Junior'sI happen to live by one of the best delis ever, and I didn't even know it until my brother and sister in-law came to visit last week.
In passing I was like, "We should go to Junior's, I hear they have great cheesecake, but I've never been there." The next day, while I was at work, slaving away, working my little fingers to the bone, their friend Vicky came by and took them and Al to Junior's...without me. When I came home that night, I heard tales of the legendary beets and cornbread. Oh, sure. They had brought home a little cheesecake and let me have some. It was pretty fantastic cheesecake (not too firm, I hate the kind that makes you feel like you just ate paste and you can't separate your tongue from the roof of your mouth), but to hear them talk about it, the cheesecake wasn't the main attraction. I had to visit this place and experience this magic, but mostly I had to go to work again. And when I did, do you know what they had the nerve to do?
Go there again, without me.

For a while there I was beginning to think that they didn't love me. I mean, all these trips to Junior's, and then coming home and rubbing it in my face. That's not love.

But everyone redeemed themselves by taking me to Junior's before they left to go back to LA on Saturday.

This cornbread is the best thing I have ever had. Ever. It's delicious and sweet and, well, if I had to survive off of one thing for the rest of my life, this might be the thing I pick.
Don't get me wrong, the rest of their food is great too, but this cornbread is the stuff that's really worth talking about. All future visitors to NY should prepare themselves now for the trip to Junior's.

All this deliciousness, only one subway stop away. Life is so good.

Here are some delicious sandwiches that I have been making:
This is my super-healthy sandwich.













When I was a kid, my parents would make tomato-burgers.
They consisted of a whole-wheat hamburger bun with a little bit of mayo and Spike seasoning. My mom would send me to school with one of these in my lunch, but the tomato was always in a separate bag so it wouldn't make the bread soggy. How I longed for just a normal peanut-butter and jelly like the other kids, but no, I got a tomato burger.

Well, I must have secretly liked their hippie sandwiches, because now I eat food like this. The avocado sandwich, with a little bit of mayo, 21 Season Salute from Trader Joe's, spinach, and avocado. Thanks hippies.






I made this sandwich for Al with turkey meatballs and organic marinara sauce. It's almost healthy, but then I used butter to toast the bread in the pan (still no toaster) and kind of cut down on the healthy factor a little...like I like to do.



I have to balance the healthiness of the first sandwich with this blatant disregard for calorie content.
This, my friends, is a Fluffer-tella. Fluff and Nutella, together, on white bread. Delicious.

Take that hippie parents who never gave me the standard PB&J when I was a kid. I'm all grown up and making what is probably one of the most un-nutritious sandwiches in the world.

You're going to hate me for saying this....

but I'm not a big fan of surprises.
There, I said it.
I would just rather not be surprised. I mean, every once in a while it's okay, but for the most part, I am very clear on what I want. Therefore, I have become a firm believer in the "wishlist." I love you online shopping, for your speed, convenience, and mostly for helping me avoid crowds at all costs...but above all, for the wishlist. Most of my favorite online shopping sites will let you create a wishlist, and don't think that I don't take full advantage. What would I like for my birthday? Allow me to gently guide you to the wishlist.

Today I added some things to Al's Amazon.com wishlist, under his account, so that maybe next time he signed in and clicked on "my wishlist" he would say, "Hm, I didn't know I wanted a red Quisinart Ice Cream maker. I guess I should buy that for myself." Ha ha. It's such a perfect plan. I'm sure it will work.

And now that it's hot outside, time for some soup.

I made lentil soup last night.
This recipe is nothing like the recipe that I used. This recipe sounds fantastic. Mine has no ham...which makes it a little meh, but mine is healthier.

1 carrot, halved lengthwise and sliced thin crosswise
1 small onion, sliced thin
1 garlic clove, minced
1 small bay leaf
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup lentils, picked over and rinsed
1/3 cup chopped smoked ham
1/2 cup finely chopped drained bottled roasted red peppers
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar, or to taste

preparation

In a heavy saucepan cook the carrot, the onion, the garlic, and the bay leaf in the oil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened. Stir in the broth and the lentils and simmer the mixture, covered partially, stirring occasionally, for 25 minutes. Stir in the ham, the roasted peppers, 2 tablespoons of the parsley, the vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste and cook the soup for 1 minute. Discard the bay leaf, divide the soup between 2 bowls, and garnish it with the remaining 1 tablespoon parsley.

Nutella--on ice cream. That's really all I have to say. I mean, I've had chocolate and hazelnut gelato, and that was lovely, but Nutella on ice cream, well, it gets to that perfect chewy consistency that hot fudge gets to after it's been on the ice cream a while, only Nutella has that consistency instantly. Mix it through and you get a little ribbon of chewy-hazelnutty goodness.

My next goal is a fluff and Nutella sandwich...I'm sure it will be fantastic.

Fort Greene restaurants, I will get you all.....

Olea: The other week Al and I went here for brunch.
It was fantastic. The coffee was delicious.
The lady sitting one table away from ours ordered decaf coffee. When it came she freaked out and asked a thousand times to make sure it was decaf. Then she had the waitress go remake it for her. Now, I don't like decaf drinkers to begin with. After waiting tables for almost 6 years, I know a thing or two about the people that order decaf. First and foremost, they are missing the best part of drinking coffee, and secondly, these people are high-maintenance (for the most part, unless they are old, and then I totally understand the decaf thing, because if you're going to bed at 5pm, there is really no cause to get all hyped up). So, sometimes I get a little fired up about these things and I start going on my little rant to Al about stupid decaf drinkers...for the most part I'm trying to be quiet, but I'm not too concerned because who cares if she hears me because she's a stupid decaf drinker, the bain of my table-waiting experience. So I'm going on and on, through the toasted baguette with nutella (delicious) when finally, the lady stands up to leave and she's big ol' pregnant.
Wow, I am a jerk. Here's this pregnant lady trying not to make her baby come out with ADHD, or whatever babies get when you drink caffeine while pregnant, and a table away I am basically calling her a jerk to her face.
Yep, I can be pretty awesome sometimes.

Despite my shame, I enjoyed a French omelet. It came with a salad and a baguette. I mean, it's was that kind of delicious where you don't know if you would really ever order it again...because I kind of only like smoked salmon cold and on my bagels, but I'm glad I tried it so that I could come to that conclusion.
Al had the green eggs and lamb. Also delicious.

Check out their website. It has a slide show of picture of the restaurant, the menu, and talks about all the different special nights they host.
http://www.oleabrooklyn.com/index.php

The same people who own Olea, also own Cafe Lafayette, where we went last Friday night. They serve water in little, tiny glasses, but give you a wine bottle full of water to refill your own glasses. As soon as we sat down I spilled the water all over myself, and the rest of the night was a careful ballet with my trying to avoid hitting the water bottle.
I had the Lafayette burger with grilled onions and goat cheese. You could really put goat cheese on anything and I would love it, but this burger was especially fantastic. There were all sorts of herbs and seasonings mixed into the patty, and the whole-wheat bun was crusty and fantastic. The fries, oh the fries. I guess that everyone has their own ideas about perfect fries, but my idea of perfect fries are the French-style pomme frites. I love the thick fries that are a little crunchy on the outside and all mush on the inside.
Al had the lamb. It came with the fresh green-beans that were delicious, but since Al is reluctant to eat any green beans that don't come out of a can, I took it upon myself to eat them, and they were delicious.
My body likes to mess with me, and give me the urge to sneeze right when I have a mouth full of food or liquid. Ah...I remember the time I sneezed hot chocolate all over my dad. He was a good sport about it, but since then it's been a constant battle with food and beverage-filled sneezes. I thought it was only me, but to my delight the man sitting behind Al at Cafe Lafayette sneezed and I glanced up just in time to see a look of disgust come over his face at the sight of his food-filled palm. HA! Yes. I got the giggles a little.

The place itself is really cute. We sat outside and our waitress was fantastic. She was really cool about me spilling water everywhere.
The lady sitting next to me ordered the vegetarian couscous and it looked amazing. That is what I'm getting next time.

Lost In Translation

Hello friends, and family (who am I kidding, it's mostly family...Al laughs at me every time that Sonic commercial comes on where the guy says he is going to tell all his blog readers about Sonic's new shake, and then he female companion asks, "you mean your mom?" and he responds, "she was supposed to tell her neighbor about it too" In my case it's Al's mom that reads my blog, not my own)

I am completely unpacked and moved into my new apartment. I swear I've even been cooking too, and taking pictures, but the pictures just don't seem to be making it from my camera, onto my computer, and onto my blog.

In the meantime, until I find the courage to walk over to the computer and plug in the camera, I though I would share some links with you to wonderful food blogs that are currently tickling my fancy. Granted I haven't had too much time to read my favorite food blogs lately, but I'm trying to catch back up, and it's delicious.



Here is some delicious Osso Buco from Simply Recipes.
This is probably one of my favorite meals in the whole world.







I have never been a huge fan of figs, I mean, I try, but I just can't get that into them. Now dates, dates I love. I'm not allowed to buy them anymore because I will eat the whole package in one sitting. Pictures like this though make me want to give figs another try, and then I do and I still don't like them. This picture is making me want to try them again though.
Thanks Stonesoup.









Last, but certainly not least, I have re-post this wonderful image from Scoboco, because I keep reading about Grom, but I haven't tried it yet...mostly in an effort to pace myself when it comes to all the good food in NY, but this picture is hurting my restraint.

COOKSHOP

Last night I went for dinner with Neal, Danielle, the director of "Severance" and our totally awesome publicist Steve.
We went to Cookshop on 10th Ave. It was amazing. I had read a review that said not to miss the hominy, and it was completely addicting. It was spicy and crunchy, and a lot like popcorn without being dry. We also tried the duck taquitos. My take on Mexican food is that it's one of those things you can try to class up, but the classy version will never be as good as the low-brow version, so really, you have to ask yourself, a $7 duck taquito? Isn't that just a waste of time? Shouldn't you spend your time trying to class up other things, like hominy?
Then I had the beet and ricotta salad and it was delicious. There were orange sections and mint leaves.
For my entree I had the cod. It was perfectly done and came atop a mustard vinaigrette and asparagus. I stole a bit of the director's steak, which I have to say was a little bit like heaven.
Even though I know that the last thing I need in this world is dessert, I still ordered the chocolate cake, the menu said something about espresso and salted caramel, but it was right around then that I slipped into my chocolate coma. It was delicious and moist and the frosting wasn't too sweet and had just a hint of the salted caramel.
It was delish, but I seriously need to diet now. Not that I didn't before, but I think this was the kicker.

Tasti-D
I have an unhealthy fascination with frozen yogurt (yes, okay, I am a total LA-ite. I say fro-yo, but I don't go get my fro-yo wearing a jean skirt and uggs driving my Hummer, so I don't think you should give me a hard time).
My fro-yo addiction first started when I lived the the Valley and Studio Yogurt was right down the street. I went there all the time. I filled up punch-card after punch card to earn the coveted free yogurt. When I moved to Venice my new hangout became Sparky's, and I moved onto Penguin's when that opened even close to my apartment (after-all, Penguin's did have better toppings, and the rating of a frozen yogurt establishment is really a delicate balance between yogurt texture and variety of toppings). At least every other night I would ask, "Al, do you feel like getting some fro-yo?" And even if he didn't he would say yes, because he knew that anything else would be the wrong answer.
When I moved to New York I felt sure that I wouldn't have a local frozen yogurt place. Frozen yogurt somehow seemed low-brow and not an advanced enough culinary achievement to be successful among the foodies of New York.
Thanks to Gawker, and this totally awesome article, I did know that there was a Pink Berry in Manhattan, but not being a fan of sour milk myself, I wasn't too excited.
Someone at work suggested I try Tasti-D-Lite. I had to find this place. Google maps mistakenly told me there was one on 6th Ave and 31st...damn liars. I searched for it one day on my lunch break. Every time I got in a cab I would see one, but I could never quite make it there. Wednesday night Al agreed to find the closest one and said we could take the train there, even though I'm sick. It's only two stops on the G...only two stops!!!!! But the G train took forever, and by the time we got there it was closed. He agreed that Friday we could try again.
I still wasn't feeling well, and probably shouldn't have left the house, but I had a craving for French Onion Soup, and after a little searching we decided to have dinner at Caffe Carciofo on Court St. My French Onion Soup was amazing. Al had this amazing pesto pasta with sun dried tomatoes.
After dinner we walked back towards the Subway, and back towards Tasti-D.
Now, I'm told that I'm not allowed to call it ice cream or frozen yogurt, as it doesn't contain a significant amount of cream or yogurt, but as far as I'm concerned it's fro-yo, and it's the best damn fro-yo ever. It achieves the perfect fluffy and mousse-like texture, and while the topping selection is limited, Tasti-D makes me very happy.

Wow, I mean, wow.
I just read this article on New York Magazine's website.
I guess we can never go to Bottino again.

Where my guidos at?

As a Californian I always had this sneaking suspicion that I had never had good Italian food. Even when I had what I thought to be great Italian food in California, I always somehow knew that it would never be as good as what I was going to get in New York. Needless to say, I have set the bar pretty high for NY's Italian eateries.
The first week I was in NY looking for a job, Rachel and I went out for Italian food, and I was pretty disappointed. I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but don't go there. (that's helpful, I know) We ordered broccoli rabe for an appetizer and it came fried into a little charred tumbleweed. It was greasy, it was gross, and it tasted like charcoal. You can fry most things, even Twinkies, but not broccoli rabe apparently. My entree was a little better, and though I was excited to try desert, small Indian women rarely indulge in such frivolities, so we skipped it.

Last night was my second experience with Italian food in NY. I went to dinner at Bottino. It was a cute little place on 10th Ave between 24th and 25th. The company was great, the olive bread was fantastic.
I started with an asparagus and parmesan salad, which was delicious. For my entree I had the lobster and rock shrimp linguine...it was good, but not great. I asked the waitress for her input on desert, should I have the bread pudding, or the pecan tart? She recommended the pecan tart, and though the ice cream that accompanied it was delicious, the tart itself was hard, and a struggle to eat.

Am I doing something wrong? Clearly I am. I mean, all this good, but not great Italian food. Am I in the wrong part of the city? I found great falafel in Brooklyn, great muffins at the bakery around the corner, great coffee, great everything else.

Maybe the great Italian places are reserved for Italians. I can't wait until my last name is Petitti and my Italian peeps are like, "Oh, she's one of us." Then they will teach me the secret handshake and lead me down some shady steps which lead to the most fantastic Italian restaurant in the world. Lots of fat women with aprons serving up trays of lasagne and telling me that I'm too thin and I need to eat more.

Ah...until then I'll just need my brother to come visit me. He not only is Italian (different moms) but he looks it. If he slicks his hair back and puts on a suit, it makes you edgy, like someone is going to make you an offer you can't refuse any minute. The NY Italians will clearly give him the 411 on where to go for the best food.

The Chelsea Market
Today I accidentaly stumbled into the Chelsea Market. I think I found heaven. I don't care if things are over-priced, it's everything I could ever want, all under one roof. It's amazing.
I have visions of taking long lunches or disappearing on the weekends and people having to send search parties to find me. There I will be, in one of the bakeries with a cookie in one hand and a latte in the other, bags of groceries surrounding me on the floor.
They will have a put one of those things on my ankle that sounds an alarm when I try to go into the Chelsea Market. All the security guards will have my picture. Al will have to go to a support group for people whose girlfriends/wives are addicted to the Chelsea Market.

What a Maroon!
Last night my good friend, Bryan, and another of his friends took me to Maroon's. They have amazing food! We started with fried green tomatoes, mango shrimp and hush puppies. Then we shared some jerk chicken, beans and rice and fried plantains. It was amazing.
The servers were great and there were rose petals scattered around the entire restaurant. I felt very seduced.

Goodies!!!

Apparently they don't have good Chinese food in California, because I have never had totally awesome things like soup dumplings and pork shoulder at a Chinese restaurant.
Last Friday we all went to a restaurant in Chinatown called Goodies, and it was fantastic.
From there we went to Jeollado, a sushi restaurant with the biggest private karaoke room in the world in the back. Needless to say, we totally rocked.

Yep, that's my boss.

Last night a couple of people from work and I went to Katz's Deli. I had a pastrami sandwich, and it was the best pastrami of my life. I think I'm still full.
They give you two slices of pastrami to munch on while you wait for your sandwich, which is awesome. For a $14 those two extra slices make the whole thing worth it. Actually, it was worth it.
They give you a ticket when you walk in, and if you loose that ticket they charge you $50 when you leave. It's pretty imperative to hold onto that ticket. At first I was pretty sure they were kidding about the ticket thing, but my new friends confirmed that they were indeed not kidding.

Daisy May's BBQ

The end of my first week at Magnolia ended with the most awesome dinner ever. We went to Daisy May's BBQ and all shared a whole pig, not to mention ribs, coleslaw, texas toast...pretty much every fixin' you can imagine. There is really no better way to bond with a ton of people you have just met then carving into a whole pig together.

Here is an awesome article about Daisy May's from the NY Times.

It was fantastic. Now I can cross eating a whole pig off of things that I need to do before I die. That just leaves seeing Paris, getting arrested, and buying my dad a Mustang Cobra.

From Daisy May's we went to the Me' Bar. There we were just hanging out when I looked up to realize that we were practically at the base of the Empire State Building. Man, sometimes that thing can really sneak up on you. It was one of the most beautiful views ever.

A man in the subway gave me an interesting compliment yesterday...at least I think it was a compliment. He said, "Girl, you look like the tallest Charlie's Angel."
Well, since I'm not blond and my mouth doesn't take up my whole face, I can only assume that he doesn't mean the new Charlie's Angels. He must mean the old ones, which would make me Kate Jackson. Hmmm, I don't think I look that much like Kate Jackson. Maybe he just means that I look like I kick a lot of ass.

Attention ladies and gentlemen : Kitchen Shenanigans is being repurposed. For the next few weeks I will document my transition into becoming a New Yorker.
I don't have any pictures yet, but never fear, soon I will.

I work in the Radio Wave building on 27th Street. It's in an area that is basically the Santee Alley of New York. In this little area you can find any designer knock-offs you could ever want, not to mention big hoop earrings with your name written in cursive through the middle. It's some hot stuff, and by hot I mean probably stolen.

There is a Starbucks across the street, which makes me feel like I'm back home in LA, but I long for a Dunkin Donuts in walking distance. Yesterday they had free iced coffee day and I missed it. I haven't found the one closest to me yet, but I will, oh yes, I will.

The people I work with are awesome. Yesterday they took me to opening day at Shake Shack. It was pretty fantastic. I did have to ask what a concrete was. Apparently it's just a really thick shake. Oh, the things we don't have on the West Coast.

Last night Rachel and I went to dinner at Boca Chica. It was delicious.

I really love it here. I love the subway, I love the weather, I love it!!!!!!

Al, get up, it's time to go to Vegas!!!!!!!

Clearly, I'm going to have to beat you awake! Here, have some coffee.

Let's rock and roll!Ah, we have finally arrived.
Yeah!!!!!!! (just so you know, that's a plastic palm tree in my hair...just in case you thought it was something weird)

Google

I found this picture, which I had meant for a post about Google's Christmas party.
Needless to say it's not quite as fresh in my mind as it was right after this picture was taken, but people from Google are a little too happy.

I did find one subversive member of the Google clan, who told me that working at Google was like living at home with your parents.
When he would try to leave for lunch they would say, "Where are you going? Surely you aren't going to lunch. We made you a nice healthy lunch right here."
When he would leave to go have drinks after work they would say, "Surely you aren't going out for drinks, we have drinks in the conference room every Thursday. There's no need to go out."

I was struck with a strange mixture of disgust and envy that I still haven't reconciled.
It seemed a little cult-ish, but in a good way. The way that Scientology was oddly attractive to me before Tom Cruise started jumping off couches.

A smart person would have though twice before eating the cookie, but I didn't.