Today my friend T and I met up in the afternoon for hot chocolate at City Bakery – and it was just the thing that I needed on this cold and gusty February Sunday. The hot chocolate was rich, creamy and thick, and topped with a housemade marshmallow – amazing!
This weekend I decided to make truffles again – in preparation for Valentine’s Day, but also because I had a craving for these awesome little morsels. I made half with white chocolate, half with dark chocolate!
The bf was here this weekend, and he fixed my desktop computer and he bought me these lovely roses!
I’ve been slacking a bit on updating my blog because my desktop computer recently broke, so all I have left now is my little laptop where it is a little more difficult to load pictures/edit, etc. Alas, patience is a virtue so hopefully I’ll be able to get my desktop up soon so I can post all of the updates that I have!
Today I made green eggs and ham for breakfast – sunny side up eggs to match with a sunny Sunday morning. I bought pastured eggs from the Union Square greenmarket on Saturday and picked up some Prosciutto di Parma from Whole Foods. This dish is very simple and quick to make – easy like Sunday morning.
1 pastured egg (or regular, if you must.)
1 slice Prosciutto di Parma
1/2 whole wheat english muffin
1 tsp of your favorite pesto
1. Cook egg sunny side up (or any style that you prefer). I like the sunny side up because I love the rich creamy egg yolk that melts over everything and is soaked up by the english muffin!
2. Layer together from the bottom: toasted muffin half, prosciutto, egg, pesto.
3. Eat and enjoy.
Here are some local NYC openings that I am super excited about – cannot wait to go to both of these places!
DESSERT TRUCK
http://nymag.com/restaurants/menus/pdfs/DTmenu.pdf
I’m going to get me some Chocolate Bread Pudding… Welcome back Dessert Truck – I’VE MISSED YOU!
RBC COFFEE
What does RBC stand for? How the heck would I know … but check out that great Vietnamese coffee featured on Serious Eats!
http://www.rbcnyc.com/
http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2010/01/sugar-rush-vietnamese-coffee-at-rbc-nyc-tribeca-manhattan.html
So, back in the fall my friend R and I made plans to meet up at the Wafels and Dinges truck on a Thursday (because that’s when the truck is in midtown) and we serendipitously ended up being filmed for a Throwdown with Bobby Flay!! The day that we went was when they were filming the first segment of the show – the part where they usually try to trick the challenger to think that they are airing some new show concept that the network is putting together. The producer kept on trying to convince me that they were putting together a show about food trucks across America, but I totally called it – it was indeed a THROWDOWN! What was the recipe this time? Belgian Waffles!!
Since that day was the first time that I ever went to the Wafels truck, I opted to get the WMD – WAFFLE OF MASSIVE DELICIOUSNESS! If my memory serves me correctly, I got the liege wafel topped with spekuloos, strawberries, bananas, nutella, whipped cream, and belgian chocolate fudge. A little unhealthy for lunch? Eh … as they say, life is short, eat dessert first (or in this case, just eat dessert for the whole dang meal) Unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to meet Bobby when they filmed my segment, but I sure got to have a mighty tasty wafel!
Behold, the WMD!!!
wOOt – I am on TV!
The episode already aired tonight – but don’t worry! There are plenty more chances to catch a replay on Food Network! (Check your local tv listings for channel information)
Here’s the link to the show information:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/throwdown-with-bobby-flay/belgian-waffles/index.html
If you think about all the search queries that are run on Google’s search engine on a daily basis, it is really interesting to think about all of the information that they actually have access to, and also what kinds of things they can learn about people and society in general. I guess this is why they have people who work in Google research and publish on Google trends.
However, with the new suggestion feature on Google search, I find a very simple form of rainy day entertainment in looking at suggested searches. For example!
or on the flip side…
(1) I really wonder WHO is doing these searches
(2) It is hilarious how people think that Google is the way to find the answer to anything
(3) Imagine what kind of power you would have if you knew what people were secretly Googling!
(4) Imagine the possibilities for the information that you could tap into through search queries! Consumer and economic trends, relationship advice, even using this as a prediction market of sorts!
(5) Yes completely un-food-related post this time, but just had to share this little tidbit 
Hope you enjoyed a good chuckle too.
This past weekend I also finally had the chance to explore Chelsea Market. I have to say .. I cannot believe that I have neglected to explore this wonderful little corner of Manhattan!!!!!!! Ninth Street Espresso, local grass-fed meat, Jacques Torres chocolates … and a lot of yummy places to stop for a bite to eat. Definitely my kind of market. For example – brownies!
Afterward, I took the 7 to Flushing for some grocery shopping and yummy street eats. On the way home, I picked up the famous $1 roast duck bun:
and also some red bean and sesame su bing … the closest translation is something like “flaky bun”. Very delicious little treats:
This past Sunday I finally had the chance to meet up with S and T, two of my favorite people in this city. We had made plans to meet up for brunch, and it was the perfect sort of lazy, sunny Sunday to meet up for brunch in the village. After reading about 10 Downing in various other reviews, I decided to try it out and see what the hype was about. We met at the restaurant at noon – a prime time to go and beat the usual Manhattan brunch crowd that comes out at about 1pm … we were seated almost immediately after our whole party arrived! The food was lovely and the restaurant itself is nicely laid out with lots of light and space so that you don’t feel like you are sharing your meal with everyone else who is also dining at the restaurant. Although the portions are not large, they are filling and surprisingly reasonably priced for the West Village.
S ordered the cinnamon french toast – scrumptious and simple:
T opted for the chicken and apple salad – it looked very fresh and tasty!
Finally, I had the slow cooked duck eggs with pork belly, white bean and fig:
Maybe we have become so conditioned to having super-sized portions that when we are actually served a normal portion of food, we feel like it is abnormally small? I was very happy with my dish though, as it was perfect to tide me over for the rest of the afternoon – hearty and rustic, without loading down my stomach.
The verdict? A new brunch spot for me in Manhattan – I will definitely come back for more!
10 Downing – 10 Downing St. New York, NY
Other than the wonderful breakfasts that Aggie treated us to every morning, the bf and I also had the opportunity to enjoy some local Adirondack cuisine in Lake Placid. Another couple that was also staying at the Winterberry recommended that we check out the Whiteface Lodge for some really Adirondacky ambiance and some good food and drink. The lodge was really a sight to see – huge fireplaces with real moose and deer heads, antler chandeliers, a gorgeous Christmas tree that could give the Rockefeller tree a run for its money, and beautifully lit trees all around the entire property.
The restaurant at the lodge, Kanu, is open for both guests staying at the lodge as well as hungry tourists such as the bf and I. Kanu serves tapas-style dishes that are on the pricey end for Lake Placid, but it is the perfect spot if you want to grab lunch or a light dinner. One word of warning though – do not order any mussels in Lake Placid … in NYC, when you order mussels it is generally understood that you will get a huge pot full of steaming, fresh mussels with plenty of savory broth to dip your dinner bread in; in Lake Placid, you should be sure to ask the number of mussels that the order entails – because usually it is in the vicinity of ten … or less (as we discovered).
When we first walked into the restaurant, we noticed the chef carving this beautifully roasted prime rib (from a local farm!) – the bf asked if we could try a piece of it, and the chef graciously gave us a generous portion of it to taste!
The meat was very juicy and tender – and being from a local farm, hopefully it came from a cow that lived a happy, healthy, and natural life grazing in a pasture rather than being fattened on an industrial feedlot. Lately, I have become more food quality conscious after reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma and watching “Food Inc.” In a nutshell, there are some really atrocious practices in place right now in our industrial food system, and for economic, ecological, environmental, and health reasons, we should strive to eat local, naturally grown whole foods instead of feeding/medicating ourselves daily with processed foods that are created from corn and corn derivatives. More on this to come; for now, more Adirondacky tapas!
My favorite dish of the evening was by far the duck with maple syrup – so simple and tasty! Just duck breast perfectly cooked and glazed with sweet maple syrup.
Here were the SIX mussels that came in our $10 order of mussels – yes, those be some expensive mussels!
There was also an order of truffle fries that we got to complement the mussels – pretty good, but how can anything deep fried and dusted with truffle not be?
We also got some sweet potato gnocchi with lamb and mushroom ragu – the ragu was pretty tasty, but the gnocchi were dense and chewy instead of being light and fluffy as a good gnocchi should be.
To round out the meal, we had maple creme brulee for dessert. The creme brulee was amazing, with the perfect, crackly caramelized sugar on top and creamy, rich maple scented custard below. The fruit confit on the side was well paired with the creme brulee.
A pretty satisfying little dinner after a day of relaxing and lounging!
After our second night of skiing, we decided to go to one of our favorite places to eat in Lake Placid: Lisa G’s – a recommendation both from my favorite ski instructor Tony and Aggie too!
We started with the same appetizer that we had almost a year ago – the pesto calamari. It was just as tasty as we remembered it to be – the pesto and antipasti salad add a good savoriness to the dish.
The entrees at Lisa G’s are definitely served in *hearty* portions. For some reason, I was in the mood for just some good ol’ spaghetti and meatballs – Lisa G’s has a spaghetti and meatballs dish with wide noodles, grilled meatballs, and fresh tomato marinara sauce. A great dinner to feed a hungry skier!
The bf opted for a more southern style dinner – fried chicken and collard greens. At least the dish included some lentils which add a little bit of fiber?
We did not get any dessert at Lisa G’s because we decided to make s’mores! After getting back to the Winterberry, we cozied up to a warm fire and toasted some marshmallows to make dark chocolate s’mores … yum! Couldn’t think of a better way to end a day in the winter wonderland that is Lake Placid.
Since I started this blog, I have realized that this is becoming a bigger and bigger issue as I eat and explore more, but find less time to put thought to computer in a timely manner! Alas, this is life. For example, as I am writing this I realize that I have an unpublished entry about Resto with my friend H – from fall 2009! And at the same time I am cooking wheatberries to make some cranberry almond wheatberry salad for the week, and am making mental lists of all the things I have to do. Boy do I miss the R&R in Lake Placid! Speaking of which, I still need to blog about a few more meals (other than Aggie’s lovely breakfasts!) that I enjoyed there, and the delicious brunch that I enjoyed today at 10 Downing! And my desktop computer is now on the fritz … oh dear!
