Bruschetteria

When one asks me what my last meal would be if given the choice, I say that it would be endless amount of raw oysters, a great assortment of antipasto, and white wine. Last night for dinner, I had just that, minus the oysters. For my cousin’s birthday, I took her to Bruschetteria and we were a bit shocked at just how tiny the place was but became pleasantly surprised at also how good the food was. Their happy hour deal is fantastic: $12 for any of their bruschetta and a carafe of red or white wine. Their carafe is about 2 full glasses of wine, extremely generous in portion so two orders of the happy hour was more than enough. They also ask if you’d like more bread which helps the bruschetta to not go to waste. We tried their ricotta cheese & truffle oil as well as the smoked salmon tartar. We ended up combining both as we were eating and they were excellent! The toasted bread definitely enhanced the experience, which is freshly sliced upon order.

We also order their Mixed Antipasti, which was served with a great assortment of prosciutto, soppressata, cheese, and olives. Though I do feel that we were a bit greedy with our portion, I had to order the dish just to try even if we had so much leftovers at the end. While we were eating, I couldn’t ignore the delicious aroma of their steak which is for their Panini. It looked so amazing and I wish we tried but we couldn’t possibly consume anymore food thereafter.

Prior to going, remember that this place is CASH ONLY and extremely tiny so going earlier would help (we got there at 6:30pm). I do feel that this place is better for drinks and small bites vs. dinner because you do get tired of eating the same kind of food the whole night. But other than that, it was a great experience!

Fish

David bought me my birthday dinner to another oyster fest, but this time, at Fish. I picked this place based on Yelp reviews of oyster happy hours in ny and it was more than what we could’ve asked for, especially after dining: 6 blue point oysters (or littleneck clams) + wine/beer for $8. What’s even better about this deal is that it’s not for limited amount of hours; it’s all day, every day. Amazing much? They don’t have a huge oyster selection in terms of variety but every one of them that we tried, it was perfect. What I loved about Fish’s oysters was that all 48 of the oysters were prepared with absolute perfection. Meaning, each and every oysters’ juice were filled to the brim of the shell, no remainder residue on the shell after each consumption, chilled and refreshing beyond my heart can desire. We also ordered dozen Kumamoto’s and they were, of course, amazing and beyond our expectation. Each table has a tin can of old bay seasoning which complements their variety of entrees and especially the fries!

I highly highly recommend Fish and I, myself, will be going there many many more times! I’m already craving them and it hasn’t been a week yet!

Kanoyama & Rocco's

It's been awhile since Foodies got together for our ritual and for the first time, we decided to finally try out sushi. I don't know why we haven't done this sooner but given all the options that we're always pondering over, it's no surprise that sushi isn't usually on the top of our to-eat list.

I had a hard time picking a place because the number of people joining us was confirmed last minute. However, Kanoyama was top of the list and luckily, we were able to score a reservation the day of for 6. Prior to going, I read the NYTimes review by Frank Bruni and was reassured to go based on his review and rating. Moreover, my ultimate convincing factor was their oyster uni ikura (see below) because hey, I die for oysters and uni. What better way to put it all together in one bite?!

We ordered dozen kumamoto oysters as well as dozen oyster uni ikura to start off and to my extremely disappointment, the oyster uni ikura was not what I had expected. The ikura overpowered both the taste of the uni and the oyster that the only thing you tasted was the ikura, which left the oyster and uni to simply remain as textures. Sad. Moving on. We also ordered spicy tuna tartar for appetizer, which was served in a cone stuffed with spicy tuna tartar, avocado, topped with masago. It was good, tasty, but nothing worth remembering.

I must say, the quality for their pricing is excellent. Perhaps, what we wanted in sushi was more adventurous, eclectic, if not, simply more variety. We ordered two orders of sushi & sashimi for 3 and each piece of the fish was extremely fresh and each bite was promising. However, the variety of the fish (sashimi & sushi) comprised of tuna, yellowtail, salmon, clam, and mackerel with two rolls of california rolls on the side. The portion was generous, leaving all of us full and content. I don't know if I'd necessarily go back but if I were to, I would not order their platters but rather experiment different pieces and of course, sit at the bar and order the omakase. Their sparkling sake was excellent, but very pricey!

We went to Rocco's in the West Village for their cannolis, which is to be one of the best in the city. What is so special about their cannolis is that they are stuffed with their amazing cream filling on the spot. You have the option of topping the sides off with pistachio or chocolate chip. I hear the pistachio is better (I had the chocolate chip) but the cream in itself is to die for. Highly highly recommend, especially for you dessert lovers!

Few pics below from both Kanoyama and Rocco's:

Pio Pio - Peruvian Cuisine

A new gem!

I remember from visiting Peru years back for a missions trip that one of the best things we ate was their chicken and their dulce de leche. For Maureen’s birthday dinner, Esther suggested Pio Pio and I immediately agreed because they were rated to have one of the best Sangrias in the city. We devoured not only multiple pitchers of their sangria (perfect combination of fruit, juice, and wine!) but their food as well. We ordered the Peruvian Combo (Chicken Pio served with large french fries and avocado salad), Mero con Salsa de Porto (Baked Chilean Sea Bass served on a mushrooms and spinach bedding sautéed in olive oil), and Picante de Camarones (Shrimp sauté in garlic, onions, and white wine in a creamy spicy sauce served with quinoa cake stuffed with spinach and goat cheese). Both the sea bass and shrimp were good, but nothing compared to their chicken. The avocado salad includes generous portion of avocados and their chicken (rotisserie) is extremely juicy and moist, flavored with perfection. However, it’s their spicy green sauce that tops the flavor which was good with almost anything we were eating including the fries. As a side, we ordered fried plantains. It was good but not much credit can be given considering how wrong can you go with fried plantains.

They brought out a dessert sampler for Maureen’s birthday and I must say, each dessert was fantastic, especially their pumpkin ice cream.

Well-priced, excellent food and drinks, and it would be even better if the location was more convenient (we went to the location in Hell’s Kitchen – 43^rd& 10^th ave) and they had outdoor seating, especially on a nice day like last night!

Must go again!

Bagels, bagels, bagels!

How do you like your bagels? Here are few of my favorite ways:

• Plain bagel toasted with cream cheese, tomato, and onion: for those “I’m bored this morning and I want to spice it up a bit” mornings.
• Everything bagel toasted with cream cheese: bringing back the all-time classic, with Snapple Peach Iced Tea. Familiar memories anyone?
• Bacon, egg, and cheese on an everything bagel with salt, pepper, ketchup, and tabasco sauce: you know … those mornings.
• Toasted plain bagel topped layered with cream cheese, lox, capers, and sweet onion: the “brunchy” mornings where you want to sit outside in a nice café with a giant platter of this combination while sipping on iced coffee with a paper at hand. Amazing.
• Plain bagel toasted with butter: “I want something hearty and warm” mornings
• Everything bagel toasted with vegetable cream cheese: key here is that the cream cheese has to be filled with a generous lump sum of chopped vegetables and the vegetables have to be a good size bites. No bits of stupid carrot and chives.

What inspired this entry?

I woke up to my spoiled brother telling Mommy that he wants bagel for breakfast. To be specific, he wanted a bagel from Bergen Boulevard Bagels. My dad, of course, drives there to get bagels for Charlie and my mom, of course, makes breakfast for him. I was lucky enough to score one also and when I bit into the bagel, I stopped to check what was inside because it was taste of heaven. It was an untoasted bagel with cream cheese and topped off with strips of BACON! Who would’ve thought that would actually taste amazing? What they say is true: everything tastes better with bacon. Go try it. I promise you, you’ll thank me.

Macaron Cafe - Part II

After my disappointing experience first time around yesterday morning, I made a pit stop on my way back home. The owner (I think) happened to be at the café when I stopped by and I explained my unpleasant experience with the macarons from the morning. He ended up being such a sweet man who gave me an education on the creation of macarons along with a tasting of all the available flavors! For fruit-flavored macarons, most often, the essence and the aroma are used to make them rather than the actual fruit itself because of the amount of water that the fruit produces, which in turn affects the texture of the macaron. For non-fruit flavors such as pistachio, chocolate, vanilla, and alike, actual ingredients are used which makes the taste of the macaron more authentic and flavorful. Also, macarons are made fresh daily, however, it tastes the best around 3-4 days later because of the humidity that the macarons absorb, says the sweet man. I tried the following macarons yesterday with the sweet man:

• Pistachio – nutty, sweet, and “goh so hae” (I don’t know the translation in English)
• Lemon – tangy and not too sweet
• Chestnut Matcha Tea – my favorite! You get both the sweet and warm flavor of both the chestnut and the matcha tea
• Chocolate Caramel (with sea salt) – it’s the perfect combination of sea salt and sweetness from the chocolate and the caramel
• Cassis Lavender – beautifully colored macaron with a touch of the cassis flavor

Food is not solely about the taste; it’s an experience. Had the sweet man not have been as generous and helpful, maybe the macarons would’ve tasted good even on my second time around and if I had chosen different flavors than my first time visiting. However, because of him going out of his way to explain the baking steps and the tasting that he offered to me at his own cost, it made the experience that much better. I still say Madeleine Patisserie was far better but because of the sweet man, I will definitely make more regular visits to try out their other flavors.

Macaron Cafe

This is what happens when you no longer have a blackberry. I ended up walking in zigzag between Broadway and 7^th ave between the streets of 40^th to 36^th only to finally find the stupid café on 36^th. Angela said that I set myself up for what’s to come later because I was so excited to try it. Eunice had also mentioned Macaron Café as well so I had such high hopes. It’s a cute cozy café and perhaps because the place is so small that it’s inviting. I bought two: chocolate passion fruit and kiwi. I hurried back to my office as soon as I possibly can work (I work on 27^th so it still took good 15 minutes), sat with my cup of morning coffee, and finally took a bite out of the macarons. As Angela had mentioned, I did set myself up by going to Madeleine Patisserie to try macarons for the very first time because this was not what I had expected. It was not chewy, the crust sort of crumbled each time I took a bite, and the flavor was not up to par by any means. I was so disappointed and more so because I ended up throwing the kiwi out because it tasted so bad. But based on all the reviews in other blogs of this place, I am also blaming on the poor flavors I chose and also the time of the day I happened to stop by (9am!). I will give it one more try and see about trying different flavors before coming to a final judgement of this place. It really was cute and cozy nonetheless!

With that said, I don’t know how successful my macaron hunt will be. Then again, I am glad that the first time I tried it was not in Paris.