"we're out of.....well i am out of patience!!"

how sad...my first negative experience in a really really long time. it pains me to even write such negativity about food.

james' friend and girlfriend were coming to nyc to visit to do christmas-y type things (you know, the tree, etc. i actually didn't even know the tree was up and running). we met up with them for dinner on saturday night, and we had the task of choosing the place.

the irony of this all was that james and i literally spent a whole week thinking about where to go. all we knew was that the girlfriend was a big meat eater (as all good girls are), so we ultimately decided on a steak place. now they were staying at the W hotel and most likely already spending a pretty penny on other nyc christmas-y type things, so we weren't trying to burn a hole in their pocket.

we came up with steak frites in the west village. my brother in law originally suggested it, saying that it was a decent, no so expensive steak place, in which
he and his buddies went for his bachelor party. now i can't blame this on him because the one he went to was not in the west village, so they must've switched locations and resulted in a "bring out of towners out for dinner and select a bad restaurant" nightmare. that's not the first time james and i had been sideswiped by a change of location of what used to be a good restaurant- stay tuned for the blog post on the tragedy of the restaurant markt.

in an effort to minimize my ever so obvious rambling, the following disappointments occurred during dinner (in order of appearance):

• they were out of stella artois. who runs out of stella artois? stella to a french restaurant is like guinness to an irish pub.
• the waiter forgot to bring james' drink. twice.
• the girlfriend and i both ordered porcini crusted fillet mignon, her's medium, mine medium well. let's just say that both of ours were even too well done for me (and i am scared of anything too pink)- seriously, hockey puck status. yeah, and about that porcini crusted part. i already mentioned my love for mushrooms before, and i got that dish because of the porcini crusted part. except they forgot that.

this is the part where you are all thinking, "why didn't you say something???!!!" well besides the fact that i am passive aggressive, i tried to keep an open and optimistic mind and hoped that they would make up for it with desert.

WRONG!!!!

• our guests ordered creme brulee, which they said was served cold. great.
• james ordered vanilla ice cream filled puff thing with chocolate sauce, but they were out of vanilla ice cream. who doesn't have excess of vanilla ice cream in their freezers??? apparently they don't. so we had to settle for coffee ice cream. and not only that, i bit into the puff pastry and it was stale, and tasted like freezer.
• finally, we asked for the check, and our waiter proceeded to take the order of the 15 person party before getting the check. nice.

you can be damn sure that i did a number on my feedback on opentable.com (the website i used to make the reservation, and all my reservations for that matter) for the restaurant.

and so, without further ado (i just had to google whether that is supposed to be ado or adieu), click here for my thoughts on steak frites

!!!Foodie Feature!!!

The very FIRST !!!Foodie Feature!!! It is by a guy who I like to call "The Jolly Green Giant". He has yet to determine his blog name, which has been a big ordeal and have caused mental angst day to day. However, it has not deterred him from contributing to the Foodie Features! Enjoy!!
-Raechel

Feels like an Arby’s Night

My morning commute includes a walk from Columbus Circle walking west to about a block away from the Hudson River. I usually stumble out of the subway station (thankfully the escalators have been working lately because who needs to a walk up a flight of stairs at 7:30 AM) and make me way down 60th St. It is here that I encounter what I call my “regulars”. The fruit stand guy, the breakfast cart (coming to this blog one day: FC’s review of Manhattan street food) and then of course there is my make believe African American friend, the doorman for some building between 8th & 9th Avenues, who I dubbed “D-lo”. Yes I am dead serious. Why? Well I’ll tell you why. He always has a smile on his face, he greets everyone walking by and the coolest thing he does is he gives a fist handshake (also known as a “fist bump”) to all residents of the building. Now I’m not entirely sure why I find this so fascinating, but everyday I walk by I keep wishing I lived in the building. Maybe D-lo and I would have a more elaborate handshake, maybe an exploding fist bump or what I call the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Ok so now you’re asking me what does this all have to do with a food blog. Well after going through a late night writing a paper on Google becoming a metanational company (please do me a favor and don’t ask) I needed an extra kick in the ass this morning. Well as an ode to my undergrad days I went and splurged on some Starbucks. As I made my way down 60th past D-lo’s building with Starbucks cup in hand I noticed that I was not getting the same love from my make believe best friend. I saw it in D-lo’s eyes. He thought I was selling out by drinking a Starbucks coffee. There was no time for me to explain, he had to hold the door open for someone exiting the building. I looked back hoping to see him play it off as one of our patent “gags”, but no, he had moved onto to fist bumping others. Needless to say it was a tough start to my morning. What D-lo needs to understand is that sometimes you crave for a fix from some franchised joint. It is perfectly acceptable to ask your girlfriend to go to the Outback so that you can order the blooming onion or you meet a friend for lunch to partake in the Pizza Hut buffet and yes even order a grande triple shot of espresso skim latte. My fellow foodies, while we should never accept the “food” produced by a franchise place as a part of our everyday lives, let us not look down at those that occasionally are tempted by an order of the loaded cheese fries. Now will someone please let D-lo know, so I can get back to planning our fake trip to Memphis (because he likes the blues).

FC

"that's the biggest piece of veal i have ever seen"

last week, i was in the mood for german food. however, i couldn't write about it right after because i suffered from a food coma- typical.

james and i went to zum stammtisch in glendale (queens). originally we were planning to go to koenig's in floral park, the site of both myself and my sister jill's sweet 16. one might think it's weird that two filipino girls had their sweet 16s at a german restaurant. but my mom's philosophy is good food = good party.


trying to broaden the horizons, i did a google search for german restaurants in queens, and zum stammtisch was the first to come up (koenig's was second). and off we went on the jackie robinson parkway.


james and i 1/2 and 1/2ed it: i got the jagerschnitzel and james got the "pick 3" (three types of german sausages- we chose one of each obviously: bratwurst, knockwurst, and some other one that neither james nor i can remember. rest assured it was good).


the jagerschnitzel was "A lightly breaded veal cutlet smothered in a hunter sauce made from fine imported mushrooms and special seasoning". i don't eat veal all that often (miranda hobbes from sex and the city thinks its a politically incorrect piece of meat), but james likes it, and i really like anything with mushrooms so i splurged.


so the food came out- and the veal was the biggest piece of veal i have ever seen. so if you put the veal up to the computer screen, and multiplied this image by 15, that's how big the veal was:


now portions wasn't the kicker for the restaurant. the food was really great as well. we ordered a side of potato pancakes (one of my FAVORITE things- stay tuned for the blog about how i think i am a reincarnated potato obsessed irishwoman), and each entree came with red cabbage and potatoes. we also got beers of course, which probably contributed to my food coma.

the other nice thing about the restaurant was that i felt like i was sitting in my non existent german uncle's living room. with the exception of koenig's, other german restaurants (been to only three- and one was germany at epcot) i have been to was more like a beer garden, so the homey feel was pretty awesome. aaaaand our waitress was german.

definitely a repeat restaurant and i place i would take out of town guests that like german food. but german food isn't something you can eat often. it's like the special meal you eat once in a while when you are in the mood for it- and it never fails to fulfill what you were looking for...

vielen dank zum stammtisch!!!

the reason why i am obsessed with eating

i thought long and hard about what my first post should be about. i tried not to stress that much about it- even though i feel like there is pressure to make it a good one, or else i'd be flying solo.

after all, i DID say this was supposed to be a no frills operation, so posts should be on the fly and be a breezy (friends refernce) event, right?

i guess its good to start at the basics. why did i start this blog in the first place? well, its because i am obsessed with eating, and therefore food, and food related things, and so on and so on.

and why i am obsessed with eating? its a little thing i like to call breakfast. i LOOOOOOOVE breakfast foods. now i am not talking about packets of oatmeal, pop tarts, yogurts that have the lowest fat and calories and taste like chemicals. i am talking about real deal breakfast food joints- pancakes, eggs, bacon, french toast, hashbrowns, the whole nine. it's great! you get best of both worlds: something salty and something sweet. it's like getting to eat desert with the main course all at the same time.

that is not to say that you can't have these foods in the privacy of your own home. but it's my feeling that its just not the same when your favorite (insert cultural background of your choice here) cook makes it for you at the local breakfast nook. it might also have to do with the fact that every breakfast food item is cooked in butter. butter makes everything better. or it may be the fact that it's too much to cook all this stuff on your own and its nice to be lazy and have someone else do it for you.

if i am talking about my love for breakfast, i inadvertently have to talk about my love for brunch. brunch = brunch + lunch. the funny thing is, i never eat the available lunch items and always order the breakfast stuff (see above ramble why). but here are just some of the reasons that brunch is such a darn good idea:

• Compliments of Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City: "There are very few things this New Yorker loves as much as Sunday brunch. You can sleep until noon and still get eggs anywhere in the city, alcohol is often included with the meal" Need I say more?











• The breakfast food staples are often given in a fancy version: Raspberry Cream Stuffed French Toast, Caramelized Chocolate Banana Waffles, Caramelized Onion Corned Beef Hash Cake, Eggs Benedict etc.










• Two words: Brunch Buffet. Again, need I say more? A perfect opportunity to be a gluton with no judgement because hey, everyone else is doing it.







• Because Brunch usually only happens on the weekends, its not something you can get everyday, so you have something to look forward to.
  

i think you get the picture. because i go out of my way to eat breakfast/brunch foods when i am out, the majority of my blogs will be about these types of places, so i figured the smart thing to do is explain right from the get-go that my true love of eating comes from breakfast foods. while a lot of the places i will write about are situated in the tri state area (primarily in queens, long island, and nyc), this blog will give me motivation to venture more frequently to other boroughs and places to broaden my palate. bon appetit! (how cliche to end with that in a blog about food?)