Short and sweet for the fine fried chicken at Sweet Chick

I wanted to just write something quick for one of my new favorite fried chicken places in the city - Sweet Chick! I never made it to the Williamsburg location when I lived in that neighborhood, but finally, I could not resist the lure of their chicken and waffles any longer after finding their LES spot.

THREE delicious flavored butters come with your waffle order (our flavors were lemon - my favorite, berry and herb), and it is well worth your while to try each and every one of them with your waffle.

But Han! Please tell me about the chicken!

Okay, bossy (just kidding, I love you very much)! The chicken is good!! Nice and crispy, a little thin on the batter but plenty crunchy, and well-seasoned.

But the real perk is the waffle. Crispy and light and perfect to soak up all that BUTTERRRRR. I put a little pat in each cube and then drench all that in syrup, but you feel free to eat it however you like (just make sure you use all that BUTTERRRR).

And definitely! Save room for dessert !! !!! ! !!

The toffee pudding is the best - a jarful of HOT HEAVEN drenched in toffee caramel and oozy goozy yumminess.

The peanut butter pie is a healthy portion of love in a bowl also, but gets quickly outshined by the toffee pudding. Please. eat. that. now.

I've since been to both locations of Sweet Chick (LES one takes reservations!) and love them both, because the chicken is consistent, the butters remain amazing, and the toffee pudding keeps me going on in life, because just knowing it is always there is all I need in life.

Han's Nonsensical Rating: Solid fried chicken, perfect waffles, and incredible toffee pudding.

Sweet Chick

178 Ludlow St, New York, NY 10002

The Best. Rose's Luxury

This post is dedicated to Anne, our biggest fan (and only reader).

In July, I visited Diana in D.C. for a weekend. Any weekend with Diana is my favorite weekend of the year. While she is supportive in everything I do in life (emotionally, professionally, spiritually), she exhibits her support the most when it comes to eating. My bloated face will utter, "Should I eat this? I'm just so full." and she will be the first to say, "I'll share it with you," and sometimes she will just eat most of it for me, and that's when I know we are really best friends.

We supported each other a lot as we waited patiently in line at Rose's Luxury, easily D.C.'s hottest restaurant, Bon Appetit's Best New Restaurant of 2014, and probably the only restaurant in town that you have to wait around two hours before it even opens to secure your meal that night. That's right. No reservations. Just lots and lots of ladies who want to eat and willing to stand in line at 3 p.m.

It gives you a lot of time to think about your life's priorities, check out the fashions of the people in front of you, eavesdrop on conversations, mutter curses under your breath for people whose parties suddenly triple in size, and yada yada.

And then when the doors open at 5p, you pray you make the first cut (they stagger seating to not overwhelm the kitchen), or you'll wait just a slim half hour for the second seating. You could also give them a preferred time you'd rather eat, if you don't feel particularly geriatric in wanting to dine at 5p.

We made the second seating, marveled at the charming interior upon entry, and all the gorgeous plants they have on the window ledges (I'll take one of everything please!)

 

look at this furry little fun guy.

And then after all the gushing was over, we ordered practically everything on the menu, minus the family style, because, we had to call the limits somewhere.

The complimentary bread is the most brilliant ever - potato bread served with buttermilk butter, the itty bittiest bacon bits and even tinier chives .

With each swift spread of butter on the slice, you feel like you're eating a baked potato, and what can be better than that?!

The Vietnamese pate was a dream, served with lusty crusty bread, the lightest, fluffiest pate you can imagine piled high with fresh herbs and peanuts.

Slather everything onto the bread (don't forget the pickled cucumbers or the chilis!), and it's everything you love about banh mi! My belly bursts with happiness!

The most popular dish at Rose's Luxury is the lychee salad, which in and of itself sounds pretty awesome,

but its the coconut cream foam that is pure magic - it envelops absolutely everything when you mix it altogether,

like over all the herbs, and slivers of red onions, and the peanuts, the pork sausage, and habanero and the other random bits and bobs you'll never be able to identify, but which you'll love all the same, because the flavor combination is nothing short of sublime.  Really! And later we thought about ordering another one of these, and I don't think we ever did, and now that is easily one of my life's regrets.

The Japanese hangar steak, served with Japanese mustard and eel sauce,

was sweet and ever so tender. Melty meaty goodness.

Our waitress surprised us with the grilled avocado - "you must try this! you'll love it!" and she was 150% right. Something seemingly so simple but completely fantastic - I started looking into cotija cheese the minute I got back into NYC, because this is how I want to eat all my avocados, with tomatillo, poblano, cotija cheese and onions. Spicy, savory, fresh, amazing.

The softshell crab was a meaty marvel, lightly battered for just the right amount of crunch. Served with slivers of white asparagus and tangy balsamic, the dish was remarkably light and fresh tasting.

The housemade reginetti pasta, squiggly little buggers, tasted equally as fresh, simply tossed with parmesan, chili, garlic and squash blossoms.

The world needs more squash blossoms, amirite?

And finally we ended with just a couple of desserts, a gorgeously plated coconut ice cream with tuile cookies that transported us to the tropics,

and the eggplant tartin, which sounded all sorts of bizarre, but ended up being so delicious.

Served warm with luscious ice cream, you probably wouldn't be able to guess that it is eggplant if you were served it blindly, but you'd sense that something was strange about it, but in a good way, no, a great way.

Sad to see the meal to end, but our check brought a smile. One, that feast totaled less than $100 (!!! !! !!!) and two, check out the third line item: "5 Side of Winning." They knew they had made believers out of us, and it is true. I can't wait to go back, two hours wait or not, that lychee salad beckons me in my dreams.

Han's Nonsensical Rating: Just yes. Yes. Yes. A million times yes!

Rose's Luxury

717 8th St SE, Washington, DC 20003

One of New York's Best Brunches: Root & Bone

Whoops.  It's somehow almost February.  

I blame holidays.  Working in Buffalo.  And.  Good ol' laziness.

To be honest, I am not sure if anyone reads this anymore, which is sad.  Because no one will see the glory of the brunch at Root & Bone.

A few months after my initial enamoration with the restaurant, Diana and Greeshma came through New York, and we shared my current favorite fried chicken along with half of the rest of the brunch menu.

I am so glad we went.  It was even better than I had remembered.

One of the most amazing things we discovered is the beauty of the gooey cheesy corn bread.  It comes overflowing in this freakishly adorable cast iron skillet.

Each spoonful elicits moans of pleasure - tang from the buttermilk whip and cheddar and sweetened with fresh corn niblets - the result just creamy wonder.

The biscuits were remarkably improved since my first visit, golden and gorgeous,

with beautifully tender interior, perfect for sopping up that chicken au jus and toasted sesame seeds.

The winter citrus and melon salad was beautiful - chunks of grapefruit, orange and tangerine tossed with melon and snips of basil.  The acidity chosen carefully to cut

the fat from the awesomely tender bacon drizzled with maple syrup.  Thick, salty and sweet.  Delicious.

We shared a basket of fried chicken among the four of us which was plenty,

though the thighs remain the absolute best cut and would just recommend getting an entire basket of thighs if you could - such flavorful succulence with every bite !

We also checked out their desserts for your sake, and can confidently confirm that they are amazing.  The chocolate pecan pie is served warm, and is studded with huge pecans and just enough chocolatey goo to keep the whole pie together.

My hands-down favorite was the toffee pudding with its praline ice cream.  Just look at it.  It's swimming in caramel, the pudding is warm and melts in your mouth, and there's nothing else you can really want after this except a nap.

Han's Nonsensical Rating: One of my favoritest brunches ever in all of New York.  Just get everything and love yourself and the new food baby you'll conceive afterwards.

Root & Bone
200 East 3rd Street, New York, NY 10009

New York's Best Secret Burger and Fries: Atera Lounge

In the basement of Atera is its lounge, a cozy little space with jet-black leather sofas and a handful of shiny wooden tables.

While restaurant guests can come down to the lounge to enjoy a pre-20 course drink, 

anyone can come visit the lounge (they take reservations !) to try a number of Atera's small plates (like the signature lobster roll or caviar macaron) or the soon-to-be-ultra-famous burger.

Naturally, we did all of the above.  Though there's a small menu of cocktails, the mixologist is more than happy to make you anything that tickles your liver's fancy with a variety of bitters and housemade juices at his disposal.  He will also, very patiently, explain any kind of alcohol question you may have - like history of the drink and the full creation process.  (We watched the mixologist's patience being tested by a particularly clueless gent during our visit.)

Cute cocktail with egg whites and citrus

The penicillin, with whiskey and ginger

We shared the beet jerky to start which comes as two dark knobs to an order, served alongside buttermilk cream.

The mixologist described how the beet jerky is cooked six ways to Sunday - it's baked, dehydrated, rehydrated, steamed, and whatever else possible, and whatever they do, it's delicious.  

The texture impeccably like beef jerky, but with the irresistible subtle earthiness of beets.  The added cream is absolute icing on the beet jerky cake.

And our excitement for that novelty vanished after the main attraction appeared before us.

The Atera burger is made with a house-ground blend of four meats: short rib, chuck, marrow and tendon, topped with perfectly melted white cheddar, and encased in the most beautiful possible sesame-studded brioche bun.

With the burger comes a set of accoutrement: pickled red peppers, pickled red onions, butter pickles and lettuce, alongside a neatly stacked set of the most incredible fries known to man.  You should know me.  I don't like to use hyperboles, but there really isn't a large enough hyperbole to capture just how amazing they really are.

The fries are blanched 6 or 7 times prior to frying, which creates the most velvety potato texture that instantly melts in your mouth, but yet somehow maintains a lovely little crunchy exterior.

AND THEN.  As if your life could not get even better, the fries are served with a duck pate mousse, (because ketchup would just be too declasse).

While the Atera burger is simply one of the best burgers I've had in New York, or even ever (it's so meaty, textural and wonderful!), the fries certainly outshine it, and for both of them to embody a single plate, well you simply have to wonder what have you done to deserve this, and you are probably not worthy, and that's probably true, but welcome to burger heaven anyway.

Han's Nonsensical Rating: Go! How often can you get a two Michelin-starred burger?  Seriously the best burger and fries in New York.

Atera Lounge

77 Worth St

New York, NY