By now I'm sure everyone's heard of the cronut craze, though I have yet to try one. Why? Waiting on line for 2 hours is not my thing (I scoff at you Apple fangirls/boys), especially at the crack of dawn on a work night. Plus, it's downtown and I'm midtown, and unfortunately, I don't have a minion (any volunteers??).
Thankfully, A visits Gregory's Coffee frequently and informed me that they started making an imitation cronut. WHAT? And the icing on the cake (er, croissant-donut) is that Gregory's is 2 blocks from my office. Oh, and there's no line.
They call it a "cro-dough" so obviously it's completely different. I've now tried it on two separate occasions (which you already know if you follow me on IG), both times in the early afternoon, as an after-lunch snack. Both times, I found them to be considerably chewy - made more noticeable by the fact that I had some trouble cutting it up with fork&knife. The filling though - Oh! Change your chewy dough recipe, but don't do anything to the filling! My first try was their regular cream, and yesterday I went for their new chocolate - both incredibly delicious.
It may not be the original, but I'm A-okay with that.
ps. I'm now also in love with their iced coffee. #justsaying
JS, C, and I went to check out the JapanWeek booths at Grand Central Station in the hopes that we could scrounge up some good food samples. Unfortunately, none were to be had, and the single takoyaki balls didn't keep them full. So we recruited JC and walked around the corner to fill our stomachs at La Fonda.
If you've never had chicken pot pie, this one will spoil you. If, like me, the only way, shape, or form you've had one has been from the frozen food/tv dinner section of the supermarket, you're in for a treat! Their signature dish was a Curry Spice & Coconut Pot Pie with chicken & vegetable, kaffir lime, topped with puff pastry ("coconut" and "puff pastry" being the key words here). It came steaming hot out of the kitchen, so as much as I wanted to gobble it up, it was almost impossible to eat. The dish was HUGE - looked like I took about 3 bites out of it before calling it quits. Surprised no one jumped me for the leftovers on my bus ride home. The smell was intoxicating.
While I was savoring my pot pie, everyone else at the table was picking at their Filet Mignon. NOT that the filet mignon wasn't yummy (cause they all said it was), but we'd stuffed ourselves on the apps and Duck Fat Sage Fries (which didn't have the slightest duck taste, but were scrumpcious nonetheless). E & J must not have gorged themselves with the tuna tartare, potato leek soup, and sweet shrimp & cheddar grits, cause they somehow polished their dishes (go family, go!). Everything was a hit, except the mashed potatoes. How they messed that up, I have no idea (hell, I can even make mashed potatoes), but unanimous complaints heard around the table said they were too soft and bland. Eek.
Dessert? Of course we saved room for dessert. The prix fixe menu came with the Lemon Panna Cotta, but $5 more and we could choose off the regular menu. 6 panna cottas? Uh, no. We compromised with three, and added the "Peanut Butter and Jelly" (peanut butter mousse, chocolate ganache, grape-jelly sorbet), Cinnamon-Sugar Doughnut Holes (marmalade, mocha sauce), and Sticky Toffee Pudding (dates, cream, warm toffee sauce). The PB was heavy and the J was tart - a good combo eaten together, but too extreme when not. Good, but I probably wouldn't choose this again. Especially not with doughnut holes dunked in toffee pudding to eat instead! Oh, HEAVEN. The toffee pudding was, by far, the best dessert of all, and if you don't like toffee then... you're right up there with the non-Harry Potter, non-Ryan Reynolds fans of the world. Just... *gasp*.
If you're a lover of good food, you should pay a visit. If you don't have three hours to sit... maybe another day then.
ps. The door is on Downing Street... just like their address says. justsaying.
pps. It's REALLY hard to take photos by candlelight. Especially with an average ole point-n-shoot. Time for an upgrade? :)
Every year, the "kids" uphold the tradition our parents started many years ago. Their parties have gotten too big for us, and so...we've started holding our own. Though we don't do presents, our renditions have included
video games, rocking out to xmas songs, watching concerts, ELFing it, and most importantly - EATING.
This year, the party moved to good ole Hobo (thanks M!)...
May all your christmases be just as merry & filling :)
I hardly ever see J. And by 'hardly ever', I mean about twice a year. But our outings are always happy occasions where we play catch up over really good food.
Neither of us know how to choose wine, so we opted for red, answered a few of the waiter's questions, and ignorantly agreed to a glass of his recommendation: Terra Andina Reserva, a Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile (2008). I actually loved it.
Their tapas menu isn't large, but it's still difficult to choose. We didn't even attempt the cheese menu, but cheese lovers would probably have a ball. In the end, we settled on a "medium" and two "large" dishes: Chicken Liver Paté, Meatloaf Shepherd's Pie, & BBQ Chicken Sliders. I highly recommend the paté - if you like paté, that is. It was topped with crème fraîche, with a side of fig marmalade. The fig was so refreshing against the paté, making the contrasting combination completely delectable.
I'm not a meat-eater, but the mashed potatoes completely lured me in, and I had to at least try the meatloaf. It was so soft, it really was like pie. The beer braised onions gave off somewhat of a sour taste though, that I didn't entirely love. I was most surprised that the sliders were easy to eat. They were neat, with just enough bbq flavor to make a civilized burger. Loved the jicama slaw. The only thing I was kinda upset about was the fact that there was a big ole bone in one of my sliders. That puts quite a bummer in the eating experience. ps. I attempted to try the pickled jalapenos (first bite of the meal!), but one little nibble of a slice burned my mouth until dessert.
Which brings me to...dessert! Our tummies had just enough space to share a plate of the Pumpkin Ice Cream Sandwich. Pecan Crunch. Bourbon Caramel. Cinnamon Wafers. Uh yeah, you should try this.
The place is tiny - smaller than my living room - but luckily we didn't have to wait for a table. They don't take reservations, so it's probably best to go on a random weekday, with a really small crowd.
As my birthday present to you, I'm doing something I've never done before - blogging right after! [Okay, well I tried to...but some technical error kept telling me that I couldn't upload my photos. At least I still got it up earlier than usual!]
C+M just came back from Napa so of course we let them choose the bottle for the night: Ramey, a Cabernet. Wine only falls into two categories for me - good or not so good - and this one fell in the good.
When we eat, we go all out, so of course we opened with some snacks, jars, and starters: Maple Bacon/Dates/Peanut Butter, Tomato/Eggplant/Ricotta, Ants on a Log (veal bone marrow/snails/parsley/garlic). I only tried the jar, but I hear the Ants were delish!
For my entree, I really wanted duck, but alas...there's none till Saturday. So I went with the Roast Organic Chicken. Yes, it comes with prosciutto fried egg, and yes I ate (some of) it, and yes, I thought it was really good stuff. If thrown on my plate again, I might eat the whole thing *gasp* (I did finish it for lunch the next day *doublegasp*!). It also comes with succotash, in some brown sauce which I probably could've eaten an entire plate of. But no one really cares what I eat; it's all about the meat!
M went with the braised lamb shank, a special of the day ("braised" and "confit" are magic words) ~
"...fork tender, fall off the bone delicious! The crispy kale added a nice bit of earthiness and the creamy polenta was great side to balance out the flavor of the lamb. Terrific heated up the day after too!"
C tried the Pork Chop ~
"Topped with bacon...makes everything better. This was no different. Thick cut and sweet. Perfect partner for the pork chop. The mango added a nice touch of sweetness and the onion ring was a nice crispy complement."
L went for the Short Rib and Cavatelli ~
"...delicious on a cold night! stick to your ribs good and very heavy, so good enough for 2 meals. the dollop of truffle butter they put on top smelled amazing and added a decadent creaminess to the dish."
E tried the Lamb Cross-Bone ~
"...medium rare was good (well done - not good!), toasted barley was better and was creamy like a risotto. Overall, maybe get the lamb shank next time." ps. beware the tasteless lamb bacon if that was your initial draw to this dish.
As if that wasn't enough food, we ordered sides also. Apparently, you can order 3 for $18 or 1 for $7, so despite knowing that's not a real deal, our hungry eyes were swayed. Smoked Beef Fat & Jalapeno French Fries, Wild Mushrooms, and Basil Whipped Potatoes. Those were some heavenly wild mushrooms.
Meals are never complete without dessert! Monkey Bread, Crazy Good Coconut Cake. I wouldn't say the coconut cake was crazy good, but the mango sorbet that came with it definitely was. They were both a really good complement to the pure sweetness of the monkey bread. After watching the dessert preparation for another table, I knew this had to be video'd come our turn.
Thanks to my lovelies, C,E,L,M for a wonderful birthday dinner! :)
A quick dinner before CrazyStupidLove (Pause to drool over Ryan Gosling. Okay. Wait...no, not done. Drooool. ...Sorry, were we only supposed to drool over food on this blog? Fiiine, unpause.) brought us to the ever-reliable Pio Pio.
Between the four of us, we ordered the Matador Combo: Chicken Pio served with rice & beans, tostones, salchipapa and avocado salad - except we opted out of the tostones and asked for more fries instead (cause... you can never have too many fries!).
Our whole office may be dieting, but somewhere in the rulebook, there's an exemption clause for birthday celebrations - especially when they come with cupcakes. But hey, we they don't want to cancel out all that yummy salad we've they've been living off of for the past month, so we compromised and went mini.
We had two birthdays to celebrate within a two week span: MJ & IG's. Our initial plans to try some more cupcakecrew flavors were spoiled by the fact that they weren't accessible on MJ's bday. Boo. But that meant we could finally try Baked by Melissa.
If you're looking for mini, this is as mini as you're going to get, short of eating air. Their cupcakes are quarter size (as in, the size of a quarter), which is great when you want to try out several flavors (or have a room full of dieters who you're celebrating a birthday with), but quite unfulfilling if you've got a sweet tooth.
I personally only tried their special flavor of the month - the firecracker - and I'd have to say it was a party in my mouth! Literally. A fun & unique cupcake to say the least. I'll take it that lack of comments about the other flavors (mint choc chip, cookies & cream, pb & j, red velvet, choc chip pancake, and s'mores) meant they were all good, but nothing to call home about. Either that, or someone wanted to hog all the extras for herself. Would I eat them again? Yeah, probably. But I wouldn't go out of my way to pick some up. Say...like I would for Cupcake Crew.
We were lucky Cupcake Crew was in our neck of the woods for IG's bday, and didn't hesitate to pick some up for... breakfast (what's even better is that we got 6 free since M told them I followed them on twitter!). What'd I try this time? "Cousin Vinny" - a mix of vanilla chocolate chip cake, filled with canoli cream rolled in a fried canoli shell. If that doesn't sound good, then I'm not even sure why you're bothering to read this post. Other flavors in the pickings? Trusty old red velvet, coconut raspberry, chocolate caramel pretzel, vanilla peach, and strawberry balsamic...the latter which I heard tasted kinda gross.
And the conclusion is...? There's always one cupcake in the tray that's going to topple over.
For J's bday, the usual gang went out for some atypical Asian-American food - some good ole Asian tastes, burger style.
After starting off with some ribs and spring rolls as apps, we each filled up on an entree and fries. LOTS of fries. L successfully finished her bibimbap burger, which A had tried and recommended. A & C tried the bulgulgi burgers, which were tasty, but not as much as the bibimbap. MM tried the fish tacos, and M tried the Korean tacos, which were "good...not wow, but good". EM liked the Hanoi burger but couldn't finish it, and I definitely needed help finishing up half of my ("wow") kung pao burger. It had just the right amount of spice to it, to give it a good kick. But I wouldn't say, wow. The fries, however, were exactly the way I love them - skinny and salty. YUM. Too bad I had to fight L for them (though I let her have all the funky cheese dip) ;p
OMG. Lost in reveries about the fries, I completely forgot about the birthday boy. Who ordered the dog. And only ate the dog ("it was okay"). No bun or toppings. But we won't judge him...today. :p
Unlike at Bonchon, the staff here was very accommodating, and we were able to celebrate with some mini-Crumbs cupcakes that EM had brought. They even took the bunch to the back, plated it nicely, and lit a candle for us :) Oh, and sang, happy birthday, too :)
We were SO stuffed, but I'd been craving the yuzu cream puffs, so we ordered one dish to try. First off, they were NOT cream puffs. False advertising. But they were good doughnut holes - warm and sweet with a nice balance of the yuzu tartness.
After all that goodness, we lifted our fat selves a couple blocks away to The Volstead, to dance away our calories to bad music mixes (boo mr. dj!).
ps. Sorry bout the photos - it was SO dark! The burgers really do look much more appetizing than this.
The evening was a busy one. C and I ran around town and actually had to push back our reservation three times so we could make it. But I'm so glad we did, cause it was absolutely worth it.
We ordered a few small plates to share since neither of us were too hungry, but it still ended up being too much for us. Their signature biscuit was a must-have, even if only for the accompanying honey butter. Their mac-n-cheese was good (& probably better with the bacon :p), as was their figgy piggy. Yes, I did eat a piece of ham with that. We each got our own asparagus salads, which are seriously to-die-for. LOVED IT. The mix of asparagus with egg with breading was so complementary. And even though C was acting like the drunk one, I'm the one that tried their rosemary ginger drop, which by the way, is also yummy.
Normally a little out of my lunch range, but my coworker happened to have tried it yesterday, and she's heard good things about it (one being that it's better than Ginger's). She also mentioned that they were good on the spicy.
Since it's a tad far, I planned on calling my order in for pickup - but better yet, I found them on seamlessweb (which I LOOOVE by the way - every restaurant needs to be on here. Or delivery.com.). It was quick. I placed my order, paid online, and by the time I spedwalked there, it was waiting for me at the crowded counter.
When I opened my shredded chicken with spicy garlic sauce, I knew it'd be spicy. It was drowning in red sauce. A few bites, and my mouth was on FIRE. But it was only 1 pepper on the menu! I thought I'd be safe! But it was good. Aside from the burning and the sneaky bits of unavoidable ginger. Eek! On the plus side, all those pieces I took to be onions on first glance (boo!), were actually bamboo shoots (yay!).
I'll have to try a non-pepper item from the menu next time.
...was back in February. Sorry if you missed it! But you might wanna go put it on your calendar for 2012 now.
Even though K's been to Clinton StBakery a few times, it was the first time I'd ever been there. IG and I almost didn't make it there since a work PR event was scheduled the same night, but then I took a glance at the pancake special of the night, and...you can see we obviously skipped out on work (good thing it was canceled anyway!).
Our eyes were hungry and the new setting had us craving everything. When IG ordered a hot apple cider, I ordered it buttered with cinnamon. OMG. OMG. OMG. Don't ever get the buttered hot apple cider with cinnamon - no matter how good it may sound. UNLESS, you like drinking butter. I thought my heart would attack me after the second sip.
But phew, it forgave me after trying the pancakes. The caramelized pineapple, coconut-topped -omg it's so fluffy I could die- pancakes. Next February, don't be surprised if I'm living off pancakes.
If you're going with a good friend who'll share food (and I hope those are the only kinds of friends you have), TRY their fried chicken. It'll make you a happy camper. It's tender and reminiscent of Shake N Bake [insert childhood flashbacks].
ps. Don't forget to pick up a bag of their scones on your way out.
Doesn't it look like we ate in the dark by the light of an open door to a lit hallway? Maybe we did.
It's not often - ok, more like never - we head outside of our 2-block radius to grab lunch, especially if it's a regular, non-occasion type of day. But we were itching to try something new, and IG volunteered to commute all the way down to chelsea to pick up some Cafeteria food. I wish all cafeteria food tasted this way.
IG ordered a big breakfast (eggs, bacon, toast, & possibly some other stuff I can't recall), and I really wanted their Mac n Cheese with Smoked Gouda...but it comes with bacon :( (I know, the rest of you would be ALL OVER THAT). So instead, I got their waffles with berries and cinnamon cream. Then we topped it off with some fried oreos. Yep, that's right. They have fried oreos. And three dipping "sauces" to dunk 'em in. It was a bit too far of a travel for them though, so our oreos were softened by the time we got to eat. I'm odd and I like my oreos soft, so they were pretty darn perfect for me. For everyone else, you might wanna eat in (which by the way, you can do 24/7!).
This post is dedicated to my loves: C,L,&M! Thanks for being my valentines! :)
We're no strangers to Shake Shack, but it's always good and it was really convenient (from L's place at least :p). L & M went for the shack stack for the first time, and fell in love. All that fried cheese-mushroom goodness on top of a burger - yummmm! But no worries - the burgers are smaller than your average burger AND there's not just one, but TWO tomatoes, so....they're...healthier. ;) Especially if you have them with a side of cheese fries.
And hey, if we're gonna have a heart attack anyway, why not go all out? Next stop: Brenner's new hot spot, Little Brown. It was a really tough decision choosing a hot chocolate flavor - only accomplished after deciding 1-to try a sip of L's, and 2-to venture all the way back here again at some point. Ended up with the spicy chili flavor, which had an ever-so-slight spice. Walked two blocks in the cold, and by the time I took my first sip, it was the perfect temperature. L had been eyeing the sea salt caramel, and ooooh was it salty! Salty goodness. I'm definitely going to have to make my way up here again (& again) to get me my own cup...and maybe some of those pancake bites that look so good...
IG walked in this morning craving some udon. So I suggested we try this Japanese place that stuffed their menu under our door a few days ago.
I was deciding between chicken teriyaki (cause I thought it'd be a safe dish) or a 3-roll lunch special (there was a peanut avocado roll I was eyeing). IG convinced me to get the chicken teriyaki, and when I asked what to order for her, she said, "the bento box..with chicken teriyaki." ...eh...what?!
It's been a really long time since I've ordered chicken teriyaki. Is this what it always tasted like?? It tasted like grilled chicken with pepper on top. Until I put the sauce on. Then it tasted like grilled chicken with pepper and sauce on top. The chicken was tender and the veggies were cooked to my liking (loved the spinach!). The whole dish was actually pretty good...but chicken teriyaki it was not.
(I've now read a bunch of reviews that say their sushi is good. Darnit, not taking IG's advice next time.)
A new little cafe opened up next door to our office, and I've been anticipating it merely because of the cozy European cafe interior. I thought it would be more of a coffee-dessert type place, but taking a quick glance at the menu said I was dead wrong. Obviously, I've never been to its other locations.
I was actually on my way to SB for a much-needed coffee, when I decided to drop in here instead. It was still too early for crowds, so aside from the one other customer being helped, I was given immediate attention. I paid $2 for my medium coffee that cost $1.50. I figured I'd leave a little tip for their grand opening day (I'm nice like that sometimes). The woman turned to hand me back a dollar and said she didn't have quarters yet, so I could have it back. :) Niiiice(but I didn't take it).
The coffee is sooo niiice and smoooth. And it's not bitter or sour. Whether it's strong enough to get me through the day? I dunno bout that. Try it out for yourself! (ps. go early before it starts lookin' like a can of sardines)
By now I'm sure everyone's heard of the cronut craze, though I have yet to try one. Why? Waiting on line for 2 hours is not my thing (I scoff at you Apple fangirls/boys), especially at the crack of dawn on a work night. Plus, it's downtown and I'm midtown, and unfortunately, I don't have a minion (any volunteers??).
Posts
