Showing posts with label eat out. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eat out. Show all posts

Friday, May 8, 2015

Birthday Treats


Not only did I get my chocolate peanut butter cake, I also got some goodies. My favorite frozen yogurt at a cute little place on the water (chocolate-hazelnut with chocolate jimmies.)


Peanut butter chocolate pudding pie at Dinosaur BBQ. Amazing pie! (And amazing dinner including poutine and catfish strips, not pictured here. If you ever go, I recommend their ultimate BLT, with house smoked bacon and fried green tomatoes.)


And visiting friends in NYC, I go treated to Magnolia Bakery's icebox cake (yum!)


And four fancy rugalah from a cute place on the Upper East Side (I don't remember the name, sorry.) From left to right: raspberry and farmer's cheese, apple pie, cinnimon, nutella. I think. In any case, a great way to prolong the birthday celebration!

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Afternoon Tea for my Birthday


I love afternoon tea at the Berkeley in London. As tea goes, it not traditional and it's probably not the best taste-wise (not that it's not tastey, but sometimes they get so fancy they sacrifice taste just a bit), but it's still my favorite. It's the girliest tea ever and it's just so much fun! They base all their desserts off the latest runway styles and it's a hoot!

Friday, April 11, 2014

Paris, part 2


Other than the Musee d'Orsey, we pretty much avoided major tourist traps. It's not that we don't love the Louvre and the Eiffle Tour, but we've been to both countless times and it was nice just wandering and seeing new things.


Thursday, April 10, 2014

Paris, Part 1


J'adore Paris. Seriously, it's my favorite city! Well, actually it's not my favorite. It's tied with New York City for favorite (and I do love London...) But it's defintely my favorite city I've never lived in! There's something about it that is just amazing. Of course more than the feel of the city, there's the food! So when I went to Paris for two nights, I pretty much ate my way through the city. I forgot to take photos of everything--I was much too distracted by actually eating it--but I got some of the deliciousness and here it is:

 

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Eating Out


Sorry I've been offline. I've been on vacation with limited Internet access. In the spirit of being on holiday I've been eating out. A lot. At some very nice restaurants.

It's been strange being back in NYC as a tourist, but nice because I've never had an excuse to eat at Bar Boulud, Jean-Georges' Nougatine, and Cafe Fiorello over the course of only two days--lunch, lunch, dinner. (The excuse was actually my mom's birthday, but if we'd been living in the City we certainly would have had at least one of the meals at home.)

Saturday, November 5, 2011

James Beard Auction and Gala

A very blurry Mario Batali walking by my table!
Lucky me, I got invited to the James Beard Auction and Gala because I won a James Beard scholarship this summer (as announced at James Beard Chefs and Champagne)! Of course it was held on the first night of the cakes unit at school, but I don't mind missing one class--it's not every day I get invited to a gala.
Mussel risotto--my favorite hors d'oeuvre of the night.
The whole thing was a ton of fun. The cocktail reception was a bit awkward--I'm not a good mingler--but the food was good enough to make up for that. At the dinner I was seated with a bunch of other scholarship winners, which was quite pleasant. The food was wonderful! It should have been; Mario Batali was cooking it. Among other things, dinner included:

A perfectly cooked sea scallop with an
incredible amount of shaved truffles
A creamy butterscotch and sea salt budino (pudding) 
with delicious pine nut and rosemary cookies
(and surprisingly good decaf coffee)

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Restaurant Week at the Fives

I took my mom to restaurant week lunch at the Fives at the Peninsula for her birthday. It was really good. The appetizer and main were impressive. The main course, a steak BLT, was huge! It was't the usual small restaurant portion. It was a large piece of steak on a large piece of bread with a few thick pieces of bacon plus tomato and lettuce, of course. The desserts were good, but not quite as impressive.


I had the warm chocolate cake. It had a hint of ginger and was quite chocolaty, which was nice. But it was a little dry. I don't mean to say it wasn't good or enjoyable; it was good and I did enjoy it. It just wasn't anything all that special. What was special was the sauce on the strawberries that were sort of a garnish. It was something with vanilla bean and it was really good!


My mom had the raspberry mousse cake, which was sort of a frozen mousse. It was really nice, as was the raspberry sorbet on the side (which was actually more than nice). The cornmeal cookie like thing underneath was a little on the chewy side, which wasn't great.

Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable meal.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

James Beard Chefs and Champagne

From left to right: Susan Ungaro, the James Beard Foundation president,
two recipients of other scholarships, me, and Emeril!

Yesterday night I went to the James Beard Chefs & Champagne Event at the Wolffer Estate in the Hamptons! I was invited to attend because I won the James Beard Wolffer Scholarship for Food and Wine Studies. It was AMAZING!

Emeril Lagasse was being honored, so I got to meet him! He was really nice! I kind-of expected that, because he always seems nice on his cooking shows, but still, he was busy and it was really, really hot out (and the event was in a tent with only a few large fans) and I'm just a random scholarship recipient while he's Emeril. I have to say, I have always wanted to meet Emeril ever since he signed books at my local Barns and Noble on a school night, so I couldn't wait to meet him. (I did get a signed book though.) So this was especially special because I've been waiting to meet him for about 14 years!

Last year, they honored Martha Stewart (a fellow Barnard aluma). She was here this year, and I got to meet her as well. I love Martha! Anyone who knows me, knows I love baking, organizing, jewelry making, color coding, knitting, and general crafting. So I think Martha is just amazing, because somehow she makes crafting and organizing cool--well not cool, but something! She was quite nice too, which I suppose given her slightly aloof persona was more of a surprise than Emeril being nice.

In addition to meeting two people who I am in awe of, I also got to eat some amazing food! There were about 40 chefs there, each making one special dish. I had amazing creole shrimp (which Emeril handed to me!), a lobster sandwich and homemade potato chips from Per Se, a great chocolate and cherry cake from Epicerie Boulud, and much more. Not to harp on the star spotting, but I also saw Daniel Boulud, who I tried to talk to but never got to, and Richard Gere and Carey Lowell, because their restaurant was one of the ones that sent a chef. In case you were wondering, Richard Gere looks even better in person!

My mom and I had an absolutely amazing time last night. And of course the night is made even more special by the fact that I did actually go because I won a scholarship! I'm honored and thrilled to have won the Wolffer scholarship. And I got to go to a soiree in the Hamptons and meet Emeril and Martha!

Me, Martha Stewart (I love what she was wearing)
and the two other scholarship recipients.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Restaurant Week at Le Caprice

Eton Mess at Le Caprice
I love restaurant week! It's a great way to try out nice restaurants without spending a bundle.  I always do lunch, since at $24.07 (plus tax and tip) if you don't do drinks it's a great buy. So my mom and I tried out Le Caprice.  Well I tried it, my mom's already been there and loved it!

The meal was superb! But that's not what I want to talk about...I want to talk about the dessert, which was absolutely amazing! There were two choices on the menu so my mom got one and I got the other. Hers was a blueberry and peach pie.  It was actually a mini pie rather than a slice of a larger one. Now pie might not be the right word, it was a wonderful slightly cakey thing where the fruit was baked into a sort of light, nutty, cake-like tart/pie.  Whatever it was, it was excellent (and I don't even like blueberries). It was served with a very nice vanilla ice cream on top.


I had the Eton Mess. I usually like Eton Mess, but it doesn't thrill me. This thrilled me! It was made with fresh, not-too-sweet whipped cream; a perfect berry sauce; fresh strawberries; and perfect, crisp meringues.  Plus there was one piece of what I'd guess was a homemade strawberry jelly candy. I'm not entirely sure what it was doing there (as far as I know it's not a part of traditional Eton Mess) but it was really nice, so I'm not complaining.

Look at the lovely meringues on top. There was a bunch broken up in it too.
After we finished the desserts, they brought us a plate of lovely chocolate truffle logs. You see, my mom had mentioned that we were celebrating a number of different things including my graduation and acceptance to the FCI (because she was very proud and telling everyone), so they ended up doing that for me as a congrats gift!  I was stuffed, but that didn't stop me from eating them! They were wonderful dark chocolate ganache truffles coated in a thin shell of dark chocolate and cocoa powder. Yum, yum!

Friday, May 27, 2011

French Culinary Institute

This evening I sat in on a level 2 Pastry Arts class at the FCI. I also handed in my application for the Pastry Arts course starting in mid-August. I can't believe it, I'm really doing this!

Anyway, the class was amazing. All the chef instructors were nice and welcoming, and I actually knew a couple of the answers to the questions they posed to the class! It looks like really hard work, but really fun! I can't wait!

After the class, I met my mom at L'Ecole, the FCI's restaurant, for dinner. Yum! It was good food, good portions, and great service. And the truffled mac and cheese was absolutely amazing! They gave us packages of cookies to take home as well, the perfect end to the night!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Tea at the Peninsula


Day before yesterday I officially graduated! To celebrate, my mom, pops and I went to afternoon tea at the Peninsula. I love their afternoon tea. It's the best tea this side of the Atlantic. The sandwiches are excellent and very fancy (but in a good way). For example, one of them was lobster salad on a mini brioche roll...yum! The scones are good, British scones, nothing out of this world, but really nice. They serve them with real clotted cream (none of this whipped crap that American restaurants tend to use) and very nice jam. Then there are the desserts. I find that some are OK, but not amazing, and some are just perfect! What's especially nice is they will bring you extras of everything, without making you feel like a pig for asking. They are so nice, if you say "oh I really like that chocolate cake," they'll bring you a plate with extra pieces of that cake! And if you tell them that it's a special occasion when you make the reservation, they'll give you an extra dessert (because that's just what I need, more dessert...not that I'm complaining, mind you)! They gave me a gorgeous piece of chocolate cake layered with a light whipped chocolate icing or mousse, topped with a chocolate ganache and beautiful chocolate decorations.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Dessert at Cafe Luxembourg


I graduated yesterday!  The day before was the presentation of degree candidates.  So to celebrate being a degree candidate we all went out to a big dinner at Cafe Luxembourg.  It's on the upper west side of NYC and it is really good.  It's basically an upscale French bistro.  They have excellent desserts (I highly recommend their homemade ice cream, though that's not what I had on Tuesday.)  I had their special molten chocolate cake. It was excellent.  Warm and gooey on the inside, cakey on the outside, and the chocolate ice cream was creamy and delicious. They put a candle in it and wrote happy graduation in chocolate on the plate, which was very nice.  And yummy!

My mom got a chocolate mousse cake, which was also incredible. And it was topped with salted caramel ice cream that, I have to say, was slightly better than my chocolate ice cream. The cake was good too! It was two layers of good chocolate cake with a layer of mousse between and a layer of chocolate on top. The plate was decorated with caramel sauce and dark chocolate tuiles.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Jalapeño

I ate dessert out tonight.  It was very nice.  We tried a new Mexican restaurant (new as in opened recently and new as in we've never been there) called Jalapeño.  The food was excellent.  It wasn't quite Mexican, it was sort of New Mexican...in other words it definitely wasn't traditional Mexican and was actually a tiny bit fancy.

I had a chicken mole burrito which was excellent.  But that isn't what I want to talk about.  I want to tell you about the dessert I had.  I had the Mexican hot chocolate and a doughnut.  The hot chocolate wasn't chocolatey enough but was still very nice.  It was clearly made fresh, and not just heated in the microwave. It was definitely made in a pan; you could taste the sweetness of the scalded milk.  The doughnut was amazing. The menu said it was a cinnamon sugar doughnut, but I barely tasted cinnamon (though that could be because I'd already burnt my tongue on the hot chocolate.)  I didn't mind though...it was light and not at all greasy and really big! Plus it was coated in sugar...yum!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

My Favorite Cheesecake

   
No, unfortunately it isn't a cheesecake that I make.  It is the cheesecake at Cafe Fiorello in NYC.

As you may have gathered, I didn't bake tonight.  We decided to go out to break our fast and we split a very large slice of this amazing cheesecake, so I thought it would be a good idea to hold off on baking.  In lieu of telling you about the muffins that I have yet to make, I figured I'd tell you about the dessert I ate instead.

As I mentioned, this is darn good cheesecake.  It is creamy and moist but still dense (in a good, cheesecake-y way).  It is sweet but not sickeningly so.  It is topped with fresh strawberries that are lightly coated in a nice glaze (not like the thick red glazes that are typical on cheesecakes with berries) and fresh, unsweetened whipped cream.  Finally, they pour hot chocolate sauce over it at the table.  And they aren't stingy with the sauce, in fact the plate was entirely flooded, with the sauce which was also drizzled on top of the cake.  Oh my god it is good!!!

Monday, September 13, 2010

I didn't bake today...

Sorry!  I had class until 8 and I am tired so I'm not baking anything tonight.  I could post something I made before I started this blog, but instead I wanted to tell you about a dessert I ate, instead.

I was at Whole Foods and, as it turns out, the store I was at sells scoops of gelato and sorbet.  I tasted the pear sorbet, and I have to say it is really good.  But as good as it was, I decided against having it and went for the blackberry cabernet sorbet instead.  It was amazing!  It had a definite taste of cabernet, which was quite nice indeed, but still was blackberry-y.  It wasn't too sweet, but it wasn't tart either.  And the best part was the texture, it was smooth and creamy but still slightly icy (in a good way).  I highly recommend it!