NYC Tastes

Mr. T's sister and her husband were going out of town the same weekend my parents were coming in. They offered their apartment to my parents for the weekend and my father couldn't have been happier. He's always loved the Upper West Side and it's more "refined" atmosphere. So Saturday morning I woke up and took the long trek from my apartment to meet my parents for brunch at Sarabeth's . As I walked up Amsterdam Avenue I could already see a crowd of people waiting on the sidewalk out front a block away. Luckily my parents had arrived and put their name down 20 minutes before. When I showed up it was only about a 5 minute wait till our table was ready. I was just going to get a coffee to drink, but it being Saturday brunch and all, I asked for a mimosa. Instead of orange juice though I got it with their special flower juice. This is a blend of orange, fresh pineapple, banana and pomegranate juice. The juice was very good but thick. They give you a small bo...

For my birthday dinner this year I really wanted to go all out and try one of the few 4 star restaurants in NYC. After a LOT of going back and forth I finally decided on Jean Georgeand I am so happy that I did! This will not be a long post and there are not many pictures because I decided that being my birthday, I would relax and just try to enjoy the evening, me & Mr. T. Cameras are great but sometimes you want the experience to be all your own- you know? I will say that everything about the meal was fantastic. The servers were always there filling water, wine and making sure everything was okay but without being intrusive.  Our food was spectacular from start to finish and I couldn't have been happier.  I actually only took 2 pictures that night- my first course and last. Here are my Blue Fin Tuna Ribbons that came with just the right spice to the ginger sauce and just the right amount of cooling avocado to make the dish silky and luxurious .The other highligh...

Mr T & I stumbled across this sushi place a little over a year ago and had a fantastic meal kind of on a whim. We were in the area with his sister and brother-in-law this week and decided to check back and see if our second meal would live up to the first one. When I got the menu I quickly noticed that the $50 tasting menu we had the first time had now raised in price to $55. This is not uncommon, especially since this place was relativity new when we first but I was a little surprised. Nonetheless, we all ordered it because I remember thinking we had gotten a great deal last time. Our waiter came over to get our drink menu and we ended up getting into quite a discussion with him about good beers to have with our meal. Being into beer as much as I am it was nice to have a waiter who understood that beer can match a dish just as well, if not better, than wine. We got our drinks and waited only about 5 minutes before our first dishes started to come out. The first course was a tri...

Some Pomme Frites from one of my favorite bars in NYC- Vol de Nuit. One of these and a glass of Leffe Brun make for a perfect Saturday afternoon! http://voldenuit.com/

We had some friends come to visit last week and we ended up in Midtown doing some of the obligatory tourist things. We walked around Tiffany's and stopped by Central Park to enjoy the nice weather. After a few hours we decided we needed to stop and grab a drink. We were right near the Museum of Modern Art so we decided to stop in at the bar for a cocktail. We figured we could kill two birds with one stone- they could say they were at the museum (kind of!) and we could have a break from walking. Upon entering the Modern I loved the open and airy decor. There really isn't much as far as decoration is concerned is just very well....modern looking. We sat down and looked at the cocktail list and the Coming up Roses cocktail caught my eye. The cocktail was described as having Rose Petals, Lime, Rosewater, Bacardi razz and Champagne . Fantastic I thought. We ordered our drinks and as we talked the bartenders got to work in front of us. They brought out the beers and my friends d...

So we returned to Resto for dinner with friends on Thursday night. It was a lot more crowded than it was for brunch and we couldn't even get a seat at the bar. The tin ceilings make it quite loud and it was difficult to here everyone once we got seated. Our waiter ended up being the same guy we had at brunch and once again we had excellent service. They have such a fantastic Belgian beer list it was difficult to choose just one. I decided to have the Corsendonk Brown which was a good choice. It was really malty but surprisingly light for a 7.8% beer. For my appetizer I got the special Heirloom Tomato and Bacon salad which was the highlight of the meal. It was so fresh and tasty. Other appetizers were the deviled eggs, sausage special and double cooked pork. The sausage was nothing special but the pork was quite tasty. The deviled eggs on the other hand were the most fattening things I think I've ever eaten. Grease was literally dripping from the toast they were sitting on. ...

So I had 2 wonderful friends visit me this weekend and we spent our Saturday night catching up over many great beers at Zum Schnieder and DBA . We woke up on Sunday at 1:00!! I haven't slept that late in ages! We were not feeling too hot to say the least and needed a good brunch to recover. We didn't want to travel far so I suggested just walking up to Penelope. As we got about a block away, we could already see the line of people waiting outside. We decided to make a detour and headed to Resto . We walked in and got a great table in the back. The place was full but not packed. We all felt like a little hair of the dog would make us feel better so we got some mimosas. My friend got a regular one with fresh squeezed orange juice. The acidity of OJ always bothers my stomach so I got one with pineapple juice. This was one of the best mimosas I've ever had. For my meal I decided to get the Egg White Frittata . This was the first fritatta I'd ever eaten. It was good ...