BesoThere is a little restaurant on 5th Ave in Park Slope called Beso. I've walked by it before late at night, and it was packed.
This last Sunday Al and I walked down to the Greenmarket, but we were so hungry, that shopping just wasn't going to happen. We started walking, and before I knew it, there was 5th Ave. Surely there would be a wonderful breakfast spot here...5th Ave has never let me down before. Across the street was Beso. The doors were open and it seemed pretty crowded. Al suggested we try it. Now, you know how sometimes you get a restaurant in your head as a dinner place, and it's hard to think of it as a breakfast or brunch place? Well, that's where I was with Beso. Since I had only ever really noticed it at night before. It took me a couple of minutes to accept the idea, but then I agreed that we should try it.
There is one thing that I haven't quite caught onto in NY yet...and that is when you order juice at a restaurant they bring it to you in what can only be considered a shot glass. It's everywhere, not just Beso. Al and I were joking about it one morning at the breakfast place by our house. He was like, "Yeah, and that's the large."
"Wow," I said, "wonder what that small looks like."
To that he just held up one of those little containers of creamer.

I ordered the huevos rancheros. It was delicious. The eggs were fluffy, the salsa was good. Al ordered the pan dulce french toast. I thought it was going to overtake him. It was two huge, thick mini-loaves of bread that were both filled with chocolate. It didn't come with syrup, but it did come with caramel sauce and rum. Wow. I dind't know if Al was going to make it. He ate half of one piece and then gave up. It was good, but wow. If you are going to eat this for brunch, you might as well just go straight home to slip slowly into your diabetic coma.
On the menu they also had hot chocolate served with a churro. The little girl next to us ordered it and it looked delicious. Al has a soft spot in his heart for churros, and I suggested we get one, but he just looked at me like I was the devil.

Dean and Deluca
Prior to moving to New York, my only experience with Dean and Deluca (click to shop for delicious things) was some baked goods that we received as Holidays gifts at my last job. There were pretty good, but I wasn't privy to the awesomeness that is Dean and Deluca.
When I first got to New York and it was still really cold I found myself at the Dean and Deluca in Soho. It was the most magnificent place I had ever seen. I got a latte and a lemon muffin. I was pretty much in heaven. All of their coffee and baked good are fantastic, but it's the rest of their market that really astounded me. They had everything I could ever want, except low prices.
When other people win the lottery, their first thought is buying a house or a car...but I'm just taking myself on a shopping spree at Dean and Deluca. Smoked salmon and gourmet olives for days. Ah.....
This peanut butter brownie was pretty delicious too.

Burgers and Cupcakes
Never has a place with such a fabulous name let me down so much. The burgers were fine, but I've had a lot better...and for $9 I've had a lot better. The fries were pretty decent, but the cupcakes were an abomination. They were terrible. The frosting was too thick, the cake wasn't moist, they were terrible. Worst of all my lettuce wasn't clean. They served me a burger with gritty lettuce. If I can't even trust you to wash your lettuce thoroughly, clearly we should not be friends.

We just can't help ourselves when it comes to Max Brenner's. It's too delicious.
Here again, for your viewing pleasure, are the waffles. Dee-licious. Their milk chocolate ice cream tastes like deliciously frozen Nestle Quick out of the bottle. There is a big difference between mixing up your own Nestle Quick, and drinking it from the bottle. They always get the perfect creamy to chocolaty ratio...and that's hard to achieve on your own...so when I say that this ice cream tastes like frozen Nestle Quick from the bottle, you can be sure that means that its pretty much the best chocolate ice cream in the whole world. Look at this fantastic cup of hot chocolate. It is probably the best hot chocolate I have ever had.

Work for your food
People might disagree with me on this, but I like it when I have to work for my food. I don't mean like do dishes in the back room or anything, but when eating is a more interactive experience. I love fondue. I love eating crab legs...although I usually get a little carried away cracking them by hand and usually end up needing a band-aid or two.
This is why I like shabu shabu. You cook your own meat and veggies in a boiling pot of water. Since the meat is so thinly sliced, it only takes a couple of seconds to cook, and it is delicious.
Last weekend, Ed, Chris, Al and I went to Shabu Shabu East. I have to say though, that the times I have shabu-ed in the past, I have had my very own boiling pot of water, and I like that better. There was no confusion about which items belonged to which person.

I think my final verdict is that while this was fun, it wasn't as good as our California Shabu-Shabu place. It was fun, because frankly everything we do with Ed and Chris is fun, but I don't think I'll be going back any time soon.

Five PointsLast night Jeff (my boss), Danielle (my co-worker/neighbor) and I went to dinner with our totally awesome and fantastic friends from Broadway video.
We ate at Five Points on Great Jones Street and it was pretty fantastic.
We started with oysters and mussels that were melt-in-your-mouth fantastic. Then I had the beet and goat cheese salad, delicious. The bread was fantastic, the butter was sweet.
For my entree I ordered the porgy. It came with applewood smoked bacon and spinach (although the menu said broccoli rabe, but I wasn't about to complain). Here's a link to a little more info about porgy. Another person at the table also ordered the porgy, and we both found surprisingly few bones. Usually I'm against fish with bones...but how often do I get the chance to order porgy?
Jeff ordered the duck confit, and having proclaimed myself as a foodie, he asked me what confit actually means. I wasn't 100% positive, and that made me a little ashamed. I went straight home and looked it up (here is the link). Since it basically means "cooked in it's own fat and juices" I'm kind of sorry that I did, but oh well.
For desert I ordered the chocolate brioche bread pudding with salted caramel ice cream. If there were words to describe the overwhelming deliciousness of it, I would write them here, but there just aren't.

Chelsea Cottage Chinese
We went to a little Chinese restaurant on 9th Ave. last night that was pretty decent. It seemed like a lot of the customers were regulars and they all called the host by name.
It was pretty delicious.
A couple of tables over there was an elderly white woman in a kimono-style top. "I'm glad she wore her "going to get Chinese food" top." And then I laughed and laughed.
Man, I crack myself up.