NYC Tastes

A new Belgian place just opened up last month near us on Madison Avenue. I’ve been loving mussels lately so this opening really excited me. Mr. T and I went over for dinner a few weeks ago and easily got a seat on Friday night around 7. The space was interesting. It was very dark with little candles on each table and some flowing white curtains in the back. It felt very Middle Eastern quite honestly. There was some weird ambient music in the background and there wasn’t one thing about the place that reminded me of Belgian. I was also surprised to see a somewhat limited menu of beers. They don’t have any taps- just bottles- and the selection they offered was a little weak. The same could be said about the food menu. There were only about 10 different items on the menu. Luckily mussels was one of them and Mr. T and I both got an order.   The first thing I noticed when they put down my meal was the dish. Usually mussels come out in a pot or some sort of bowl. These mussels came ou...

Some crazy stuff happened over this past weekend in my hood. The Tasty-D-Lite across the street closed down and two new things moved in. Two new cheap eat things! First up $1 Pizza. This little shop opened on Saturday right next door to Terakawa. I have to say it wasn’t a very grand opening. One lone man was working inside and one lone pie sat on display. I was not deterred however and ponied up a bill for my slice. Unfortunately this $1 pizza really tastes like $1 pizza. There was hardly any sauce. In the picture it looks saucy but the tomato paste was incredibly thin and almost a little bit hard. There was an ample amount of cheese but the slice had little to no flavor at all. It even kind of hurt my throat trying to swallow it down. I was not impressed. The true test of this pizza joint was Mr. T declaring that he liked the pizza. That sealed the deal in my book. He always likes terrible pizza. The other opening I’m much more excited about- Mike’s Papaya. A hot dog joint...

Continuing my quest for amazing chicken wings in NYC Mr. T and I headed to Double Crown Saturday night. Now Double Crown isn’t the type of place you think of when you want wings. It’s British/Asian fusion food, gorgeous décor and much more of a cocktail fancy pants place than a bar. However I heard their Szechuan wings were good so I was mostly going to have those. It was a beautiful night and we got a seat outside on the noisy Bowery. We each ordered a glass of wine and decided to stick with a couple apps for the night. First things first though the bread basket.   It had your regular old rolls but also some scones! Really tasty scones filled with raisins and berries served with fluffy whipped butter. I loved these scones. In fact they may have been my favorite part of the meal. I assume this is the British influence on the menu? First up the appetizer I had been waiting for- Forever Crisp Chicken Wings Szechuan style. At first glance these wings look great. They were very b...

It’s that time of year again- food festival season!! This is my favorite time of year. The weather is getting cooler, the leaves are starting to change and food festivals are abundant. Sunday Mr. T and I attended one of our favorite events from last year the Taste the West Village. A bunch of downtown restaurants get together and put on a fabulous spread of food and drink to support public schools in the area. It’s a wonderful cause that I will happily support any time. I can’t show you everything I ate, that would take forever, but here's a few highlights. Two of the best offerings of the day were these from Gusto. The savory was a Malfatti with organic spinach, ricotta cheese and a sage butter sauce. Yum! This was absolutely divine. The pasta shell was pretty light allowing the fabulous creamy ricotta and fresh spinach to shine through. The addition of sage to the brown butter sauce won me over completely and I would happily eat a whole bowl of these for dinner. Then ...

Last weekend was my birthday but instead of a fancy dinner I opted for a casual day of football with friends. My birthday’s have a pretty good track record of being horrible. Last year I missed my Locanda Verde reservation because I got into car accident and then Mr. T fell down a flight of stairs. Two years ago both Mr. T and I came down with a nasty case of food poisoning and had serious gastronomic distress for almost a week. I won’t go on and on about my birthday disasters but suffice it to say I’ve learned not to expect anything good on the big day itself. To be honest this year was no different. On the actual day there was a fight at the football bar, we got soaked trying to find a cab home and I ripped a favorite dress of mine. Yay Birthday! I woke up Monday morning and breathed a sigh of relief. Birthday over! Time for fun again! I had the day off and was ready to celebrate. Since Danny Meyer is my favorite restaurateur it’s almost sacrileges that I’ve never eaten at Union Sq...

Since Eataly continues to be a madhouse almost every time I go inside it’s nice they opened up a takeout spot on 24th street. I stopped by the other day to check out the pizza from Rossopomodoro. There were about 12 different types of pizza on the menu which all sounded fabulous. Since it was my first time however I decided to start with the basic a San Marzano (Margarita) pizza. Within about 10 minutes of ordering my pie I was out the door with this cute little pizza box in hand. Can you see the heart shaped cut outs on top? Very nice! I got back to my apartment and opened up the goods. I have to tell you the smell was absolutely wonderful. Fresh basil just emanated from the pie and the crust had some nice gorgeous puffy pockets just begging to be ripped into. However looks can be deceiving and unfortunately I didn’t love this pizza as much as I thought I would. My biggest problem would have to be the texture. I understand with Neapolitan pizza you need to let it co...

Daniel is one of those restaurants I always dreamed of going to. Nestled on the Upper East Side with its three star rating from Michelin and four stars from the New York Times, it’s easy to see why anyone would want to go. So imagine my excitement when Mr. T tells me out of nowhere on Wednesday that he made us reservations for Friday night! We’ve both been a little stressed out lately with tons of work and just life in general so he thought we needed a little treat. This is my kind of treat for sure! Friday we met up after work and got all gussied up at home. I love the fact Daniel still requires a jacket for men. It makes the experience so much more special for some reason. After a warm greeting at the door we were seated at a wonderful table overlooking the sunken main dining room. I loved being able to see all of the action going on below and the beautiful artwork throughout the restaurant. Upon opening the wine list I was surprised and excited to see many wonderful selections i...