late, but still delicious: almost homemade pizza

Take one kumato tomato that you bought for a salad and find out that you don't have any canned.

Chop it coarsely and place in a pan that's been bubbling with butter, onions, garlic, oregano, thyme and basil.

Let it get saucy.

Take one tiny package of ricotta di bufala and use about half atop a pizza crust you got from Fairway because you simply don't have enough room to roll out anything.

Top this with a whole package of mozzarella di bufala that you got from Murray's along with the ricotta.

Add a sprinkling of a 4 cheese mix you had leftover from D'agostino.

Sprinkle with oregano.

Pop in the oven till warm and bubbly.

Devour.

Wait about a week and forget that you didn't post this. Post it.

Fin.

a reasonable visit

We had a LOT of food... and walked all over the damn place.

My friends from WoW (the Reasons) stayed in Embassy Suites all the way out of the mf'in way north of Battery Park City and the stupid escalator/elevator for one of the bridges over the west side highway was broken so there was a lot of carrying stroller up the first day till they clued in on going up to Chambers St and walking across.


Thursday

went to get xiao long bao their first day here at Joe's Shanghai. Friend really liked them and she said the crab ones were better than the ones in Shanghai, mostly because they don't use much crab there, but that the pork ones were half aszed because you could taste they used chicken broth in the soup base instead of all porky goodness.

Then we had bubble tea at Quickly and I took them to Ferrara for some cannoli, gelato and other treats.

Friday

They came over and Marshall, the baby, came through like a hurricane.

Mallow hissed at him like three times and Mallow's only hissed twice in his whole life before then so you can tell how he feels about hyper babies.

We sat and they watched the Ghana/Netherlands WC game.

I was trying to bake a cake (nutella n chocolate bundt cake) for the longest but keeping a not-quite-two-year-old out of the kitchen and occupied is daunting.

I got it into the oven right before they left and then I had to wait for my stupid left handed mouse to be delivered.

They had to go out with their fam and they chose this very touristy spot called the View. For 15 people or so (including the kids) it came out to about 1200 bucks and a bunch of mediocre food.

BF and I went out to PJ Clarke's for burgers since it was close by and then they came over for the cake. We got some "fancy" beer for the guys (Piraat and Chimay )



Then we watched the second Family Guy Star Wars on hulu and I bought the first one to watch from iTunes.

Saturday

we got up relatively early and went to Jade Asian for dim sum:

Marshall cuteness intermission










this is pumpkin with bean paste


egg tarts


roast pork buns


scallops with a slightly sweet and buttery topping


shumai


salt and pepper shrimp. (so good and fresh, even with the skin on.)


watermelon tapioca dessert thingie. This was AWESOME. You know how I am about all things wallamelon. Plus it was extra sweet and red and the tapioca pearls were tiny.



fried taro filled with pork


chinese cruller in flat rice noodles served with vinegar and soy on top n hoisin sauce on the side (peking duck sauce).



We also had short ribs, shrimp shumai and my friend got congee with 100 year old egg in it, but iono where I put those pics.



random shots










We had bubble tea at Sago afterward, then sampled one meat on a stick from meat on a stick guy. She also picked up some lychee for a snack later.

Went back to their hotel and waited for some of their fam to get back and babysit all the kids (there were about 6-7 total between all the family members)

After that we went to Ippudo and they told us a 3 hour wait.. so I put my name down and then we went to saint's alp tea house and her husband's brother had bubble tea for the first time.

They've just finished renovating, but it still looks the same inside.

BF had a gingerbread bubble tea. I got this lychee slushie thing and it was yum.

Then we went to Pommes Frites .... got the sweet mango chutney and roasted garlic frite sauces. After that we stopped by Klimat for some polish beer then got the call that the table before us was paying.

Here's what we had at Ippudo

The guys shared this thing of cloudy sake (I had a black plum wine that had a yummy brown sugar aftertaste)



This is salmon tatsu-age .. so it's deep fried and served with grilled pepper, this thingie I have no idea, lemon and the mayo that I didn't touch. The salmon was PERFECTLY salted and mmm.



BF and I shared an Akamaru Modern ramen which had more flavor. I asked for two eggs (for me, he says they're gross when they're only partly cooked) and a side of pork belly which you can see below. We ended up getting another plate of noodles cause he's a bottomless starch pit.





Then since her husband had talked about doner kebab so much I yelp'd this place called Yatagan and we walked there even though we were stuffed. He and I ordered one but I ate mine for breakfast the next day. The meat on the spit was very moist and succulent, but I was damn tired so I didn't take any pictures.

I even nabbed a skrawberry Jarritos from the Mexican food cart near the Christopher st 1 stop... the stairs have gotten even worse there, if you can imagine. They're supposed to be "fixing" them.



Sunday

We met them at Columbus Circle this morning and had a bit of Grom gelato (I got the stracciatella and the crema come una volta) before walking towards FAO Schwartz for kiddie goodness.

Stopped into Pop Burger for a quick bite. Loved the fries, burgers are so so. I've had their onion rings before and the fries are much better. Burger was the same both times.

So after going through the whole store leading Marshall along by dangling a new toy in front of him we came to the youngest child section and I found something I wanted.

It's cute and it's called ittybit from the Bunnies by the Bay collection



I can make it dance to music with my fingers and chuck it at his head if he says something silly.

This afternoon it was like 94 degrees. We went to this cute little japanese sweets shop in Rock Center called Minamoto Kitchoan.

http://www.kitchoan.com/E/index_b_natsu2004_e.html

I had a white peach sorbet right in the store because it was so hot outside. I was gonna take them to La Maison du Chocolat, but it's closed on Sundays.

We had pizza from Artichoke Basille for lunch. They're opening a larger place in Chelsea that will stay open till 5am with an expanded menu and bar. ^_^

lucali we meet again

Went here again last weekend for only the second time and loved it!

... once we got our seats, that is.




I know the drill, you go up and you get told there's about an hour and a half wait and it's TRUE...

but wait, it isn't this time, it isn't true at all.


You're sitting in a tapas bar on Atlantic avenue enjoying some sangria and stuffing your mouth full of warm bread slathered in butter and you get the call.

"Your table is ready?"

Wuh... it's only been 45 minutes!!

....SHIT.. you stuff the bread in your mouth even faster and get the chorizo you were going to linger over to go then hoof your sangria laden tummies over to Lucali... and THEN..

the wait...

Apparently the people that had our table had paid when they called but they sat... they sat their annoying asses down at that table for another half hour taking bird sips out of a glass of wine and talking about bullshit that could have been spoken about somewhere else.

C'mon people.. you know the deal, you KNOW in a place whose waiting list can fill up in 30mins-hour in the summer that you have to eat your food and get your ass out of the place.

You paid, you leave.. please leave, please don't leave me sitting on a cold bench glaring at you through the window.

You don't want that.

I don't want that.


I wanted to throw something at you but the glass was in the way.

If I'd pressed my nose against the glass would it have made you move faster?

No...

A table of two arrived after us and got sat because we were still waiting for you.

Enough of my ranting.. onto the food.


We got the artichoke pizza that day and it was deeelushious... Thinly sliced pieces of artichoke heart with that slightly vinegary bite and buttery smooth texture made it perfect.

I'd picked up a bottle of Riesling and good thing because by the time the two... ladies.. left the table we were going to sit at I'd lost my sangria buzz.


A sangria buzz is a terrible thing to waste and I spent it fuming outside the restaurant while a group of people outside discussed Gour MET... food. I wish I was kidding, I hope they were.

Ooh, you know I said I'd stop ranting. We got a pepperoni calzone to go and my bf took it back up to Buffalo with him. He tells me it was delicious. I side eye my phone....

Hah, but really love this place.

pizza pizza

So I'd just come back from a night out with the MM crew and around 1ish I got hungry (the place we went to had tasty food, but small portions and I wasn't really feeling what was left on the table by the end. Awesome horchata with rum though!)

I had bought some pizza dough a couple days earlier to use the rest of my spaghetti sauce on. I didn't wait the two hours for it to be room temperature so the dough and I fought till it would stay spread out in the pan (I won!)


I put the sauce on top, some mozzarella, oregano, pepperoni from Vermont Smoke & Cure that I cut up, some cheddar and a sprinkling of Parmesan. I also added olive oil to the bottom of the pan and drizzled some on top when it was done.

Now I get to have it for lunch today!

Artichoke Basile... a mini DiFara closer and quicker

So I went to this tiny place (14th b/t 1st and 2nd) a couple days ago and had to get the Artichoke pie..

It was good, very good, but it's not what made me swoon with delight.

This...this... smallish slice of Sicilian pizza heaven is what will keep me going back for more:

The crust is infused with generous amounts of olive oil. The sauce is perfectly chunky and the cheese just coats the whole thing in a blanket of deliciousness. There's fresh basil on this and the regular slice and when I go back I'm going to skip the artichoke slice so I have more room for these.

When I went they didn't have the cauliflower fritti because apparently with the volume of people coming through it's hard to make it in a sensible amount of time.

I look forward to the day when I can try that too. =)