The City Bakery Hot Chocolate Festival kicked off officially this month, but technically it started the last weekend of January. That’s when I went. I couldn’t wait. I keep saying I’m not a big fan of dessert, but since last month, all I want to eat are sweets. I’m not sure why. I think it may have to do with the fact that I joined a gym. My appetite has been insatiable ever since. Perhaps I need to quit. Or maybe I have to stop watching Food Network while I’m on the bike. MORE »
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For the longest time, my friend Simrit had been telling me about Thakali Kitchen, a Nepalese & Tibetan restaurant in Jackson Heights. I’ve had limited experience with Tibetan food; once in Vegas at Himalayan Cuisine for flavorful lamb momos (dumplings), and once on Houston Street at a tiny restaurant for bland watered down curry. The former was good, the latter, not so much. But since my Vegas memory was more recent, I happily made my way to Jackson Heights from Times Square, and got there only one hour late. (Thank you E train for failing so miserably and so consistently every weekend!) MORE »
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I’m convinced someone over at The Village Voice sold their soul to the devil because it was strangely beautiful on the day of Sirenfest (The Siren Music Festival, run by The Village Voice). In the first Saturday in weeks, we weren’t inundated by rainstorms, flood watches, and general meteorological crapiness. It was the way it should be in New York during the summer: blisteringly hot and humid. And so, David and I were off to Coney Island for some sun, music, carnival craziness, and of course food. MORE »
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The bad thing about ever denying yourself anything, is that you’ll crave it even more and overindulge when given the chance. Case in point, the end of last year, I decided to reduce my carbohydrate intake. Subsequently, two weeks ago, I finally gave in to my cravings and ate three Chinese pastries immediately after eating a bowl of pho. Yeah, not so good. So instead of delaying the inevitable, I decided to forgo the carb diet nonsense, and have been happily spending my lunches at Sullivan Street Bakery, aka Carb Heaven. MORE »
I should really title this post “Desserts at Sun Say Kai,” since I went there after eating a few spring rolls and an entire bowl of pho, but Chinese pastries aren’t really desserts. They’re more like portable mini-meals that a normal person would probably eat for breakfast or a mid-day snack. So, for the sake of appearing less like a glutton, let’s just say the snacking took place a few hours after lunch, not a few minutes.
At a Chinese bakery, I normally get either a roast pork bun (char-siu bao), a pineapple bun (bo lo bao), or a slice of rice cake (baak tong gou). At an attempt to watch my weight, I decided to nix the pineapple bun and got a sticky rice roll, a roast pork bun, and a slice of rice cake. Yes, I could have gotten just one pastry, but my rationale at the time was that I would just have a few bites of each. Of course that didn’t happen, but each baked good was only seventy to ninety cents. In my mind, if it’s that cheap, it doesn’t really count. MORE »