NYC Tastes

I love working at my West Village office for one solid reason- lunch! There are so many great food options in this area and I got to visit one of my favorites on Friday the Spotted Pig. The Spotted Pig is well known for its great gastro pub feel, amazing food and two to three hour waits for dinner. Luckily lunchtime is much calmer and quite frankly the best time to visit in my opinion. I got there right around 12:30 and got seated at a table upstairs overlooking the beautiful trees outside. I was going to try out one of their new menu items but old habits die hard. I had to get the burger. Have you ever seen a prettier looking burger in your life? It's like a work of art! Spotted Pig makes its enormous burger from three cuts of meat- brisket, rump and chuck. These cuts combined make this burger so moist meat juice literally runs out only to get sopped up by the fluffy brioche bun. Mmmmmmm...meat juice. Then they top it off with a generous helping of creamy Roquefort cheese....

So we had a fantastic, and I mean really fantastic, culinary weekend of eating with my parents in town. Unfortunately Mr. T was uploading some things onto my iPhone and somehow erased all my food pictures!!! So I'll just give a couple brief highlights from the trip. I have actually been to all of these places before except for Babbo so it was nice to take my parents to places I love. Thursday night- scored a last minute reservation at the Little Owl. Couldn't believe my luck. Of course we ordered the pork chop and gravy meatball sliders which were a hit. But my favorite of the night was the Halibut with corn and English peas. It was one of the best fish dishes I have ever had. The fish was super moist with a crackly skin on top which was heavenly alongside peas and their puree. It tasted like spring. Friday lunch at the Spotted Pig. Dad loved the burger (hated the shoestrings though which my mother and I happily ate instead). Mom liked her grilled cheese which was rich and thic...

So there were two points this past weekend where I was eating something and literally had to stop and take a moment because the food was that good. First up is the Cubano Sandwich from the Spotted Pig. Oh my goodness this is the best sandwich I have ever tasted in my life. For starters the bread has an excellent crunch and the insides are toasted and buttered with maybe a little garlic. Next is the amazing healthy serving of gruyere cheese which comes just oozing out of the sides of the sandwich. But oh wait...there is so much more. The slow roasted pork is incredibly mosit and melty, proababy due to the fact that it's cooked in duck and pork fat! Topped with pickled jalapeno peppers and an amazing Prosciutto de Parma it has all elements of a kick ass sandwich. It came with an arugla salad on the side which really helped to lighten the rich flavor of the pork although I would have enjoyed my sandwich either way! The other amazing thing I ate was the Beef Short Rib at the new BBQ jo...