faithiepie's Profile
Dinner Adventure
My fiance and I are looking to go to dinner tonight somewhere fun and legit delicious, not too expensive and outside of our neighborhood in the East Village. We love all food but would be interested in Malaysian, barbecue or comfort style food, legit Italian, or anything that is just really standout and kind of a random, lesser known spot. I realize that's super broad but has anyone had any fun dinner adventures lately that they could recommend a good spot? Somewhere in Brooklyn would be awesome. Thanks!
Birthday Cake
Thanks so much for the tip kookie I will definitely take you up on it!
Birthday Cake
It's my best friend's 30th birthday this weekend and I wanted to make a small cake to bring to her daytime barbecue pre-going out celebration Saturday afternoon. It's going to be in an 8" cake pan, and have two layers. I plan to write happy birthday on top and maybe do a little decorative frosting flower or some kind but that is basically my only plan. I was thinking of using a caramel frosting recipe I saw in a magazine recently. Does anyone have a great cake recipe to recommend? Thanks so much!
Cozy last minute date place?
Below 14th street any neighborhood is good, and not higher than $35 per entree.
Housewarming gift for Foodies. EV or Union Square area
There's a middle eastern spice store on 1st avenue, west side of the ave, between 5th and 8th street, forget exactly where, nothing too exotic but some cool stuff.
Cozy last minute date place?
My boyfriend and I haven't been to dinner in a while together and are looking for somewhere to go tonight that is cozy, not too loud and with excellent food. Preferably New American, French or Italian and not too high end, but cuisines don't necessarily have to be limited to those if someone has a great place in mind. Any suggestions would be welcome!
Restaurants for San Fran Newcomer
Thanks Paul H and Robert for your thoughtful and thorough responses, I will definitely pass along the suggestions to my friend!
Special celebration place most like Chanterelle
I never ate at Chanterelle but always wanted to and was also sad to see it close. Since I've never been there I can't speak to similarities, but Mas (farmhouse) is fantastic for celebrations. Great food and very classy but relaxed ambience.
Restaurants for San Fran Newcomer
Sorry for the faux pas abbreviation, I'm a native New Yorker and didn't know this was such a cliche.
I realize this was a broad question but really just wanted a few people's favorite places to eat, it wasn't necessarily a question of what are the best places hands down. If someone asked me for a few suggestions of great places to eat in New York for someone new to the city, I could surely give them a few suggestions without having to know the exact tastes, price range and cuisine category. Just wanted a few names to pass along. Despite your whining, whiner, you gave a pretty good response.
Restaurants for San Fran Newcomer
A friend of mine recently moved to San Francisco with her new husband and is looking for some great restaurants to introduce them to the [fantastic] California food scene and the city in general. Does anyone have suggestions on some not to miss places? Any suggestions are welcome!
Favorite Canapes / party foods?
I'm going to making canapes for the opening night of my boyfriend's photography exhibit. There will be a lot of people there so I need a good variety of party finger foods. Does anyone have a favorite recipe that travels well and is a one-bite type amuse bouche style canapes?
Help! Fridge door open
Thanks everyone. The dinner went off beautifully and everything turned out exactly as I hoped. We already have a child lock on our the cabinet door to the trash because this little guy gets into everything. I'll wake up in the morning and there will be gnawed chicken bones on the floor from the night before. He also loves croissants and steak. At least the food was all okay. Thanks again! If my guy wound up in the fridge he'd just eat until we found him...scary thought.
Help! Fridge door open
Ok, well you just made my day because I spent half this week and a lot of money preparing for this meal! And as a culinary student we are taught all these rules about the danger zone etc. etc. and are made really paranoid, which I sometimes think is a little over the top. Thanks again Fourunder.
Help! Fridge door open
Ok thanks, that makes me feel better. I know all the temperature rules about the danger zone etc. and wouldn't want to make my family sick of course, but also don't want to be over-cautious and feel like everything is probably okay.
Help! Fridge door open
I am cooking a 7 course meal tonight for my family. This morning when I woke up, the fridge door was wide open and the food was less than cold. I have a cat who is probably the culprit in this situation. Realistically I think the door was only open for an hour, but it could be more or less. Is it really necessary to throw away everything? Most of the food was cooked vegetables, some of which had dairy / chicken stock in them. There were some raw scallops as well. Nothing smells bad. Is my entire dinner ruined?
Ramps
Has anyone ever pickled ramps before? I'm looking for a good pickling recipe...any successful suggestions are most welcome.
Where to buy quail??
Does anyone know where I can buy a whole, un-boned quail? I have tried Staubitz which I know carries them, but they are closed on Sundays. Any other suggestions? I'd greatly appreciate it!
Thoughts on New American Cuisine
Thanks Keith, that is a great answer and I appreciate your putting time and thought into responding to my post! I definitely agree with what you said and plan to use that freedom to my advantage [I am working on putting together a menu as a sort of home-project]. Thanks!
Thoughts on New American Cuisine
I'm looking into cooking some "new american" dishes at home and was wondering if anyone has thoughts on what defines this relatively new trend in American restaurants / dining in NYC. I understand a basic definition of the cuisine as new twists on Old World food using classical techniques, with an emphasis on the use of quality products / local produce / support of farmer's markets. To me, that sort of implies an anything goes mentality to this genre of food...any ideas or thoughts on what other elements / qualities define new american / american nouveau?
Shelf life Cream Cheese Frosting
I made a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting last Sunday (nearly a week ago) and still have a ton of cream cheese frosting left over. I have kept it in the fridge all week, but the recipe says that it can only be stored up to 2 days in an airtight container. Is this for food safety purposes or just consistency / texture's sake? I have tasted it and it seems fine - considering the shelf life of butter and cream cheese I was unsure why the shelf life of the frosting would be short (again, from a food safety perspective, not regarding the texture of the frosting). Does anyone know whether this is still safe to eat?
Mushrooms..........
There is a great dish I've seen served in several restaurants recently, polenta with a fricasse of wild mushrooms. Scarpetta serves it, as well as Alto on East 53rd. Both are wonderfully rich and satisfying.
Gramercy Tavern, Craft or Somewhere Else?
I have to agree and say I would choose Gramercy Tavern hands down. It's wonderful.
Foodie GF B-Day Coming Up
Alta is a great, cozy tapas place that I love and think is good for dates. I also really enjoy Cacio e Vino, on 2nd ave beteween 4th and 5th - it's one of my favorite Italian in the city and I think it's underrated - whole kitchen staff is Sicilian, everyone speaks Italian and its a cozy little authentic place. I went to The Orchard for my birthday which is a little more upscale but still not too expensive and also thought it was delicious and had a great ambience.
Dinner for Sixteen
I went to a birthday celebration at the Bryant Park Grill that was beautiful. There were only 10 of us but they did have a private room available if the party was larger (I believe, if my memory serves me correctly).
Good for groups?
I'm planning a reunion dinner for some former coworkers who are coming back into the city for the summer. Any recommendations for a good place for seven or eight of us where we could sit outside and enjoy drinks and perhaps share some snacks? Preferably downtown. Thanks!
Top Chef-Healthy meal
No offense but I think this is sort of offensive. I LOVE Santino and rooted for him all the way through. He may have been loud and outspoken, but he was talented, had a deep connection to his craft and was ultimately revealed as being a very compassionate, caring and thoughtful artist (when Tim visited his home in CA). Spike is a childish, undignified self-important jerk with little talent.
Top Chef-Healthy meal
Definitely Andrew said this during his closing comments. He couldn't walk away without making one biting comment first. I personally liked Andrew the whole way through and thought he was entertaining to watch, although didn't think he was talented enough to make it to the finals.
That being said, I think both Spike and Lisa's attitudes (especially), cooking skills, integrity and basic decency are so despicable that I was disappointed to see Andrew go home before either of them. Spike's shameless display of pleasure in disadvantaging his competitors just for the sake of it was unsportsmanlike and is just (one more) reason he is not top chef material. Lisa clearly accidentally turned her burner too high and then chose to blame the others - if she legitimately had thought that someone had intentionally sabotaged her, she would have taken it more seriously and gone straight to the judges with her accusation, even if she didn't have a suspect.
I am so turned off by the two of them that I really can't wait to see them go down in flames!
Fun drinks after work
This was so long ago it seems silly to reply now but felt bad that I'd missed your post. We both work at Rock center so always wind up going to the Modern. I've been wanting to try Lure. Lately we've just been doing all out dinner when we see each other and recently ate at Mia Dona, Donatella's new restaurant. It was great and comes highly recommended. Oh, and had delicious drinks and wonderful small plates at Death and Co. on sixth street bewteen 1st and A, which was really great and quite fun. Cheers.
