A Greenpoint Brunch at Five Leaves

On a recent Diana visit, we brunched at Five Leaves, a hotspot on the Greenpoint restaurant front.  While it is commonly believed that New Yorkers simply do not wake up before 10 am for anything, especially brunch, this small narrow stretch of a restaurant was absolutely brimming with boisterous Brooklynites at the early hour.

Diana and I shared a couple of plates, such as the sage scrambled egg panini, a soft roll filled with creamy, cheesy, herbaceous eggs.

We balanced the savory egg dish with a tall plate of ricotta pancakes, topped with plenty of fresh strawberries, blueberries and bananas...

...and a huge dollop of gorgeous honeycomb butter.  Yes, it's a beautiful, beautiful sight!

I am used to airy and wonderfully light ricotta pancakes, but the ones at Five Leaves are much denser, and eggier than I've had before.  It's tough to polish off a whole plate by yourself, so it's best shared among friends, if you're willing to part with a portion of that luscious honeycomb butter.

Diana's friend ordered a dish that would be right up Greeshma's alley with poached eggs, lemon cream and grilled mushrooms and asparagus on seven grain toast. Vegetarianism never looked more tempting!

Our brunch was completely solid at Five Leaves: the food was good, and the the place completely comfortable with a warm, welcoming atmosphere.  I wouldn't travel out of my way to come here, but if you're in the area, it's worth a visit, and apparently, according to my well-fed Williamsburg pal, Five Leaves dishes up a pretty stellar burger that may be calling my name.

Five Leaves

18 Bedford Ave

Brooklyn, NY

Vegan Donuts (Yeah, you read that right) at Dunwell Doughnuts !

I am sure you never thought you would see the day that I would be writing about vegan doughnuts on this blog.  You and me both, buddy.  But these are the kinds of things you do when you have a vegan friend who would so kindly drive you and the gang to Coney Island for beachventures !  

A few stops in on the L train into Bushwick / East Williamsburg lies a charming little spot called Dun-Well Doughnuts.  Its interior is quintessential Brooklyn cute, with dark woods, and wrought iron antiquey decor.

Flavors appear to change daily, and on this day, we got a splendid assortment, including:

peanut butter jelly,

cinnamon sugar,

lemon lime (freakishly green but the best!)

blueberry,

traditional glazed,

traditional chocolate glazed,

and peanut butter cup where the hole of the doughnut is...

...filled with peanut butter !

What can I really say about vegan doughnuts...
They didn't make me puke when I ate them.  That's a plus!

No, but seriously, they were pretty good, but not really good.  It's one of those times you would caveat your description: "It's pretty good for a vegan doughnut."

The yeast was not nearly as airy and light as one would hope / expect.  Plunge your face in the wonders of Voodoo Doughnuts or even Dough from Bed-Stuy and the contrast is quite notable.  The doughnuts also are a bit on the sweeter side, with the chocolate flavor not quite as smooth as one would like and a slightly strange aftertaste.  My favorite was definitely the lemon lime and burst with bright citrusy flavor, and comes in neon green !  What's not to like (besides unnatural food coloring)?

If you have a vegan friend who you want to curry good favor, a box of Dun-Well's is an okay option.  If you are a true doughnut lover (open to eating animal products) looking for a fix, I'd prolly keep moving.

Dun-Well Doughnuts
222 Montrose
Brooklyn, NY

Cooling Down with Wooly's Ice !

Man alive, I've been horrifically lazy.  I went to Texas for a week and a half to visit the family, and I did not do anything but gorge on my mother's food, go on adventures and then work up an appetite to eat more food.

Texas was expectedly hot this time of year, reaching balmy temps of 97 or so.  While hiking with the nieces on a particularly muggy day, the only thing that kept me cool was fond memories of my new favorite summer treat: Wooly's!

Now, there are many an ice vendor in the city, from piraguas near Tompkins Square Park, to hand-shaved snow cones from People's Pops in East Village, to New Orleans style Imperial Woodpecker Sno-balls in Greenwich Village.  New Yorkers have got it all when it comes to cooling down.  And I've had my fair share of all of them.

So, I had my stereotypical expectations when I approached Wooly's for their Mango madness of sorts.  It was going to be some icy treat with Asiany toppings like fresh, ripe mango, mochi and condensed milk.  It would be sufficiently cool on a hot day but nothing extraordinary. 

But I was completely wrong.  

While the ice looks like jagged shards, it is nothing but pure, beautifully airy clouds of sweet, sweet love on your tongue.  It was softer than I could ever imagine ice to be, and I was instantly in love.

While my friend and I ate our bowlfuls of heaven silently, a number of people came up to us wondering what it was and where they could get it.  It was evident from our joyous faces that this was something of which they definitely wanted a piece.

You should too!

Wooly's Ice

South Seaport

Brunching and Horse Racing @ Lone Star Park

Over Memorial Day weekend, I returned to my beloved Dallas to spend time with family. My aunt was visiting from Taiwan, so my parents and I took her to touristy American things like baseball games and the Cheesecake Factory. (Don't hate, I love the Cheesecake Factory with all of my heart.) In addition, we took her to Sunday brunch at Lone Star Park. We ate, we swooned at the pretty horses, and we even did a little betting. It was a perfect afternoon. :)

A brunch ticket at the park buys you brunch and fantastic viewing seats... because hello, you don't have to sit outside in the Texas heat.

We sat right next to the window and therefore had an unencumbered view of the racing. *highfive*

Alright, let's talk food. It was a very standard Sunday brunch, with an pasta/omelet station, salad bar, hot dish options, and a variety of dessert. Here's a slathering of some of the stations:

The tex mex station was the cheesiest (both literally and figuratively), and the one from which I ate the most. I am so embarrassing.

Brunch also comes with a free mimosa or glass of champagne:

Here are some of our plates:

The food is good, but not great. You get the feeling that every item probably came from Costco - which, you know, I could totally get behind.

Especially when there's a vat of heated melted dark chocolate, and you can do things like this:

There's also an ice cream bar and multiple kinds of cobbler (there needs to be more cobbler in the northeast). The vat of chocolate was definitely our table's most popular item.

Brunch starts around 11:30a, and you can sit for as long as the races go. They don't take away the food until after 4:30pm-ish, so it means you can eat for a good five hours. Which we absolutely did, while betting on and cheering for the horses.

These are all the bets I lost. Thank god I'm a cheapo and stuck with the $2 bets. ;)

I super enjoyed our time at the park - eating, laughing, and screaming for my randomly-selected horses to win... I highly recommend a visit!!

Lone Star Park

Sunday Brunch at Silks Dining

1000 Lone Star Parkway

Grand Prairie, Tx 75050

The Omakase at Tori Shin

Diana and I had enjoyed the yakitori at Las Vegas' Raku so much (which we still need to post about - sigh) that we decided to see if New York's yakitori scene was up to snuff.  The Upper West Side's Michelin-starred Tori Shin seemed to fit the bill.

The yakitori selection is small, and we decided to opt for the omakase since they promised these 'special skewers' that are not available on the regular menu, and we entrusted the chef with our meal.  

The problem with ordering omakase is that we pay less attention to what we are eating, and we do not really remember what we ate specifically.  But basically this is the gist you should know:

All the yakitori is chicken-related, insides and outsides, but definitely all chicken.  No seafood.  No pork.  Just a lot of freaking chicken...which is why it is hard to explain what we ate because it somewhat looks the same (minus the distinctive chicken meatballs) and generally tasted the same, from the house special sauce that reigned supreme on nearly everything.  The textures for the dishes were remarkable, with varying levels of fattiness, juiciness and tenderness that did invoke within me an especial appreciation for different cuts of chicken.

All in all we had three vegetables (bamboo shoot. tomatoes, asparagus), a palate cleanser of hand-shaved daikon, four chicken skewers (chicken meatball, thigh, breast and ___), a skewer of quail eggs, a chicken salad, a rice dish and a scoop of ice cream for $55.  Here are the pictures and the best I can remember.

Bamboo shoots with Japanese specially-imported salt that tasted like truffles. The salt was divine, as was the tender shoots.

Daikon palate cleanser.

Shiso-paste chicken breast.  Mouth-puckering flavor.

Chicken meatballs which were dense but juicy.

Fresh chicken salad with avocado, cucumber and an incredibly addictive ginger garlic sauce.  One of our favorite dishes of the night.

Asparagus.

I do believe this was the special skewer.  It was quite tender, but otherwise not too special.

Hot, juicy tomatoes that popped in our mouths.

Quail eggs.  Cute in appearance, okay in execution.  (A bit dry.)

The special oyako don (+$5).  Loved squishing the fat, golden yolk and smushing it everywhere.  The grilled chicken chunks were fine, but the combination of raw egg yolk and seaweed is delicious.

The saboro don (ground chicken over rice).  Creamy and flavorful.

A chicken consomme that accompanied our rice dishes.  The cleanest, most flavorful chicken stock I've tasted to date. 

Shiso, Japanese sorbet.  Basically basil ice, simply clean and refreshing.  My other favorite thing of the night.

Green tea ice cream.  Solid (as it always is).

At the end of the day, was it too much chicken?  Probably.  Was it a good experience?  Every experience with Diana is good.  But if I came again, which wouldn't be too soon, I'd definitely recommend ordering off the menu  (we only received one 'special skewer,' so not totally worth it) and definitely finishing the meal with that basil ice.  Amazing.

Tori Shin
1193 1st Ave
New York, NY