La Focaccia, a small Italian restaurant on the corner of Bank and west 4th, is the perfect place to people watch in the west village. Sex and the City thought it was popular enough to put in their movie (I watched the trailer and noticed the blue La Focaccia awning in the scene where Jennifer Hudson meets Carrie/Sarah Jessica Parker). Their dinner is nothing to write about (I thought the noodles were overcooked and the sauce was bland), but their brunch menu has some wonderful options. Chris and I went for a quick bite to eat and ordered the French toast sandwich and the omelet.

I ordered the French toast sandwich:

The French toast sandwich combines all of the great breakfast foods in one compact sandwich. 2 French toast pieces (scrambled eggs * ham slices * cheese = pure deliciousness). I suppose it would be similar to a McDonald’s McGriddle cake (a combination of sweet and savory), but I’ve never had one so I can only assume.

Chris ordered the large omelet:

Lots of ham, green peppers, onions, and tomatoes plus two potato wedges. The omelet tasted a little rubbery, but it wasn’t terrible.

We gave La Focaccia a couple of tries and decided that we won’t go back because the food isn’t that good, but sometimes I get cravings for the French-toast sandwich that I ordered. I’ll probably try to re-create it soon (and then I’ll post my findings on here!).

How to get to La Focaccia:

La Focaccia
51 Bank St
New York, NY 10014
212-675-3754

Ronnybrook Farm’s Milk Bar is quickly becoming one of my favorite brunch spots in the city. Their service is fast, the waiters are (sometimes) friendly, and the food is delicious. Chris and I initially went to Milk Bar for some vanilla ice cream (after spending a night watching those Chevy commercials of the guy making a vanilla sundae with hot fudge and whipped cream), but we were pleasantly surprised when we realized they served actual food as well. Earlier in the day we had some chicken noodle soup, but we decided to have another breakfast before enjoying our sundaes.

On the weekends, Milk Bar serves their eggs all day (which is what we were in the mood for - yay!). We decided to just order the egg in the hole and share it since we had soup a couple hours before and weren’t that hungry:

The egg in the hole is served on rye toast with Grafton cheddar cheese, two slices of applewood bacon, and a side of potatoes. The cheese, egg, meat, and bread combination was a treat and we were still hungry afterwards, so we decided to order macaroni and cheese as well:

I don’t think I’ve ever had a cheesier mac and cheese - it was just layers and layers of gooey cheese mixed with macaroni noodles. The rye bread also tasted really good when I dipped it into the mac and cheese (because mac and cheese alone doesn’t have enough carbs).

After our satisfying lunch, we ordered a hazelnut sundae (they ran out of vanilla!!!):

Whole hazelnuts, ice cream that’s not too sweet, tons of fudge and whipped cream. We devoured the entire thing (and licked the cup afterwards!).

We are so obsessed with Milk Bar that we’ve been back a couple more times since (the other time we went on a weekday afternoon and they weren’t serving eggs). One of the servers has a scowl tattooed on her face, but the other servers are all friendly. Portions are large and everything is under $10, so you can try a bunch of items if you’re in the mood.

Seating is limited to a couple of stools, but the general feel of the restaurant is very warm and welcoming:

You can also pick up yogurt, ice cream, or milk to bring home with you. Try their creamline milk - it’s the closest thing you can get to milk straight from the cow:

The chocolate milk is also supposedly delicious, but I didn’t have any room left in my stomach to sample anything else.

How to get to Milk Bar:

Ronnybrook Farm’s Milk Bar
75 9th Avenue between 15th and 16th
New York, NY 10011
212-255-7990

Today, I went to Chelsea Market (my new favorite hangout) to pick up some skate for dinner. While I was there, I was tempted to stop by Milk Bar to have some ice cream and an egg in the hole, but I remembered Milk Bar only serves their egg dishes for breakfast during the weekdays (they’re served all day on the weekends, if you’re interested). Instead of waiting until the weekend, I decided to buy the ingredients to make the dish myself. I asked the guys at the counter of Milk Bar if they knew where they got their bacon and cheese, but they told me their meat and cheese came from a store in Brooklyn that only sells wholesale.

Since I wasn’t getting very far on my egg in the hole adventure, I decided to pick up a loaf of whole wheat bread from Amy’s (they were sold out of rye bread!!) and improvise. On my way out, Adam Roberts, the host of The FN dish (and author of The Amateur Gourmet), stopped me in the street to chat with Robin Miller, host of Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller. We started talking about making eggs in the hole and Robin gave me some tips (I’ve never made one before, but it seemed like an easy task). After chatting with Robin and Adam, I stopped by Murray’s cheeses for some cheese and bacon (Grafton cheddar and applewood bacon). Here are all of the ingredients:

Any type of bread will do, but I really like the taste of rye with this dish. Since rye wasn’t available, the next option for me was whole wheat (just as tasty and it has more of a bite than white bread). I originally bought some turkey bacon, but when I was at Murray’s, I saw Niman Ranch applewood bacon without nitrates or nitrites, so I picked it up as a special treat (at $10 for 9 slices, it’s expensive!). You can use turkey bacon (or regular bacon) if you can’t find applewood. Grafton cheddar is aged for a year and I think it’s sharper than other cheddars. If you can’t find Grafton, try using a sharp cheddar instead. You’ll also need eggs (organic are the best but any egg will do) and butter.

Step 1:

After you assemble all of your materials, slice a piece of bread (about 3/4 inch thick) and use a cup to cut a hole in the center of the slice. Robin Miller uses a biscuit cutter to make the hole, but I have no biscuit cutter and have no intention of buying one anytime soon. You can use a cookie cutter to make cool designs if you have them. After I made the hole in the bread, I toasted it and spread butter on both sides.

Step 2:

Bacon on the skillet - I don’t use extra butter or oil because there’s so much fat already (but you’re welcome to do so if you’d like).

Step 3:

Place the bacon on paper towels to get rid of excess oil. There should be a little puddle of oil in the pan - don’t pour that down the kitchen sink!! Put it in a container and throw it out in the garbage (otherwise the fat will congeal and it’ll be a huge mess). It’s okay to let the bacon cool because we’ll be putting it on the egg in the hole and throwing it in the oven.

Step 4:

Crack the egg and place it in the pan with the bread. There might be some leakage of the egg white, but it’s okay!!

Step 5:

I like a runny yolk so I didn’t flip over the toast, but if you have children, it’s a good idea to cook the egg all the way through. After the egg is cooked for about 2 minutes (you’ll notice that the egg white is cooked through on the bottom), put a piece of cheddar on top and add the bacon as well.

Step 6:

Throw the skillet into the oven (I set it on broil). I let it go in for about 3 minutes, but it depends on your oven (just watch to make sure the cheese melts).

Step 7:

Out of the oven!

Step 8:

Gooey egg yolk!

Success!

If I were to make it again (and I will be making it again in the morning), I’d make sure cheese covered all of the bread (healthy, I know). Also, I’d add another piece of bacon.

I hope you enjoyed my egg in the hole tutorial - I’m going to try taping some of them for a youtube/vimeo show soon and I’ll post them here once I finish. Let me know if you try making eggs in the hole and whether or not it was a success!

Shopsin’s, located in the Essex Street market, is well known with the New York crowd. The owner, Kenny Shopsin, is a grumpy old man that runs the small restaurant with his family (two daughters and a son). They relocated from the west village to Essex Street market a while ago, but their fans followed them and continue to put up with the service because supposedly the food is fantastic. Calvin Trillin even wrote an article about him that was published in The New Yorker. I’ve read about the place a lot and we finally made our way down to the market a while back.

We only waited 10 minutes for a table (which is not too bad for a Saturday afternoon), but we didn’t know what we wanted to order since their menu is SO incredibly large. A lot of the menu items don’t have explanations, either, so I started asking one of the daughter’s a couple questions (which was a huge mistake). I was limited to three questions (but the menu is so f-ing large!) and we settled on the banana walnut chocolate chip pancakes:

The pancakes were a little gummy but not bad - they tasted like something you would make in your own kitchen (if you wanted to put in the effort). Part of the charm of Shopsin’s is that it’s a very small operation and the cook (Kenny), makes comfort foods that are easy enough to make yourself but at a premium that hipsters will appreciate.

Chris ordered Cubano 1:

The cubano had great chunks of sausage and melted cheese paired with a great hunk of bread. (Maybe my second favorite cubano, trailing The Spotted Pig’s work of art).

Shopsins:

Shopsin’s is in a small corner of the Essex Street Market, but all of Kenny Shopsin’s cooking ingredients are kept in the restaurant (how does Kenny do it?!). If I ever go back, I’m studying the entire menu beforehand so I know can use my three questions wisely.

How to get to Shopsin’s:

Shopsin’s
120 Essex Street, Stall 16
New York, NY 10002
212-924-5160

Justin and I took a lunch break in Union Square one afternoon because we read online that the Wafels and Dinges truck was set up by Trader Joe’s for the day (they change locations on a weekly basis). I’m really into food that comes out of a truck (DessertTruck, Chicken and Rice, bulgogi, smoothies, etc), and I’ve been meaning to check out the Wafels and Dinges truck for a while. It’s owned by Belgians that claim to have REAL wafels. [sic] I’m usually out of town on the weekdays for work, but luckily, I was in town and the Wafels and Dinges truck was close enough for me to stop by. Justin and I went down to 14th and 3rd and ordered from the truck:

I decided to order the Cinnamon liege:

Everything is pre-made (I didn’t see much batter lying around) and they take the liege or the waffle and heat it up using the wafflemaker. The cinnamon liege was chewy and …slightly soggy. Neither of us were fans.

Justin was contemplating what to order (there’s actually not that much on the menu) but we couldn’t decide what toppings to order. You can get the waffle with one topping, three toppings, or a combination of ALL of the toppings (I think the combination of all of the toppings costs around $7.50). We had to order the waffle with ALL OF THE TOPPINGS KNOWN TO MAN (duh!):

Okay, I exaggerated…just every topping known to the Wafels and Dinges truck. Dinges, if you were wondering, are the toppings you can add to your waffle/liege. Our waffle had strawberries, dulce de leche, chocolate fudge, butterscotch, whipped cream, AND powdered sugar. The chocolate fudge was my favorite - it reminded me of the cold fudge Jarlings Custard Cup serves (something I’d have EVERY summer). Other than the cold fudge, the waffle wasn’t very crispy and it was kind of stale.

After we ordered, a older Russian woman came by and asked the owner how much the waffles were. She decided to order a liege because it’s $1 cheaper, but after the owner told her it was still $4, she walked away and the owner said he’d sell it to her for $1!! WTF we just paid $4 for ours!! I didn’t know it was negotiable!!

How to get to Wafels and Dinges:

Wafels and Dinges - changes on a weekly basis, so check their website!