WbLL- what boredom looks like...

You can score greasy fast food at 3:00 am anywhere in New York—but if you can help it, why not get a real meal. I dined at French Roast Thursday night after enduring a beautiful, yet long production of Aida, at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. After four hours of opera, anyone could get the ‘munchies’, and no well-dressed opera buff, wants to end their evening standing in the cold, eating random meat, from a questionable truck.

French Roast on the Upper West Side –located at 85^th street and Broadway—is the perfect dining solution for a midnight snack. Their warm, inviting interior bespeaks of a French – American Bistro, that you would never find in France, but is very whimsical after a couple of night caps. For the late night diner, they have a ‘grave’ menu, an abbreviated version of their dinner menu. Which basically means you can have ‘steak frite’, rather than a ‘rack of lamb’, but it’s still a well prepared substitution to junk food. Besides, their light meals, sandwiches and salads are better to keep off the pounds—and their alcoholic hot chocolate and sweet desserts are an incentive to drag someone else with you.

French Roast has two locations: one the upper west side and the other in west village-- both are opened 24 hours. So no matter where you are up late and hungry in Manhattan, you can always find a ‘croque monsieur’ with your name on it. French Roast Uptown 85th & Broadway 212.799.1533

French Roast Downtown 11th Street & Sixth Avenue 212.533.2233

Website: www.frenchroastny.com/

Labels: Eating Out, New York

I must have been suffering from some sort of dementia firing up my oven on a 90 degree day – but when you are in the mood for pie, you are just in the mood. Peaches are in season, though I couldn’t tell by the selection at my neighborhood grocer, because they were all hard as rocks. After cutting them into tiny slivers and letting them marinate in sugar for about 6 hours, the peaches were finally soft enough to produce a pie with the same texture as apple. After an hour of slaving in a hot kitchen, the pie came out a beautiful golden brown, and more importantly, edible. Here is the recipe I used:

• 1 (15 ounce) package pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie


• 1 yolk, beaten with 1 tbsp water (for egg wash)


• 5 cups sliced peeled peaches


• 2 tablespoons lemon juice


• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour


• 1 cup white sugar


• 1 cup brown sugar


• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon


• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves


• 2 tablespoons butter

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.


2. Place the sliced peaches in a large bowl, and sprinkle with lemon juice. Mix gently. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Pour over the peaches, and mix gently. Pour into the pie crust, and dot with butter. Cover with the other pie crust, and fold the edges under. Flute the edges to seal or press the edges with the tines of a fork dipped in egg. Brush the remaining egg over the top crust. Cut several slits in the top crust to vent steam.


3. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven on the top rack, until the crust is brown and the juice begins to bubble through the vents. If the edges brown to fast, cover them with strips of aluminum foil about halfway through baking. Cool before serving. This tastes better warm than hot.

Since I don’t particularly suggest baking in near sub-Sahara heat, but I feel everyone has a right to pie, might I suggest the Little Pie Shop for those living in the New York area. I would rather bake a pie than spend the $50 bucks but sometimes your time is priceless. If you eating pie is too much for you, you can watch – a movie about pies that requires no intake of calories.

Little Pie Company 424 West 43 Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues) New York, NY 10036

www.littlepiecompany.com/

Labels: Eating Out, New York, Sweet

It seems as if every Tom, Dick and Harry is opening up a cupcake shop. Maybe because cupcakes are less threatening than the average cake. They are less intimidating, you don’t have to worry about your cake falling, and they are reminiscent of high school home ec. -- depending on what school you went to. For all these reasons and more, bakeries specializing in cupcakes are popping up faster than you can say Starbucks, each one claiming to have brought something unique to the game. Small, large, tons of icing or scantly clad, a cupcake by any other name, means or agenda is still just a cupcake. In a fit of boredom, whilst reading my copy of Bon Appetit late one night, I too embarked on a cupcake escapade. Their lemon-raspberry cupcake recipe (an amended version provided below), was a fruity and delightful excursion from my state of insomnia. A couple of sleepless hours later, a few tweaks to the original recipe, and I had a dozen or so tasty cupcakes to bribe my low-carb dieter friends.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature


• 3 cups powdered sugar, divided


• 4 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel, divided


• 2 large eggs


• 1 ¼ cups self-rising flour


• ¼ cup heavy cream


• 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided


• ½ cup orange juice


• 12 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon seedless raspberry jam


• 1 ½ cups of walnuts (for garnish)

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Using electric mixer, beat butter, 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, and 3 teaspoons lemon peel in large bowl until blended, then beat until fluffy and pale yellow. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating to blend after each addition. Beat in half of flour. Add heavy cream and 2 tablespoons lemon juice; beat to blend. Beat in remaining flour.


• Drop 1 rounded tablespoonful batter into each muffin liner. Spoon 1 teaspoon raspberry jam over. Cover with remaining batter, dividing equally.


• Bake cupcakes until tester inserted halfway into centers comes out clean, about 23 minutes. Cool cupcakes in pan on rack. Meanwhile spread walnuts out on a cookie sheet and put in the oven to roast, for 7 minutes. In a small bowl whisk remaining 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 2 table spoons of raspberry jam and ½ cup of orange juice. Once whipped, spoon icing over cupcakes and garnish with walnuts. Let stand until icing sets, about 30 minutes.

Labels: Eating Out, New York, Sweet

I must admit I am a vegetarian that stays away from vegetarian restaurant. You would think that in the new millennium there would be more choices for us non-meat eaters, but I find that most restaurants fall into two categories: a) the Chinese wonder: whose menu consist of fake meat smothered in an unrecognizable gravy; b) the tasteless wonder: whose menu consists of near raw or raw dishes that are slapped together more for color than taste. With no hope in sight I started eating fish, and disregarded vegetarian restaurants all together.

Recently I had a ‘Big Mac Daddy’ at the Tiny’s Giant Sandwich Shop, and instantly I was brought back to the nostalgia of vegetarian cuisine. Let me dispel the myth that it is easy to find a good veggie burger in the city. It is probably as hard as finding its fattier cousin—a good hamburger. Sure any dope can slap a bean/vegetable concoction on a grill, but few can make appetizing. On the other hand, Tiny’s burger, is a colorful and flavorful version of the comfort food. And if you can manage to take a bite without the contents falling on your lap, you will find the flavors well-balanced and delicious. My only criticism is that such a burger should be paired with a hearty fries. And unfortunately their only accompaniments are chips, sodas and water.

Tiny’s Giant Sandwich shop offers an array of other classic diner sandwiches. And if you are being especially picky, their menu allows you to construct your own masterpiece. Though it wasn’t enough to convert me back to vegetarianism, the ‘Big Mac Daddy’ gave me a glimmer of hope for the future of vegetarian cuisine.

*ms. b

Tiny’s Giant Sandwich Shop

129 Rivington Street 212.982.1690

Labels: Eating Out, New York

This morning I decided to perfect my favorite brunch item in the whole world-- eggs benedict. In the past, every time I attempted this dish, the whites would separate in the water leaving me with an inedible mess that should have turned me off eggs benedict for life. After massacring three eggs, I discovered that the secret was to crack the egg into a cup before pouring it into the boiling water. It is especially important to get the cup as close to the water as possible -- that way the whites do venture to far away from the yoke.

Most recipes would give you the impression that all you need to do is add vinegar, bring the sauce pan to a slow boil and the rest is left to the grace of the culinary gods. But I think they leave important details out to keep your dish from looking like the masterpiece in their picture. I substituted the ham for smoke salmon-- because I don’t eat pork-- and added dill to compliment it.

Here is a good recipe to follow if trying this dish and home. But if you are like most, and can’t manage much more than coffee in the morning, here are some restaurants that make a pretty damn good egg.

*useful info: Food Network: Recipe for classic eggs benedict

Café Ronda 249 Columbus Avenue New York City 212-579-9929

Arte Cafe 106 west 73rd St. New York City 212.501.7014

Cafeteria 119 7th Ave New York City (212) 414-1717

Labels: Eating Out, New York, Savory