i_eat_a_lot_of_ice_cream's Profile
San Francisco Hound Coming to Portland...Please Critique My List For Your Wonderful Food City!!!
Wow, amazing trip report. Can't wait to visit in july!
San Francisco Hound Coming to Seattle: Please Critique My List for the Emerald City!!!
Great report! Headed to Seattle in July and your food itinerary sounds similar to ours so far.
Great new things at North!! [Armonk]
Nice review. When we were last there we found the service a bit frenetic but chalked it up to RW. I agree that the downstairs can get boisterous but i still like it better than the austere upstairs room. Especially on a beautiful night I would not want to be seated in the practically windowless (there are skylights) upstairs. If you don't mind me asking, how much is the soft shell crab entree? Sounds delicious.
ISO excellent non-chain ice cream, anywhere in Westchester
Unbeknownst to me, Blue Pig has been open since April. I'm making up for lost time the past couple of weeks. New flavors include chocolate cabernet (surprisingly good), peanut butter oreo (cookies and cream with chunks of creamy peanut butter mixed in), and olive oil (inspired by Otto, I guess, but not a fan of it there and not a fan of it here!). I've noticed the scooping size has been inconsistent (my husband's sampler was giant yesterday and mine was tiny compared), but other than that, no complaints, just yum!
Gleason's in Peekskill to open August 2012- from Birdsall House folks
I just got an email from Birdsall House today saying they will be opening a new place called Gleason's in Peekskill. According to the website, it will feature flatbread pizzas, soups, and salads. As a huge fan of BH, this is intriguing, though I must admit I'm a little bored of pizza-centric restaurants. I'm sure it'll be much more than that. I also am a little jealous... I feel like Ossining needs something funky like this!
http://www.gleasons-peekskill.com/
911 South St.
Peekskill, NY
Great new things at North!! [Armonk]
I agree, their website is horrible. It annoys me every time I look at it. And don't even try loading it on a mobile phone!
I really like the food at North, but I've never been there full price, only during Restaurant Week. It's a bit too expensive for a casual feeling restaurant for me to justify going there on a regular night.
CSA in Westchester
I agree with Erikabee that the Ossining market is one of the best. I think that Pleasantville has a better variety of vendors, but it's often very crowded and not as enjoyable as Ossining's.
NY chowhound in South Beach report 4/2012
No problem! We tend to seek out laidback, moderately priced options and though you have to search a bit harder in South Beach than other places they are there. Yardbird is definitely the most scene-y of all the places we went to, but in a really fun, buzzy kind of way. Have fun!!
Also, check out Eater Miami. They have decent coverage of Miami Beach restaurants.
NY chowhound in South Beach report 4/2012
Since I rely heavily on these boards when planning a trip, I like to reciprocate with a trip report. We stayed in South Beach for the second April in a row and had some fantastic food and drink, some repeat favorites from last year and some new.
Joe's takeaway- though this is a pretty pricey casual dinner, the food is excellent and it was a great laidback start to our vacation. We got the stone crabs (of course), a huge grilled grouper sandwich, salad, and key lime pie, and devoured everything. Walked it off with a trip to Publix where we stocked up on breakfast and lunch food for the week.
Burger and Beer Joint- just hit this place up for some drinks before our Easter dinner at Sardinia. They have a fantastic beer menu and were blasting Nirvana when we entered, so my husband was hooked.
Sardinia- we went last year for Easter and liked it so much we decided to return. This time we sat outside which we liked better than the more formal interior space. We shared a bottle of wine (they have quite a few affordable bottles) with three delicious courses... starting with creamy burrata (served with two accompaniments- we chose prosciutto and roasted peppers) and a beautiful salad of greens, cauliflower, pear, and gorgonzola dolce... followed by two half orders of pasta, the Sardinian seafood "paella" and orrechiette with boar sausage (I think?)... and finished up with the rabbit, which was stupendous. No room for dessert. This place is great.
Hofbrau- first stop on our "beer crawl" one night. We love this place. Great people watching and my husband loves the German beer. Had a couple of beers and shared an enormous pretzel with a German brie/onion/paprika type dip which is the perfect beer snack.
Abbey- unfortunately they were out of a couple of the beers we had wanted to try but never fear, there were plenty of other beers to try including a fruity lambic that I loved.
Yardbird- we sat at the bar for a drink before our reservation. Nicest bartender ever! Tiring of all the beer, I had an Abita root beer on tap, but they have a very respectable beer list too, in which my husband partook, and we paired our drinks with their fried chicken on a biscuit which is a PERFECT bite for two-- two flaky buttery biscuits with tender, crisp fried chicken on top. I felt ill once we were seated so we ended up taking our meal home to the hotel, where we ate it in bed... and it was wonderful. A nice fresh salad with ripe tomatoes (haven't had one of those up here in NY for months... I missed them!) and the cochon, which was so flavorful and tender, served with some sort of corn pudding. I was so sad we didnt' get to have dessert here. This place is quite a scene and lots of fun.
La Sandwicherie- most awesome lunch you can have on the beach. I have been picturing this sandwich for a long time and it was as amazing as I remember-- mozzarella on a fresh croissant with all the fixings- lettuce, tomato, hot peppers, cornichons, onion, and their amazing dressing.
A la Folie- At the far end of bustling Espanola is this little French place, which really did remind us of being in France last summer, and we had a really leisurely light (relatively speaking!) dinner here of crepes. Mine was several kinds of cheese and my husband's was tuna with harissa. We shared a dark chocolate crepe with chantilly for dessert. House wine was a steal at $6 a glass and very drinkable, no interesting beers though.
Zeke's- not my favorite spot but the outdoor seating and people watching on Lincoln is fun. The bartenders were not so friendly and while they may offer a billion kinds of beer on the list that's no guarantee they have them all.
Provence Grill- another repeat from last year since we liked this place so much last year. We shared the frisee aux lardons, which is the perfect combination of crunchy, salty, and creamy. For dinner I had moules frites and my husband had duck confit, which was a generous portion and cooked very nicely.
Shake Shack- we have this in NY but couldn't resist, and shared a huge concrete. Yum!
Crazee Olive- we stopped here right before getting on the bus back to the airport and it was great. The portions were huge, the food was fresh and tasty, and pretty cheap. Falafel was excellent as was the lamb kebab with harissa sauce.
All in all a great trip to South Beach... we were so entranced by the beach during the day that we couldn't bring ourselves to leave South Beach (except for a day trip to Islamorada)... maybe next time we will make it to Miami proper. Thanks to Miami CHs for helping to inform our eating decisions!
New farm-to-table in Purdy's to open
Any other reports? I wish they had a menu up. Might check it out next weekend ...
Coffee and lunch near Dia Beacon?
Poppys is awesome!! Headed there right now in fact!
CSA in Westchester
Welcome to Ossining! Unfortunately cowberry crossing is no longer offering a CSA. I haven't gotten a chance to find out the details of why, but that's beside the point for you. I wonder if it wasn't making $$ for them since when i added up what each week's share would have cost at the regular prices they charge it was really a great deal (not cheap by any means bur much cheaper). But anyway, we are CSA-less for now. Others rave about roxbury. I will try to find another post from the past with information for you.
Dylan Lounge @ X2O, Porchetta?
I went the second week they did it and totally forgot to post about it! For $35 it's an amazing deal. I wasn't crazy about the appetizer, only because I'm not a huge pate person (my pork obsessed husband felt otherwise!). It came with delicious fixings like pickled beets, cornichons, and Maille mustard, but it was such an enormous portion of pate that I couldn't eat more than half of it knowing what was coming next. The porchetta was visually stunning-- it was an enormous slice. It's of course extremely rich and my portion seemed to have more inedible fat on it than my husband's but it was DELICIOUS. The crispy pork belly was almost caramelized and the loin cooked to tender perfection. It came with duck fat potatoes (amazing) and kale (I love almost any preparation of kale and it made me feel a bit less guilty about all the pork but I'm sure it had a ton of butter on it!). Topped off with a decadent ice cream sundae with a huge vertical spiral of hardened caramel, this meal is WELL worth $35. However-- would I go back for it? Probably not. It is just too rich of a meal for me to make it a frequent occasion. But I highly recommend it. One caveat-- no reservations are taken for the Dylan. We got there before 6 (they open 5:30) and had the place practically to ourselves, but by the time we left after 8, it was packed.
New farm-to-table in Purdy's to open
Sounds right up my alley. I'll definitely try this in the next couple weeks!
Hudson Valley Restaurant Weeks 2012
I had a great RW experience at North on Friday. It was a beautiful night and they had the windows in the front wide open. We asked to be seated downstairs since last time we found the upstairs to be too formal, and while we enjoyed it, the noise from the bar got very loud by the time we left (around 8), so just a word of warning.
The food was excellent-- hot bread with apple butter to start and some wine and beer... then I ordered the rock shrimp risotto (not on the menu online) and my husband got the pork belly for appetizers... both perfect portion sizes and well executed. Entrees were the trout (on a bed of a grain I can't recall), which was plated gorgeously and cooked very well, and beef two ways (I preferred the cocoa braise on polenta cake; the other sliced steak type preparation was a bit tough/overcooked but I loved the potatoes that accompanied it). The beef dish could have benefited from the balance of a veggie but taking into consideration value for the $$ this is barely a complaint. The chocolate chip cookie skillet is unbelievable and cannot be missed.
We had a great dinner. The best part was that we felt completely relaxed. Some restaurants tend to rush diners through RW dinners to get more people in seats but we were allowed to linger and chat without feeling rushed and we really appreciated that. I'd say North is a must for RW!
Best Duck Dish in Westchester
Was going to post the exact same thing. This is what I always get at Zephs'!
I've also had duck at X2O and enjoyed it immensely. Right now they are offering a whole roast duckling for two which sounds amazing.
Hudson Valley Restaurant Weeks 2012
Someone posted a review of Harper's on the Small Bites blog and it sounded great. HOWEVER they didn't post the menu (still not on the HVRW website and if it is on their website I can't see it because the website is formatted poorly) and so I didn't even bother looking into making a res there.
Hudson Valley Restaurant Weeks 2012
I'm so excited. Going next Friday. I've only get reservations at Valley and North (same as last year) but I think I might try Le Provencal for lunch too.
Michael Psilakis MP TAVERNA coming to Irvington?
Lohud has some info. It's going where Day Boat Cafe was. I liked Day Boat Cafe but I guess it never did that well. I think that whole building is 1 Bridge St.
ETA: link
http://food.lohudblogs.com/2012/03/14/celeb-chef-michael-psilakis-to-open-mp-taverna-in-irvington/
New Whole Foods in Ridge Hill (Yonkers)
I wondered the same thing about freshness. I can't see how there's much turnover with the perishable products if they're not attracting the crowds the WP location does. For example, I picked up some camembert and I forgot to check the date before buying it. When I got home I saw that the date said best by 3/12/12 (yesterday, the day I bought it). Guess I'll be mainlining the $8.50 camembert today. So make sure you check dates...
New Whole Foods in Ridge Hill (Yonkers)
I just went to the new WF in Yonkers. I try at all costs to avoid the White Plains WF, which I find completely intolerable (parking, crowds, navigation, etc), but sometimes I need something that's hard to find elsewhere. The new one in Yonkers is super convenient to two major highways in the area (the Sprain and 87). The parking lot is enormous. I guess I went at an off time (3:30ish on a weekday) but it was deserted, which was kind of creepy. There were maybe ten other cars parked. I went inside and the store was also deserted of customers. Not sure if this is an anomaly, but it was AMAZING for me! I leisurely browsed the aisles, picked out way too much cheese, and had pleasant conversations with the friendly staff. The fact that they (ostensibly) charge for parking is indeed maddening since you are literally in the middle of nowhere, but I never go to Whole Foods and spend less than $10 so I'm willing to let that slide if it means never having to go near the White Plains location again. Whole Foods will never be my regular weekly food shopping stop but for specialty foods this will definitely come in handy for me. How are the crowds at other times?
First Impressions of Growlers Bistro in Tuckahoe
To be clear, there were no screaming children at Growlers (the screaming children were at Bar Taco on my first and last trip there). The very small child next to us was getting restless and a bit noisy and when she started hurling things across the restaurant the family left in a hurry. I always hesitate to mention things like this in reviews because I don't want to come across as a grouchy person who doesn't like kids (I'm a teacher and I have 70 "kids") but more often than not when I'm going out with my husband we are looking for a place with other adults to have a grown up night out. I would have liked to have known that this was more of a family place before going because I might have gone elsewhere. But beer lovers have kids too, so it's a good place to have in the area.
First Impressions of Growlers Bistro in Tuckahoe
After a day of work around the house, my husband requested I find a good place for dinner with great beer. I remembered the conversation on this board about Growlers, so we headed down to check it out. We had a little trouble finding it since it's set back from the main road a bit. The inside reminds me a bit of the big, airy restaurants in Irvington (Day Boat, Red Hat) in those old industrial buildings that have been repurposed. It's a bit stark inside, but has a trendy feel. That said, I was a bit confused to find a lot of families there with infants and toddlers (this is the same confusion I experienced at Bar Taco, where we were surrounded by screaming, misbehaving children-- something I wouldn't expect at a place with "bar" in the name) and the toddler at the table next to us was hurling her books and toys across the restaurant. I mention this only because we expected this to be more of a grown-ups only place (given the "beer" in the restaurant's name, foolishly I suppose) but this is clearly a family restaurant up until bedtime. (We left around 8:30 and the kid crowd was still going strong.)
The food is a step above the usual pub type food (so I guess these kids were young chowhounds!), and the beer list is extremely respectable. We shared a flight of beer-- $18 for 5 six ounce pours, a GREAT way to heavily sample some of their excellent beers. We tried Peak Organic Simcoe Spring Ale, Firestone Walker Union Jack (IPA), Captain Lawrence Brown Bird, Lagunitas WTF, and Peak Organic Mocha Stout. Since I am just physically unable to stomach more than a beer and a half in one sitting, this was an amazing way to get to try a good number of beers off their lengthy draft list (my faves were the PO Spring Ale, the Brown Bird, and the Mocha Stout (amazing, like a beer milkshake)).
Their small bites were more appealing to us than their sandwiches. To start, we shared the Murray's cheese plate, hot pretzel bread served with whole grain mustard, and spinach artichoke dip. The cheese and dip were served with crispy bread chips. The pretzel bread was awesome (wonder if it's house made? seemed like it)... spinach artichoke dip was pretty standard, how could it be bad really, and the cheese plate was great. Then we shared the growler fries, mac and cheese, and gumbo. Loved the mac and cheese! Better than my usual standard at Umami in Croton. The gumbo was tasty though by that time I was getting full. Their "famous" fries come laden with bacon bits and parmesan. The temperature was a little uneven but they were good for a bar snack.
Service was a bit frenetic but accommodating and they seem especially knowledgeable about beer. We overheard the lady next to us asking for a Coors Light, and the waiter very nicely guided her to a beer with similar qualities that he said he thought she'd enjoy (Jonah Bronks Kingsbridge-- he said it's a new brewery from the Bronx that they have a good relationship with). I liked the total absence of pretension in his answer-- that's the kind of place this is. Beer lovers without being beer snobs.
It's quite a trek for us so I can't say we'll be back often, but I definitely recommend this place for beer lovers looking for some above average pub grub, even with little chowhounds in tow.
Good Food in Briarcliff Manor
I've been craving some Jane's-- was at Poppy's in Beacon the other day and was sad to see the Beacon Creamery closed for the season. With Blue Pig closed too, I'll definitely stop by for an ice cream fix.
Can i swap out shortening for butter in a white cake recipe?
Yes, it's taken me 29 years, but I finally have realized that of all the desserts in the world, cake is not one of my favorites. Per my username, ice cream is probably my favorite, along with cookies/brownies, pies, puddings, and pastries (croissants, danishes, etc), but frosted cake and cupcakes rank down among the bottom, for the reason you eloquently state-- most are too toothachey sweet for me!
Help! What to do with way, way too many bananas?
They are really great! I'm not sure. I might try swapping out half the all purpose flour for whole wheat first to see.
Help! What to do with way, way too many bananas?
I just made a batch of banana espresso chocolate chip muffins from the Baked cookbook and these muffins are AMAZING!! The good news for you with your bounty of bananas is each batch uses 4 bananas and I rarely make them without doubling them since the yield is only 1 dozen.
http://sweetnicks.com/weblog/2009/10/banana-espresso-chocolate-chip-muffins-from-baked-bakery/
