Seconds, please:
Scoot over and grab a fork!
I love food, I love cooking, and I love all things New York City. Email me at leslie@mynyplate.com for dining ideas or recipes.
Seconds, please:
Dinner in midtown! Rarely this exciting!
Thursday, February 9th 2012 9:02pm
Checked out this new spot in the neighborhood on opening night. They’re definitely still working out the kinks (you can choose between ordering your margarita/beer at the cash register, or at the bar - which completely overwhelmed the bar from what I could tell, since 1 single bartender was fielding people standing at the bar and the tickets coming in from the register) and perhaps the price point ($5 for a regular margarita! But kinda smallish tortas for $7-8 plus tax), but I’m totally going to give the place a chance.
The restaurant seems to have a deal with Avion tequila, so the margaritas weren’t totally funky and terrible, and my Pesce torta was delicious, if just a little on the small side. The plantains and guacamole were both great though, and well-portioned.
Give this place a few weeks and I think it’ll become a happening late-night spot - especially if they keep their drink prices - I’ll be sure to be back and report as often as I can.
Monday, February 6th 2012 10:18am
Tuesday, January 24th 2012 12:57pm
Since we had the genius idea to travel to Las Vegas in December, the hotel pools weren’t exactly buzzing with bikinis and “tooters.” Instead, we spent our time during the day catching up as we rotated through the cycle of hangover->food->walk around and see something funny->start drinking again. One of my favorite places we went to was inside the Cosmopolitan, which, as a person who lives in New York, I was very impressed with. So much sparkle!
One of the restaurants inside is José Andrés’ China Poblano, which reminded me so much of one of my favorite restaurants in Minneapolis, Chino Latino. Both mix asian and latin cuisines in a really delicious, cheeky way. A favorite dish among the gals were the lamb dumplings, which came to the table connected by a crusty shell, not unlike the way the french onion soup dumplings are at Stanton Social. These were crunchier, obviously, but just as juicy and delicious.
But my favorite favorite was the Salt Air margarita I had. Get this - regular margarita-tasting liquid, topped with sudsy, SALTY foam in place of a salted rim. Delightful and much cuter than licking the side of a margarita glass to get some salt, only to end up with half of it on your face. Tootin’ fantastic!
Tuesday, January 17th 2012 3:54pm
Back in early December, some of my best friends from college and I took a trip to Las Vegas. We saw the Watch the Throne tour, the Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil show, ate some amazing food, and even had a few celebrity spottings (“Cee-Lo Green the Soul Machine!” shouted my friend as he hurried past her in the MGM). So much fun. Here’s a few snaps from our Wildcat reunion.
Tuesday, January 17th 2012 3:40pm
Monday, January 16th 2012 10:56pm
This is a dark picture of desserts we had the other night at Peels. I didn’t love them, so I feel like you should know about it.
I do love Peels, so this broke my heart - but desserts seem like an afterthought at Peels, or at least the items we tried. I know they have a lot of baking-centric items like buiscuits and croissants and other delicious items on their brunch menu, but I’m not sure if those are all baked in-house or not. Anywhoo, on the left is the sundae, which, I’m not kidding, is a jar halphazardly filled with ice cream, hard chunks of chocolate, some peanut butter, and a broken up sourdough pretzel. Delicious, but like, what? For $10? On the left is the s’mores cake which came with an ice-cold marshmallow swirl on top that appeared to have been toasted at some point. The cake was dry and tasteless, and then leaned up against it was a single graham cracker that you essentially had to break with your spoon, and balance on the spoon while carving into the hard marshmallow and cake in order to get a bite resembling a real s’more.
That said, we ate them (obviously), but it made me feel like such a number. Just another guest plowing through that they have to slam down some dessert in front of. I hate to knock Peels, so do tell me - was anyone else totally let down by their desserts recently?
Thursday, January 12th 2012 1:57pm
Breakfast before heading back to NYC at the Big Picture Cafe in Waitsfield, VT.
It’s a bar, cafe, and movie theater. The cafe serves sasparilla, something called a Coney Island, something called a Purple Cow, and endless breakfast dishes like delicious stacks of flapjacks with bananas and real Vermont Maple Syrup. Our food took awhile so they slapped down a plate of cider donuts to keep us from offing ourselves off a mountain. Delicious and adorable, right down to the sugar packets.
Thursday, January 5th 2012 5:48pm
