Filed under: Eat | Tags: cheap, Clinton St., deals, dessert, Dessert Truck, DT Works, free, LES, Lil Frankies, prix-fixe, Supper, sweet
If you live in NYC, you like to eat and have an occasional tipple, and you are a sucker for a deal, then you should be reading the Eater NY Dealfeed on a daily basis. Like I do. Then you would know about free food giveaways and special prix-fixe meals – here’s to eating well without breaking the bank! These are the two recent Dealfeeds I am most excited about:
- DT Works, the sleek and playful brick and mortar shop from the folks behind the original Dessert Truck, will be offering free chocolate bread pudding (they usually serve with your choice of vanilla or bacon sauce) or a scoop of one of ice cream or sorbet. (LES) 6 Clinton St. at Houston. When: Thursday, May 20th, 11 AM – 11 PM.
- Early bird specials from Lil’ Frankies’ – a ‘potluck’ dinner (translation: home-cooked, homestyle meal) for $8.95 from 4 – 6 PM on Monday – Thursday. 19 1st Ave. between 1st & 2nd Sts. Early bird special from Supper is a two course meal for $15.95 from 4 – 7 PM on Monday – Wednesday. 156 East 2nd St. between Aves. A & B. When: Mon – Thurs; 212-420-4900 & 212-477-7600. Cash only, by the way.
Filed under: Eat | Tags: Asian, Baohaus, Chinese, LES, mantao, pork belly, sandwich, steamed buns, sweet, Taiwanese
The beef was meaty.
Filed under: Cook, Eat | Tags: conversation hearts, cookie cutters, cookies, recipes, romantic, sweet, Valentine's Day, Williams-Sonoma, words
Photo credit: Kelsey Nixon of Kelsey's Kitchen
I found this amazing photo of soft conversation heart cookies from Kelsey’s Kitchen on Tastespotting and they’ve got me feeling all warm and mushy inside. Apparently, the cookies from this recipe are also super-soft, hence the title “Super Soft Sugar Cookies” and you can personalize the messages on your multicolored conversation hearts with the help of one Message-in-a-Cookie cutter set from Williams-Sonoma.
The set comes with cookie cutters in three shapes: scalloped-rectangle, heart, and star. The kit comes with seven premade words (Welcome, Happy, Birthday, Holidays, Thank You, From, I Love You) and three sets of alphabet letters plus extras of commonly used letters so you can say it all with a cookie.
Filed under: Cook, Eat | Tags: cake, recipes, red velvet, sweet, Valentine's Day
I just read the most entertaining recipe for a red velvet cake ever over at Apronless.com.
Photo credit: Apronless.com
While I can’t say that the recipe itself is the best red velvet recipe out there, it was definitely the most fun to read (it reads almost like a poem) and the step-by-step photography is absolutely beautiful! The author says, “Truth be told/ I did not like the cake./ The frosting was weird/ and layers were kind of dry.” But it was a hit with others who tasted it, so I can’t decide whether she’s just being modest or if the recipe failed in some way. She says the cake was a bit rubbery, so more butter and a little less time in the oven are likely quick fixes.
Mmm… I love how folks in the blogosphere start posting delicious sweets recipes around Valentine’s Day!
Filed under: Eat, Go | Tags: creme brulee, Le Cirque, NYC Restaurant Week, pork belly, prix-fixe, scallops, sweet
I suppose anyone who lives in NYC has heard of the venerable bastion of fine dining that is Le Cirque. You know, snooty French waiters, jackets required, that sort of thing. Restaurant Week goers often complain that they feel as though they’ve been treated poorly, but I found my experience to be quite the contrary. The staff was welcoming and gracious, pulling out chairs, folding napkins when patrons left to use the restroom, and didn’t so much as flinch when we declined to drink anything but tap water.
I had the Maine shellfish to start, followed by the diver scallops and ending with the milles-feuilles. I like fancy foam as much as the next person, but I don’t like it when there is so much foam that my view of the actual food underneath it is obscured. The shellfish were perfectly cooked, and the red pepper-yuzu broth was light and complementary, not detracting from the delicate textures and brine of the shellfish. The fregola Sarda (a rich, earthy Sardinian pasta made by rubbing coarse semolina pasta and water together to create crumbs) grounded the dish and provided a welcome heartiness. (more…)
Filed under: Eat, Go | Tags: beer, brunch, burger, burger and beer combo, LES, maple butter, pancakes, sweet
Clinton St. Baking Company (LES) is a brunch and breakfast staple in my neighborhood. Any time I walk past it before noon, weekend or not, there is a line. In the summer, that line can be so long as that it spills over onto Houston. I think it’s been touted as a quintessential American breakfast place in a Japanese guide book or something, because there are always a couple of wide-eyed Japanese girls talking excitedly over a shiny little book with a picture of the NYC skyline.
CSBC is, above all, famous for its pancakes served with warm maple butter. Usually, they offer only regular or blueberry pancakes, but during Pancake Month (February) each year, they come up with a slew of specialty pancake offerings to be offered throughout the month. Please note that special pancakes will be served Monday through Friday only. See the Pancake Month calendar below: (more…)
Filed under: Cook, Eat | Tags: boozy cake, cheesecake, dessert, pina colada, recipes, rum, sweet
Another new favorite recipe of mine is Sara’s Boozy Pina Colada Cheesecake, which she made for our most recent potluck. You’ll need a springform pan and enough time to let the cake set overnight. She opted for an almond and graham cracker crust from scratch, but I’m more likely to substitute a pre-made graham cracker crust from the grocery store. Also, while she uses a conservative 1/3 cup of rum, I would up that to 1/2 a cup and drizzle a touch of rum (maybe a 1/4 cup) on top of the cake after cooking and before broiling. If you go the boozed up route, you may wish to compensate for the extra liquid by cooking a little longer. Also, I know pina coladas are usually made with light rum, but I like the heft of a darker, spiced rum, and I think it would work just as well.
PINA COLADA CHEESECAKE
Preheat the oven to 250F
INGREDIENTS FOR CRUST:
- 8 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted
- 1 3/4 cups of graham cracker crumbs
- 3/4 cup chopped pecans or almonds, toasted – use food processor for a finer chop
- 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
INGREDIENTS FOR FILLING:
- 3 (8 oz.) packages of cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
- 5 large eggs
- 1 (8 oz.) can of crushed pineapple, drained
- 1 cup cream of coconut (not the same thing as a can of coconut milk, apparently – look for it in the liquor aisle near the daquiri mixes)
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/3 cup of light rum
- 4 teaspoons of coconut extract
When I was younger, my mom used to get persimmons, or gam in Korean, from the Asian grocery in the winter. It was always a treat because they were expensive, and we only had them maybe once a year. I never took to the hard fuyu persimmon variety; I always preferred the pulpy, almost jelly-like texture of the hachiya persimmon. I would wait impatiently for days until the skin of the persimmon would finally give in, yield, to the poke of my always prodding fingers like a loosely-filled water balloon. Mom would cut off the top, hand us a spoon, and we’d eat the fiery sweet flesh directly out of the fruit like pudding, taking care not to puncture the soft red-orange skin, scraping our spoons against the sides to get every last bit.
I’ve noticed hachiya persimmons popping up at local markets in Manhattan, and while I rarely pay $1.50 for one piece of fruit, the childhood memories evoked a longing for the hachiya that I couldn’t shake. I bought three, and today I ate my first soft-ripe persimmon after many many years. It was bliss. (more…)
