NYC Tastes

This was a crazy and amazing year filled with lots of great food, friends and travel.  It began in January with a fantastic trip to San Diego with my parents.  They learned more about beer on that trip than they probably ever cared to know hitting up spots like Alpine, Ballast Point  and Societe Brewing .  Then Mr. T and I spent a few days in Florida  before embarking on an absolutely incredible trip to Copenhagen  and Brussels  with our close friends and certainly the best beer festival of my life the  Copenhagen Beer Celebration .  Add in a few trips to Buffalo,   Vermont  and Nashville  and I would say we've been pretty busy.  But in the end it's always NYC that holds the biggest spot in my heart.  This year the food was better than ever and with new breweries like  Third Rail  and  Other Half  joining the leagues of Peekskill, Kane and Barrier there's never been a better tim...

We loved our lunch at Manfred's so much we decided to finish out the week right back where we started with brunch on Sunday. This time we opted against the Chef's tasting and went a la carte starting with one of their signature dishes the Beef Tartare. This was chopped a bit more coarse than the one I just had at Bastard with a sprinkle of sourdough chips on top and a dollop of creamy horseradish sauce on the bottom.  It was salty and rich with a nice satisfying crunch from the chips. Chicken Confit with ramson and rhubarab had a tangy asian flare from the addition of lemongrass and suger. The Roasted Carrots with Swiss Chard, creme friache and cous cous had us a bit confused at first.  I've honestly never eaten a purple carrot before but the sweetness of the veggie really shined alongside the nutty mound of cous cous. We finished up our lunch with one last beer over at Mikkeller and Friends before heading ...

Our first night in Copenhagen we didn't do very much.  Mr. T. was feeling pretty wiped out again from the flight/illness so we just chilled at the hotel. Tuesday morning we awoke bright and early, both feeling pretty darn awesome.  My jet lag was gone and Mr. T was feeling the best he had in days!  We spent the morning exploring the city.  We walked past Tivoli and the National Museum, over to Christiania and then back through the Assistens Cemetery which lead us to our first food stop in Copenhagen Manfred's and Vin. Manfred's is the sister restaurant of Relae, one of the highest rated restaurants in the world.  In fact it sits right across the street from Relae with a more casual atmosphere and  friendlier price point.  We got a lovely table on the cobblestone street out front and ordered the "Small Lunch Hunger"...a Chef's Choice tasting menu of five dishes to be shared between the two of us.  Over the next hour Mr. T and I would receiv...