Snackimals

Here's another one I am living for lately. Not to dis on your childhood but these are a million times better than those crappy tasting one that came in the cage box with the the string handle.
THANKS LISA!!!! Will you pay for my gastric bypass after I eat one to many of these?

Cookies and sort of milk

I love eating babies cookies. For a long time I ate the Nabisco ones that come in the blue box. These are my new faves. They are organic, wheat free, dairy free, soy free and made with whole grains. I like to dip/soak them in Almond milk. So simple yet so good.

All the coffee in New York

Yesterday morning I was heading down to my Paul Smith appointment in Soho when I realized that I no longer know where to get the most delicious latte in the neighborhood.
It has been years since I worked down there and I couldn't really remember where I got coffee back in the day. I would assume it was Starbucks, I used to have a habit. I swore off coffee this past Monday and by Tuesday had a big hot latte in my little hands. A whole 24 hours of coffee abstinence. YAY ME! Can you feel the will power?

Anyways, I was thinking there must a blog about the best coffee joints in various NYC neighborhoods. Right? But how would I go about finding that blog? And it's subjective anyways. So I have decided I will blog about my favorite one off coffee shops.

At my Paul Smith appointment I thought I would asked the locals for their suggestions, specifically asking about the trendy looking place on Houston (at the corner of Greene) called Aroma. They weren't feeling Aroma so much and instead recommended Alessi, that kooky Italian kitchen store. It seems that in the front of their store they have a cafe. Who knew? They serve Joe's coffee and use my favorite espresso machines, FAEMA.

Although it was good I am not quite ready to settle and say it's the best coffee in Soho. What was excited to find was that they sold Amedei chocolate. I don't believe I have seen seen it sold anywhere in NYC since I first heard about last spring. I bought two bars for a total of $19. I know $8 is pretty steap for a chocolate bar but I think it just might be the best chocolate ever. I got the 70% cocoa.
I usually end up eating half of a normal sized chocolate bar in one sitting but with this chocolate two to three squares seems to be all it takes. It is perfectly satisfying, the way a great piece of chocolate should be. Oh, and the packaging is ridiculously chic.

GET YOURS HERE

Yamalama dingdong!

1 Yam
large, peeled,
cut into thick rounds

1 Tbs olive oil

1 Clove garlic
medium sized, chopped

1/2 Shallot
medium sized, chopped

2 Scallions
cut into 1" pieces

Ginger
cut into matchsticks,
dime sized bundle

Chicken broth, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp honey, pinch of salt and a dash of pepper


Boil yam slices in salted water for 8 minutes or until tender, then drain and transfer to plate.

Heat olive oil in the pot, add garlic, shallots, ginger and scallions. While these are cooking I like to add a splash of chicken broth to the pan every now and again to keep the ingredients from burning or sticking to the pan, you can can also use water. Just enough to help the cooking process and it evaporates so that it doesn't become soupy consistency. This allows you to use less oil in your cooking. Cook this over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until ginger sticks are tender. Remove from heat add salt and pepper to taste, stir in sesame oil and honey and spoon mixture over the yams.

I think I might be over figuring out what the nutritional information is for everything as it's sort of a pain. All I will say is this is healthy it's just vegetables with a little bit of healthy fat.

The search is over

I have been looking for a decent set of measuring spoons and have finally found some worth buying. Whenever I find something that I think is just what I have been searching for I buy two. I am kinda picky about the shape and size and depth of my measuring spoons. Oh and just in general I'm little anal retentive too.
Since I sometimes serve myself tablespoons of sticky stuff like the wax orchard fudge or almond butter and I want to be able to get every last drop easily be it with my finger or my maybe my tongue. These seem to be just right shape and size for both spoon licking and finger dipping alike. I like to eat with my hands, luckily I can use growing up in India as my excuse. Although, some don't seem to think this is a good enough reason to continue to eat that way at the ripe old age of 32. To them I say I DON'T CARE!

Another neat thing about these is that they have a couple extra spoons that an average set.
Most don't come with the following extra measuring spoons... a pinch, 1/8 tsp, 2/3 tsp. 1.5 tsp and 2 tsp.
Life is good people, life is good!

It's a problem

These are dangerous! If only these would come pre-packaged in single serving portions then maybe I wouldn't eat the whole bag in a day! They are heaven and worth standing in the beyond ridiculous lines for.

Gotta love the Frank's

I think I just spent the whole day drinking again! This morning at around 11am I met my friend Laura at her apartment in the L.E.S. for brunch. She lives at her apartment part time so the kitchen isn't exactly stocked. Laura, Justin (her boyfriend), Rory and Amanda all slept there last night and appeared to be just about as useless as I was looking and feeling this morning. Sadly, I can't even say my exhaustion was the repercussion of all night Halloween partying. Actually I spent last night organizing my mail and bills from the past nine years. I feel like this should be the opening line to a joke, something along the lines of... you know you're over thirty when.... but sadly it is not.

In an effort to get the us to rally Laura brewed us some coffee. Once the coffee was ready it was served sans sugar with rice milk and a side of unsweetened carob chips (which we regularly snack on by the handfuls). What I can say about this experience is that we would probably survive just fine in the wilderness. This is yet another great example of us being able to make the best of a situation with what was readily available. At one point there were about six random mugs and tea cups sprawled out across the kitchen counter and I thought I was reaching into tea cup of carob chips and instead found my hand resting in a tepid cup of coffee which belonged to Amanda.

After a little stroll around the neighborhood we settled in at Frankies Spuntino on Clinton St for a dining extravaganza. Brunch was heaven, especially my french toast which practically floated off my plate it was so light and airy. We totally pigged out and collectively drank a least twenty four Bellini's. I would like to mention that the olive oil from Frankies is really quite good, it has a clean and light but deep grassy flavor to it. You can find it at Whole Foods. It's not exactly what I would call budget but I have no trouble justifying it. I suggest that you do not use it sparingly because it will go bad if it's not used quickly enough. I enjoy the flavor of this olive oil so much that I don't really use it for cooking as much as I do to top finished dishes.

Once we were finished stuffing our faces we stopped by De Vino and picked up four bottles of champagne and two bottles of rosé for a post lunch session on Laura's roof. I mean, that's just how warm the first of November was today in NYC, it was rosé weather! I am back home now with a full stomach and have to say today was a beautiful day and we really took full advantage, thanks for lunch Laura!