Busy Sundays – Tribeca, Ctown and Chikalicious

Catching up on the events of the past few weeks – it is crazy how fast life passes you by and summer turns into winter. The beginning of fall was filled with exciting happenings: friends visiting from out of town, discovering new areas of the city, and of course, enjoying a lot of great food.

First stop: I am now volunteering with Housing Works, and I helped out at the Tribeca Showtime house in September. The two penthouses were amazing and the designers did a great job with styling each  room for each Showtime show. So this is what it feels like to be a millionaire:

I was also absolutely delighted that my friend M came all the way from Japan to visit! Mini Penn reunion at Shanghai Cafe – oldie but a goodie

Rice Cakes

Dry Sauteed Green Beans

Whole Fish!

And finally, my friend H also had a work project in the city, and we celebrated by going to Chikalicious for some fabulous dessert and wine

Amuse: Melon sorbet with white chocolate mousse

Fresh Fig Creme Brulee with Lemonade Sorbet (paired with a lovely muscat wine)

Caramel Panna Cotta and Plum Sorbet (paired with moscato)

Petit Fours: Chocolate truffle, Peppercorn Shortbread, Coconut Marshmallow

Sigh … autumn in New York

Chikalicious 203 E. 10th St., New York, NY 10003

203 E. 10th St., New York, NY 10003

 

Read more: ChikaLicious – East Village – New York Magazine Restaurant Guide http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/chikalicious/#ixzz0WFEa0nb6

I <3 Brooklyn

I don’t understand why so many Manhattanites have a near phobia against going to the other boroughs – there are so many great things to explore outside of our tiny little island, not to mention all of the great food that we miss out on by limiting ourselves to only staying within the bounds of the Hudson and East Rivers. This weekend I spent most of my Saturday in Williamsburg, Brooklyn – and if it weren’t for my commute to work in the mornings, I could definitely see myself living here. There is so much more space, and I just feel like I can really breathe instead of being stifled by all of the people, smoke, pollution, cars, buildings, etc etc in Manhattan. Not to mention all of the delicious treats that I discovered – first, I had brunch with my friends J and Y at Sel de Mer, a new restaurant that had just opened this summer. Their food focuses on fresh seafood and the space is very simple and cozy inside. We walked from their apartment to the restaurant and were seated immediately (if this place was in Manhattan, the wait would probably have been somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5 hours…). The whole atmosphere was very chill and relaxed, and we could actually hear each other and carry on a leisurely conversation over our eggs benedict and sandwiches. I had the eggs benedict with smoked salmon and spinach – and I have to say, this is probably one of the best eggs benedicts .. if not THE BEST … that I have had in the city (and I have had quite a few!).

J had the eggs benedict as well, with only smoked salmon …

And Y had the fish cake sandwiches …

We left very satisfied (as you can see, the portions are very generous) – and without doing too much damage to our wallets (the eggs benedict was only $8!).

And the day got even better after brunch – Y and I decided to go poke around the Brooklyn Flea for a bit and enjoy the beautiful weather. After reading about Liddabit caramels I had to try some on my own. Since they have a booth at the Brooklyn Flea on Saturdays, I made sure to stop by and pick up some sweets! I bought a few of their beer pretzel caramels, as well as their seasonal apple cider caramels. Both are delicious and I have been trying to restrain myself from finishing all of them before the weekend is over! I definitely need to get some more next weekend ….

I hope that this entry inspires some of my Manhattan friends to venture down to Brooklyn once in while!

On a side note, completely un-food-related, have you ever imagined what New York looked like before all of the pre/post-war apartments, bars, restaurants, taxis, people, and high-rise buildings? What a footprint that man leaves on this planet: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/09/manhattan/clark-photography

Sel de Mer
374 Graham Ave., nr. Conselyea St., Williamsburg

LiddAbit Sweets
Brooklyn Flea, Saturdays

Finale, where dinner is just the prelude

A few weeks ago I finally made it up to Boston to help the bf settle into his new place in Cambridge. His new home is a lovely apartment in a house that’s over a hundred years old – very different from my apartment in a high-rise in Hell’s Kitchen, but also a very refreshing change of scene for me. Cambridge seems to have the right balance of suburban charm with Boston right there to add a bit of urban flavor. What was really nice was to also have the chance to meet up with old and new friends alike, and to get a taste of the Boston food scene! On Sunday night we went out to a fabulous dinner at Finale in Harvard Square. They take dessert very seriously at this restaurant – in fact, the dinner course is considered a prelude to the grand finale (no pun intended ) … lots and lots of decadent dessert!

To start, I had the pizza bianca (with grilled chicken and feta)

…and he had the crab quiche with Gruyère and a tomato mozzarella salad:

And then it was time for dessert … don’t worry – we were eating with 3 other friends, this was not just the two of us!

Molten chocolate cake:

Boston Creme:

Chocolate Mousse:

Tiramisu:

Can you tell that I was very very very satisfied after this meal?

Finale

30 Dunster Street

Cambridge, MA

Sweet summer – happy times with old friends

In August, one of my best friends from college visited the city for a week and I got the chance to show her all of my favorite places to eat in the city as well as try out a few new places! Our first stop was Porchetta – hands down one of my all time favorite sandwich shops. What I love about the Porchetta sandwich is its simplicity and depth of flavor, just meat and bread. The sandwich is perfectly proportioned and also wonderfully moist and savory.

After lunch we wandered about for a bit and each picked up some sweet things to satisfy our craving for dessert. First stop was Butter Lane, which makes the most amazing cupcakes with french buttercream frosting. N got the chocolate cake with vanilla bean frosting: a classic combination.

We also happened to walk by a Beard Papa’s – I have never had their cream puffs and have always wanted to try it. I think this is the first and last time that I will have Beard Papa’s … cute name, but their puffs are not so great. The choux pastry was crumbly and too dry, and the filling just tasted too sweet and artificial.

For a quick afternoon pick-me-up, I stopped by Joe the Art of Coffee in West Village to have a cappuccino. I always love when my cup of coffee comes with some lovely latte art – I’m excited to find more espresso shops to explore in the city!

Another one of my favorites in the village: the puppies!

Happy (belated) Holidays :)

I took a little hiatus from the blog for the holidays, so the next few posts will feature what I have been up to in my absence. I know, I know, I’m a terrible blogger for not keeping my posts relevant to the season but hopefully this will help bring back some memories of holiday cheer as old man winter settles in for the blustery days of January…

Nothing gets me in the holiday mood more than baking, so I made like a busy little elf and made goodie parcels!

Bringing back the cheesecake brownie bites:

Contents: dark-chocolate covered almonds, pumpkin bread, cheesecake brownie, hazelnut truffle

Wrapped! (in handmade origami boxes)

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

One of the things that I love about going home to the suburbs – having access to a full-size suburban family size kitchen and free reign over the oven. Over Thanksgiving, I made sure to take full advantage of the opportunity to bake to my heart’s content. One of my current favs is this chocolate chip cookie recipe – it includes a secret ingredient (instant vanilla pudding mix!) that gives the cookie extra depth of flavor and chewy-ness. These cookies are perfect from the oven – soft, chewy with little morsels of molten chocolate.

• 2 1/4 c. flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup butter (or 1/2 c. margarine, 1/2 c. butter – this makes the cookie softer when cool)
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. white sugar
• 1 packet instant vanilla pudding
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups chocolate chips (mix it up a bit by using half white, half dark!)

Cookie Dough

1. Cream together butter, sugar, vanilla extract and eggs.
2. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt.
3. Combine wet and dry ingredients, add instant vanilla pudding. Mix well until combined.
4. Fold in chocolate chips
5. To make cookies: roll 1 tbsp. of cookie dough into a ball and then flatten onto ungreased baking sheet.
6. Bake at 350 degrees F until cookies are tan and slightly browned on the bottoms (about 10 to 12 minutes).
7. Enjoy with a tall, icy cold glass of milk!

Baked!

Magnolia Banana Pudding

One of the desserts featured on my Thanksgiving menu was Banana Pudding, based off of Magnolia Bakery’s famous banana pudding! I like to leave it even longer in the fridge so that the Nilla wafers get a nice, soft cakey texture and the banana flavor can mellow with the vanilla pudding mixture.  You can add more cream to get a richer taste and lighter consistency, less cream makes the pudding sweeter.

Banana Pudding

Banana Pudding (based off of Magnolia Bakery’s recipe)

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
• 1 1/2 c. cold water
• 1 box instant vanilla pudding mix (3.4 oz)
• 3 to 4 bananas, sliced thinly
• 1 box Nilla wafers
• 1 c. heavy cream or 1 pint whipping cream

1. Mix together condensed milk and water.
2. Beat in vanilla pudding mix.
3. Let pudding mixture set in the fridge for at least 3 hours, overnight is best.
4. Whip the cream with an electric mixer until it reaches medium peaks (not soft, and not hard).
5. Gently fold pudding mixture into whipped cream.
6. In two 9 inch pie plates, arrange one layer of Nilla wafers followed by a later of pudding followed by a layer of sliced bananas. Continue to layer until both pie plates are full. Each pudding can either have a layer of pudding mixture or a layer of wafers on top. If you leave the banana slices on top, they will turn brown!
7. Let pudding set in the fridge for another 4 hours at least (overnight is best).
8. For garnish, place a layer of fresh banana slices and/or crushed Nilla wafers on pudding. Serve immediately and enjoy!

This pudding is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S

I scream, You scream

Happy Halloween everybody! Instead of trick-or-treating, the bf and I decided stay in and make some treats using his ice cream machine

Green Tea Frozen Yogurt

3 tsp. green tea tea powder (Matcha)

1 container Fage greek yogurt

1/2 c. to 3/4 c. sugar (depending on how sweet you want it to be)

enough whole milk to bring the entire mixture to 500mL in volume before putting it into the machine

Mix all of the above ingredients together until combined and dump into ice cream machine. Run ice cream machine for about half an hour, or until the yogurt reaches the consistency of soft-serve. Eat or freeze immediately!

The result:

Better than Pinkberry!

Since we happened to have a real vanilla bean on hand, we also decided to go for some vanilla ice cream as well!

(more after the jump)