A perfect night: Apotheke, The Boil, & Pouring Ribbons

Apotheke: Interior

Tonight we headed down to the Lower East Side to have a crawfish boil at one of our favorite spots, The Boil. Since it's obviously a lot of other people's favorite places too we were looking at a bit of a wait. It seemed the perfect opportunity to meander on in to an unassuming pharmacy in Chinatown.

Press Dinner: El Maguey y La Tuna

El Maguey y La Tuna: Taquitos al Guacamole

El Maguey y La Tuna started as a favorite local Mexican spot in Williamsburg from 1992-2001. Then in 2003 they made the big move to Manhattan in 2003. At this point Leonides Cortez and his daughter re-opened as a co-owned venture and brought their rustic, homestyle Mexican joint to the people of the Lower East Side. Tonight, they invited me to get a taste of what they are all about.

Gee You Should Try Yuji Ramen

Yuji Ramen in Bowery Whole Foods 

Being a huge ramen fan, I'd been hearing great things about Yuji Ramen located in the food court on the 2nd floor of Bowery Whole Foods. However, I had also heard it was a temporary pop-up shop, so I wasn't even sure if it was still there. I did hear that they were opening a second location in another location in Williamsburg though, so figured it was pretty likely. We needed to go shopping (for ramen ingredients no less) at Whole Foods so decided to find out.

Press Dinner: The MasalaWala

Mumbai Samosa

I was invited to a press dinner to get a taste of what father/son run The MasalaWala has to offer. The restaurant is a cozy cafe that serves their favorite street food recipes selected from all across Southern Asia. By offering a taste of popular dishes from all across India and even some from Pakistan and Sri Lanka, their hope is to expose New York diners to Indian Cuisine beyond the standards like Chicken Tikka Masala and Lamb Vindaloo.

However, that is not to say that you can't find some of those favorites here. Case in point, we started with a taste of their Mango Lassi and an order of their Samosas. Such a pleasant surprise to find samosas made in-house and not frozen/store-bought!

A Rolling Good Time at The Boil

The Boil

Tis the season for crawfish boils if you live in the South. I've been salivating over all of our friends in Texas' photos on Facebook and recently asked The Mr. if he's ever attended such an event. He had, but just remembered them being more work than worth it.

So imagine my surprise when he asked if I wanted crawfish for dinner tonight! I guess our conversation had sparked some hidden craving and he used the magic of The Internets to find The Boil. We tried to get there on the early side (before 7pm) to avoid a wait, but no such luck. We were quoted an hour wait for a party of 2.

Update: Katz's

Katz's Pastrami

Ok, my initial love of Katz's hasn't changed, I just wanted to repost with my new, fancier camera. It's still a great place to grab an amazing pastrami sandwich and some half sours!

Scrumptious Puddings from Sugar Sweet Sunshine

This afternoon I read a Serious Eats article highlighting their 5 Favorite Puddings in NYC and immediately bookmarked them as must trys. This evening when I started craving something sweet, I set about finding a way to get some Sugar Sweet Sunshine delivered to my doorstep. Although they featured the Chocolate Chip Pudding, I simply couldn't resist getting an order of the Pumpkin Trifle Pudding too. I have to admit though, the Chocolate Chip was my favorite. The mix of pumpkin cake, eggnog pudding and whipped cream of the Pumpkin Trifle mostly just tasted like cake shoved in a cup (albeit very yummy cake). In contrast, the mix of whipped cream with butterscotch pudding and chocolate chip cookies lead to a more interesting texture mix.

Crazy Food Tour

Stop 1

The Food

The Crush

The Legend

Lunch at the famous Katz's Deli. Even at an in-between meal time like 3pm on a Sunday this place was a madhouse. We finally managed to get our grub- a Pastrami Reuben for The Mr and half a Corned Beef with a bowl of Matzo Soup for me- and score a table. Of course the food was good, I don't think anyone is debating that. The real question is does it live up to the hype? For me, the answer was no. I would rather hit up Sarge's any day of the week then mess with the chaos, and in fact, I actually liked the food at Sarge's a bit better! I was also a little irritated by their lack of advertisement that it's cash only.

Stop 2

Spinach Knish

While at Katz's I saw Knish on the menu and remembered how The Mr still hasn't had a proper knish ever. I figured, why get one at Katz's with Yonah Schimmel's Knish Bakery mere blocks away? And off we went to pick up a couple to heat up at home later. We opted for the regular potato and a spinach. Mmmm...I'm a potato loving gal, so what's not to like here?

Stop 3

We've been meaning to take a trip to Vanessa's Dumpling House after trying some at a dinner party. We got a #1, #3, and a #6 to take home with us for dinner. 4 Fried Chive & Pork, 8 Boiled Chive & Pork, and 4 Fried Chicken & Basil. Sooooooooooo good. Sometimes you just need a dumpling and at 25 cents each, they can't be beat. Our only regret? Not getting one of their Sesame Pancake sandwiches, which also looked amazing.

Stop 4

Now before you get to judging, realize that most of the food so far was to-go, so I actually was in the mood for a snack. We randomly ducked into a bakery and got a Chocolate Rum Ball to share and picked up some Black Pean Paste and Shrimp Chimps for the road and continued on with our Chinatown shopping. Our random selection of Lung Moon turned out well!

Stop 5

Another random stop as we shopped around Chinatown. This time because we were tempted by a bag of red bean steam buns in their window. We ran a few more errands before calling it a day and heading home with our spoils. We decided this is our favorite new way of grocery shopping!

Special: Truffle Prix Fixe at Sorella

Back in December we found out about a special white, Alba truffle 4-course dinner being presented at Sorella for only $75 per person. Normally a dinner featuring so much truffles would cost quite a bit more, so we knew we had to jump on this opportunity. They led us past the front half of the restaurant which is primarily a wine bar to the back garden room. The skylights and plants made me feel a hint of spring in the dead of winter. On top of that the soundtrack was all Beatles. So far, so good.

So romantic

Breadsticks on table, cute...but sanitary? 

We didn't look too closely at the menu since we had come for the truffles, so when the first course came out we weren't sure what it was, but were excited by the generous truffle portion. We started eating and at the same time were like 'Hmmm, this is... interesting...what is this exactly?' and pulled out the menu. Uh oh, carne cruda. I know enough romance languages to parse out 'raw meat'. I was almost scared to tell The Mr. We gave it an honest try, and of course picked off all the truffles, but this course just wasn't for us.

Carne Crudo

 The second course was an onion stuffed with raisins, nuts, sausage and various other goodness. All of which of course is topped off with truffles! This was one of those dishes that had several layers of flavors. Eaten by itself, the stuffing failed to impress, but when eaten with the golden onion shell the flavors bloomed.

Cipolle Ripieni

 Course 3, was of course pasta. I chose the Tajarin & The Mr. chose the Agnolotti. Sooooo rich, soooo buttery, and soooo filling.

Pasta

The meal ended with dessert which did not incorporate truffles in anyway, I thought it would have been cute to end the meal with chocolate truffles. But it was delicious, so if that's my only complaint for the evening, you know it was a good meal! Hope they do a repeat performance at some point.

Espresso Panna Cotta

Let's Talk The Meatball Shop

Finally made it down to the Lower East Side to check out the famous Meatball Shop. It's a small restaurant, so if you're eating in be prepared to wait and to be a bit cramped and jostled (no surprise in NYC), but they manage to make it feel quite cozy. Luckily there is also a take out counter which is the option we chose.

I encouraged the Mr. to get a classic meatball sub with tomato sauce then decided to take the healthier option of the Everything but the Kitchen Sink salad with Veggie Meatballs and tomato sauce. The sub was incredible and lived up to the reputation, but I was also surprised by how delicious the Veggie meatballs and greenmarket sides were! For once I wasn't staring longingly at The Mr's dish over my salad. Best vegetarian meatballs I've ever had hands down. We will definitely be going back!

Baohaus: Buns Runner Up

Momofuku's pork buns have launched The Mr. on a quest to find the best pork buns in NYC. The Food Network featured Baohaus on Ultimate Recipe Showdown so off we went. It's a small joint with limited seating, no frills, just buns. The Mr. ordered a Sidra apple drink and I went for a hot chrysanthemum tea and we grabbed some stools and waited for our buns. On our menu for the evening: The Haus Bao, The Chairman Bao, The Uncle Jesse (close-up) and Sweet Black Sesame Bao Fries. Our favorite was the Haus Bao which was hangar steak since the pork belly Chairman Bao was just a sad substitution for Momofuku's. The Bao fries sounded heavenly, but were basically bread with some sweet black sesame icing. Everything was good, but definitely not outstanding and not worth coming back for.