Mini's at Bobo

Thursday night was family dinner night and we went to Bobo in the West Village. Located right off 7th Avenue in a cute little townhouse it was perfect for me, Melissa, cousin Jaymie and my mom. We were seated in the upstairs part of the restaurant. The decor is gorgeous -- very french with dark red curtains and black iron tables and chairs. We had an early reservation but the room filled up quickly.

We ordered enough food for an army, starting with mini appetizers. I have to say that I love anything mini; cupcakes, candy cookies -- you get the point. It allows you just to have a small taste of something delicious and it doesn't fill you up. All four of us got the mini squash soups that came in a shot glass with candied walnuts and marshmallows in it. It was creamy, sweet and the marshmallows were a great addition. The serving size was perfect because a whole portion of such a heavy soup would have been too much. We also got two Wedgettes (mini wedge salads) that were so cute but just the standard blue cheese wedge.

Other than the minis we got these fried pickles that came with this creamy crab dip with huge pieces of crab and a Peking duck appetizer. Anything fried is usually great, and this was no exception.

Instead of the pancakes usually served with Peking duck, Bobo serves it with lettuce leaves and pickled veggies. I didn't wrap any because the duck was too good on it's own. It was very greasy but it a good way.

Squash soup & Wedgette Peking Duck Fried Pickles w crab dip

You would think that we were full from all the appetizers, and we were but we still each got an entree -- the scallops served with roasted cauliflower and this apple sauce on the side, the halibut with Brussels sprouts, a bass and the burger. I tried a little bit of everyones and they were all yummy. The presentation was pretty and sides that came with each dish were great.

My mom is also my good luck charm in the celeb department because as we were leaving we saw Ramona and her husband from Real Housewives from NYC -- reality star is still a celeb in my book.

Bobo had great service, wine and food with the mini appetizers standing out. Opentable makes it hard for you to get a reservation but keep on trying because I think it's worth it!

Atlanta has discovered Cupcakes

I actually made it to Atlanta this weekend despite the snow in New York and home! Yes it did snow in Atlanta and it did shut the city down and cause me to be snowed in my house Friday night. But before the snow started falling I made my mom take me to CamiCakes Cupcakes in Buckhead. A few of my Atl friends have talked about this place often so my mom and I had to try them.

The store is really cute inside with white and pink all over. We got four cupcakes, the Elvis (chocolate cake with peanut butter and chocolate icing), carrot cake, a standard yellow cake with chocolate icing and a Cinnamon swirl with vanilla cake with a Cinnamon swirl in the cake!

They were all delicious! The cake part was better than almost every cupcake I've tried in New York. It was moist and full of flavor. I loved how the Cinnamon swirl had the swirl in the cake part and the cake was still soft a couple of days later.

They had a lot of other unique flavors like Lemon Drop, Mint Chocolate and Banana Cream and supposedly their Red Velvet is amazing but they were sold out.

You can also get mini cupcakes if you call 24 hours in advance. They would be perfect for any kind of party or if you just like mini cupcakes!

I might be back on my cupcake fix after my visit to CamiCakes and anyone down south in the mood for a sweet treat should take a trip down Peachtree for a fix.

Life is Uncertain -- Eat Dessert First

Dinner on Tuesday night was all out of order. Started with dessert and ended with an order of pancakes. It was all because I have been hearing about the "best pancakes ever" at Clinton Street Baking Company non stop for the past few months. The wait for brunch on the weekends are 2 hours or more. However, February is their pancake month and they always serve their blueberry ones for dinner, so a group of us decided that dinner was our best bet to try these infamous pancakes. We arrived expecting a little bit of a wait and were told 45 minutes by the very nice hostess. No wonder there are 2 hour waits on the weekends, the restaurant is tiny and only seats 30 people at a time. Don't go here if you're more than four people because you will be waiting forever.

It was already 7:45 at this point and we couldn't wait 45 minutes to eat something so we walked next door to the new Dessert Truck restaurant. If you work in Midtown, you probably know what the Dessert Truck is -- but it's one of those mobile food trucks that serves unbelievable desserts from chocolate molten cake to doughnuts and ice cream. I didn't even notice that I stopped seeing the Dessert Truck around but now it all makes sense! They opened a dessert shop instead, next to Clinton Street Baking Co. and are now only using the truck for private events. We ordered the chocolate banana bread pudding for the four of us and ate it in almost four bites. The place has only been opened 2 weeks but I suggest everyone go and keep it in business because the desserts are great and the staff was friendly.

It had been about 30 minutes so we checked on our table at Clinton Street and ended up waiting for a total of an hour and 15 minutes for our table. The wait system there is a crap shoot and depending on when you show up you could be waiting for 30 minutes or 2 hours. One of the main reasons we waited so long was that one of the only tables for 4 had the slowest eater imaginable at the table. I've never seen a woman eat pancakes so slow - it was the most irritating thing. But back to the food...

Lindsey ordered for us before we all took off our jackets and the biscuits were brought out to us quickly. We got four different entrees to share and saved the pancakes for last as a second dessert.

First were the fish tacos and the cheeseburger (also award winning). It was a favorite of the night. Topped with cheddar cheese, it was cooked well and was probably a pound in size. We got it with sweet potato fries, cole slaw and a pickle. The fish tacos were messy and didn't have that many pieces of fish in them but were also good. Next we got the goat cheese, truffle oil, mushroom and onion pizza which was delicious! You could smell the truffles before the pizza was even brought to the table. The dough wasn't too crunchy and it was already cut into 4 slices.

Then last but not least, came the blueberry pancakes. Three or four of them come in an order that are almost Frisbee sized. Blueberries are mixed in with the batter and are put on top. On the side is this amazing warm maple butter that you have to have in every bite. The butter definitely makes the pancakes world famous. I would have rather had chocolate chips instead of blueberries but those don't exist and would have settled for anything at that point of starvation.

We didn't order the special pancake ones but here is the schedule and my sister is going on Monday so maybe I'll have a follow up post about her experience. http://www.clintonstreetbaking.com/?page=about-pancakemonth

Monday and Tuesday are also half off bottle of wine nights at Clinton St. so that could have increased the crowds. For minimal wait time I suggest going on a Wednesday night not during Pancake month and you will probably have a better experience than us.

The food was great and the prices are too, but I don't see myself rushing back to wait two hours in a tiny restaurant. The pancakes were yum, but I also think my mom's Bisquick chocolate chip ones are too, so maybe I'm not the best judge.

Superbowl Sundaes

The best things about the Superbowl are always the commercials and the food. The commercials weren't that good this year ( I hear) but the food at Ali's party definitely was. I arrived before half-time ready to see what was in store. Ali, a graduate from culinary school, loves to cook and she is the hostess with the mostess. The spread was unbelievable. There was the usual veggies with dip and wings from a nearby sports bar, but then there was this amazing home made mac & cheese that I was dying to try after reading about it on her blog. Recipe is here. Even though it was a little cold because I was a late arrival, it was great! Twirly pasta with around four different cheeses and bread crumbs on the top. It was a perfect hangover cure and Superbowl food addition.

To top it all off we had ice cream sundaes for dessert! I felt like I was at a 10 year olds birthday party and you wouldn't believe how excited 24 - 26 year olds got when 4 different ice cream flavors emerged with numerous toppings and coke for floats. There was the usual sprinkles and gummy bears, but there was also home made crushed brownies and cookies, fresh strawberries and peanut butter chips. She also had these great mason jars from Fishs Eddy to create the sundaes in.

A black and gold Superbowl topped off a great party at Ali's and I was a satisfied food blogger.

Southern Hospitality in Tribeca

It was another freezing weekend in New York and we didn't even get any snow! Even though it was in the teens, I still trekked all the way to Tribeca (an area I do not visit very frequently) for an amazing brunch experience.
Friday night consisted of a bottle of wine and a box of tissues after watching the saddest movie ever, My Sister's Keeper. But it did allow me to get a good night's sleep and get ready for what was in store for me down at Bubby's Pie Company. One of the best brunches around and a little piece of the south in my own backyard.
Knowing they don't take reservations, Lindsey and I went there ready to wait. We got a seat at the bar, ordered some very strong coffee and memorized the menu. Once our friends arrived we got sat shortly after, and only had to wait around 45 minutes.
Deciding what to order was such a hard decision! Did I go with eggs or something sweet? I settled on sharing the eggs benedict with spinach and smoked salmon and the huevos rancheros with Lindsey because we ordered the stuffed french toast for the table. We also got a side of their AMAZING cheese grits. Being the only southerner at the table, I made everyone try them and they fell in love. Now they have another reference for grits besides My Cousin Vinny.
Everything I put in my mouth was fantastic, including the buscuits they serve you first. The smoked salmon was very fresh, the french toast was perfectly stuffed and of course the grits were cheesy and creamy.
To wash it all down, I got a bloody mary with jalapeno infused vodka. It was pretty strong, not that spicy and huge.

I was so full from brunch I didn't have to eat again until my 9pm dinner reservation and couldn't even fathom taking any of the famous Bubby's pies or home made Mallomars home - even though today I regret it completely. While the wait can be long and the prices are steep, I think Bubbys could be one of my favorite places for brunch in NYC. They're open 24 hours and cash only but they also have a Brooklyn location which I hear is a lot bigger so maybe the waits aren't so bad? It was the perfect Saturday activity and got me even more excited for my real southern adventure coming this Friday!

Momofuku Part Two

My luck struck again a couple of weeks ago when I was perusing the Momofuku online reservations. This time I was searching for a Bo Ssam reservation at the mid level Chang restaurant - Momofuku Ssam Bar. It's his famous pork dinner reservation that is a little easier to come by than the fried chicken and just as amazing. A green check was actually there and a 10pm reservation was made for last night. Yes I know, a 10pm reservation on a Monday night, but you do what you have to do for good food.

Me and my fellow foodie friends arrived and were seated in the back table closest to the kitchen. Even though we were about to consume a huge amount of pork, we still ordered 3 orders of the pork buns because they are too good to pass up. Then the main event came. At either side of the table huge bowls of bibb lettuce, 4 sauces and bowls of rice were placed. The same ginger scallion sauce was there from the fried chicken, a ssam jiang (bbqish sauce), a kimchi hot sauce and one other one that I don't remember. Then a plate of oysters were set down and then the pork shoulder. Only pictures can do this justice, so I won't even try and I actually took a lot this time!

Here's how you eat the pork shoulder correctly -- you make a bo (wrap) like this:

First you take a piece of the bibb lettuce and add rice. Then you add your oyster and pieces of the pork. It was so soft and tender that it literally fell into the tongs. Our waiter suggested that when you first try it it shouldn't be with any sauce to really get all the flavors.

Examples of how to eat a bo ssam correctly are below (thank you to my model Jordan):

I liked my wrap with either the momofuku hot sauce or the ginger scallion sauce or no sauce at all. The first one I made, I followed all the instructions but I have to admit that I don't like oysters. I thought I would give them one more try and I did, but it ruined the pork for me so that was the end of that.

After giving it all we had, we couldn't finish the shoulder. I think the rice fills you up too fast and maybe we shouldn't have had a pork bun each before we started our feast. A thought for next time is serving the buns with the lettuce so people can make their own with the shoulder and sauces.

We saved a little room for the crack pie that's been all the rage lately from the Milk Bar next door. It could use a little chocolate in it but otherwise it tasted like a sugar cookie in pie form. Not my favorite dessert and there were other pies at Milk Bar that looked so much better. We have a cornflake marshmallow cookie on our kitchen counter right now that's being saved for Lindsey's boyfriend, but he shouldn't be surprised if it's half eaten by the time he tries it.

Momofuku did it again and eating at 10pm (my bedtime) was well worth it. Even if you think you don't eat pork, you will start after trying this one.