Deborah: A (for brunch)

I've been having a love affair with Deborah's brunch ever since I passed it on the way to another restaurant and decided to be spontaneous and give it a try. I am so glad that I did; there must have been something in the air that lead me to Deborah that morning. Because there are so many quaint restaurants on beautiful tree-lined streets in the West Village, I never would have tried Deborah out on appearances alone. It's located on Carmine street, one of the more busy/less cutesy streets of the village, down the street from Grey Dog's coffee. It's absolutely nothing special from the outside and someone with refined taste might even find the location and appearance a bit tacky. And that's fine with me - I've never once waited for a table during prime Sunday brunch hour and I can attest to the fact that Deborah's brunch merits an hour wait easily. My point is, I don't know exactly what drew me to Deborah that morning long ago but my standards for brunch are forever changed because of it.

I've enjoyed brunch at Deborah's a handful of times but only snapped up a couple of pictures the last time I brunched there. On this particular morning, my table ordered the Challah French toast with carmalized bananas (and no I did not order this as anyone who knows me well knows that I don't eat fruit) and the Shirred Eggs. Although I didn't enjoy the complete Challah french toast experience, since I could not partake in the carmalized bananas, what I did taste of the french toast itself was excellent: sweet, rich, dense, just enough fluff and just enough sogginess to make a divine bite. And Justin, who devoured the entire plate, can attest that if you like bananas, the caramalized bananas add a heavenly touch.



I've had the Shirred Eggs multiple times, not because the rest of the menu isn't fabulous, but because the Shirred Eggs are so good that it becomes difficult to order anything else once you've tasted this dish (although I could say the same thing about the Ranchero Eggs as well, but that will have to be another post..): " roasted potatoes, cheddar cheese, bacon, scallion, topped with eggs, married in the oven." The flavors truly burst, making this dish feel almost too complex, too flavorful, to be just...eggs. But obviously this is so much more than eggs and each ingredient compliments the ingredient next to it so that I literally had to take a figurative step back after every bite, just to enjoy the medley of flavors in my mouth.



If I haven't convinced you to try Deborah's at this point, then perhaps I should add that the waitstaff is the nicest, most cheerful bunch I ever seen in all of nyc. I'm so glad it's Friday - I'll see you at Deborah's this weekend!!

Pasta X 2

In the past week I've made pasta for dinner twice which is rare for me - even though I'm not a believer in Atkins I think the whole "carbs are the devil" seeped into my brain because I usually eat something pastay/bready for lunch and not so much for dinner. So why did I make pasta twice for dinner you say? Well, the reasons not that exciting. I've been so busy with frank the tank and can't really leave my apartment to go grocery shopping unless someone is watching him like a hawk, so when I had to cook for two separate occasions (for different friends on different nights). I looked in my fridge and voila! Two meals came to life before my eyes. All you really need is some pasta, garlic, spinach, onions, olive oil, and some sauce, all ingredients that you'll likely have in your fridge already, and you can really throw together a delicious meal. Oh did I mention cheese? Yes, that was an extremely important element of both of my pasta dishes. I used fresh mozzarella, mmm.

The first pasta I made for my friend Rachel who I've been friends with since Middle School. We both live in NYC now but rarely get together because...well we really have no good reason but I've found that a lot of people have the same trouble with getting together with friends in NYC...for me it's basically an issue of laziness and having a cozy apartment makes it even harder to get off my butt and socialize. Anyway, I made rigatoni with spinach, garlic, olive oil and mozarella cheese. And it was tastyyyy.



The second pasta meal I made with my friend Sara. Another friend since long ago - she's appeared in this blog before (see Leela Lounge). And by "with my friend Sara" I mean she asked me if she could help and I responded "Sure, cut the garlic" to which she responded "What??? How do I do that??? No, seriously, I don't know. How??" so we settled on a comprimise and she ended up cutting the bread into little segments. Go Sara!! Thanks for the help! Although she did come with me grocery shopping beforehand to Gourmet Garage so really it was a team effort. We decided on homemade goat cheese ravoli and picked up some wine on the way home. We sauteed some garlic and spinach (I'm a big fan of this combo clearly), mixed in the vodka sauce and poured the whole thing on top of the steaming goatcheese ravoli. We barely got this picture taken before we ravenously dug in.



And guess what?? I'm not any fatter than I used to be!! Take that Atkins diet, carbs rule!!

The Spotted Pig: A-

The Spotted Pig

I decided I wanted to try The Spotted Pig a long time ago but never seemed to get around to it. It wasn't the distance that kept me away (it's a mere 5 minute walk...as is everything in the west village), but the mixed reviews of the restaurant. It seemed that depending on the pull of the moon, you could either have a phenomenal, cozy meal or average food with a side of unpleasantness and over-crowding.

The Spotted Pig is a West Village landmark, I'm not really sure why, but it just is. Apparently it's even somewhat of a celebrity hotspot which has always confused me considering it's outter appearance. I wouldn't use the words shabby or dingy by any means but other than the cute spotted pig painting hanging from the side of the building, it's just a plain looking square box from the outside. Appearances can be deceiving though....

Once inside, I realized that the seemingly small building actually gives way to multiple rooms and floors inside. We were quickly led upstairs to a small, warmly lit room shared only by an odd pair of men eating together - I say "odd" because one was completely blinged out in rapper gear and was glued to his cell phone until he abruptly got up from the table never to return, and the other man never spoke a word and then left when his credit card was denied (I'm pretty sure he went to an ATM and came back to pay but i decided to tune out at that point). In any case, we were off to a good, if not interesting, start. The waitor (an ironically nerdy looking fellow who closely resembled Napoleon Dynamite's brother) started us off with a glass of wine (for me) and a beer (for Justin). I believe The Spotted Pig is known for having a nice selection of beer but because I hate beer I can't really speak to that...maybe Justin can update this entry with his perspective later. We wanted to take our time and have a liesurely meal so even though I had already mapped out exactly what we were getting (choosing the two best sounding dishes from all the reviews I came across), we listened to the specials and told the waitor we needed a few minutes to decide. In this time, I ventured to find the bathroom and took in the upstairs scene of the restaurant. I was starting to understand the mixed reviews and unique appeal of this restaurant. There is a certain je ne sais quoi about the restaurant itself and its patrons...sorry that's not very descriptive but go to The Spotted Pig and you'll see how difficult it is to put your finger on the pulse of the restaurant. The crowd was fashionable and many seemed to be distant ancestors of the modern day hipster. These people seemed to be...dare i say...real hipsters, and that in itself made them not hipsters. I felt as if I were actually in the midst of a genuine artist colony, something I thought only existed in "old new york," rather than the paper mache version found in williamsburg.

We finally decided it was time to order - due to our not-so-ravenous appetites and the not-so-wallet-friendly prices, we spit two items: The Pumpkin Salad and the Sheep's Ricotta Gnudi. They arrived at the same time and we dug in. The Pumpkin Salad combined chunks of warm pumpkin pieces, argula, pecorino and a contrasting pucker-your-lips tangy dressing. The dressing was a bit too tart for me, but I had to appreciate the lovely arrangment, fresh pumpkin and creativity of the salad.



The Ricotta Gnudi on the other hand was pitch perfect. I'd never tasted Gnudi before but had always wanted to and this was a very nice first gnudi experience - I just realized it sounds like I'm talking about adult films...well I'm not, I'm talking about the deliciousness that were these little dumplings filled with ricotta cheese. Gnudi is much lighter than Gnocchi due to the fact that it is filled with ricotta and not made with potato. It was like eating a delicious edible pillow filled with ricotta cheese.



Unfortunately, we did not get dessert here because I was hell-bent on trying Rocco's - A pastry shop famous for their canolis that I walk by almost everyday but for some reason, a reason that goes against my personal love for all things chocolately and sweet, had not yet ventured into. I was bound to change this....tonight!! Stayed tuned for my full-blown Rocco's dessert experience.....

Frank!!

This post has nothing to do with food but I want to introduce the newest addition to the Waite family!! Meet Frank, a pug-puggle, meaning his father is a full pug and his mom is a puggle (pug and beagle mix).





He's so ugly he's cute! So far he's been an amazing little puppy, he's slept through two nights without much crying and loves to play and snuggle.

Chicken Quesadilla - A -

These chicken quesadillas kind of came together in a haphazard way, as most of my dinner recipes do actually. Justin was already simmering some black beans and rice but he was planning to add gross looking pre-packaged chicken strips that he had bought especially for this occassion. The whole thing was very sad. So I leaped off the couch and out the door to the meat market right down the street (I've been living next to one of the best meat markets in the city for almost a year now and only a few weeks did I actually venture inside and buy some meat). I bought two huge, fresh chicken breasts which were de-boned and skinned right in front of me, yum. I ran home, sliced up the chicken, drenched the bits with flour and threw them on a skillet with some olive oil. We then put everything together and magically realized we had made quesadillas! Sometimes the randomly put together meals turn out to be the tastiest and this was definitely a case in point!

Semi-homemade goatcheese and vegetable Pizza - A

Last night Sara came over for a magical dinner surprise prepared by moi. I enticed her over with the promise of a delicious homecooked meal. Then I realized that I had only a couple of usable things in my kitchen: garlic, olive oil and a portabello mushroom and I scurried to find a recipe that could emcompass these ingredients in a clever and tasty way. Tada! I found a goatcheese and vegetable pizza recipe. "Perfect for a vegetarian" I thought and I might actually enjoy it as well. You could pretty much give me goatcheese on a stick and I'd be happy. So I set off to Gourmet Garage and snapped up some veggies, like roasted red peppers, another mushroom, a red onion, and goatcheese and two ready to go boboli mini crusts (because that's all they had - I love (read: HATE) grocery shopping in new york!

I popped my creation in the oven and 18 minutes later...look!! Isn't it glorious?? It tasted glorious too!!

French Onion Soup - A-

Another Nigel recipe the other night - "French Onion Soup without the Tears". The "without the tears" part is what really initially drew me to this recipe and the lovely smokey flavor of the soup has kept me coming back for more. Instead of slicing up three of four onions, this recipe has you cut a few onions in half and leave to roast until golden brown and soft, hence the "without the tears" part. I start to tear up when someone else is chopping onions..and I'm two rooms away, so while I love french onion soup, the prospect of chopping up onion after onion was about as inviting as a Parisian waitor. This recipe is also extremely easy and consists of only a few ingredients...isn't it nice eating a meal that isn't made from things starting with aspartaaslkfj or phenaphoasfklj or partially hydrogeanslkfjlas. Here it is, my french onion soup masterpiece!