Eataly

I FINALLY got to go to Grimaldi’s. I don’t know what took me so long, but Tom and I had gone to Amorino (on Vanderbilt) for dinner on Saturday night and I satiated my lust and craving for anchovies (Tom hates them and opted for the white pizza special with onions, ricotta, sausage and basil). Mine was super salty with the fish, capers and olives. His eggplant caponata was nothing special so I won’t even bother discussing it. Apparently this little pizzeria is Zagat rated and he said if I liked this crust (thin, a little chewy) then I’d really love Grimaldi’s, so we finally made a date to go yesterday (Sunday). I also wanted to bring him to Eataly which I will talk about in a bit.
We got to Grimaldi’s in the dreary cloudy weather and of course there was a long line outside. This pizza better be good. They are very efficient in getting people in and out so we didn’t have to wait longer than half an hour but it is very cramped. We had this Asian guy behind us who kept trying to get Tom to tell the guy we were together with his wife/gf in case they called a table of 4. Turns out they were seated next to us anyway as he pointed out… For future reference: Please don’t talk to me when I’m about to eat and don’t appear too clingy.

We ordered a large margherita with half ricotta and Italian sausage. Delicioso! We actually managed to eat the entire pie between the two of us. I can now check off this NYC institution off my list with rave remarks.

After we paid the bill, we trekked off to Eataly in Chelsea. If you love Italian food, this market brought to NYC by Mario Batalli is the gastronomical paradise you’ve always dreamed of. It is very reminiscent of the indoor Italian markets in Italy which is where Batalli got the idea from. However, it is a complete zoo inside. I thought it was going to be more like Chelsea Market where it has one long corridor spanning across one block with various restaurants and shops along it. Eataly is just one massive maze of gelato, pastries, espresso, artisanal breads, chocolates, restaurants, cured meats, cheeses, seafood, pasta, paninis, and beverages; also kind of like Harrod’s of London if you’ve ever been. But it’s kind of great seeing people walk around with their European-inspired basket-shopping carts and a glass of wine in hand. The restaurants are literally in the middle of aisles and there are seating areas all over the place; really neat atmosphere. We ended up getting a tiramisu and a gelato to share. Both hitting the spot, but what I really had my eye on was the pastas, meats and cheeses. Unfortunately the crowd was a turn-off as was the long line to purchase items so we walked away empty-handed. I will have to give it another try during the week when it hopefully won’t be as busy.

Healthy Eats

Yes, I remember that the original purpose of this food blog was to chronicle healthy eating which somehow turned into how much bacon and fried chicken I was eating.

Well as I've announced before, I'm trying to start a new diet that is full of protein with less meat. My coworker and I somehow got on this health-kick with discovering kale and quinoa. My coworker T (who is vegetarian/pescatarian) has been bringing in a different Quinoa salad every week. First week had chickpeas and lemon juice. Second week was red quinoa with green beans, dried cranberries and walnuts. This week was red quinoa with apples and curry powder. Delish. I need to stock up pronto.

This was one of my lunches last week:

Can you guess what each thing is?

I also made a big batch of lentil soup (and sneaked in pancetta) which will be very welcoming to eat once it gets colder.

My goal by Sept 27 is to be able to run the 5K I booked in Disney World. Right now, I can probably do 2 easy. Hopefully eating healthier and losing some extra pounds will get me through the 3 miles. I believe I can do it, as last year when I tried to start running, I barely made half a mile without getting out of breath. Now, I wake up at 7 (sometimes) and run 1.2 miles. Wish me luck! Share any recipes in the comments as well.

Weekend Feast

So much to update! As some of you may have heard, I lost my wallet (with years and years worth of irreplaceable things amongst the cash, credit cards and gift cards). I am trying to cope, but it is really hard to think all of that is gone.

But in better news: a BIG congratulations to Alice and Matt who got married this past weekend. I ate terribly and terribly well. Thursday, Tom and I drove down at 5:30am to get to Bowling Green, KY by 9pm their time. Kind of amazing and it was all Tom. The nice thing about driving on interstates is that you kind of HAVE to eat fast food since it's really all they offer. So naturally we got Wendy's. On Friday we got breakfast at Cracker Barrel. FINALLY. I've heard things from my southern folk and just the smell of Yankee candles in the "General Store" got me excited. I decided to go all out and get the southern fried chicken with grits, eggs, biscuits and lotsa gravy. I couldn't even finish my 2nd biscuit! Tom opted for the "healthier" option (yogurt, eggs, bran muffin) which was actually pretty delicious as well.

Then I finally got to see my best and oldest friend Alice at her then-fiance's family's home which was gorgeous. They had a 168 lb (gutted) pig roasting and Alice's adorable parents were busy burying delicious sweet potatoes underground. Seriously too spoiled. Saturday, we joined them at 8:30am for a yoga session in the backyard. Gorgeous day. Had breakfast there and then Tom and I got lunch at Sonic Burger- the drive-IN spot. I always saw the commercials and never really though much about them eating in their car. Little did I know that eating in your car was their schtick!
Love it. I got a cheeseburger and onion rings and an iced tea that was not what I ordered (the pains of ordering via intercom, I guess). The cheeseburger and onion rings were divine though. The batter for the onions was reminscent of zeppoles so if you can only imagine!

Saturday night was the wedding; a beautiful one at that. I got a little teary eyed when I finally hugged them post-vows. They are a cute couple and his family is so much fun and great hosts! Dinner included Korean beef (they forgot to serve our table but my grumbling stomach was not going to let us miss out on it). The servers also handed us a spring roll with peanut sauce. My only complaint was that it was actually a summer roll with fish sauce. Nevertheless, it was good... as was the perfectly-cooked medium rare steak.

Before our long drive home Sunday morning, we got breakfast at Waffle House- a dingy little place with a delicious Apple Oat Cinnamon waffle (Apparently we caught the first day of "National Waffle Week") and hashbrowns. Yay. We got Wendy's for lunch/dinner. Mmm Chili.

Because of my lack of funds now, I need to get creative with what I have in the pantry which is mostly carbs (rice and pasta) but I suppose that is better than nothing. Next post will be about the healthy attempts at eating my coworker and I are experimenting with!

Kale

Last week I went vegan… for lunch. I was skeptical at first since I do love steak, chicken, pork, duck, fish, etc… but I saw this restaurant nearby called Soy & Sake has a great lunch special. $6 gets you a choice of a cup of the soup of the day, salad, collard green roll or soy chicken teriyaki skewers and an entrée (either Chicken Pad Thai, Black Bean Ginger Stir Fry or Chicken Sandwich. There are other choices for a dollar or two extra). I went with Chicken Pad Thai. I’ve had mock chicken (or unchicken in some circles) and I’ve always been pleasantly surprised by it. This was no exception. I got the collard green roll which was actually really tasty (probably because it was a deep fried spring roll), and the chicken pad thai portion was huge. I could only eat half of it.

This got me (and my coworker) thinking… we should try to eat healthier as we are both trying to lose weight. I told her about Souen, a restaurant with only macrobiotic dishes. I went there once with L___ and this guy; and it was an interesting experience to say the least but that was more due to the company. The food was good, bland but good. I had a broiled salmon filet with burdock, hijiki, brown rice, squash, and who knows what else (the guy ordered). Anyway, I was really hankering for the chicken pad thai from the other place so my coworker got Souen and said it was really good.
She then looked up diets that included raw foods, macrobiotic, etc. and mentioned Kale. I always figured Kale was a seaweed and maybe had it once or twice but I wondered if Fairway had it. In actuality, it’s closer to the cabbage family and according to Wikipedia:
“Kale is considered to be a highly nutritious vegetable with powerful antioxidant properties; kale is considered to be anti-inflammatory.
Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and reasonably rich in calcium“
Sure enough, I went last night and a bunch was only $1.99. It was so big it could hardly fit in the plastic veggie bag. With my head sticking up, feeling pretty proud I had a head of lettuce and a huge thing of kale in my basket, I walked around, got milk, yogurt, iced tea, and some chicken apple sausage from the very nice butcher .

When I got home, I looked up kale recipes thinking I would probably just steam it and eat it with rice and some sausage but I saw a link that made them out to be like potato chips. Hmmm. Seemed simple enough. I tried it and 10 minutes later I was eating Kale and kind of loving it. Here’s the recipe:

Preheat oven to 350F Cut leaves off of center stem. Wash & dry. Tear up into bite sized pieces. Spread leaves over a baking sheet (I lined mine with parchment paper). Drizzle a bit of olive oil over them. Season with kosher salt. Bake in oven for about 10-12 minutes or until the edges are crisp. I sprinkled a bit more table salt while it was still hot. Let cool and enjoy.

SO EASY. I had a batch for breakfast this morning. I lightly fried up tofu for lunch. I also ran a 1.23 miles this morning at 7am. What have I become??

Saratoga Springs

Easily one of my favorite bridges! From Albany to Saratoga

One of the most charming additions to my trip to Saratoga was trying the natural springs that pop up around town. I probably would've taken them as park decorations instead of fountains had Tom not pointed them out to me. Apparently there are about 20 different mineral springs that were thought to have healing powers back in the 1800s (which was then supplied to bath houses) We sampled 7- the first one being in the racetrack called Big Red Spring.


I grabbed a paper cup and went to the faucet. I took a sip and immediately spit it back out. It had a burning sensation to it that was not pleasant. A couple of kids came by and also spit it out. Not a good start. The next few were also rather unpleasant. One spelled like rotten eggs. Some like feet. Another was naturally carbonated and felt like your tongue was being attacked.



It was only til the last drive around town that I got to try a decent tasting water, which is actually the spring water they use to bottle and sell. However you can bring jugs and bottles to the site that is located in one of the very beautiful parks and fill up. I saw one guy with about 10 Poland Spring (for shame!) gallon jugs filled with the free water.

Anyway, on Saturday night we headed to town to have dinner at One Caroline which is also the address. They use locally grown produce and meat that is probably organic too. They have live music from 7:30pm onward. We arrived at 6pm and were determined to stay at least til they started. After getting through the specials recited by our very nervous waiter (perhaps it was his first day?), we decided to share an antipasti plate which was amazingly satisfying.



This was a huge plate of cheeses (provolone cubes and bleu cheese), prosciutto, salami, olives, figs, crostini topped with pate, caramelized onions and capers; bruschetta with fresh mozzarella drizzled with a reduced balsamic vinegar, roasted red peppers, artichokes and some fresh greens. We also shared a farmer's salad that had beets, feta and onions. For an entree, he got the sticky chicken & rice, I got jambalaya. Unfortunately I was so full from the appetizers (again!) and couldn't enjoy the jambalaya but it was still good despite it missing the advertised crawfish.

For dessert, we headed over to the Ben & Jerry's.

I got Chocolate Therapy (chocolate ice cream with chocolate cookies and swirls of chocolate pudding) which is an in-store only special.

We raced back to the hotel to try to go for a late-night swim but found out the pool closed at 9pm. It was 10:06. So I passed out. Still a great day/night.

Horsies & Hattie's

On Friday, I had accrued enough hours from earlier in the week to leave work at 2. It was a glorious feeling. At 4, Tom and I drove up to Saratoga Springs and got there around 8.

great sunset we saw

We booked a hotel in Albany since the rates in Saratoga were steep in the $400+/night range. Our room at the Holiday Inn was standard with 2 double beds, but we didn’t stay there long since we wanted to get into Saratoga Springs that night for dinner. We found a spot in one of the many public lots which happened to be down the street from Hattie's.



Hattie's, an institution in Saratoga since 1938, was featured on Food Network’s Throwdown with Bobby Flay for their fried chicken, and won. We put our name on the evergrowing list of names with the Hostess and was told we’d have to wait about 40 minutes. Yikes. We ended up walking around a bit and checked out some of the places a coworker recommended to me. Tom and I grabbed a drink in one of the bars that have an outdoor seating area but soon realized it was already 9pm. We went back to Hattie's and only had to wait about 5-10 minutes longer to be seated.
As we were starving, everything look amazing and we ended up getting 2 appetizers and 2 orders of the famed Fried Chicken. They brought out a basket of mini buttery and flaky biscuits that came right out of the oven and corn bread. We inhaled those in 5 minutes.


So mad there was not enough lighting to show off the deliciousness of their fried chicken!

We started off with a some Southern Style shrimp, which in my opinion was nothing too spectacular. 5 medium-sized pieces of shrimp over a bed of greens for $12 was not exactly worth it. We also got an order of $9 chicken wings (which in retrospect was silly of us because it came with 8 generous pieces and we only had more chicken to go) that was smothered in a sweet and spicy sauce (that I enhanced by dousing it with Hattie’s hot sauce- also known as Red Devils) and was so full I could barely enjoy the fried chicken. I could definitely appreciate it though; the skin was light and super crispy. Plus, at $16 a plate, you get 4 pieces (half a chicken) and 2 sides. I ordered the sweet corn on the cob and mashed potatoes with a side of gravy and Tom got collard greens (which were sweet and fresh) and mash. I couldn’t finish all the chicken nor the mash, which is unheard of and it wasn’t like we could take it home with us :(.

We literally waddled out of there, so sick but satiated. You know, the same feeling you have when you say, "I'm never eating again!"

The next day we got to the racetrack pretty early. I was decked out in my new dress and funeral hat ready to go. It was my first time at one where I was old enough to be cognizant of what to look for in betting. The last time I remember being at the horserace was when I was around 3 or 4 years old, with my dad and grandparents and possibly cousin Richie at Belmont. They sat me down with a box of Bugles (the corn chip that looked like a bugle) and I happily stared at the back of the box that had pictures of what you can do with Bugles such as put them on your fingertips and pretend they’re nails which was always my favorite. I don’t remember seeing horses at all actually. Anyway, Tom showed me how to read the programs with all the races and horses and jockeys. It was a lot of little numbers and letters to decipher but I got the hang of it after awhile. The first race was posted at 1pm. We had gotten a large freshly squeezed lemonade and placed a joint trifecta bet. It was actually pretty exciting seeing the horses race by towards the finish line. Everyone was shouting but we didn’t win. The next race we decided to place separate bets. I feel like betting is a pretty serious thing there and you don’t want to look like an amateur or ask the attendants what to do so I was freaking out asking Tom what to say as I completely forgot everything he told me. “Just choose Exacta, Trifecta, or Super… or box them.” ” UM THANKS, TOM, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT MEANS!”. So I stumbled and said “$1 Exactabox bet on horses __, __ and __ ” Then I thought I had done something wrong and was pretty upset over it but Tom looked at it and said it was fine. (for those of you who don’t know, exacta means naming 2 of the horses in the top 3 places, and boxing them means it could be in either order. Betting on more than 2 horses ups your chances but also increases the bet total) Well turns out I had a winning ticket and got $25. Of course Tom had to remind me that if I had made a $2 bet, I would’ve gotten $50.


my winning ticket!

Ah well. I attribute it to beginners luck because I think I only won once more after that. We did horribly the next day and could’ve won $200, but we won’t talk about it. I didn’t get to eat there since I bought a ginormous soda at Nathan’s which I won’t be doing again.

In the next post, I will talk about the various natural spring waters we tried, and OneCaroline.



me and tom

Spunto Pizza

shroomtown

The company I work for moved offices from midtown to SoHo. My commute stayed the same but the selection of eateries multiplied by 3. Sure there are a ton of places to grab a bite near Times Square, but most of it is for tourists which means 1) it's overpriced and 2) it's not nearly great quality.

On the first day we moved in, our boss treated us to some pies from Spunto. Super thin crust pizza. Wow was it good!

Besides the fact we were starving and it was a rare free lunch, the pizza was legitimately tasty.

We got the Classica which is Marinara Sauce, Fresh Tomatoes, Fresh Mozzarella, Fresh Basil; Salsiccia Dolce which has Marinara sauce and cheese, sweet Italian sausage, caramelized onions, fresh basil; Shroomtown that has Marinara Sauce & Cheese, Portobello, Shitake, Button Mushrooms, White Truffle Oil; and The Big Pineapple- Marinara Sauce & Cheese, Fresh Pineapple, Smoked Bacon, Fresh Tomatoes, Fresh Basil


Salsiccia Dolge

Seriously amazing. I got to try every single slice. The plain was nothing to write home about (though I probably shouldn't have had that one last). Shroomtown has the truffle oil which makes it a step above the others. The Big Pineapple was a great twist on the Hawaiian- and really, how can one go wrong with bacon? And the sausage was unusual because it wasn't large chunks of sausage like I usually see on pizza. It was more of a chili-consistency.

This is not for Chicago-style lovers!! The crust is super thin, crispy but still soft. If you're around for lunch, there is an outdoor patio and a special... 2 plain slices and a beverage for $5, or $6 if you want a topping such as mushrooms. Not bad, not bad.

May 15, 2010

I love duck. If duck is offered on a prix-fixe, it will most likely be what I choose to order. Something about the flavor of the meat, the crispy fatty skin and sweet glaze that makes it melt in your mouth.

So when I went to my 2nd cousin's wedding back in May, I of course had to order the duck.



Everything except the frutti di mare was delectable. I actually didn't even have a bite of the seafood salad because the waiters were really rude and took away our plates really fast without asking us.

Luckily I had tons to eat at the marvelous cocktail hour beforehand. Seriously, what a display! I think the only thing missing was a caviar bar (which I will undoubtedly have at my own wedding someday). There was a whole roast pig, an extravagant antipasta display, pasta station, beef, chicken, seafood, salads, the works.

All in all a great day spent with family I hadn't seen in 6-10 years, and yummy food.