4:00pm chocolate chip cookie

Tate's - Day 2

Nice Green Bo, with Patrick

Patrick had been talking up the vegetable dumplings at Nice Green Bo the last time we had lunch. So we meet on this beautiful afternoon to give it a go. Chock full of greens and chopped up vermicelli, it was filling and tasty. The other dishes we got, I think were of no particular distinction.
Nice Green Bo, 66 Bayard Street btwn Mott and Bowery

4:00pm chocolate chip cookie

We've raved about these cookies from Tate's before. And really, they are that good. Could be my imagination, but they look and taste extra fresh today. They make the most scrumptious sound when you bite into them.

Onion Tart

I managed to bake this quiche-like onion tart from scratch last night to have around for the week. It's got no cheese in it, but sure tastes like it does. It must be the magic power of bacon.

EuroPan Bakery

This from here is all there's time for today, on the street, in between meetings. Good thing this croissant was better than expected. What to have for dinner! And this is where to find me tomorrow for lunch.
EuroPan Bakery, 2503 Broadway btwn 93rd and 94th

4:00pm coffee swirl vanilla roll cake

Kinda thought it unfair that only Fay Da Bakery receives our patronage. This roll cake with a coffee swirl from Grand Manna is a nice change up from the usual plain vanilla, and at 15 cents cheaper, is clearly the tastier winner!
Grand Manna Bakery, 212 Grand Street btwn Mott and Elizabeth

Banh Mi Saigon Bakery

Have not been to this Banh Mi shop mysteriously located at the back of a jewelry shop in a long while. And it seems that my requested vietnamese sandwich order did not come across correctly. Having heard that the fillings are a bit Chinese-anized, and also from general personal preference, I wanted to get my banh mi with just the cha lua. They gave me the pate cha instead. I'm not exactly complaining, it was nice, but could have been happier.
Banh Mi Saigon Bakery, 138-01 Mott Street btwn Broome and Grand

4:00pm espresso gelato

It's really nice sometimes to have a proper freezer in the office.

Wah Mei Fast Food

In our line of work, we frequently and regretfully have to tell our clients: Cheap, Fast and Fabulous - you can't have all three, therefore you must pick the two that are most important to you. Fortunately with food, such is not the case. Wah Mei's chicken leg over rice is short of fabulous, but close enough to qualify!
Wah Mei Fast Food, 190 Hester Street btwn Baxter and Mulberry

4:00pm ice cream sandwich

Yum, this is so good! Went and bought some Espresso gelato, and made an ice cream sandwich with the blondies. All you reading this should be jealous.

Wild Ginger, with Danny

Danny and I had talked about going to eat lunch together specifically to those places that our respective business partners don't want to go near, since they are both away bonding with their new additions. Wild Ginger, the local vegan restaurant, is the first of such outing. While Danny's been there multiple times, I had been wanting to go for a long time. One does not need to be vegetarian to enjoy vegetarian food. The lunch special is nicely portioned, starting with a soup and then the balanced main plate served with a tasty spring roll. Sort of reminds me of Eastanah, which we miss dearly.
Wild Ginger, 380 Broome Street btwn Mott and Mulberry

4:00pm blondies

I rarely crave brownies. Blondies on the other hand... But it's hard to find a good blondie, so set out to make my own. It's a bit hard to get yourself to include an ingredient you don't like, in this case white chocolate. But it felt essential. Splurged on a good bar and chopped it up instead of white chocolate chips. The result was pretty darn pro.

Congee Bowery

This lunch special, fish cake with Chinese greens, is only $3.95. Granted it was mostly rice. But still. The greens tasted a bit under-salted. But still.
Congee Bowery, 207 Bowery btwn Rivington and Spring

4:00pm baklava

A really good baklava, is truly heavenly and makes you wonder why you don't have it more often. This one, unfortunately, did not inspire such emotion. Having had their delectable yoghurt, I had high hopes. Instead, this baklava was dry - not enough butter, not enough honey and too much cinnamon. The upside was that it wasn't too sweet.
The Yoghurt Place II, 71 Sullivan btwn Spring and Broome

Parisi Bakery, Day 2

When a 2 person sandwich (see yesterday's post) cannot be shared, the left over half get's eaten the next day.
Parisi Bakery, 198 Mott Street bwtn Spring and Kenmare

4:00pm mini cupcakes

We heard about the new pop-up bakery nearby and decided it needed a visit. These mini-cupcakes can be purchased in multiple of 3's (we got 6). They are so small, that 6 of these still would barely amount to the size of a normal cupcake. But that's not a bad thing and oh are they fun. We tried all the flavors except the Smores. The peanut butter cup was probably the best, then maybe the cookie dough? Some of the cupcakes were fresher than others, and the freshness radically dictated the enjoyability of each.
Baked by Melissa, 529 Broadway on Spring St.

Parisi Bakery

Whoa! Another price increase at Parisi - $1 a year, which is to say 15 months ago this same sandwich was $2 cheaper. Maybe that's why it was empty. However, it's still a 2 person sandwich. This is a favorite hoagie combination of mortadella, fresh mozzarella, and their house made roasted red bell peppers in oil. Watch out for the garlic chunks.
Parisi Bakery, 198 Mott Street bwtn Spring and Kenmare

4:00pm chocolate dot

These chocolate dots are small and fairly delicate, but sure packs a cocoa punch. Not in the death by chocolate kind of way though.
Oro Bakery, 375 Broome Street btwn Mulberry and Mott

Loreley, with Colin and Caleb

Last week over martinis and whiskey, reminded of the proximity of our offices, the architects extraordinaire of Mapos and I promised to have lunch soon. So on this hinting-of-spring St. Patrick's Day, we meet at the sunny back end of Loreley. We talked shop, of course, but more importantly of Shamrock Shakes, Austrians and our friend Lloyd over Currywurst mit Pommes Frites. Prost!
Loreley, 7 Rivington Street btwn Bowery and Chrystie

4:00pm mini cheesecake

Quite impressive for a $1.
Fay Da Bakery, 191 Centre Street at Hester

Teresa's

Having had to work through the weekend, Monday needed to start off with a lunch adventure. Today's project takes me to Brooklyn Heights. Scoping out for options on the information super highway, settled on Teresa's, a block down from the meeting. Isn't there or wasn't there a Teresa's in the east village as well? The font looks remarkably similar. This Polish diner, though nothing too special, does the standards well. Monday's soup was Ukrainian borscht, and it was lovely. They already had the sour cream stirred in and hence the Pepto-Bismol color. Also ordered a sampling of their pierogi. The sauerkraut and mushroom one was tangy, salty and delicious. Don Henley playing in the background, and gray haired locals - sweet.
Teresa'S, 80 Montague St btwn Pierrepont and Hicks

4:00 pm striped butter cookie

Don't have much to say, except that this cookie, which was picked up from Petrossian the other day, is really, really good. Did I say, really, really good already?
Petrossian, 911 Seventh Avenue btwn 57th and 58th

A Salt and Battery, with Maggie

The thought of fish and chips has been plaguing me as of late - A Salt and Battery is right across the street from the Friday meetings. Scoping out the menu online, I knew exactly what I wanted. It was obviously going to be too much food for one, and I'm not one to waste food. Luckily, Maggie was all game to come meet me for a Friday the 13th Fish Lunch. Both of us, having lived in Britain, reminisced about the soggy and greasy mess. The fish here is good and the chips authentically crappy. The mushy peas were homemade but we prefer the avocado-green canned fluorescent stuff. And there's the Bass Shandy! What a treat! One downside - we reeked after the meal. Makes one super self conscious during a meeting where you're standing in close proximity to your client...
A Salt and Battery, 112 Greenwich Ave btwn 12th and 13th

4:00pm mochi donut

Though I knew there was dessert waiting for me back at the office, I couldn't say no to a mochi donut. Not as good as the ones from Paris Baguette,- the mochi, or glutinous rice cake, was a little too gooey in this donut form. Still pretty good. Does anyone know if any of the Chinatown bakeries make these?
Cafe Zaiya, 18 East 41st Street btwn 5th and Madison

Cafe Zaiya

Should have been more prepared to expand my midtown lunch options.
Alas, ended up at Cafe Zaiya for an easy lunch. Ebi-Chili is a Japanese version of Chinese stir-fried shrimp in sweet and sour sauce. It's comfort food. When I saw it on the shelf, I immediately developed a craving, but it was a little disappointing. I'll have to make it myself.
Cafe Zaiya, 18 East 41st Street btwn 5th and Madison

4:00pm fruit tart

Don't you love it when an out-of-neighborhood meeting "forces" you to drop into a dreamt
about destination? Ever since we had the strawberry tart from Petrossian last summer, we periodically become possessed by the memory of its deliciousness. Our memory didn't fail us. What is amazing is that along with everything else, each piece of fruit is delicious as if it's in season. The tart got tipped in transit and thus the fruit composition is not as pretty as before. In all seriousness, this is probably the city's best fruit tart (and the best box!). Don't look at the price tag, just eat it.
Petrossian, 911 Seventh Avenue btwn 57th and 58th

Beef Stew

A strange combination, but a balanced meal indeed. Homecooked beef stew with fried rice with cabbage salad. Happy Belly.

4:00pm Blueberry Muffin

Today's City Bakery muffin was much better. Made with stone ground cornmeal, the muffin was not too sweet and had a toothy bite. Very substantial and filling. It would be great warmed with butter.
City Bakery, 3 West 18th Street btwn 5th and 6th Ave

Cafe el Portal, with Chris and Steven

After a bad lunch/dessert day yesterday, a comfy relaxing lunch with friends was more than appropriate. While better Mexican can be had, even in NYC, Cafe el Portal's friendly and low key atmosphere makes up for a lot. While I was able to get my nopales fix, Steven had the huevos rancheros w/ mole. This used to be Chris' old haunt back when she lived in the hood, so she was happy as a peach, or clam!
Cafe El Portal, 174 Elizabeth Street below Spring

4:00pm Cranberry Bran Muffin

Stuck this in my bag for the afternoon, as hunger was right around the corner after a dissatisfying lunch. Perhaps because it was a day old, but would have expected a bit more oomph from a City Bakery muffin. Too bran-y and too dry. Not a good food day today - gotta make it up tomorrow!
City Bakery, 3 West 18th Street btwn 5th and 6th Ave

Whole Foods

I knew there wouldn't be time to step out and grab lunch today, so picked this one up yesterday to bring to work. I know this salad doesn't do the delicious salads out there justice, but nevertheless, it reminded my why we so rarely eat salads for lunch. Don't know how people do it. So utterly unsatisfying.
Whole Foods, 95 East Houston Street at Bowery

D&D Deli

Sometimes, you just need breakfast, no matter what time of day it is. Today is such a day. Sausage, Egg and Cheese on a Roll from D&D is pretty perfect when you have such a craving and are equally strapped for time. I'll be away at meetings all afternooon, so the dessert post today is questionable.
D&D Deli, 67 Spring Street btwn Lafayette and Crosby

4:00pm madeleine

To enjoy the lovely weather, a wee stroll to Oro was in order to pick up a little dessert. Even with all the variations, one get's bored with the same oatmeal cookies. The madeleine today is extra fresh and moist.
Oro Bakery, 375 Broome Street btwn Mulberry and Mott

Pepper Pork

A home cooked Vietnamese pork dish brought to you by the "absent" lunching half. It's a bit unclear to me, but it's pork that's been marinated in a lot of pepper and some fish sauce, then sauteed. Basically for us Asians, anything salty eaten with rice, makes our tummies happy.

4:00pm chocolate covered oatmeal cookie

Day 3 for the homemade oatmeal cookies. Getting bored guys? Thought I'd throw in some chocolate. Leftover in our fridge is some delicious dark chocolate we found at our local bookstore. Madecasse, makes their chocolates from bean to bar in Madagascar, which allows the people there to profit more from their own resources. The chocolate was melted in the microwave then spread atop the cookie. The result (yum) reminds me of chocolate covered Hobnobs.

New Chao Chow

There was determination to make it to New Chao Chow today, as that was the intercepted plan from yesterday. Didn't want to have the exact same thing, though tempted to compare the two, so opted for the fish cake noodle soup with rice stick rather than the egg noodles. Everyone around me seemed to be getting their noodle soups with the fish cakes too. They were indeed nice, and so was the light broth and the not too mushy rice sticks. I would order it again, but already have my eyes set on something else for next time.
New Chao Chow, 111 Mott Street btwn Hester and Canal

4:00pm yogurt sandwich

Day 2 for the homemade oatmeal cookies. Thought it would be nice to change it up a bit and use the yogurt in the fridge that's been asking to be eaten. The whole milk plum and walnut yogurt added a nice tang and nuttiness to the crisp oaty-ness. Again, delicious!

Nyonya

There was every intention of stepping out for a hot bowl of noodle soup at lunchtime; from the moment of consciousness this cold morning - that was what the stomach yearned for. Caught between emails, phone calls and drawing, the plan to go to New Chao Chow quickly turned into picking up Wonton Mee from Nyonya. After placing the order for pick-up, it was quickly forgotten that the order was even placed, and by the time it was consumed, the noodles were a bit soggy, though they were properly separated from the soup. It still hit the spot.
Nyonya, 194 Grand Street btwn Mulberry and Mott

4:00pm oatmeal cookies

Aside from being a tad too sweet, I gotta say, "Damn, these cookies are goooood!" Made with loving care by yours truly. I'm not one to brag, ever, but today is different. Can't believe they came out of my own oven.

Cheese and Pickle Toastie

Cheese and pickle toasties are something I fell in love with while residing in Glasgow way back when. Being in NYC, they are easy to recreate as the key ingredient, Branston Pickle, is not too hard to find. They were all out of the small chunks kind, which is suited for making sandwiches, but can't be complaining. The sliced bread from Fay Da is guaranteed to yield excellent results. Chinatown sliced bread is more similar to the British kind, and Fay Da's is the best around (and it starts to mold after a few days, that's a good sign!). It's possible that it's an aquired taste, but I also love Marmite, so this post is probably not a good gauge as to whether you too want to run home and make it yourself.