They’ve got la nonna in the kitchen…

‘Comfort in a bowl’, that’s what I like to call a good old bowl of pasta. It’s what you’ll go for at Bianca, and it’s what you’ll return for. Truthfully, it’s also what you’ll be waiting in line for. Yes, the good authentic food here makes you wait…but boy is it worth it!

But don’t stress, Bianca is so cool they have a great relationship with the bar next door! Wait for your table at Von, grab a glass of whatever you like…before you know it Bianca’s hostess will be in to fetch you and let you know your table is ready…AND you can take your unfinished drink in to dinner with you, huh!

You’ll start your meal off with some Gnocco Fritto – fried dough paired with some soft fresh cheese. I also suggest the Fried Calamari. Now, I’ll tell you I’ve been lucky enough to have tried my share of fried calamari around the world…this is truly the best I have ever had. Soft and flavorful – just perfect!

Every single one of their dishes will sound and probably be amazing. Being my first time at the spot I decided to go for a classic. I try to do this when I’m trying new places out – if the classics are good I will probably make my way back to try the rest. So Spaghetti Bolognese it is! Amazing and surprisingly light!

Dessert at an Italian spot?! Tiramisu – my friends went insane on it, couldn’t even get a decent shot…they were decent enough to leave me a few bites though. =) Very creamy, a bit tangy and sweet…exactly like it should be.

I swear they’ve got an Italian grandmother hired and cooking in the kitchen. It’s the only way everything could taste so fresh, homemade and comforting…

Cash only – you’ve been warned.

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!

The Impossible IS Possible

Oh wait, what? You didn’t know soup could be enclosed perfectly in a dumpling?! Oh man…if you’ve never hear of or have heard of and never dared to try soup dumplings…you are in for quite a treat!

I never really make my way to Chinatown too often for some reason, but when I do I’m probably on my way to Joe’s Shanghai – the soup dumpling palace (as I like to think of it)! Waits are long – so go with time. Service is quick – so go prepared to order right when you sit down. Room is tight – so be open to sharing tables with strangers. Oh…and cash only!

There are two things I want when I walk in the door: scallion pancakes and the incredible soup dumplings. The pancakes are crispy and flavorful, they are a great and quick start after the (probably) longish wait. Now, as for the dumplings, crab or pork?! I have tried both…pork.

I know, I know…I often say that certain meals are ‘rituals’ – I’m so serious about this one. Everyone has a particular way of eating these things and every time I introduce a friend to my favorite pockets of goodness, I guide them through the process (and take pictures too…cuz it’s just so funny!)

This time it was Celi’s turn – she took to it like a pro! Step 1 – Carefully, with tongs, place a dumpling on your spoon. Step 2 – As you pinch the twirled tip with your chop sticks, bite! Step 3 – After pouring a few drops of provided sauce in the dumpling, literally suck the tasty soup out of it! (I know – just go with it…) Step 4 – Eat the rest of the dumpling and find a yummy surprising bite-sized meatball inside!

It’s delicious, it’s fun, you’ll love the experience…and the prices. How they get soup into a dumpling? The mystery remains. You’ll have fun trying to figure it out with your eating companions! Enjoy =)

 

 

Casa

Awesome food, good music, and great company – It’s what I got at Casa…known for it’s regional Brazilian home cooking, this cute little place on 72 Bedford Street get’s you in the mood right when you walk in the door. Being my first Brazilian cuisine experience in the city, I obviously had a hard time choosing just one dish!…And you will too.

I decided I should go for the national dish: Feijoada! A black bean stew prepared with prime meats paired with white rice, fresh oranges, collard greens, farofa, and a type of pico de gallo. Eating this dish, I found, is a bit of a ritual. A little stew on top of the rice, add a bit of each accompanying item on top of that…and boom – the perfect bite of rich, meaty, zingy, crunchy goodness.

Plates here are huge, you’ll be full and happy swaying back and forth to sexy Brazilian tunes.

The dessert we enjoyed is not featured in the picture above – but just describing them to you will (no doubt) make your mouth water. A flan had to be on the table – caramel custard, what could possibly be bad about that? Then a rich coconut custard that blew our taste buds away, and lastly a passion fruit mousse so creamy that the usually sour flavor of the fruit went unnoticed.

Make your way to the West Village for a different and tropical experience. On your way out, don’t forget to grab a few pieces of Brazilian candy you’ll find in a jar right next to the door!

 

Mista Lobsta vs Hangry Buoy

Over the years I have come to discover that my brother Armen is a (not so undercover) food Superhero – and I shall call him Hangry Buoy!

‘Hangry’ – han.gry adjective : filled with hanger : having a strong feeling of being upset or annoyed when hungry.

Hungry + Angry = Hangry (ClevA!)

So yes, Armen is all this in addition to an incredible cook and a more incredible and talented eater. You can see him in action above, diving head first full throttle into poor (yet delicious) Mista Lobsta! All I can say is I wish I had a video of what came next – but we all know how it is with these Superheros don’t we?…We’re lucky enough to capture a picture…Next were buttery seafood-y hands, claws dangling from his teeth, lemon juice spritzing into innocent bystanders eyes – No, Hangry Buoy knows no mercy!

But I’ll end this post on a good note…and I’ll tell you about the masterminds who brought lobsters to Chelsea.

Rod and Joan MacGregor, clearly two seafood lovers – just like Armen, opened The Lobster Place in 1974. They wanted a business to call their own – and knowing a bit about what worked in NYC kitchens, they thought that bringing a taste of Maine to restaurants and apartments in Gotham could be a big hit – uhhh shiaaa!

They put together a plywood lobster tank and an old pickup truck – shazam – they had a seafood business! They drove up to Portland a couple times a week to pick up live lobsters about 1000 lbs at a time. What they offered was simple – give both wholesale and retail customers a high quality and hard-to-find product with a sense of integrity that formed a long lasting relationship – I’d buy it!

35 years later Rod and Joan moved the company down to Chelsea Market, this is where you’ll find them today – only now run by Ian MacGregor, who served for the US Coast Guard – awesome. Now, not only will you find they’re infamous lobsters…you’ll also find a huge product line which includes basically everything that swims in the ocean!

Take a stroll on the High Line Park to work up an appetite, then walk yourself down to the Market and experience ‘The Best Seafood Business in New York’ – every relationship there is built on a foundation of quality, integrity, and professionalism – you won’t be sorry – Hangry Buoy says so!

 

O for Orgasm?

Lovely way to start a post about food huh?! I think so…because incredible food and orgasms do have a lot in common…But before I get into that, let me run you through a little bit of history about The Doughnut Plant just to build up the excitement…

The story dates back to the year 1910 when a young man called Herman Israel (The Doughnut Genius + original recipe creator) started working at a bakery in Minnesota at the age of 16. In 1934 Herman opened his own bakery in Burlington, North Carolina where his delicious doughnuts were sold. One year later Herman moves his family to Greensboro where he opens the College Pastry Shop…a place where everything is made from scratch and where the first cake mix is created…thank you for THAT Mr. Israel! Marvin, Herman’s son, was in charge of glazing the doughnuts at this point.

In 1963 Marvin has a son, the now – Doughnut Genius title holder – Mark! When 1981 rolls along Mark decides to move to NYC where the new Doughnut Era takes place and begins! Ahhh! From 1994 to 1999 Mark spends his nights making doughnuts in a Lower East Side basement and delivers them in the mornings on his bike. Clients like Dean & Deluca and Balducci’s were smart enough to get they’re hands on these puppies fresh every day. In 2000 the Plant moves up – literally – from it’s hidden basement into it’s first street location at 379 Grand St.

Ooook…we got that out of the way, fiuuu…now back to the sex!

So here’s a question, have you ever taken a bite out of something so good that the next thing that came out of your mouth was…(eyes shut – sigh) ‘Wow, that was orgasmic…’ ? I can tell you I have, there really is food out there that tastes just like sex that good. =O

If you take another look at the picture above you will notice that this is exactly what’s going on…my friend Ari had just taken a bite out of the Black-out Cake Doughnut (which premiered in 2006 – another little historical tidbit). I was lucky enough to capture him dozing off into himself…While I experienced the same feeling with my bite of the Pistachio Yeast, Celi (who is not, I repeat NOT a doughnut l<3ver) was wiggling her toes to the taste of the Creme Brulee filled Doughseed…Yes, this had just turned into a party.

And there was a single one left…C c c coconut Cream…ahaa

This coco-nutty, pillow-y, cloudy piece of goodness had turned our chat about life into a deep conversation about our sex lives. Was it the doughnuts that did this?!…the question remains…

All I can say is, come to The Doughnut Plant prepared to feel – as my friend Martha would say…’A very good thing’…

 

Not just another cookie…

Now, this is what I call a Chocolate Chip Cookie. And yes, I have capitalized all the C’s…because Culture Espresso Bar on 38th between 6th Ave. and Broadway deserves it!

Apart from having really delicious tasting coffee – I mean the kind you don’t even have to put sugar in-, these guys know what they’re doing when it comes to the CCC. Crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside, the perfect chocolate chip to dough ratio. It just cannot get any better than this (and if it can, and did, let me know where I can get some!).

So, either people who work in the area get a notice when these delights come out of the oven or they’ve developed a heightened sense of smell for them. The first time I was here I went looking for the cookies…all thanks to my handy dandy Foursquare. Got there, you could smell in the air that these were JUST being taken out of the oven (lucky me!) and they made me wait 10 minutes until my little fingers could handle the heat! Ugh! But maaaan was it worth it!

I ordered a flat white, finally got my ginormous cookie and sat down to enjoy! I broke apart my first bite, chocolate oozing out, there really is no way to explain this…is there?! Just plain melt-in-your-mouth goodness.

All of a sudden, while I’m trying to enjoy my moment, people start swarming in, I’m not kidding here, they were all there for cookies! Orders went something like this: One cookie with iced coffee, two cookies to go, 1 CCC for here 4 to go please!…in a matter of 10 minutes (the time it took me to enjoy my merienda – too quick? too slow? who cares!) the fact is THEY WERE GONE! =O

So yes, I think these people know when they come out of the oven…and it’s a good thing I don’t work in the area because my already developed sense of smell for – food in general – would become dangerous! But if you are close by and need a lift after a hard days work…stop, smell, step inside and enjoy…a really great cookie! =)