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My number 1 and 2 cupcake venues in Manhattan are:1 - Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery in the Lower East Side2 - Butter Lane Cupcakes in the East Village
What I like about Butter Lane is that you can mix and match from a variety of cakes and frosting to create your own oh-so-pretty cupcake. Pictured here are the chocolate cake with salted caramel and chocolate frosting, and vanilla cake with salted caramel frosting.
What I like even more about Sugar Sweet Sunshine is that the cakes are always moist and springy, and they're humble (and less pricey) than all the rest—like the cupcakes of my childhood bake sale days. Pictured here are the Sunshine (yellow cake with vanilla buttercream frosting) and the Strawberry (strawberry cake with cream cheese buttercream frosting).
NY Times food critic Sam Sifton writes, "The Dutch, ladies and gentleman, is my restaurant of the year." He's not the only one touting the Dutch's merits. NY magazine's food writer Adam Platt and food blog Eater NY second his endorsement as do a number of other food critics and bloggers. Of course, such overwhelming praise is going to make me sit up and take notice.But what clinched it for me—and made me call for brunch rezzies as soon as I knew I was visiting NYC—was foodie friend KG's rave review of the place as well as the fact that former cook pal and current sous chef to Daniel Humm (of Eleven Madison Park fame) MK had agreed to join us. Having worked at Locanda Verde for chef Andrew Carmellini, who also helms the Dutch, I was pretty sure her presence would ensure us a good experience.
I had no idea of course that her roommate was working the pass as The Dutch's expediting sous chef. And that she was going to send out equally as many dishes—compliments of the chef—as we'd ordered. No complaints though. We loved everything that hit the table, including Kierin's pastry board made up of a blueberry buckwheat muffin, apple-cheddar scone, and my fave the light and airy, still warm out of the fryer, sugar-dusted donuts.
Also amazing was the fluffy stack of buttery almond French toast accompanied by sweet, rum-soaked slices of bananas foster.
My order of fried eggs with creamy smooth hominy grits, crumbled chorizo and salsa verde was probably the most modestly sized plate at brunch. A good thing too, since wave upon wave of food kept streaming out of the kitchen, and I was happy to make room for a little bit of everything.
"How's the fried chicken?" I asked MK. "Slammin'," she replied without hesitation. She was right. That hefty platter carried probably the best crispified and juicy chicken parts I've ever had the pleasure of mauling. The butter-honey biscuits were pretty tasty too, though I will say I've had better, softer, flakier biscuits from other purveyors (the biscuits at Brenda's French Soul Food, for example).
“Of all the great pie bakers in New York City, the current champion is probably a young woman named Kierin Baldwin, who runs the pastry department at The Dutch ... ,” writes Sam Sifton. Here, here.
Yay pie, and yay MK and The Dutch.
Last Friday's food truck hailed from Hapa SF, which makes Filipino food using organic ingredients. I'd heard good things, and since it was parked right next to our office, I of course had to give it a try. 
The vegetarian pancit—rice stick noodles sauteed with an assortment of vegetables and doused in soy sauce—was fairly unremarkable. But the crispy lumpia—classic Filipino spring rolls filled with ground pork and vegetables—were delicious. Served up with a side of fish sauce as well as a kind of pineapple chutney, the little nuggets were extra crispy and flakey on the outside, super moist and flavorful on the inside. Made me think of when my queen-of-deep-frying mom learned how to make this tasty snack from her Filipino co-workers back when we were kids. Lumpia was a treat we always looked forward to. I mean, what's not to love, right?
This is a winning combination if there ever was one:Really good beer (one hefeweizen, another pils in 1 liter steins)+2 juicy bratwursts,
1 uber fresh, doughy pretzel,
a heaping mound of sauerkraut, plus plenty of horseradish and mustard
Oh, and prime seating at one of the many picnic tables dotting the Biergarten because CD and I had queued up just 7 minutes after the doors opened—or gates as it were. Winter hours are from 2 to 8 pm on the weekends. We hung out in the Biergarten til well past 5, the weather was so lovely—downright summery in fact.
The only tiny criticism: the sauerkraut could've done with a bit more pop by way of a good dousing of vinegar. Otherwise, what a fab way to wile away a weekend afternoon, catching up with a good friend and enjoying the ebb and flow of the happy folks surrounding us.
When I'm feeling under the weather, I can't think of anything better than inhaling a piping hot bowl of pork tonkotsu ramen. This here noodle dish is from Nombe in the Mission. The milky broth was ever so hearty and heartwarming. And I swear it nipped my cold in the bud. Or I'd like to think so anyway.
Commonwealth, "a progressive American restaurant in San Francisco's Mission district," does a fine job with its chef's tasting menu. Lonely Planet pal AB and I met there a few weeks ago per her glowing recommendation. The line-up was not only pleasing to the eye, but to the palate as well—for the most part anyway.
It started with an amuse bouche of the crunchy granola persuasion, comprising thin slivers of raw maitake mushroom drizzled with honey, laying atop a sprinkle of pine nuts. Presented to us on rough-hewn slate slabs, the au naturel opener was less to AB's liking than mine—we both agreed it had a true forage feel to it, like we were taking a trek in the woods.
The foie gras bon bons served with half-rounds of quince, tonka bean and Szechuan peppercorn were a step up from the mushrooms, though I'd have preferred the foie gras less chilled and sans chocolate. The strong, bittersweet flavor of dark chocolate seems better off saved for the end of the meal vs. introduced in the beginning.
Commonwealth's standout dish was the crispety-crunchety deep-fried Jerusalem artichokes, sharp and yet sweet onions cooked in hay, tiny soft-boiled quail egg, sprinkling of chickweed and radicchio leaves, resting on a beautiful bed of quinoa.
I'm not going to say no to a good scallop, and these were seared oh so well. Though scallops seem to be on every hot SF restaurant menu, this dish was made unique in its accompaniments: vadouvan (aka Indian spice blend), pumpkin puree, black rice, nasturtium (both the flowers and leaves), and a nettle emulsion.
I appreciated that my moist and tender quail came out as tiny medallions—much easier to pop in my mouth than to work on a little carcass of a bird with fork and knife. It came with crispy curls of parsnip, bitter chicories, fig leaf, vanilla and a beurre rouge (or red butter sauce).
And the finale: chocolate played a part, and rightly so. This peanut butter semifreddo with chocolate ganache outer shell and sprinkling of frozen popcorn was essentially a fancy PB&Choco candy bar. Thumbs up, we say.
YH and I popped into Blue Plate one weekend last month with the hope that the always hoppin' outer Mission eatery might be able to take us sans rezzies. Success. The hostess squeezed us in between two seatings with the stipulation that we'd need to hightail it in an hour and change. We were happy to oblige.
What you see here: a big block of creamy chicken liver pate with a drizzle of pomegranate and aperol, honey, pistachios, caramelized cocoa and grilled bread to spread the lovely goodness on.We had a few other Blue Plate specials as well—including the soft and springy grilled Monterey Bay squid with chickpeas, blackened eggplant, pimenton and sorrel. We rolled out of there and on to our next party super happy and beyond satisfied.
I'm happy to report that Bernal Heights has got another great restaurant to brag about (the other one being Blue Plate, and Front Porch is pretty good too). JA and I dropped in to not-quite-year-old Locavore last weekend and loved the freshness of the food, the showcasing of the SF Bay Area's seasonal ingredients, and the super friendly service.
Among other things, we had the fish croquettes, which were blistering hot and deep-fried to perfection. (My queen-of-the-deep-fryer mom would've been proud.) They sat atop a mellow sauce of roasted garlic aioli, along with tangy pickled onion slivers, and sharp shoots of cilantro and watercress.
My crumbly beef meatballs were well-seasoned, the whole wheat noodles al dente. The dish came in a savory beef broth, accompanied by wilted spinach, vella cheese and sweet roasted onion. It was exactly the kind of rich, comforting food I wanted on a blustery winter night.
I'm pretty damn picky about my empanadas, having been spoiled by the stellar quality of the empanadas at old haunt Caracas in NY's East Village. So imagine my delight when I cut into my perfectly crispy-on-the-outside, molten-and-moist-on-the-inside empanada de tamalito verde at La Mar Cebicheria on the Embarcadero not so long ago.
Filled with sweet corn, cilantro and queso fresco, and served with a salsa criolla (or onion relish) and an uber-spicy Huancaina Rocoto (queso fresco and red pepper) sauce, this dainty hot pocket was everything I'd hoped it would be. Compare this with the limp and lifeless empanada I had at Tacolicious the next day, and it absolutely roared with flavor and contrasting textures. Yes, of course empanadas hailing from Venezuela, Peru and Mexico are different. But this I know: Sad and soggy they should definitely not be.
New York pal DY was in town and coming down with a cold, so I took him to newly opened Tacolicious in the Mission to get him a piping hot bowl of posole. Typically, these spicy Mexican soups are made with chicken, but the Tacolicious version had shredded pork swimming in a chile pasilla-tomato broth, accompanied by chunks of avocado, cotija cheese, crispy tortilla, cilantro and other herbs to add to the mix.
We of course had to try a bunch of tacos, it being Tacolicious. DY's fave was the Guajillo-braised beef short rib, while mine was the fried local rock cod with shredded cabbage and tangy crema as well as the taco of the week: the uber-rich and savory braised lamb in adobo sauce. Heck, they were all really tasty, stuffed generously as they were with deliciously tender meat. The chicken in mole sauce could've done with a touch more seasoning. But all in all, I enjoyed my meal, enhanced as it was by the "pasion"—a habanero-infused tequila margarita flavored with passionfruit and a good squeeze or two of lime.
The Bacon Bacon food truck parked by our office one Friday not too long ago, thanks to our executive assistant whose got a penchant for good eats and arranges these foodie Fridays for the office. Having heard how tasty Bacon Bacon's pork-laden fare is, I hightailed it to the truck well before noon in hopes of beating the lunch rush.
Ahhh, the line was already 20 deep, but no matter. My meal was well worth the wait. The slightly sweetened sloppy sloppy joe, spiced up with sriracha and dressed with plenty of bacon, was a gut-buster-and-a-half. And man, was it delicious.
