NYC Tastes

Two Sunday's ago was spent drinking beers and watching football in the East Village. It was a happy day- none of my teams are in the playoffs so I couldn't get upset at the end and Arizona halted Philadelphia from possibly winning both of sports greatest achievements in one year. so all was good with the world. After multiple beers we decided it was time for some serious food. And by serious food I mean Katz’s delicatessen. Katz’s is a NYC institution known most famously from the orgasm scene in When Harry met Sally. It is also well known however for its Pastrami sandwich. Now I have never been a big fan of pastrami. The first time I ever had it was about 5 years ago at a work function.. One of those crappy midtown lunch kind of places brought in a bunch of sandwiches and I ended up with the pastrami. It was cold, dry and pretty much tasted like a peppery piece of ham. I was not impressed. I’ve had it a few more times since then and the result was usually the same so I kind of ...

I was so excited to try out Artisanal's version of Poutine Mr. T and I went there right after work on Friday. Man it was packed! We had to wait about 20 minutes but we finally got two seats at the bar. We ordered a couple of drinks and then waited for the main event- Poutine!!! I was so excited when it came out! I couldn't wait! And then...sadness. Their version of Poutine could be great...except it needs some adjustments. First of all, I was expecting an amazing cheese, since this is Artisanal after all, and this was the biggest flaw. It tasted like they used unsalted mozzarella. This had no flavor at all. Poutine is supposed to be a salty dish- therefore the cheese should be salted. The gravy also lacked flavor. Usually the gravy has a strong beef flavor and is much darker in color. This gravy was simply to bland. And lastly, while I loved the way the fries came out in the pan- the portion was quite small for $9.50. The pan could have held about three times as many f...

We finally made it to Blue Hill at Stone Bars last weekend and I have to say it met all of our expectations and then some.   Driving up the winding road to the main barns, I felt my heart start to flutter with excitement. I had no idea how beautiful this place was going to be!  It was absolutely freezing and the immense Stone Barns seemed to shine a glorious blue hue against the dark wintery night sky. We walked through the gorgeous courtyard and into the warm inviting bar area. There was a roaring fire going in the fireplace and I was immediately reminded of going into the ski lodges when I was younger after a run on the slopes.  We had spent the weekend with Mr. T’s parents and decided to enjoy a drink at the bar with them before starting our meal.  I took a look at the menu and noticed a beer made exclusively for the restaurant. It was called the Collaboration Lager made by Kelso Brewery and Blue Hill.  It was actually a Honey Nut Brown Lager that was b...

There seems to be a lot going on in the world of food lately and I just thought I would pass along some info. The next Choice Eats Events has been announced for March 31st at the Lexington Avenue Armory! Right by my apartment! Yay!! Last year the event was awesome. I showed up early to get door tickets but then left and came back to find a HUGE line. This year I plan to schedule it a little better and have already purchased my tickets. They are $35 and you can get them here. Choice Eats 2009 Second Man vs. Food is on tonight and he'll be here in NYC! I'm kind of excited since he is supposed to be going to Katz's and I just revisited there on Sunday (Post to follow soon). Lastly I received an email from the Picholine/Artisanal group yesterday that had a ton of great restaurant deals. The one I am most excited about though is the POUTINE!! Yes! Apparently Artisanal has started to sell Poutine at their bar and I could not be more psyched! I love poutine and to have i...

Restaurant Week! Yay!!!! I love this time of year when I have an excuse to take a half day of work or call in sick just to enjoy a wonderful lunch that I otherwise could not afford. This year it actually fell on Martin Luther King day so I had the whole day off to enjoy!! As usual I had forgotten to get reservations the day they went on opentable so I just had to cross my fingers and hope there would be a spot at the bar for lunch at Eleven Madison. I showed up about 5 minutes to 1:00 and luckily snagged the last table. I was meeting my friend Maria for lunch who had never been here before so I took a seat facing the bar so she could enjoy beautiful windows overlooking Madison Square Park and the gorgeous dining room. The snow had just started to fall and the view was particularly stunning that day. Once she arrived we had a quick discussion regarding the wine list and placed our order. As usual they started us with a choice of bread, olive baguette or French roll. I love their olive b...

A couple of weeks ago some friends and I got together and decided to have a dinner that highlighted some of the best food NY state and NYC in particular had to offer. We all split up food tasks and the best cook of the group agreed to host (we really just did all of this as a ploy for him to cook for us!) The problem with our dinner was deciding what to get. NYC has SO much too offer but I think we did a pretty good job over all. My contribution was a Meat & Cheese platter of sorts from Di Palo's. Look at this meat. It's beautiful! Now this dinner actually happened the weekend before Christmas (I'm a little behind) and I had to wait in line for almost 3 hours to get this meat! Not just in any line either! I was in a "crammed up next to the freezer with a crowd of tourist chattering around me and waving their numbers like someone was going to forget them even though it was on number 9 and they had number 37" kind of line! Whew! But you know what- it was worth i...

Okay so did anyone else see Top Chef last night? I try not to blog about this show because I don't like to comment on people's personalities- just their food. But after last nights episode I think most people can agree on two things- Stephan is quite possibly the most conceited person I have ever seen AND Blue Hill Stone Barns looks awesome. The second thing is the most important because Mr. T and I are FINALLY going there for dinner on Saturday!! I have been wanting to go since it opened back in 2004 I think. I tried many, many times and could not get a weekend reservation. Finally I called exactly at 9:00 two months to the date and scored a reservation for this Saturday. It is crazy how popular they are! Of course it's going to be one of the coldest days of the year so I don't know how much farm walking we will be doing but I am so excited about the food. I will definitely report back!