dish buzz: public

Public, SoHo

I started to read more on Public, and I was excited to finally see mention of a good brunch locale to check out over in SoHo. SoHo is my favorite as far as shopping is concerned, but restaurants? Oh no. Not too many to name, save Nolita House on Houston. We were looking for a good location to escape from the cold windy rain for a bite to eat before hitting the stores along Broadway.

Public doesn’t take reservations, so I once called to ask for a recommendation as to when we should arrive. They recommended that we get there right when they open on Sundays (11am) as there is usually a line waiting and once they seat everyone, it’s typically an hour for the table to then turn over. This made sense. We ended up there more around noon, but only found ourselves having to wait about 10 minutes to be seated. One thing I liked about the space at first glance was the set-up. Behind the hostess stand, there’s a waiting room with chairs where people can actually wait! Most places in NYC, you are just shoved against a wall, into the front awning, or the like while waiting. Usually restaurants just don’t have the space. I though it was very commendable that Public went to this extent to make the wait more comfy. Kudos for that!

 

dish buzz: poco

Saturday I finally made it over to check out Poco, a Spanish restaurant aptly named serving small plates in the East Village. However we went for brunch so it was a bit of a deviation from tapas. I’d been wanting to try out Poco since I’d read so many great reviews and two of my foodie friends loved it, having returned back several times following their initial visit.

Walking in, there’s the main dining area bordered by the bar on the righthand side. Downstairs there was another seating area, which was where they’d placed a large group this particular Saturday. Once seated, we were greeted by a basket of raisin nut bread, muffins, menus, and a genuine smiling server.

Lobster Mac-n-Cheese, Poco

Typically not a savory brunch person, I’d still decided when I finally made it there I had to try their lobster mac-n-cheese since, as one friend had put it, “it’ll change your life”. The cheeses were manchego and asiago, a nice strong blend for the dish. For pasta, they’d used shells and the topping? A generous helping of panko, nicely browned. I was pleasantly surprised too to find there was so much lobster in the dish. It was so good that before I knew it, it was all gone. Always a good sign.

 

artisanal’s cheese & wine 201

One of my friends loves the wine and cheese classes offered through the Artisanal Cheese Center. It’s affiliated with the restaurant but has it’s own separate location and it’s where some of the cheeses are made and where the classes are conducted. I learned this way as I panicked a bit underground once I realized I wasn’t headed to Park Avenue, but instead Tenth Avenue. A bit of a difference!

Cheese Plate & Wines, Artisanal Cheese Center

Thankfully I arrived in on time, almost catching the very beginning of the welcome reception. We were greeted by glasses of cava and a table adorned with a spread of various cheeses as well as fruits, fruit spreads, and even cheese fondue. From there, we entered into the classroom. At each setting, there was a full cheese plate of seven different cheeses, two glasses of wine (one white, one red), and a glass of water, as well as a couple of bread baskets per table.

The class we were taking was Cheese & Wine 201: Live Better, Live Longer. Our class was lef by Max McCalman, Artisanal’s Dean of Curriculum and Maître Fromager. I’ll admit that his presentation was a bit wordy at times, especially for that late on a Friday evening, but it did have interesting tidbits about cheese that I’d never heard, including:

 

roll tide! sec champs

I love watching Alabama games at the Alabama bar in Manhattan. You’d almost never know that you’re in NYC, surrounded in a sea of crimson and white, pom poms flying overhead, and thick accents permeating the crowd. Love it!! This year I bought my first Alabama shirt for the occasion…

My Crimson & White

 

thanksgiving & deep south dressing

Brooklyn or Bust!

Thanksgiving is always an interesting experience. Or at least it has been since moving into Manhattan. My sister and I have both been here for three Thanksgivings now, and each year my parents have chosen to drive up, taking in the scenery along the way, and we’ve done Thanksgiving in my little apartment (bigger the first year for our drama courtesy of Jive Turkey, not quite so much at present). It just makes sense since both my sister and I will be packing up and boarding a plane only a few weeks later to head back for Christmas. And the holidays in general are just such a fun time to be in NYC.

My parents arrived with lots of the food items, especially those they figured would be pricey in the grocery store (loved the look on my mom’s face when she saw cereal for $6 in Gristedes – I think they felt that hauling many items in was a good call).

 

canine hoover, mia (like me!)

Relaxing in Bama, AKA "Doggie Retreat"

For the month of December, my dog Dixie has flown South for the winter. Or drove I guess is more appropriate… my parents drove her back down with them after Thanksgiving and she’ll fly back with me after Christmas, following my much needed week and a half dose of the South! I can’t wait for the break, downtime with my family, and seizing my parent’s MASSIVE kitchen. I’m bringing home a bunch of recipes, so I’ll definitely be cooking those days away. In the coming  month though, I’m a little sad my apartment is empty, with no help from my four-legged buddy on clean-up. I am looking forward to two of my favorite Bama ladies gracing me with their presence over the next couple of weeks – the Fashionista this weekend and the lovely MsWT next weekend. (psssst… Roll Tide!)

I was going to include a slideshow of DixPix, but apparently WordPress has disabled all fun bells & whistles from Flickr (what gives WP?), so click here for more. Or you can follow her shenanigans on Twitter!

 

chicken tortilla casserole

When I saw this recipe, it made me think of enchiladas. Now, I realize it does not involve enchilada sauce (and maybe it should) but it did make me think of good Mexican food, which as a child fundamentally did mean enchiladas. I remember the biggest culinary treat of all was to get in the family station wagon at the time and head over close to the Madison Square Mall to go to Chi-Chi’s. They had the best cheese enchiladas I’d ever had (okay, the best I’d had by say age eight) and these amazing churros for dessert, which have led me to be on a neverending hunt for churros ever since. The restaurant has sadly long since closed, but it definitely instilled in me a love for Mexican, albeit the more Tex-Mex variety. So, I’ve actually really never made a lot of casseroles, which is silly for a single girl cause you can reheat them and eat off them periodically throughout the week. That should be so much win, right?

Mixing it ALL up

Well, when this came into my inbox, I figured this was a good one to try. So many of the casserole recipes involve cream of mushroom and are a no-go for me (allergic). This one though used cream of chicken, which I’ve never used before but found added a nice thicker chicken-y flavor to the base of the casserole. The beauty of this casserole is basically how easy it is. Measure out everything or chop up the item, throw it in, and stir it all around. It doesn’t get any easier. This was the first thing I’ve made since I bought my very large metallic mixing bowl and it was definitely perfect for this project.

 

nyc chocolate show

First of all, my apologies for the delay in getting this post up. It’s only been two weeks since the Chocolate Festival, right? It’s been a busy couple of weeks though. I’m spending all of my free time consumed with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, which for me is more like finish up last year’s work month). Thankfully, I’m on target for that at this point – 20,276 words and counting. I’ve also been sick. Never fun. Anyhow, no more excuses.

When some friends wanted to get together a group to check out the NYC Chocolate Show, I was all for it. I’ve never been, but have always heard it was a great way to get to see all of the areas chocolate vendors underneath one roof. It’s spread out over three days, so just one weekend of chocolate bliss. Upon walking in, one of the things I found most interesting at the NYC Chocolate Show were the dresses done fully in chocolate. They were very impressive, and were on display in the entrance to the event.

Choco-Scary!

The Wicked Witch of Chocolate

 

cinnamon pumpkin chip loaf

Chocolate chips into the mixer...

Continuing my obsession with all things pumpkin, I decided to try this cinnamon pumpkin chip loaf recipe to take to my sister’s last weekend for brunch. Chocolate chips… cinnamon… and pumpkin. Sounded like a perfect combination. This was super easy to make. I ended up using half normal sugar and half Splenda since I ran out of sugar. This was super easy to pull together. This was the first time I used my new fabulous Kitchenaid mixer. Amazing. So much better than my old one. It’s not as perfect as the the fancy Kitchenaid I so wish I had room for would be… but not bad at all!

 

dish buzz: tipsy parson

Tipsy Parson - Chelsea

I originally made plans to try out Tipsy Parson on Monday. Southern food plus multiple types of juleps (including a frozen one)? Definitely interested. The date for the opening got pushed back to Wednesday and so my friends and I pushed back our plans as well so we could head to Chelsea to see if Tipsy Parson was all it taunted it would be. I also saw they were accepting reservations online via Open Table and went ahead and put one in for us, just in case.

Arriving in, I liked the set up. There’s a cozy seating area of a few plush couches at the entrance before you encounter the bar to the right and some bar-front tables to your left. If you go back past the bar, there’s a second room of just dining tables. I believe the tables along the bar were being treated as bar seating, though it was difficult to tell. It was reasonably easy to find a spot at the bar at around 6pm. My friends would then join me (so we were eventually a party of three) and we were able to find three chairs altogether at the bar. No need for a table.