4:30pm sponge candy

It's only natural that after a lovingly informative post on sponge candy from the cpb gallery that we should come to find a pretty dark green box on the kitchen table, courtesy of our favorite singing Harvester.

An Choi, with Hong and Jeanny

According to the ever changing weather forecast we could be in for a precipitous drop in temps this weekend, so we took a long, leisurely walk to enjoy the freshness of fall at An Choi. Unexpectedly their open air dining was being transformed into a bar, but happily Huy was around to take us to the back garden, still drying out from this week's rains. I love hidden back garden dining, the peacefulness was a great accompaniment to one last meal al fresco.
An Choi, 85 Orchard St, NY, NY 10002 (below Broome)

4:50pm macarons

Day 2 of La Maison du Chocolat macarons speaks for itself.

La Nueva Conquista, with Hong

By 1:30pm they had run out of roast pork but I watched the guy in front of me order and I followed suit. The woman behind the counter used tongs to pick up a piece of flattened meat and then tossed it into the deep fryer. Minutes later it comes out, she chops it up and throws it over the mound of rice and beans. Add some lightly pickled onions and a plantain and you got yourself some genuine deliciousness. Ah Nueva Conquista, you seldom disappoint.
La Nueva Conquista, 236 Lafayette St, NY, NY 10012 (above Spring)

4:38pm caramel macaroon

If only all referrals between talented friends resulted in surprise deliveries from La Maison du Chocolat, I would quit this architecture thing and spend my days making connections and being rewarded with handwritten notes and macarons. Julia gets a great photographer, James gets to work with Julia, we get their everlasting appreciation and 2 boxes of incredible macarons. That's pretty much win-win.

Congee, with Hong and Jeanny

We went to Congee for the addictive-like-crack salt baked shredded squid but we weren't paying attention to the name and ended up with the fried fresh squid with salted pepper. It was ok, but nothing even close to crack.
Congee, 98 Bowery, NY, NY 10013 (above Hester)

4:42pm peach galette

It's not summer any more, although the bizarre mugginess outside might suggest differently, but I still crave summer fruits. A peach galette satisfies quite nicely.
Financier Patisserie, 2 Astor Place, NY, NY 10003 (at Broadway)

Xi'an Famous Foods, with Hong and Jeanny

Xi'an Famous Foods has been praised by pretty much everyone, from Anthony Bourdain to Food in Mouth to the NY Times, so I won't say much. Except, well, if you don't know, the basic story is that Xi'an (named after a famous Chinese capital city) started out in a food court in Flushing, got "discovered", and now has 3 locations in Manhattan. They serve hand-pulled noodles and lamb cumin burgers in styrofoam containers with minimal fuss. The Bayard location, the only one with a substantial number of seats (30!) opened this past spring and we finally went today. My lunch compatriots all ordered the popular "A1" Liang-Pi, while I opted for hot noodles and the cold tiger vegetables salad *delicious*! It gets pretty spicy by the end, all the noodles swimming around in spiciness. But the burn is worth it.
Xi'an Famous Foods, 67 Bayard St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Elizabeth and Mott)

4:30pm chocolate chip cookie

If only Oro and Lafayette Espresso Bar would switch locations, think of all the readily available desserts at our fingertips. Still, there always manages to be something for us, even at the later hours.
Lafayette Espresso Bar & Marketplace, 189 Lafayette St, NY, NY 10013 (below Broome)

Salume

Nothing made us happier today than having the still delicious and wonderful panini at Salume. It's almost a relief to know that the quality and care of each sandwich has remained consistent. We cannot resist the Stelvio (bresaola), but this time we added the Felino (salami) for contrast. A great one-two combination.
Salume, 330 West Broadway, NY, NY 10013 (south of Grand St)

4:23pm mooncake

It's a bit late for mention of the Mid-Autumn Festival, or Tet Trung Thu as my people call it, but we just received a couple of mooncakes and couldn't resist the allure of their beautifully sculpted forms. Like many Asian desserts and/or foods wrapped in banana leaves, it's almost impossible to tell which of the several fillings might be inside.

Nyonya, with Hong

Not the best day to have to leave the office, not by a long shot. While I got drenched coming and going, my sister and M. cozily ordered in from Nyonya. My only consolation was the comfort of fried rice upon my return. The egg chow fun was like beef chow fun without the beef and except that the sauce/egg part came separately and had to be poured over.
Nyonya, 199 Grand St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Mulberry and Mott)

4:22pm cookies

If there's something to be said of Hampton Chutney, it is their consistency.  And in terms of their cookies, that would be consistency in excellence.  Super tooth hearting sweet in that all-American way, but somehow it works its way close to perfection.  Now that's a compliment, if I've ever heard one!
Hampton Chutney, 68 Prince St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Crosby and Lafayette)

Bottega Falai, with Hong

We still like the sandwiches and the haphazard, slightly off kilter chaos of Bottega Falai, but the bread has been sub-par. It's not as soft and delightfully squishy as that first time. They confused the order a little so the not-so-great foccacia combined with mozzarella instead of fontina, did nothing for the always lovely mortadella.
Bottega Falai, 267 Lafayette St, NY, NY 10012 (below Prince)

5:05pm lemon tart

Pretty tricky of Falai to always change their lemon tart, so we never know which one we'll get. And then we always go back hoping it will be the best one we ever had, but so far we haven't had that one again.
Bottega Falai, 267 Lafayette St, NY, NY 10012 (below Prince)

Asia Dog, with Hong

I barely had time for a real lunch so Hong and M. agreed to meet me at Asia Dog for a quick meal between meetings. I enjoy their hybrid hot dogs, although they are strangely, for me, lacking in the oomph required to carry me over into must-try. As M. says of the kimchi burger, it's fun. And I agree, a fun place to go, fun things to eat and a fun menu to try out.
Asia Dog, 66 Kenmare St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Mulberry and Mott)

4:14pm fruit danish

For a while there we thought the acquisition of the quickly sold out, new to the menu, fruit danishes at Oro was destined never to succeed. This morning I received a note, fresh fruit danishes! A little before noon, they're all sold out but we've saved for you! We promptly run over after lunch, Dorina promised to save us a fruit danish and Felix comes back, all smiles, and hands me a paper bag. Back to the office, I am at my desk when I hear a SCREAM! I run over to see M. pulling a huge pile of paper napkins out of the bag. Yup. The fruit danish bag was accidentally switched with a bag of napkins. Hilarious. I tucked it in my bag to hopefully switch back later when, fortuitously, I run into Dorina downstairs, carrying our fruit danish. You will think this is all silly, but that fruit danish was amazing. The fruit is perfectly sweet with a touch of tart, the pastry light and airy while still yielding with each bite. We didn't even know it before the hoopla, but now we do and now we will have to make even more of an effort to get our hands on one, waaaay before noon.
Oro Bakery, 375 Broome St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Mulberry & Mott)

Shanghai Cafe, with Hong

You know we always save Shanghai Cafe for when we know one of my sisters will be in town. But what you might wonder is, how do 3 people share 8 pork and crab meat dumplings? Well, wonder no longer. We cede to the visiting sister, who always gets 3, while M. and I alternate. What's amazing about this method is it requires M. and I to remember who ate the third one the last time. And yet somehow we always do remember.
Shanghai Cafe, 100 Mott St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Hester & Canal)

3:50pm baked apple pie

The crepes we had for lunch were smaller than could be deemed a filling meal. On the way back from a meeting downtown, I stopped by McDonald's for some french fries and a baked apple pie to satiate our growling stomachs. The problem with obesity is not that apple pies are now baked instead of fried but that they gave me 2 pies instead of the 1 pie that I ordered. When I told him there was a mistake, he said oh well it's 2 for $1. As if that explained everything.
McDonald's, 262 Canal St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Broadway and Lafayette)

Bar Suzette, at San Gennaro, with Hong

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment, or so says Thoreau, and I admit the ham and cheese crepes from Bar Suzette's stand at San Gennaro were rather tasty. They were made with a deft hand and an ample sprinkling of pepper, but in the end enough to compensate for the missing Torrisi/Breslin/Byggyz stand? Nothing in all the little bits of news about foodies infiltrating the annual Italian feast said anything about their limited lunch showing. So we settled for crepes, were pleasantly surprised, and still hungered for more.
Bar Suzette at San Gennaro, Mulberry St (below Prince), NY, NY 10012

3:30pm cruller

Have a happy Friday! Eat a donut! Or two or three!
Donut Pub, 203 W. 14th St, NY, NY 10011 (near 7th Ave)

Pinche Taqueria

In solidarity and celebration with our neighbors to the south, we had tacos for Mexico's Independence Day, today. No one else seemed to be feting, but Pinche was festively crowded, as usual. For our northerly neighbors I suppose we will have to search out some poutine on the 1st of July.
Pinche Taqueria, 227 Mott St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Spring and Prince)

4:02pm vanilla cupcake

Again! We had to console ourselves with a vanilla cupcake instead of a now crazily anticipated fruit danish. Even 2 hours earlier was not enough, tomorrow we're going to have to attack at breakfast time.
Oro Bakery, 375 Broome St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Mulberry & Mott)

Bar 89, with Thu-Thu

Our initial happy BLT discovery at Bar 89 remains undiminished but now we have an additional word of advice - under no circumstances should you order the burger. Continue to eat yummy waffle fries all you want, but stick with the BLT. When I took off the grossly oversize bun top to look at the patty, a dry, wizened spot of beef with some onions dispiritedly thrown on sadly looked back at me. Not a worthy endeavor and certainly not one to try again.
Bar 89, 89 Mercer St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Broome and Spring)

4:03pm peanut butter and chocolate cookie

We don't addictively keep up with our twitter feed, and normally I'm pretty damn fine with that but this morning Oro sent us a pic of this handsome looking fruit danish. I didn't see it until 8 hours later but as soon as I did, I told M. we had to go. So we up and ran over only to miss nabbing the last one by mere minutes. We had to settle for the peanut butter and chocolate cookies instead. Drats all.
Oro Bakery, 375 Broome St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Mulberry & Mott)

Cafe Select, with the ladies

Jenny and I made plans for lunch ages ago but I never picked a place and at 11am this morning I got an email asking me where to meet. I was in the middle of a frantic running from here to there and back again and said the first thing that popped in my mind, Cafe Select, even though we were just there a month ago. As M. says, everything there is good but not so extraordinary that you wouldn't try something new. Which I think is a good thing. Feeling off-the-wall, I went for a grilled chicken salad, but mostly because of the potato salad and avocado accompaniment. Gunna, Jenny's friend, wolfed down the croque monsieur in less time than it takes to spit sideways. Which I think is a good thing too.
Cafe Select, 212 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 (at Kenmare)

3:50pm strawberry cheesecake

We actually bought this last Friday but had to run, and I left it for Thu with strict instructions to eat it. Instead she threw it in the fridge where it has sat since then, butt naked to the open air. Admittedly M. and I were a little scared today but rather pleasantly it tasted less of refrigerator than expected. It actually retained the signature Eileen's taste, if drier than usual.
Eileen's Special Cheesecake, 17 Cleveland Pl, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Spring and Kenmare)

Central Buffet

Tonight we're headed over to soon to be revealed Saxon & Parole for preview meals and knowing Brad like we do, there are sure to be some richly flavored combinations in his domestic meats. Keeping it simple for lunch, we popped down to Central Buffet for a down and dirty quickie meal. The string beans were especially good and I like the revamped dessert, aka "fruit", station.
Central Buffet, 195 Centre Street, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Howard and Hester)

4:45pm cafe eclair

Of course it was impossible that we should stop by the newly opened Epicerie Boulud without picking up dessert. I personally prefer the slightly less sweet versions made by Payard, but M. didn't mind it as much.
Epicerie Boulud, 1900 Broadway, NY, NY 10023 (at 64th St)

Epicerie Boulud

We both had meetings in the UWS this morning, conveniently over close enough to lunchtime for a short detour out of our way to the highly lauded and brand new Epicerie Boulud. Everything looked delicious but we settled on the country pate sandwich and the intriguing banh mi interpretation. The banh mi (misspelled on the flat screens above) had to be ordered separately at the bar, even though it could be paid for on the other side at the cash register. I think it is meant to be consumed on the spot, although it was still quite tasty despite the long trip back to the office. It's possible they are using rice flour in the bread because of the tell-tale yielding of each bite, but it's also the nicely executed, gussied up ingredients that makes Boulud's banh mi worth ordering again.
Epicerie Boulud, 1900 Broadway, NY, NY 10023 (at 64th St)

La Esquina, with Thu-Thu

We're such slackers, this lunch is from Friday, but instead of sticking around the office to post about it, we ran off to fashion week. One of our beloved clients, Doo-ri, always sends over an invitation to her late afternoon runway show, leaving us not a lot of time for a lengthy lunch. I thought to be clever and circumnavigate the always long wait at La Esquina's taqueria, but even calling 15 minutes ahead of time did nothing to alleviate the additional 15 minutes we spent on the sidewalk, waiting for the meal.
La Esquina Taqueria, 114 Kenmare St, NY, NY (btwn Cleveland Pl and Lafayette St)

3:56pm strawberry rhubarb crumble

Early September is not prime rhubarb season, not even close. But the strawberry rhubarb crumble from Balthazar captivated me nonetheless. Frankly it impressed us all, the one two combo was dead on today.
Balthazar Bakery, 80 Spring St, NY, NY 10012 (near Crosby)

Stuzzicheria, with J and M

Sometimes we have a lunch so charming, it's hard not to feel completely pleased afterward. We were meeting J and M from the Design Trust, a lunch we've both had in the books since summer. The weather was not rainy, for once, and actually ideal for outdoor dining at the Tribeca location of Stuzzicheria. My gnocchi was a smidgeon too soft but J's cauliflower orcchiette was delicious. The conversation flowed naturally from friendship necklaces to office uniforms to urban farms to sibling order and future potlucks.
Stuzzicheria, 305 Church St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Walker and Leonard)

5:21pm chocolate cake

Both M. and I were surprised at the dense moistness of the chocolate cake from Billy's in honor of Christopher's birthday. Combined with the sugar sweet vanilla frosting, each bite tasted like Oreo cookies. That's a good thing.
Billy's Bakery, 268 Elizabeth St, NY, NY 10012 (below Houston)

La Nueva Conquista, with Thu-Thu

The super awesome thing about my sister spending her summer in our office is that we have a third lunch partner. Which means we not only get to order our tried and true favorite, roast pork over rice, but a new dish to try and share as well. I left it in M.'s capable hands, and was not at all surprised to discover she opted for meatballs. They weren't bad, could have used some sort of sauce I think. Interestingly the roast pork looked very safe and respectable today, not at all the usual full fatty fare.
La Nueva Conquista, 236 Lafayette St, NY, NY 10012 (above Spring)

4:38pm ginger snap

I bought cookies for a barbeque yesterday but we way overate and I was sent home with half of them. A bag of cookies on the kitchen table requires no explanation and by mid-day, half of the cookies were already gone, consumed by the growing young men and women of our office. I was a bit surprised to discover how well the gingersnaps fared.
Once Upon a Tart, 135 Sullivan St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Houston and Prince)

Xe Lua, with Thu-Thu

Nyonya, shockingly, had an hour wait for lunch deliveries so we got our rainy day comfort food from Xe Lua instead. Their rice dishes are $7 each, which I suppose is the new cheap, if you can even call that cheap. It's a decent amount of food although not enough to share between 2 people. Instead we each got our own preferences over rice - one pork chop, one beef cubes and M went crazy with the beef curry.
Xe Lữa, 86 Mulberry St, NY, NY 10013 (below Canal)

3:50pm donuts

Ah happy end of summer to everyone stuck in their cars, honking outside our windows, on the way to one last weekend at the beach. It's good to have a donut at moments like these.
Donut Pub, 203 W. 14th St, NY, NY 10011 (near 7th Ave)

Once Upon a Tart, with Thu-Thu

I've never understood the rationale behind restaurants or kitchens not being able to cut sandwiches in half, but have you ever noticed sometimes they will tell you they're not allowed? But not at the lovely Once Upon a Tart! They will not only cut a sandwich in halves, but in thirds so that we could easily share 2 sandwiches between the 3 of us.
Once Upon a Tart, 135 Sullivan St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Houston and Prince)

4:21pm smores cupcake

At first I thought the chocolate cake portion was the WOW BAM HOLY MOLY CHOCOLATE part of the cupcake, but as it turns out it's the 1/8" thin layer of ganache. It's a well executed dessert, although not something we personally will crave again.
Peels, 325 Bowery, NY, NY 10003 (at 2nd St)

The Stage, with Thu-Thu

128 Second Ave, NY, NY 10003

Rating: 1 - Wonderful
Visit #: 8
In brief: This narrow little Ukranian diner is the greatest source of comfort and happiness. We die for the meatloaf platter, the pierogi, the kielbasa, chicken soup and the same friendly faces behind the counter.

It doesn't matter if we have pierogi or meatloaf at the Stage, we always have a cup of chicken noodle soup. M. and I think it is insanely good, although Thu is not convinced. I don't know if they've always had lunch specials and we never noticed, but for $6.80 I got 4 pierogis of my choice and a cup of soup, also of my choice. M. tried the stuffed cabbage, which she said tasted exactly like the meatloaf, but with rice. I'll take that as a good thing.