On Sunday, I headed over to Sarabeth’s in the Chelsea Markets. Sarabeth’s are located all over the city, but since we were looking for something quick, so we decided against trekking up to the UWS. They’re known for their preserved fruit spreads (not jam, mind you):

and the Sarabeth’s we went to in the Chelsea Markets is also a bakery:

The menu at Chelsea Markets is limited (their kitchen isn’t as large and most people just go for coffee), but they did have french toast, topped with bananas and raisins:

The french toast was actually not bad, although it’s probably not as good as the ones available at the Sarabeth restaurants. I didn’t really care for the raisins, but the bananas and fruit spread were a good combo. The fruit spread was extra sweet and I think orange with apricots.

I ordered the pumpkin waffles with a sour cream topping:

These are supposed to be really special from Sarabeth’s, but I couldn’t have been more disappointed. They weren’t fresh (I’m guessing they made waffles in the morning and let them sit idle while they made other baked goods because my waffles were REALLY soggy before I even put any syrup on them). Also, the waffles were lukewarm at best…I mean, couldn’t you have stuck them under a heat lamp for a couple of minutes so I didn’t have to eat cold waffles??! The pumpkin taste was not that special and the pumpkin seeds on top of the raisins on top of the soggy waffles just didn’t do it for me. Chris, on the other hand, enjoyed both dishes. I think we’re going to try one of the places on the upper west side one of these days.

We headed out for our usual Sunday brunch today. I asked my friend, John, a good place to eat (he’s lived in the city for a lot longer than both of us). He recommended Elmo Restaurant, a trendy brunch spot in Chelsea. Chris and I walked over and since I looked at the menu beforehand, we knew exactly what we wanted to order. The restaurant is really open - very 70’s-ish in decor, and has outdoor seating for people watching, which is great since it’s on 7th ave. I ordered the Monte Cristo:

Which is the best combination of sweet and salty in a sandwich (although, you really can’t go wrong with a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce and stuffing). At Elmo, they add granny smith apples into the sandwich and put it on brioche bread, which adds a light sweetness to the salty swiss and ham/turkey combo. Look at the gobs of swiss cheese I ate:

The sandwich was definitely stick to your ribs good - the cheese was melted just enough so you could pick up the sandwich without it falling out, but warm enough that it melted to the different meats. I asked for jam since it didn’t come with any, and added gobs of strawberry preserves to the already unhealthy sandwich. You only live once, right?

Chris ordered the french toast, which was also made on brioche bread, with caramelized apples on top:

The bread was sliced just thick enough so the egg batter seeped through the entire piece of brioche without making it soggy, making it one great piece of french toast. I’d say Elmo is a place we’d go back to.

Last night, two coworkers from the San Jose office treated me and Vikkie to a meal at Morimoto, the restaurant opened by this guy:

Recognize him? He’s one of head honchos from the show Iron Chef, a show on food network. Needless to say, I was *very* excited! (an interesting side note - he used to be the executive chef at Nobu, the restaurant I’m going to tonight). Morimoto is located in Chelsea (next to the Chelsea Market) in an industrial-looking space. It was designed by Tadao Ando and has this awesome wall of 17,000 water bottles. Also, there are glass partitions that make the atmosphere semi-private (and it’s really great because even though the restaurant was packed, the noise level was kept to a minimum). The sushi bar looked very clean and simple:

We started off with the tuna pizza, the oyster foie gras, a spicy tuna roll, and an eel cucumber roll (and I snuck in two fatty tuna pieces). The tuna pizza is one of Morimoto’s “signature dishes” - it’s a cold appetizer with bluefin tuna, anchovy aioli, and jalepeno’s. There’s also a white sauce that’s drizzled on top of the tuna (maybe wasabi mixed with a japanese mayo?) - the tuna mixed with the crunchiness of the tortilla styled “pizza” is a great combination and our table definitely enjoyed it. The oyster foie gras was also pretty good (no, oyster’s don’t have livers…it was an oyster and on TOP of the oyster was a piece of foie gras). The foie gras literally melted in your mouth and it mixed well with the oyster/teriyaki sauce. I guess the only downside was that there were only THREE oysters, so Vikkie volunteered to be the odd man out (don’t worry - we gave her two extra pieces of tuna pizza to make up for it).

–Side comment: I took pictures of ALL the appetizers with my canon with a 2G memory card, but after taking about 5 pictures, it said that the memory card was FULL! Why would the camera do that? Was it the camera’s fault for reading the 2G card incorrectly? Or was it the SD card’s fault for LYING TO MY CAMERA? Either way, I formatted the card by accident and deleted all of the pictures. I was so sad I almost made everyone order the appetizers/sushi again so I could get pictures of the awesome presentation).

After the foie gras and tuna pizza came, we had the spicy tuna, fatty tuna, and eel/cucumber rolls. The spicy tuna rolls seemed REALLY fresh (the fatty tuna was awesome) and the eel was slightly warm and semi sweet (can it get any better?). The appetizers were definitely a great start to the meal (I was a little worried since Chris said he read about the place and he had it hyped up in his head…I didn’t want to disappoint!).

For my main course, I ordered the surf and turf (yozu butter poached lobster, seared kobe filet, seasoned spinach, and red wine jus):

I’m usually not a fan of butter with lobster (I think it ruins the sweetness of the lobster) but I was literally drenching the lobster in the butter sauce). The butter sauce was slightly creamy and complemented the lobster really well. The kobe filet was AWESOME. I don’t think I’ve ever had meat that tender and juicy (it also had an interesting green sauce that tasted like spinach puree). I liked the pairing with baby asparagus (well, at least that’s what I THINK it was), red wine jus, and mushrooms.

Vikkie ordered their signature dish, the duck duck duck, which is on a foie gras croissant, has a duck egg dipping sauce, a red miso sauce, and one other dipping sauce I didn’t catch the waitress say:

Look at the flakey crust:

She really enjoyed her dish and didn’t feel extremely full afterwards (you know, the way you feel when you eat a lot of red meat). I almost regret not trying it, but it’s incentive to go back!

Chris ordered the Japanese Bouillabaisse, which included a half shell lobster, king crab, mussels, clam diver scallops, all in a red miso sake broth:

He really liked the dish in general, but it looked like it needed a side of rice (or bread? It was too soupy to go without any kind of starch). It looked like a tasty dish and they definitely weren’t stingy with the copious amounts of seafood…I mean, LOOK AT IT.

Finally, Bo ordered the braised black cod - Japanese ratatouille in a ginger soy reduction (at least I think that’s what he ordered - correct me if I’m wrong!):

Bo enjoyed his dish and thought the fish was fresh and light. I think all of us were satisfied with our main courses and didn’t feel extremely full afterwards (which is always a good thing). We ordered dessert (you have to get the FULL picture of the restaurant, obviously). Morimoto’s known for their tofu cheesecake, kabosu creme brulee, and two types of tarts, but we decided to go with the chocolate pecan brownie and the coconut macaroon.

The chocolate pecan brownie:

I brownie was warm and gooey and I usually HATE nuts in brownies (sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t), but the pecans meshed well with the brownie. It was like they were meant for each other. There was also a sliver of ameretto cream espresso ice cream that added a kick to the brownie (Bo thought it was a too sweet in general but Vikkie and I agreed that it was more of a comfort food dish).

The coconut macaroon:

Layer one: coconut macaroon
Layer two: bananas
Layer three: possibly a banana mousse with a little bit of passion-fruit covered in chocolate
Layer four: rum raisin ice cream

I’ve never had a macaroon before, but I thought the coconut macaroon was a little too stiff (it reminded me of a rice cake). If you pushed away the first layer and carefully placed layers two - four on your spoon with a drizzle of the passion fruit sauce, you’d have a party in your mouth! The coconut macaroon was definitely a more summer oriented dessert because it was a lot lighter and the chocolate pecan brownie was a winter-like dessert because it was so rich and you definitely couldn’t pull that off in the heat.

Bo also ordered some tea and it came with this lovely platter of additions:

Vikkie was really excited because she thought they included marshmallows for Bo’s green tea (top left hand corner), but upon closer inspection, we saw that it was just cubes of sugar. The waiter heard Vikkie’s comment and said that she wasn’t the first person to think that they gave marshmallows with tea.

So, one of the most exciting things about Morimoto (besides the delicious food, great ambiance, and great company), was the bathroom. No joke, the bathroom. Vikkie and I went down there (sans camera) and walked into this toilet:

You’re probably wanting to ask me, what is the bar of buttons next to the toilet, Grace? Well, dear reader, it is THIS:

It was a heated toilet seat with a bidet - front AND rear cleansing! hahaha I just HAD to take a picture! You could hear people giggling in the bathroom stalls next to you…I wonder why.

After our wonderful dinner (and two White Lily cocktails), we walked to Magnolia for cupcakes (only Bo and Chris could fit them in after ALL the food we devoured):

I’m more partial to Buttercup because their frosting is less sugary and you can’t taste individual granules…but it looks like Bo and Chris are really enjoying their cupcakes (especially Chris).

Bo and Chris came in from Long Island (where their client is) and since their train wasn’t until 11/12ish, we decided to go for more drinks at the Gansevoort Hotel. Actually, we headed to Ono, the restaurant on the first floor of the hotel since it was a Tuesday night around 10. I’m walking to the restroom in the back of the restaurant…and I run into freaking FABIO!

Do you know him?! He’s probably most well known for his “I can’t believe it’s not Butter” commercials…or the time a bird ran into his nose on a roller coaster. He was with three other guys (his less glamorous entourage?) having dinner at the restaurant. I’ve actually seen him before - when I lived in Pittsburgh, I saw him at a mall doing a promotion for some random thing…maybe a cologne he associated his name with?

Anyway, I tried some of the drinks at Ono, including the lemongrass mojito (which was good, except the mint leaves were too small so I kept eating them - gross). The four of us at Ono:

Bo, me, Chris, and Vikkie.

Audrey, Kori, and Jon joined us after their group dinner at Gramercy Tavern and told us all the debauchery that happened there (I still haven’t been there but I’ve heard it’s pretty good). Chris also joined us after his dinner with a college buddy:

We’re headed to Nobu tonight - I’ll be back with pictures tomorrow!

Another great week AND weekend (except the blast of snow we got on Thursday night that has made the city a wet mess). Every week, Chris and I try to go to one nice restaurant during the week (usually Wednesday or Thursday) and then try some places on the weekends (during the week, it’s hard to enjoy a nice meal with the thought of work in the morning). This past Wednesday, we headed over to Buddakan:

We ordered the sizzling short rib, tea smoked chicken, and vegetable rice. Overall, I thought the food was delicious, although, it tasted very similar to stuff my mom’s made (or stuff you can get in chinatown). The vegetable rice was actually very interesting - there was a coconut curry foam on the side of the rice that mixed very well with the taste of the vegetables. Afterwards, we had our usual dessert of pinkberry (mochi, mangoes, and strawberries) and then walked around in the west village since it was such a nice night (everyone was out with their dogs!). We even saw Ralph Lauren walking around with his son!

On Friday night, we met up for dinner at Lupa, an Italian restaurant owned by Mario Batali (you know, the guy that wears the hideous orange crocs on the food network?):

We went in without a reservation (it only took around 45 minutes, which isn’t bad for a Friday night) and hung out at CVS while we waited to be seated (I needed to buy new socks since mine were soaked through from the snow/sleet/whatever was on the ground). One funny/odd thing about Lupa was their menu - most Italian restaurants will write their menu in Italian (how authentic!) and then write the English translation underneath. At Lupa, however, they wrote everything in Italian on the two front pages and then had a GLOSSARY on the back page. Chris and I ended up flipping the menu back and forth trying to read as much as we could without looking like idiots. I ended up ordering the veal saltimbocca (veal with proscuitto and vegetables) and Chris ordered the bucatoni with a spicy marinara. The veal was a little *too salty* because of the proscuitto, but the bucatoni was really good (spaghetti that’s hollow on the inside).

On Saturday, we had a late lunch before a long day of shopping (actually, we ended up shopping for only like two hours or so since everything closes so early in midtown!). We headed to The Spotted Pig:

I ordered the Chargrilled Burger with Roquefort Cheese & Shoestrings and Chris got the cubano sandwich with arugula salad. The burger was absolutely AWESOME with the roquefort (I thought the cheese was good, but Chris thought it was a tad too strong). The shoestring fries tasted very similar to the marcona almonds with rosemary that you can find at Trader Joe’s (maybe because the shoestring fries were fried WITH rosemary). The cubano sandwich…was the best sandwich I’ve had since Potbelly’s! (Actually, I take that back since Mary’s Fish Camp AND the Pearl Oyster bar have awesome lobster rolls/sandwiches). Anyway, the cubano sandwich had pulled pork, pickles, grilled cheese, all put on a crusty piece of french bread. It was AMAZING! The arugula salad was lightly dressed with a lemony dressing (also great). While waiting for our table, we actually headed to Marc Jacobs to take pictures with a chick! The store dressed up the front with flowers and grass and hired a chick to take pictures with kids (and big kids like us!). It was really cute and cheesy - we just HAD to do it!

After eating at The Spotted Pig, we headed to Barney’s and found a new pair of jeans for Chris. We also walked around the area and couldn’t find any freaking store that was open past 7PM! Since we had a late breakfast/early lunch, we didn’t have anything in between and ended up being starving around 8PM. Initially, we were going to try to get some Indian food, but since we didn’t know any restaurants that were good (even after a phone call to my friend, Maulin), we decided to get pizza instead:

We went to John’s last weekend, but I liked it so much that I HAD to have it again We had a small picnic in Chris’ room (on his new rug!), watched Arrested Development (including the funniest episode, EVER - Mr. F), and ate a mango that Chris bought from the corner bodega the night before (and we put it in a dark bag in his closet so it could ripen a little more).

On Sunday, we headed to Balthazar for brunch:

On the way there, we saw Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady at Extra Virgin (another brunch spot in the West Village). Since we didn’t make a reservation for brunch, we had to wait an hour (but it wasn’t bad since Balthazar is off Broadway, which has lots of shops). While waiting, we headed to Bloomingdales, Pottery Barn, and some random shoe stores. We were STARVING by the time we got a table, but we ordered right away (and there was really good bread while we waited). I ordered the corned beef hash with eggs over easy and Chris ordered the chestnut waffles with sour cream and berries. Chris REALLY liked his waffles:

He didn’t even want to waste his time by cutting the waffles! Good thing we traded halfway through - the waffles were AMAZING (the sour cream really added the extra kick) and we both loved the fruit. The corned beef hash wasn’t what we expected (we were thinking diner food with the little pieces of potatoes - Libby’s, from the can), but instead we had big chunks of potatoes and fresh corned beef hash (if that exists). Overall, brunch was GREAT…AND…we sat next to Lisa Ling! When I first glanced over, I thought it was some random Asian girl, but then I looked again and I knew it was her! She was also with her fiance - after we got home, we looked it up online and she’s engaged to some oncologist from Chicago. And guess what! She drinks tap water, just like the rest of us! (she’s not high maintenance! … or she can’t afford bottled water! …JUST kidding) After telling Angie that I saw Lisa Ling, she told me that her cousin lives in the oncologist’s building and sees Lisa all the time! Small world, huh?

After brunch, we headed to Pinkberry (we WALKED there) to get our usual fro-yo (raspberries, mangoes, and strawberries) and then headed back to Chris’ apartment to pack up and head back to my place. We’ve been taking a bunch of pictures recently (just for fun) and here is my favorite:

We’re headed to The Waverly Inn on Wednesday night, staying in this weekend to catch up on reading, and then I’m headed to Chicago on Tuesday, March 27th!