My Life in Meals

You’ve probably heard about all you can drink brunches, but an all you can drink dinner?!

Welcome to Piola in Union Square, a large Italian eatery where on Wednesday nights ladies can have unlimited house wine (red or white) with any entrée after 8pm.  As you can imagine it’s full of groups of girls from NYU (which was my friends and I just a few years ago), as well as those long graduated (which is us now!).

They have an enormous selection of specialty pizzas, as well as a more limited menu of salads and pastas. The food is consistently good, not life changing or anything - but you’re obviously not coming here for the food!

On our last visit here, we ordered two pizzas and a pasta to share between three of us. I’ve tried a number of their pizzas over the years and I have never gotten a bad one. The Penne Rosate pasta (pictured above), with smoked salmon, tomato sauce, cream and parsley is my favorite pasta on the menu, but the gnocchi is very good as well.

Mareverde Pizza - Shrimp, brie cheese, arugola, tomato sauce and mozzarella (pictured above).

Ortomisto Pizza - Fresh tomatoes, eggplant, spinach, sweet peppers, zucchini, broccoli, tomato sauce and mozzarella (pictured above).

Piola runs all sorts of other gimmicky nightly specials like all you can eat gnocchi night on the 29^th of each month, or all you can eat pizza night on Sunday evenings. Check out all their specials and promotions here.

I highly recommend you plan your next ladies night here! It gets pretty packed, so make a reservation for a guaranteed table with minimal amount of wait time!

Piola
48 East 12th Street
New York, NY 10003
(212) 777-7781
Website
Price: $$

The Biryani Cart has won a number of different awards and accolades, including the People’s Choice Award at the Vendy’s. Besides for the biryani that they are so famous for, they also serve up other South Asian specialties like chicken tikka masala, chicken curry, and kati rolls just to name a few.

I had a day off work this week and was running an errand right by the cart, so of course I could not resist finally trying it out. Because I went pretty early (just before 12pm) I managed to actually score a platter and avoid the line. Word to the wise - they usually sell out by 2pm or earlier so make it an early lunch!

The biryani is all that it’s hyped up to be. I got the Spicy Chicken Biryani and it was extremely fresh, authentic, spicy and delicious - laced with tamarind and an array of other spices and topped off with a boiled egg. Amazingly satisfying!! My only complaint was that they could have offered up a bit more chicken! For you vegetarians, they also have a vegetable biryani option as well.

I might just have to get them to cater my wedding ;)

Biryani Cart
46th St & 6th Ave
New York, NY 10036
Price: $

Kittichai, a Thai restaurant located in the Thompson Hotel, has one of the best all you can drink brunch deals out there. Compared to all the other places in the city (there must be close to 100 now) that offer these bottomless brunches, Kittichai is definitely the most upscale and imaginative.

This year for my birthday, twelve of us dined outside the hotel restaurant in their beautifully draped summertime cabanas. To drink they offer you the option of unlimited lychee bellinis, bloody mary’s or blood orange mimosas. The bloody mary’s were a MUST have even if that’s not your drink of choice. They were perfectly made and had a real kick! The waitress was really great about refilling our drinks often and definitely not stingy - everyone had their fair share of drinks for the afternoon!

Here’s what we got to eat:

Asian Five Spice French Toast withThai basil and fruit compote.   

Kaffir Lime Leaf Pancake with soufflélemongrass butter.      

Eggs Benedicttopped with penang curry hollandaise.  
   

Kittichai Omelette stuffed with thai sour sausage and jumbo lump crab.



Kittichai Pad Thaiwith shrimp, garlic chive and peanuts.

All in all, the dishes were unique and delicious and I would definitely come back again (if only for the amazing bloody mary’s!). I also especially loved the yellow curry potatoes that came with the egg dishes.

They were even nice enough to put together an awesome birthday dessert plate with an assortment of goodies!

Kittichai
60 Thompson St.
New York, NY 10014
212-219-2000
Website
Price: $$$

Stone Street is one of the best thing to happen to Manhattan’s Financial District. It’s a quaint little historic street with cobble stone pathways, fully lined with restaurants and outdoor seating galore. You would never guess that only a block or so over you’d be surrounded by the hustle and bustle of Wall St. Adrienne’s Pizzabar, is one of my favorite restaurants on Stone St., and serves up some awesome “old fashioned” pizza pies. They offer both rectangular pan pie style pizzas, as well as round Neapolitan style pizzas.

This time we went with the round style pies and order the Romana Pizza Pie topped with arugula and prosciutto and the Calabrese Pizza Pie with broccoli rabe and sausage (we also added mushrooms).

Not only is the pizza delicious (in my top 5 for sure, although not comparative to number one - Motorino), but it’s also dog friendly. The waiters were very nice and brought bowls of water for all the pups dining at the restaurant, including ours!

I think I (very) slightly prefer the rectangular pan pizza’s I have had here on other occasions, but both styles are worth trying!

Adrienne’s Pizzzabar
54 Stone Street
New York, NY 10005
(212) 248-3838
Website
Price - $$

Totto Ramen is definitely one of the most sought after ramen joints in New York City right now. We found out that the restaurant opens at 5:00pm on Sundays for dinner, so we arrived at around 5:10pm to try and beat the much heard about rush. Not only was the entire place full, but the line was already out the door and down the sidewalk. That’s usually a sign that a place is going to be really, really good.

The restaurant has no more then 20 seats, but the line moves fairly quickly, and we managed to get seated at the bar within 45 minutes. Sitting at the bar actually turned out to be a plus, because the chefs are really friendly and  exude quite a bit of showmanship and flair while preparing bowls of steaming hot ramen and other Japanese small plates.

To start with we got the Char Siu Mayo Don, which consists of the house special broiled pork with yuzu mayonnaise on a bed of rice. Who would have thought a bowl of mayo, pork and rice would be so delicious? I’d like to think it’s something so simple that I can make it at home, but it’s probably not. We also got the Avo Tuna dish, which consisted of tuna sashimi with avocado marinated in their special yuzu garlic sauce. The tuna was delicious and fresh, with perfectly clean flavors. So far, a great start to them meal!

As for the ramen, we were able to share a bowl between the two of us since we got appetizers beforehand. A coworker recently sent me this list of the spiciest dishes in the city according to Time Out New York. The phaal curry, which I ate here, was of course on there, and so was the Totto Extreme Spicy Ramen. We added a seasoned boiled egg for an extra $1, and I truly believe that extra addition really helped round out the dish! The chilli oil concoction came on the side in a little bowl, thus you could add as much or little as you wanted. I put it all in! While it was spicy, it was comfortably spicy and definitely no comparison to the phaal at Brick Lane Curry House. What was clearly the most special part about this bowl of ramen, was the broth. It had an immense amount of depth to it - intensely meaty and flavorful. It was so good that we spooned in the rest of the rice from the Char Siu Mayo Don to soak up and enjoy the remaining broth at the end of the meal.

Totto Ramen
366 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019
(212) 582-0052
Website
Price: $$

If you read my blog, you know I am insane about spicy food. I just can’t put enough hot sauce, sriracha, chili powder, jalapenos, etc on everything I eat. Two years ago, I saw an episode of Man vs. Food with my fiance and we vowed we would try it. On this particular episode, shot in New York City,  Adam Richman visit’s Brick Lane Curry House to take on the Phaal Challenge. His challenge was to eat “the spiciest curry in the world” (so they proclaim). Watch the chef prepare the curry with a gas mask (yes, it’s that hot!) and Richman do the challenge in excruciating pain here.

After much time had passed we finally ended up going to their newer location midtown. The waitress  brought out our menus, and we scanned them for the challenge dish. The phaal, as described on the menu, is “an excruciatingly hot curry, more pain and sweat than flavor. For our customers who do this on a dare, we will require you to state a verbal disclaimer not holding us liable for any physical or emotional damage after eating this curry”.

So we ordered two, I got the chicken and my fiance the lamb. Our sweet waitress look worried and distressed, and asked us about 3 times if we were sure we wanted to do it. Of course we were sure, we’re no sissy’s - bring it on!!!

The phaal came and it looked pretty nondescript - your average curry dish, maybe a bit darker in color then most. So we dug in on the count of three. My fiance took one bite and said no way in hell is he eating that. It was so hot I wanted to cry, but that’s the thing about people who are addicted to spicy food. We have what I like to call “spicy food egos”, always trying to one up each other on how much heat we can take. I knew at that moment I just HAD to finish it!

They let you have lassi and yogurt if you need it, although I tried not to fill my stomach up on that stuff. One hour later, after feeling like my insides were slowly being tortured, my lips turning Angelina Jolie big, and wanting to pull my hair out - I finally finished it!!! The waitress even said I was one of the first girls she has seen finish the challenge. In reward for my masochism, I received a free Kingfisher beer, a certificate proclaiming that I am officially a “curry monster”, and a picture on their website.

Was it worth it? Probably not, but hey at least I have a story to tell!

Brick Lane Curry House
308 East 6th St
New York, NY 10003
(212) 979-2900

Brick Lane Curry House Too
235 East 53rd St
New York, NY 10022
(212) 339-8353

Website
Price:$$-$$$ ‎

If you read my last post about Eataly, you know that I just love it. It’s a foodie paradise, and to make it even better, they opened a rooftop biergarten and restaurant called Birreria. I have tried coming here a couple of times before, but the line had just been too long to wait. Over fourth of July weekend, when the city tends to empty out, I finally got my shot. We went right up with absolutely no wait!

They serve beer and wine from large casks, and much like everything else at Eataly, it’s a bit on the pricy side. They serve wine by the glass, 1/2 carafe or full carfare. The full carfare, which is equal to one regular size bottle of wine, is definitely a better deal then ordering by the glass. We decided to try the Bastianich Rosato (Rose) on this scorching hot summer day.

Although they are known for their sausages up here, we were more in a snack mood so we got an assortments of their Formaggi and Salumi (meat’s and cheese’s). Each and every one was high quality, fresh and delicious.

If your planning on visiting Birreria, be prepared to wait on long lines. But once your up there, it’s well worth the wait!

Birreria (Located on the rooftop of Eataly)
200 5th Avenue
New York, New York 10010
(646) 398-5100
Website
Price: $$$

Have you ever had South African food? Me neither. In fact, I didn’t (and probably still don’t) even really know what constitutes as South African food. I came across Braai on Wined and Dined’s trusty list of all you can drink brunch spots in the city. The menu looked interesting, and I am always up for trying new things!

This place is really a hidden gem. It’s small, but fully equipped with vaulted reed-thatch ceilings and tree trunk lined walls, making you feel like you have escaped into an African Oasis. The “mimosas” included in the all you can drink special were actually made with pomegranate juice instead of OJ. They were awesome, and I love the glasses they were served in! They also start you off with some scones for the table with butter and apricot jelly. I’m not generally a jelly fan but this was really fresh and tasted homemade.

Everyone’s food was really really good. I wish I had tried South African cuisine ages ago! Here’s what we got:

The Fish Parcel consisted of deep fried fish and calamari served with slapchips in vineger. The calamari was huge and the fish was nicely seasoned, although it could have been slightly more crispy. Nonetheless, still delicious! It was even served in a newspaper, like they do at authentic fish and chip spots in London.

The Mini Braii Burgers, consisted of two mini lamb burgers topped with grilled shitake mushrooms and caramelized onions. Perfectly cooked medium and delicious toppings.

Ostrich Benedict, which consisted of sliced ostrich, poached eggs, served on english muffins with hollandaise sauce. I had never tried ostrich before, and expected it to be very tough and gamey but this was actually very tender. A unique twist on a classic dish!

Braai
329 West 51st Street
New York, NY 10019-6422
(212) 315-3315
Website
Price: $$-$$$

Mototino has the best pizza in NYC, according to the New York Times. That’s a really big claim to make considering the multitudes of amazing pizza joints here in New York, and I knew they wouldn’t just make a statement like that without some level of certainty. After reading this article last year, I of course had to check it out for myself (and I have been going back ever since!). I have to agree with the Times on this one, this really is the best pizza in NYC.

Motorino has two locations, one in the East Village and one in Williamsburg. The Brooklyn location is much larger, and the pizza slightly better in my opinion. They serve up high-end Neapolitan style pizza’s - thin crusts, perfectly charred, but airy and chewy at the same time.

This is the first time I have gone for brunch, and I was eager to try the Pizza Al’ Uovo, the specialty brunch pie with cow milk mozzarella, chili oil, basil, pecorino and farm fried eggs. Wow wow wow!!! Of course I loved the chili oil, amazing touch!!! This was pretty messy to eat but SO worth it.

We also had my other two favorites, the Soppressata Piccante made with, mozzarella, spicy soppressata, garlic and oregano and the Brussels Sprout & Pancetta pizza, made with mozzarella, garlic and pecorino cheese. Brussels sprout on a pizza? Who would have thought that would be good! But this sauce-less pie really works! The brussels sprouts get perfectly charred in the oven and are a great compliment to the pancetta.

Motorino East Village
349 East 12th Street
New York, NY 10003

Motorino Brooklyn - CLOSED
319 Graham Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Website
Price: $$-$$$

I was so excited last week when I was taking my usual walk to the subway, and saw that the Jamaican Dutchy cart has now moved to 38th st between 6th and 7th ave. I’m not in the area during lunchtime, so I got some picked up for me and ate it for dinner.

So here’s what they’ve got: Goat Curry, Jerk Chicken, Stewed Chicken, Escovitch Fish, Cow’s Foot, and a few other daily Jamaican specialties. I tried the oxtails platter (large $11) and it was delicious, even reheated. First, the portion is humongous, two people can easily share a large. Second, the amount of meat they give you is highly surprising, considering that oxtails are on the pricey side. Third, the rice & “peas” they serve it with are delicious, although I’m not sure why they are called peas when they are clearly kidney beans?

The only thing that was missing was some heat! Isn’t Jamaican food supposed to be really spicy? This was SO mild that it really felt bland! Next time I will have to inquire and see if they have any hot sauce. Can’t wait to try the Cows Foot and Jerk Chicken!

Jamaican Dutchy
38th st (btwn 6th and 7th)
Website
Price: $$$ (for a cart)