I thought I’d write up a quick post to show that this blog isn’t dead… at least not yet.
The pictures of the food are from an awesome lunch that I had last month with Amy and Ryan at The Adore near Union Square. I didn’t take any pictures of us while there, so I just stuck in some random pictures of us.
Order of awesomeness: Hanging out with Amy & Ryan > Duck Sandwich > Fruit Tarts
If you have the chance, go there for lunch and sit by the window.
Smoked Duck onion, tomato, arugula, lettuce
Soup!
Lemon Tart at The Adore
Pear Tart at The Adore
Amy!
Ryan! (and Ben)
Jane and I hanging at SXSW
The Adore
17 E 13th St
New York, NY 10003
(212) 243-8742
I was clicking through the Lunch Studio blog the other day and came across their Parisi Bakery post, which featured this ridiculously awesome looking sandwich. Needless to say, after seeing that I decided that I needed to go there for lunch.
A quick read through of the Interwebs and a few Foursquare tips will tell you that Parisi’s is known for two things: their sandwiches and their long lines. I’ve been there twice now, and I can vouch that both their sandwiches are fantastic and that their lines do indeed require some patience.
If you’re in the area, however, you should make it a point to stop by Parisi’s Bakery. As Lunch Studio mentions in their post, you will not be disappointed.
Parisi Bakery on Mott Street in Little Italy
meatball parm at Parisi Bakery
Parisi Bakery
198 Mott Street
New York, NY 10012-4509
(212) 226-6378
As you may or may not know (or care), I’m a fan of Foodspotting. That’s cool and all, except I think it makes my blog sad because I write in it a lot less often nowadays because of it. Anyway, Amy at Foodspotting had organized a dessert crawl this past Saturday in my neighborhood that Matt and I decided to partake in. The crawl is described on the site as a “hot pursuit of the orange-colored & pumpkin-flavored,” which for the record, I hate both of (orange-colored and pumpkin-flavored foods). The things I do for this blog… 
I tried to sum up the day’s events with the pictures below. I obviously veered completely off course of the food that we were supposed to try, but I think that’s okay (i’m sorry Amy?). I had a really great time just meeting everyone who came. Plenty of pictures are available on the actual guide page itself, the House of Brinson, and Amy’s tumblr have some pictures too.
In conclusion, I’ve decided that hanging out with other food bloggers is awesome, if only because I feel like less of an idiot while taking pictures of my food. Well and they’re all cool people too. That is all. Now go vote.
first stop, Little Pie Co Ltd on 43rd Street
a lot of choices at Little Pie Co Ltd.
this is what happens when food bloggers hang out
for the person who doesn't like pumpkin pie... a key lime pie
Sullivan Street Bakery on 47th Street
everything looked good here.
i want to eat that thing
Torta Di Zucca at Sullivan Street Bakery
want a splinter in the mouth? eat with a wooden fork.
At Holey Cream, home of the doughnut ice cream sandwich
cookies and cream ice cream > pumpkin gelato
Amy's Bread on 9th Ave
cupcakes at Amy's Bread
the cupcake i tried and failed to eat.
Sake-Infused Mac & Cheese at Kyotofu
last bite to eat on the food crawl
Thomas loving his new shirt
We celebrated Anne’s birthday at the Greek restaurant Symposium on the Upper West Side last week. And if you’re looking for really good Greek food in New York, this is where you should go. I’m going to keep the text of this post short though. Instead of reading blogs this morning, I’d like you to consider donating to Anne’s charity: water campaign. She selflessly decided to give up her birthday this year and set a goal of raising $1,000 to help bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Please consider donating and help Anne get over that $1,000 mark!
the crazy menu at Symposium
some flaming saganaki
gyro platter at Symposium
Symposium Greek Restaurant
544 West 113 Street
New York, NY 10025-8000
(212) 865-1011
This post is dedicated to my friend Jennifer Eagan, who had apparently just learned about this blog the day that we met. I think I’m insulted? For some reason she really wanted me to include a picture of her here, so I decided to oblige and write up a post about our trip to Camden, NJ (it was for business). I’m assuming that you’ve heard of Camden, but here’s a quick blurb from Wikipedia if you have not:
Although once a thriving center for manufacturing and industry, Camden is perhaps best known for its struggles with urban dysfunction. Three Camden mayors have been jailed for corruption, the most recent being Milton Milan in 2000. Since 2005 the school system and police department have been operated by the State of New Jersey; the takeover will expire in 2012. In 2009, Camden had the highest crime rate in the U.S. with 2,333 violent crimes per 100,000 people while the national average was 455 per 100,000 Camden public schools spend $17,000 per student per year yet only two thirds of the students graduate. Two out of every five residents are below the national poverty line.
Camden is making a comeback though, which obvious is starting with their websites. Here’s the county’s site that Simande did earlier this year. Soon we will be redesigning the county’s library system and :::hopefully::: we’ll be redesigning the Rutgers-Camden website as well.
Anyway, enough talk about our company. The question is, how is the food in Camden? While I wouldn’t recommend that anyway go out of their way to explore deep into Camden to get to The Victor’s Pub, if you’re already in the area, I think this is the spot that I would send people. While my burger this trip wasn’t anything special, I’ve always gotten fairly decent food there. For the record, Jen did not come close to finishing her burger.
The Victor's Pub in Camden, NJ
black and bleu burger
Jen posing with her burger
The Victor’s Pub
1 Market St # 103
Camden, NJ 08102-2326
(856) 635-0600
I’d like to start off with an apology to anyone who listened to me on twitter and went to the Dumpling Festival. The only thing that saved it from being a complete waste of time and money was the fact that all of the proceeds went to the Food Bank. I suppose those gigantic dumplings were fairly amusing as well, but they didn’t exactly make up for the long lines to get frozen dumplings. We quickly got bored of waiting between each dish and decided to just use up the rest of our tickets for the only tent with no line – the raviolis.
Afterward we decided to go find some real food at Motorino on 12th Street. The pizza there tastes as good as it looks in the pictures, and you should make it a point to go there. I always order the spicy octopus and potato as well, so you should probably do that as well. Trust me, it’s fantastic.
Eating all of that food made us lazy, so we walked down the street to the movie theater to watch The Town. Good movie.
You can probably guess what we did after we left the movies. Yes, more eating. We ending up going to Stogo for some organic, dairy-free ice cream. It’s actually not that bad. It tastes like… healthy?
entrance to the Dumpling Festival
ticket for the Dumpling Festival
Stephan looks a little confused
a large green dumpling greets you at the entrance
map of all the dumpling tents
eat dumplings while little children dance
long lines for everything except the raviolis
so we helped them out
some terrible Malaysian dumplings
a very gingery Ginger Ale
waited 30 minutes for these
Stephan and Paul eating on the steps
some real food at motorino
spicy octopus & potato at motorino
soppressata piccante at motorino
cherry stone clams at motorino
stracciatella at motorino
stogo
the healthiest ice cream ever
pomegranate chocolate chip ice cream
Stogo
159 e 10th street
New York, NY 10003
(212) 677-2301
Motorino
349 E 12th St
New York, NY 10003
(212) 777-2644
I quickly realized after moving into my relatively new apartment on 53rd Street that the only restaurant in the area that consistently has a waiting line outside of it every night is Totto Ramen. That being said, it took me almost 2 months to actually go in there and try out the ramen. I’m not exactly the biggest fan of waiting in lines, but it also actually took that long for us to be able to simply walk into Totto Ramen and get a table. So I guess the question then becomes… in the future, is the wait justified?
After seeing a disappointing performance at UCB Theatre with Anne and Paul, we decided that it was finally time to eat at Totto Ramen. As you can see in the picture below, I decided to order the Totto Miso Ramen. I can now say with complete certainty that it is worth the wait at Totto Ramen. I’m not sure what this says about the ramen, but I think that I ate the entire bowl in like less than three minutes. My favorite part was the broth though, as it somehow managed to be very flavorful and yet light at the same time.
I hear good things about Ippudo in the east village, so I think that will be my next ramen stop. Any others in the City that I NEED to go to?
Totto Ramen's entrance on 52nd Street
menu cover at Totto Ramen
menu at Totto Ramen in New York City
bowl of totto miso ramen
picture of the inside of Totto Ramen
Paul working on his ramen and edamame
anne rockin the chopsticks and spoon
Totto Ramen
366 W 52nd St
(between 8th Ave & 9th Ave)
New York, NY 10019
(212) 582-0052
www.tottoramen.com
Genna was kind enough to invite me to the opening launch party for the new brgr on the upper east side that her company, Channel V Media, was organizing. Okay, maybe it was more like I got an email from Genna saying, “Can you please come and blog about it? PLEASE?!?! … There will be free burgers, fries, shakes, beer, wine and cookies.”
Free burgers, fries, shakes, beer, wine, and cookies??? I guess I’ll go, if I have to… the things I do for Genna.
The event ended up being was quite fun. Got to meet some interesting people, which includes finally getting to meet the food blogger Miss Tiffie and her boyfriend. The heads of brgr, US Wellness Meats, and Ronnybrook Farm all spoke and hung out all night. The food was definitely right on as well. Favorite new milkshake is the blueberry-pomegranate. Favorite new burger is the blue sky brgr. Favorite new cow is grass-fed.
Thinking we should arrange a burger crawl around NYC. Maybe get 4 people together and just cut it into quarters at each place? Based on the White Castle contest, that means we can hit up 18 burger joints all in one day.
More pictures of last night can be found here, here, here, and here.
outside of the new brgr on the upper east side in New York
wall that greets you when you walk into the new brgr
wall of wine that greets you when you walk in
back seating area
where the magic happens (cows gets turned into delicious here)
assembling some burgers at brgr
some milkshake shots
here's a burger
here's a better burger
here's a different burger of the same burger
the CEO of brgr, Steve Leicht, speaking
Founder of US Wellness Meats, John Wood, petting some grass
Tiffany saying hello to Rick Osofsky of Ronnybrook Farm Dairy
here's a picture of a bag. i assume one bag has a golden burger.
brgr Upper East Side
1026 3rd Avenue
(btw 60th and 61st)
New York, NY 10065
(212) 588-0080
Taken straight from the Feast of San Gennaro website:
The 84th Annual Feast of San Gennaro, New York City’s longest-running, biggest and most revered religious outdoor festival in the United States, will be held Thursday, September 16, through Sunday, September 26, 2010, on the streets of historic Little Italy, the lower Manhattan neighborhood which served as the first home in America for hundreds of thousands of Italian immigrants who came here seeking to improve their lives beginning in the early part of the 20th century.
Since we are a block away Little Italy, I decided to run through the streets with my iPhone and take some pictures of what’s out there. Okay… less words, more pictures now.
welcome to Little Italy
making some sausage and pepper sandwiches
close up of a sausage sandwich
Yin was so excited she couldn't wait to eat
grilling some corn
you cannot eat cookie monster or sponge bob
more grilling at San Gennaro
this looks semi healthy
this is significantly less healthy
looking for the end
mozzarella pancakes?
some street clams and oysters
Yin's three oysters
pina coladas
lots of finger puppets
nuts... if you're into those kinds of things.
cigars because you can
homemade gelato
or candy apples
perhaps some Italian candy
fried oreos are delicious
ribeye steak sandwich on garlic bread
close up of the rib eye sandwich
of course there is pizza
and pasta
and dippin' dots?
cannolis
things to do when you're not eating
MIT hosted an awesome, free conference on 9/11 that included some great speakers that ranged from the inventor of ethernet (Bob Metcalfe) to the guy who made WolframAlpha (Stephen Wolfram). If you have the chance next year, I recommend that you go. The event is called Startup Bootcamp, and the full video of the event can be found here.
Yin’s friend Jessica was nice enough to pick us up in New York to drive us (Eric, Yin, and myself) up to Boston the night before. For some reason Jessica was really hyped up about this pizza place in Connecticut called Frank Pepe. Somewhere on the West Side Highway in the City (about 2 hours away from Frank Pepe’s) Jessica called up the restaurant to place our order. We didn’t even have to tell them we were 2 hours away, as there was a 2 hour wait to place an order pizza for take-out. I’ll be honest, I was semi-convinced at this point that this pizza would be worth the trouble of diverting off the highway to go to New Haven.
The pizza was unfortunately not as good as I think it could have been, if only because the pizza itself was served at room temperature. Below you can see the guys pulling pizzas out of their ridiculously large stove with a long pizza spatula, which I wish they had done to our pizza right before we arrived. The main guy with the spatula in his hand couldn’t stop giggling as I was taking this picture. I hope he doesn’t mind I’m putting him on the Internet. As I was saying, the pizza was okay. I liked how it was loaded with garlic and large pieces of clam. I’m not sure, but there might have been too much garlic for Eric.
Anyway, the verdict is that it is not worth getting off of the highway on your way to Boston from New York to get this pizza. It is, however, definitely worth the drive from New York to Boston for Startup Bootcamp.
entrance to the very Italian Wooster Street in New Haven, CT
our destination, the original Frank Pepe pizzeria
in case you were wondering what the box looked like
some Foxon Park soda at Frank Pepe's
large stoves at Frank Pepe's to make some pizza
Frank Pepe's white clam pizza
the reason for the trip - Startup Bootcamp 2010 at MIT
Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana
157 Wooster St
New Haven, Connecticut 06511
(203) 865-5762
