NYC Tastes

We woke up Sunday and did some touring around our area and then took the train out to Kentish Town. This isn’t a usual tourist stop. It seemed as it was mostly residential and reminded me a bit of some parts of Brooklyn. The reason for the trip was the restaurant and gastropub The Bull and Last. This little place had quite a bustling bar downstairs and then a serene dining area upstairs where the sunshine filled the room and portraits of dogs and horses filled the walls. As soon as we sat down we both knew this was exactly what we had been looking for. London had been so packed the last two days with people it had been hard to think straight. I was ready for a relaxing Sunday. Once again a Rose for me and for Mr. T a pint of Stiegel. We began our meal with some Trotter Wontons with Sweet Chili. Mr. T absolutely loved these. It’s was pig’s foot done Chinese take out style- what’s not to love. Sundays in London are reserved for a nice big roast and who are we to a

Once the rain started we took the Tube over to Craft Beer Co. Unfortunately we miscalculated the walk and got completely soaked. It was bad- I mean head to toe soaked. Oh well it was made somewhat better by the fantastic selection of 16 cask beers, keg craft beer and about 300 bottled beers at the bar. This place specializes in beer from all over the world and they just happened to be highlighting Southampton beers that day. Of course who goes to London to get a beer they can have in NY? Instead I enjoyed an awesome red lager from the UK while Mr. T had an Espresso Porter . We stayed at Craft Beer until the rain let up and decided we could maybe do one more pub before our dinner at St. John’s. The rain had stopped but there were huge puddles and slick streets left over. We were walking down one road decorated with some shiny stones and well those stones were like stepping on a banana peel because Mr. T took one step and went down hard. I have no idea how his iPhone didn’t get

We woke up Saturday morning excited and feeling much more refreshed and rested than the previous day. We leisurely got ready and took a nice stroll over to the Woseley in hopes of some good feed. Unfortunately I didn’t have a reservation for the main area but only had to wait about 20 minutes for a seat in the café. That just gave us some time to have some morning drinks! The space at the Woseley is awesome with beautiful tall ceilings, gorgeous antique clocks and just a wonderful buzz from all the well dressed guests milling about. My stomach was feeling much better but I knew we had reservations at St. John’s for dinner and again I wanted to play it safe. So I ordered one of my favorite sandwiches of all time the Croque Madame. We had this at the Woseley last time and again the cheesy center and crunchy, butter crust was just delicious. Mr. T said he wanted to try something new so he ordered the Buck Rarebit. This actually looks similar to my Croque and the componen

Well to tell you the trip started off a little bit rough is an understatement. In the three days prior to leaving we spent a full day at the bar for the start of football, did some serious celebrating for my birthday and attended the Big Four concert at Yankee Stadium. I have to admit I actually loved the concert. The music isn’t exactly my forte but every single band rocked it out and standing on the field at Yankee Stadium was awesome. However the next morning both of us were absolutely exhausted and the trip hadn’t even begun! We decided to have a proper lunch at Eataly before heading to the airport for stamina. Unfortunately Eataly would not be my friend that day. We went to Il Pesce and got fish…I’m not sure what was wrong with it but within hours my stomach was killing me. Mr. T wasn’t doing so hot either with serious stabbing pain in his stomach as well. I couldn’t eat a thing else until we arrived in London for fear of shaking the boat and getting sick on the plan

As Patina restaurant members we get a $50 coupon every birthday to one of their restaurants. We almost always go to Café Centro. I don’t really know why- there’s just something calming about the place. Both Mr. T and I had horrible days at work and sitting outside with the warm breeze and great people watching just made life seem a little better. They started us off with a nice French baguette with two types of butter and olives. Then onto appetizers- mine their delicious Crab Cake. This thing is awesome- it has almost no breading at all and the spicy mustard dressing is awesome. Mr. T’s Jumbo Lump Crab Cocktail was absolutely enormous! I’ve never seen so much in one cocktail before. For mains I went will a big old bucket of Mussels. I’m really into Mussels lately and these were delicious. Much like the crab cocktail these things were huge! Not only the mussels themselves but the pot as well. I told Mr. T we should just share one next time (he didn’t agree but I stand b

I’ve walked past this tiny café a billion times and am always amazed by the lines of people waiting and packed tables out front. I was meeting a friend for brunch the other day and decided it was finally time to try it out. We got there right around 1:45 and waited about 15 minutes for a table. The place seemed a pretty chaotic with waitresses and servers running this way and that. It took a little while to actually get our order placed but once we did the service for the meal was on point. The regular brunch specials here comes with orange juice and a cappuccino. We decided to add on one more drink a delicious Blood Orange Martini. This was a fabulous choice, the juice taste fresh squeezed and had a wonderful tart snap which completely woke me up and fit the meal. Mogador is a Moroccan Restaurant so what better dish to get than the Moroccan Eggs. Two poached eggs with a spicy tomato sauce, homefries and pita bread. This dish was just about as fabulous as you can get.

I was out in Maspeth the other day and decided to take a little time after work and see what food delicacies I could find. I had only walked a block when this awesome looking old school Italian market basically jumped out at me. Iavarone Bros. looked like to had all the makings for a rocking deli and I was right. Right inside is the display case with a huge selection of classic Italian prepared foods- rice balls, chicken parmigina, lasagna- you name they had it. Over in the side case were sausage rolls, shepherds pie, and bread pudding. Not to be out done by the awesome looking penne with vodka sauce and some mussels in white wine. It was a hard decision but I ended up trying out three things- chicken parm, pasta carbonara and the chicken special of the day. The Chicken Parmigina was amazing!! Nice crispy oregano breading with a slightly sweet and tangy tomato sauce and some ridiculously fresh mozzarella. This was everything Chicken Parmigina should be but so ofte