getting cooler, the leaves are starting to change and food festivals are abundant. Sunday Mr. T and I attended one of our favorite events from last year the Taste the West Village. A bunch of downtown restaurants get together and put on a fabulous spread of food and drink to support public schools in the area. It’s a wonderful cause that I will happily support any time. I can’t show you everything I ate, that would take forever, but here's a few highlights. Two of the best offerings of the day were these from Gusto. The savory was a Malfatti with organic spinach, ricotta cheese and a sage butter sauce. Yum! This was absolutely divine. The pasta shell was pretty light allowing the fabulous creamy ricotta and fresh spinach to shine through. The addition of sage to the brown butter sauce won me over completely and I would happily eat a whole bowl of these for dinner. Then

Lunch at Union Square Cafe

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Last weekend was my birthday but instead of a fancy dinner I opted for a casual day of football with friends. My birthday’s have a pretty good track record of being horrible. Last year I missed my Locanda Verde reservation because I got into car accident and then Mr. T fell down a flight of stairs. Two years ago both Mr. T and I came down with a nasty case of food poisoning and had serious gastronomic distress for almost a week. I won’t go on and on about my birthday disasters but suffice it to say I’ve learned not to expect anything good on the big day itself. To be honest this year was no different. On the actual day there was a fight at the football bar, we got soaked trying to find a cab home and I ripped a favorite dress of mine. Yay Birthday! I woke up Monday morning and breathed a sigh of relief. Birthday over! Time for fun again! I had the day off and was ready to celebrate. Since Danny Meyer is my favorite restaurateur it’s almost sacrileges that I’ve never eaten at Union Sq

Rossopomodoro To Go from Eataly

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Since Eataly continues to be a madhouse almost every time I go inside it’s nice they opened up a takeout spot on 24th street. I stopped by the other day to check out the pizza from Rossopomodoro. There were about 12 different types of pizza on the menu which all sounded fabulous. Since it was my first time however I decided to start with the basic a San Marzano (Margarita) pizza. Within about 10 minutes of ordering my pie I was out the door with this cute little pizza box in hand. Can you see the heart shaped cut outs on top? Very nice! I got back to my apartment and opened up the goods. I have to tell you the smell was absolutely wonderful. Fresh basil just emanated from the pie and the crust had some nice gorgeous puffy pockets just begging to be ripped into. However looks can be deceiving and unfortunately I didn’t love this pizza as much as I thought I would. My biggest problem would have to be the texture. I understand with Neapolitan pizza you need to let it co

Utterly Delicious Daniel

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Daniel is one of those restaurants I always dreamed of going to. Nestled on the Upper East Side with its three star rating from Michelin and four stars from the New York Times, it’s easy to see why anyone would want to go. So imagine my excitement when Mr. T tells me out of nowhere on Wednesday that he made us reservations for Friday night! We’ve both been a little stressed out lately with tons of work and just life in general so he thought we needed a little treat. This is my kind of treat for sure! Friday we met up after work and got all gussied up at home. I love the fact Daniel still requires a jacket for men. It makes the experience so much more special for some reason. After a warm greeting at the door we were seated at a wonderful table overlooking the sunken main dining room. I loved being able to see all of the action going on below and the beautiful artwork throughout the restaurant. Upon opening the wine list I was surprised and excited to see many wonderful selections i

Another Eataly Treat

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I'm on a mission to try all of the sweets Eataly has to offer and I'm well on my way. Last week I picked up this delicious treat a Mousse Al Cioccolato. It's basically a rich chocolate cake with dark chocolate mousse alternating layers with apricot and lemon gelee and a wonderful pistachio cookie base. I am not a fan of chocolate and fruit together usually but here it worked well. The gelee layers were very thin, so thin I hardly noticed the lemon flavor. The only fruit I really tasted was the apricot glaze on top. The rest of the gelee just helped give extra moisture to the cake enhancing it's smooth creamy texture. The pistachio cookie base was fantastic as usual adding that salty nutty goodness I love in any dessert. Another score for Eataly!

Last Lunch of Restaurant Week (Extended)

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I took a vacation day last week to enjoy one of the last days of summer and as usual a fancy solo lunch was in order. I had been planning to do RW lunch at The Water Club when much to my dismay I realized it was closed on Mondays! How could I have missed that? Not to be deterred I quickly made a reservation at Porter House- another place I’ve been meaning to try. I left the apartment around 1:30 and the day couldn’t be more beautiful. The sun was shining bright on my back, there was a nice warm breeze blowing through the streets and I’m sure the birds were chirping somewhere.  All of a sudden the thought of sitting tucked away inside the dark massive Time Warner Center seemed so unappealing. I wanted to be outside enjoying life! I quickly cancelled my reservation and turned heel down into Union Square. The decision had been so rash I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. All I know was that outdoors was essential. Suddenly I found myself in front of Blue Water Grill. I took a look at

Three Brothers Butcher

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I was out in Bayside for work the other day and when lunchtime hit I absolutely starving! I wasn’t in the mood for my usual healthy salad- I needed something with some sustenance. I needed something with some meat! Voila! I found Three Brother Butchers and my prayers were answered. I got three tacos each stuffed with a different kinds of meat- pulled pork, brisket and pulled chicken. They were all fantastic I have to say. The chicken had a crusty charbroiled skin, the pulled pork was super moist and the brisket was so incredibly smoky I almost felt like it was still cooking on the grill. I mean this brisket had serious smoky flavor. Then they topped off all of the tacos with a mound of coleslaw and gave me some spicy mayo and side of BBQ sauce for dipping. For $5.95 this lunch deal is pretty hard to beat. The only thing I wish is that the coleslaw would have a bit more flavor. Even offering a vinegar based coleslaw would work well with the juicy pulled pork. However t

Tasting Table Breakfast at Maialino

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I got an email from Tasting Table about a special menu they were offering last week at Maialino. The items looked tasty and I had been holding onto my $20 gift certificate from Restaurant week, so Monday morning I stopped by for breakfast. The restaurant was so calm and quiet on a weekday morning. It was a little weird honestly. I’m not one to go out for breakfast unless it’s the weekend and usually a mimosa is involved. With the Tasting Table menu I had to choose one item from each category. First up some much needed morning caffeine- my macchiato. Then just moments after my coffee came these sweet little puffs of sugar and dough arrived. These are my Bomboloni con Crema or Doughnuts with cream. The rounds were very light and I truly enjoyed the dusting of sugar on the outside. I was also surprised how much cream was inside. These guys were filled to brim and two were more than enough sweetness to get the day started off right. I was super excited for my main cou

Happy Birthday Dad!- Part II

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After such a wonderful lunch at Café Sabarsky we just had to follow that meal up by going to my Dad’s second favorite place in the city- Gramercy Tavern- for dinner. I’ve written about the tavern so many times by now I feel like I’m starting to sound like a broken record. Therefore I’ll keep this one short and simple to the two new things I tried that night. First up the Rickshaw Cocktail. This is a blend of vodka, lime and basil. This drink was so smooth I easily could have put back four or five. It was light, satisfying and incredibly refreshing. Being that it was a Monday night I limited myself to two. However I went home immediately and looked up the recipe online. I’ve got some basil simple syrup making in my future that’s for sure. For my appetizer I also tried something new this time- the Calamari and Carrot Salad. Why it’s taken me so long to try this dish I have no idea. The calamari was incredibly soft and the carrot slaw was given a nice kick from the zesty lemon v

Eataly in Quick Time

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Just some quick shots from my 2 hours in Eataly yesterday. I got there about 10 minutes before opening time and had a blast! Tasty looking treats from the coffee bar up front. The main room connecting everything in Eataly before the hordes of people came crushing in. The man himself was the center of attention here Batali. This is also where I got a lovely glass of wine to walk around with. And also a super thick slice of prosciutto to sample and pecorino cheese. Here’s a look at the cured meat counter. Then onto another part of the store the regular meat counter. I really liked this butcher’s attitude! Onto check out the beer selection. Look at all this Italian beer! I’ve never even heard of this guy before. Ahh good old DogFish Head. It’s going to be dangerous having all this good beer so close to my apartment. Whoa! Really dangerous! I don’t remember paying that much for the Sahtea at the Whole Foods Beer room! But I know I will for t