11:30 am and there’s already a queue for chef April Bloomfield’s The Spotted Pig in the West Village. There’s hip hop playing the background, the space is kitschy, fuchsia walls, ceramic pigs and plates hanging on the walls, potted plants  by the windows, and the staff are in jeans and baseball caps. Our table, away from the traffic and overlooking someone’s manicured backyard, is perfect.

Chicken Liver Toast. There is so much seasoning (port-madeira reduction, parsley, shallots) that you barely discern any of the liver. That’s a good thing.

Roasted Heirloom Beets. Charred and caramelized to bits. Tasty. Health-feeling if not necessarily healthy.

Seared Mackerel with Crème Fraîche and Mint Vinaigrette. A special of the day. The fish isn’t much, but it all comes together with the mint and crème fraîche.

The Roquefort Burger and Shoestring Fries. It turns out that Roquefort is not only a blue cheese, but blue cheese made from sheep’s milk, thus combing two of my least favourite tastes in the world into one: products from members of the bovidae family and strong cheese. I take one bite  and set the monster aside. Leo’s palette enjoys it far better than I do, but we both agree that the cheese is overwhelming and inhibits the natural flavours of the beef far too much. An American burger it isn’t.

The Spotted Pig
314 W. 11th Street, Manhattan | Website

BREAKFAST.
Cafe Grumpy is a cozy little coffee-house a stone’s throw away from our hostel in Chelsea. We went there almost every day for their flat white, which were creamy and bright and considerably smoother than the ones I’ve had in Toronto.  The cute lemon poppy-seed bundt cake, baked off-site at their Lower East Side location, went perfectly with our morning coffees. If you’re in the area, I highly recommend it.

SNACK.
For something different, The Nook is a take-away counter at Chef Marcus Samuelson’s Swedish-American-Soul-Food restaurant in Harlem. They sell sandwiches, coffee, teas, and a variety of pastries, but all with the twist you’d expect from the Nigerian-born, Swedish-raised chef and now American transplant restauranter. There was some confusion on how to go about ordering our food from The Nook counter –  they sat us at the bar – but after a 10 minutes wait, our cookies and iced tea finally arrived.

The ‘A’ Train, listed on the Nook Specials, is smack down the best sandwich cookie we’ve had. It’s two curry, blueberry, and oatmeal cookies filled with cream cheese.

Cafe Grumpy
224 West 20th Street, Manhattan | Website

The Nook at Red Rooster Harlem
310 Lennox Avenue, Manhattan| Website

We arrived in New York around noon ready to take on the day like nobody’s business.

LUNCH.
Num Pang Sandwich Shop serves Cambodian-style sandwiches, not to be mistaken for the more well-known banh mi (Vietnamese subs).  I had the Five Spice Pork Belly sandwich. It was delicious, fatty, juicy, ’nough said.

SNACK.
Our friend got us strawberry doughnuts from Dough! They were good, but I think Toronto’s Glory Hole Doughnuts does it better. ;)

HAPPY HOUR.
Happy Hour in New York is incredible. You have a two options: stay in Manhattan and find any run of the mill dollar-oysters OR head to Brooklyn for a more thoughtful – decadent? magical? – experience at Maison Premiere. The decor is nineteenth century French, think Paris, the Impressionists and Manet’s Girl at the Bar, and, yes, there’s an absinthe fountain.  The service was excellent, efficient and attentive, though a tad slow as the after-work crowd filtered in. Did I mention the absinthe fountain?

P.S. we’ve noticed an alarming trend of wooden toilets popping up in Williamsburg… what’s up with that?

DINNER.
If you didn’t heed our warnings over the last two years to check out Pies’n'Thighs as soon as you could, maybe you’ll find Guy Fieri’s recent Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives episode more persuasive! Our pie of the night was a tart Lemon Blackberry pie over a shortbread crust and our choice of thigh was their honey and hot sauce chicken thigh on biscuits.

After our little dinner, we took touristy pictures at the Williamsburg Bridge and did some pre-drinking in the hostel courtyard with friends. There was a failed attempt at finding a bar we could all agree on and ended up at a place called the Chelsea Pub.

Num Pang Sandwich Shop, Chelsea
75 9th Ave, Manhattan | Website

Maison Premiere
298 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn | Website

Pies’n'Thighs
166 S 4th Street, Brooklyn | Website

- O -

Do you remember the first time you had Tiny Tom Donuts? I can, it was at CNE and while I haven’t actually been to the Ex in years, there will always be a fairly substantial part of my heart devoted to baby doughnuts that come into the world via conveyor belt. So, imagine my delight when Little Nicky’s set up shop back in 2010 and we all started enjoying their mini doughnuts made bar-top for all to see (and smell). The best seat in the house actually faces the “donut robot” that sends piping hot doughnuts tumbling towards you straight out of the fryer. They’re made to order, tossed in cinnamon sugar and served hot. True to form, Little Nicky’s has bucked the trend of specialty doughnut shops that constantly experiment with new/innovative flavours because sometimes all you want is something simple and perfect to dip in your coffee. If only they had endless batter and longer hours (till 6pm daily and closed Sundays), I might sit by the fryer and fade away like Degas’ absinthe lady. Mini doughnuts are $2.75 for six, $4 for a dozen.

More Toronto Doughnuts: Bake Lab / Benna’s Bakery & Deli / Bonjour Brioche / Caldense Bakery /Glory Hole / Mexi-Can Market / Nova Era Bakery / Paulette’s Original Donuts and Chicken / Venezia Bakery

Little Nicky’s Coffee
375 Queen St. W. | Yelp

Hello,

We’re back from New York! It was the best, and, as per usual, our whole trip was planned around food. This time around we managed to see more of Brooklyn and visited Harlem for the first time. The next few weeks will be an onslaught of New York related posts. But until then, here’s a quick glimpse of what we did:

Stayed
Chelsea International Hostel | 251 W 20TH ST. NEW YORK, NY 10011

Ate
Breakfast: Cafe Grumpy, Murray’s Bagel Shop Chelsea, Blue Bottle Coffee on Highline, Joe Coffee
Lunch: Num Pang Sandwich Shop at Chelsea Market, The Spotted Pig, A Salt & Battery
Snacked: Dough NY, The Nook – Red Rooster, Rice + Miso Everyday, Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice-cream, Melvin’s Juice Box
Dinner: Pies’n'Thighs, Shake Shack, Pok Pok NY
Bars: Maison Premiere, Chelsea Pub

Shopped
Adorama, Madewell, Brooklyn Flea, Trader Joe’s

Visited
Studio Museum in Harlem, The High Line, Prospect Park, Cobble Hill – Brooklyn Heights

P.S. HAPPY FRIDAY & LONG WEEKEND to my fellow Canadians! ;)

You can find me on twitter or instagram.

The titled philosophy, Vegan Before 6, should be taken lightly. Eating vegan throughout the day and indulging in meat (and dairy) for dinner is what worked for Bittman. While his approach will not work for everyone, simply increasing the amount of vegetables (and decreasing processed food) should result in some noticeable improvement to your metabolism and overall health. Makes sense.

Below are three recipes I’ve tried. They were all easy to follow and very versatile.

Breakfast & Snacking: Fruity Nut Butter

Have you ever wanted to make your own nut butter? It’s surprisingly easy provided you have a food processor. Bittman’s suggestion to add fruit and lemon juice lightens the spread (reduces calorie density of the nuts) and gives it a bright, fresh note. I went for a combination of almond and cashew with frozen mangoes. My spread came out a bit too watery – I should have thawed out the mangoes or increased the amount of nuts for a creamier texture. (Other combinations are apple & walnut, pear & pecan, apricot & pistachio, blueberry & macadamia nut.)

Building Block: D.I.Y. Bread

The Building Block section of the book provides a list of recipes for altering as you see fit. They’re quite basic at first glance, but they make up the core dishes all homecooks should know. The recipes include a tomato sauce easily transformed into a salsa, marinara or a meat sauce, a vegetable stock, and instructions on cooking grains and beans. Since I’ve been on a search for more bread recipes, I couldn’t pass on his D.I.Y. Bread.  The same dough can be used to make sandwich loaves, flatbreads, and even breadsticks! I added fresh thyme, dried basil, diced scotched bonnet peppers (Jamaican chile), and minced garlic to what became a focaccia. It had a good crust and moist crumbs, and most important of all, flavour.

Lunch: Now or Later Vegan Burgers

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the chickpeas vegan burger was disappointing. The texture was too mushy, it didn’t firm up as much as I wanted to, making it rather awkward to eat in sandwich form. I would rather break it down like a crumbled sausage and eat it on top of a bowl of steamed broccoli…or maybe add it to a sauce.

Like all of his recipes, you can replace the chickpeas with any other types of beans…red kidney beans, lentils will all work. Carrots are replaceable with squash or sweet potatoes. You can add any types of spices, I went for a Jamaican spice mix, but chile powder or toasted crushed cumin are lovely options as well.

To be honest, I’m not convinced vegan or vegetarian burgers are worth making. If I wanted vegetables  or beans in between buns, I’d rather have them whole and roasted to keep them crunchy for some texture…it’s just unappealing to bite into a mushy thing.

By the way, there are no pictures in the book! Not that it matters. VB6 is more of a resource guide than a cookbook. It’s chock full of information and devoid of that mild condescending tone some vegan proponents wield when discussing their diets…

VB6 goes on sale today. It’s worth a look if you’re near any Chapters Indigo.

Disclaimer: I received the book for review from Random House Canada.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Had a quiet Sunday today. Stayed in, baked some scones, watched the Food Network, obsessed about my sourdough yeast starter (I think it died…top picture), and enjoyed dinner. (In four months I’ll probably be looking at this picture pinning for my mother’s cooking – more on that in a future post.) I have another little book review scheduled for Tuesday morning. If you’re interested in what I have to say about Mark Bittman’s VB6 book, drop in then ;) – the bread you see is from the book.

We bought quail last fall and made an easy – ah, isn’t it always around here? – dinner out of it. The bird was pan-fried and to the caponata (a Sicilian dish with eggplant) we added sweet cherry tomatoes. The fettuccine was tossed in butter with fresh cracked pepper.

The meal didn’t take much effort, a bit of dicing, a quick fry, boiled water, etc… Two years ago this would have been a lasagna, and now we’re slowly and happily building our repertoire.

Recipe here.