New Restaurants Added to The Village Voice Choice Eats

If you haven't bought your tickets to the Third Annual Village Voice Choice Eats let me give you eighteen additional reasons....

The Village Voice announced last week that the new additions to this year's Choice Eats line will include: DuMont, Patacon Pisao, El Almacen, Fatty Crab, Egg, Max, Madiba Restaurant, Luke's Lobster, Spicy Bampa aka Bamboo Pavilion, Rajbhog Sweets & Snacks, Ambiance Restaurant, Mercadito Restaurants, Pinche Taqueria, Smorgas Chef, The Vanderbilt, Baohaus, Mooncake Foods, and Hummus Place.

Need more reasons to go? Here is a sneak peak of some of the menu items being served:

Kuma Inn: Adobo & Atcharra: Pork Belly braised in soy, vinegar and garlic with pickled vegetables.

Purple Yam: Tocino (sugar-achuete cured pork) sliders in purple yam rolls with grated green mango. Chicken/Pork adobo skewers.

DuMont: Spring Chowder: cucumber-scented chowder with mussels, clams, and shrimp finished with an herb pistou.

Mercadito: Tacos de Camaron: Shrimp, roasted garlic, chipotle mojo, and avocado.

Ovelia Psistaria Bar: Kafteri: Spicy mashed feta spread, Ovelia Loukaniko: House made sausage, Skirt Steak in Greek coffe-based rub.

For those of you unfamiliar with the event, each of the participating restaurants has been hand picked by Village Voice resident food critics, Robert Sietsema and Sarah DiGregorio. Over 50+ restaurants spanning food from over 35 nations will be represented on Monday, March 22, 2010 at the 69th Armory on Lexington Avenue in New York City. Complimentary beer, wine, and cocktails will be available (so, sorry no kids allowed).

Still on the fence? Here's the full restaurant list of those confirmed so far:
Agnanti Restaurant, Ambiance Restaurant, Baohaus, Dirt Candy, DuMont, Egg, El Almacen, Fatty Crab, Fette Sau, Fort Defiance, Hummus Place, Kuma Inn, Luke's Lobster, Madiba Restaurant, Mama's Food Shop, Mantao Chinese Sandwiches, Max, Mercadito Restaurants, Mooncake Foods, Mumbai Xpress, Mustang Thakali Kitchen, Ovelia, Patacon Pisao, Pinche Taqueria, Porchetta, Purple Yam, Radegast Hall & Biergarten, Rajbhog Sweets & Snacks, Smorgas Chef, Spicy Bampa aka Bamboo Pavilion, The Sheep Station, The Vanderbilt, Tiffin Wallah, Toloache, Txikito, Xie Xie and Zuzu Ramen.

The early bird tickets already sold out and if last year is any indication, this event will sell out in advance.

For a sneak peek of all the deliciousness that awaits check out our coverage and photos from last year's event.

Date: Monday, March 22, 2010 5:30PM-9:30PM
Location: The 69th Armory
68 Lexington Avenue (btwn 25th and 26th Streets)
New York, NY 10010
Price: $45.00
Click for tickets.
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Everyone's in the Mood for Love

Oh it's Valentine's time all right, it's red and hearts everywhere, in every form. Including macarons. Didn't think you could make a heart-shaped macaron? I bet you also don't think you can make a cookie eclair. Chika Tillman wanted to, so she did.

Chika Tillman is quite possibly one of the best pastry chefs in New York, and her spots, Chikalicious Dessert Bar (the fancy one) and Dessert Club (the bakery) are high on my personal favorites list. The last few times I was around their way, I didn't have the chance to stop by, but recently an opportunity did arise and I was amply rewarded. First, they've begun making cookie eclairs. The 'cookie' aspect translates to a layer of crunchy choux pastry. I am not aware of how exactly this is achieved, but the result is perfect-a crunchy dessert eclair. Dessert Club is filling them to order with your choice of custard-I obviously went with chocolate. Silky custard filling, crunchy shell, covered in rich, dark chocolate. It's like if the most perfect chewy with crunchy circumference chocolate chip cookie decided it wanted to become an eclair, this is what it would be.

She's also branching out to macarons. I don't think I'd ever had one before, at least there is no photo evidence to such. I had to get one of the hearts, how could I not! It's adorable with its red flecks. The flavor is rose, and I didn't get to taste it. Instead I allowed a friend to try-sharing is caring-and he thought it was awesome.

I did take the strawberry all for myself, and these are some pretty impressive macarons. Smooth, flat, crunchy shells; moist, chewy interiors, and deliciously creamy filling. The strawberry taste came through, but wasn't overwhelming or chemically. Jackpot. I'll be back soon, especially to try the two new cupcake flavors I spied, strawberry and blueberry.

Dessert Club Chikalicious
204 East 10th Street by 2nd Avenue
(212) 475-0929
www.dessertclubchikalicious.com
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We're Midtown Lunching!

Blondie and I have been fans and readers of Zach Brooks' site Midtown Lunch for sometime. With Zach's recent move out to LA, Blondie and I are stepping in with regular Midtown Lunch contributors Danny of Food in Mouth and Mamacita to share more of our midtown lunching. Here's what we were up to last week...

Brownie tried the new 99 cent slice joint in K-Town, had a bagel fail, and flushed out her cold with some spicy Hakata Ramen from Menchanko-Tei.

Blondie discovered the Chocolate Raspberry Hearts from Tumbador at Joe in Grand Central and finally got over to Cer Te to try their Chubby Chinese Girl Sandwich.

To keep up on our Midtown adventures, check Midtown Lunch every day, hour, or 15 minutes. jump

Peanut Butter & Company's Valentine's Day Sweethearts' Snack

I'm all for inexpensive, non-traditional ways of celebrating Valentine's Day. If you don't have the dough to splurge for a fancy pants prix fixe, Peanut Butter & Co. has your back...

This Valentine's Day they are bringing back their special Sweethearts' Snack, a $35 per couple (plus tax and gratuity) prix fixe menu consisting of four heart-shaped sandwiches served with potato chips and carrot sticks, big glasses of fresh milk (plain or strawberry-flavored pink) with a heart-shaped straw for two. And for dessert? The PB & J Pretzel Sundae (vanilla ice cream, peanut butter pretzels, and raspberry sauce) and candy Conversation Hearts. After your meal you'll take home a jar of Peanut Butter & Co.'s peanut butter.

Aw, fun! Lawman and I have spent many a date at PB & Co. I'm a fan of their Elvis sandwich. And who doesn't love a swirly straw?

PB & Co. will be open from 11:00am until 9:00pm on Valentine's Day. This event's been really popular in the the past so reservations are suggested. You can guarantee seating by booking 45-minute time slots with a credit card.

Peanut Butter & Co.
240 Sullivan Street in NYC.
between Bleecker And West 3rd Streets
New York, NY 10012
FOR RESERVATIONS, CALL: (212) 677-3995
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Bake Your Own Treats for V-Day

I don't ask for much for Valentine's Day. No need to buy me over priced flowers or a super fancy dinner. Not that I don't like flowers or fancy dinner, but I can appreciate a more low key celebration. And of course nothing says lovin' like a little something something from the oven. Right now NY Cake and Bake is a Valentine's Day wonderland. If you're looking for some V-Day baking inspiration, I suggest taking a little trip to 22nd Street...

Heart shaped cookie cutters of all sizes? Check.
Flirty cupcake papers and decorative cupcake wrappers? Check and check.
Red, white and pink heart shaped sprinkles? Check, check, check.

I love cooking supply stores the same way that I love art supply stores--everywhere I look there's something tiat inspires me creatively. Last year I bought a special heart shaped pan from NY Cake and Bake for making mini chocolate Valentino cakes. I'm plotting a return trip for some V-Day goodies soon.

For those of you not in the city, you can shop NY Cake and Bake online--looks like they seriously revamped their website from the last time I visited. They even have a special Valentine's Day section.

NY Cake and Bake online
56 W 22nd St, between 5th and 6th Avenue
New York, NY 10010
(212) 675-2253
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Restaurant Week '10: 10 Downing

After last year's fantastic Restaurant Week lunch at Convivio, Spam and I decided to take the chance again, this time a dinner at 10 Downing. I know 10 Downing as more of a scene then for culinary genius, but it's Restaurant Week, the whole point is to try out new places.

I like the cliché interior of 10 Downing, a wall covered in art work, full length windows that open during the warmer months, romantic mood lighting, dark wood. It was packed, but not too noisy, and the service was stellar. Like most places, the RW $45 dinner gives you three course, three choices each. Someone forget to take a picture of the menu, so I'm going to work entirely off memory here. For our appetizer, Spam decided on Potato-Leek Soup with a dash of olive oil, while I went for the Bacon-Veal Terrine.

Yes, I disregarded the soup or salad option and went for the piggy-cow mash-up. I tried to eat this how the chef intended, but I did hit the deconstructed plate snag. Place the terrine on the bread with a schmear of the accompanying paté? Eat the terrine on its own? I decided to try the former, and enjoyed my little plate of meat. I'm an amateur when it comes to terrine, so I don't know if this one was good or not. It tasted deliciously of bacon and veal, and it was moist.

To share another appetizer, we chose to share the Mushroom Polenta Gratin and it was awesome. It was like high class cheesy grits, but polenta with wild mushrooms and Manchego. I think that this would make the ultimate Thanksgiving side dish, or appetizer for a Restaurant Week meal.

The entree choices consisted of Beef Short Ribs, Striped Bass, or Chicken. In need of iron (I donated blood last week) and in love with meat, I went from the short ribs. Tender to the point of flaky (great thing), very good seasoning, but a tad on the dry side, I would place these in the win column.

Spam, our newest vegetarian-that comes into play later, picked the Striped Bass. I'm currently working on my fish repertoire, but I would say this was a good example of well cooked striped bass. Flaky, meaty, and moist, it is also very recommended.

Our original dessert plans were the Butterscotch Pot de Creme and the Cocoa Nib Panna Cotta, but they were out of pots de creme (I still want to see what that's about), and were instead given the Spicy Gingerbread. First, the Cocoa Nib Panna Cotta was fantastic, extremely good dark chocolate sauce, creamy panna cotta, little fresh marshmallows and moist, fudgy brownies. I'd eat this every day if I could, and we didn't even get the real thing, just the sampler!

Then things got dicey. The spicy gingerbread was respectable, good cake right on the edge of fluffy and dense, candied ginger scattered on the plate underneath a sauce of some sort. I thought I tasted some porcine, meaty, bacon? Bacon and gingerbread? No, couldn't be, I've just had too much wine (speaking of, sorry for the blurs, very good wine). I went home, looked up the spicy gingerbread description and sure enough, bacon-brown butter vinaigrette. Sorry, Spam, next time I will ask when I think you may be eating bacon.

Worth the $45 Restaurant Week sampler menu? Yes, no smugness, pretty good amount of great food, and definitely makes me want to stop by for the real deal meal one day.

10 Downing
10 Downing St.
(212) 255-0300
www.10downingnyc.com jump

Oh, Canada! Oh, Canada Doughnuts!!

Without revealing WAY too much personal information, I had secret knowledge of Tim Horton's Canada doughnuts, and many chances to stare at a poster of them for numerous days. "It's a sweet, nasty tease. Only available in Canada! I'll get you one day, you maple leaf dusted delicious objects of deliciousness!"

Enter a co-worker having to make a one-day trip to Toronto for meetings. "Please, please, please, please, PLEEEEEAAASSEEEEEE bring me back some Canada doughnuts!! I'll do AAAAANYTHIIIING including cleaning up my work space! PROMISE!" Extensive bargaining occurred in the days up to this trip including an offer to borrow my mom's car to drive my co-worker to a Long Island home, in the middle of a school night. Finally, on the day of the trip, still unsure of whether I would be obtaining these Canadian goodies, one last email: "Gentle reminder: I love Canada. I love doughnuts. I love Canada doughnuts."

And you can guess what was waiting for me on my desk the next morning. Four plain Tim Horton's doughnuts, smuggled across the unprotected border, coated in white icing, covered with little red maple leaves. "They were fresh when we got them," which leads me to believe that at least one was eaten in their home country. Best doughnuts ever? No. Being able to eat something off the American Tim HoHo's menu? Priceless. And I still haven't cleaned my work space. Oops.

If you want to eat their American cousins, the Red, White, and Bloom, find your nearest Tim HoHo's location here. jump

Sampling the Bar Food at Automatic Slims

During my year living in the "far" West Village, I never managed to get to Automatic Slims, but I've heard it's a great neighborhood bar, so when Hagan of 93 Plates, invited me out for dinner there, I was game to give it a try...

Now as Blondie can attest, I'm not much of a drinker--I could nurse a margarita all night long, but lately I've been lately I've been laying off the sauce entirely because...I've got a little Brownie in the oven. Yup, Lawman and I having a baby. So, unfortunately this review won't be the most complete bar review, but Hagan did enjoy the scotch he had and as a regular Slims patron can vouch for a solid late night scene.

On to what I did have...

The Sesame Chicken Skewers were pretty salty and kind of dry. Definitely skippable.

The sauce on the Cilantro Lime Grilled Chicken was similarly salty, but the chicken itself was tender. The sauteed spinach that came with it was surprisingly good--you don't usually expect bars to prepare nicely sauteed veggies.

The BBQ shrimp with asparagus was my favorite part of the meal. The asparagus were grilled to perfection. The barbecue sauce was fresh and tangy--sweet but not too sweet. I would order this again.

Overall, Automatic Slims has a nice vibe. We were there at around 6:30pm on a Saturday night. The place was fairly empty, but by the time we finished dinner it was starting to fill with patrons.

My meal here was provided by Automatic Slims as part of Hagan's 93 Plates Project to raise awareness for the launch of the IRL Arts Foundation’s education and scholarship programs.


Automatic Slims
733 Washington St
New York, NY 10014
(212) 645-8660
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Lady Gaga Cupcakes!

In honor of the Grammys this Sunday night, may I present you with my tribute to Lady Gaga in cupcake form. Of course, I couldn't resist doing my interpretation of Lady Gaga's red lace number from the VMAs. I'd like to say that no cupcakes were harmed in the creation of her headdress and veil, but that wouldn't be true...

Why Lady Gaga? Well, why not? If I can do Liza Minnelli as a cupcake, surely Lady Gaga deserves to be one, too. Liza was all sparkly and Funfetti on the inside, but for Gaga, I knew that she'd need a different cake. Then it hit me. Red Velvet--edgy, unexpected yet widely popular.

She's a Fame Monster...

How could I do Lady Gaga cupcakes without some rockin eyewear...

And here are the many faces of Gaga...

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It's Almost Pancake Month at Clinton Street Baking Co!

I love pancakes. And I love having excuses to eat them for meals other than breakfast. And what better excuse than Clinton Street Baking Company's Pancake Month Celebration. As in years past the special pancakes will be served Monday thru Friday from 8am-4pm and 6pm-11pm. Here's what's on tap for this February...

Dates and Flavors:

Feb 1st, 2nd, 3rd: chocolate & blood orange pancakes w/candied orange glaze

Feb 4th, 5th: poached pears with vanilla bean whipped cream & warm maple butter

Feb 8th, 9th: fresh coconut pancakes with passion fruit syrup and bananas

Feb 10th, 11th: roasted apples with candied walnuts and warm maple caramel

Feb 12th, 15th: chocolate chunks, fresh raspberries, and raspberry-caramel sauce

Feb 16th, 17th: brown sugar pecans, bananas and cinnamon maple butter

Feb 18th, 19th, 22th: classic chocolate chunk

Feb 23th, 24th: fresh blackberries, pecan streusel, warm maple butter

Feb 25th, 26th: crunchy bananas with cinnamon-chili-chocolate sauce

And if you're not a fan of the particular pancake of the day, they do have their famous wild Maine blueberry or banana walnut, with warm maple butter pancakes on their everyday menu.

I'm wondering how the "chocolate & blood orange pancakes w/candied orange glaze" will compare with last year's "blood orange peel and bittersweet chocolate pancakes." I really enjoyed the decadent and delicious candied orange peel and chocolate combo last year. Clearly I'm going to have to do a little recon next week.

And speaking of February month long celebrations of deliciousness, The Feed Blog has an exclusive look at City Bakery's Annual Hot Chocolate Festival Calendar. Hello, Vietnamese Cinnamon Hot Chocolate!

Clinton St. Baking Co.
4 Clinton Street
Between East Houston & Stanton
New York, NY 10002
646-602-6263
Mon-Fri: 8am-4pm & 6pm-11pm
Sat: 10am-4pm, 6pm-11pm;
Sun: 10am-4pm
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Meanwhile, South of the Gowanus

They brought you Beer, Cheese, and Chocolate, but now they want Tacos!! The fourth installment of the Brooklyn Food Experiments is happening this very weekend, and to the winner goes the glory and a vacation! What, what!

From what Nick Suarez has told us, there are over 25 different tacos showing up with enough variations to keep everyone happy, along with your complimentary beer with ticket. After you've eaten all the tacos, indulge in free churros and hot chocolate from Cascabel Taqueria, or a Maker's Mark open bar. Holy queso. But the winner of this shindig is going to M.E.X.I.C.O. care of Aero Mexico. You can't beat that. The runner-up isn't making out so bad either with $150 cash money, a private tour of the Red Hook taco vendors with Mr. Cesar Fuentes, and lunch for 4 at the stands. To all the contestants, you need to bring it, for reals.

For more information, check out thefoodexperiments.com.

Tickets are $20 in advance (meaning buy now), or $25 at the door (if there are any left). Click here to buy tickets. As always, a portion of the sales go to support Ovarian Cancer Research.

The Bell House
149 7th Street
(718) 643-6510
www.thebellhouseny.com
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Hoedown, Hill Country, Haiti.

This doesn't need repeating, but it is horrible what has happened in Haiti. At the same time, it is heartwarming to see the amount of generosity these events have brought about. If you're free this upcoming Sunday evening, an evening of BBQ and Karaoke can be your way to show you care.

Hill Country has teamed up with Batey Relief Alliance to throw a Hoedown for Haiti. $35 gets you food, songs, an open bar, and maybe a wining raffle prize. Batey Relief Alliance is a humanitarian aid entity that works specifically in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the US with a focus on the Haitian diaspora. They've worked hard for years to bring sanitation, health care, and educational programs to those in need, doing enough good works that even President Clinton praises them. For more information on what your $35 donation can do, check out www.bateyrelief.org.

It's this Sunday, the 31st at 6:30pm, all you have to do it show up!

Hill Country
30 West 26th Street
(212) 255-4544
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Jelly Doughnut Perfection at Almondine in Park Slope

FACT: I'm not a huge jelly doughnut fan. The jelly doughnuts I grew up with were of the DD Munchkin variety--small powdered sugar covered numbers with a dollop of squishy, sugary fruit filling. Thanks, but no thanks. But when my friend and fellow jelly doughnut doubter, Erin, blogged about discovering the perfect jelly doughnut at Almondine Bakery, I knew I had to give jelly doughnuts another try...

Upon our first visit to Almondine in Park Slope Lawman and I learned two lessons...
1) fried faux pas alert: the staff does not refer to the jelly doughnuts as "doughnuts" they are raspberry beignets (visions of the cheesy classic Polaner All Fruit commercial)
2) you snooze, you lose out on beignets. They make them in the morning and when they are gone (usually within an hour) they are gone.

Our second visit just further confirmed lesson two. If you go in the afternoon there will not be beignets waiting for you.

On our third visit, this past Sunday morning at 11:30am, we were finally rewarded with a case full of beignets. Not wanting our beignet to be lonely, we decided to spring for pain au chocolat as well.

The beignet was utterly delicious. The dough itself was soft, airy and perfectly sweetened and the filling, oh the filling. The photo below is a little misleading because it looks like the beignet is only about half filled. In reality there were probably only about 2 bites that were mostly fillingless. I'm not sure how they managed to fit so much raspberry jam goodness in there, but I'm glad they did.

The pain au chocolat was a nice second breakfast treat. The pastry was light and flakey and they didn't skimp on the chocolate. I would definitely order both again (and soon!).

Almondine
442 9th St
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(718) 797-5026
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Reason #1 to Own a Cast Iron Skillet

To try to recreate the Nutella Skillet Cake/Torte/holy goodness Pichet Ong has brought to the table at his latest bakery, Village Tart. Whipping out his usual style of mixing savory with sweet, I focused on two of the sweet treats for my first visit. And I was rewarded two of the best treats I've had in a long, LONG time.

After the closing of Batch and P*Ong last spring, New York City had to wait two seasons before being able to enjoy Pichet Ong's desserts again. The first of the new bakeries came with the November opening of Spot, it appears to be a high-end dessert bar that I unfortunately have not visited (hatred of St. Marks Place.) The second was the weekend opening of Village Tart, another sit down or take-away bakery. The interior includes a glassed off cafe, a lot of dark wood, and a large pastry selection. I immediately spotted the Nutella Skillet Cake, mainly because it looked like a s'more cake and the sign said "Nutella."

Score and a half on this cake (or torte? My memory fails me.) The cake part is a dense moist chocolate cake, not too sweet though, think more cocoa than chocolate. On top of that is a layer of Nutella, sweet nectar of the gods, it slightly soaks into the top layer of the cake. Sealing in the delicious is the layer of marshmallow creme, silky and creamy. Chocolate, cake, hazelnuts, sweet cream, my newest favoritest dessert.

Though there were various other desserts to choose from, I felt like a cupcake, picking out the Stracciatella from the three available. The buttercream frosting was perfectly done, not too buttery, not too sweet, loaded with chocolate chunks. The cake was what makes this cupcake though. It's not a true vanilla cake, I tasted something else, something different. Buttermilk maybe? I kept thinking that it reminded me of corn bread and biscuits. Whatever it was, the cake was exceptionally moist and enjoyable.

I have a new favorite spot, hands down. And I haven't even tried any of the savories yet, and those pizzas looked scrumptious.

Village Tart
86 Kenmare Street
(212) 226-4980
www.villagetart.com jump

This Weekend Practice Random Acts of Pieness!

Saturday, January 23rd is National Pie Day. That's filled pastry dough "Pie Day" as opposed to the mathematical constant whose value is the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter in Euclidean space "Pi Day" which is of course celebrated on March 14th--why the math geeks and pastry freaks can't just combine their celebrations, I'll never know, but I never mind an excuse for good pie...

$5 seems like a bargain entrance fee for Third Annual Brooklyn Pie Contest to Benefit BK Farmyards and the event is free for competitors.

The event runs from 6:00 until 11:00pm at K&M Bar in Williamsburg. If you want to compete bring your pie at 5:30 and be sure to follow these rules:

a. Crust MUST be homemade.

b. Sorry, no pizza pies

c. Bring "a modestly sized place card with a description of the pie ONLY written on it"

Three local chefs will judge the competition and prizes will be awarded for BEST SWEET, BEST SAVORY and PEOPLE'S CHOICE.

You don't need to sign up to enter but it would help them to have an idea of how many pies will be competing. You can email BEEKEEPER@BROOKLYNHONEY.COM to sign up.

Best of all, funds raised from the event will go to BK Farmyards, an organization seeking to turn the vast amount of unused acreage in NYC into farmable land.

If I didn't already have plans for Saturday, I'd definitely enter. But come on back tomorrow for a round up of some of my favorite pie recipes and a brand new recipe for a tribute in pie form to the King. If you love peanut butter, bacon and bananas you don't want to miss out...


K & M
225 N. 8th St., Brooklyn, NY 11211
at Roebling St.
718-388-3088
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