Work has been seriously kicking my butt. This week especially has felt like an entire month, and as dumpy as I feel of late, these pictures sure remind me that there are better times out there ! And I just need to revitalize !
So I think we're at Tuesday of my trip, and I had made lunch reservations at
Peter Luger's.
J and I had gone to Peter Luger's for their famous porterhouse steak last winter. Tip: if you want to eat at Peter's at a proper time, book
FAR in advance. We had booked a couple of weeks in advance and could only get a 2:35 p.m. reservation for "dinner." Let me tell ya. Nothing ends your day quicker than eating a porterhouse for two at 2:35.
So. We played it smart this time, and went for lunch to try their burgers.
The bread basket.
Signature sauce.
I have no idea what this sauce is, but every table gets one regardless if steak is ordered or not.
The insides of their onion roll. Has nice pieces of onion and poppy side inside. The outsides are a bit chewy, but hey, no pain, no gain.
The $10 burger ended up being more like $13.50 once you add cheese and bacon. The American cheese I could live without, but c'mon. The bacon is the main attraction!
Hello, my thick cut beauty.
Hello again from above.
I was too distracted by the bacon to realize there was a burger on the plate too! The burger was super thick and made of coarsely ground beef. It had great flavor and needed no additional seasoning.
J splurged and got the fries. While you don't get a lot of fries, it did appear they had rough cut one whole potato to fry, so there was enough potato for us to share (or J was forced to share :)
We interrupt this broadcast with scenes from a troll-man eating meat
OFF OF the porterhouse bone ! This is shocking news.
Leave no meat behind my friends. I had never seen anyone do this before, but hey, that porterhouse was $100. Get yo money's worth, shameless!
J and I could not leave without their signature "Holy Cow" sundae, loaded with their aaamaazing schlag (whipped cream).
I just adore sundaes that look like they are made entirely out of hot fudge.
Hello you little cow, peeking out from behind the schlag! Why don't you come out...
SO I CAN EAT YOU! (and I totally did)
Schlag. It's sooo thick and creamy. I can make some pretty great whipped cream, but nothing tops this schlag.
Or this hot fudge.
Or these awesome gold coins which I snack on at home when I'm feeling fancy.
After we finished up our cow-niverous meal, we unbuckled our jeans and sat back on the F train and headed straight for Coney Island.
We ate lemon Italian ice and watched people on the boardwalk.
And then we ate our crushed peanut butter and blackberry jelly filled doughnut from the Doughnut Plant and watched more people.
Doughnut innies. Totally tasted like a peanut butter sandwich, and it was great. I absolutely loved the chewy-yeastiness of it all.
After watching a series of kids dive off the pier and old Russian couples dance at their nursing home, we headed back to Manhattan to relax a bit before checking out a New York
speakeasy,
Milk and Honey. This establishment used to be super exclusive; in order to make reservations you had to know their super-secret unlisted phone number. But since they've become private, offering two types of memberships (expensive, and more expensive), you can now email them and request a reservation. We lucked out and were able to snag a reservation for 9:30p within just a couple of days.
Non-descript door of Milk and Honey on the Lower East side, posing as a tailor shop from the outside.
The place was ridiculously dark, as speakeasies should be, but in order not to cause any crazy distractions, I only took flashless photos. Which are useless, but at least you can kind of sense the ambience! Milk and Honey does not have a drink menu. Instead, you tell your mixologist (fancy, yes) the flavors you like and what kind of alcohol you prefer, and he will just "take care of you." I told him I liked ginger and citrus, and he whipped me up a Pimm's Rangoon which had fresh cucumber, candied ginger, fresh muddled strawberries, blackberries and orange. It was single-handedly the most amazing drink I have ever had. J had a Dominican mojito (?) and a gin based drink featuring fresh strawberries and foamy egg whites. All were unique, delicious and so enjoyable.
And then as if we didn't already love the place enough, they brought us a plate with a couple of whole strawberries, a schmear of marscapone in the middle and a generous drizzle of honey across the plate. The mixologist recommended that we try to get a bite of all three at once to really capture the full delicious effect. And. Seriously? OMGSODELICIOUS. I have never thought of having strawberry + honey together, but they are a match made in DELICIOUSHEAVEN.
We ended up spending a couple of hours in the place; it was comfortable, played great old-fashioned music and did not feel rushed at all. I am hoping for people to come visit soon so I can take them here. So hip and oh so tasty.
After, we grabbed dinner at midnight from the
53rd & 6th Halal street cart. My coworker absolutely loves this cart and so do the other masses of New Yorkers and tourists that stand in their line non-stop from 7:30p-4:30a.m. every day. When J and I arrived there at 11:30p, there were at least 50 people ahead of us in line.
Who are these loons? Why are we one of them?
Scene from back of the line
53rd and 6th guys in action. They cook up super chopped grilled chicken and super chopped lamb / gyro meat on rice with some lettuce leaves. You can order just chicken, lamb or a combo of the two for $6 a plate. The whole platter ends up weighing about a couple of pounds.
The plate.
The real draw of the place is their "white sauce" which is described as similar to a tzatziki sauce, yogurt based goodness that you drown the whole plate in and go to town.
Example of going to town.
53rd and 6th also have this red hot sauce that is the spiciest sauce I have ever tasted. I can only tolerate a few drops of it swirled in my rice, but it is really good. I ended up eating more of that than the white sauce, but you know how I like to keep things spicy.
And that was Tuesday!!
More to come!
178 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
379 Grand Street
New York, NY
134 Eldridge Street
New York, NY
@ 53rd and 6th - the real cart is on-site from 7:30p-4:30a only.
New York, NY
I could eat this pasta all day. The hand cut noodles were cooked al dente, and the truffle flavor was perfection. This dish managed to be creamy but light at the same time. I could have eaten the whole bowl, but I decided to be nice and keep my promise to let Jordan have some.
I didn't really notice the cranberry beans, but the pork was super tender and fatty - just the way pork belly should be. I've also decided that I like kale in any form (I've recently taken to kale chips from Whole Foods), so the pile of kale underneath the pork made me very happy.
I tried only one bite, but Julie confirmed that this pasta was solid.
The ratio of sauce to noodles was just right, the sauce was itself delicious, and the texture of the noodles was again ideal.
These were caramelized, with pork belly, maple & parmesan. I honestly couldn't taste the maple, but in general these sprouts were pretty good. Tart, fresh, and flavorful.
This was the only mediocre dish of the night. The potatoes were too dense/chunky, and too salty for my taste.
The menu says the cauliflower comes with "pickled red onion, capers & chili." It's a testament to how good the cauliflower is, because I didn't even notice capers... and I hate capers. All I could focus on was the beautiful burnt flavor of the cauliflower. Again, I had to fight my inner glutton to stop myself from eating this whole plate.
Han would have loved this. The mint flavor tasted real and fresh, and I loved the tiny crunch of the chocolate chips.
Sorry, this picture makes the pie look like a monster and like there are bugs all over it. In fact, it's kinda freaking me out to look at it anymore. But trust me, this pie was fantastic. The best part was the dollop of mocha cream on top. So light and fluffy. The rest of it was awesome, too. I ate it all together with a big smile on my face.
