Posts filed under 'Out to eat'
Last week our friend Chana came over for dinner and talked and talked about this awesome dim sum in Chinatown. Now Chana knows her obscure food finds. She and her sister Becca always know where to eat the most random stuff, seriously. So when Chana says this is the best dim sum she’s ever had we believe her, and when she tells Matthew about the delicious peking duck that’s not even on the regular menu we solidify plans for later that week.
I don’t know if I really like dim sum. I don’t like food that are too mysterious or surprising. Like wraps, I cannot eat a wrap. What the hell do they put in there?? I like to see what I’m eating. So dumplings are kind of the same. But I trusted Chana and she of course came through.
The place is called Mandarin Court and its smack in the middle of Chinatown. We went on a Friday so it wasn’t too crowded. I would be scared to show up at this place on a Sunday.
I do like the part of dim sum where you are barely sitting down and the ladies with the food are already knocking each other down to get over to you with their delicacies.
We didn’t bother waiting for Chana to take some of the delicious looking items off their hands
The green ones are veggie dumplings, the white ones are scallop, the brown ones with Matthew’s chopsticks are some kind of beef meat thing.
Then Chana came and made us try things…
Left side - the long white noodley thing is something with veggies and sauce and the thing below it is chicken. The other long noodley thing on the top right is the same and the veg but with shrimp – it was my fave.
I mostly stuck to veggie and fish and man, everything was really delicious. Matthew gave the beef meatball things pretty high marks as well.
Then came the duck
So the thing about the duck is this, and the reason Chana rocks is that she knows things. She knows that when they bring you the duck it’s just a small plate of sliced meat so she asked the guy to bring the bones as well.
He came out and made little duck sandwiches on that thick pancake pictured below.
It consisted of duck, sauce, and scallions.
I really dislike duck so I just kept chowing on my veggie dumplings but these two went to TOWN on that carcass. They were passing the platter of nasty back and forth and enjoying themselves beyond belief. It was definitely enough for 3 or maybe 4 if you get some more dim sum. We had tons left over that Chana happily took home to share.
But first!
Before we left Chana ordered 3 steamed pork buns. Because THATS HOW YOU DO. Its a slightly sweet bun with a yummy pork center and it completes the meal.
Ok so now I love dim sum.
Surprisingly the pork bun didn’t really do it for me so I made Matthew stop at Doughnut Plant on the way home. While I have had Doughnut Plant doughnuts before I have never been to their store (plant?) and gotten a super fresh one directly from the oven. We were practically driving by so it made total sense to stop. I was pretty full but c’mon. After the baby comes who knows when I will be able to eat a doughnut again!!!
We tried a few. The pink one is blueberry (made with real blueberries, that’s like their thing) The brown is banana pecan.
But the most exciting one of all…Raspberry Jelly
Holy moly, these are so much better fresh from the oven.
July 18th, 2009
We were invited to celebrate Passover at our friend Chana’s parents house. When she asked we got so excited because for the first time ever we had absolutely nowhere to go. Chana is a college friend of ours that has been helping Matthew kick-start his new hobby of running. Outside. While not even being chased.
On the drive to their house we got super excited remembering that they OWN A RESTAURANT and the food was probably going to be really good.
It was so good in fact that it wasn’t until we left that I realized I didnt actually take photos of any people, even us. This “pregnancy brain” crap seems to only affect the taking pictures portion of my brain which is good I guess, but it is slightly debilitating for my blog posts.
We had the best time, and felt so welcome by the whole family at their Seder. We were invited back for next year already and if we can’t be in Jerusalem we might as well be in Bellmore!
Tags: holiday
April 14th, 2009
Ok, I know I said I have all these things to blog about and I do! Its just that Matthew’s sister Jaime came to town Thursday and we’ve been having too much fun to sit down at the computer.
Today was a great day in NYC. After pouring rain yesterday the sun finally came out and even thought it was pretty cold (40 deg!) it was at least pleasant.
We had a really fun day today, not a typical Easter Sunday for most but maybe a typical one for us. Family, friends, good food. No egg hunting this year, but I’m sure its something we can look forward to in years to come.
This morning Jaime’s friend Stephanie, who goes to NYU, came over for brunch. Matthew made an amazing frittata, potatoes and turkey bacon and Steph brought over pastries to go with our strawberries for dessert. I am seriously having issues with remembering to take photos so we have none, its pretty sad.
In the afternoon the 3 of us went to see West Side Story which was awesome. We walked around the village for a while before going to dinner at Blue Hill NYC. We treated ourselves (and Jaime of course!) to the tasting menu in honor of her stay. Not only did I forget to take pictures, I didn’t even bring the camera. Its PATHETIC. One of the specialties at Blue Hill is their use of “this morning’s farm egg”,err…an egg from this morning. They bring it over from the farm and it is so delicious! As a speacial Easter gift they gave us this basket of this morning’s farm eggs.
Can’t wait to enjoy them tomorrow.
April 12th, 2009
I was onsite Monday-Wednesday in NYC so even though I got to sleep at home I had to be at work in midtown by 6:30am, home around 8pm and right to sleep. Last night Matthew scored some free tix to Guys and Dolls so after I finished up at work we grabbed a bite to eat and went to the show.
Today is a very rare, very exciting day not only because I have the day off, but because Matthew is working from home! He got up early, made coffee and walked the 4 steps to the office but I lounged with my snoogle and stayed in bed for as long as possible. Basking in the glory of not having to get up at 5:30am.
Around 1 o’clock we decided to go out for lunch together and headed to Defonte’s. Its just a deli about 10 minutes away that’s been around since 1922. They have all kinds of hot and cold food but the only thing we ever go for is their fresh hot delicious roast beef sandwiches. They recently opened a branch in the city but please, it can’t possibly be the same.
Tags: brooklyn
March 12th, 2009
I’ve been pretty out of it the past few weeks. 10 days were spent in Vegas working many, many hours. I got home Friday night and caught up on TV all weekend. Feel free to talk to me about the following:
True Blood
Weeds
Gossip Girl
90210
Project Runway
Mad Men
Supernatural
and, um, Tabatha’s Salon Makeover.
I know what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas but thought I’d share some of my highlights…
My awesome suite at the Venetian
Spending time with out-of-town friends
Dinners at David Burke. 2 words. Wedge Salad.
Stupid private jokes brought on by lack of sleep (rubber chicken microphones, having a conference, calling pedro back)
Post show massage at Canyon Ranch
So I know it seems like I didn’t leave the hotel. That’s because I didn’t. We got there Wednesday night and walked to the Wynn for dinner. After that we just grabbed dinner at the hotel after work, or went directly to bed.
Here is the single photo I took while there – It’s a pic of my friend Carolyn at Woo on our last night in Vegas. Shortly after ordering this drink we left because it was too hard to understand the menu.
Attn Woo: Your food is delicious but overpriced and confusing. CHEERS!
Tags: travel
September 21st, 2008
I mentioned that we had spumoni the night my mom was here but I did not explain. L&B Spumoni Gardens is an Italian restaurant and pizza place that is known for their amazing homemade spumoni and Italian ices. It was a special request from our very special guest so as soon as we finished our dinner we headed out.
Tim came over for dinner so he joined us for the 15 minute ride to Bensonhurst (or Real Brooklyn as we refer to it)
We pulled up to the place and it was packed as usual with tons of people in line at 9:30 on a Sunday night. As we were walking through I caught a whiff of what is arguably one of my favorite slices of pizza and thought to myself, hmm, too bad we just ate dinner.
Not a minute later my mom said “I think I might have to get some pizza for later” Poor Sha misses her Brooklyn food almost as much as her kid. Then Tim chimed in with “I think I might have to get some pizza for lunch tomorrow” and it was sold, off we went to the pizza line instead of the spumoni line.
*note on this pic – do not feel sad for my mom that I posted a photo with her eyes closed. She does not know how to behave in front of a camera.
And how could we resist
We picked up our “pizza for later” and got in line for spumoni.
I ordered (me: Tim, what do you want? Tim: Spumoni…in the little white cup) and then turned around to witness this exchange:
Tim: I’m so excited about this pizza
Matthew: I totally know how you feel
Tim: I think I might have to eat it now
Matthew: Interesting thought, let me ponder how that will go over
Tim: I’m just gonna LOOK at it.
Matthew: Duuuuude, you are totally asking for it!
Tim: But it smells so good!
Tim: I’m just gonna…
Me: TIM!
Here is your GD spumoni in the little white cup.
Boy that pizza tasted good on the way home.
Tags: brooklyn, good eats, pizza
August 14th, 2008
My mom flew in Friday night which gave us the perfect opportunity to do something we’ve been meaning to do for a while – take a ride up to Tarrytown and visit the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture.
About a month ago we had dinner at the restaurant there, Blue Hill at Stone Barns and ooooooooh it was probably the best meal I have ever had. The menu is unique in a way that most of the food is produced on the farm and that instead of a set menu there is just a list of ingredients. You tell your server what you like and dislike and they work with the chef to craft a menu just for you. My menu was no game meats, organ meats or caviar. Matthew agreed to eat anything and everything. They did a really nice job giving us similar but not exactly the same meals, it was just awesome.
This is a photo of the Tisane service. They have a tea garden out back where they pick the herbs and then cut them at your table and make the tea right there. Our server also happened to tend the tea garden and sensing my intense enthusiasm (2 glasses of wine!) invited us out back to check it out but it was pouring. Maybe next time!
During the day they have a bunch of tours (pick your own eggs, anyone?) but us city folk were slightly more interested in the farm market, shop and cafe so thats where we headed.
The farm market is fairly small and a bit pricey but still pretty cool
We picked up the carrots and beets, salad greens, onion and garlic for dinner plans that night. We also got a jar of the fresh honey. Its the summer honey from the apiary they have at the farm and its delicious. Matthew has been eating toast and honey for breakfast everyday so its worth it. I hope there’s something left when he gets home…
After the market we cruised over to the cafe and had some lunch.
So that’s an open faced tuna sandwich, goat cheese and tomato sandwich, a veggie fritatta, and 2 plates of the salad bar thing which included roasted corn salad, tomato salad, some chic peas with broccoli stems that was…interesting and a farro salad. The 3 of us shared and it was all really, really fresh and tasty once you got over the broccoli stems. All that bounty for only $47. Wait, did you say $47. Hmm. That can’t be right. Well I did get the jar of pickles that are a bit pricey…Oh! Mom’s paying?!. Nevermind.
We stopped at the store on the way out. Although there was nothing I wanted at the moment I snapped a few shots of things to save for later, when I have room for them and stuff.
We headed home mid afternoon and picked up a chicken to roast for dinner. Here is the recipe Matthew’s been using for years:
Clean chicken and place in pan (he uses that one because its easier to make gravy)
1/2 green apple cut up
1/2 onion cut up
garlic
thyme
Salt and Pepper the chicken inside and out. Stuff the garlic, onion, apple, and half the thyme into the big chicken hole. Take the rest of the thyme and place it under the skin.
Make a mixture of paprika and olive oil and baste the chicken
Roast in oven at 350 until done (based on weight)
In the meantime: take all the odds and ends and throw it into a pot for gravy stock
Before
After
Gravy Makin
I put together a salad with the greens from the farm, a little goat cheese and beets that Matthew’s Aunt pickled herself (Thanks Auntie Jean!)
Dinner
Dessert? Spumoni. Adoy.
Tags: pretty things, recipe
August 13th, 2008
