Russ and Daughters: A NY Favorite
If you have been to Russ and Daughters you know that they have 5 kinds of salmon, the best smoked fish, many flavors of cream cheese and then you have to pick a bagel, toasted or not: lots of choices...
View ArticleLuke's Lobster Roll
Winter on the Upper West Side of New York is a strange time and place to open a lobster shack. Where’s the beach, for example? Where’s the sun? The seagulls? It’s hard to conjure up seafood by the...
View ArticleThe Bad, Good and Divine in NYC
Two different people recommended a seafood shack in the West Village in New York. Two people – it’s a sign.We must try it, I said to my oldest-newest-best-friend. We waited in the predicted long...
View ArticleThree Fat Boys in Astoria
Call out the riot squad! Barricade the streets! Lock up your daughters! The Three Fat Unemployed Actors’ Lunch Club is on the loose again — this time in the far reaches of Queens at the wonderful...
View ArticleKampuchea
Alex and I have been dating for almost four months now. We have shared several meals and conversations together beyond Casa Mono. As our relationship has settled into a ‘monogamous’ place, we have...
View ArticleNew York state of mind at Baumgart's Café
There's a place in New Jersey where you can have a New York milkshake with your sushi. Seriously. Baumgart's Café, name aside, is Asian with a quirky edge. I spent hours on their menu and I have to say...
View ArticleCafe Orlin
There are many foods I will not miss about New York City: street cart hot dogs dressed in a syrupy mess called “onions,” over-priced dry pasta from ancient red sauce joints in Little Italy, the...
View ArticleAn Artful Dinner at The Modern in NYC
Working on an article for Bespoke Magazine about multi-course upscale dining, I interviewed Chef Gabriel Kreuther at MoMA's The Modern. We talked on the phone for half an hour during which time he told...
View ArticleBalaboosta
I had one of the top ten dishes of the year today in the middle of what could have been a dreary day. It was raining and I was limping around puddles on my way to a lunch meeting in Soho. I had just...
View ArticleMurray's Bagels
It is the tail end of another Manhattan winter, and my boyfriend and I have started hunkering down on extravagant costs. Everyone, as we know, is in a bit of a financial panic, but for us, it’s just a...
View ArticleFood Feud: The Great Dumpling Debate
I recently saw a new show on the Food Network called “Food Feuds”. I like it – I get it. It’s a simple premise: in towns all across the country there are passionate disagreements about “the best” – the...
View ArticleA Trip to New York and a Culinary Discovery
Going to New York is always a treat. Like everyone else, I love walking around the city. A leisurely stroll through Central Park when the flowering trees are in bloom is one of life's great...
View ArticleA Night at Nathan's
My boyfriend and I have next to no private time. Much to our chagrin we both are currently back in our parent's houses and our date nights generally consist of holing up in his childhood bedroom trying...
View ArticleLittle Rascal
We went to the Lower East Side the other night to see what the young people are up to. Our son, Max, was playing a gig at the Bowery Ballroom with a great band called dinowalrus. They totally killed —...
View ArticleAutumn in New York
The weather turned yesterday. The air was suddenly, blissfully free of the sodden end-of-summer heaviness and the scent of August — that heady perfume of sixteen million sweaty feet in sandals —...
View ArticleCan I have a cappuccino with a Panda face?
It is not every day that I meet a furry friend on my travels through coffee shops. Normally, I find a heart shape design or a leaf, or a flower in the foam of my cappuccino-- a symbol of my barista's...
View ArticleTwo New York WOW moments!
How I love New York restaurants! I love my old standbys. I love the familiar friendly faces and food that I know exactly how it will taste. But, I also love going somewhere unexpected and original....
View ArticleA High Class Lunch at Ai Fiori
The Big Dog and I lunched this afternoon at Ai Fiori, The Big Dog is my high-priced attorney. We were discussing some ultra-subtle legal maneuver that could only be fully investigated in a very, very...
View ArticleRestaurant Prune
Did I read Gabrielle Hamilton’s Blood, Bones, and Butter? Yes. Is it why we went for dinner at Prune? Yes. Am I glad we did? Absolutely! Our taxis slowed down on a narrow street in NYC’s East Village...
View ArticlePrune, My Kinda Retro
The East Village is, was and always will be my hood in the big apple. Sure, I now stay on the Upper West Side and much to the dismay of my husband, I gravitate downtown. He will often say “downtown...
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