NYC Tastes

This past weekend the Great Googa Mooga festival out in Prospect Park promised food, drink and music in the sun.   It didn’t completely live up to its promises but we still had a good time.   First let’s check out some of the food. Dumont Burger- Sliders Red Rooster- Berbere Roasted Chicken with Barbecue Sauce, Mac & Greens, Cornbread. Craft- Dirty Duck Dog with Cabbage slaw and garlic sauce. Colicchio & Sons- Spit-charred Pork Belly Tacos M. Wells- Bologna & Foie Gras Grilled Cheese Sandwich The Brindle Room- Steakhouse Burger Spotted Pig- Chargrilled Burger with Roquefort and Shoestrings Do or Dine- Foie Gras Doughnuts I have to say my favorite item of the day was the Brindle Room Burger.   It was cooked perfect with salty charred top and moist ground meat middle. Brindle Room has been on my list for a long time now and after the burger bite it’s moved up even more.   Besides food ther...

Monday night Edible Manhattan teamed up with Stella Artois for a family style beer dinner at Almond Restaurant. If you remember I had lunch a while back at Almond and the place definitely needed some improvement. However I love edible Manhattan and for only $40 a block away from my apartment- why not give it a shot. Since the event was sponsored by Stella, each course was paired with a different one of their beers. The first course, paired with the flagship Stella beer, was called Raw Bar for a Chilly Day. This course consisted of Shrimp Cocktail, Oysters Rockefeller and Clams Casino. I’ll tell you right now this was my favorite course of the night. The shrimp they set down were huge and came with an excellent thick cocktail sauce. The clams casino had just the right amount of spice and breadcrumbs while the Oysters Rockefeller were absolutely wonderful. The spinach and cheese mixture atop the oyster made for a delectable bite of both brine and butter. Our middle course was p...

Almond is one of those restaurants I seem to always forget about. It’s only one block away from my apartment yet I’ve only eaten there once. After having one of their sandwiches from the Madison Square market it was back on my radar. I stopped in the other day to check out lunch. Almond has an a la carte menu and a special prix fix lunch. For $20 you get an appetizer, entrée and a glass of wine. This seemed like a pretty good deal so I went that route. I should have taken a closer look at the wine that was offered. It ended up being a White Merlot. Let’s just say I won’t be buying a bottle of that anytime soon! My meal began with a Field Greens Salad with Goat Cheese and Dijon vinaigrette. This was a pretty ample portion for a first course! I really enjoyed the vinaigrette on the salad but the goat cheese was a downer. It was quite dry and almost stuck to the roof of my mouth. I ended up leaving it to the side and just eating the greens. For my entrée I had the C...

Just a reminder to go out this weekend and enjoy some of the beautiful fall weather we’ve been having. It’s the last weekend of the Madison Square market and I’ve been so busy I still haven’t eaten everything offered. I got one step closer however with this Moroccan Meatball sandwich from the Almond stand. I know it says Moroccan but man this was a lot spicier than I had anticipated. From the outside it looks like any meatball marinara. However one bite in and its’ obvious this is loaded with a ton of spices. Mr. T and I were both coughing a little bit after just from the shock. However it was a very tasty sandwich and they gave you quite a lot of lamb inside. So get on over to check out some of the stands before it’s too late. Whether its cookies and cider from the Apple Orchard or beer and wine from Resto- there’s something for everyone. The market shuts down Saturday so you only have a couple days left! Madison Square Market

After a very unsuccessful day of wedding dress shopping last Monday I was feeling pretty down in the dumps. I had left in the morning without eating breakfast and now it was hours later and I was unhappy and starving. I was heading home when about two blocks from my apartment I passed by Almond. I happened to have a Blackboard Eats passcode for 30% off and the outdoor patio looked inviting, even in the ridiculous heat. I decided to stop in and try and cheer myself up a little. As I looked up my Blackboard Eats passcode I realized if I paid with my visa card I could also get a free glass of wine with the deal! Hell yeah! I was extra excited to see one of my favorite local wines on the list, a Pinot Blanc from Leib Cellars. Since most people had off on Monday they were serving their brunch menu. I wasn’t really feeling any brunch type food. I needed comfort food. And my comfort food is almost always a nice big burger. Big is definitely the way to describe the platter of food t...