Peter Oh Peter

Just when you think you’ve had the best steak of your life…you haven’t. At least not until you’ve been to Peter Luger in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This place is old school, so old school they don’t take credit cards…These guys have been around since 1887 serving the finest USDA prime meat available on the market. Only short loin is served up and anything chosen goes through a crucial selection process only done by members of the family. Once the meat is selected it is brought up to the restaurant premises where the dry aging process begins. What is dry aging? The loins of beef sit in a temperature controlled cooler where air circulates around them for a certain amount of time (undisclosed and probably a family secret). After the aging process is complete, the meat is butchered and taken up to the kitchen for broiling. Yep, broiled!

 

…and the result…this beautiful thing right here. Crispy on  the outside thanks to the broiling, as soft as you like it on the inside. So flavorful you’ll wanna scream, but you won’t because you won’t even want to open your mouth unless there’s more meat coming. I’m really not kidding, it’s that delicious. What else is on the menu? Who cares! Kidding, the menu is pretty straight forward. You have your starters which include bacon, tomato, salads. You have the meat OBVIOUSLY, selection of for 1, for 2, for 3…You also have a small selection of seafood items like shrimp cocktail. Truthfully I’ve only gone for the meat and the sides…oh the sides!

Speaking of perfect, how about perfect french fries? Crispy and potato-y, exact thickness, no extra oil. No wonder the menu is short, they stick to what they know perfectly and don’t try to experiment.

The creamed spinach, that’s my other favorite. Really, no way to explain this. Lots of spinach and not overly creamy, you can see in the picture above it’s more green than white right? That’s how I like it!

Now, yes this place is expensive at about $100+ per person. But if you had to splurge in food, do it here, you will never ever regret it! Don’t forget to make a reservation for that special occasion…the place is huge but tables fill up in the blink of an eye.

Balthazar

Should I go as far to say this is and has been my favorite NYC spot for years and years to come? Yup…for sure.

Balthazar, a French New York restaurant will make you feel good. Haha the atmosphere here is as delicious as the food. Comforting, comfortable, fancy yet down to earth.

There’s a lot to choose from and their daily specials are insane…helloooo Saturday night! But I’ll run you through the staples I could eat there every day of the week.
Many go for the French Onion Soup as a starter – I don’t disagree – BUT I go for the Caramelized Onion Goat Cheese Tart. It’s as good as it sounds and better. The crust is so flakey and soft you won’t even notice it’s there, the filling – creamy sweet onion with a touch of goat cheese to break it up…hmmm.
Steak – I’ve been talking a lot about it. There are two places in NY where you can eat a perfect piece of steak (that I know of so far)…Balthazar is one of them. Order their Bar Steak (medium-well for me) – it will come to the table exactly like you ask for it! But what really makes this dish?! French fries…crispy on the outside, potato-y and soft on the inside – just like they should be!
For dessert, the warm apple Tart Tatin…end it French.
Make sure you make a reservation here or be ready to wait! Either way it’s worth it. Just like any other part of the city, Balthazar is certainly a place to people-watch.
As you exit watch out for their Boulangerie next door…but that’s a whooole other post!

Shake Shake Shake It!

Finally…I have come to discover it…a fast food burger I can tolerate and lick my fingers to! Do a little dance…raise the roof…woot woot!!

I like to go somewhere, enjoy the great food and then investigate a bit about them. You never know what you’ll learn…and that’s what I like to do in this space, bring out to the light those little-big stories that may be in the ‘About’ section of a website or behind the counter at a restaurant that most of us don’t look into.

So read on, this is pretty cool…the Shake Shack actually started off as a hot dog cart in Madison Square Park and was created by Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG). This was done to support the Madison Square Park Conservancy’s first art installation. Dog-in-a-bun success 3 Summers in a row – coolio! In 2004 the USHG won a bid to open a permanent kiosk in the park…and so the first Shack was born!

I have to say, I’m always careful and a bit skeptical when it comes to the fast food burger…but boy does the Shack know what it’s doing! They serve the most delicious burgers, hot dogs, frozen custard, shakes, beer and wine (yeah, alcohol at a fast food joint)…Mast Brother’s chocolate bars (fanceeey)…those zigzag-y fries that I LOVE – shiiiz!

On top of all of this tasty fast food – they also stand for a few great things!

Good Ingredients – 100% all natural Angus beef, the veggie-fed kind. No hormones or antibiotics – EVER. They source incredible ingredients from incredible like-minded artisanal producers.

Good n’ Green – 100% of their electric usage is offset through wind power and Renewable Energy Certificates. All bottles, cardboard, and plastics are recycled aaand they’re cooking oil is reused to produce clean energy aaand kitchen food is composted.

Good Bones – Each Shack is constructed form recycled and sustainable materials. The inside tabletops are reclaimed bowling alley lanes (so fun!), the walls are reclaimed from barns and they light it up with LED lighting.

Good Neighbors – They donate 5% of sales – Committed to giving back! I am DOWN with that!

I’m feelin’ all this…and if you’re interested in reading and keeping up with some more ‘Good Things’ check out they’re blog…

http://www.shakeshack.com/stand-for-something-good

So, what I’ve done a few times is gone up to City Hall Park, watched a few games of chess…crossed the Brooklyn Bridge on foot (all this to build up an appetite and burn a few calories of course)…Boerum Place straight down…and you’ll hit it! Shack Burger will be waiting for you all delicious and what not! =)