Summer ‘08: The Feast Begins

Two years at NYU has revealed a cityscape dotted with culinary gems. As a voracious eater of anything that will not run away from me (well, if I can catch it, I’ll eat it too), I’ve decided to start a food blog. The idea of being able to look back on what I eat is pretty neat-o. Of course, since I’m a no0b, you will have to deal with my amateur-ocity. Also, I do not have a bad-ass camera, merely a humble PowerShot, so you’ll have to deal with crappy picture quality as well. I’ll upgrade to a more sexy camera later when or if the funds come up.

Inspired by another blogger, I decided that the best way to start was to go after something I had been craving since the winter (I have die-hard cravings): bread pudding. A Google-search later, I found Grandaisy Bakery in SoHo; they apparently have BAMF thin crust pizza as well. I ring my fellow-foodie-at-heart and BFF Tini, and we were off. Unfortunately, the commute to the city was a nightmare. During the two-hour ride, I jiggled my foot the whole way and cussed like a sailor, but to no avail. Damn service was local everywhere. MTA, I hate you *obscene gesture*. But luckily the weather was flippin’ FAB, and the noshing was great sooo…onward ho!

First stop, Grandaisy Bakery, where I was crestfallen to discover that they had NO MORE BREAD PUDDING. FAIL. But the nice girl at the counter went back and found some more. Yay!

Notice the lovely brûlée top. It wasn’t a crispy crust but lent a caramely/slightly burnt taste to the rich vanilla custard. No doubt the thing was rich cus I mean omigosh its brioche (which means boatloads of butter), cream, eggs and sugar. It was dense, not too sweet and somehow maintained a lovely balance between the richness of the brioche and the custard. The only qualm I had was that it clearly came from the fridge =(. That dried it up a little bit. I was too impatient to let it come to room temperature though.

Next, the thin crust pizza. I got myself a “Funghi” slice (mushrooms of all sorts) and was lucky enough to snatch a Pomodoro fresh out of the oven! Tini got the artichoke and garlic crumb one.

The mushrooms were tasty and earthy. Just a bit soggy, probably cus mushrooms are like lil sponges. But it was flecked with sea salt and the tender mushrooms, crispy crust and little bursts of saltiness (I think I got some rosemary/thyme in there too) was delish.

Heheheheh I love warm pizza! And notice, its a piece from the edge which means more crunchy bits. The sauce was tangy and bright. Think bruschetta but richer. The crust was UH-MAY-ZING. Symphonies of crackles each time I took a bite. OH DID I MENTION, IT WAS WARM?! lol.

The crust on Tini’s artichoke piece was fluffier in the middle, but had a nice golden crusty layer on top. The salty garlic flavored bread crumbs sprinkled on top was the best part. I wish they used fresh ‘chokes? Cus these tasted canned. But it was still pretty good.

Then cus we were starving after the horrid commute, we indulged in some more sweets, like this adorable little carrot cupcake.

It was dense, filled with carrots and cinammon. I think there was a raisin or two in there. Not the moistest cake ever, rather crumbly, but flavor was definitely there. The icing was awesome – I love cream cheese icing. The pistachios on top were random and I’m not sure they did anything for the palate. O well *crunch.

This is a cute little cookie sandwhich they called panini dolci. They had a variety there, but I picked this one for Tini. It was two incredibly buttery-shortbread type cookies sandwiched together with Nutella. I’ll eat garbage if its slathered in Nutella

Oh we had these little bottles of Yoga nectar. Peachy!

The tasty food helped us forget about the nightmare of a commute and plus I got a call from my boss saying “Take the night off”. Woohoo! So for the next 6 plus hours, Tini and I wandered around Soho, sight seeing and shopping. I also got myself an iced latte (which I don’t have a picture of but heres the napkin!):

It wasn’t bad. Better than Starbucks fershure. It was milky and creamy, but the esspresso wasn’t drowned out by the dairy. Not bad. In fact, it was good enough that I didn’t even put sugar in it. Cafe Rheon looked cute (so did the barista) and there was a little garden out back. I’ll make a note to revisit.

Anyway, by 9:30pm we had shopped ourselves silly and were in dire need of sustenance. We go to Cafe Tasia, the stand-by Thai place for all NYU-ers. It was, as usual, packed, noisy and blasting really hip techno. Tini felt adventurous and ordered a Virgin Thai Mojito! It was super fruity and refreshing cus they used Lychees and lychee syrup/juice along with fresh mint leaves. I loved it cus there was no nasty alcohol to ruin the tasty mocktail. I felt boring so I got a Thai Iced Tea. The Iced Tea wasn’t bad, just not as great as I remembered. Tasted a bit watered down and it wasn’t as sweet as usual. O wells:

Then, since we wanted to save calories and room for dessert, we skipped appetizers and went straight to main courses. She got the Pad Thai, which is pretty good as Pad Thai’s in NYC go. It’s bright, tangy and saucy (although Alton Brown claims the original is more dry and fluffy). You can definitely taste the tamarind. The noodles were nice and bouncy, giving them good texture.

I got the Pad See Ew. Ok, so it’s TOTALLY like Cantonese chow fun, but I still love it. Broad flat rice noodles, sauteed in sweet peppery soy sauce with beef, eggs and bok choy. Whats not to like? The noodles might have been over-cooked cus they fell apart easily and were a little mushy. But the flavor and tender beef made up for it.

The meal was highly satisfying. Probably cus we were starving mofos. But yea, expect this place to show up QUITE frequently over the next several…years. Lol. We’ll probably go through the entire menu.

Thank you Random Dude (Possibly on a Date?) Next To Us for taking this picture:

The bill came out to a modest $42, which isn’t bad for two very hearty entrees, two cocktails (even without alcohol) and a Thai Iced Tea. We left full and happy and pranced about in the drizzling rain before catching the perfectly timed LIRR back home.

So starts a journey. You are all welcome to join. Happy noming!