The Pretzel Croissant

I was reading the food section of my New York magazine a few weeks ago and they had a feature about unique pretzel products in the city. One caught my eye in particular—the pretzel croissant from The City Bakery. Apparently, this croissant has such a following that it even has its own website. Its own website? I had to try it for myself.

So one Sunday afternoon after running my errands for the day I treated myself to one of these famous croissants, and it was certainly divine. As you would expect from a croissant, it was rich and buttery. The croissant was very fresh (even still warm from the oven) filled with doughy layers inside with lots of flakiness outside. The pretzel aspect added such a nice salty compliment to the buttery flavor, and the toasted sesame seeds added an extra texture and flavor. I am definitely a fan of this croissant and have actually already been back to have another one!

So if you find yourself in the Union Square area, I recommend you stopping by The City Bakery for this special treat. (They also have locations in California.)

The City Bakery
3 West 18th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues)
(212) 366-1414

Boqueria - New York, NY

While watching Colameco’s Food Show this past weekend, the host took us (you know, me and the other viewers) to one of his favorite Spanish tapas bars in New York—Boqueria. If you are not familiar with the TV show, the host is extremely knowledgeable about food and is refreshingly not the least bit pretentious about it. Therefore, when he makes a strong recommendation for a restaurant, I know it will be excellent.

I went to Barcelona, Spain once a couple years ago for my friends’ wedding and during this trip really fell in love with the city (you may recall the series of Spanish posts that followed). I loved the laid back culture, and the food was so fun and creative. Therefore, I am always looking for great Spanish tapas places in the city where I can relax with a glass of red wine and graze on a wide selection of small dishes. When a friend wanted to meet up the other night, I was quick to use this as an opportunity to try out Boqueria.


Boqueria is named after an area in Barcelona that is known for hosting many of the cities tapas bars. The restaurant serves mainly Catalonian and Basque dishes, but other Spanish regions are also represented. Boqueria was opened by Suba owner Yann de Rochefort and Chef/Partner Seamus Mullen.

I arrived a bit early so I ordered a glass of wine and settled at the only open spot at the bar—conveniently right where the starter dishes are arranged. As I leisurely sipped on my wine, the guy in charge of the platters kindly explained to me all the various cheeses, meats, and condiments. (FYI, being seen taking food pictures at a restaurant does always help get better service.) I was in heaven.

My friend soon arrived so we moved onto our table. True to my memories of dining in Barcelona, the waitress made of point of letting us know we could take our time and followed through on her promise by allowing us to just catch up for a little while before even looking at the menu. I really love restaurants that recognize the dining experience is not always just about the food.

When we finally moved onto the menu, we learned that it consists of a wide selection of dishes that are served everyday and also includes a list of specials. In addition to this, they have a chalk board that lists the dishes the chef came up with on a whim for the day (I suppose you could call these the specials of the specials?). We selected about five dishes, mostly from the everyday dishes. My favorites were the Datiles Con Béicon (dates stuffed with almonds and valdeón, wrapped in bacon) and the Pintxos Morunos (seared lamb marinated in lemon and cumin, salsa verde), but honestly all the dishes were great. (Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of these since the dining area was a bit dark.)

So if you are in the mood for some Spanish tapas, I definitely recommend Boqueria!

Boqueria

53 W 19th St (between 5th & 6th Ave)
Phone: 212-255-4160

Can Ganassa – Barcelona, Spain

While in Barcelona, I spent much of my time either in the Barri Gotic area or on the beach. However, on one adventurous day my friend Tina and I walked around Barceloneta, which is the port area just south of Port Olimpica.

Barcelona is known for having great seafood, and within the city Barceloneta is the place to be. This area is packed with restaurants and tapas bars offering a wide range of seafood.

My Rough Guides book suggested eating at Can Ganassa. This unassuming restaurant is located in a little square just off of Passeig De Borbo (the street that runs along the south side of the port area). Walking up to it, I felt a little hesitant because the exterior reminded more of a bar-b-que restaurant that I would find in Alabama rather than a Spanish eatery. However, we were pushed for time (we had to watch England play Paraguay in the World Cup!) so we went with it.

Can Ganassa is a casual restaurant that offers a wide selection of tapas, as well as, entrée dishes. Also like most other Spanish restaurants, it also offers a menu del dia (“menu of the day” which affords you a three course meal for a very reasonable price). On this occasion, Tina and I opted for a selection of tapas.

We asked the waiter for his recommendations, and as a result we ended up ordering everything he suggested. We received baby octopus in tomato sauce, fried calamari, grilled green peppers with sea salt, and fried potatoes with cream sauce.

The baby octopus in the tomato sauce was me and Tina’s favorite. The tomato sauce was very flavorful having been simmered with garlic, capers, and anchovies. Now, the idea of baby octopus may be a bit weird for some of you, but it tastes just like squid. Also, the tentacles held the sauce really well so that every bite included that fabulous flavor.

The fried calamari was similar to what I find here in New York, but the pieces were gigantic. Tina and I were also interested to see that the fried calamari was not served with marinara sauce like what you find in the States. (I am soooo sorry for the black and white photos, my camera switched to this setting without me realizing it).

I must admit that I was not excited for the grilled green peppers, but this dish ended up being really good! The peppers were grilled and marinated in olive oil, then topped off with sea salt. Remember my post about Salt? This dish was a great example of when to use the chunkier sea salt. Each bite included a few granules of this salt, which afforded a nice, bold salt flavor to compliment the subtler taste of the pepper.

Lastly, we had the fried potatoes that were served with a crème sauce that I believe was seasoned with paprika. As simple as this dish was, it was a nice accompaniment to the other dishes.

Tina and I both agreed that Can Ganassa was an excellent stop for lunch. The dishes were fabulous and, although there were a few tourists, the crowd was primarily local—always a good sign.

Enjoy!

Can Ganassa, Pl. de Barceloneta 4-6, Phone: 932 216 739

Mamacafe – Barcelona, Spain

Hola! I recently returned from a fabulous trip to Barcelona, Spain. If you have not already been there, I definitely recommend that you visit it. The city is absolutely beautiful, and to make it even better, Barcelona sits right on the Mediterranean Sea so you can hang out at the beach as well.

The first half of my trip I was on my own. So what does a girl do when on her own in a city like Barcelona? Treat myself to a lovely meal at a place where I can just linger for hours.

For this part of the trip, I was staying on Las Ramblas, so I wanted a restaurant that was located in the Barri Gotic or El Raval areas (the neighborhoods just east and west of this main street). My handy-dandy Rough Guides book (I never travel without one of these) suggested the restaurant, Mamacafe; which was conveniently located a few blocks west of my hotel.

Before I start talking about the restaurant, let me explain a couple things. In Spain they eat dinner late—very late. Typically, restaurants serve food 1-4pm and 8-11pm. Although the restaurants begin serving food at 8pm, most Spaniards do not begin filling up the places until at least 9pm. Well, this time schedule was not going to work for Kristin who was quite hungry from her arduous day of meandering the alleys of the Barri Gotic and sunbathing at the beach while sipping sangria. It was tough.

In between these meal times, tapas is the main choice for food. Not so bad. The tapas is just like what you see here in New York, and I assume everywhere else as well. For those of you not familiar with tapas, it is basically little dishes to nibble on. The idea is that you order a selection of tapas dishes to make a complete meal or order a single dish to snack on.

I found that in Spain, the tapas tends to be more of a bar thing, but not a grubby bar thing. I would walk around and pass by nice looking wine bars/cafes that had tapas sitting along the bar counter. It is a lovely way to have a nibble. According to my guide book, and also from what I found walking around, the best tapas bars are in the southern most part of the Barri Gotic, near the port area (but be careful because this area can be a bit sketchy as night).

Evidently each tapas bar has their specialties and the remaining items can sometimes lack in quality. Therefore, the locals tend to go from tapas bar to tapas bar to nibble on the bar’s specialty along with a drink. Things could be worse.

Another interesting note about the Spanish way of dining is that at lunchtime the cafes have the menu del dia option. This is basically a three course menu for a very reasonable price. The menu del dia’s I looked at were typically only about 8 Euros, and these were in the tourist areas. Overall, I found that the food and drinks were very reasonably priced even given the exchange rate (1 Euro = $1.28).

Okay, back to Mamacafe. So like the rest of Spain, Mamacafe did not begin serving their dinner menu until 8pm. I arrived around 6:30-7pm. Although Mamacafe is not a tapas bar, like many other restaurants, they serve a few tapas dishes in between meals. So I sat down at the best table in the house and ordered their specialty tapas dish along with a glass of wine. Here I just lingered enjoying my dish while reading a book.

Their specialty tapas dish is Crunchy Ravioli with Brie and Candied Onion (3.50 Euros). Wow, this was good. The ravioli pastry is made from filo dough, hence the crunchy aspect. As the name suggests, the filo dough is stuffed with brie cheese and caramelized onion. The ravioli is then served along with some tomato puree and very fresh pesto. All together these flavors and textures were excellent. I was in total awe.



Finally 8pm rolled around and the waitress handed out the dinner menus to me and the other American couple who were also not used to eating so late. As I decided upon my evening’s dishes, the waitress brought over some hummus served with toasted baguette slices. The hummus was served traditionally with some olive oil drizzled over it along with a little sprinkle of smoky paprika. I was very pleased with this complimentary dish.



For my appetizer I ordered an Eggplant with Roasted Red Pepper and Candied Onion dish. Again, this dish was really good. On top of the pepper was some sort of a mellow cheese (it reminded me of the cheese you traditionally find in Mexico served on dishes) and vegetable gravy. What really made it so great is the freshness of the ingredients, which is what I had read makes this restaurant so good.

My entrée was a tuna steak with an apple and mango chutney. Drizzled on top was a little soy sauce to add a nice contrast to the sweetness of the chutney. This was not my favorite of the dishes (the ravioli would be my favorite), but I appreciated the combination of the flavors. Also, each of the ingredients were just so fresh.

As for the atmosphere, it is a bit funky-casual. I liked it because it has a nice trendy feel but without an ounce of pretension. The wait staff were all super friendly to this American and never made me feel rushed. They welcome the fact that I was stationing myself at their restaurant for a few hours to relax, read, and treat myself to a nice dinner.

I was also very pleased with the price. Including my tapas dish, complimentary hummus, appetizer, entree, and two glasses of wine, my bill was 33 Euros. Also, in Spain tips tend to be only 5% so that only added about 1.50 Euros to the bill. I was very pleased.

As you can see, I loved this restaurant and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is in Barcelona. Note though that Mamacafe does not serve traditional Spanish food, so do not go here if that is what you are looking for. However, if you want just a really good dinner made with super fresh ingredients, then you should try this restaurant.

Mamacafe, c/del Dr Joaquim Dou 10, 933 012 940

Inoteca - New York, NY

Yesterday my friend Julia called me to go to brunch and insisted that we must go somewhere that we could sit outside (it was New York’s first Spring-like day that actually fell on a weekend). A friend of hers had highly recommended Inoteca so that is what we decided on.

Inoteca is an Italian cafe located in the up and coming Lower East Village on the corner of Rivington and Ludlow Streets. Although the outside seating is limited to the sidewalk, the windows span the façade and open wide allowing those sitting inside the feel of being outside.

We arrived at 2:30 and were told we had a half hour wait—not too bad for a popular place during Sunday brunch time. We were then seated at one of the coveted outside tables, which made Julia especially happy! Our waiter soon greeted us and handed us an array of menus. No kidding, we each had a regular menu plus menus for brunch, wines, and cheeses! We narrowed our search to the brunch menu.

The brunch menu was all in Italian, but rather than being annoyed, I actually liked this aspect. Most items were close enough to the American spelling that I was able to figure them out, and our waiter was very knowledgeable and explained the remaining items. Now, I am by no means an expert of Italian food, but I was definitely under the impression that the menu was quite authentic.

Rather than serve the normal omelets and waffles you find at other cafes for brunch, even if they are Italian, Inoteca’s menu is not at all conventional. The brunch menu included a selection of panini sandwiches such as mortadella and egg ($7), pancetta with fontina cheese and egg ($7), culatello with mozzarella and noci ($9), and basil pesto with egg ($7). It also offered egg porchetta ($10), which is what Julia and I both ordered.
I learned from this meal that porchetta is a roast suckling pork that is stuff with seasonings. This dish served the porchetta on top of a very, very thin slice of toast with a poached egg on top. I really enjoyed it, especially since it is a bit different from the ordinary eggs. With my meal, I also had a freshly squeezed blood orange juice and a latte—both were great.

Julia and I were enjoying our table so much that we wanted to extend our stay by ordering a dessert. I ordered the affogato ($5). This was a glass filled with vanilla gelato topped with a shot of espresso. Just as the waitress explained, it was so simple yet sooo good.

Julia ordered the biscotti with passito. Did you know that traditionally biscotti is actually meant to be dipped in wine? Passito is a sweet wine that biscotti goes with very nicely. I didn’t have a taste of the wine, but I did have a taste of the biscotti, which was very tasty and freshly baked.
Overall, the food was fun and different and also just good. Furthermore, I loved the atmosphere as it reminded me of being in Italy leisurely hanging out at the cafés for hours with out being rushed out. Julia and I took our time and the waiter not once made us feel guilty for doing so.

Since I have been feeling sick, I was not in the mood to drink, but this would be a fabulous place to end your meal with a glass of wine and take advantage of Inoteca’s extensive cheese list. Their wine list was extensive but not overwhelming, and I was very impressed by the variety of cheeses. I can not wait to come back here to take advantage of them!

Oh the luxury of hanging out at an Italian café for the afternoon enjoying a friend’s company while sipping on wine and tasting fabulous cheeses—seriously, can it get any better than that?

La Palette - New York, NY

I love living in New York City for a number of reasons, and one of those reasons is the weekly ritual of meeting friends for brunch on the weekends. That is just what New Yorkers do.

This past weekend I met up with friends at La Palette in the West Village (94 Greenwich Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets). This is the type of café that you walk into and already love before you even order. The atmosphere is very quaint with seating for only about 24 people. In the warmer weather, they also have an outdoor patio area to dine in. I have yet to see this area, but you can count on me visiting it this summer!

This café serves French and Brazilian dishes with a focus on crepes. They are also evidently known for their burgers, but since my friends and I love the crepes so much, we have yet to try the burgers.

I ordered the Saumon Fume ($12.95), which is a crepe filled with smoked salmon, swiss cheese, scrambled egg and scallions. The first time I tried this, the smoked salmon was miraculously remained in its original smoked state and did not cook through in the frying process. This past weekend, however, the salmon was fully cooked. It was still good, but I missed the previously crepe I had tasted.

Gemma ordered the Poulet et Pesto crepe ($11.95). This crepe was filled with grilled chicken breast with a creamy pesto sauce. I did not taste Gemma’s crepe, but she loved it and it did look great.

I think the real winner of the crepes was the Pissaladiere ($11.95) that Carrie and Alison ordered. This is filled with goat cheese (how can you go wrong with goat cheese???), roasted onions, kalamata olives, fresh basil and roasted tomatoes. It was fabulous! The kalamata olives provided such a nice burst of flavor with the subtle, creamy taste of the goat cheese. Combined with the onions, basil and tomatoes; it made for a really nice rounded flavor. The next time I go to La Palette I am definitely ordering this crepe.

La Palette also has a second location in Soho at 50 MacDougal Street (Between Houston and Prince). I have not eaten at this location, but I am under the impression that it is the same experience as offered by their West Village location.

Whether you prefer Soho or the West Village, I do definitely recommend trying out this little gem of a café.

English is Italian - New York, NY

On Tuesday night, four of us headed to English Is Italian located in Midtown (622 Third Ave., at 40th St). The chef there is Todd English who also has Olive’s in the W Hotel. English is Italian opened this past year so I was really looking forward to trying it out.

As always, my paranoia made me early so the host directed me to the bar for a drink while I waited for my friends. The walk there is quite impressive. Unlike pretty much every other restaurant in New York, English is Italian is very large and open. I actually felt like I could have been in suburbia though the atmosphere is still very New York. The bar itself sits on a high-up porch that overlooks the main dining area. It has your normal bar but also has many lounge areas to relax in. For a Tuesday night, there was just the right amount of people to create a nice but fun atmosphere for after work drinks.

My disappointment came when I opened the drinks menu. The cheapest glass of red wine was $10! Now I can appreciate the bar wanting to serve only good wines, but I believe you can find good wines at all price ranges and they should have been able to offer something at $7 or $8. This is an Italian restaurant after all! At these prices I opted for a vodka martini ($11)—might as well get more bang for my buck!

My friends then arrived and we moved onto the dining area. Just as the room is so large, so are all the tables, plates, etc. I felt like Goldie Locks sitting at Pappa Bear’s table! We laughed when we realized the “charger” plates on the table were actually our plates to eat on! But I thought that aspect was fun. It was fun being Goldie Locks.

So the way English is Italian works, you do not order your own dishes. Instead, the table as a whole orders either the two course meal ($34/person) or three course meal ($39/person) and the waiters just start bringing on the food. All dishes are family style, and you get about 3-4 items per course. We chose the three course meal and it was a tremendous amount of food!

Now I am horrible with understanding accents so I did not catch all the items, but here is my best try:

Appetizer
Blah Blah Rice & Cheese Balls
Blah Blah Lamb Chops
Chicken Patee, Blah Blah, and Hummus Dips with Bread

Pasta
Fettuccini Alfredo with Mushrooms
Ravioli Stuffed with Sweet Potato
Risotto with Blah Blah and Squid

Entrée
Lamb Shank with Blah Blah and Blah Blah (something spicy and something squashy)
Salmon with Blah Blah
40 Garlic Chicken

The dishes were hit or miss. The Blah Blah Lamb Chops were all fat—or at least my piece was. The Fettuccini Alfredo with Mushrooms was ordinary. And I liked the 40 Garlic Chicken, but it tasted just like what I make at home with out much effort. On the upside, I LOVED the Risotto with Blah Blah and Squid. The “Blah Blah” was something green—an herb—and the dish was just sooo good. I also loved being able to taste a wide variety of dishes. Overall, we ate about 10 dishes.

My synopsis? I liked English is Italian but I did think it was overpriced. Including a bottle of wine, the price-fix meal, tax and tip, it came out to $62/person. Add on our pre-dinner drinks and it was $74/person. Especially for a week night, I was a bit flabbergasted by this! If I pay that much for dinner, I want something more in the quality. Although I loved trying out so many different dishes, 75% of them were not fabulous enough on their own.

I do think this is a good restaurant to take clients to when on an expense account (then who cares how overpriced it is?). And I would consider going back to the bar for after work drinks. I thought it was tacky how expensive their wines by the glass were, but I did like the atmosphere. Unfortunately, there just are not many good non-touristy bar/lounges in mid-town so I might be willing to pay a couple extra bucks for that aspect. I also think their bar is a good option for a first date—they even serve some food so you can eat up if your first date gitters are making you drink too much wine!

Tio Pepe Restaurant, New York, NY

Last night I met up with a couple friends at Tio Pepe, a Mexican/Spanish restaurant located in the West Village on West 4th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues). For those of you who do not know the area, this is one of the more popular streets in the village filled with students and funky people. Think fun little gadget and card shops nestled between crazy sex shops like the Pink Pussy Cat Boutique and the Birthday Suit.

Tio Pepe’s restaurant facade is all floor to ceiling windows that allow the festive atmosphere of the street to enter into the restaurant. I would have expected more people in the restaurant to further add to this festive feeling, but I’d say only about a third of the tables were filled on this Wednesday night. But nonetheless, we had West 4th Street to dine with us so we didn’t really pay attention to the rest of the restaurant (we were also sitting right next to the windows).

Before we ordered our food, we of course ordered some drinks—it is a Mexican/Spanish restaurant after all! I was pleased to hear that they serve pitchers (some places I’ve found do not in order to make more money on the individual glasses), but we each wanted something different so we did not opt for this option.

I ordered sangria, and Nicky and Anthony both ordered frozen strawberry margaritas. I liked my sangria. It was a red wine based drink, but they also had the option of white wine sangria. Nicky and Anthony’s drinks were both frozen and you could see that the icy slush came from a machine and not a blender. The restaurant then just adds syrup to make the drink. Personally I like my frozen margaritas made freshly, so I didn’t feel left out for not ordering this.

Not feeling terribly hungry, the three of us each only ordered an entrée. I had their Camarones al Diablo dish ($17) dish, which is shrimp sautéed with garlic in hot spicy criolla sauce. As expected, the shrimp was not large, but does size really matter? Not in this case but perhaps it was trying to compensate nonetheless because the sauce was very spicy—almost too spicy and I can handle hot spices very well. Unfortunately, because of the heat I had a hard time tasting the actual flavors. To be fair though, the dish came with rice that I did not eat. So it is possible that if I had eaten the two together the rice would have mellowed the heat and helped the distinctive flavors come out.

Anthony ordered the chicken fajitas ($15) and they were your basic fajitas. He liked them but did point out the chicken pieces were too big. The strips were each about four inches long and about an inch in diameter! I suppose that can show you that the meat is decent meat, probably breast meat, but it made it harder for him to eat. He ended up cutting all the pieces into smaller strips.

Nicky had a chicken enchilada ($12), and again it was just your basic enchilada but she loved it. Since I have only hung out with Nicky and Anthony a few times, we have not reached that can-I-have-a-bite-of-your-food stage. Plus they are British (well, Nicky is Canadian but lived in London for a long time), so you never know how Brits will react to such an informal suggestion! So I did not taste either of their meals myself to comment.

We skipped dessert but did see another table being served an interesting desert drink, which required igniting it—as in fiery flames!—at the table. It smelled really good and looked interesting so I would try that if you go. Our only concern was that by igniting the drink, doesn’t the good stuff (aka, alcohol) burn off?

Overall, I liked Tio Pepe for its location, and what is there not to like about a Mexican restaurant? I would not go here expecting an amazing culinary experience, and if you want more of a crowd I’d try going on the weekend instead; but if you are looking for some Mexican/Spanish food in the area before heading out to the neighboring bars, I do think this is a viable option.

The French Quarter Restaurant, New York, NY

I read about The French Quarter restaurant (located on E 25th & Park Ave. S) opening in my Time Out New York magazine sometime in the past year, and although skeptical, I was also really looking forward to trying it out. My family used to live in New Orleans before I was born and, as a result, I grew up visiting the city every year to the point that I consider New Orleans my second home. And if you read my introduction, you would know that my family's idea of visiting a city is not exploring the sights but instead going from restaurant to restaurant! So for being a non-native of New Orleans, I do feel that I have a relatively good idea of what Creole food should taste like. For starters, The French Quarter is NOT even close to what New Orleans food should taste like, and the atmosphere and service make it even worse.

Before I get to the food, let's discuss the oh-so-not southern hospitality. I was meeting a friend who was running late so I sat myself at the bar in front of a bartender who possessed every quality that gives blondes a bimbo image. She messed up the dinner order of a gentleman sitting next to me, and for the next 15 minutes (and probably longer but this was the extent of my time at the bar) she repeatedly kept asking the man in a cutesy voice, "Oh, please don't get mad at me! Are you mad? Oh, please don't be mad!" Now I will admit that this annoying bartender was hot, so in the true nature of the average male he kept saying it was okay, but I was about the smack her!

Shortly after another young guy walks in to pick-up his order to take home, and he is abruptly told that he has to wait another twenty minutes. On top of that when the customer exclaims his annoyance with this unexpected wait, the host rudely retorts that his order is only one out of "like seven take-out orders" they had. Not really the best way to respond to a customer, folks.

Meanwhile, I am observing all this in a restaurant that is two thirds empty on a Saturday night in Manhattan at 9pm with an atmosphere that leaves much to be desired.

Shortly after the host rudely asks me, "So, when is your friend getting here?" (mind you, there were plenty of tables so he was not trying to save me one--he was just being impatient for no good reason), Julia arrives and we are seated (well, actually we sat ourselves since no one was around). We finally receive our menus and begin the process of choosing our Creole dishes for the evening. I order the blackened catfish ($17) and Julia orders the chicken ettouffe ($16). My fish was dry and tasted a bit too fishy. It was blackened but with no unique or even flavorful seasonings. Julia's chicken ettouffe sauce is bland and lacks the correct consistency. She ends up scraping it off the chicken.

When the waiter asked if we wanted desert, we promptly responded, "No!" We then headed down the street to the W Hotel's swanky Olives bar and had a couple of martinis knowing that we would never have to go back to The French Quarter again.