New York Foodie Fixing Must EATS!

So after a full month of being back on the Jozi Cool I have finally compiled my list of must do eats in New York City.

Brunching:
I'll start with what we, The Love World Tour-ists, did the most and the best Brunch

1. Revel in the Meatpacking District for bottomless mimosas
2. The Dutch in SoHo also great for fried chicken and dessert pies
3. Ze Cafe Midtown try anything with crab
4. The Co Op for the Everyday People Brunch Lower Eastside

As you can imagine there was lots to do in New York so most of my lunching was done on the go, these are my favourites. Cost effective and a little grease with the shake shack burgers.
Lunching on the go:

1. Hampton Chutney Upper Westside for dosas 
2. The City Bakery for healthy buffet
3. Shake Shack for a shack burger and black & white shake
4. Cafe Duke Soho for hearty Asian inspired buffet
5. Olives Soho for fresh sandwiches and choc chip cookies

Dinners:
We have an apartment in New York so most dinners were homemade by myself or my mum but we did manage to get a few GREAT dinners in.

1. Gramercy Tavern Flatiron district the Tavern for the vibe and the dining room for fine dining
2. Fatty Crab Upper Westside for the chili crab
3. Momofuku Noodle Bar East Village for RAMEN! their pork, shrimp or mushroom buns are AMAZE!

Sweets and treats
I am a sucker for sweets, especially pastries and I have to say if you can only pick one sweet treat head over to Dominique Ansel Bakery during the day. You will not regret it

1. Dominique Ansel Bakery SoHo for salted caramel eclairs, macaroons and made to order madeleines
2. Baked by Melissa Soho for mini cupcakes on the go
3. The Big Gay ice cream shop for red velvet ice cream sandwich and the salty  pimp
4. Momofuku Milk Bar Upper Westside for cereal milk ice cream and a slice of sickly sweet yet addictive crack pie
5. Veneiros Italian Bakery East Village for cannolis

Happy New York Eating!

Birthday dessert at Gramercy Tavern

Gramercy Tavern Desserts!

The desserts were started off with a small dish courtesy of the chef (no not just for me). Fresh raspberry with ricotta and a fennel biscuit.

Fresh raspberries with ricotta

Although a bit small the plum tarte tatin was yum, sweet and tart. It was served with the most delish roasted peach ice cream.

Plum tarte tatin

Dessert doubles

At the end of the night, we get a sweet coser of chocolates, chocolate tortes and macaroons.

 I loved the evening in the dining room and I will be back to try the tavern and bar.

Birthday dinner at Gramercy Tavern

This is a little late, yes I am captured by New York, but I spent last Thursday evening having dinner at Gramercy Tavern. It was a pre-bday celebration. The chef Michael Anthony won the 2012 James Beard Award for 'Best Chef NYC'

Gramercy Tavern has high ceilings with dark wood beams and is divided into two sections the lively bar and tavern area then the quieter dining room.The table opted for the full tasting menu of 6 courses in total with an amuse bouche to get us started and a breakfast muffin to take home for breakie the next day to end.

I love a little tipple to start the evening, so I had the Pineapple painkiller. Pineapple infused rum with lemonade and strawberries.

The Amuse bouche of scallop sashimi was sweet in a well balanced tart tomato vinaigrette

Scallop Sashimi served in a tomato vinaigrette

First course of smoked Red Snapper with sunchoke, shiitake mushrooms in a smoked jalapeno broth. The snapper was slightly salty with a light wood (from the smoking) undertone in a ever so tart broth. The smoked fish overpowered the jalapeno a little as I could only pick it up when I tasted the broth seperately.

Red Snapper

Second course smoked hake salad of sweet peas, braised lettuce and pickled ramps. The hake is a mild sweet white fish which took on the smoke beautifully, served in a sweet salty balance broth with firm bordering a moment undercooked sweet peas. Yum, I so love peas they tasted as bright as they looked! 

Smoke Hake Salad

Third course of soft shell crab with sugar snap peas, pickled burdock and carrot mustard vinaigrette. It was lovely dish but the ultra crisp and crunchy batter totally drowned the crab flavour.

Soft Shell Crab

The meat courses begin with medium roasted squab set on a confit of squab with barley, sungold tomatoes and fava beans. The ingredients had good depth of texture with the barley and slightly crunchy beans. The squab was quite gamey, so too me it had an extremely irony taste to it but perfectly cooked. I did enjoy the squab confit more than the medium roasted squab. 

Overall the chef had a heavy seasoning hand with this dish.

Squab

I have to caveat that as a South African it is hard to please me with a steak elsewhere in the world because SA meat is top class and full of flavour.

The  final main of Beef sirloin and braised flat iron with roasted mushrooms, garlic scapes and crispy confit potatoes. The beef was perfectly cook served with earthy mushrooms and lifted with crunchy garlic greens as in green beans.

Beef Sirloin & Braised Flat iron

I enjoyed the progression and the difference in the dishes using more or less the same seasonal ingredients. Overall it was a good meal, the essence of comfort food uplifted!

Oh where is dessert you ask? There's a post just for Gramercy Tavern Dessert