Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream - New York, NY

So what does Soomeenshee do after eating a huge meal at Lure Fishbar?  Go eat ice cream of course! Yes, her stomach knows no bounds.  It so happened to be parked in SoHo and we were going to walk around and burn some extra calories, but I got sidetracked by the Van Leeuwen ice cream truck.

Lure Fishbar - New York, NY (Soho)

I went to go visit Pete in New York last month and I always face a conundrum when I am there.  I have limited time and there's too many places to eat.  So when Pete asked what I wanted to eat for lunch on Saturday, I had no clue.  Luckily Pete suggested lobster rolls.  It's hard to say no to lobster rolls, so off we went to Soho to Lure Fishbar.

Peasant - New York, NY

Last month, while I was in NY, we went out to celebrate Pete's birthday at Peasant in Nolita. Pete's friend Cathy described it best when she characterized the place as serving Rustic Tuscan food. It's a dark, cozy space with an exposed kitchen area at the far end of the restaurant. You'll see a glowing, open fire cooking up pizzas and roasting chickens stuck on a never ending ferris wheel look-a-like. It definitely has the rustic charm of an old countryside kitchen in a remote Italian village somewhere. I've never been to Italy before, but this is what I imagine all restaurants to look like there. Am I right?

I will share with you some of the dishes we had - sorry no pictures again since it was muy dark and I stopped after I blinded everyone with my flash. I loved how they gave you crusty bread with fresh ricotta and EVOO in the beginning. It was soo yummy. I would have just grabbed a spoon and eaten the ricotta by the spoonfuls if I wasn't on my best behavior and it wasn't Pete's birthday. =) We went ahead and ordered some pizza for starters: the pizza margherita and pizza pepperoncini e sopressata. The wood-fired pizzas were good, but I don't think they would be filling enough for an entree and they have far too many, other interesting items on their menu to choose from. I'm convinced their whole menu was in Italian, because I couldn't understand most of it. We kept asking the waitress questions about the menu, but she seemed peeved that we didn't know what to her were basic Italian words. She was not very nice.

They had a wide range of dishes with interesting meat options, like rabbit, venison and quail. I stayed away from all of those and ordered the tagliolini with uni instead. It had tons of roasted garlic and creamy uni. I think we all ended up ordering all different dishes and everyone seemed to like what they got. All of the dishes I tried were really good. One of the girls noted that her pasta was on the salty side and I would have to agree, they are a bit liberal with their seasoning, but having fresh pasta made me almost forget how salty it was.

For dessert, we had bread pudding and panna cotta. The bread pudding was good, but I thought the panna cotta was heavenly. Did anyone watch the Top Chef episode where Robin made the Bellagio-inspired panna cotta for the Las Vegas casino challenge? The judges were flabbergasted that she had never made panna cotta before and that she was going to attempt it for the first time during the challenge. Bad idea. (They make it sound like it's so easy to make though. I might have to make making panna cotta one of my new year's resolutions for next year. haha.) Robin's panna cotta got horrible remarks from the judges. I loved it when Nigella pointed out that panna cotta should not bounce, but rather “have the quiver of a 17th century courtesan’s inner thigh.” Well put! I think Nigella would be pleased with Peasant's panna cotta. It had the perfect texture and flavor and it had no problem shimmying down my throat and into my tummy. Get the panna cotta, it's really good. This panna cotta might very well give any courtesan a run for her money.

Peasant

194 Elizabeth St
(between Prince St & Spring St)
New York, NY 10012

Ippudo NY - New York, NY

Pete took me to Ippudo last time I was in NY so when she asked what I wanted to eat for lunch, naturally it was a no brainer for me. Ippudo!

We started off with an order of pork buns for appetizer. These were amazing! It's basically a slice of fatty pork, smothered in a spicy sauce with some mayo and lettuce in a steamed white bun, kind of like the white buns you get at Chinese restaurants. The flavor and texture combo is divine. The bun is fluffy and soft and the pork just melts in your mouth. Forget the Korean taco trucks, someone needs to start an Ippudo pork bun truck and bring it to LA.

After I finished the pork bun, I noticed two guys sitting across from us with various plates of food in front of them. I couldn't help but stare at a plate of what looked like steaming hot green peppers. They looked so interesting (the peppers, not the guys). I asked Pete what that was and she said they were fried shisito peppers, a popular bar food item in Tokyo. Pete saw my covetous glances and told me to just order it so I did. They were delicious. Although they look like jalapeno peppers, these peppers are very mild. It came with some lemon salt on the side that you can dip the peppers in.

For the ramen, I ordered the Akamaru Modern, which is the original tonkotsu soup noodles with Ippudo's special sauce (the red paste you see below), miso paste, fragrant garlic oil, slices of simmered Berkshire pork, cabbage, onions, kikurage and scallions. The broth is creamy and rich, without tasting too heavy or oily. I realize that's a poor description, but you just have to try it for yourself and you'll see what I mean. If I hadn't eaten so many peppers, I'm sure I would have slurped the broth to the very last drop.

I probably shouldn't have ordered the set menu, but this was pre-my order of the fried peppers. The set menu consists of a small salad, a bowl of rice with fried chicken, pork or spicy cod roe and your ramen of choice. I barely touched my fried chicken rice bowl, but what I did taste of it was good. But next time, I'd order the pork buns, fried shisito peppers and the ramen and stick with that combo. It is so tasty. This is apparently the first U.S. post for the Japanese chain. I hope they consider bringing it to LA one of these days.

Ippudo NY

65 4 Avenue
New York, NY 10003-5220

Somewhere in Brooklyn, NY

Greetings! I'm back! Well, not really back. I'm now in Boston at my uncle's place. Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. But fear not, I have tons of pictures to share with you on my trip to Spain. The food, the wine, the yofruit digestive cookies, ahh ... oh how I miss them all. But for now I will go in chronological order. First, here's a lovely day spent in Brooklyn with Pete and Sarah.

Pete and Sarah are coming out with a letterpress card collection for the holiday season and I tagged along to go watch them work their magic. If you're not sure what letterpress printing is, it looks like this.

It's a relief printing of text and images that you run through a printing press. It's very labor intensive because you have to first create a wooden block of your design and then you run each paper through the press to get the impression and/or color. The end results, however, are quite lovely. You can run your fingers through the letters and feel the impression on the paper. They are coming out with a website soon so I'll link the site when it's up. I've taken a sneak peak at their holiday cards and they are adorable and all made with LOVE, of course.

This letterpress shop had so much charm. It seriously could be a storefront for Anthropologie. I think I uttered "oh my gosh, it is so cute" ten gazillion times while I was there and kept taking pictures of his workspace, including this door.

It's so weathered and beat, and I'm sure it's been around forever. If only it could talk, it would say, "stop taking pictures of me crazy girl."

A peak from the inside.

Here's his doggie.

The owner let me wander around his loft and look through his collection of letterpress blocks.

While we were there, he was making signs for his friend's book signing party.

Here are some of his presses.

Another press of some kind.

Since this is supposed to be a food blog after all, here's a pic of my lovely latte that I had at Oslo Coffee nearby. I just checked their website and apparently they are located in Williamsburg, so that's where I was! I'm not a huge coffee drinker, but there were quite a few people waiting in line, so they must be doing something right.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.