BubbleQ Best Bites at 2010 South Beach Wine & Food Festival

Date February 27, 2010

Meat and champagne on the sand, a Friday night only Miami Beach could pull off.  NYC Food Guy has the good fortune to find himself in the midst of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival and last night’s BubbleQ was a carnivore’s delight featuring endless Perrier-Jouet bubbly and meat galore from some serious chefs.  I tried around 18 of the featured 31 dishes and only four truly impressed, one of which is from a newly popular New York chef. Read on for the best bites…

BUBBLEQ COMPILATION - NYCFoodGuy.com

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Skirt Steak & Eggs Brunch Battle: The Breslin vs Yuca Bar

Date February 26, 2010

Skirt Steak and eggs: the Clint Eastwood of breakfast.  Its been around forever and it’s still badass.  And while The Breslin tries to cement its badass status with a no reservations policy and a meat-centric menu, Yuca Bar draws diners and imbibers to its Latin American oasis as coolly as Clint draws movie viewers.  So which skirt steak and eggs is the genuine article: The $17 Breslin version or the $13.95 Yuca Bar prix fixe?

BRESLIN VS YUCA BAR SKIRT STEAK AND EGGS

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Homemade: Bacon-Wrapped Baked Brie

Date February 25, 2010

This delicious, affordable and simple recipe comes complements of the esteemed King of Ketchup.  If you’d like to submit your recipes to the site, e-mail details and a photo to lawrence@nycfoodguy.com.  Happy Cooking!

Any dish made with bacon and brie is really hard to mess up.  This recipe calls for three ingredients: brie, bacon, and Pillsbury biscuit flakes, and it can be prepared and cooked in under ten minutes.

Baked Brie with Bacon - NYCFoodGuy.com

  • First, cut a piece of brie about 3/4 of an inch long and 1/4 inch wide.
  • Next, peel one or two flakes off of your Pillsbury biscuits (I prefer the flakes, but the regular crescent dough should work just as well — click the link to print out a $1 coupon) and seal your brie up in the dough.  Make sure to pinch the edges tightly so it doesn’t break open in the oven.
  • Finally, wrap a strip of raw bacon around the outside, and pop that bad-boy in the oven at 375 or 400 degrees.  Cook ’til golden brown and enjoy.
  • And if you really wanna get fancy, you can beat an egg and paint some on the outside before cooking to give this sexy little hors d’oeuvre a slightly crispier, glazed finish.

“Salsa Picante” Mac & Cheese Special at S’Mac for One Month Only

Date February 24, 2010

This is the love child of nachos, Velveeta salsa dip and mac and cheese.  The photo of the glowing orange cheddar-tortilla crumb crust below doesn’t reveal much of the Salsa Picante’s innards but that’s because there’s not much to show.  S’Mac’s description of the Salsa Picante ($7.75), “Pepper Jack, Cheddar, Salsa, Chicken Breast, and Cilantro,” is more like nacho-flavored crust above creamy, mildly spicy, salsa-flavored cheese sauce sparsely studded with green pepper and onion, mingling with chunks of ordinary, flavorless chicken breast.   If you order the Salsa Picante, get it with no chicken. With the exception of beef in the Cheeseburger S’Mac, eaters should steer clear of adding meat to their S’Mac.  Whether it’s slab bacon or chicken, the meat’s lack of flavor and chewy texture only decrease enjoyment.  The option to add freshly sliced jalapeno peppers, something S’Mac does not provide, would really improve the Salsa Picante.  There was an actual upside to this experience, so read ahead to find out…

Salsa Picante S'Mac - NYCFoodGuy.com

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$2 Beer & $5 Pad Thai All Day at Cafetasia on Avenue A b/t 5th & 6th Street

Date February 19, 2010

I walked fourteen blocks for Indian take out from Punjab but before I got home I stopped for Pad Thai.  I was compelled by the big poster behind the window of Cafetasia: $2 Beer & $5 Pad Thai All Day.  My immediate thought was that the Pad Thai would make a good appetizer for my three Indian curries.  But surprisingly, Cafetasia’s $5 bowl of Pad Thai is filling despite the presence of  just 3 measly shrimp (you can also choose beef or chicken).  Asking for my Pad Thai “spicy” didn’t offer much heat and unfortunately allowed several over-saturated pockets of crushed peanut dominate the dish’s flavor.  Ask for hot sauce on the side to avoid this.

Cafetasia - NYCFoodGuy.com

With Blue Moon, Sierra Nevada, Brooklyn Lager and Sapporo on tap and Singha and Amstel Light in bottles all for $2, all day, this is a deal worth trying as long as it exists, which for now is indefinitely.

Cafetasia 85 Avenue A b/t 5th & 6th Street New York, NY 10009 (212) 260-8570  www.cafetasia.com

NYC Caribbean Food Worth Traveling For: Freda’s at 109th & Columbus Ave

Date February 15, 2010

It’s me. Your sense of adventure.  The reason you moved to New York City.  I’m your craving for new experiences and I’m hungry! Starving!   No more excuses.  Just get off your ass and do it! NYC Food Guy is making it easy for you.  It’s time to explore uncharted territory with your feet and your fork.  Go to Freda’s at 109th Street and Columbus Avenue and eat Caribbean food. Spicy jerk chicken.  Tender, fall off the bone chicken stewed in a tangy brown sauce.  Yams which are more caramelized than candied (and may alone be worth the trip).  So read this review and quit wasting our time, feed me!

Freda's NYC Food Guy.com

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Gratuitous Breakfast Food Porn: Irresistible Banana-Macadamia Nut Flapjacks at Norma’s in Le Parker Meridien Hotel

Date January 19, 2010

Two crispy-edged, fluffy on the inside, plate-size pancakes studded with slices of ripe banana and topped with mixed candied nuts and a melting river of whipped banana brown sugar butter!  Syrup is superfluous.  If you want to avoid the $21 price tag, you’ll find the recipe for this decadence in the thumbnails below.  Let us know how they turn out.

IMG_0818 comp

IMG_0821 comp

Irresistible Banana-Macadamia Nut Flapjacks Recipe - NYCFoodGuy.com

Norma’s at Le Parker Meridien Hotel
119 West 56th Street b/t 6th & 7th Ave (Google Map) New York, NY 10019 212-245-5000 Open 7 days/week until 3pm Official Website Norma’s Menu (PDF)

NYC Best Italian: Maialino Enhances the Danny Meyer Legacy

Date January 15, 2010

The Executive Chef, Nick Anderer, he knows how to do it.  Dana, my waiter, he knows how to do it too.  Even the cute barista (yes, Maialino has actual baristas) knows how to do it, as the feathery heart she shaped into my cappuccino foam proves.  “It” is a microcosm of the Danny Meyer brand; great service and great food.  And after my first formal Meyer restaurant experience, NYC Food Guy can confirm that he has done “it” again, improving on his soon to be globe-spanning success with his first Italian venture, Maialino.  My three dining companions and I put Anderer and his kitchen to the test, ordering a prodigious feast you have to see to believe…

Maialino Collage - NYCFoodGuy.com

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Gratuitous Food Porn: Momofuku Ramen & Pork Buns at Momofuku Noodle Bar

Date January 11, 2010

Sinful food photos are what make a NYC Food Guy review but I have so many waiting in the wings, the real sin would be not sharing them with you, my hungry readers.  Cue the gratuitous food porn…

There’s not much left to say about Momofuku Noodle Bar.  All NYC Food Guy can reluctantly add is that the food is truly worth the ever-present wait.  Most dishes are delicious (except for the tamales) but if I could only eat two, it’s the Steamed Pork Buns ($9) housing a ribbon of crispy, fatty pork belly resting on a dab of hoison sauce and topped with sliced cucumber and scallion…

Momofuku Noodle Bar Pork Buns - NYCFoodGuy.com

…and the Momofuku Ramen ($16), a steaming porky bath of springy noodles topped with bamboo shoots, crisp nori, sliced kamaboko (white fish cake), chopped scallions, pulled pork shoulder, more pork belly, and crowned with a single, decadent poached egg.  Crack the egg, dip some pork in the yolk and brace yourself for the swoon.

Momofuku Ramen - NYC Food Guy.com

Momofuku Noodle Bar 171 First Ave b/t 10th & 11th  St, New York, NY 10003 (Google Map) 212-777-7773 Official Website

Related: Momofuku Milk Bar Cinnamon Bun Pie vs Cinnabon

Related: Momofuku Milk Bar Candy Bar Pie

NYC Best Doughnuts: A Pilgrimage To Doughnut Plant

Date January 4, 2010

If you like doughnuts at all, then you haven’t lived until you’ve made the pilgrimage to Doughnut Plant, the holy land of sugar-coated fried dough in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.  And like any cultish New York City institution, the lines can be long and the hours can be short but if you manage to secure the goods, all is forgiven thanks to the melt-in-your-mouth caress of doughnut bliss.  Read on for a taste of each doughnut below plus a surprise treat …

Doughnut Plant NYC Food Guy.com

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