Ann900's Profile
Where to buy a gingerbread man
Does anyone know where I can get a gingerbread man (or any other human-shaped cookie) on the upper West or East side? Need it for a friend's birthday next week.
Is there ANY decent pizza on the UWS?!
I was just going to if anyone had tried Buca. I haven't tried it, but would like to get some other opinions- since it's very close to me.
Fava beans fresh or frozen on the Upper West
Agata and Valentina, the Italian specialty store on 79th and First frequently has shelled, frozen fava beans when they're in season.
Best way to re-heat Fairway rotisserie chickens?
My go to Fairway is the one on Broadway and 74th, where they always have half chickens. So, you might want tp speak to someone at the 86th St store to suggest they start offering halves.
On the rare occasion when I have needed to heat them up, I much prefer putting them in a steamer on the stove to the oven or microwave- keeps the meat moist, even if the skin ii soft. But I find that when bythe time you buy them, the skin has softened anyway, from sitting in the container.
Best way to re-heat Fairway rotisserie chickens?
I don't know if you're aware of this, but Fairway also sells half- rotisserie chickens, in several flavors. I get them quite often. I especially like the rotisserie chicken with Latin spices, but they also have them with garlic and lemon, BBQ, and plain. The half chickens run around $4.50. Tasty and good value on the nights you don't feel like cooking.
V&T Pizzeria?
V&T is still around- and in the same location.It's probably never mentioned on this board or other food sites because the pizza is no different from what you can get at a hundred other neighborhood pizza joints- edible but cerfainly nothing special and nothing to go out of the way for. If you're more interested in taking your goddaughter there for old times sake, than go- but if you're looking for a place for really first rate pizza, you can do much, much better than V&T. A quick search of this board will give you lots of first rate choices.
Sheep's Milk Ricotta
I love sheep's milk ricotta. two good sources are 3 Corner Field Farm- they are usually at the Union Sq. greenmarket - check which days, and at the greenmarket in Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn on Saturdays.They raise their own sheep. All their cheese is wonderful, not just the ricotta.
Another source is Valley Shepherd - they have stands in a number of the greenmarkets- their sheep milk ricotta is good (although not as good as 3 Corner Field Farms))
Willing to make time to try NYC's BEST Southern Fried Chicken - But Where??!!
Charles Gabriel - aka CHARLES' Country Pan Fried Chicken in Harlem- does the fried chicken at Raxck and Soul- Boadway and 109th St on weekends-usually Fri and Sat.
I love the chicken at Red Rooster and Redhead, but for me, Charles is the absolute master of fried chicken..
If you go, call first to make sure he's cooking (when he's not , Rack and Soul's fried chicken is not special).
FYI- Shark Bar has been closed for some time .
-----
Rack & Soul
258 West 109th St., New York, NY 10025
The Redhead
349 E 13th St, New York, NY 10003
Red Rooster
310 Lenox Ave, New York, NY 10027
Early dinner near the Met with 4 kids, 4 adults! Please advise...
I don't know if you are aware of the fact that the Met is closed on Monday's.
Food shopping for a long flight!
Everything you mentioned, with the exception of the bread from Amy's are sweets. Unless the airline will be giving them some meals during the flight, I would certainly want something more substantial than just sweets on such a long trip.
As for the soups, I assume you mean stuff they could cook before they get on the plane. Are you thinking they could bring a container of it withthem and hope the flight attendant will heat it up for
them in the microwave- if not they'll be left with cold food.
Cured meats, including pastrami, are actually a good choice - they'll keep on a trip that long. The airlines don't usually have a problem bringing meat on the plane- it's customs in the country you land that might not let you bring it in. But as long as you eat it during the flight, you usually can bring anything you want.
I've brought everything from sandwiches and wraps to containers of all kids of prepared foods that are good cold, to pate, cheeses, cold Asian noodles.
Date Place on UWS
I wouldn't think of Nice Matin as a date place. Every time I've been it's been filled with families with baby strollers and it's always noisy.
herbal tea
Fairway on the Upper West Side has a wide selection of herbal teas (many different brands) upstairs with the health/organic foods. One of my favorites is Alvita brand, particularly their Spearmint. And the prices are very good.
-----
Fairway Market
2127 Broadway, New York, NY 10023
Kindly recommend somewhere in the vicinity of E. 14th and 2nd Ave for a post-procedure early dinner?
Ah yes- the Ukrainian restaurants that used to be down around Queen W- or Country Style up on Bloor for Hungarian food (still there). I lived in Toronto back then and worked at Queen and Spadina for a while -spent many lunch hours in those places.
Lentils du Puy (aka French green lentils)
I've been shopping there regularly for 6 years and it's been up there all that time. If you're looking for something specific and you're not sure if they have it, ask the guys who work up there- they really know what and where everything is.
Looking for Excellent Mid or Up Scale Mexican
I second your rec for Hell's Kitchen. You're right, it doesn't seem to get a lot of mention on this board. Very good food, attentive service. I've been there many times- ate there last only a few weeks ago and always leave very happy.
Dinner at Romera on Opening Night
HNY, clearly, I owe you an apology. I initially questioned the motive behind your original post. But after reading other reviews here and on other sites, your comments seem totally justified.
And I just looked at the menu cards from Romera - IMO some of most unbelievably pretentious nonsense I've ever read- if a restaurant ever handed me one of these cards, it would make me want to walk out before they put a single dish on the table!
-----
Romera
355 W 16th St, New York, NY 10011
Melba's or Amy Ruth's
On weekends- but only on weekends, Charles makes the fried chicken at Rack and Soul on W.109 right off Broadway. otherwise, I agree with sgordon that his place in Harlem is the go- to destination for fried chicken.
-----
Rack & Soul
258 West 109th St., New York, NY 10025
poor challah at silver moon bakery uws
I have to diagree.I love their challah, particularly the whole wheat - just slightly sweet and nutty..Since it's one of their best sellers, clearly many other people agree.
You said you got 3 types of challah, I only know about their plain (white) and whole wheat.What's the third one? was it a special loaf for the Jewish holidays?
-----
Silver Moon Bakery
2740 Broadway, New York, NY 10025
Lentils du Puy (aka French green lentils)
I just returned from the upper West side Fairway, where I bought 3 lbs of French (green) puy lentils. $2.99 lb upstairs in the bulk section. So if they had been out of them last week, they have them now.
-----
Fairway Market
2127 Broadway, New York, NY 10023
Dinner at Romera on Opening Night
If you read my post then you know I did not ask about the menu at Romera. Instead, I asked you to be more specific about what you ate - what was in the dishes. Why a dish didn't work. These kinds of negative reviews that don't get into the specifics, but instead are heavy on generic comments, like, the service was a disaster, not one course was memorable, faux gourmet, and that the place is a flop of historic propositions, are the kind of reviews that always makes me wonder if the writer really ate there and what their real agenda might be with these kinds of posts. Just saying.....
-----
Romera
355 W 16th St, New York, NY 10011
UWS - Best Places in 90's and 100's?
Calling the food at Mama Mexico simply terrible, is a compliment- it's actually beyond terrible - way beyond terrible.
That said:
rack and Soul's fried chicken is Great- but only go on weekends. That's because Charles Gabriel, the absolutle master of fried chicken in NY (of Charles Southern in Harlem) does the chicken on the weekend. Call first to make sure he's in the kitchen.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Sun Chan, a real neighborhood favorite. it's a Japanese yakatori place on B'way and 103. The yakatori is charcoal grilled (I'm particularly fond of the bacon wrapped enoki mushroom). They also make terrific Nagoya style chicken wings, great eel casseroles and some pretty good sushi. It's always filled with Japanese students from Columbia. Very reasonable.
Second recs for Indus Valley -very good Indian in any neighborhood, For cheap Mexican I prefer Tacqueria Y Fonda over Noche (very good tacos, not so good gucamole) - but know that it's a real hole in the wall) so if you're looking for something more comfortable Cascabel is a good choice.
Too bad you don't want to venture a bit further north. I think Community Food and Juice serves some of the best food in the neighborhood.
Love Silver Moon and Ansolute, but also keep in mind that the Garden of Eden on B'way and 107 has a great bread counter that gets bread and other baked goods from some of the best bakeries
in the city
-----
Rack & Soul
258 West 109th St., New York, NY 10025
Sun-Chan
2707 Broadway, New York, NY 10025
Mama Mexico
2672 Broadway, New York, NY 10025
Silver Moon Bakery
2740 Broadway, New York, NY 10025
Community Food & Juice
2893 Broadway, New York, NY 10025
Taqueria y Fonda La Mexicana
968 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10025
Absolute Bagels
2788 Broadway, New York, NY 10025
Indus Valley
2636 Broadway, New York, NY 10025
Garden of Eden
2780 Broadway, New York, NY 10025
Noche Mexicana
849 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10025
Cascabel
2799 Broadway, New York, NY 10025
WHERE, OH WHERE to order LISA'S GOURMET's fat-free brownie!
Even if you did find them, I'm just wondering why you would want to buy them for a diabetic. Even if they're fat free, they're still likely to be loaded with sugar. The only way to give fat free desserts any taste is to sweeten them up. Even if they use a sugar substitute like malitol - an alcohol sugar based substitute used in many sugar free sweets - diabetics still need to be very careful as this will raise blood sugars (but usually not as fast as sugar.)
Pork Chop
The best pork chop I've ever had in a NY restaurant was the pork chop at Babbo. An immense, meaty, flavorful, perfect piece of meat.Even though I'm not a huge fan of Babbo, whenever I crave pork I head down there.
-----
Babbo
110 Waverly Pl, New York, NY 10011
Scandinavian Grocery Store?
Your best bet is probably Nordic Delicacies on 3rd Ave and 70th Street in Bay Ridge in Brooklyn. They've been around for decades - the neighborhood used to have the largest Scandinavian population in the city and the sell a wide variety.of Nordic food.
I know you asked for Manhattan only places, but you can call in an order or use their website
Dinner at Romera on Opening Night
It would be really helpful if you could provide more specific information about what you ate and the service. Just saying that out of 10 courses, nothing was memorable, or that it was pretentious, does't tell us anything. Ten courses sounds like a lot of food. Was it small plates or amuse, appetizers, fish, meats-what? And can you describe some of the dishes in detail.
Will you rank delis for me?
IMO and that of many Chowhounders, the pastrami at Katz's is better than 2nd Ave Deli's pastrami. For me, it's the best in the city.I don't know if this is a reason why- but 2nd Ave Deli's meat is kosher, while Katz's is not.
-----
Katz's Delicatessen
205 E Houston St, New York, NY 10002
Second Avenue Deli
162 E 33rd St, New York, NY 10016
Sifton leaving [moved from Manhattan]
As a journalist, I'm far more appalled that he's going to be the NATIONAL EDITOR of the Times Although, as something of a foodie, I'd have to agree that he was not much of a restaurant critic, either.
Friend of a Farmer -- Wow, Seriously Awful Restaurant
I never un derstood the appeal of this place. IMO it was bad years ago, not surprised
to hear it still sucks.
ISO Armenian "pastrami", aka Basturma...
Garden of Eden stores carry it. I buy it at their store on Broadway and 107 - but most of their stores carry it all the time Not prepackaged - they slice it to order.
-----
Garden of Eden
7 E 14th St, New York, NY 10003
The Red Rooster - anybody been?
Love Red Rooster! I had a great dinner there last week. The food was terrific- definitely beter than 31/2 IMO- closer to 4.5.
I had the fried chicken with white gravy, which was moist, crunchy and flavorful. Although they say it's spicy I didn't find it particularly spicy. Also had the collards, which are pureed with kale and mustard greens and topped with frizzled onion -so yummy I could have eaten another order.. The cornbread ($4 for 2 large pieces) was among the best I've ever had. But the real star of the evening was the mac and cheese my friend ordered. Over the top delicious.
Although I've read some complaints about the service and the hostesses, my experience couldn't have been better..Not only was our server good but the hostess and the manager went out of their way to accomodate us. When I realized I couldn't sit in the chairs and needed a booth because of serious back problems, they sent someone downstairs to see if they had a more comfortable chair and when they couldn't find a different kind of chair they find us a booth (on a busy night) put us at the bar while they set up the table and bought us drinks.
The vibe in the room is great- we wound up getting into a conversation with the people next to us. Enjoyed it so much I booked a reservation for this week.
-----
Red Rooster
310 Lenox Ave, New York, NY 10027
