NYC Tastes

It's that wonderful, fun, scary day again! I love Halloween. It gets no better than leaves on the ground, a crisp scent in the air and chocolate. I've already told you about the new Bespoke Chocolate so I'll let my pictures to the rest of the delicious talking. Milk Chocolate pumpkin pie crunchy shell. Luscious creamy pumpkin bourbon puree innards. Worth every delicious last drop!! Happy Halloween!!!

Mr. T had the day off Friday so he met me for a late lunch around 3:00. I was working in Greenwich Village about 4 blocks from the newly opened Bill’s Burger Bar so it seemed like a no brainer. Bill’s Burger Bar is the new BR restaurant group place that moved into the old Hog’s Pit space. We used to frequent the Hog’s Pit a decent amount back in the day. Mr. T’s brother was on a foosball kick for a while and this was one of the places that always seemed to have some exciting foosball action. It was always a fun place to hang out but a little dirty and divey. Walking into Bill’s on Friday I noticed the room was actually bright! I tried to recall if there were shades on the windows at the Hog’s Pit or if it was just really dirty. Here the windows let in a ton of sunlight and the place had a cheery diner like feel to it. The tables were covered in picnic style checkered cloths and some good rock and roll music playing in the background. We got a seat in the back room and plac...

It was a beautiful day last Wednesday so Mr. T and I went for an al fresco dinner at the Madison Square Market again. This time we went straight to the Hill Country stand for some meat sandwiches.   Here is the Jalapeño Kreutz Sausage. For those of you that don’t know- Hill Country gets this sausage shipped directly from Kreutz BBQ which is among the top five best BBQ places in Texas. These sausages have a great snappy casing and pack in a serious amount of spice.   Here is our other sandwich the BBQ Beef. Is there anything better than a big old shreddy beef sandwich? Okay Shreddy may not be a word but I’m using it anyway- shreddy sandwich. Yum. To wash it all down we stopped over at Fatty Crab/Cabrito stand and got a Mexican Coke. The average American Coke is made with high-fructose corn syrup while the Mexican Coke is made with real cane sugar. The Mexican Coke really tastes different from a regular one with a lighter, cleaner flavor. For dessert we sto...

I absolutely love Fika. You’ve heard me sing its praises many times here on this blog. Recently I have enjoyed my espressos at Abraco and Stumptown a little more than Fika but it still has a big place in my heart. I stopped by the 28th street location the other day for a quick morning pick-me up and noticed some muffins in the display case. The blueberry one looked absolutely amazing with some kind of creamy, custard like substance actually dripping from the top. I had to try it out so I took one home for breakfast. I was so excited to give this muffin a taste and see what that luscious cream was like. It had such a thick beautiful shine to it I had never seen on a muffin before. Mr. T and I each took a bite and then simply looked at each other slightly bewildered. It was batter. I mean the actually muffin batter used to make the muffin. Now how does this happen? I’ve had undercooked baked goods before where the inside was a little runny but the top? The rest of the...

I decided to walk home from work the other day through SOHO and stumbled across Baked by Melissa on Spring Street. I had heard about this little cupcake stop before from a friend so I decided to sample some of its offerings. Baked is basically just a pick-up window that sells about ten different varieties of frosted miniature cupcakes. You pick out the flavors you want, pay the woman and then find some place discreet nearby to enjoy your treats. Or you can just pay the woman, walk two steps and devour the goodies before you reach the end of the block- it’s up to you. I choose to do the latter :) Baked sells it’s cupcakes for $1 a piece, which is pretty expensive considering they are just slightly larger then the size of a quarter. However I love the fact that they are so small you can try out a bunch of different flavors without feeling super guilty about all that sugar. Today I sampled the Peanut Butter Cup and the Cookie Dough. First up was the Cookie Dough. On first bite I...

To kick off the start of College Football Super Saturday Funday we decided to head down to Luke’s and check out the lobster rolls. Luke’s is a really tiny place on 7th street right near some of my other favorite food spots like Caracas Arepas, Porchetta, Wechsler’s and Abraco. The small store only has about two tables and a couple seats up front for dining. We decided to place our order to go so we could find a more spacious place to eat our food. Luke’s has a chalkboard menu up front listing their items and the specials for the day. I was surprised to see some of the big meals they advertised like“A Taste of Maine”. It came with three different rolls, a pair of empress claws, chips and a drink all for $20. That’s a pretty good deal. I wasn’t feeling like a huge meal however so I stuck with the standard lobster roll. Luke’s lobster roll is smaller than Pearl’s but also less money at only $14 a roll. They use the standard buttery toasted hot dog bun and fill the roll wit...

I noticed this new Dogfish Head in Whole Foods yesterday and something about it really caught my eye. One of the workers there saw me inspecting the label and bounded over to spew the wondrous virtues of this beer. His exact words at one point were “I drink this beer for breakfast.” Well that is a pretty strong recommendation. So I picked one up and brought it home for us to try out (at night time mind you) Apparently Dogfish makes this beer by using the same method for brewing a Finnish style beer Sahti. After mixing the grains they add juniper berries to flavor the beer instead of hops. Then they heat white hot rocks over a fire to use for boiling the wort. Dogfish adds a black chai tea to finish the brewing process which makes it a completely different kind of beer than the Finns brewed. Appearance- This beer poured a cloudy amber with a small head that quickly dissipated. Aroma- Wow! This smelled exactly like a Chai Tea from your local Coffee shop. I wouldn’t be ...