the last hurrah

in two weeks and two days i will officially embark on my once a year, short term life as a vegetarian. while there are certain fasting, specifically meat-eating fasting, rules for catholics during lent, for the past 4 years, i have been giving up meat for the full 40 days. believe me, it is a challenge. while being very conscious that the time is approaching, i especially enjoyed a meal that james and i went to last week at ricardo steak house . it was a recommendation by a friend of james (and actually a follower of this blog- holla!!)

the restaurant location can be quite deceiving, as you wouldn't think that there are any particularly great steakhouses in spanish harlem, or SPAHA if you will (it's on 1st avenue between 110th and 111th). but this gem was certainly a place to celebrate an occasion (if you happen to be celebrating, like we were).

my friend allie (who is also a follower of this blog and definitely my foodie in crime) once told me that her father said that you could tell if i restaurant is good by their bread. makes sense, right? it starts the meal off. this bread was LIFE CHANGING- it was like a pizza hut breads tick times 100. i kind of feel guilty comparing the bread to an item at pizza hut, but i am sure you get the visual on it by this example.

we started with angus empanadas. fyi 1) i am salivating just thinking about them 2) in reaction to his first bite of the empanadas stated, "i wish i could sit in front of the tv eating these empanadas all day.

needless to say, we will be returning to the restaurant, if only to eat those empanadas. and the bread.

james and i decided not to 1/2 and 1/2 it, being that we both wanted the same thing. we got what was called the "Ricardo Mixed Grill", which came with grilled PGA Skirt steak (whatever that golf reference means), chicken breast, pork and chorizo served with roasted potatoes and garlic spinach. i dont want to say that i ate all of the steak and chorizo, but i did. it was such a meat fest, but an excellent one at that. the portions were actually not 5 star size (anorexic model status), but not cheesecake factory or vinny testa's (holla at boston) size either. i did end up taking some of the meat home because i didn't want to subject myself to any meat sweats (which i knew about but never really thought about it out loud until my friend troy told me about it).

similar to the bread comment above, deserts are just as important as any other part of the meal, because that is what leaves the lasting impression of the place (a la tom colicchio in a recent episode of top chef). all i have to say is HOLY DESERT! damn son! usually james and i 1/2 and 1/2 that ish, but since i didn't over do it with the meat, i was feeling exceptionally adventurous and decided that i could do my own desert that night. little did i know that it was going to be a 3 course meal in itself! james got this chocolate ganache cake and i got fried plantains. the fried plantain actually looked like a potato croquet when it first came out, but it was actually pretty freaking awesome. it wasn't too sweet (and some plantains, like maduros, tend to be too sweet for me sometimes) and had this caramel sauce on the bottom. both of our deserts had a big cup of ice cream placed on the dinner sized plate, and a little cup of whipped cream also on the side. i actually took a picture of both of our deserts on my blackberry, but someone stole my USB cable at work so i can't download them, and everytime i try to email it, it times out. well, that will be a reason for you all to check it out yourselves since i didn't post any pictures for this one!

what made ricardo's especially stand out from other places is that the waitstaff was super nice, and the restaurant manager came by twice to see how we were doing and how the meal was (even plugged her business card for private events).

aaaaaaaand it was VERY recession friendly given that it was a steak house (and that we got drinks, appetizers, and desert for both of us). we definitely got the bang for our buck, and then some! i really loved this place that much, that i might need to go back there before my two weeks and two days are up!

now it's your turn. we went to this place on a recommendation- tell me if you loved it the same way we did! well i guess that goes for any other restaurant i write about, huh?????

!!!Foodie Feature!!!

It's that time again!!! Another !!!Foodie Feature!!! from our very own Jolly Green Giant...

Tailgate Wars

With the Super Bowl taking place this weekend I wanted to touch on one of the great joys of my life, tailgating. Tailgating has come to mean so much to me. It is an art, it is a sport and for many it is the stuff legends are made of.

I truly discovered what tailgating was about at a Dave Matthews Concert in the summer of 2001, but our story beings in the 80s. My first ever professional sports event was probably a soccer match in Colombia, but in the States it was for a baseball contest that pitted the Mets of New York versus the Expos of Montreal. I’m pretty sure my mom’s coworker offered me the ticket since she was taking her young son. I was very excited. We were going to take the bus to Main Street and then taking the 7 train to Shea Stadium. My mother being the kind lady she is, packed me a whole arepa and off I was to the game. I point to this event as my first experience in tailgating.

Now many tailgating- orthodox members will say that this does not qualify as “tailgating”. They believe that tailgating can only occur outside of said event. Well I’m here to offer my perspective on this rule. Yes, I came to love tailgating based on the events at that DMB concert at Giants Stadium. We drove in my dad’s Honda Odyssey Mini-van and set up shop in the parking lot. We were minors with a case of beer and I’d say roughly 300 cups. The beer quickly started disappearing and our friend that was bringing a few more cases was still far away. We quickly found that many other minors were drinking but had failed to bring cups. Or some others needed them to play beer pong. Well, guess who had lots of cups to barter away. In exchange we received alcohol and several other questionable items. I was in love. Tailgating would forever be my mistress.

Since then food has become an important process (not as important as alcohol). Hamburgers and hot dogs have evolved to chili and chicken wings. We’ve done the breakfast tailgate, pancakes, scrambled eggs and a Miller Lite. Chips and pretzels you say, well how about some pepperoni, cheese and crackers (check the bottom center). And once we even had a fruit platter (yes that was from Giants vs Cowboys last year). Games can be played, whether drinking ones, tossing the football or using your friend’s golf clubs to practice your putting game (yes that also happened).

So what do I consider tailgating? Any social gathering prior to going to an event, including stadium parking lots, hotel parking lots (took a cab to the concert), hotel rooms, bars (“Take the train to the game”) (and also outside of MSG), apartments (pre-gaming is a form of tailgating) and yes even little innocent me taking the bus with arepa in hand was tailgating. I have tons of respect for the guys with an RV that has satellite television and cook a turkey for the game, but us city folk cannot be discounted just because we prefer to drink at a bar that has happy hour specials (and the best buffalo chicken wrap) and then hop on the train. No, we should all be treated equally.

As we all prepare our Super Bowl dishes, please remember there are a couple of guys that will be shot-gunning some beers in their hotel rooms and then walking over to the game. And at this time of the year, they should not be forgotten.

what's with the white spots?

so in the rare event that people (other than my family, friends, and foodies that i have met along the way) read this blog, i am trying to remain anonymous, along with anyone else that comes along for my food adventures. or maybe it's because i thought it was really funny putting those white dots over my face (and james')...when the odds are really low that people i don't know will follow this blog.

i can't believe it's maple butter!!!

james and i are not fans of the hype of new year, and wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of the boroughs. we decided to spend the long weekend manchester, vermont. now when you think of vermont, some of you might associate it with skiing, maple syrup, tree huggers, crunchy granola, and sub zero temperatures in the winter. but what you might not know is that this green mountain state (and specifically the town of manchester) is quite the diamond in the rough for us foodies!

we were there for 3 nights and 4 days...aka 3 breakfasts, 3 dinners, and 2 in betweens (not a full blown lunch, but just a little something). but here are my top picks of the trip...

getting back on the steak bandwagon

we got to manchester pretty late on thursday night, so we decided to eat at one of the restaurants at the place we were staying at, The Equinox Resort and Spa. now if this was a travel blog, i would tell you how AWESOME this place was, but i can spend hours rambling about that, so i will just stick to the foodie stuff. just know that not only the places we ate at will be repeats, but so will the equinox. many times over. you get the picture, and i hope you'll experience it for yourself.

ANYWAY, so we were lucky that there were spots left for dinner at The Chop House since it was new year's eve . after our experience at steak frites (see last entry), i was trying to renew my faith in steak restaurants and all i can say is i have returned!

the meal started with a "compliments of the chef" amuse bouche. not gonna lie, the only reason why i know what an amuse bouche is, is because i started watching top chef last season (not going to write an entry about top chef because i am sure there are a ton of blogs about the show as it is). so amuse bouch is (a la wikipedia) is "a single, bite-sized hors d’œuvre. Amuse-bouche are different from appetizers in that they are not ordered from a menu by patrons, but, when served, are according to the chef's selection alone", and we got an oyster shooter (very new englandy i might add). okay, so i am SO NOT a shell fish person, but i felt ungrateful if i didn't take it, so i did (for the record, james did not). and that was that. the rest of the meal was FANTASTIC...

• 1/2 and 1/2ed apps: The “Wedge”: Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes /Nueski Applewood Smoked Bacon /Vermont Blue Cheese & French Onion Soup / Vermont Gruyere Cheese


• main course (both of us): 8 0z. filet mignon (medium, even me!)


• steak sauces: bernaise, bordelaise, and chop house steak sauce (we splurged for a third)


• 1/2 and 1/2ed sides: mac and cheese, grilled asparagus, whipped garlic potato puree
  

the verdict: restored faith in steak, a little too expensive for it to be a repeat, but a memorable experience nonetheless (enough for it to be written about in the food blog...)

classic new england-y fare

what better way to toast vermont cuisine than going to a classic new england-y restaurant, Ye Old Tavern. the restaurant looked like someone's home, probably was someone's home at some point, and the food was, you guessed it, like delicious home cooking (i have martha washington as the cook in my head for some reason).

• the life changing part: MAPLE BUTTER. it sounds like such a simple concept ("why didn't i think of that??"), i probably couldn't replicate it, and could have eaten just the maple butter by the spoonful as my meal. bold statement, sounds gross, but it's soooooo good!
  
• problem with posting something a month later: we got one of the appetizer's that was a "special". all i remember is artichokes, bacon, and some awesome creamy cheese baked into it. and i can't remember what type it cheese it was, but the app was damn good!
  
• home cookin is good lookin: james got pork chops and i got new england scrod. good to the last drop.


• the final stretch: 1/2 and 1/2ed berry brulee and cranberry & apple crisp

the verdict: a winner from start to finish! a repeat? most definitely, and one of the many motivational factors to come back to manchester.

the breakfast showdown

vermont had a lot to live up to, since my palate is partial to breakfast cuisine. we kept on reading and hearing about this place, Up for Breakfast. note that there is no clickable link, as this place doesn't need a website to promote itself. the place is TINY and there is almost always a wait (as we did), but it's well worth the wait. there are more items on the menu then their are seats, and of course i had mental angst about what to order. the equinox resort driver that gave us a ride to the restaurant suggested a to get the "wild turkey hash": dark turkey meat hash with two poached eggs on top, doused in a lemon Hollandaise sauce. i was thinking that because i am obsessed with corned beef hash (which was also on the menu), i should like this. it was good, a little unexpectedly spicy, but it made the dish unique. even though james or i can't remember what james ordered, the place was overall good enough to say that i wanted to come back the next day to try something else.

THAT IS...until we met some other foodies at the resort jacuzzi, who recommended going to a place called the rooster cafe.

i heavily rely on people's recommendations (even if we don't know them), so we had to take the opportunity to try this place. i was pleasantly surprised that they had maple butter as well (YES!). actually, it was specifically for that day's special: maple swirl french toast. so of course we got an order of that strictly for the maple butter part of it (as a "side dish"- total glutton style). i got a daily special for my main meal, called the rt-11: 3 eggs with spicy sausage, "herbal" (very vermont-y) mushrooms, scallion, swiss (but i substituted for cheddar). james got the "all american": 2 eggs, bacon, and cheddar potatoes. note that the only reason why i remember this is because i wrote notes in my cell phone, knowing how bad my memory is. the place was excellente and we will definitely return their for breakfast, and even try out their lunch menu next visit.

the wrap up

• who knew that vermont had such kick a$$ food???


• we are definitely returning to manchester this summer (and future winters), both for the fun and the food


• no more posting to the food blog too far after the fact (it's what i like to call CRS = can't remember .... )

"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!!!