Posts categorized as Reviews

My office is on Water Street in Manhattan. The building is currently uninhabitable so I have been working from our disaster recovery site. It’s essentially a warehouse with a bunch of desks, very different from my cubicle life at 55 Water. Some of the good things about our current setup is that I speak with people I normally wouldn’t have even met and I get to sit near some of my co-workers who are usually located on different floor but work on the same project as I do. One of [...]

To celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary, my husband Mike signed me up for a cooking class at Rustico in Manhattan. I thought for a second that he was dissatisfied with the food I have been serving him, until he explained why he got it for me. “I thought it would be something different,” he said. No longer offended, I checked out the site to see what class I’d choose. I selected a holiday cookie class. We would make 6 Italian style cookies in less than 3 hours – something I [...]

If you’re into beer and want to take a home brewing class, Bitters & Esters has a fantastic introduction class. Susanne and I went a month or so ago and we loved it. The class size is about 15 people, and each person gets to partake in the brewing process and all students pour and cap their own beer. There’s a lot of material to absorb but have no fear, you get a take-home booklet filled with all you need to know, including recipes.  Bitter & Esters co-owner John La Polla [...]

A few weeks back I was coming home from a meeting in the city. I was starving, had nothing in the fridge, and I noticed I was by Bravo Cafe. I’d always wanted to check this place out because I thought the sign outside looked cool, so I stopped in. The first thing I noticed was the festive Latin decoration and a beautiful skylight in the back room. It doesn’t really feel like a cafe, but it’s not exactly a restaurant either. I didn’t think much about what to order [...]

I don’t leave New York City very often, which is fine because this place seems to have nearly everything I need (food, dive bars, my mom’s kitchen.) But I had some unused vacation time, and I figured I could use a good road trip somewhere. So last month, dad and I made last-minute plans to visit Baltimore and Washington D.C with really one goal in mind: Eat lots of delicious food. We left early, a reminder of our old family trips down to Disney World when we’d head south in [...]

I consider myself a cook because I love to cook, as well as eat.  But I am not an adventurous cook, so when my husband Mike asked why I never made Gazpacho, my response was UGH.  I just do not like cold soup – it should be hot and comforting, not refreshing. But since I love my husband I went in search of the perfect recipe for Gazpacho in my many cookbooks. Now, the problem with recipes is that I often reject the ingredients suggested and substitute my own items.  I did [...]

Flo and myself had a wonderful time this past Saturday at The Onderdonk House Flea Market. We met a bunch of nice folks, sold some plants and people watched. Flo said she felt like it was 1965 again “the way these young people dress”. We also shopped – I purchased a bling cross necklace and a handmade dress by @Fashion_isGreat, beautiful note cards, and Flo picked up cobalt blue candle holders! The highlights for us, were of course food related. First off, Norma’s Cafe was there (!!), selling many sweet [...]

There’s much to say about Georgia’s customs relating to food and hospitality, but to start, I wanted to post specifically about the Georgian national dish – khachapuri (ხაჭაპური – khač’ap’uri) or cheese bread. Everywhere my friend Susanne and I ate in Georgia, there was cheese bread – at restaurants, take out stands and at our home stay lodging experiences. We must have eaten cheese bread at least once a day, for 7 days straight!  The cheese bread was “safe”.  We usually ordered something exotic, not really knowing what it was [...]

The Great American Cookoff A few weeks ago I battled Iris in the last Rusty Chef (not quite Iron) competition. We both prepared a Mexican meal — I made pork tacos and elote with a Mexican chili pudding, and Iris made a bunch of amazing food that beat out mine. Iris defeated our friend Mario in two other cookoffs, one French, the other Italian. Iris is the Rusty Chef Champ, which, as her former roommate, doesn’t surprise me. She’s diligent and loves dissecting recipes and approaches food preparation from a [...]

Joe’s  Restaurant (6611 Forest Ave, NY 11385) A quick “what you need to know”, overview.  Finally, generous portions of grating cheese on the table – giant tomato points for this (think tomatoes on steroids). Often at other Italian restaurants I come across this exchange… the waiter sprinkles the cheese on my meal, then the stare-down – yes, more cheese PLEASE. This interaction annoys me and makes me irritable. We all know how expensive grating cheese is, so cheese on the table is a sure sign business is doing well. In [...]